_The Catholic cemetery of Anigua became the home of approximately 7,000
Guamanians liberated from Japanese rule. Here a family lives in a
temporary shelter._]
The Japanese were plenty feisty at Finegayan, and in a telling thrust
dispatched two medium tanks which skirted the crossroads of the 9th
Marines at Junction 177 and went up the Finegayan-Mount Santa Rosa
Road. Impervious to Marine fire, the tanks shot up the area and got
away. Another tank force of undetermined size then rumbled down under
cover of a mortar barrage and it looked like the beginning of a
counterattack. Artillery stilled that Japanese effort. The enemy tanks
were driven off but survived to reappear again another day.
It was in one of those typical sudden enemy attacks around Finegayan
that Private First Class Frank P. Witek, with automatic rifle and
grenades, raced ahead of his own tanks to destroy an eight-man Japanese
position which was holding back elements of his 1st Battalion, 9th
Marines. He succeeded, but was killed. He was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor.
[Illustration: _CONSTRUCTION of NEW ROAD_