This is
Corregidor where, typically, all hell would break loose at any
moment. When things were the quietest, Japs popped out of nowhere.
Bailey had moved the company with him out when he sent orders for me
to follow, so we were about thirty minutes behind them. As they
skirted the base of Way Hill, the road ran near the Ordnance
Machine Shop. Two railroads also were laid there. They halted there,
probably to let us catch up. Things were quiet, and they were
resting and taking it easy. Many of them got out of their equipment
belts. Fred Morgan looked through one of the doors of the
Machine Shop and was killed instantly by a bullet in his head.
There was an artillery battery nearby, and they opened up on the
openings in the vault-like buildings buried in the base of the hill.
They fired direct fire using the open iron sights of their 75mm pack
howitzers. Redhorse Phillips and Burl Martin say the artillery was
having trouble getting their rounds into the openings. The mortar platoon
unlimbered their flat trajectory mortar under Pfc. Henry McCrory, and they too
fired directly into the openings. Being at a closer range, they were
able to put every round through the openings. Since they had not
fired the night before, they still had 40-50 rounds, and they fired
them all into the openings. Lt. Lee led a force into the building as
soon as the fire ceased. Turning to the right they found the Japs
huddled up in a room with concrete walls. One shot proved it was too
dangerous to fire inside the room, for danger of ricochets. It
required trench knives.
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