Radioman 3rd Class Fred 'Mediocre' Roker clutched the unfamiliar Springfield 1903 bolt-action rifle tight in his sweaty hands as he blinked away the sweat rolling down his forehead in the steamy, hot night and did his best to crouch as low as possible behind the trees in front of him as he wondered for about the millionth time what he was doing out here....
Six short weeks ago he was working in the cramped radio room of the Submarine Tender USS Canopus; mother ship to a squadron of Submarines in the Asiatic Fleet; basically okay with his chosen lot in life. Now, he was out here playing Marine in a purposely mud-caked blue sailor's uniform with a Rifle in his hands and anxiously awaiting contact with a Japanese patrol that was supposed to be coming down the path any minute now.....
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By the 10th, the Japanese had landed forces on Luzon, the main island of the Philippines and the next few weeks were an onslaught of air attacks and misery and woe throughout the archipelago nation. Things became a little more stabilized when General MacArthur, the overall commander, decided on his strategy of declaring Manila, the capital city an "Open City"; and pulled all troops to the Bataan Peninsula to make a stand. It was the best choice out of a long list of bad ones.
The Bataan peninsula ended with the Naval and Marine base at Mariveles and off this end of the peninsula was the island fortress of Corregidor, where MacArthur's headquarters was, along with a hospital and thousands of US and Filipino personnel. The Bataan pennisula had mostly open plains on the East side, which made it the obvious choice for the Japanese to attempt to drive down, while the West side was filled with jungle, little used paths and small roads and numerous, rocky outcroppings that jutted out into the ocean, known as 'the Points'. MacArthur's Army units fought numerous delaying actions against the Japanese Army forces of General Homma, but while the U.S. and Filipino units acquitted themselves well, they were outnumbered, outgunned and faced tanks, artillery and aircraft that they couldn't match, so they had to keep falling back to one Defensive line after another. Soon, there wouldn't be any more lines left.....
Onboard the Canopus, things had been tense for the first few weeks as they regularly witnessed Air attacks and replenished subs at night; but it wasn't until the 29th of December that things first got bad when the ship took it's first bomb hit. They were hit again on New Year's Day and this hit took out the radio for good and soon after that, the Subs were gone and the ship switched gears to help support the troops on the shore by using the machine shops and repair parts to help out with AA guns, fixing firearms and the like. Soon, well over a hundred of the ships crew, including Fred, were given orders to report to Mariveles base and they soon learned that they were going to be put into action as makeshift Infantry, along with Air Corps personnel that had no more planes to work on; all to defend the base as the 'Naval Battalion'. Luckily, some Marines from the 4th Marine Regiment (the 'China Marines') and the 1st Separate Battalion were there to give them some training and to act as NCOs and to 'stiffen' the units with some folks who ACTUALLY knew which way to point a gun when necessary.
After a WAY too brief period of time training with a Rifle and learning about what things like "flank" and "covering fire" and "pincer movement" meant; Fred was assigned to a squad with a blue eyed and blond haired young 'China Marine' who went by PFC Wade MacGyver and who seemed to know how to handle his Tommy Gun. He suggested Fred might want to cake his 'blue jacket' Navy uniform in some mud to help darken it for some camouflage and to take a deep breath before he fired his rifle. Fred was rather glad he had found this Marine, although the other 'China Marine' in his unit made him nervous. This marine was older; maybe 30, wore Sergeants stripes on his uniform, and called himself Marvin Acme, but he seemed to have a scary excited gleam in his eyes when he talked about his last detail of blowing up ammunition and munitions dumps to prevent the Japanese from using them. That gleam made Roker MORE than a little uneasy....
A few nights ago, it became clear that while the main thrust o the Japanese Army was grinding itself against the US defensive lines on the east side of Bataan; a small Japanese amphibious assault had been conducted on the coast of 'the Points'. It also readily became clear that the Japanese had gotten themselves all scattered and now, the Naval Battalion and a force of Filipino constabulary officers were being sent against them to prevent them from flanking the U.S. defense positions in the West and to protect the Mariveles Base. An excited and scared runner had reported to SGT Acme that a patrol of maybe a dozen Japanese soldiers was making their way down the path towards Acme's 8 man squad that consisted of the explosion loving SGT, PFC MacGyver, RM3 Roker, a couple more blue jackets (U.S. Navy enlisted sailors) named Smith and Jones and a trio of Air Corps personnel named Higgins, Haskins and Henry....or as everyone else called them, the '3 Hs'. Everyone in the squad had a M1903 bolt action rifle except for MacGyve, who had a Tommy Gun. Everyone also had 1 'standard' Frag Grenade and 1 Smoke Grenade.
Roker did his best to take a deep breath and ignore the sweat on his palms and in the starlight he could see the path and he noticed about a dozen Japanese soldiers walking abreast in a spread out line perhaps 50 yards away. To his right, he noticed PFC Wade sighting down his Thompson and to his left he saw SGT Acme doing the same thing with his Rifle. This night was about to get a LOT more interesting....
On a different part of the West Coast of 'the Points'; another small group of US (and 1 Gurkha) military men gathered and prepared to open fire on a Japanese landing boat heading for a rocky beach about 30 yards away from the tree line where the group stood/crouched/lay in wait behind the cover of the trees....
This force was likewise part of the 'Naval Battalion'; with perhaps the most 'exotic' member, Rifleman (RFL) Lalbahadur Gurung, right in the center of the formation. Gurung had been sent over as part of an "International military exchange" training program right before the war started to help teach the Philippine Scouts in some of the 'ways of the Gurkha'; and before he knew it, he was stranded in a foreign land as war broke out. Gurung shrugged, and with Japan and the Commonwealth quickly at war, he rapidly offered his services to help fight the enemy.
Unsure of what to do with him, they decided to have him support the Marines of the 1st Separate Battalion, a kind of hodge-podge force that had been intended to go back up the 4th Marines in China, but in a bit of irony, the 4th were soon in the Philippines with them instead. For the first month, the only action the Marines were in was in AA fire against Japanese planes and Gurung did his best to help out, but was quietly getting frustrated. With the creation of the Naval Battalion, he was soon back in his element and actually looking forward to fighting the enemy the way he had been trained to do....
In the small 8 man squad with him were 2 Marines; a big, strapping Corporal named 'Dutch' Van Horn who carried a big BAR and a friendly PFC Gomez with a Shotgun. In addition to the 3 of them, there was their Squad Leader; an Army Air Corps pilot: 1st Lieutenant Williams; another Air Corps Maintenance chief; Tech Sergeant Blythe and 3 Blue Coats named Michaels, Johannsen and Krakowski. LT Williams had a Smith and Wesson .45 revolver; the others all had Springfield 1903 bolt action rifles.
As they watched, the Japanese landing boat pulled up on the beach and a dozen Japanese soldiers jumped over the sides. As the last of them hit the beach, Williams called out; "Hit 'em now boys!"
*Okay, if it wasn't obvious, I've got you all involved in the real life 'Battle of the Points'; and you guys are in two separate firefights. (I.e. neither of your groups know about the other's fight)
In the first fight; Roker, Acme and MacGyver are facing off against 12 Japanese in the open area of a trail some 50 yards away while under cover. Please feel free to state an action (I'll post some more mechanics shortly, but for those of you unfamiliar with how the d6 system works, basically the more actions you take, the less dice you roll for each action. If you only do one action....i.e. shoot once at one guy; you roll your full skill dice. If you shoot twice, you lose 1 skill dice for reach roll; etc.)
In the second fight, Gurung, Gomez and Dutch are 30 yards away from a dozen Japanese in the open area of a beach while under cover.
Please let me know if anyone has any questions/concerns, thanks!
