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

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Near Manila-- Hold this hill, no matter what! We accomplished our mission, but with so many casualties... Over thirty years ago I drew this sketch. I based if off of a photo that I saw which resembled the hill we fought on so many years ago. I just couldn't get it out of my mind. I had nightmares for twenty years reliving the combat on this hill.   Two of my buddies and I were occupying slit trenches and a fox hole at the top of the hill, My turn to keep alert, moaning and groning, started up on the other side of the the ridge, it was very dark, possible it was wounded enemies that we wounded the day before in a grenade battle, or it could have been a trap, I couldn't take thee chance, I throwed garnades until there was no more groning.   __ ________Jack___________Me 2or3 men were sent to replace our position so we could get some rest. That night the enemy threw a satchel charge of explosives in on them. There wasn't anything left of them to pick up. God had moved me out of danger again. Before taking the hill, my squad was assigned the job of taking out a machine-gun bunker. I new there was no way we could do it without losing our lives. So I panicked, resulting in cramps in my stomach, and I was left behind. A couple of hours later I got the message that my best friend and front scout companion, was taken down by machine gun fire and the Japanese were using him as a sand bag. Then we lost all of our officers. One large artillery shell took them all out as they were grouped together eating, I was standing just a few feet away, when it happened. The concussion from the blast picked me up and laid me out in a slit trench, that was used as a garbage pit. When I got up, I was happy to see blood all over me - I thought I was wounded and would be getting out of there! To my dismay it was only jelly. With all of our officers gone, I realized I had to take command. There were still a couple of older men left from our company, but I didn't think they could handle the job. Only 21 men were left of the original 200. The rest were all new replacements - straight from the states and scared to death! Night was coming on. From my foxhole, I could see the lights of Manila shining brightly eight to ten miles away.

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