Word: mopped
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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After grueling weeks of all-out warfare, the Philippine mop-up began to look like a mop...
This is what the inglorious process of "mopping up" can do to the foot soldiers who wield the mop. It is a process dirty, bloody and exhausting, not easily distinguishable from any other kind of warfare. In the Philippines, it still meant mud and C-rations, belly-tightening fear and dog-tired homesickness, shooting Japs and getting shot at-and getting killed...
Fifty-One Landings. The Eighth's chief claim to fame lay perhaps in its 51 amphibious landings (on two dozen islands) since Dec. 26, when MacArthur declared the Leyte campaign strategically closed and turned over the mop-up (which has produced 26,000 dead Japs) to the Eighth. The "Amphibious Eighth" staged the Visayan campaign, which MacArthur called "a model of what a light but aggressive command can accomplish in rapid exploitation." Then it went on to Sulu and Mindanao, where the grateful Sultan of Sulu and Moro chiefs presented to Eichelberger several handsome kris and bolo knives (which...
Borneo was ripe for MacArthur's attention, for on the Philippines the campaign had settled down to a hard, patient mop-up in the dreary mud of the rainy season. On Mindanao U.S. troops worked slowly toward Mount Apo, highest peak in the Islands, where retreating Japs melted back into the brushy, green slopes. North on Luzon opposition was lighter, and Sixth Army forces were able to poke a long, strong finger deep into the Cagayan Valley where some 20,000 of General Tomoi-juki Yamashita's troops were cornered. Explained one grinning, bowing Jap prisoner: "Yamashita...
...last week the school janitor went down to the basement to rinse his mop, found windows smashed, wastepaper containers upset, paper scattered everywhere. Catching a flash of yellow disappearing up the stairway, he gave chase. Just as the boy was about to be trapped, he pulled a handful of stones out of his pocket, let fly a barrage. Dodging, the janitor slipped and fell on the wet floor. The boy disappeared...