Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume], July 19, 1945, SECTION B, Page 5, Image 17

About Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1931-1948

Image provided by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

                
Marine Efforts To Get Jap
Surrender Leads To Hectic
Time For 'Broadcast' Crew
By LT. BEM PRICE
(Marine Corps Public
Relations Officer)
OKINAWA (Delayed) — The
Japanese were backed against the
sea wall on the southern bank of
the Kokubagawa, east of Naha.
Marines of the Sixth Division
faced the enemy across the river
aai from high ground on three
sicres.
It was a hopeless position for
the Japanese, beaten survivors of
the Oroku Peninsula battle, and
a puzzle to the Marines. If we
fired, we shot into our own posi
tions. A patrol would have to ap
proach the enemy across nearly
500 yards of open mud flats.
If only the Japanese would sur
render.
*e were sent into the pocket
a jeep-borne loudspeaker to
persuade them to give up. In our
group was Lt. Spencer V. Silver
thorne of Scarsdale, N. Y., Lt.
Glen K. Slaughter of Berkeley,
Cal., Corp. Vincent Mullahy of
Newport, R. I., Pfc. John W. Gal
le of Anaconda, Mont., and the
writer.
Account For 177 Japs
It was an astonishing day. Be
fOM sunset, 56 Japanese soldiers
el*ed surrender, 21 blew them
selves to bits with TNT and gre
nades, and more than 100 had to
be killed.
Four of us left our lines and
scouted ahead. Mullahy remained
behind in the jeep. We took cover
about a quarter of a mile up the
road behind a stone wall parallel
ing the river, and waved Mullahy
i ' forward. He was to park behind
• a mine-wrecked tank 50 feet be
ydSR the wall.
, Mullahy roared by. Fifteen feet
or so beyond the wall the ruts in
the road dropped sharply. A sur
prised Mullahy found the jeep
suddenly resting on the housing
and all four wheels off the
ground.
X/CV«*Mf ■* VWWi
“Nuts,” said Mullahy. He climb
ed out of the jeep, shook his head
at .the situation and took cover
btwfcid the wall.
The appearance of the jeep
stirred up a brisk fire fight. For
a while we were the Japs’ primary
target, but covering small arms
fire from Marines on the hill
drove them to cover. The air over
head crackled with the snap of
bullets.
“Cmon,” said Silverthorne, "let’s
try and rock that jeep over,” For
nearly 10 minutes we huffed and
piJfcd irf an effort to get at least
one wheel on the ground. The fire
fight increased in intensity. The
jeep didn’t budge. We gave up.
A sniper, concealed in the wood'
on the hill to our right, made life
uncomfortable. It was getting late
i Silverthorne directed Mullahy t«
set up the speaker.
Mpeaicer t'art t arn tjvoxe
Mullahy went back on the run.
There were loud, vigorous curses.
Inakie process of rocking the jeep,
a part of the speaker had torn
loose. Calmly, Mullahy hooked a
soldering iron to an extra battery,
squatted in the road and made
repairs. Silverthome took the mi
crophone and began talking. Gal
le covered the approaches along
the sea wall with his Thompson
sub— machinegun. Slaughter cov
ered the area to the front. Mulla
hy stood by to regulate the equip
'erthorne talked for nearly
an hour. A white flag appeared in
the flats. We were alerted by Gal
le. Three Japs appeared on the
seawall. They moved forward.
Uses Suicide Grenade
We watched carefully, suspici
ously. About 50 yards away, the
Jap in the middle of the file sud
denly raised his hand to his head.
There was an explosion. His head
wgp blown off by a grenade. The
oWEr two looked at his body for
a moment and resumed their
march.
Twenty minutes later, two wet,
bedraggled Japanese soldiers came
in. One was wounded. While we
patched his wound, Silverthome
give up. He agreed, and departed,
bearing a white flag made from
a flare parachute.
A fire fight broke out to the
right, but the Marines carefully
avoided shooting in the direction
of the flag bearer.
'Wcnmded Surrender
Two Japanese Navy men accom
panied the soldier on the return
trip. In short order, seven others
came in. Five were wounded, two
critically. None had had even
rudimentary first aid. One had an
open arm wound crawling with
maggots. He would certainly lose
the arm.
We gave them first air as best
we could until we ran out of
bandages and sulfa.
A Marine patrol moved up be
hind us. One half the patrol was
to go along the sea wall while the
others moved across -the field
abreast.
The prisoner problem was be
coming acute. We now had 12. It
was decided to return them to
the rear. Galle loaded the five
wounded in a jeep and started
for an aid station. Mullahy took
the speaker jeep and set off to
look for transportation.
‘On Borrowed Time’
The patrols moved out. Sudden
ly a Marine shouted, “Here’s a
Jap.” Silverthorne went over. In
a few minutes he was back with
another prisoner and breathless.
“Good God,” he said, “do you
know where that guy was- Broth
er, we’re living on borrowed time.
That Jap had been sitting in those
ruins.” He pointed to the debris
of a house 35 feet away. Silver
thorne was carrying a loaded auto
matic rifle which the Jap had had
trained on our backs for more
than four hours.
The prisoners were herded onto
the road. Silverthorne and Slaugh
ter moved out into the open. The
patrol began finding Japs. Silver
thorne and Slaughter went for
ward to talk to them. Some sur
rendered, More fought back.
Slaughter and Silverthorne stop
ped counting the close calls. There
were too many.
Dozen Japs Spotted
Twelve Japs were spotted by
the sea wall patrol some 400 yards
away, firing and hurling grenades
at other Marines who had begun
moving into the flats. With hand
and arm signals the one group of
Marines told the Marines across
the flats to get out of the way.
Calmly, the Marines on the sea
wall took up rifle range positions.
They picked off the 12 Japs in
the next five minutes.
The Marines watched curiously
as individual Japs rose from the
mud and muck, shouted, ran
around in circles a few times and
then blew themselves up.
Dusk was settling over the flats.
The fire from the enemy increas
ed. Marines were no longer willing
to take chances. By night-fall some
150 Japs, dead Japs, had been
counted—and the count was con
tinuing.
HALIFAX 1
HEWS
S/Sgt. Sherwood E. Exum is
spending a 30-day furlough here
with his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
J. W. Avent. He has just returned
from seven months duty in the
European Theatre of War where
he was with the Seventh Army. He
was wounded on the 17th day of
February and later had pneumo
nia. He is at present stationed at
Welch Convalescent Hospital, Day
tona Beach, Fla.
Gapt. bietcher H. Gregory. Jr.,
and Major Sam Gregory spent a
few days with their parents, Mr.
and Mrs. F. H. Gregory.
Mrs. L. H. Pearce and daughter
of Williamsburg, Va., are spending
a few days with Mrs. Mary Read.
Mrs. J. Milton Read and son are
spending a few weeks at Long
Island, N. Y., with her sister, Mrs.
Fred Woodeman.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee Parker of
Raleigh spent Sunday with Mr.
and Mrs. J. G. Butts.
Miss Sandra J. Hux has just re
turned from Franklin, Va., where
she spent a week with Mrs Glen
Hart.
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When Okinawa’s heavy mud prevented use of motorized vehicles M
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