The Storm on Our Shores by Mark Obmascik

Author:Mark Obmascik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

At the moment, Dick Laird’s main challenge was staying alive. His company had gained some ground up Massacre Valley, which helped the overall objective but hurt his chances for cover. At lower elevations, Laird’s standard olive trousers and field jacket had camouflaged him in the willows and mud. Now he was climbing higher. The snowline on Attu was as low as 300 feet. Against the white landscape, his military drabs may as well have been a flashing red light. It turned Laird and all other Americans into easy targets for the Japanese firing from above.

Snow also caused more boot-related problems. The soles were smooth, with little traction. Time and again Laird would try to scale a steep slope, only to slip and slide back down the same grade. The same snow that had allowed Tatsuguchi to glissade down a mountain slope with speed was now blocking Americans from chasing him.

Lieutenant Donald Dwinell of the 32nd Infantry led a charge up Point Able, which towered 2,000 feet above Massacre Valley. The Japanese had fortified the point to rain shells on the invaders below. The point could be gained only by crossing a ridgeline four feet wide with sheer plunges of hundreds of feet on either side. On the exhausting climb upward, Dwinell passed the bodies of four Japanese killed by artillery fire four days prior. Fog swirled. The American soldiers inched along the ridgeline unseen and unheard until the wind shifted and the air cleared without warning. Exposed directly in front of them was a group of Japanese soldiers. Dwinell and his men fired but the Japanese fired back. He leaped with his sergeant and his radioman, William Rehfeld, down into the crater of an artillery shell for protection. Weighed down by his heavy communications equipment, Rehfeld was just a second slower. The Japanese cut him down with a spray of machine gun fire as he jumped into the hole. Bullets had bisected his body from left to right. While his lieutenant and sergeant frantically dug deeper for cover with their hands and a trench knife, Rehfeld lay on top of them, bleeding and asking where he was hit. A few minutes later Rehfeld died on top of his commanders. Enemy fire remained too heavy to permit escape, so the lieutenant and sergeant were forced to lie in the crater on their bellies with their dead comrade pressed across their backs, blood pouring onto their uniforms. They survived hours that way. With nightfall drawing near, the two men were able to roll the body aside and crawl and run from the trailing hail of bullets. The Japanese held Point Able that day.

MAY 18—BATTLE

The Yonekawa Detachment abandoned east and west arms and withdrew to Umanose [Fish Hook Ridge]. About sixty wounded came to the field hospital. I had to care for all of them by myself all through the night. Heard that the enemy carried out a landing in Chichagof Harbor. Everyone made combat preparations and waited. Had two grenades ready. Second Lieutenant Omura left for the line on Hokuchin Yama.

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