The 382nd struggled through a long, dangerous night. Somewhere around midnight, a voice called out to one of the guards, saying they had a message for the company commander.
The guard demanded identity.
The man said he was with the Nineteenth and needed to talk with the commander about hooking up.
The guard asked when.
The voice said tomorrow and that they were pressed for time.
The guard insisted they come out with hands up.
Three men stepped out of the bush. In the black of night, all the guard could see was them standing there with their hands behind their heads.
The guard told them to follow him.
They fell in behind him. The soldier obligingly led them to the commander’s tent.
The men were still shrouded by the black of night.
The soldier stuck his head in the door and said three men from the Nineteenth were there.
The colonel stood up and said that didn’t make any sense. He started to step forward.
The flap on the tent jerked open and three Japanese stood in the light. The first one swung a pistol and fired. The colonel and the guard dropped to their knees and shot repeatedly. The three infiltrators lay dead on the ground.
The colonel roared his indignation.
The guard mumbled that they spoke perfect English.
The colonel screamed that the guard was an idiot that had nearly got everyone killed. He told him to get his worthless ass back out there on patrol.
The soldier rushed from the tent. Others dragged the three bodies away.
* * *
That’s the kind of night we had. Have to hand it to the Japanese. They certainly tried a clever move. If their first man hadn’t been such a lousy shot, no telling what would have come next.
Early in the morning on April 20, a group of Japanese came crawling up on C Company of the First Battalion. When they opened fire, three soldiers leaped to the defense of the unit. Sergeants Bill Ballard and James Cochran and PFC John MacKennis Jr. instantly moved to the perimeter of their camp to keep the attackers at bay. With the fury of a tornado, the exchange ripped through the dark.
Ballard motioned for a man behind him to get closer. The soldier crawled forward.
An explosion sent shock waves through the bushes.
Sergeant Ballard realized he didn’t have many grenades. He asked the men to form a human chain and keep passing them up to him.
The sergeant hurled another grenade in front of him. For a minute, the explosion stopped the gunfire. Sergeant Cochran and PFC John MacKennis scooted away from Ballard and began throwing grenades. In turn, the Japanese threw their own grenades. Because the three American soldiers kept blasting them, the Japanese didn’t get any closer.
Ballard shouted to keep them coming. The enemy was taking it in the face.
The explosions went back and forth for what seemed forever. Eventually, the enemy’s grenades stopped coming. The machine guns slowed and quit.
Cochran yelled that he thought they’d run out of ammunition.
Ballard shouted to fix bayonets and get ready.
The three frontline soldiers charged into the bushes. They hadn’t gone fifty yards when they caught ten enemy trying to get a jammed machine gun to fire. The soldiers cut them down instantly. The next squad was caught up against a rock wall with no way out. When Cochran and company broke through, the Japanese started throwing rocks. Obviously, that wasn’t the best strategy.
Sergeant Ballard asked, “Can you believe it? Throwing rocks?”
The men shook their heads.
* * *
Maybe the craziest and certainly the most bitter fighting occurred on a tree-covered knoll just east of the southern tip of Tombstone. Lieutenant Robert Glassman led L Company up a hill Command called Hill Seven. The fighting proved to be exceptionally tough, but the men plowed ahead.
Glassman had begun briefing his men on how they might keep control of the area, when the crack of a rifle sent Robert Glassman reeling backward. Soldiers fired in every possible direction, but the lieutenant had been seriously wounded.
The medical personnel hovered around the silent leader. The sergeant concluded that he wouldn’t regain consciousness. Who would take command?
Lieutenant James Young said he would. He reminded them about what Bob had said. That’s what they were gonna do. Stay close and shoot like hell.
The men spread out on the top of the hill, but the machine-gun fire proved murderous. Mortar flew across the terrain. Soldiers were falling everywhere.
Young told the sergeant they had to retreat. He was to tell the men to cover each other.
With every backward step the soldiers took, the Japanese seemed to increase their fire. L Company kept shooting but were clearly outnumbered.
Machine-gun fire blasted away in a symphony of destruction and death. The Japanese, who seemed to have choreographed their assault as one long crescendo of terror, began emerging on the perimeter of the unit with bayonets drawn.
Young groaned that the Japanese were running through the fire of their own machine guns. The enemy were in a suicide attack posture. This had to be a to-the-death deal.
L Company kept firing at every Japanese that broke through. Bodies began piling up, but they didn’t stop coming.
Young looked over his shoulder. With his bayonet poised to plunge into the lieutenant’s back, a Japanese soldier came running as fast as he could with his head bent down.
For a second, Young stared as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. The man had to be crazy or at the least out of his mind in some way. By reflex, Young fired his pistol and dropped the man only ten feet away.
Eventually, the counterattack ended, and the Japanese faded. Young led his men back down Hill Seven to where they’d begun.
Young kept muttering that the enemy were sacrificing everybody in sight to push us off that hill.
The sergeant agreed.
Young asked how many the Japanese had lost.
The sergeant shook his head. They’d had thirty-two casualties.
* * *
Company I had better success with their drive to take the same area. Their men had wound their way through terrain lined with pillboxes and caves. The Japanese had holed up in some of the tombs the Americans had encountered earlier.
Hanging on to every piece of ground they took, I Company had been able to surround each pillbox until someone tossed in a grenade that killed the resistance. The tombs proved more difficult, but the men with flamethrowers eventually cleaned out the enemy. The work was slow and tedious, but they kept advancing.
By the end of the day, they had reached the southern tip of Tombstone. Still under heavy fire, they were able to connect with L Company and start back up Hill Seven. The Japanese had already spent themselves in the push on Young’s men. I Company kept coming. As the sun began to slide toward the horizon, K Company made a breakthrough and got to the top of the hill. For all their bizarre self-sacrificing, the Japanese had not prevailed. We had at last taken Tombstone.