Down and Dirty

by Len Levinson

  “I got it!” Bannon said.

  He placed the bazooka on the floor and raised the rifle to his shoulder while Gafooley ran to the other window. They looked down and saw Japs rushing across the lawn to the veranda again. Bannon fired his M 1 and brought one of them down. He fired again and hit the Jap in the leg, spinning him around and sending him reeling. A Japanese machine gun opened fire and stitched across the windowsill. Bannon ducked down as the bullets flew into the room and slammed into the wall behind him.

  Downstairs the Japs were rampaging through the mansion. They charged toward the cluster of rooms that the GIs were in, and the GIs fined everything they had at them. Butsko used his grenade launcher and shot it down the long corridors, preventing the Japs from getting too close. But a few Japs managed to get through the rear door and they charged up the stairs. Bannon and Gafooley heard them coming, and Bannon motioned toward the door of the bedroom. He and Gafooley pulled hand grenades from their lapels and yanked the pins. They turned the levers loose and hurled the grenades into the corridor.

  The Japs screamed in alarm, and one of them tried to pick up a grenade, but it blew up as he was bending over and took off his head. The other grenade exploded before a Jap could get to it, and that was the end of the three Japs who'd made it through the door.

  “Let's get out of here!” Bannon said.

  They ran toward the stairs and heard a stampede of feet. Turning the corner, they saw five Japs coming toward them. Bannon reached to his lapel and pulled off his last grenade. He looked to Gafooley, but Gafooley didn't have any more grenades left. Bannon pulled the pin and hurled the grenade down the stairs. It took the Japs by surprise, and they all scrambled to catch it and throw it back, but they got in each other's way and the grenade exploded in their midst, pieces of hot shrapnel tearing them apart.

  Bannon looked down the stairs and saw more Japs coming through the door. He had no more grenades to throw, all he could do was run the other way.

  “C'mon!” he said to Gafooley.

  They dashed down the corridor, glancing into rooms looking for shelter, but there was nothing. The corridor turned right and they followed it around, seeing a window at its end and no stairs.

  “What now?” said Gafooley.

  Bannon poked his head out the window.

  Beeaaannnnnggggg!

  He withdrew quickly and looked around. There was a door; he didn't know where it led but it was their only chance.

  “In here!”

  They dashed into a room. It was a library. Books had been pulled off the shelves and lay strewn on the floor. A rat scurried out of Bannon's way as he tipped over the huge scratched oak table in the center of the room. He and Gafooley got behind it and loaded their M Is with fresh clips. They heard a clatter of footsteps in the corridor, and Bannon took a deep breath. He imagined a Jap tossing a hand grenade into the room and shivered uncontrollably.

  A Jap appeared in the doorway and Bannon pulled the trigger of his M 1. The Jap screamed and dropped to the floor. Another Jap showed his face and Gafooley fired, the bullet hitting the doorjamb, and the Jap ducked out of the way. A hand appeared and it tossed in a hand grenade. Bannon jumped up, caught it with one hand, and tossed it back.

  Barrrooooommmmm!

  The building shook violently and splinters of wood flew in all directions. When the smoke cleared there was a huge hole in the floor. Japs could be heard groaning on the other side of the door. Bannon and Gafooley waited, but they heard nothing.

  “Do you think we killed them all?” Gafooley asked.

  Bannon shrugged. They left the safety of the table and tiptoed to the door. Bannon peeked around the corner and saw three dead Japs and the hole in the floor. He looked down and could see the room below.

  “Let's get out of here,” Bannon said, jumping into the hole.

  Wind whistled past him and he landed in a bathtub full of water. He crawled out of the bathtub and a moment later Gafooley landed with a mighty splash.

  “Well, I needed a bath,” Gafooley said, stepping out of the bathtub.

  Bannon peered around the doorjamb and saw a bedroom with a canopied bed. He crossed the bedroom and heard footsteps in the hall. He and Gafooley dived under the bed and landed in a scattering of fresh ratshit.

  Bannon looked toward the door and saw two sets of Japanese leggings. He heard Japs talking, and in the distance came the sound of rifles and machine guns firing. A grenade exploded and the floor trembled beneath them. The leggings disappeared from in front of the door. Bannon and Gafooley crawled out from beneath the bed and approached the door. They looked to their right and left and saw no one.

  “What now?” asked Gafooley.

  “We've got to get back to the others.”

  Bannon walked cautiously down the corridor toward the sound of the fighting. Gafooley followed a few steps back, looking into every room to make sure no Japs were lurking about. They came to a bend in the corridor and Bannon peeked around the comer. He saw a bunch of Japs; one of them happened to be looking back at him. The Jap pointed and shouted.

  Bannon and Gafooley ran back in the direction they'd come from. Bannon turned through the first doorway and entered a little sitting room with paintings that had been used for target practice. He heard galloping footsteps behind him and knew the Japs were coming fast. Heading toward the window, he dived out of it and sailed through the air. The green lawn came up fast and he rucked in his head, letting his rifle go and tumbling over, breaking the shock of the landing. He picked up his rifle and saw Nutsy Gafooley coming down feet first. Nutsy descended in classic paratrooper style, touched his feet to the ground, bent his knees, and rolled to the side, absorbing the crunch smoothly. He didn't even drop his rifle.

  Both men jumped to their feet.

  “Let's get out of here!” Bannon said.

  They ran toward the coconut trees, and the startled Japs nearby opened fire. But there weren't many Japs outside now, and only a handful were at that end of the building. Bannon and Gafooley made a zigzagged dash for the trees and dove behind them, turning and firing at the Japs grouping on the lawn. The Japs dropped to their stomachs or scattered into the coconut grove. Bannon shot one in the ass and Gafooley managed to bring down two.

  The sound of fierce fighting could still be heard from inside the house. Bannon was torn between the desire to go back and help the others and to run away while he still had the chance. He looked at the rear porch, wondering if he and Gafooley could get in that way.

  “What're we waiting for?” Gafooley said.

  Bannon didn't know what to do. Something told him to get the hell out of there, and something else said he couldn't leave his buddies behind.

  “I'm going back inside,” he said.

  “Are you fucking crazy?”

  “You don't have to come with me,” Bannon said. “Go back and see if you can link up with the regiment. Tell them to get up here as quick as they can.”

  “I think you're nuts to go in there.”

  “Do as I say. When I move out, I'll draw all the fire. Then you can get away. Got it?”

  Gafooley made a face. “This is the dumbest thing I ever heard of!”

  Bannon held out his hand. “Good luck, buddy.”

  Gafooley refused to shake it. “You're out of your mind!”

  Bannon slapped him on the shoulder. “Keep your head down and watch your ass.”

  “But...”

  Bannon jumped to his feet and ran out of the coconut grove, holding his M 1 at high port arms, screaming like a madman to give himself courage. The few Japs outside in the vicinity fired at him, but Bannon was running like Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics, heading for the porch at the rear of the building. He leaped up the five stairs and saw a dead Jap lying in front of him, a Type 99 machine gun in his arms with a big curved clip rising out of its chamber. Bannon dropped his M 1 rifle as Japanese bullets ripped into the wooden planks of the porch. He slung the haversack of Japanese ammo clips over his shoulder, picked
up the machine gun, slung the strap over his right shoulder, and held the big, bulky weapon in his arms. On his knees he swung around and fired a burst at the Japs running toward him across the lawn, making them scatter and drop down. Then he turned and charged into the back door of the mansion.

  He flew through the door and saw three Japs at the end of a hall. They turned around and saw him; their jaws dropped open as he advanced toward them, held the machine gun tightly, and pulled the trigger. It bucked and stuttered in his hands, and the three Japs were riddled with hot bullets manufactured in their own country.

  Bannon kicked them out of his way and kept going. He turned a corner and saw another hallway with a bunch of Japs inside. They heard him coming and looked back, but that was all they had time to do. Bannon opened fire and tore them to shreds, then noticed movement in a bedroom, swung around, and shot a Jap officer sitting on a bed, looking at a map. A noise came from the bathroom and Bannon turned in that direction. He saw a Jap with his pants down, sitting on the toilet, a panicked expression on his face, and Bannon gave him a burst in the gut. The Jap sank lower into the toilet, blood leaking from his torso. His head lolled to the side.

  Bannon moved out into the hall again. He heard furious fighting not too far away. He ran through the winding corridor, ready to shoot at anything that moved, and came to the main living room in which he and the others had been fighting before. This time it was full of Japs, all with their backs to him, and Bannon pulled the trigger of the machine gun. It roared like a vicious beast and he swung it from left to right and back again, mowing down the Japs, who dropped their rifles and bent over backward, collapsing onto wrecked furniture and the floor.

  Japs in the corridor on the far side of the living room turned around and Bannon plowed into them, firing his machine gun. They were too crowded together to do anything and were taken by surprise. Bannon kept his finger depressed on the trigger and massacred them, stomping on their bodies as he made his way toward the room where Butsko and the others were.

  “It's me!” he yelled. “Don't shoot!”

  He turned a bend in the corridor and saw a doorway piled high with furniture. In front of the doorway were Japs trying to break through. When they heard Bannon they turned around. Bannon pulled the trigger of his machine gun and held it steady.

  Click!

  The machine gun was empty.

  Beeeooowwwww! A bullet ricocheted off the wall beside him. Bannon ducked into a doorway, ejected the empty clip, and jammed in a new one. He pulled the trigger even before he left the room, chopping up the doorjamb, and then stepped into the hall. The Japs in front of the barricade were down on their knees, aiming back at him, and Blam—a bullet hit him in the thigh, but he aimed steadily and swung the machine gun from side to side, spraying them with lead. Another Japanese bullet punctured his shirt and grazed his ribs like a red-hot poker, but that was the last bullet the Japs fired. They all slumped to the floor, leaking blood, and Bannon climbed up the barricade in front of the next room. Hands reached down and grabbed his shirt and arms. Shaw and Shilansky pulled him over the top and he stumbled down into the room.

  Butsko stood in front of him, a bandage wrapped around his head. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Hiya, Sarge,” Bannon said weakly.

  “You shoulda got away while you had the chance!”

  “Nutsy's gone for help.”

  Bannon felt like he had a charley horse in his leg. Private Blum bent beside him and cut away his pant leg.

  “The bullet went all the way through,” Blum said. “You'd better lie down.”

  Bannon lay on the floor and looked around. The room had two windows, and GIs manned each one, firing at Japs outside. The room also had two doorways, piled high with furniture and junk, and behind these barricades the GIs tried to fight off the Japs.

  On the floor were dead and wounded men. Only half the platoon was fighting back—about fifteen men.

  “How is it?” Bannon asked Blum.

  “If I can stop the bleeding, you'll be okay.” Blum poured on coagulant powder and sulfa to disinfect the wound. Then he wrapped on the bandages. Meanwhile the Japs attacked the room again, firing at the barricades and through the windows, but the GIs had good cover and were able to prevent the Japs from getting close enough to throw had grenades. The battle raged for five minutes, with bullets ricocheting all around the room.

  “Shit!” said Frankie La Barbara. “I'm out of ammo.” “I just got one clip left,” said Jimmy O'Rourke, who also had a BAR.

  Japanese bullets slammed against the barricade and flew through the windows. The recon platoon had been doing a fair job of holding the Japs back, but now they were running out of ammunition and the Japs were becoming bolder. Butsko had only three clips of ammunition left, and he stuffed one of them into his M 1. He and the others would be wiped out if they stayed in the room. They'd have to either surrender or try to break away. Surrendering to the Japs was almost like committing suicide, so they'd have to make a run for it.

  Bannon got up off the floor, picked up his Japanese light machine gun, and took a post by the window, firing at the Japs advancing on the lawn below. They had been edging fairly close to the window, but Bannon peppered them with bullets and made them pull back.

  Butsko had one hand grenade left. “Okay,” he said, “we'll have to make a run for it, because we can't hold out much longer here. Wounded men who are conscious will be carried along with us; they'll have to fight too. The rest will be left behind. Bannon, you lead the way because you've got the firepower. We'll fight our way into that living room, out the front door, down the steps, and into the woods. Any questions?” “We'll never make it,” said Frankie La Barbara. “We can try. Anything else?”

  “Can I say a prayer?” asked the Reverend Billie Jones. “We ain't got time. Can you move okay on that leg, Bannon?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, everybody get ready.”

  Butsko took his last hand grenade, pulled the pin, and held the activating lever tightly. Crawling across the floor, he pushed his hand underneath the barricade, which was being splintered by Japanese bullets. The GIs at the windows ducked down and the Japs on the lawn charged.

  Butsko let go of the lever, pulled back his arm, and dashed to the far side of the room, dropping to his belly on the floor with the others. Bannon lay in the middle of the room behind an overstuffed chair, his leg aching from his wound. He tried not to think about it.

  Barrrrooooom!

  The barricade blew apart in a brilliant, powerful flash, and Bannon was on his feet, running with a limp toward the door-way, firing the Japanese light machine gun in his hands. The corridor outside was full of Japs who'd gotten too close to the barricade and had been blown to Kingdom Come. Bannon ran down the corridor to the main living room. Japs appeared at the end of the corridor. Bannon held the machine gun tightly and pulled the trigger, and the corridor filled with the roar of the automatic weapon. The power of the bullets threw the Japs back, and the GIs followed Bannon down the corridor, the wounded riding piggyback on the unscathed.

  Bannon was first in the big living room, which was full of Japs. He swung the machine gun from side to side and kept his finger on the trigger, his hands going numb from the constant vibration, and Japs were torn apart by the bullets, performing macabre pirouettes as they fell to the floor.

  The room filled with GIs, firing at the Japs, and Bannon led them to the front door. He dashed out onto the veranda and a bullet whistled by his ear, slamming into the wall next to him. Bannon lowered his machine gun and fired from side to side as he ran along. Frankie La Barbara and Jimmy O'Rourke were behind him, shooting their BARs, sending out a hail of lead. Private Dole, who was wounded, rode on Homer Glad-ley's back and fired a Colt .45 with one hand. Craig Delane, out of bullets, scooped up an Arisaka rifle from the arms of a dead Japanese soldier and fired from the waist as he ran in a zigzag across the veranda. A Japanese light machine gun, like the one Bannon was carrying, cha
ttered at the edge of the woods, and one of its bullets hit Shaw in the ankle, shattering bone. Shaw fell to the ground, and the Reverend Billie Jones picked him up and carried him toward the grove.

  Bannon fired a burst at the Japanese light machine gunner and his assistant. One of his bullets ricocheted off the top of the gun and hit the gunner in the face. The assistant tried to take the position behind the gun, and Craig Delane shot him through the neck. Butsko ran toward the machine gun, picked it up, and threw the sack of ammunition over his shoulder.

  Pow! A Japanese bullet hit him in the shoulder, knocking him onto his side. He got to one knee, spun around, and sprayed bullets at the Japs running across the lawn. Moving the barrel of the machine gun to the left, he sent a rain of death into the coconut grove, where other Japs were attacking.

  Blood oozing down his arm, Butsko retreated toward the coconut grove. He took cover behind a tree, aimed the machine gun around the trunk, and blasted three Japs running across the lawn. Nearby, Bannon lay on his stomach, aimed his light machine gun, and pulled the trigger while moving his shoulder from side to side. Behind another tree, Craig Delane pumped bullets at the Japs coming through the coconut grove.

  Clang!

  The clip emptied and sprang into the air. Delane reached to his last bandolier of ammunition. It was empty.

  “Out of ammo!” he said.

  The Reverend Biilie Jones tossed him a clip, which he fed into the top of his M 1. Delane fired at a Jap coming through the coconut grove, and the Jap dropped to the ground. A bullet ricocheted off the tree beside Delane's head, and splinters dug into his face, making little dots of blood appear.

  The Japs closed in around the embattled GIs, who formed a circle in the coconut grove. The GIs fired their weapons frantically, and one by one they ran out of ammunition. Bannon pressed the last clip into his machine gun and saw Japs swarming through the coconut grove all around him. He couldn't move or fire fast enough; there were too many of them. A grenade came flying through the air and Jimmy O'Rourke stood up, swung his BAR like a baseball bat, and hit the grenade back. It exploded in the coconut grove, knocking down a tree ‘ and killing a few Japs.