Last Man Standing by Dick Camp

Author:Dick Camp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2010-06-16T04:00:00+00:00

A wounded man is helped off the lines. The Marine in the foreground has pulled his camouflage cover over his neck to protect it from the boiling sun. Another is bare chested. The heat on the island often soared into triple digits … and coupled with little water brought many Marines to their knees. Marine Corps History Division

Hunt reached the Point minutes after the last pillbox fell, gathered the survivors and established a hasty defense. Fox noted that “each [man] had spread out and kind of picked a place to pile rocks up to get behind. I moved on down to the left and found a place about ten feet from the edge of the cliff by the water’s edge where I could get behind something and started to dig a shallow foxhole in the coral rock.” Fox figured that, “out of perhaps ninety in the two platoons, we had only thirty men in fighting condition on top of the point.” Hunt counted 110 dead Japanese in and around the blasted hilltop but estimated that nearly two thirds of his company was casualties, including “most of my machine gun platoon that had been mowed down on the beach.” It was a huge price to pay, but the division’s left flank was secure—for the moment.

While “K” Company fought to clear the Point, the battalion’s 81mm mortar platoon rushed inland about thirty yards and started to dig in. In that short distance, they lost three men to shrapnel and seventeen missing. Corporal Albert William Mikel related, “There were about twelve of us from the 3rd and 4th gun squads. We had two mortars but no ammunition, and most of us were armed with only a .45-caliber pistol.” The men were scared because there were dead Marines all around “who had K-3-1 stenciled on the back of their jackets.” They didn’t know what to do until suddenly, Lt. James J. Haggerty appeared behind them wearing a blue New York Yankees baseball cap on his head, with his hands on his hips, and legs apart. “He spoke very calmly and with complete confidence. He said, ‘You people pick up those mortars and follow me.’ Having given that order, he turned and walked toward the ocean. One by one, we crawled out of the safety of our foxholes and followed him.

About one hundred yards ahead of the mortar position, “I” Company was making slow progress fighting through a swamp. “I waded into the mucky water, at one time up to my belt,” a bedraggled rifleman griped. “I threw away my pack and leggings as they seemed so very heavy … and fought on. We eliminated several Japs at this spot and I had my first chance to fire at a live one. Sambo dashed from behind one boulder for another but we caught him about halfway in between and almost clipped his body in two.” His unit took several casualties but pushed on. “We received orders to move up another hundred yards and hold our ground.

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