fieldcraftsman
2006-03-01, 09:59
Recently read this guy's memoirs of the above title. Bought it off of Amazon. Onoda was the last Japanese soldier to surrender. He surrendered on Lubang Island in the Philippines in 1974, having been placed there as a Lieutenant in charge of a guerilla platoon in 1944! (talk about army backpay!)
Whatever we think about our enemy from WWII writing books and the like and not being too apologetic about it (and it must be said, he had firefights over the decaded with Philippine forces in which not only his guys, but also Filipinos were killed -- he kind of skims over that stuff), his survival story is incredible as is his approach to jungle guerilla warfare.
He talks about the approach he took to make hootches in the rainy season (with diagrams), but more or less slept in the open otherwise (feet down a slope, rifle at his side, so he could be at the ready pronto), and how he effectively made ghillie shirts (I wouldn't quite call it a suit) with fishing line and local vegetation. Natch, he also "requisitioned" supplies from the locals, which is of course unsettling if yo think about how that must have felt to those folks.
He cleaned his rifle every day, and still had 900 rounds left over (some of it salvaged from the other guys he was with who got killed -- the last was only killed in 1972).
Well worth the read.
Whatever we think about our enemy from WWII writing books and the like and not being too apologetic about it (and it must be said, he had firefights over the decaded with Philippine forces in which not only his guys, but also Filipinos were killed -- he kind of skims over that stuff), his survival story is incredible as is his approach to jungle guerilla warfare.
He talks about the approach he took to make hootches in the rainy season (with diagrams), but more or less slept in the open otherwise (feet down a slope, rifle at his side, so he could be at the ready pronto), and how he effectively made ghillie shirts (I wouldn't quite call it a suit) with fishing line and local vegetation. Natch, he also "requisitioned" supplies from the locals, which is of course unsettling if yo think about how that must have felt to those folks.
He cleaned his rifle every day, and still had 900 rounds left over (some of it salvaged from the other guys he was with who got killed -- the last was only killed in 1972).
Well worth the read.