“Good enough for me,” Steele said. He called Rodeo over so that he could contact HQ and make his report. When he got off the radio, he said, “That made somebody happy. They’re collecting numbers down there like stamps.”
From the ridge they could clearly see the road they had been on earlier in the day. The Japanese had certainly occupied a commanding position. Higher yet was Bugabuga Hill itself, and Deke, Danilo, and Philly made the climb to the summit. They didn’t find any Japanese dead; evidently, whoever Deke had shot up there had been deemed important enough to carry away.
“You can see for miles,” Deke said. “No wonder the Japanese were up here.”
“The question is, Where did they go?” Philly asked. “We sure as hell didn’t kill them all.”
“I don’t think they went far,” Deke said.
Danilo didn’t seem to have an opinion, but he also seemed to be watching the forests and hills below them warily.
They climbed back down to rejoin the rest of the unit on the ridge. They were still roughly spread out as a column, but Steele hadn’t given any orders to move out.
“Come here a minute, Deke,” Steele ordered.
He hurried toward the rear of the column. “Honcho?”
“We’re losing daylight,” Steele said. “I don’t want to go any farther and get caught in the dark, and I don’t want us to be sitting ducks on this ridge. You know how the Japs love their night attacks. We’ll need to dig in before dark.”
The men got to work with their entrenching tools, turning the deeper shell holes into defenses for the night. The men kept throwing glances at the forest beyond the clearing at the top of the ridge, half expecting the Japanese to emerge from the trees. The fact that no enemy troops appeared was not reassuring because they knew it was more likely that the Japanese would attack at night, when the darkness gave them cover.
Deke had an idea, which he brought up with Honcho. “What if we get the Japs to attack us?”
“Deke, what the hell are you talking about? I’m damn sure they
“Honcho, what I mean is, What if we make them come to us in a banzai charge? When we’re in our foxholes, waiting for them?”
The lieutenant thought about that. “Now you’re making sense. If the Japs come at us in small groups, it’s going to be one hell of a night. Death by a thousand cuts. But if they decide to wipe us all out at once—”
“We can mow them down,” Deke said, finishing the lieutenant’s thought.
Steele nodded. “All right, that’s not a bad plan. Here’s what we’re going to do. Set up our machine guns and a couple of mortars facing down the slope. It’s a damn good field of fire, and it’s steeper than it looks, which will slow them down if they’re trying to run up it. We’ve got that hill at our backs and it’s rugged terrain, so I doubt a large force can come at us from that direction.”
The arrangements were made, and the men soon understood their role. Now all they needed to do was encourage the Japanese to attack. It was Philly who came up with a good idea for that.
“Why don’t we throw a party and invite the Nips?”
“What the hell are you talking about, Philly?”
Quickly, he outlined his idea. “You know I’m from Philadelphia, right? Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, all that Revolutionary War stuff. Plus, George Washington crossing the Delaware. Remember that Washington and his boys swooped down on the Hessians so easily because it was Christmas Eve and all the Germans were drinking and partying. What if we can convince the Japanese that we’re like the Hessians? Let’s make them think we’re having us a good ol’ time and that we’ll be easy pickings.”
“It’s not Christmas Eve.”
“Do you think the Japanese know that? It was a couple of nights ago, so close enough.”
Slowly, Honcho nodded. “All right, let’s give it a try. We’ve got nothing to lose.”
The men built a large bonfire, throwing caution to the wind. The fire would be big enough to get the attention of any Japanese in the vicinity, if by some miracle they weren’t already aware of the American presence. Once the flames were leaping and the sparks were flying, the men joked in loud voices, shouted “Merry Christmas!” to one another, even sang a few Christmas carols. They did their best to seem like they were also drinking, joking with one another about how good the whiskey was. In reality, they weren’t drinking anything stronger than some metallic-tasting canteen water.
Although the celebration was phony, it was easy enough for the men to get into the spirit of it. A few men quietly served as lookouts, having crept out from the defenses in order to spot any Japanese activity right away. Deke wasn’t much interested in being part of the fake holiday foolishness, but he was glad to be out in the dark, his rifle and knife at the ready.
