Word: caves
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Step One. A marine sergeant took charge of the dozen or more men participating. First he handed a marine a hand grenade. The marine jumped into the quarry and began to edge toward the cave while one of his pals covered him with a Garand. The grenade was tossed into the cave. It burst with a muffled thud. In a movie version of killing Japs, the incident might have ended at this point. But marines have long since learned that one grenade does not always finish off the occupants of a cave or pillbox; almost invariably there are five...
Step Two. One of the marines who fancied himself a linguist-he had been studying the posters labeled "combat language"-took over after the grenade burst. "High de koy!" he shouted into the mouth of the cave...
...other marines explained to me, "That means 'come out.' " "High de koy!" the linguist repeated, holding his rifle at the ready. But the occupant or occupants of the cave made no move...
...point an armored bulldozer, piloted by a young Seabee, rumbled through the underbrush. The sergeant explained the situation to him. The bulldozer man drove his blade into the earth and started to push dirt from the ground level into the quarry where it fell across the mouth of the cave...
Step Four. One of the marines kept on talking about coaxing the Jap or Japs out of the cave. Said he somewhat wistfully: "I wish we had somebody that knew enough Japanese to fetch him out." He said this in a low voice so the sergeant couldn't hear him. Another private first class observed that he didn't believe the Emperor himself knew enough Japanese to coax anybody out of that hole...