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THE ATTACK ON KIN-U VILLAGE
By
Lieut. C. Besly, M.C., B.A.
Page 2
No amount of
mortar-fire would hurt them; it could only make them keep their heads
down. Most of them kept low until the attack was nearly over, and there
was not much fire directed at us early on. With so few of us, we could
not possibly spot all these concealed bunkers, and we may have run straight
over the top of them without knowing. Right from the start I had an uneasy
feeling that we were covering the necessary ground without killing the
enemy who were on it. But there was no turning back now, so I exhorted
the men to spread out, to search the ground, and to carry on advancing.
I have a hazy recollection of shooting into, and dropping grenades into
some of the bunkers; of running about excitedly, shouting and beckoning
to my Platoon; and, amidst the thirst and sweat trying desperately to
remember all the orders I had been given. After the first minute or two,
some fire began to come back at us. At this the men got thoroughly warmed
up and took matters into their own hands. They dashed recklessly into
huts and clumps of bushes, scrambling over ditches, and fallen timber,
and other obstacles. At last we reached the Pagoda (which consisted of
little more than a few ruins), where we all assembled.
....By this time most of the Japs in the
holes that we had missed had recovered from mortar-fire, and were shooting
back hard.
So we all took cover amidst the ruins of the Pagoda. There was one little
covered slit-trench only about 25 yards from the Pagoda, and if the Jap
in there had suddenly become active, we would have been in a very nasty
position. I jumped up, ran over to it, dropped a grenade down the hole,
and ran back. But the Jap inside threw the grenade out before it exploded,
and I achieved nothing. So I ran up and dropped in another grenade. Amazingly
the same thing happened again. There was no deliberate courage about this
whatever. I was terribly excited and I can remember laughing and swearing
like anything; and I think everybody else was laughing too. If there was
anybody firing at me I was quite oblivious of the fact, and never gave
it a thought. I had used up all my grenades, so I borrowed a grenade from
somebody else, and ran up a third time. This time I was determined to
make sure of it, so I released the lever of the grenade about two seconds
before I threw it in. As I ran back I looked over my shoulder and saw
the Jap throwing the grenade out again. But it burst almost in his hands.
He jumped out of the trench, took about two paces, and fell flat on his
face stone dead.
....On this last occasion, a young, impetuous
cockney called Bache
had come up to the bunker with me. Why he did this, I never discovered.
I had not told him to come, and he did not do anything when we got there.
I suppose he just got excited too. As we were running away we were, of
course, quite close to the grenade when it exploded. It was an extraordinary
thing, but I had been three times close to a grenade as it exploded, and
was untouched; but as soon as Bache
came up with me, he got hit in the thigh by a fragment of metal. We both
got into a hollow beside the Pagoda, and I helped him on with his first-field-dressing.
....I then noticed that the Sten-gun which
I carried was jammed. Now Pte.
Creasey, a Bren-gunner had been shot in the ankle on the way up to
the Pagoda. He had managed to crawl to the Pagoda. He had managed to crawl
to the Pagoda, but had dropped his gun outside. This was a serious loss,
and as my weapon was useless, I jumped out of the hole I was in, ran to
the Bren-gun, grabbed it, and turned to come back. But this was courting
fate once too often. It was then that I got a bullet through the thigh.
Apart from the sudden horrible shock of realising that I was wounded,
it was not particularly painful.
....I limped back into the hole, and this
time it was Bache
who helped put on my field-dressing. My leg bled very fast at first, and
quickly swelled up to an enormous size, but I do not think it bled very
much after I got the field-dressing on. I imagined that it was just a
small flesh wound, but it was actually more severe than I thought.
P 1 ::
P 2 :: P
3 :: P 4 :: P
5 :: P 6
:: P 7 :: P
8 :: P 9
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