Dear etaoin: Those look much more promising. Notice that you can hardly see the strait
separating Leyte from Samar. The first month I was on Leyte, I was helping out at a
Field Hospital, and say a Navy patient with a bandage on his nose. I asked him what happened,
and he said a Jap hit him with a bolo. I said bullshit, if a Jap hit you with a bolo, you would
have lost half your head. Then he explained. He had heard that his brother had been killed
in an invasion way north, maybe Okinawa. He was on Samar, and took a jeep and drove out
to where some MPs were guarding Japs clearing brush along a road. He told MPs he wanted to
shoot some Japs, so MP said be my guest, and handed him Tommie gun. He killed several Japs,
but one of them got close enough to strike with bolo, and sailor was drunk enough he only
managed to deflect the blow with the Thompson. The edge of the bolo caught on sight or
something, and blade rotated so dull edge only hit him. The other MP blew Jap away.
Not all atrocities were committed by Japs. I wish the map of Leyte showed where
Tacloban was, because I had a yarn about airport there. Oh, well, can't have everything.
Thanks, etaoin. Bill