'Captain McCray Lives'

The story so far:

"A quiet morning on the beach" -> "An amphibious army assault on Bougainville/The Massacre"

Captain McCray Lives by ajgraphix

“Ser. . .Sergeant Martinez, Sergeant!” Captain McCray responds still trying to catch his breath. They both spot each other amidst the noise of soldiers screaming from the intense, deafening loud explosions and the sounds of tall coconut trees crashing down on the sand from the Japanese artillery cannon blasts.

“Sergeant Martinez, we’ve got to put those damn pill boxes and machine gun nests out of action “Captain McCray said. “ How sir, we’re cut off, they’ve got us pinned down in this sand and they are shooting us to pieces” Sergeant Martinez replied. “Sergeant Martinez, move yourself and the men up to those coconut tree log embankments, get up there as fast as you can, myself and the other men will follow behind you go!” Captain McCray yells out.

Seeing Captain McCray on the beach alive and hearing him give out an order, Sergeant Martinez regains his confidence; as he sticks a cigar in his mouth. “Okay men, you heard the Captain let’s move out” Sergeant Martinez and the soldiers get up from hiding behind the cement hedgehogs. The soldiers sprint across the sand as fast as they can kicking up sand as they elude the deadly machine guns that fire at them, they purposely fall down and hide behind the 4 ft. embankments.

The soldiers are closer to the pill boxes now and some of them begin to fire their weapons at them. . “Hold your fire, hold your fire, we’re going to waste ammunition” Sergeant Martinez shouted. “Why Serge, we are getting killed on this damn beach” one soldier replied.” We are going to wait here for the Captain; he says he has a plan”. Sergeant Martinez said. “ Okay Serge, I’ll hold my fire for now, I just hope the Captain’s plan gets us out this sandy blood bath mess, because if not, I’m going to return my fire regardless of what anybody says” as another soldier responded to the Sergeant.

Meanwhile, further out in the shallow bloody water, “ Okay everybody listen up, grab all rifles, machine guns and ammunition from the dead and wounded, take as much stuff as you can carry, we’re going to try to meet up with the Sergeant and the others”. Captain McCray yells out to the rest of the soldiers on the beach.

Following the Captain’s orders the soldiers quickly grab what they can use from the dead and wounded, some soldiers take more than what the Captain ordered them to take. “I said take what we can use, not rob them dammit”. Captain McCray yells out as he observes some of the soldiers taking personal and valuable items from the dead and wounded and putting them in their uniform pockets.

“Okay, men hit it, let’s move out” Captain McCray yells out. Captain McCray and the others get up to their feet from their prolonged crouched positions. They sprint across the sand eluding heavy machine gun fire.

Unfortunately, some of the soldiers in Captain McCray’s group get their bodies blown into pieces as they step on dangerous land mines which are buried just beneath the sand, other soldiers get crushed by falling coconut trees. Captain McCray and the rest of the soldiers in his group escape the minefield and make it to the coconut tree log embankments.

“Damn Serge, we don’t have enough soldiers to work with to carry out this assault on this beach, those Japanese machine gunners up there are tough they are mowing us down, we are catching hell on this beach Sergeant”. Captain McCray said.

“Those small **** cannons from our ships did not do anything Captain except put big holes on the beach, these pill boxes are pretty tough structures. We need bomber planes, battleships and armored tanks to knock these pill boxes out of action if you ask me sir” Sergeant Martinez replied. “You’re right Serge and we don’t have any of that, we’re just going to have to use the men that we have now and hope that any kind of back up arrives, we’re going to have to do the best we can” Captain McCray responds.

“Okay men, here it is on the level, we got to put those goddamn pill boxes out of action on our own until back up arrives if it arrives, flamethrower operators you two get up to those pill boxes as fast as you can, we will give you some protective fire, it should give you enough time to get at least a few feet in range enough so you can take care of business, wait for my signal.” Captain McCray yells out.

One of the flamethrower operators stands at 5 ft. 3 in. tall, slender in build, he is a Native American soldier. The other flamethrower operator stands at 5 ft. 7 in. tall; he is a very dark-skinned African-American soldier who is muscular in build. “Flamethrowers, get ready to move out, the rest of you get your weapons ready to fire”. Sergeant Martinez yells out.

“COVER FIRE, FLAMETHROWERS MOVE OUT” Captain McCray yells out. Suddenly, the sounds of United States Army issued weapons begin to echo across the beach as the soldiers of Company L 10th Infantry battalion fire their assortment of weapons at the Japanese pillbox bunkers.

Garand M1 rifles, M1A1 Thompson submachine guns, M1 Carbine rifles, Browning Automatic rifles (BARs), US M3 Submachine guns and two men operated US 30 Caliber Machine guns lay down a heavy covering of fire for the flamethrower operators to advance toward the pill boxes.

The clouds over the beach begin to darken and then it starts to rain down hard on the beach. The rain impairs the vision of one the flamethrowers, he trips over and obstacle and falls down on the sand, he wipes his and eyes to clear them of rain water with one hand as he holds the flamethrower gun handle with the other.

He struggles and gets to his feet and runs toward his target. Then an explosion of blood and fire occurs as the flamethrowers fuel tank gets hit by Japanese machine gunners, the explosion incinerated him, there is only a huge stain of blood in the sand and burning body parts that remain of him on the beach. The other flamethrower advances closer to a fortified concrete pillbox bunker, with two hands he holds the flamethrower gun, he pulls the trigger and then a stream of burning liquid called napalm projects out of the nozzle part of the flamethrower gun. He fires at the opening of the concrete pillbox window in an attempt to burn the Japanese soldiers out of there. He gets shot through the burning flames, his body falls backward and rolls down a small hill on the embankment with the flamethrower still strapped to his back.

“Damn” Sergeant Martinez says as he watched the flamethrower’s body roll down the hill and stop. Captain McCray looks on in disgust. “DEMOLITION MEN MOVE OUT” Captain McCray yells out. There are two men in the demolition, one is a soldier who stands about 5 ft. 3

in. tall and the other soldier stands at 5 ft. 4 in. tall, they both are Asian Americans who happen to be the two shortest men in Company L.

The two demolition men take off running, they both carry bags of satchel charges. The other demolition man runs up the small hill, he makes it to within ten feet of the concrete pillbox he stops and gets down on one knee, he has a terrified look on his face, nervously he looks back at his men who continue to provide a blanket of gun fire for him, he pulls the ignition pin, the satchel charge starts to ignite as smoke flows out from the bag.

“THROW IT, THROW THE SATCHEL CHARGE” Captain McCray yells out, the demolition man holds the satchel charge by its straps, he swings it around twice, he lets it go, he dives facedown into the sand putting his hand over his helmet, the satchel charge flies in the air, it hits the side of the pillbox and falls to the ground and explodes. The demolition man gets up to his feet, he runs back down the hill in fright to regroup with the others, smoke from the exploded satchel charge clears the air in front of the window of the concrete pillbox, the Japanese machine gunner sees the soldier running back, he aims and fires the machine gun at the retreating demolition man, the impact of the bullets cause

the demolition man to fall face forward into the sand, his M1 steel helmet falls off of his head and rolls around in the sand.

“No good, this frontal attack is no good Captain, every man that we send out gets killed” Sergeant Martinez says as he chews on his cigar and grabs his lower jaw shaking his head in disbelief in their attack. “We have to find another way, wait a minute, I got it, a lateral strike” Captain McCray said.

“A lateral strike sir? Sergeant Martinez replied as he looks at the Captain.

“Yeah A lateral strike” Captain said. “Listen Serge, we don’t have any air support or tank support to back us up as you can see, and at this point I highly doubt that we will get any in all of this mess, if we keep sending our men out from their positions to attack these pillbox bunkers in a frontal strike, they are going to get shot to pieces right in front of us, however if we sneak up and attack these bunker’s and machine gun nest’s from the side they won’t know what hit ‘em” Captain McCray explained.

“Here’s the plan Serge, we’re going to hit them from our left which will be their right, take some of the men with you, try to make it all the way down to where this embankment ends, stay down and out of sight so they won’t see you, circle around the embankment, give yourself and your men a little space to work with, then start the lateral attack” Captain McCray said.

“What about you Captain?” Sergeant Martinez asked. “Myself and the others will stay here, we will get them to draw their fire on us, you know Serge, we’ll keep them busy, looking outside those bunker windows they can only fire at what’s directly in front of them, they will be so busy firing at us, they won’t know that you and your men will be striking from the side.

“We got to get anything we can into those bunkers and knock them out of action, we’re getting killed out here Sergeant, grab your men and move out, good luck” Captain McCray said. Sergeant Martinez looks around at the soldiers who are crouched down beside him, he starts to crawl on the sand using his knees and elbows, he crawls down and behind a row of soldiers and taps them on their backs to get their attention. “You! Follow me this way, stay down, you follow us this way, stay down” Sergeant Martinez continued to repeat.

Sergeant Martinez randomly picks out five soldiers without question to accompany him on the lateral strike. He chooses three African-American soldiers and two Hispanic American soldiers, their names are: Private Thomas Hinson, Corporal Lee Jones, Corporal Victor Arroyo, Private first class Luis Delgado and Private first class Henry Washington. Private Hinson is 18 yrs old, 5 ft. 7 in. tall; light brown-skinned; he is slender to muscular in stature. Hinson was drafted into the United States Army from his hometown of Quincy, Florida. Before he received his call to enlist in the United States Army, Hinson was the star player for his hometown high school basketball team.

0 comments in discussion | add comment

rank & voting