[music playing] NARRATOR: On islands
scattered across the Pacific, men of two nations
fight for their lives. [gunshots] At stake, access world
domination and America under the threat of invasion. Here, the war comes
down to this-- soldier against soldier,
guns in their hands. Now, the anatomy of a gunfight. [explosions] We're boots on the
ground in World War II, and this is Shootout,
The Pacific. [gunshots] [explosions] [music playing] Makin Atoll, 1942. [gunshots] It's one of the first
face-to-face meetings on the ground between
the US and Japan. Marine Raiders blasting away
against Japanese killers. The firefight
against the enemy is part of the first American
campaign against Japan on the ground. Well-armed Marine Raiders
are eager for battle. DAN KING: The Marine Raiders
had such superior firepower that they had confidence
that they could overwhelm any Japanese force
they encountered. NARRATOR: For six months
after Pearl Harbor, the news had been
nothing but bad. America and its
Allies pushed back as Japan launched a killing
spree that engulfed millions. That was then. Now, in August 1942,
American Marines suddenly challenge the enemy on land. Here's the background. The raid on Makin
is unprecedented. Shrouded in secrecy, the
Marines have been delivered by the Argonaut and Nautilus,
two of the Navy's largest submarines. But with 222 Raiders on board,
the subs are packed solid. 1,000 miles away, Americans
are storming the beaches of Guadalcanal. The strike on Makin is
designed to distract the enemy and keep them guessing. PATRICK K. O'DONNELL:
The Makin raid was conducted to basically
deceive the Japanese into believing that there
were additional landings other than the Guadalcanal
landings that were taking place. The Makin raid took place 10
days after the initial landings at Guadalcanal. NARRATOR: Leading the 2nd
Marine Raider battalion is 46-year-old Lieutenant
Colonel Evans Carlson, son of a congregationalist
minister. Carlson believes teamwork
is the key to making it through the war alive. DAN KING: Evans
Carlson had spent some time with the Chinese
Communist forces in 1937. And he coined the
phrase called gung-ho. He actually introduced
that word into English and it means work in harmony. NARRATOR: Gung-ho becomes
the battalion's creed. Carlson's executive officer
is Major James Roosevelt, son of the president. They lead the Raiders
toward the raid on Makin. Here's the match up,
the American Marine. He's about 19 years old. He's highly trained
and well led, but has never been in battle. On the other side, the
Japanese soldier in his 20s. Chances are, he's already
seen lots of action. He's lightly armed but
believes he's invincible. The Japanese are armed with
a few machine guns and 6.5 millimeter bolt action rifles. Their weapons are no match for
the Americans with their M1 Garand semi-automatic
rifles and quick to fire portable machine guns like
the Browning automatic rifle. August 17, 1942. 5:30 AM. Butaritari Island
in the Makin Atoll. 222 Marines hit the
beaches in rubber boats and hustle to unload
and move inland. Butaritari island is
barely half a mile wide, and the Marines move
quickly across the distance. It's 222 Marines
against 45 Japanese, but intelligence is sketchy. Estimates could be wrong. As many as 160 of the
enemy may be here. They assumed that we would
have about a 2-to-1 ratio of attackers versus defenders. So that would have meant that
there was about 100 Japanese on the island. NARRATOR: But the Japanese
have no plans to run when the Marines come knocking. Local commander, Sergeant
Major Kanemitsu Hisamitsu responds to a general
alert issued by Tokyo after the invasion
of Guadalcanal and prepares his men
for any American attack. First platoon of Marine
Company A, about 30 men splits off and crosses the
island from south to north. Here, natives tell them
the Japanese are assembling about a mile down the
island to the west. The platoon is led by Second
Lieutenant Wilfred LeFrancois, a man they call Frenchie. LeFrancois was a maverick,
he came up through the ranks. An old China Marine, he was
well-liked by the people because he's been
through everything you could go
through as a Marine. NARRATOR: The confrontation
will put 60 Marines up against 50 Japanese. Here's the setup. LeFrancois has one platoon
of 30 men on direct advance. There's another platoon
nearby, giving the Marines 60 for the shootout. About 75 yards in front
of them, the Japanese have four machine gun nests. A dozen enemy snipers
are set up in the trees. And about 25 infantrymen
are boarding a truck that will rush them to the fight. Lieutenant LeFrancois advances,
deploying his men in a wedge formation, as effective
against an opposing line on the battlefield
as it is in football. The wedge is an
effective formation that's been used for centuries. It provides effective
firepower on all sides, in the front, left,
and right flank. And it's used by the
Marines even today to attack enemy forces. NARRATOR: In an
engagement like this, the commander who lets loose
with the most fire first usually wins. And LeFrancois knows it. [music playing] JAMES HALLAS: His
scouting party suddenly saw a Japanese truck pull up
about 300 yards down the road, and 10 to 25 Japanese
piled out of this truck. NARRATOR: Here's how the
battlefield shapes up. LeFrancois organizes a firing
line to ambush the Japanese. He orders men from the
flanks to move forward, creating a cul-de-sac facing
the approaching enemy. When the Japanese
walk into it, they'll be torn apart by fire coming
from multiple directions. Sergeant Clyde Thomason
is a key player, taking over once the
Lieutenant issues his orders. Sergeant Clyde
Thomason was what we would call a good old
boy from Atlanta, Georgia. He was a career Marine. He had served in China. He knew how to operate men. He could get people where they
needed to be when they needed to be there. NARRATOR: Thomason keeps
his men down and quiet. The Japanese approach. They do not see the Americans,
but the Americans can see them. The trap is waiting
to be sprung. TOM MCLEOD: Sergeant Thomason
waited until the approaching Japanese were about
30 yards away. The tension among the
Marines on the line must have been unbearable
as they waited for the enemy to come closer and
closer and closer before the first
trigger was pulled. NARRATOR: Thomason cradles
his 12-gauge shotgun, the personal defense weapon
he was allowed to choose as a non-commissioned officer. At just the right moment, with
every man in the line ready, he shouts the order-- let them have it. [gunshots] Withering fire from
the Marine line cuts down the advancing
Japanese like grass in the blades of a mower, but
the shootout is far from over. There's a problem. There are a dozen enemy snipers
and four machine guns hidden in the vegetation. On cue, the Japanese
open up on the Marines. Instead of taking cover,
Sergeant Thomason works his way up and down the firing line. Fine tuning it to
meet the threat. He courageously exposes
himself to fire, staying focused on the battle. BENJAMIN F. CARSON:
One thing that he did was get moving people up
closer to where they could get a better sight at
what's going on. [gunshots] And he was up
there, hey, move up. Get over here. Get a better shot. [gunshots] From where I was laying, I saw
him a couple of times moving, and then he was down, and
that was the end of that. A sniper nailed him. NARRATOR: Sergeant Clyde
Thomason is the first to fall, but he is by no means the last. [music playing] [gunshots] August 17, 1942. 7 AM, Makin Atoll
in the mid-Pacific. A platoon of US Marines is
locked in a deadly shootout with 50 Japanese killers. The Americans have crossed the
half mile width of Butaritari island after landing
on its southern shore. Now, the enemy is
in their faces. A dozen snipers in the trees
were led on the Marines. [gunshots] The Marines spotted a threat,
zero in, and let it fly. [gunshots] Four enemy machine guns are
also threatening the Marines. Japanese gunners struck
by American bullets are quickly replaced. And the fire continues non-stop. Marine Corporal Luis
Chapman and his crew takes on one nest in
what becomes a machine gun to machine gun duel. [gunshots] Chappy, as they call him,
aims at the enemy nest 50 yards away. His Browning light machine gun
fires from a 250-round belt fed from the side. [gunshots] Japanese machine guns are
fed from 30-round strips and are more
difficult to reload. Chappy has to fire 400 rounds. But in this shootout, he's the
one who comes up the winner. BENJAMIN F. CARSON: We had that
low air-cooled machine gun. When you got it set up, it
was probably about a foot, not more than a foot off
the ground, the whole thing. The Japanese had
machine guns that were set up above the ground. And in order for the men to fire
it, they had to expose himself. And this is why Chappy did such
a good job than those people. [gunshots] NARRATOR: More than a
dozen Japanese bodies are found in the
machine gun nest. A testament to the
determination they had in keeping their
gun blasting away. Then without
warning, the Japanese launched two banzai charges
as dozens of soldiers swarm the battlefield. [gunshots] It's a human way
hell bent on killing. [gunshots] JAMES HALLAS: The
Japanese mindset was to attack, attack, attack
at that point in the war. They were devoted to
the warrior spirit, and they felt that the
warrior spirit could overcome any obstacle. So they would not hesitate
to launch a charge into superior firepower, feeling
that their warrior spirit would prevail, which of
course it did not. [gunshots] NARRATOR: The charging
Japanese are annihilated and they run out of men
to reinforce their line. The guns peter out. BENJAMIN F. CARSON: The shootout
didn't last over 20 minutes, from the first sniper
shot to the final charge by the enemy and the wipe out. NARRATOR: 14 Americans have
been killed in the firefight, but as many as 160 Japanese
have been slaughtered. The Marines don't realize
it, but they have virtually destroyed the entire enemy
garrison on Butaritari. But rough seas keep the Marines
stranded on the beach for two days, losing most of their
weapons and failed attempts to rejoin the submarines. Carlson is so despondent,
he contemplates surrender, not knowing there are no
Japanese to surrender to. In the end, the
men do make it back to the Nautilus and Argonaut. They took names and the
American people know it. I think that the men
did their job on the raid, and they did it well. But the raid clearly
didn't achieve what it was set out to
do, which was to divert the Japanese attention. NARRATOR: It gets worse. Nine Marines have been
accidentally left behind. They are captured by Japanese
who arrived after the raid and are beheaded under orders
of an admiral later executed as a war criminal. Nearly a year after
the Makin Raid, Americans are 200 miles
west of Guadalcanal, on New Georgia in the
Solomon Islands chain. It is the next step in
America's march toward Japan. July 19, 1943. 3:00 PM. New Georgia in the
Solomon Islands. A machine gun squad, about six
men from the 4th Marine Raider battalion, is in reserve
waiting for orders in an assault on Bairoko, a
harbor on New Georgia's coast. It's 800 Marines
against 1,400 Japanese. [gunshots] Here's the battleground. Bairoko Harbor is located
on the northwest corner of New Georgia. Directly in front
of it is a band of heavy Japanese defenses. The Marines are advancing
1 mile from the east, and a line thick with
Japanese machine gun nests is holding them up. The Marine machine gun squad
that was waiting in reserve now gets the word to move out. They wanted our squad
along with a lieutenant by the name of
Corvette and his runner to take us around, and hopefully
behind these machine guns and dispose of them so that
the rest of the battalion could go forward. NARRATOR: Olin Gray is
a 20-year-old private, an assistant gunner
in the Marine squad whose primary weapon is the
Browning light machine gun. He and the others
in the six-man squad hope to get in position
for a flank attack on the Japanese machine guns. It is exactly what
the operation needs. TOM MCLEOD: The flank attack
is one of the most sought after attacks in
infantry tactics, simply because you're firing
straight into your enemy side and therefore if he
turns to face you, the people who he'd
been firing with are then firing into his side. So he's kind of caught in
a double, 90-degree hammer, if you would. NARRATOR: It's six Marines
going after 18 Japanese. The Americans are
walking into an ambush. Here's the setup. Three Japanese machine guns
are hidden in the jungle around an open area. One at the 10 o'clock position,
one at the 12 o'clock position and one at the 2
o'clock position. 175 yards away, the Marines
advance into the clearing with 200 yards of open
space in front of them. OLIN GRAY: They get halfway out,
halfway across this open space where they opened up. And that's when the
crap hit the fan. [gunshots] NARRATOR: In a matter of
minutes, everyone in the squad is either killed or wounded. Private Olin Gray is the
only Marine able to fight. [gunshots] Olin Gray is a Marine alone,
outnumbered and outgunned. Japanese fire is
coming straight at him. He has no idea if
it's safe to retreat, so Olin Gray does the only
thing he can do to survive. July 20, 1943. 4:00 PM. New Georgia, Solomon Islands. Private Olin Gray
is the only Marine left standing in a six-man
shootout against 18 Japanese. He's pinned down by fire
from three Japanese machine guns in a clearing in
near Bairoko Harbor. Bairoko is on the northwest
coast of the island, and is protected by
rings of strong defenses, including the machine gun
nests now shooting right at Private Gray. OLIN GRAY: Everything
happened so fast. When all this started,
I know I hit the ground and I got a hold of machine gun,
a couple boxes of ammunition, and loaded her up and I
could tell pretty well where the fire was coming from. [gunshots] NARRATOR: Machine guns on both
sides routinely fire tracer rounds every third shot. It helps the gunner
to aim his fire. But it also helps the other
side to locate the gun. Gray can spot two nests
ahead and to the left, and is sure there's
a third to the right. The tripod for
Gray's machine gun normally carried by the
squad leader is missing. Incredibly, he holds the gun
in his arms and fights back. PATRICK K. O'DONNELL:
Olin Gray almost becomes Rambo
essentially, picking up his 30-caliber light machine
gun and directing the fire at these bunkers that
are firing at him. He's standing up the
whole time and firing. And that's an extremely
difficult thing to do. OLIN GRAY: Well,
without a tripod, I had the machine gun in
my arm and was firing it with my right hand. And when it run out, I had
to stop, open the breach, and start another belt through. NARRATOR: His Browning light
machine gun weighs 31 pounds and spits out eight
rounds per second. But Gray must fire
in short spurts only so the gun won't
jam from overheating. For two hours, he fires burst
after burst at the enemy, standing in one spot, and hardly
changing positions at all. OLIN GRAY: The main
reason I had for moving was to be able to pick up
another box of ammunition, open it, started in the gun. Standing up at long in plain
sight and not being killed, somebody up there
was looking after me. And I do believe that sincerely. PATRICK K. O'DONNELL: There's
nothing in Marine Corps training that probably would
have prepared Olin Gray to do what he did. But I think that this
is an example of just an ordinary individual,
an ordinary American doing something extraordinary. [gunshots] OLIN GRAY: I didn't
have a plan at all. My only plan was to keep
alive and get it out of there some way with my skin. The only thing I
was interested in was saving this
little boy's hide. NARRATOR: In Olin's
shootout, the best defense is a good offense. He began the fight with
2,000 rounds of ammunition, and by dusk, he has
just half a belt left. No more than 125 shots. Across the clearing, two
Japanese machine guns are silent, a few of Olin
Gray's rounds, just enough got the job done. He slips into the jungle
for cover during the night and will get the order
to withdraw by morning. Despite Olin Gray's
personal victory, the Americans need
another five weeks to finish taking New Georgia. The Japanese successfully
evacuate thousands of troops before Bairoko Harbor finally
falls on August 28, 1943. [explosions] In the next year, the
Allies remain relentless in pressing against
Japan's Pacific perimeter. By 1944, they take New Guinea
and General Douglas MacArthur's drive to return
to the Philippines is in full throttle. 500 miles east of
the Philippines is the island of Peleliu
in the Palau archipelago. 20,000 men in the
1st Marine Division invade on September 15, 1944. Some say the Japanese there
threaten MacArthur's flank, others say the islands
should be bypassed. The only thing everyone agrees
upon is whatever goes down here will be ugly. I've always taken the position
that they weren't going to give the 1st Marine
Division a weekend off, and that we weren't
going to land and I don't know where we're
going to land, someplace else, who knows where, and therefore
we were given a job to do and we did it. NARRATOR: September 19, 1944. 2:30 PM. Peleliu Island. Captain Everett Pope is getting
ready to take a position called Hill 100, but it won't be easy. He commands a Marine company
seriously depleted by battle. JAMES HALLAS: Captain
Pope landed on Peleliu with about 240 men. In the two days before
the assault on Hill 100 on September 19th,
the company had been in some serious fighting
and Pope was down to 90 men by the time he received
orders to seize the hill. NARRATOR: Hill 100 is identified
as a high point on a ridge in the central part of Peleliu. The high ground is always
important in military campaigns so Pope is given the
assignment and follows through, despite the fact that so many
of his buddies have been killed. PATRICK K. O'DONNELL: Well, in
most cases, when you don't have a steady stream of replacements
and there are objectives that need to be taken, the
Marines push forward. [explosion] NARRATOR: Suddenly, as
many as 600 Japanese in the surrounding heights
pummel the hillside with shells and gunfire. [gunshots] Going up the slopes, Pope's
men carry only light weapons. EVERETT POPE: All we were armed
is a rifle company, meaning most of the men are
armed with rifles. We had some light
machine guns with us. But we had nothing special. NARRATOR: They also have
almost no ammunition. A rifleman normally carries
about 28-round clips for his semi-automatic
M1 Garand, but these men at this
moment have close to ZIF. We did not have anywhere
near the amount of fire that we normally would have had
because we had fought all day. NARRATOR: Heading
up the steep slope, the men are hardly in a
position to fight back. The only tactic they
can employ is simply to spread out and hope
they don't get shot. EVERETT POPE: We were
trained enough in combat to know that you stay as
separate from each other as is possible in
any combat situation. And then going up this
hill, we did just that. [explosions] And then it just became
a mad dash for the top. And the devil take
behind the most. NARRATOR: Pope and his
men reached the hilltop, but at a terrible cost. 65 men are lost on the way up. [explosion] At the top, it gets worse. It's 25 Marines
facing 100 Japanese. EVERETT POPE: Well, when we
got to the top of the hill, we found a situation that we
really hadn't expected to find. It was a flat area on
the top of that hill and I described it as perhaps
the size of a tennis court. And unfortunately, it was
not the highest elevation. There was a higher
elevation beyond us which enable the enemy
to look down at us. [gunshots] The maps were incorrect. We did not know that
that's the way it would be. And we found ourselves
in a tough position with the enemy, able to look
down and fire down at us as we gathered together, what were
left of us on this plateau. NARRATOR: Taking cover
wherever they can, the Marines prepare
to hold the ground. The Japanese will wait
until night to strike back, hoping his men have only the
ammo they carried with them. None of them knows how
long they can hold out. September 19, 1944. 8 PM. Peleliu Island, nightfall
in the South Pacific. [explosions and gunshots] The place is a position
called Hill 100, a high point on the ridge
in the middle of the island. Japanese artillery hammers
the two dozen Marines who have taken the
hilltop during the day. In an area the size
of a tennis court, they take whatever defensive
positions they can find waiting for the enemy to attack. Its four Japanese
against every Marine. EVERETT POPE: We
just did the best we could to find places to set
up the machine guns, to put the rifle man down, to stay
out of trouble as best we could, but we know
we're in big trouble. NARRATOR: Here's
the battlefield. Company Commander Captain
Everett Pope and his men cannot dig in on the hard surface. They arrange themselves to
find whatever cover they can. Ahead of them is an incline
leading to a higher elevation where the Japanese are in a
perfect position to attack. At least 100 enemy
are thought to have direct sight of the
Americans, perhaps many more. So far, S Japanese have
been firing from a distance. [explosions] JAMES HALLAS: But now,
they get personal. In the course of the
night, the Japanese launched several
counterattacks against all. These were not
banzai charges, these were calculated, tearful
counterattacks by experienced soldiers. NARRATOR: Amid the shell
bursts and gunfire, the battle devolves into
face-to-face fighting that could not have been more wrong. Two Japanese come
out of nowhere. They attack Lieutenant Francis
Burke and Sergeant James McAlarnis. The men on both sides
have rifles in their hands but this is too
close for shooting and bayonets take over. Burke gets a Japanese
blade in the leg. Burke explodes in a
rush of adrenaline, beating his assailant
senseless with nothing more than their fists. McAlarnis bludgeons
the other Japanese with the butt of his rifle
in a hatred magnified by the lens of war. PATRICK K. O'DONNELL: The
Marines are taught to kill. They engage the enemy
and they kill them, and that's something that the
Marine Corps is known for. Against Japan, they
faced a ruthless foe. There was no quarter given on
either side in the Pacific War. It was either kill or be killed. NARRATOR: McAlarnis and Burke
have no time to savor victory. The two Marines heave the enemy
corpses down the steep hill and return to battle. [explosions] For a time, the
Marines hold their own but their supplies are
critically low, especially ammunition. EVERETT POPE: Infantry, whether
it's a division or a squad, can fight for a day
or two without food and they can fight depending on
the climate for maybe an hour or two without water. She can't fight for five
minutes without ammunition. NARRATOR: The Marines hang on by
a thread throughout the night. Grenades are an
important weapon, but they're so short in
supply the men resort to throwing rocks at
the Japanese creeping up the hill toward them. It's a clever tactic. Throw a rock down the hill
as the enemy advances. Throw rocks down the
hill three times, and each time the Japanese
thinking it's a grenade, will dive for cover. But if by chance
they see the rock, they'll probably curse
the Marines for the trick. Sooner or later, though,
it won't be a rock. The real grenade will explode. And even if it doesn't
kill or wound anyone, it keeps the enemy at
bay, slows them down. The Marines hang on, but by
morning, only nine of them remain alive and almost 100
Japanese infantry are preparing a major assault. The only safe
place is within American lines down the hill to the rear. EVERETT POPE: And we
realized at that point we'd better get off this hill. And as we were getting ready
to get off, battalion of this to come off, and so
we just beat it down at the bottom of the hill. Everybody except me was
wounded, and I was immediately hit when I get down to
the bottom of the hill. I was hit by artillery,
and there wasn't slightest doubt that it was our own
artillery for trying to fire over our head, but had
a shot round to someone. That causes a lot of casualties. NARRATOR: Captain
Pope stand on Hill 100 is heroism to the extreme,
in a losing gunfight. Another two months are needed to
defeat the Japanese on Peleliu. 1,252 Americans are killed. The Japanese lose
their entire Garrison. Nearly 11,000 dead. The lopsided numbers are
typical of the Pacific War where Japanese prefer death
to surrender or capture. [explosions] In the next year, the Allies
tighten the noose around Japan. By 1945, MacArthur returns
to the Philippines. When Manila and other
principal targets are taken, Americans chase the Japanese
to Northern Luzon where a six-week fight develops in
the mountains on the Villa Verde Trail. March 10, 1945, 3 AM. Villa Verde Trail
in the Philippines. Private First Class Thomas
Atkins of the US Army's 32nd Infantry Division is with
two buddies awaiting orders for the next day. They are part of a
platoon in position on a slope above the trail. Their only shelter is
the hole they've dug with their entrenchment tools. SYLVAN KATZ: The expression
is foxholes, but that connotates around circle and
deep, and we didn't do that. We made to slit trenches, which
is the length of a soldier and the width of two
or three soldiers. NARRATOR: It's 30 Americans
against 175 Japanese. Here's the setup. The Japanese are getting ready
to attack two companies strong. Their plan is to sneak
forward and find a place to break through the
army platoon's perimeter. And right now, they have their
sights set on the foxhole where Atkins and his
two pals are on guard. SYLVAN KATZ: It was nighttime
when this action took place, and it would have commenced
by three or four Japanese crawling up, not standing but
trying to crawl out to approach the position. [gunshots] NARRATOR: The shootout begins. [gunshots] The three GIs in
the foxhole pour out as much lead as their
M1 Garand will shoot. [gunshots] But more Japanese join
in and the Americans are nearly overwhelmed. [gunshots] It's the worst case scenario. Both of his companions
are shot dead and Atkins is suddenly alone. He himself has taken
three enemy bullets. No one would blame
him for falling back, but he ignores the pain and
keeps his eye on the ball and doesn't even
think of retreat. [gunshots] The Japanese will keep coming
and Atkins will point his M1 and fire to hold them off. He's fighting solo, but he'll
keep it up all night long. March 10, 1945. 4 AM. Villa Verde Trail,
the Philippines. Private First
Class Joseph Atkins has been shot three times. His two buddies are dead. He has been fighting
alone for over an hour. Atkins is on Luzon, the
northernmost of the Philippines major islands where the Japanese
are trying to stop the US Army. His foxhole in the
Philippine mountains bears the brunt of
a Japanese attack by 175 men trying to pulverize
a single American platoon. The only thing Atkins has
to keep the enemy at bay is his rifle, an M1 Garand. [gunshots] PATRICK K. O'DONNELL: I
think the M1 Garand was one of the weapons that won
World War II for the Allies. I mean, it was a key weapon. NARRATOR: The
standard issue rifle through most of the
war, the M1 Garand fires from an eight-round clip. But unlike Japanese rifles
which are all slower bolt action weapons, the M1
is semi-automatic. It shoots every time Atkins
pulls the trigger, allowing him to get off as many as eight
shots in quick succession. [gunshots] But even with this weapon,
Atkins is only one man and 175 Japanese are waiting,
feeding men into the line of fire all night. The pressure is intense. PATRICK K. O'DONNELL: I think he
was focused like a laser beam. Just put the horse blinders
on and he was focused entirely on trying to basically shoot
at anything that was coming at him. Here's the shooting ground. Atkins' foxhole is
one of a half-dozen or so arranged roughly in
a semicircular perimeter on the mountainside. A lieutenant, radioman,
medic and perhaps others are positioned in a
center core 20 to 50 yards to the rear
of the perimeter. 175 Japanese soldiers are an
unknown distance ahead of them. Only the darkness
and rough terrain keep them from attacking
as a large group. They'd have to come up almost
nose to nose, I would guess, 8 to 10 yards. It was almost hand-to-hand. Real close in fighting. NARRATOR: The M1's rapid fire
works for Atkins who can barely see the enemy as they approach. TOM MCLEOD: Private Atkins keeps
firing at shapes and sounds. But what would happen was you'd
have to fire a number of shots just to make sure that
you hit something. You knew the enemy
was closing in on you and you didn't want
him to get any closer. [gunshots] NARRATOR: Atkins' M1
jams unexpectedly. Frantically, he ducks
into a slit trench and grabs the weapon dropped by
one of his dead pals, the Ammo 2. He needs every clip he
can lay his hands on. SYLVAN KATZ: In order to
maintain his position, he just stayed there
and fired like hell. [gunshots] NARRATOR: The second
rifle also jams but there is one
more in the trench. Atkins grabs it. He shoots at
anything that moves. Laying low, avoiding
enemy fire, staying alive. Atkins will fire 400
rounds, reloading his rifle 50 times in his four-hour
shootout with the enemy. An incredible feat by
almost any standard. [gunshots] TOM MCLEOD: He fired 400 rounds
in approximately four hours. That's around every 36 seconds,
whereas a normal rifle one probably would fire 7
to 10 rounds per week. SYLVAN KATZ: You
know, Tommy Atkins was a farm boy from
South Carolina. And he probably had
a rifle on the farm so he could probably do
things others couldn't do. So that's why I'm not surprised. NARRATOR: By 7 AM,
13 Japanese dead are scattered in front
of Atkins' position. His last rifle has jammed. He is nearly out of ammo. There's a lull in
the fighting so he heads to the rear for another
weapon and more bullets. But the medic makes him stay. The wounds he so bravely
ignored need treatment. Suddenly, he sees
a single Japanese penetrating the perimeter. A rifle is within reach. [gunshot] Moments later, he's in
the care of Igorots, indigenous mountain people
who, like the natives all across the Pacific, helped the
Allies by carrying supplies and the wounded. SYLVAN KATZ: It's almost
certain that Igorots would have had to carry him back. The reason being,
there was no manpower. We're shorthanded. We had casualties. He was wounded. NARRATOR: But even on
the litter, he is alert. He suddenly looks up and sees
a Japanese squad approaching the platoon's rear. Atkins still has a rifle. He sits up and
fires off a cliff. [gunshots] It's enough to
drive the enemy off. The battle is over. And now, finally, Private Atkins
can get the break he needs. [gunshots] SYLVAN KATZ: Tommy
Atkins accomplishments were extraordinary. Truly heroic, truly unusual. [gunshots] NARRATOR: Tommy Atkins is
recognized for his bravery with the Medal of Honor. He survived the war. As does Olin Gray, who receives
the Distinguished Service Cross for his solo shootout with
Japanese machine guns on New Georgia. Lieutenant Wilfred LeFrancois,
leader of a Marine platoon on Makin, earns the Navy
Cross for his bravery. He survives World War II,
but is later killed in Korea. And Sergeant Clyde Thomason,
the first to fall on Makin, is awarded the Medal
of Honor posthumously. The nation's highest
award is also worn by Everett Pope who
survives the horrific defense of Peleliu's Hill 100,
as well as the war. EVERETT POPE: I'm wearing
this medal because I respect the men whom I land. I'm not sure that I did anything
personally to deserve it, but you've heard the
expression "I was not a hero, but I was among heroes." And that's why I
wear this medal. I wear it very
proudly, very proudly. NARRATOR: World War II ends
in a spectacular fashion with a weapon of
mass destruction. But reaching that point has been
at the end of a gun as soldiers bear witness to their
personal confrontations, looking the enemy in the eye
and fighting for survival in the shootouts
of the Pacific War. [gunshots] [theme music]
