Terror in the Darkness (44)

January 13, 1945
     This morning I watched Jap planes come in high straight for us, but they turned back when such a hail of fire met them.  One was smoking.
     8:30 A.M. we turned into Lyngen [sic Lingayen] gulf.  Didn't reach the lower end until 1:30 P.M. and anchored about 3:30.  A body floated past.  It may have been a Yank.  One leg was off above the knee, with femur protruding.  The other leg was broken.  It was bloated and terrible looking.

January 14, 1945  At anchor

Ships laying down a smoke screen to conceal themselves from Japanese planes

     Sitting on board and no sign of unloading!  Each night and morning ships lay down a smoke screen.

January 17, 1945
     We finally landed today.  going down a swinging ladder with full pack, and jumping into a duck [D=designed in 1942, U=utility, k= front wheel drive, W=two powered rear axles] that is going up and down about 6 feet on the swells is no joke!
     We heard that 112 men were killed on one Liberty.
     We went directly to our camp area - 2 km [a little over a mile] east of San Fabian.  I walked a ways, and blistered my heels.  I slept by my foxhole.

Gene with a Filipino cigar at his foxhole

January 18, 1945
     I went to town to see the sights of San Fabian and take pictures.

A destroyed market place in San Fabian

     We are in a coconut grove, surrounded by rice paddies.  There is a battery of 155 long toms [heavy artillery] between us and town.  Up to 2 nights ago the Japs were shelling back, and shelling the beach. 
     There are few patients in the hospitals and 3 [hospitals] not set up. ...
     The 54th Evac had a Jap shell hit them on the beach the day they landed, the first night, killing several and wounding some.  They were bombed in Arawe [a battle that took place just north of New Guinea on December 15, 1943] and had casualties there.  ...
     Palm heart is delicious.  ...

That night most of the 92nd Evac went to bed next to their foxholes.  Thus far in the war they had learned a lot about patching up broken bodies, but not much about what to do when attacked.  At that point the night erupted and darkness distorted everything.  Their lack of training became apparent.

January 19, 1945 [The words just poured out so Gene wrote this all in one paragraph, but I have broken it up for easier reading.]
     Last night was bad.  When it was over we had 3 men dead and 8 wounded (3 lightly).  Engineers had flood lights on while working on a bridge about 150 yds. from us.  When they turned off the motor, it awakened me - about 12 P.M. [sic A.M.]  Then I heard a few shots in the distance and it made me uneasy, for Japs had infiltrated an outfit a mile away the night before. 
     At 12:30 the firing began near us (about 200 yards away).  I yanked on my pants and shoes (I had my shirt on) and flopped on the ground.  I got my knife and crawled to the foxhole.  [Dr.] Donovan came too and had his carbine.  I figured a knife would be best, the way men were all around us. 
     Then I heard some grenades go off and a Jap "woodpecker" [machine gun].  Firing was brisk.  I could see a few tracers & some bullets went over us.  I sort of thought it must be a false alarm & wild firing.  Then Sparky [Adams] yelled that it was Japs because a grenade had thrown dirt on him.  Firing began all around us.  We could hear the Japs calling and talking to each other.  It sounded like natives to me!
     I heard a tommy gun [sub machine gun], carbine and M1 shots and a lighter, faster sound of the Jap automatic weapons.  Another grenade came closer and threw dirt on me.
     Over the road I herd a vehicle (Jeep) stop and the driver bark out, "What the _ _ _  is the firing about?"  The guard so [sic said] excitedly, "Japs".  "Well, by _ I'll help you!"  About that time a grenade set the jeep afire and wounded the major who did the questioning!
     The firing got heavier.  Then someone ran near us (they turned out to be our men in panic).  Mostly I kept my head down. 
     When a red alert [imminent danger] sounded I crawled over and got our helmets.  Then a fire blazed up back in our supply area, and there was more firing and noise there.  After a while Farquar, Padre [Fr. Kilian Dreiling] and an EM [enlisted man] crawled up to our hole.  The EM said Japs threw grenades at them and fired at them with rifles, and fired the supplies.
     Roger [Farquar, an officer in medical administration] wanted to get fire extinguishers and go up.  We didn't want him to go.  But he crawled over to a jeep and came back with one he couldn't work.  We saw it was a chemical decontamination thing.  By that time I screwed up my courage enough to go along (no rifle, no knife).  We decided to call out and walk right up.  He found an extinguisher and gave it to me.  I sort of slunk up among the trucks and trees toward the fire.  When no one shot at me, I went up and tried the fire extinguisher - of course it didn't work well!  The fire was in the tentage [tents and shelter tarps], blankets and felt cot pads.      
     [Eugene] Nygren called to me from a tent nearby that he was hit.  I went over to him.  He said he'd been lying there about an hour.  He had a wound inside his thigh which had bled quite a bit but was fairly well stopped.  He'd put on a dressing.  Then Coolidge called he'd been hit - he was nearby.  He had a small wound the same place. 
     I left them and went back to the fire and tried to move a few boxes and saw it was too much of a job.  Roger came up and decided to call for help from the men, which we did and some of them came up and helped.  I yelled for some of the officers to come help with the wounded. 
     I must admit I felt helpless and confused!  I yelled to the 409 Clearing Co. next [to] us for ambulances.  We got the 2 men on litters.  I ran back to my pack for morphine, and gave it.  I got some litter bearers and took the men to the ambulance.  Some one had already brought up 2 of our wounded and one walking and [Cy] Burroughs who had a bit of grenade fragment in his elbow.  [According to Jim Colvin in "Tales of the 92nd Evacuation Hospital" printed for their 50th reunion, Burroughs stepped out of his tent, demanded to know who was making all the noise and was hit by a small grenade fragment; for that action he got a Purple Heart and five points toward going home.] There were 2 ambulance loads. 
     Then I went back to help with the fire.  They brought up our water trailer and we threw water on from our helmets.  They dragged away what they could.  When I first got to the fire I saw a dead grenade, and took care not to step on it. 
     Then a new and stronger guard was set up and everyone [was] told to hole up and stay put.  Sparky and I picked out an old foxhole (made in 1941?) among the supplies.  Then we sat from 3:30 to daylight at 7!  As Hi [Armstrong] said later, "I never wanted to go home so bad in my life!" 
     At 7 A.M. I had belly cramps so bad (palm heart ?)  I just had to go to the latrine.  I called to the guards not to shoot, and set out warily.  At once a dozen or more saw me and popped up all around.  Some joined me! 
     During the waiting for daylight the fire had flared up big and bright and continued to burn, but it didn't spread.
     [Gene's own paragraphing from here on].  Several received small fragments - Jock Hall had a small bruise just above his shoe.  One fellow rolled behind his cot while a Jap jabbed the bed with a bayonet (the fire lit it up).  They threw 3 grenades into a tent where other men were on cots.  It seems that our guards (walking [on patrol]) saw the Japs coming, but ran back and jumped into a foxhole and didn't shoot as they should have.  The Japs just came walking along - not crawling!  Some of our men had been working unloading late and didn't have holes.  When the Japs came instead of flopping on the ground and shooting at the Japs, they jumped up and ran.  Other men thought they were Japs and shot at them.  Our men had never had any particular instructions on what to do, so were panicked.  It is significant that none of the officers did any wild firing.
     Next morning there were 5 dead Japs about 125 yards from us that the MP's [military police] had killed.  The Japs had set up a machine gun over there (right over a foxhole in which a darky had covered himself over.  He never moved through it all.  Next morning they had to take him out forcibly and he was plumb psycho).  A captain MD and 2 men were killed at the 43rd Field Hospital about 150 yards further on.  The captain lost his head, jumped up and ran.  They mowed him down.
     Later, in a field about 50 yards behind the edge of our area they found a Jap officer's body, partly burned.  Apparently Sgt. Berger shot him and wounded him.  Berger was about the only man to shoot at the Japs.  About 50 Japs in all were killed in the general area.  An infantry patrol came that night and got some of them.  Quite a bunch of Japs had come down from the hills, raiding.  They had food for several days.
     One of our wounded will probably die.  There should be no shooting inside a perimeter - only knives! [Evidently quite a few of the bullet wounds were "friendly fire"]
     We spent a good part of the day establishing a proper area and perimeter.
     Shells from our artillery went over our heads at the Japs in the hills, all night [a hospital usually isn't set up between the fighting lines!].  Artillery sent several flares over us, after the Japs had gone.
     Beth shouldn't hear this for some time!