55
w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m
ing of his machine gun section Sgt. DeVol Cassidy of Billings
caused Lieutenant Arthur Merrick, Jr., of Great Falls, to orga-
nize a three-man anti-sniper team around the marksmanship
of PFC Matthew Black Dog of Brockton. The team was inter-
viewed by George Weller of the Chicago Daily News for his
13-part series on the battle. Company E displaced Company
B at after two weeks.
FLANKING THE ENEMY
On January 9, Companies G and F passed through the south-
east side of HUGGINS. Crossing the trail, they used machetes
and slogged 400 yards west to cut the route for Japanese es-
caping from P. Company G supported by Company F attacked
Japanese on the Killerton Track and established perimeter
RANKIN, rotating every 24 hours to position a new platoon in
deep water near the Japanese. On January 12, two battalions
of Aussie infantry with three tanks stormed P and failed, los-
ing three tanks and 151 casualties including 34 killed. On Jan-
uary 14, a Company B patrol found an enemy soldier south of
HUGGINS and gave him food instead of killing him. After the
sick POW revealed that in P "all able-bodied men had left,"
Australia's 18th Brigade attacked P from the south while Com-
panies G and E attacked from the north, killing 258 Japanese.
Company F moved 1.5 miles up the track to push east abreast
of Company G and get behind S. They entered a prepared
field of fire and lost three men killed and four wounded from
two machine guns. Corporal Carlton Tidrick of Belton brought
his squad forward to engage the guns they thought were in a
native hut. There were two guns concealed in a narrow ravine
THEIR NATIONAL
GUARD UNIT
WOULD SPEND LONGER
OVERSEAS THAN ANY
OTHER AMERICAN DIVISION
IN WORLD WAR II
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