24 January. The I&R Platoon, 126th Infantry, 1 officer and 8 men of Company I, moved into Sindaman guided there by natives. Our patrol surrounded a hut where natives had reported enemy to be living. Hearing no sound from within the hut, a sergeant from the I&R Platoon stood up. At this same time a native came out of the hut and saw the sergeant, but gave no sign of recognition. Instead he started talking to the Japanese to show our men where they were. When fire was placed on the hut one Japanese was killed immediately. Then a second Japanese jumped up screaming, snatched a stick from the ground, and charged at Lieutenant Kittrel. The Lieutenant shot him through the neck but then discovered that his clip had fallen from his gun when he fired. Platoon Sergeant Young now tried to fire but his clip, too, had dropped from his carbine. Now a sergeant from Company L opened up with his tommy gun but the Japanese kept going by sheer force of his charge. It finally took the butt of his tommy gun to stop him. A third Jap was found dead from fever.
A patrol found two Japanese asleep in foxholes four hundred yards west of the Mot River and killed them.
Major General H.W. Blakeley, USA, Ret., The 32d Infantry Division in World War II