FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Arthur W Wermuth, Part 2 ~ 10 February 2020

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! | The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

 

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday...
Thank the Veterans who served
in The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States
Armed Forces Today!

---

~ Hall of Heroes ~

Arthur W Wermuth, Part 2
"The One Man Army of Bataan"
Part 2 - Heroes of Bataan

Info from here.

(Thank you to DeaconBenjamin for bringing this hero to our attention!)

           

The fighting along the Abucay Line that second week of January was fierce, brutal, and critical to the efforts to hold. Captain Arthur Wermuth's heroic actions in destroying the bridge at Kalaguiman only temporarily delayed the Japanese advance on the Allied main line of resistance. On the night and following day of January 11-12, not far distant from Kalaguiman, Second Lieutenant Arthur Sandy Nininger found himself confronted by hordes of advancing enemy soldiers. Though assigned to Company A, 57th Infantry, during the brief respite from combat Wermuth's action had provided, Nininger had attached himself to Company K in efforts to recapture positions along the line, taken when the Japanese infiltrated a cane field.

On the night of January 11, following an artillery barrage, hoards of Japanese had attacked the line in a Banzai charge. Waves of screaming enemy soldiers streamed into the lines in the face of intense fire, men of the leading wave throwing their bodies over barbed wire barricades to create "bridges" over which the following waves could pass. Narcisco Salbadin manned a water-cooled machine gun in efforts to beat back the enemy. He killed dozens of attackers but each time one fell, it seemed two more rushed forward to replace him. When his machine gun jammed, Salbadin began firing with his .45 pistol, killing five. His thumb was severed when one Japanese soldier attacked him with a bayonet, but despite the loss he maintained his grip, wrested the rifle from the attacker, and then reversed it to ram the bayonet into the enemy soldier's chest.

As the Banzai charge at last began to falter, the Scouts turned offensive to throw back the enemy and regained ground now claimed by the Japanese. Lieutenant Nininger's subsequent Medal of Honor citation reveals his own uncommon heroism: "In the hand-to-hand fighting which followed, Second Lieutenant Nininger repeatedly forced his way to and into the hostile position. Though exposed to heavy enemy fire, he continued to attack with rifle and hand grenades and succeeded in destroying several enemy groups in foxholes, and enemy snipers. Although wounded three times, he continued his attacks until he was killed after pushing alone far within the enemy position." In that action Second Lieutenant Nininger became the first member of the U.S. Army to earn the Medal of Honor in World War II. Ultimately, the Japanese advance had been temporarily halted, but the charge had left hundreds of Japanese snipers alive, and hidden in trees and trenches all along the Abucay line. The task of finding, and destroying them was going to take days of deadly fighting.

For Arthur Wermuth, the continuing attacks mean no time to recover from his own wounds. Five U.S. Marines, displaced from their own unit during the battle for Bataan, arrived at the 57th Infantry Headquarters. Sergeant Bill Eckstein described his men as on "detached service with the U.S. Army to teach them how to fight." Eckstein and his comrades were quickly welcomed by Wermuth, who wasted little time putting them into action.

On January 15, Captain Wermuth deployed what was left of his company along the cane field that bordered the left side of the main road between Kalaguiman and Abucay. He then dispatched two patrols to begin burning the field, leading one patrol himself and placing the other patrol under the charge of Marine Sergeant Eckstein.

Eckstein's patrol reached the center of the field first, an elevated clearing, and the displaced Marine raised up to peer beyond. Suddenly five rounds slammed into his body, severely wounding him. Marine privates Bill Brown and Al Sheldon crawled forward to their sergeant, amid a continuing hail of enemy fire. "Get out of here with the Sarge," Brown shouted, even as scores of Japanese raced, firing as they ran, at his exposed position in the clearing. While Sheldon dragged his sergeant to safety, Brown knelt and coolly snapped off deadly single-shots for five minutes, dropping Jap after Jap. Then his luck began to run out. More than 100 Japanese raced to the edge of the clearing, setting up a machine-gun to rake Brown's position. Repeatedly hit by enemy fire, Brown maintained his position, holding an entire Japanese company at bay until his sergeant had been removed to safety.

For his heroic actions to save the life of his sergeant, at the cost of his own life, Private First Class Robert Joseph Brown became the FIRST of 31 U.S. Marines to be awarded the Army's Distinguished Service Cross in World War II.

For Captain Arthur Wermuth, watching that young Marine's valiant stand was at once both inspiring and heart-rending. Even when Private Brown was dead, the Japanese continued to vent their hatred by raking his body with machine-gun fire. Yelling above the fray, Wermuth shouted, "Jock, burn the field," and then to his men, "Shoot every little son-of-a-bitch who comes running out." By sunset, 207 dead Japanese lay in and around the cane field.

...Part 3 next week...

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, ML...((HUGS))...any respite from the rain? Hope you and Penny were able to go hiking.

We are still above freezing and making lots of puddles. Bad news because it’s supposed to freeze tonight and continue down to zero by tomorrow night.

[radu]

I got a shot of the moon in the wee hours before going to bed this morning, shining through and illuminating interesting cloud formations.

[luvie]

Gorgeous!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

Hope you got a lot of rest and are ready to take on the new week.

[SkyDancer]

~ Good Evening ~

~ ~

Home!!!

~ Good Evening ~

~ Welcome To My World ~

I’m Down There Somewhere

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mac...*HUGS*...hope you are doing well these days.

Have you had good weather this winter?

[radu]

It was really pretty standing underneath it, watching the clouds slowly move past.

I looked a little earlier tonight and the moon was clear of clouds at the time but the wind’s blowing so hard, I wouldn’t have been able to keep the camera steady for a shot.

Aaaaaaand I wait again for Comcast to come back so I can hit “post”. siiiiiiigh

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu...how is your drying out weather doing?

We are still above freezing, making puddles, and now dropping below freezing over night and then back down to zero. *sigh*

[Kathy in Alaska]

TAPS

RIP

Sfc. Javier Jaguar Gutierrez, USA
3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne)

Amazing Grace

[Kathy in Alaska]

TAPS

RIP

Sfc. Antonio Rey Rodriguez, USA
3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne)

Amazing Grace

[radu]

Yikes! That’s a big cool-down! Not going to be fun driving to work in the morning with the puddles turning back to ice.

We had a dry day and it was windy, which helped a lot. BUT rain is moving in tonight and they say we’ll probably get 4 inches between now and Thurs. :-(

[luvie]

Stupid Comcast! They need to be flogged!

i’m glad you had a partly clear sky so you could see that moon. It’s cloudy here so all I saw was a blur. It’s supposed to rain for the next 3 days, but I’ll not believe it till I get wet. LOL!

[The Mayor]

I did, I was at home resting all day.
Hope to get a lot done this week.
Thanks for the thread Kathy!

[radu]

I agree. We’re sick and tired of this crap but they’re our only choice for internet.

I was surprised to see the moon clear of clouds earlier because rain is closing in already. We’re under a flood watch tomorrow morning through Tues. No surprise there since we’re totally saturated now.
I just watched the weather report and it looks like you just might get some of this too.

[luvie]

Ah, man! I hate that you’re going to get more rain. I hope no rivers flood out of their banks to harm people. Your farmers are never going to get to plant at this rate. I wouldn’t mind some more rain here. We’d love for the grass to grow and spread to cover what was lost during the drought. It takes years for it to come back.

[radu]

At least it won’t be 7 inches in 24 hours like the other day but any at all right now is too much. They obviously had to close the locks on the dam at the other end of the lake for a bit because the lake’s up to summer pool right now. They’ve opened them a little again because the lake has dropped a couple of feet but it’ll fill back up by the end of the week.

It’s going to be a while before anyone can get into the fields to prep them for planting, no doubt about that.

This system is supposed to stall and if it does it in the right position, it should give y’all some rain. How much remains to be seen. It would be nice if y’all could share some of the “wealth”.

[mylife]

Goodbye brothers

[mylife]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGpwgHqlfWo

[mylife]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-ROB8kI_fw

[Kathy in Alaska]

In first....ML grabs the gold!!