When they went up against an American tank, the Japanese tanks were quickly wiped out. Their guns and thin armor plating were no match against the bigger Shermans — in Europe, it had been rumored that the Americans found themselves in the same situation against the German panzers.
If they were outmatched by the Shermans, then against a squad or platoon of infantry, the Japanese tanks still managed to have a deadly effect.
The burned hulks of the enemy tanks on the shore and at the edges of the jungle were a welcome sight. It meant one less son of a bitch to worry about in the days to come.
Chapter Seven
As night came on, the area immediately to their front fell into an uneasy quiet. But not for long. Despite the distant gunfire, the jungle began waking up for the night. They heard a concert of strange, whining insects, shrieking night birds, and even a few inhuman cries that reminded Deke of wild bobcats that he had heard in the hills back home. Even without the threat of the Japanese, the jungle was alien and terrifying.
Beside him, Philly the city boy looked unsettled, pointing his rifle in one direction and then another.
Something screeched long and loud.
“What the hell was that?” he asked.
“A tiger, maybe,” Deke said, pulling his leg.
“A tiger? You think so? What the hell is this place?”
One of the men in a nearby foxhole set Philly straight. “It’s monkeys, you idiot. The jungle is full of them.”
Philly snorted. “Monkeys, huh? I knew that. That freakin’ Deacon was yanking my chain. Anyhow, just so long as it’s not Japs.”
“You won’t hear the Japs,” Deke said. “Not until the last minute, anyhow.”
They settled down to wait. They were supposed to be an anti-sniper patrol. But at the moment there didn’t seem to be any enemy snipers to worry about. It didn’t make the sounds from the jungle any less unsettling.
Instead, they focused on the growing blackness around them, staring into the jungle and wondering what might be next. They could still hear plenty of shooting to their right and left. Unless those troops were shooting at random, then there had to be something else out there.
Those men who could do so managed to grab some sleep, slumping down into the trenches and getting some rest. Although the conditions weren’t ideal, sleep wasn’t hard to come by. After all, most of them had been awake since long before dawn, if not most of the night before. Sleeping in the landing craft hadn’t exactly been inviting.
Deke was as tired as anyone, but he kept his eyes open. He had no intention of going to sleep just yet.
“Go on and get some shut-eye,” he said quietly to Philly. “I’ll keep watch.”
“All right, then. I appreciate it.”
Deke stared into the humid night. The air smelled damp and fetid, somehow mixing the lush scent of greenery with decay, like the stagnant air of an orchid hothouse that he had visited in Hawaii. It didn’t take much imagination to think of the Japanese soldiers who might be creeping up on them in the dark. For all he knew, there might be a whole division out there, holding its breath, waiting to attack.
He glanced down at his Timex watch — the most valuable item that Deke had ever owned that wasn’t a firearm, the luminous dots emitting the faintest light — and saw that it was approaching midnight. So far there hadn’t been any sign of the enemy.
All of a sudden, the chatter of creatures in the nighttime jungle fell silent. Something had disturbed them. He stared harder into the hushed darkness, looking for any sign of movement.
Considering that Deke had been a hunter since he was old enough to carry a rifle into the woods, he knew that when the forest went quiet, it meant that something was there that didn’t belong or that was unwelcome. Usually, that meant something human — or a predator. He supposed that the same rules applied in the jungle.
He leaned out of the foxhole, rifle at the ready, straining his eyes and ears, hoping to see or hear something.
To his right, someone opened fire, causing Deke to jump.
Several other men started shooting. The night lit up with muzzle flashes and even tracer fire. The firing went on for at least a minute. Nobody shot back at them.
Finally, they could hear Lieutenant Steele shouting to make himself heard. A nearby lieutenant was also ordering his men to stop shooting, although his voice carried less authority.
“Cease fire! Cease fire, goddamn it!” Steele shouted. “What the hell was everybody shooting at? That’s what I’d like to know.”
“I thought I heard something, sir.” The soldier sounded sheepish.
“When the Japs are here, you’ll know. Believe me. In the meantime, knock it off and show some fire discipline. If the Japs didn’t know where we were before, we sure as hell just drew them a map.”
Reluctantly, the men had stopped shooting into the darkness. If nothing else, the one-sided firefight had been a way to release tension.
“I know I heard something,” the soldier muttered again, sounding miserable in his nearby foxhole.
“All right,” Lieutenant Steele said, sounding calmer now. “Everybody’s jumpy. Listen, if anybody leaves his foxhole, make sure you know the password.” He repeated it quietly so that those in the vicinity could hear it. “Pollywog.”
“Sounds silly to me,” Philly said with a snort. “What kind of password is that?”
“Thanks for sharing your opinion,” the lieutenant said in a tone that meant he hadn’t appreciated Philly’s comment at all. Philly seemed to shrink in the darkness. He hadn’t meant for the lieutenant to hear him.
But the lieutenant wasn’t ready to let him off the hook just yet.
“On Guadal, we learned that the Jap infiltrators were pretty good at picking up on our passwords,” the lieutenant said. “The thing is that the Japs have a hard time pronouncing the letter L. That sound is not part of their language. They’d butcher your name, Philly, that’s for sure. So if you ask for the password and someone can’t pronounce it, chances are, it’s not one of us. Now, do you still think that’s a dumb password?”
“No, Honcho,” Philly admitted.
After the outburst of fire, it was clear that nobody was going to get any more sleep. The soldiers settled down to watch and wait.
As it turned out, the enemy waited just long enough for them to get bored and let their guard down.
Out of the darkness, they heard running feet.
“Who’s out there?” somebody shouted. “What’s the password?”
There wasn’t any answer. Instead, several figures began to take shape, shadows moving fast. The soldiers who spotted the enemy felt mesmerized, still chastened after shooting at nothing earlier, and their fingers remained frozen on their triggers.
Then came a bloodcurdling scream out of the darkness: “Aaaiiiee!” A Japanese battle cry.
Something flew through the air.
Too late, the soldiers realized it was a grenade, which bounced into a foxhole and exploded.
Now there were more screams, but these were not more Japanese battle cries. They were the agonized screams of dead and dying soldiers.
“Japs!” someone yelled.
Another grenade flew in and exploded. Somebody lit a phosphorous flare, and in the harsh white glare they could see a couple of figures charging at them with rifles, bayonets glinting.
Deke quickly fired and dropped one of the attackers.
Lieutenant Steele’s shotgun took out the other enemy soldiers.
“It’s starting,” Steele said. “This is just what the Japs did on Guadal. They’ll keep this up all night, attacking us in twos and threes, just to wear us down. Everybody, stay alert.”