23 Dec 1941

Before we head out for Bataan, I'd better write down the events of the last day. It's been a doozy.

After we left our positions yesterday morning, we attempted to retreat to the right, only to find that the right flank had also collapsed and the Lt was MIA. So was the medic. We gathered what Americans and Filipinos we found retreating from the right positions, and retreated straight back into the jungle. We tried going to the 13th Regimental HQ, only to find it half destroyed and half hastily taken down. There was a horse there, though, so we loaded Johnny onto it - he was still in and out of consciousness for the morning. We kept going on the path out from the HQ until we couldn't go anymore. Damn, was it hot! I called a 1 hour halt, but about 45 minutes in, we heard mechanical rattling on the road, so we pulled back into the jungle. It was 2 Nipponese tanks. We tried to hide, but they saw us after shooting the horse (we had let it go), so we started shooting. Johnny jammed one turret when he tried to shoot the operator sticking out of the turret. A couple of the Filipinos with us broke and ran - mowed down, obviously. Glad of my US training & guts. There was no way we could beat 2 tanks though! So we retreated out of shot, only to run into a skirmish line of Nip soldiers beating the bush for us. Another fucking bayonet charge, but at least this time they shot first and then charged. At this point I got shot in the leg, but didn't notice until later. Ben shot the officer. That engineer should have been a Ranger! His sword went flying perfectly through the air and landed point first in the ground, like some Hollywood flick. We managed to beat them, and one surrendered, so we took him prisoner. I could see the bullet in my leg, so I tried to pull it out myself, but that proved to be a bad idea. Mel bandaged me up good.

We walked through the jungle, parallel to the road to avoid more Nip soldiers, for the rest of the day. Near nightfall, we came near Rosario, and heard awful sounds coming from the town. I sent Johnny and Dick to scout out what the hell was going on. It was indeed a massacre. While on patrol, Johnny fell down an old well shaft. Good thing he had College Boy to fish him out. Not Johnny's finest day ever, yesterday. They reported that they saw men of the 26th Cav whooping it up through the town, though, harassing the enemy. We camped about a mile outside Rosario in the jungle for the night.

This morning, a scouting party from the 26th Cav found us. An Lt was with them - he told us that we were to make our way to Bataan Peninsula to rendezvous with any other survivors, on Gen. MacArthur's plan. Doesn't sound like there's many of us, but that's where we're heading off to now.

22 Dec 1941

I have a few minutes while my arm is being bandaged. It's been a hell of a couple days. Yesterday we started marching at 0500, and that wasn't even the worst of it, because it sure got hot fast. It was 15 miles to the coast. We set up fortified positions at Lingayen Gulf. The boys couldn't dig well in the sand at first, but they got the hang of it. Mel REALLY got the hang of it when I caught him sleeping in his hole. I made him dig the machine gun pit. There was plenty of wood around, so we shored up the fronts pretty well. The natives did a good job. A cavalry scout came riding up in the afternoon, looking for the Lt. Turns out the Nips landed south of Manilla last week, and have been working their way north. Nothing we can do about that now.

We started getting pounded by naval artillery at about 0400 this morning. I've never been so scared in my life. I saw the poor grunt next to me take a shell fragment to the face. Johnny had been on patrol, and he dived in with me. Then the Nips started riding in to shore. Johnny capped one of their officers while they were still in the boats. One of the native platoons took of running, damn cowards. I was scared, but I waited for them to come! Billy did a number on the landing boats, and on the soldiers as they came out. I managed to get a whole group of them with my Thompson as they attacked my foxhole. And would you believe it, Ben got in a close-up fight with a Nip! Managed to avoid the bayonet (and boy, those Nip bayonets are FEARSOME), grabbed his pickaxe and went at the guy. Guess the engineer has some guts after all. I got stabbed in the right arm by one of the Nip soldiers. They never even shot at us, just did a bayonet charge. Strangest thing I've seen. Johnny got thwacked by a bayonet, too, I think. Medic says his skull is fractured. He's out cold for now.

Better rally up the boys. There's more of them coming now.

Diary, First Page

To whom it may concern:

This diary belongs to Sgt. Glen D. Heaton, 1st Platoon, Able Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Regiment, 8th Infantry Division. If any soldier or officer should find this diary, please continue it. My Dad always said that our sons need a record of war.

Session 1 Postmortem

Posted from Steven's email, 22 Jan 2010:

Life in Rosario was very peaceful, almost sedate, with enjoyable aspects provided by the local Filipinas and Private Billy's homemade whiskey. On the afternoon of December 6, 1941 (December 7 in the United States, on the other side of the International Date Line), their parade formation, on the baseball field, was unexpectedly strafed by a trio of Zero fighters. Instantly, chaos reigned, as several soldiers were machine-gunned and the rest scattered for cover.

Mel managed to make some order of the chaos and corraled some fifteen frightened soldiers into some approximation of a military unit, shepherding them toward cover, and retrieving one of the fallen. Sadly, this man had been shot through the throat and did not survive.

Billy and Johnny sprinted to the treeline and took cover. Johnny sent a vengeful rifle shot at one of the Zeroes as it climbed out of its third strafing run, and made an unexpectedly good shot, but still missed (the plane was, after all, traveling more than 300 miles per hour).

Dick, displaying unexpected courage, rather than running for cover, paused to help one of the casualties, who had been shot in the leg. He got the wounded man to temporary safety.

After the shooting stopped and the planes disappeared, the soldiers emerged to tend to the wounded. Johnny was notably successful in this, saving the life of a man who had been shot in the chest (and rolling a 01 on his skill test in a skill at which he only had a skill of 5%).

The officers and sergeants reasserted authority over the situation, ordering the digging of anti-aircraft emplacements for machine-guns, slit trenches and bomb shelters, and graves (initial casualties were 7 men killed, 5 wounded, all of them Filipinos of the 13th Regiment).

Then... all was quiet. For two weeks of escalating rumors and confusion. Finally, on the evening of December 21st, the Lieutenant gave the platoon new orders. They were ordered to march to Lingayen Gulf, together with the 13th Regiment and a squadron of the 26th Cavalry, to cover potential landing sites on the gulf. They move out at 0500 on the 22nd.