1
HERALD AND NEWS. KLAMATH PALLS. OREGON
Mny 24, 1948
PAGE TEN
Hatch-Cover Correspondent Tells
Story of Fog, Co Id, Wet Men on
Invasion of Jap-held Attu Island
I By WILLIAM L. WORDEN
MASSACRE BAY. ATTU IS
LAND, May 13 (Delayed) ()
This correspondent reached Attu
after seven days on a hatch
cover. The hatch cover was be
low decks on a crowded trans
port ship and was also inhabited
by some 20 Junior officers and
casuals, sleeping side by side on
makeshift cots. On that ship,
only men with rank of major or
better or who arrived very
early had permanent bunks.
For the rest, holds were home.
At that, the correspondents
Were lucky. Most of the hatch
cover residents had been there
17 days when the headlands of
Attu were sighted.
The headlands were sighted
shortly after dawn on a day
When everyone aboard the trans
port was awakened at 3 a. m.
The landing forces began to
leave the ship in mid-morning.
At 9 p. m., the second wave, of
which this correspondent was a
part, also departed.
The conveyance was a tank
lighter on which were already a
10-ton tractor and a 5000-pound
field gun, plus miscellaneous
gear and about 25 other men.
The lighter had been imperfect
ly loaded and had a definite list
to starboard; but it did not quite
ship water.
From the transport, the light
er, with the assistance of a hand
pump to keep it afloat, followed
other landing boats for two hours
while the shore-bound convoy
was gathered in under the stern
of a destroyer operating as a
guide ship. At this time, the fog
1as so thick that a boat a hun
dred yards away was invisible.
There was no indication as to
the direction of shore.
The destroyer's fog horn and
one small light guided more than
SO small boats for miles into the
dock-infested bay, stopped only
when water became too shallow
for it to go closer. Then a last
long hoot of the whistle sent the
boats on their own toward the
beach, which was still invisible.
A blinding guide light ashore
came on, but served only to indi
cate direction and illuminated
nothing beyond dozens of mill
ing boats.
' Our lighter came up astern of
another boat which did not get
out of the way. Backing with
full speed) the . heavily-loaded
lighter missed the second boat by
Inches; while from the craft a
coxswain shouted," "Lookout,
rocks ahead."
The water under our snub bow
was full of men. Life jackets
floated singly, and men without
life jackets beat against the sides
of boats, trying to clamber into
them. Our craft grounded with
a crunch against an unseen rock
below the surface. However, the
deck of the lighter held, the trac
tor shifted only slightly as men
with heavy packs struggled to
get them off their shoulders to
be ready to swim if necessary.
Eventually, the lighter suc-i
ceeded in backing off the rock
and missing half sunken boats
around it. The nose touched
shore, the ramp went down and
the tractor snorted into water
hip deep on men beside it. The
lighter lurched twice as tractor
and gun moved off, then righted
itself while the men still aboard
jumped through the surf, some
falling headlong, some making
land with water only to their
knees. . ,
i The beach was littered with
soaking men just pulled from the
surf. They were being stripped
and wrapped in dry blankets at
improvised medical stations,
while their clothing was put
pear fires to dry. One hugd
technical sergeant, pulled from
tlie water half drowned, shook
off doctors, went looking up and
down the beach for his men
though he himself was dripping,
"Chichagof Harbor
.... vSi
: I
This is Chluhngof Harbor, only previously charted boy on Attu
Island and one of the points where Japs established a base. Village
. of Attu is seen at lower rieht.
his teeth chattering so that he
could hardly ask questions.
For those with no immediate
job up the valley, beds were tun
dra hummocks a few hundred
vards from the beach. There
was no sign of the enemy except
sporadic machine gun fire barely
audible above the roar of tractors
and shouts of men on the beach.
In the morning, the beach was
a hubbub. Boats had continued
to operate all night; and new par
tics ashore immediately went in
land to reinforce the front lines.
Medium artillery, set up a few
feet from the sand, began to
pump shells up the valley.
The command post was a gul
ly, the intelligence section at
one end, the general's staff at the
other. LtCol. Glen A. Nelson
of Los Angeles, commanding a
part of the front line troops, told
us the commanding general was
already well ahead, looking over
the front lines. When the gen
eral returned, he held all observ
ers at the command post until
an artillery barrage had been
completed. This barrage was set
up by the guns on the beach, fir
ing directly over our heads, and
by warships lying off the beach.
The shore guns shook us with
the muzzle blasts; but the ship
fire was like nothing more than
the sound of subway trains going
up the valley and (the echo)
coming back down the other side.
The flashes from the main ship
batteries and the sound of them
were so far apart that it was dif
ficult to establish any connec
tion. Troops moved up from the
beach in battle skirmish lines, ac
companied by medical units and
light artillery. The valley at
Massacre is wide,' and troops
were moving all through it.
At a dressing station, a doctor
pointed out the first casualty. He
had a thigh wound and was thor
oughly disgusted. "1 had two
hand grenades and an M-l rifle,"
he said, "but I didn't get a
chance to use any of them. That
damned sniper got me first. Now
I don't suppose I ever will get a
chance to shoot any of those
guys." '
Colonel Wayne C. Zimmer
man gave permission to go for
ward. "There has been a lot of
mortar fire on the ridge," he
said, "so look out for it."
The ridge was neatly pock
marked with holes about four
feet in diameter. The Japanese
mortar had started at the for
ward regimental headquarters
and walked its fire down the
ridge; But accurate as it was, it
had caused only one casualty so
far as 1 could learn.
At the left, a deep river val
ley cut into the mountains al
most at sea level. A similar gul
ly at the right was cut off from
a clear view by intervening
humps. Ahead, on a snow
slope, a company of infantry
moved slowly up into the fog.
"They just got one sniper up
there," a passing private "said.
"They, think there's another."
Somewhat later, there was rifle
fire in the fog above and the
company came back down. There
had been another sniper.
In the valley, to the left, a
company . came on a Japanese
captain and two men in a half
finished hut, killed them as they
raced toward a machine gun. In
the captain's pocket was a note.
Interpreted, it read: "Dear wife,
this is the last letter I expect to
write to you. . ... "
The letter had never been fin
ished. . .
At regimental headquarters,
the general received reports of
bad sniping and infilading mach
ine gun fire from the forward
units. Here the valley on the left
of the ridge widened, then divid
ed. The two arms of the Y thus
formed moved upward as the be
ginnings of the passes leading to
Scene of Jap Base
Russian Church On Attu
MVv tf
i
Only buildintj left standing
American iroops had banered iha
Orthodox church, a reminder of
w '. r n i it: ,
M 1 .
Aleutians. Before the Japs invaded Attu, a few score of Aleuts
(Russian Eskimos) were its only inhabitants.
Holtz bay and Chichagof harbor.
The general ordered an artillery
preparation for both valleys
from their confluence upwards
for several hundred yards.
Behind us, the beach batteries
opened up a steady fire; and be
hind them, the men-of-war lent it
authority. The shells from the
beach and those from destroyers
chuckled as they went overhead.
A bane, a long-drawn chuckle
and another bang, in that order.
The fire of the heavier ships was
a bright flash, a long wait, a
thundering overhead and then
destruction.
I had field glasses focussed on
the edge of a snow field in the
pass ahead. There were two
round-topped protrubances
which might have been huts but
looked mors like gun positions.
A third, smaller one, might have
been anything. From a position
below the brow of the command
post hill, a light battery fired to
the right of the snow field at
the same time that a heavier
shell hit to the left of the left
gun emplacement (if that was
what it was.) Something long
and awkward was blown out of
the gun position, flopped once
and lay still to the left. From
the spot where the small shell
had hit at the right, a man jump
ed out of a hole and began to
run. He dropped into the first
protection he found, the smaller
of the three protrubances, waited
there only a few seconds (he
looked as if he might have had
orders to go on.) And ran to the
second position, finally to the
third. He then rushed out to
the fallen figure, picked up one
end of it and began to drag it
away.
A shell landed directly on top
of him. There was a huge flash,
bigger than those which had
gone before, a cloud of smoke,
big pieces of things or men fly
ing into the air. When the
smoke cleared, there was no fur
ther sign of the gun position, the
running man or the figure he
had been dragging.
The barrage continued to
work up and down the valley.
AIL evening it worked, system
atically pointing fingers first at
one possible position, then an
other, then halfway between the
two. - After a supper of cold K
rations, I bedded down in a small
depression on the hilltop. The
last thing I remember hearing
was the half humorous gurgling
of another shell overhead, the
hysterical sound of a Japanese
machine gun which still had not
been silenced.
This morning, I had breakfast
with Private First Class Joe
Franks, of Ambridge, Penn.
Franks had a fire (some Jap ma
chine gun over on one side was
making the spot a little warm,
but still was not able to come
very close.) So Franks had a
fire, and I had breakfast out of
his bounty of heat and a tin can
of C rations. Private Lyle
Brown of Culver City, Calif., and
I made a trade the cocoa por
tion of my ration for the coffee
portion of his. Charles (Chuck)
Moore, of Nashville, and I dis
cussed how we would like to be
in Tennessee; and Corporal
Charles Eberheardt, of Borw.vn,
111., said that machine gun over
on the hill made him homesick
for Cicero, and then as quickly
pointed out that he was homesick
RELIEVE Earn, sootho chifo. Form
R F I) Bwdicated coat of protoclloti
Dt" betwoennkinandchanni;bccI-
CnPrC clothes Kith Mcmana, lor-
vviv mcrlyMoiicnn Ileal Powder,
i i
in the town oi Attu after the
Japs there, was ihe Russian
the days when Russia owned the
all right but only joking about
the gun. Robert S. Campbell, of
Lodi, Calif., said he used to
think that it was cold in the
asparagus fields this morning,
but that it was never liko this.
The machine gun was silent a
while and then began to talk
again; and a company up on the
ridge scattered and sought shelt
er. '
A second lieutenant whom I
had met the night before came
past and admitted that he was
the man who kept me up all
night with advice to move our
sleeping bags somewhere else,
"It wasn't safe," he said today.
"I kept telling you it wasn't; but
you wouldn't listen."
Last nignt, nothing short of a
near miss could possibly have
moved me a foot from that soft
spot on the ground. But today,
I m not quite so sure.
The artillery from the beach is
still going over, whistling and
gurgling and chuckling. And
that Japanese machine gun an
swers every burst. The fog is
still over the hill tops, hiding
even the troops moving up. It
r j
UNDERINFLATION WASTES
more rubber than any other single
cause. Only 8 lbs. of underinflation
wastes nearly 50 of the mileage
built into the tire causes the tread
to scuff off on each side as illustrated.
BRIM ALL YOUR TIRE WORRIES TO US
Tod
SHOOPandSCHULZE
"Th Tir
BLACK and WHITE
Main and Spring
Also at All Cenoral
MEN 'AND
WOMEN IN;
.3.
SERVICED
TULELAKE Mr. and Mrs.
Ralph A. Ganger of the Winema
district had an interesting expert
once tho Inst of the week when
in tho Mny 1 issue of -Liberty
mngnzine they found under tho
caption, "Advnnco Mcdicnl
Knowledge During War," the
picture of their
only son, Wil
liam David Gan
ger, pharmacist
mnto, 3c, from
whom they hnd
not heard for
several weeks,
The hnlf-pnge
picture ' related
to tho use of
blood trnnsfu
sions in tho bat
tle zones and
the photograph
of yourur Gnu-
f ger and a second
service man was
inxon during a
transfusion glv
en to savo the
Ufa of a badly
wounded man
brought to tho
front line hospital
base . near
Buna in the Solomons.
The line
at this point was only 500 yards
distant from the medical base.
While Ganger's nume was not
used, comparison of the picture
with numerous photographs in
the possession of tho fnmily
proved beyond a doubt that the
lad who was sharing his blood
was "Billy," as he is known to
family and classmates.
Mr. and Mrs. Ganger have
known for some time that he was
on active duty somewhere in the
Pacific but had received no word
from him for six weeks.
He is a graduate of the Tule
lakc high school, later studying
for a year at California Poly
technic at San Luis Obispo and
one and a half years at Washing
ton State. He has been in tho
service for a year and is 21
years old.
Corporal Joe Westhusin has
notified his foster parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Stanley Hull of the
Keno road, that he is now in
Australia.
Paul Crapo, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Leon Crapo, has been pro
moted to the rank of corporal
in the army air corps. He is a
Link trainer instructor and is
stationed at Minter Field in
Bakersfield, Calif.
.
KEARNS, U. Pre-Avlation
Cadet Herman F. Biwer of 715
may, for all I know, hide some
more snipers like the one who
was shooting into this command
post yesterday.
On second thought, I'm quite
sure I'll move tonight.
'( i I
I
J
INFLATION
IS SERIOUS IN TIRES, TOO!
j i n 'i
1
Jock
Mtn"
SUPER SERVICE
Phona 7741
Petroleum Station!
HOUSE PAVES
1 OR IT
POLL TAX VOTE
By WILLIAM F. ARBOQAST
WASHINGTON, Mny 24 !)
Tho house opened the wuy lodny
for a vote tomorrow on null -poll
tax legislation by discharging lis
rules committca from further
consideration of tho measure.
Tho house action enmo dcsplto
a declaration by Rep. Fox (D
Gn.) that the legislutlon Is "n
bid for negro support" nnd tho
assort Ion thut "If the new deal
persists in heaping Indignities on
the states that have kept it alive,
there's no telling what might
happen,"
Tho legislation would nuiko It
unlawful (o levy n poll tnx as a
prerequisite to voting In any elec
tion In which a federal offlco Is
nt stake. Seven southern stntes,
Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia,
South Carolina, Mississippi, Ala
bama and Texas, now charge
poll taxes.
Congregational
Church In Oregon
Supports Self
NEW YORK, May 24 (')
Tho Congregationul Conference
of Oregon, comprising 48
churches, will become self-supporting
nnd self-directing on
June 1, it was announced Sat
urday by the bonrd of home
missions of the Congregational
Christian churches.-
Heretofore tho financial sup
port of the conference has been
underwritten by the board.
Francis street, Klnmiith Falls, is
now stationed at this army nir
forces bnsic training center, it is
nnnounccd by Col. Converse R.
Lewis, commander.
Private Blwcr Is the son of
Mrs. Anna Biwer of 315 Roose
velt street, Klamath Falls, and
prior to his enlistment for avia
tion cadet training attended
Klamath Union high school,
where he played football ond
baseball.
, FORT DKS MOINES, In.
Aux. Borgny Romtvcdt of Bo
nanza, Ore., was a member of
women's army auxiliary corps
unit which left first WAAC
training center here recently for
duty with the army at Ft. Mc
Cain. Minn. WAAC units now
are at work with tho army In
more than 20 states and over
seas. Arrivals at the infantry re
placement training center for
basic training at' Camp Rob
erts, Calif., Include Private
Richard T. Slnclnir of Klamath
Falls. Private Sinclair's porents
arc Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Sinclair
of 4641 South 6th street.
TIRE GAUGE TELLS which tire
is leaking air more than others.
If the pressure is several pounds
lower, the tire must be removed for
an inside examination before more
rubber is wasted or the tire fails.
TOU MAT BE ELIGIBLE
Is hut a (op quality
"Qrad I" lira. II
o, your oartlfloaU
ntlllai yon to iha
n.s.Rom J
II MASTER jC
m U
Th Cossack Country . ,
It has taken mo a month of
Sundays to rend to the last of the
1300-odd' pages of tho double
novel, Tho Silent Don, by Mik
hail Shnlokov. Tho reading was
in no senso entertainment but a
grim and depressing jjob, This
Is becuuso tho book U a real
tlto story of one of the places
Hint appear so often these days
In the lUissian communiques m
nameless "villages" or "Inhab
ited localities." Tho pluco In the
novel is the Don river village,
Tnlnr.sk. Tho main characters in
Iho bank uro tho village people.
It tells their tragedy from 11)14
to tho end of tho civil wars In
the soviet union in tho mid
twenties. Tho Silent Don is of current
Interest, for tho towns and cities
tho action covvrs have been In
tho war news throughout tho
victory drive of tho red army.
And tho novel reveals, In terms
of Individual common men and
women, the real fighting strength
of that army, it is a moral
.strength of plain people
Rofugooi' Raturn , . ,
As tho minis retreat, they
.scorch the earth. Thousands of
towns of tho rich-soiled Cossack
country nnd tho Ukraine have
gone up In smoke, nnd thousand
more will bum. And they will
leave their black wnko of devas
tation in the occupied countries
as they uro driven buck. The
whole horror of the prospect is
too vast to Imagine. Hut It may
be realized In tho Sholokov pic
ture of tho return of onn Cos
sack fnmily to its farm homo in
lutarsk village, after war,
"Tho war from which Pnnln
lelmon hnd fled hnd Itself come
to his home, leaving behind it
tho hideous trnces of Its destruc
tion. , . . The hut stood wholo.
But almost nil of its windows
were broken out, tho door hnd
been torn from Its hinges, the
wnlls wore pitted with bullets.
One comer of the stnblo had
been carried away by a shell:
a second hnd dug n shallow
crntor next to the well, smash
ing the frame nnd breaking the
well-cruno In two. ... In the
cattle yard they had thrown
down the fences and hud dug
trenches to the depth of a man's
height." To avoid extra work
they had taken a granary waif
to pieces nnd had used the beams !
as flooring for tho trenches; they
hnd to set fire to the wnttlc
fences and had mado a mess of
the outdoor kitchen stove, . . ."
That Is a mild example, of a
comparatively fnrtunnto family.
Yet tho cost of restoration, in
'
This year canning is more than the usual "annual cm-
torn" it's a patriotic duty and a family necessity 1
Uncle Sam wants you to "lay away" fruits and vege
tables now, for the "rainy days" of autumn ond win
ter when fresh foods (ancfennnoe) will be hard to gctl ' v
Be foresighted, and make this your biggest canning
season evert This year Wards have a large selection of
quality canning supplies, at economy prices I ,
' ' .
1-pt. Kerr Mason Jar ....Doz. 79c
1-qt. Kerr Mason Jar Dor. 89c
'3-qt. Squat Jelly Glass Doz. 44c
Lids (for standard size jars) Doz.' 10c
Phone 3188
lime, labor nnd for muterlulu,
was great. Tho granary was
necessity to tho oeratlon of Mm
farm,
Only stumps of buildings nr
left In the rotreut of tho Ger
mnna, Tho pence will find mil
lions of families In Europa far
ing, not pnrllul destruction, but
utter desolntlon on their hnim
slends. Farms cunnot bo worked
from hole In tho ground. Thny
must bn made habltablu bnfura
they con bo restored to produc
tion. Lumber In the Peace . . ,
Even England Is preparing Dm
greatest building program in Iti
history as a posl-wnr project.
Lnrgo bniiih-de.Htroyed areas of
cities must bo rebuilt, thousands
of boinLmhaken homes must bo
repaired. Tho United Kingdom
was tlto major export market
for lumhor from the Douglas fir
region In tho years preceding
the war,. It was mnliily supplied
by British Columbia, We mny
expect n greater demand on our
mills In tho future, M,
Lumber from Hussla and from
tho Baltic and Scandinavian
countries used to flow into Kng- ,
land. In post war reconstruction
It will be needed largely at home.
And in that period our forest
products will he In urgent de
mand all over Kurope except In
its lumbering areas. China? And
Japan, after our bombers huva
done their work? The lminen.10
building market that Is facing ,
us nt home?
The answers nil sum up to nu
epic of post-war construction nil
over the world. The mind can
not take In the prospect. Any
how, In my case I've been ablo
to get glimpse of It only In
terms of ono family In one vit
iligo as pictured In Tho Silent
Don,
Man Survives Big
Electrical Jolr
PORTLAND, May 2-1 (P)
Edward L. Sadler, 41, who sur
vived a 87,5U0-volt shock, wns
In a hospital today in a critical
condition from burns.
He brushed a high tension
wlro while painting an electric
company switch structure and
wns catapulted 20 feet to the
ground, his clothes afire.
When In Medford
Stay at
HOTEL HOLLAND
Thoroughly Modern
Joe and Anne Eerley
Proprlelon
G2S30EB
Ninth St Cor. Pins
f