07 - Foxhole Lore
07 - Foxhole Lore
Each day had 24 hours eight of these were for sleeping. Ten hours were for travel Three for morning and three for the afternoon and evening. Mornings afternoon and evening were for getting ready for night. We had to eat, shave, cleanup, take care of our equipment etceteras. In this time also Recon patrols if called to. You needed to know where the enemy was if possible. It wasn’t good to set up next door to the enemy. On a Recon patrol you never wore a steel helmet, so if someone appeared in front of you with helmets on it wasn’t ours. A full company was 208 men plus weapons from D Company, medics, communications phone and radio, artillery observers, air force liaison me etc. So a reinforced company at night was quite a big group. We always set up in a circle perimeter that would be fifty or sixty foxholes. But with wounds, sickness, comings and goings about twenty foxholes would be average.
Two men to a position, if you had time it was a foxhole in front with a sleeping hole in back. The sleeping hole would be a little over six feet with a deep end so you could sit on the edge with a deep pit to put your feet in and be able to look over the edge with just your head exposed. One man asleep one man awake for an hour. So in eight hours you should get to sleep at least four. It never worked out that well. So everyone was always tired all the time. The dark hours were from eight at night till three in the morning. Then the day routine would start.
Do not leave the foxhole at night for any reason. If you did you got shot at and at that close quarters nobody missed. Everyone had a machete, which was used to cut grass, weeds, small trees, and to always make a clear field of fire. The machine guns were set up to help defend the front of the company with a designated field of fire. Also the mortars were set up to shoot without hitting a tree limb as that would spray our positions with shrapnel and we did not want that to happen. All rocks were mentally marked, as the damn things tended to move around at night when a guy got sleepy. The jungle is never quiet. If all noise stops monkeys, birds etc. its because they were disturbed by humans. You never took off your shoes as the centipedes and scorpions liked to crawl inside. Leaches were a problem and the never ending mosquitoes were always with us. They even hitched rides on the troop ships and went with us from place to place. Cockatoos usually were the best alarms really putting up a fuss when disturbed. The Jap’s would crawl for hours to get close so you always had to be alert. Flares could be called for but it would make you night blind the rest of the night. If time permitted you put up barbed wire if not then booby traps and wire with cans with rocks in them to make noise to give advance warning. Simple rules for all: no smoking, no talking, no unnecessary movement after dark. To face the enemy with a max of 20 yards at night each night was a real emotional experience for each GI in a foxhole.
With this preparation I’ll tell you of one night on Leyte Philippine Islands. It was about midnight and my foxhole buddy had just awakened me to take over. He must have not been too alert as I had just sat up when I saw this big guy coming at me at about six feet away. Well needless to say He never got any closer and once the first shot was fired everyone in the company joined in. After shooting ten minutes they got a cease fire passed down. There had been only one Jap and he spent the night groaning as I had got him in the belly button. It takes a long time when that happens.
You could always call for artillery if needed but in the Philippine Islands we never needed to do that. I was always amazed that the Jap’s would try to infiltrate one at a time. If they had kept out of our way we would have been sent someplace else and they would have been left alone. They proved that they could live off the land for 40 years without supplies. It’s funny how in a year overseas only a half a dozen nights in a foxhole stand out or only seven or eight patrols bring back memories. I guess we remember just fragments or we would never be able to cope with life. We played endless hours of cards and one game casino was a favorite. Now I don’t remember how the game is played at all.
Ken's World War II Experiences 01-Into The Army 02-California Living 03-Food, Drink & Rations 04-On Patrol 05-Never Volunteer! 06-Jungle Patrols <Previous 07-Foxhole Lore Next> 08-God In the Foxhole 09-Life As It Was 10-Humor 11-Entertainment 12-The End of the War 13-After The War 14-Coming Home 15-On Veterans