Chapter 95 representative of the warriors

The Australian army has recovered Gona, but the U.S. army has surrounded Buna but there is no further action. This makes MacArthur very embarrassed and is very dissatisfied with the speed of the U.S. attack.He sent Eickelberg telegram after telegram, saying that "time was getting worse and worse for us" and that Buner must be taken quickly at all costs. In 14 days, the U.S. military launched 12 offensives on Buna Village, but they all returned without success, and the troops suffered losses. On December 9, the 3rd Battalion of the 127th Regiment arrived at the front line.Previously, the 127th Regiment had been stranded in the rear due to insufficient transportation capacity. The arrival of this new force finally replaced the exhausted 2nd Battalion of the 126th Regiment.When Company F withdrew from the battle with the 2nd Battalion, there were only 38 combatants left in the company, plus the cooks and some non-combatants, there were only 52.

The 3rd Battalion continued to advance on the blood-stained land. After a few days, the Buna defenders, who had less than a hundred men, finally couldn't support them and were forced to break out in the dark. On the 14th, the U.S. military occupied the village of Buna. This was the first significant victory achieved by the U.S. military in the entire campaign. MacArthur called back his congratulations and sent a "solemn letter from the chief" to Eickelberg. Before the U.S.-Australian troops really cleared away the remnants, he couldn't wait to send a report of good news to Washington.

This good news was sent out too early.The U.S. and Australian troops only occupied Buna and Gona in name. Except for the lingering ghosts of the remaining Japanese troops, there are still thousands of Japanese troops entrenched in the tunnels and positions at Buna Airport and Sanananda. After a short-term rest, on the 18th, after the reinforcements of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 127th Regiment were in place, the US military continued to attack the remaining Japanese troops retreating to the north of Buna Village.The resistance of the Japanese army has not weakened in the slightest. Eckleberg said: "Every inch of land has been fiercely contested."

The U.S. and Japanese positions were intertwined and interpenetrated, and air firepower could not help the U.S. military. They could only use bayonets and grenades to drive away the Japanese soldiers in the bunkers like the Australian army.In hand-to-hand combat, Sergeant Bruce of the 127th Regiment covered his comrades and threw himself at a grenade thrown by the Japanese army and died heroically. He also became the first soldier to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor in the Papua Campaign. It was not until the end of December that the U.S. Army drove the last Japanese soldier out of the bunker in Buna Church. At this time, about two weeks had passed since MacArthur's battle report.What made American soldiers shudder was that hungry Japanese soldiers were found eating human flesh in Japanese bunkers. The war wiped out the last vestige of their civilization, making them indistinguishable from cannibals in New Guinea.

The attack on Buna Airfield changed with the arrival of eight M3 Stuart tanks. The M3 tanks are from the Australian Army Armored Regiment, an American-made product. Its basic purpose is reconnaissance, alert and quick action, but when they appear on the battlefield, they play a huge role. The Japanese army did not expect so many tanks to appear on the battlefield at once, nor did they Equipped with anti-tank weapons, the M3 tanks ran over the trenches all the way, and used 37mm guns to knock out the Japanese firepower points one by one without any scruples. M3 tanks assisting the infantry attack. The upgraded version of the M3 series M2A4 tanks has increased armor thickness, but it is still a light tank, also known as the "Stuart" light tank.The main weapon is a 37mm artillery, and the auxiliary weapons are five 7.62mm machine guns.

In just one hour, the Japanese defense line was breached and the flanks were exposed.Shigesho Yamamoto, who commanded the defense of the airport, saw that the situation was not good, so he quickly abandoned the new runway of the airport, retreated to the old runway, and resisted with the 76mm anti-aircraft guns preserved in the air raid. Just as they didn't know that the Allied forces would throw tanks, the U.S. and Australian troops who joined forces to attack did not expect that the Japanese army still had anti-aircraft guns in their hands. Two tanks were destroyed immediately, and the rest were forced to withdraw from the battle.

The Japanese anti-aircraft artillery only temporarily played a role in their prestige. Their anti-aircraft artillery shells were very few, and they were used up after a few bombardments.Artillery is a thing that opens its mouth when it comes to food and stretches out its hands when it comes to clothes. There are no shells to serve it. It is no different from a pile of scrap iron.The U.S. and Australian troops took advantage of the situation to smash the organized resistance of the Japanese army and firmly controlled the airport. Sanananda remained.This battlefield is also where the U.S. and Australian troops fought together. Part of the 126th Regiment of the U.S. Army assisted the Australian Army. Company I and the anti-tank company of the regiment broke into the Japanese position, but then its follow-up troops were cut off by the intensive firepower of the Japanese army, and they became the main force to break away. A lone army, on the verge of running out of ammunition and food, and communication with the rear was also interrupted for a while.

It was not until December 18 that the Australian 21st Brigade, coming from the direction of Gona, joined the I Company. Four days later, Company I withdrew from the position. The company held on for a total of 22 days in the heavy siege of the Japanese army. The heroic performance of many companies of the 126th regiment made this unit famous for crossing the "Devil Mountain" a representative of the warriors in the US Army. There were 1,400 people, and by mid-December only 550 people were still fighting, and it dropped to 244 people at the end of the month.