On one occasion, out of the depths of a silent night, all of us in the barracks were awakened from deep sleep by a thunderous salvo. We were accustomed to sleeping through the fire of one or two guns, but this time all guns went off together with a series of volleys which fairly shook the rock itself. For several minutes they continued, then again, silence. The next morning I asked, "What was the shooting about ?" Nobody seemed to know until the following day when a slightly wounded rifleman from the 34th Infantry told me the story.

It appears that his company had been stationed on the ridge beyond Malinta Hill, nearly two miles away, and had been severely attacked by Jap suicide squads for several nights. "But we fixed "em night before last," he said jubilantly. "A while after midnight we begun to hear noises in the ravine in front of us, then the little Nips started a regular chivaree, like they often does when they're fixin' to banzai. Our Lieutenant had us spotted with our artillery, so as they knowed just where we was on their maps. Boy, them fellers can hit a dime three miles off.  So the Lieutenant calls for artillery fire, and the next minute we gets it. Even us was scared by the noise, 'cause it wasn't 200 yards in front of us the shells was bustin'. That stopped the Japs. Yesterday we moved ahead with fresh patrols, and some of our men was counting the dead Japs. There was 400 of 'em lying there." Not knowing whether to believe this story, I later checked it out with some of our artillery officers, and they confirmed it in substance.