Pacifica Military History Free Sample Chapters.pmd

382 Pacifica Military History
Note: The following article is excerpted from the book MUNDA
TRAIL: The New Georgia Campaign, July - August 1943 by Eric
Hammel. The book is currently available in a $24.95 trade paperback
edition published by Pacifica Military History. This book is also
available in ebook editions.
O’BRIEN HILL
by Eric Hammel
Copyright 1989 © by Eric Hammel
In the zone of the1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment on July 27,
Lieutenant Colonel Slaftcho “Joe” Katsarsky’s infantry companies
descended early into the low-lying rain forest in front of O’Brien Hill
and advanced toward the next hill, another nameless hump that would
soon bear the name of a fallen American. Company C had the vanguard,
with Company B close behind. The battalion made continuous progress
until it reached the base of the objective. Then the Japanese on the heights
resisted with light and heavy machine guns, Japanese rifles, captured
American rifles and automatic rifles, and Japanese and American hand
grenades.
While B Company moved into the forest to bridge a widening gap
between Katsarsky’s battalion and the adjacent 1st Battalion, 145th, C
Company waded into the Japanese defenses. Second Lieutenant Louis
Christian was leading his C Company platoon up the slope when his
men froze under the fire of automatic weapons emplaced in a pillbox to
the front. Christian had been the regi-mental sergeant major during the
Guadalcanal fighting, but had accepted a battlefield commission. This
day, the new lieutenant crawled alone through the light mantle of
underbrush, right up to the face of the pillbox that had stymied his
platoon. He chucked in several hand grenades, which silenced the
Nambu.
The entire company was having a bad time. The troops waded into
the fire of several emplacements, but were forced to stop when they
came under fire from more and more machine guns. Then the Japanese