_The only way to deal with some Japanese in their well-protected
defenses was to blast them with a flame-thrower._]
Now the lieutenant began to get very worried:
Here we were--completely isolated from the rest of the
company--only half a dozen of us left--our flank man had
disappeared and now we were getting heavy fire from an uncertain
number of Japs who were right in our middle and whom we couldn’t
locate! Some of the men were getting a little jittery I could see,
so I tried to appear as calm and cool as I could (although I didn’t
feel that way inside!). I decided to move back to the other end of
the hilltop and report to [our company commander] on the phone.
If I could get his OK, I would then contact [another one of our
platoons] for reinforcements, and we could move back into this area
and clean out the Jap pocket.
Pressing hard against the Japanese defenses constantly resulted in
these kinds of face-to-face encounters. Three days later (D+19),
Lieutenant Colonel Chambers observed a memorable act of bravery:
Three of our tanks came along the road.... They made the turn
to the south and then took the wrong turn, which took them off
the high ground and into a cave area where there were literally
hundreds of Japs, who swarmed all over the tanks. We were watching
and heard on the radio that (the lieutenant) who commanded the
tanks was hollering for help, and I don’t blame him. They had
formed a triangle and covered each other with the co-axial guns as
best as they could.
[Illustration: