He took the chance, and turned it into an...
He took the chance, and turned it into an advantageOn the day of the operation he withdrew a battalion from the road and kept them in reserveHe gave instructions to the commanders of the companies on the right flank to advance through the jungle without concerning themselves with their flank or rearTheir mission was merely to make the six-mile march through no man's land, and establish a defense position by that night at the mountain cliffs a mile away from the outposts of the Toyaku Line
The General guessed correctlyToyaku sneaked a company of Japanese troops around the flank while the movement was in progress, but the General met them with his reserve battalion, and encircled them almost completelyFor several days an extremely confused battle went on in the jungle behind the division's new lines, but by the end of that time, all but a few stragglers of the company Toyaku had dispatched into the division's rear had been killedThere were more snipers behind the lines, and once or twice a pack train was ambushed, but these were minor incidentsThe General did not concern himself with thatAfter the pivoting operation he was far too busy establishing his new lineIn the first two days the men on the front hacked out new trails, and
vintage cartier watch laid barbed wire, cut fields of fire through the jungle, and established telephone communications with their flanks and rearA few minor Japanese attacks caused the General no great worryFour days went by after the movement, and then fiveWith each day the General strengthened his lines, and increased the speed with which he built the road to the frontHe knew it would take him two weeks at least before the road could catch up to his troops and until then he could only increase his defensesA major attack by Toyaku could still embarrass him, but it was a gamble he had to take
In the meantime he moved his headquarters bivouacThe division's task force had progressed almost twenty-five miles since the day they had landed, and by now the radio communication was difficult, the telephone wire had been extended seriouslyHe advanced the bivouac fifteen miles up the peninsula to another coconut grove just off the roadIt was not as pleasant as the first headquarters had been on the beach, and the troops in headquarters company of the regiment had to spend several busy days clearing the brush between the trees, laying out barbed wire, digging new latrines, and setting up their tents and foxholes, but when they had finished the bivouac was not
gucci men wallet unlivableIt was much hotter, and little breeze filtered through from the jungle surrounding them, but there was a stream which ran just outside the oval encirclement of wire, and the men did not have to go far to bathe
Subsequently the General had service company of the 460th bivouacking on the other side of the road from themHe knew that unless there was a disastrous retreat he would not have to move this bivouac for the rest of the campaign, and slowly, as time permitted, he began to build it upA field shower was built for the officers, and the mess tents were erected, and squad tents were set up once again for the division staff officesThe ground through the bivouac was trimmed each morning, gravel walks were laid along the paths, and the motor pool had a culvert built of empty gasoline drums at the entrance to the road
These elaborations gave Cummings a constant pleasureNo matter how many times he had seen it, the slow improvement of a bivouac was always satisfyingBy the time his pivoting operation was a week old, he felt as if he had erected a small villageDuring the day there was constant activity with men working on improvements in the bivouac area, and trucks constantly moving in and out of the motor poolsOn the other side
louis vuitton bag sale of the road the maintenance shops were in operation in service company, and in the somnolent afternoons in the jungle he could hear their machine tools grindingHis own bivouac had been enlarged several times and by now the barbed wire around the perimeter enclosed an ellipse of earth almost two hundred yards long and more than half as wide, and in the area were over a hundred pup tents, a dozen pyramidal and squad tents, a row of twenty fly tents in which his officers were housed, three latrines, two field kitchens, over forty trucks and jeeps, and almost three hundred men
Recon was a very small part of all thisWith the five new replacements, the platoon had a total strength of fourteen men, and their arc of the bivouac consisted of seven pup tents extended in ten-yard intervals along a section of the perimeterAt night two men in the platoon would be awake at any hour, sitting in the two machine-gun emplacements that faced past the barbed wire toward the jungle; in the daytime the perimeter would be virtually deserted, with only one man left behind as the rest of the platoon went out to work on the roadFive weeks had gone by since invasion day, and with the exception of a few routine security patrols around the new bivouac, the
cambon chanel platoon had seen no activityIt was approaching the rainy season, and it grew hotter each day, more trying to work on the roadBy the time they had been in the new bivouac for a week, many of the men, including some of the veterans of the Motome campaign, were wishing for combat again
After evening chow Red had washed up, and moved over to Wilson and Gallagher's tentAll day it had been extremely hot and sultry, even more unbearable than the days and nights before it, and Red was feeling irritableThe day, like every other day, had been spent working on the road
Gallagher and Wilson were sprawled in their tent, smoking quietly without talking"Whateya say, Red?" Wilson drawled at last
Red wiped his forehead"That kid Wyman! It used to be bad enough bunkin' with a Boy Scout like Toglio, but that kid Wyman"They're gonna be sendin' 'em overseas soon with a sugar tit
"Yeah, the platoon seems all topside-bottom since we got the replacements," Wilson complainedHe sighed, and ran the sleeve of his fatigue shirt over his chin, which was moist with perspiration"Weather's fixin' to act up," he said quietly
"More fuggin rain," Gallagher snorted
Dark slated clouds were washing the eastern sky and mounting thunderheads in the north and
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