If your radio won't carry, we'll let go on our... If your radio won't carry, we'll let go on our side in exactly one hour, and you're to go in afterwardYou're to destroy the depot, and you got to move goddam fastI'll tell you what after that
He hung up, and stared at his watchInside the tent the heat hung in heavy draperiesOutside the sky was darkening and the foliage yawned flaccidly in the turgid suggestion of a breezeOn an afternoon like this, a half hour or so before a downpour, it was usually possible to hear every sound, but now there was nothingThe artillery was waiting, plotting their concentration targets, but he could not even hear a machine gun or a rifleThe only noise was the occasional jarring of the earth, the scattering of dust, when a tank moved byHe could not use them at the breach, for there were no roads, so he was sending them to cover up the weakened positions on his left flank
Abruptly Dalleson remembered he had given the attack
cartier love battalion no antitank support and he groaned aloud this timeIt was too late to get them up in time for the attack on the supply depot but perhaps he could send them in time for a Jap counterattack if it were to developHe alerted the antitank platoon of 2nd Battalion, sent them after the first unitsHow many other things would come to mind?
And of course he waited, swearing to himself as he grew more nervousHe was at the point where he was convinced everything would go wrong, and like a small boy who has kicked over a bucket of paint he hoped feebly that he would get out of it somehowWhat bothered him most at the moment was the thought of how long it would take to get all these men back and reasserted after the attack failedIt would be at least another full day -- two days lost on the roadThat was what bothered Dalleson mostWith surprise he realized he had mounted a complete attack
Ten minutes before the
discount hermes hour was up, the radio silence was-brokenThe attack battalion was two hundred yards from the supply depot, still unnoticedThe artillery began to fire and continued for a half hourAt the end of that time the battalion moved forward and captured the supply depot in twenty minutes
Dalleson picked up the story by degreesIt was discovered much later that two thirds of the Japs' supplies were captured that afternoon, but he hardly thought about that the first eveningThe important news was that General Toyaku and half of his staff were killed in the same advanceHis secret headquarters had been only a few hundred yards past the supply depot, and the battalion had overrun it
It was too much news for Dalleson to assimilateHe ordered the battalion to bivouac for the night, and in the interim moved up every man he could findHeadquarters and service companies were stripped of everyone but the cooksBy the next morning
chanel jewelry he had fifteen hundred men behind the Japanese lines and the flanks were rolled up by afternoon
Cummings returned the same day from ArmyAfter much pleading, after giving his considered opinion that he could not end the campaign quickly without invading Botoi Bay, he was granted a destroyerIt had followed behind him, was supposed to reach the peninsula by the following morningIt would be impossible for him to order it to return now
Instead, he had the staff working all night to divert troops from the jungle to the tip of the peninsulaWhen morning came he was able to send two rifle companies out in assault boats to invade Botoi BayThe destroyer appeared on schedule, shelled the beach, and came in close to shore to give direct support
A few Jap snipers greeted the first wave with an occasional shot and then fledIn half an hour the invading troops joined up with some units maneuvering behind the shattered
chanel purse white Japanese frontBy that evening the campaign was over except for the mopping up
In the official history of the campaign sent to Army, the invasion of Botoi Bay was given as the main reason for breaking through the Toyaku LineThe invasion was aided, the history was to say, by strong local attacks which made some penetrations of the Japanese lines
Dalleson never understood quite what had happenedIn time he even believed that it was the invasion that had decided itHis only desire was to be promoted to captain, permanent grade
In the excitement, everyone forgot about recon
12
ON THE same afternoon that Major Dalleson was mounting his attack, the platoon continued to climb Mount AnakaIn the awful heat of the middle slopes they bogged downEach time they passed through a draw or hollow the air seemed to be refracted from the blazing rocks, and after a time their cheek muscles ached from continual
cartier tank louis squint