September-October - Air Defense Artillery

Sut. \Valter J. Bosak was uun commander. "Tlie round
~ 0
landed right where we wanted it," he recalled. 'Then we
!!Ota call that two machine-gun nests had been spotted. \Ve
~nt over eight rounds, four in each pillbox opening, and
the Infantry radioed back-'it is as exciting as a football
game. the boys are jumping up and down in excitement. we
h3\'C never seen so much machine-gun nest in the air at one
ime before.'''
"Several times," said Major \Vilcox, "the infantry told
s after we had sprayed an area, that they had taken their
objective without a casualty. It was so exciting firing direct
that radio procedure was often forgotten.
"As an example, Co!. Stanley H. Larson, commander of
the 35th Regiment, was directing fire one afternoon. He
houted into the microphone ,'see that area up there by the
rest?' 'Yes,' replied the gun commander.
"'\Vell, sweep that area up and down with time anJ
point detonator fuses,' and as that was done, he was asked,
'how's that?'
" 'Do it again for good measure,' commanded the colone!."
\\Then the Infantrv reached the area the next dw, fortvseren
dead Japs and ~ighteen new graves were count~d. TI~e
A[\1\ knocked out several 47's in this area, no one knows
how many and probably never will-when they saw Hashes
at night, they replied. It was a long drag through Balete
Pass, the road was up and up and up, and was often obscured
by clouds .
. Frequently the Japs would wait until the clouds closed
in before opening their barrages on the Americans; having
previously prepared firing data on the terrain, they could
FR'"
FHO~l THE FIGHTING FRONTS 37
fire on the Americans with comparati\'e safety, hidden
among the clouds.
One of the incidents in the
_ fame to the AAA for accuracy.
Battle for the Pass brouoht o
0 Firino from "Banzai Hidge"
(the soldiers soon had appropriate place names for each
area). observers for the 90's could watch Japs traversing a
bend in the Highway some 3,000 yards from the guns. The
OP from where Sgt. Raymond Obertino and Sgt. Jesse
Reynolds were watching was only 200 yards from the Japs.
The Japs were in what the doughboys had named "Tojo's
Bowling Alley," because of the thunder-like reverberations
firing of artillery caused in the mountains.
"\Ve picked off a dozen or so Japs," said Sgt. Obertino,
"but every evening as regular as clockwork they still came
around that bend. vVe thought they must have a headquarters
somewhere below and they were going in for chow.
One night as usual three had just come around the bend and
we put in a round and they disappeared with the explosion.
"\Ve noticed two more Japs. They had halted where the
shoulder of the cliff met the roadway and peeped around
the ledge. They pondered and talked to themselves like the\'
were arguing. They looked all around because you can't tell
where shots are coming from in the mountains, then tlw)'
ran for it.
"I yelled, 'they are running down the road!' and Captain
Sherman. commander of the Detachment, said, 'oive her
C>
five mils right and fire.' vVe put that round right between
them. the fifteen-yard lead was just right. I guess they
must have been hungry. \Ve were using those 90's like an
1\1-1 rifle."
This 90 position was dug in under the road, the only place where space could be found.