Note 37 — Chapter IX · Northern Leyte Valley: Part One

The Japanese then centered their fire upon Private Moon, who, although wounded by this fire, replied with his submachine gun. An enemy officer attempted to throw grenades at Moon’s position and was killed. The Japanese then brought up a light machine gun to within twenty yards of his position. Moon called back the range correction to friendly mortars which knocked out the machine gun. For over four hours he held back the enemy. At dawn an entire platoon with fixed bayonets charged toward him. From a sitting position he fired into the Japanese, killed eighteen, and repulsed the attack. He then stood up and threw a grenade at a machine gun that had opened up on his right. He was hit and instantly killed.37 The Japanese then resumed their attack, but the remnants of Moon’s platoon fixed bayonets, charged, and succeeded in breaking through the enemy line.