The 3d Marines reached the high ground of Bundschu Ridge on the 23d
and searched out the remaining Japanese stragglers. It was obvious that
the enemy had withdrawn from the immediate area and equally plain that
the Japanese hadn’t gone far. When patrols from the 21st Marines tried
to link up with the 3d Marines, they were driven back by the fire of
cleverly hidden machine guns, all but impossible to spot in the welter
of undergrowth and rock-strewn ravines. All across the ridges that the
Marines held, there were stretches of deadly open ground completely
blanketed by enemy fire from still higher positions. On the night of
the 23d, the 9th Marines made good progress moving through more open
territory which was dotted by hills, each of which was a potential
enemy bastion. A patrol sent south along the shoreline to contact
the 1st Brigade took fire from the hills to its left and ran into an
American artillery and naval gunfire concentration directed at Orote’s
defenders. The patrol was given permission to turn back.
[Illustration: