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My Experiences in the Philippines During World War II
The battle of Zig Zag Pass

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My Experiences in the Philippines During World War II Later that day, we started our push into Zig-Zag Pass... The enemy didn't push easily. They were dug into the ground with tunnels and bunkers so concealed you could step over them, or fall into them. Our advancing was very slow as we repeatedly got pinned down by sniper and machine gun fire. Working to our advantage, however, was our artillery and fire bombs from our low flying airplanes. They cleared out much of the jungle in front of us, but it wasn't enough to get rid of the Japs. They were hiding in the ground and would pop up right beside you. I felt safer walking along the side of a tank as it blasted at bunkers. A Japanese marine jumped up out of a hole just a few feet away from me. He ran forward, threw a TNT charge under the tank, and ran back to his hole. I wasn't fast enough to get a shot at him. We had just taken a hill and were feeling at ease, getting ready to dig in for the night. All of a sudden the enemy cut loose with a machine gun. Several men were hit before we could get to the ground. One of my buddies standing next to me got half of his arm shot off. Beyond the hill in front of us, artillery dropped in on the men in the valley. I saw a man's head fly over us. We were lying on our stomachs, staying low, and trying to dig in for the night. I felt cramps in my stomach, as if I was terribly constipated. I snuck back down the hill and tried to relieve myself, but nothing happened. The pain didn't go away, so I told the medic about my problem. After he examined me, he told me I was having an appendicitis attack and would have to go to the hospital. Was that good news to me? You better believe it! I was getting out of that mess. I was transported by ambulance to a small emergency hospital about ten miles away and was put on an operating table. I was examined by an Army Captain with a 45 hanging on his hip and a male nurse carrying a gasoline lantern. The Captain said, “You have a busted appendix and need to be operated on immediately." He gave me a spinal injection, which numbed me from the waist down. Halfway through the operation, the Japanese started throwing hand grenades and firing on the hospital. I thought I was lucky to get away from the front line, until the hospital came under attack. I could hear the hospital workers running outside. I was expecting the enemy to run into the tent at any moment. The doctor had to sew me up fast. I was put on a cot and left alone, the only one in the tent. The gunfire continued outside, but I couldn't move because of the spinal injection. I tried to roll off the cot and get under it so I could hide, but I couldn't even manage that. So I did the only thing I could do: once again, I prayed, "Now I lay me down to sleep, and went to sleep. The next morning I was taken to an Army hospital in the Philippine town of San Antonio. Word was trickling in from wounded soldiers that another counter attack had taken place on my company, with lots of casualties. God had moved me out of danger again. I had been in the hospital a couple of weeks when the head nurse caught me and another patient out behind the hospital, riding a bucking burro! Zig-Zag Pass was successfully taken from the Japanese. I thank God for sparing my life through that battle.

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