An unprecedented March record.
It is difficult to hone Company E better than Company D and Company F, because Major strayer, the battalion commander of Battalion 2, is almost as enthusiastic as Suo Beier. On Thanksgiving Day, Sink invited the whole group to have dinner and relax. However, Major Stralje decided to use this time to organize a two-day field exercise throughout the 2nd Battalion. The exercises include long-distance marching, attacking fortified sites, experiencing the midnight gas attack alarm and enjoying a dry food K (all canned food, including stew, biscuits, candy and juice powder).
In order to make people leave a deeper impression on this Thanksgiving, Stralje also set extra questions. He told people to lay a layer of barbed wire on the field 18 inch above the ground. The internal organs of the newly killed pig-heart, lung, liver and intestine-were spread on the ground under the net, and the machine gun was pressed on the upper edge of the barbed wire. Lipton recalled, "The army always has a very clear distinction between' crawling' and' crawling': babies are crawling and snakes are crawling. We are just squirming. " No one will forget the scene.
By the end of 1 1, the basic training has ended. Every member of Company E has mastered the skills of using mortars, machine guns, rifles, communications and battlefield dressing. Everyone in the platoon can do any job, at least they can cope. Every soldier knows the duties of corporal and sergeant and can replace them if necessary. In addition, everyone who was trained in Tokoa camp experienced inhuman exercise and torture. Christensen said, "We all think that after all this, what kind of suffering is not a problem."
One or two days before leaving Tokoa, Colonel Sink read an article in Reader's Digest, which said that a Japanese battalion marched in the Malay Peninsula for 72 hours 100 miles, setting a world record. Sink said, "My people can be better than them." He chose Battalion 2, the hardest training camp, for verification. He ordered 1 Battalion to go to Fort Benning by train, Battalion 3 to Atlanta by train and Battalion 2 to go on foot.
At 7: 00 on September 1 Day, everyone in Company D, Company E and Company F of Battalion 2 set out with all their luggage and weapons on their backs. It's not easy for a rifleman, and it's even harder for a mortar squad soldier like Malachi and a man with a machine gun like Gordon. The route chosen by battalion commander Stralje is 1 18 miles long, of which 100 mile is a country road. The weather is very bad, cold rain and light snow, the road is flat or muddy, and it is difficult to walk. Webster recalled, "On the first day, we stumbled on the dirt road, cursing the weather and not knowing how long to rest." I walked all day, but I still walked after dark. The rain and snow stopped, the wind came, and the cold was biting.
By 23: 00, the whole battalion was marching for 40 miles. Strayer chose a bare hill as a campsite. There are no big trees, no small bushes and no shelter. The temperature dropped to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Because the marching pot didn't work, everyone only gave bread with butter and jam. When I woke up at 6 o'clock, I found that everything was covered with a thick layer of frost, and my boots and socks were frozen. The officers and men could not take off their boots and their swollen feet could not be stuffed in. Rifles, mortars and machine guns are frozen with the ground. Two people's half tents are full of cracks, like peanut butter.
The next day, after walking a few miles, the stiff and painful muscles began to warm up. The third day is the worst. I have walked 80 miles, 38 miles to go, and the last 20 miles is the road to Atlanta. Dirt roads are not easy to walk, and cement roads are even more uncomfortable to walk. That night, I camped on the playground of Glassop University outside Atlanta.
Malachi and his companion Warren Muk, nicknamed "Commander", set up a small tent and lay down to rest. Hearing "dinner is ready", Mara couldn't get up and had to climb over to eat. Winters, his platoon leader, looked at him and told him to take an ambulance to the final destination-a place called "five o'clock" in downtown Atlanta the next morning.
Malachi decided to stick to it, and almost all the other brothers said they could. At this time, due to newspaper and radio reports, their parade has become a household name in Georgia, so there are cheering crowds on both sides of the road. Streyer has arranged for a military band to meet them at five o'clock 1 mile. Malac, who insisted on walking, "heard the magnificent military music, was full of energy, forgot the pain, and finished the whole journey with his brothers like being reviewed in Tokoah."
This March on foot, the journey 1 18 Li, took 75 hours before and after, and the actual time was 33 hours and 30 minutes, that is, about 4 Li per hour on average. Of the 586 officers and men in the whole battalion, on the last day, with the support of comrades-in-arms, only 12 failed to complete the course. Colonel Sink told reporters with great pride: "No one is left behind. Even if you fall, your face is forward. " Only Captain Moore of Company E, the third platoon, finished the whole journey. As a reward, Row 3 walked at the head of the team entering the city.