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To the left of the road stood a Jeep: a soldier was slumped forward in the front
seat and another lay crumpled in the rear, apparently the victims of an ambush. I
called for the driver to stop, but he traveled about fifty yards before he could.
There, opposite us on the right side, lay two more men, apparently dead. However,
as we ground to a stop one man raised himself on his elbow and feebly waved his
hand. I thought it was a signal of distress. But then I heard him call, "Japs!!
Keep going!" I called out, "Where?" and he pointed over his shoulder and replied,
"Eight or ten, that way."
By now one of my men, a German named Herman who used to be in the Nazi Army,
called "I'm going to get him. Who's going with me?" I said, "Wait a minute, and
we'll all go." I wanted to size up the situation first, although it was pretty
obvious and not very encouraging. We could see that the Japs had already
destroyed a force equal to ours, and by the warning of the wounded man there were
still eight or ten Japs, double our number, in the vicinity. Frankly, I was
plenty frightened. It seemed like certain death to stop. My head said, "Let's get
out of here." But somehow my heart wouldn't let me. I will confess that it was
far from easy to get out of the cab and into the open where the wounded man was.
In that terrible moment I tested myself. I had often wondered what I would do,
and now I had to decide.
Of course, there was only one decision, and once I had made it and gotten out of
that lovely protected cab, I never again felt the slightest hesitation or for
that matter, oddly enough, the slightest fear. I ordered three of the men with
guns to stand ready facing the direction we thought the Japs were in, and another
man to follow me. All of this took less time than it does for me to tell it. We
reached the wounded man and lifted him up and carried him back to the truck,
where we placed him on the litter from which we removed the body that had been
there. When we reached him he had said, "Don't stay for me. Get the h..l out of
here. I'm finished anyhow." He was willing to stay there and die rather than put
is in peril. In fact he seemed quite annoyed that we wouldn't do what he said.
After we had gotten him to safety, I went back to the man he had been lying near,
to see if he were alive. He wasn't. Then, although I felt certain that the men in
the Jeep were dead, I had two of my men stay by the truck while two went with me
the long, long 150 feet or so to the Jeep. There I made certain they had died,
and then wasted no time getting back to the truck and on our way.
In the truck I sat holding the wounded man because he wanted to sit up and I
thought he would be comfortable leaning against me. I then began to worry about
the ambulance and also the officers, coming after us---fearing that they would
receive no warning. We drove fast because we wanted to get the wounded man to the
hospital, because we wanted to warn the Regimental Headquarters to phone back and
stop all vehicles, and because we were just plumb anxious to get out of there
ourselves.
We had gone about two miles when we met a patrol, with an ambulance, coming out
to the scene of the ambuscade. We learned that two vehicles, unknown to us, had
passed by the ambush scene, refused to face the peril of stopping, but reached
the Regiment to warn them and get a patrol on the way. We transferred the wounded
man to the ambulance and went on to Headquarters. The patrol continued to the
scene of the ambush where they encountered the Japs. They killed two Japanese,
but the rest escaped. Why---since clearly they were still there---the Japs didn't
fire on us, I will never know. Perhaps it was the Providential care of which I am
constantly conscious. Obviously it wasn't because of the pitiful force we had.
The courage of my men was superb. Even if I had ordered them not to stop, I think
they would have insisted on it, although they knew the odds against them. As for
the wounded man, his anxiety for our safety was beyond praise. They had been
ambushed, two of his companions were killed at once, he and the third had run for
the cover they never reached as the Japs dropped them with fire on the way. He
had then seen the Japs shoot again, bayonet the three dead men, and then start
for him. He played dead, so they shot him and passed on. That he could be
willing, after such a terrifying experience, to stay there and die so we might be
safe, that was as brave a thing as I have ever heard of. At my recommendation the
Command is considering awarding him a medal---posthumously, as the poor lad died
the next day. He had seven wounds.
As a matter of fact we might all be awarded one---the General commended me
verbally---if it were not for the technicality that we were not under fire! That,
I think, detracts nothing from the courage of the men since they had every reason
to believe that they were walking into a dangerous situation. However, we are not
interested in medals. I know we receive the Order of the Good Samaritan since we
refused to pass by on the other side as two other groups had done, but stopped
and brought in the man from the Jerico road.
I told you I wouldn't walk into danger and I won't, but sometimes danger comes to
you and there is nothing you can do but face it and see it through. I wonder if
the original good Samaritan was as scared as I was before I went over to give
aid. That is something the Bible commentaries have missed. Sometime I might write
a book on biblical experiences in war time. ...
Russell
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