Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

Free Sample Chapters 319
hobbled off to the 1st Engineer Battalion CP to issue an alert concerning
the infiltration. Then he volunteered to lead a pa-trol to rescue the gunner
he had set out to find earlier.
Four of eight engineers in the patrol were wounded as they crawled
on their bellies through a rain of sniper fire toward the silent machine
gun. It took what seemed like hours to traverse a mere hundred yards.
Moans from the position, however, egged on the rescuers. Carlo Fulgenzi
broke into the open and leaped into the fighting hole. A Japanese machine
gun that opened fire as Fulgenzi was airborne put a round through his
left wrist, but he ignored the wound when he saw the two Marines who
had been manning the position. The dead man on top had a dozen bayonet
holes through his chest. The survivor had been shot through both legs
above the knees, and one leg had been slashed to the bone by a sword.
Ful-genzi was helping to lift the wounded man onto a stretcher when he
was shot through the right arm. Despite the excruciating pain, he helped
carry the wounded Marine to safety, then turned himself in for treatment
of his own wounds.
*
There was a moment of heart-stopping drama at the division CP when a
sword-wielding Japanese officer stepped into the open with two riflemen
and headed directly for Archer Vandegrift, who was in the open, alone
and unarmed.
MG Sheffield Banta, an utterly unflappable old salt, stopped typing
a report long enough to unholster his .45-caliber automatic pistol and
plug the officer dead in his tracks. A corporal whose pistol jammed
attempted to tackle one of the enlisted gate crashers, but two quick
gunshots from nearby felled the quarry practically at the commanding
general’s feet. The third intruder was dropped where he stood and, later,
a fourth infiltrator was routed out of the division commander’s closet.
*
A and B companies, 1st Marines, were sent from reserve jjosi-tions by
Alligator Creek before dawn to mount a sweep below the ridge to sever
the Japanese line of retreat. Though these Marines were veterans who
had weathered the carnage in the coconut grove on Au-gust 21, many
were utterly appalled by what they saw as they passed through the tiny