Operating as a Unit

Basic training was over; now began the even harder task of welding the Combat Team into a single fighting unit. The men knew their weapons; they knew how to take advantage of cover; they could find their way long distances on the blackest night; They had worked together as squads on small problems. It remained to make platoons out of squads, companies out of platoons, and battalions out of companies. During basic the GIs finished their training and came back to a hot shower, a hot meal, and a warm if not always comfortable bed. Unit training would wean them away from this, and enable them to live in the field for long periods, to endure cold, rain, inadequate blankets, to keep going even if they missed a meal or a night’s sleep.

Platoon and company training began about October 20 and ended a month later. During those weeks casual observers would have found small units of Nisei charging through the alternate sand hills and swamps of Mississippi in pursuit of an enemy represented by a few targets or some of their less fortunate comrades armed with blank ammunitions. The men learned the principle of fire and movement; one squad or one platoon laying down the fire to keep the enemy pinned to the ground while other elements circled to his exposed flank or rear to drive in and destroy him at his weakest point. They came in contact with the theory of economy of force: throw your greatest strength at the weakest point in the enemy line rather than hammering at a strong point. Always keenly interested in the “why” of things, the soldiers recognized these principles, among the oldest in warfare, as sound. They practiced them religiously knowing that they might someday mean the difference between life and death on a battlefield.

Among other things the lads from Hawaii had never seen were snakes, in which the South abounds. Some adventurous some soul was forever throwing the bivouac into an uproar as he came wandering in with a snake of some description. The worst of these were the coral snakes, one of America’s smallest, deadliest, and most beautifully colored snakes. When the men could catch and kill them they liked to preserve them in bottles of alcohol because they were so pretty.

By the middle of November the weather had turned wet and cold, which was especially hard on the Hawaiians, used to a very temperate climate the year around. By this time, however, they were hearty soldiers so they bundled up and everything they owned and went on with the job. At the moment the job was learning to operate with the heavy weapons and depend on them. Each rifle company learned to go as far as it could on its own considerable firepower and then call on the heavy mortars and machine guns to blast the enemy loose from his positions.

In the headquarters companies the wire men and radio men were learning their trade, keeping communications open under the worst possible conditions, laying wire as far forward as it would go and then relying on radio. Antitank Company and the battalion antitank platoons ranged far and wide as they defended the regiment’s flanks from hordes of imaginary Panzer units. They found out that they couldn’t always get to the best position on a truck, so they swore and manhandled the heavy 57s into positions they could defend. Service company was getting acquainted with the problems of supplying a scattered regiment in the field, complicated by changes without notice coming every hour on the hour. Cannon Company, a late starter, was still learning the intricacies of baby howitzers.

While this was going on the 522nd Field Artillery was on the field ranges day in and day out, rain or shine, perfecting techniques of fire. Both officers and enlisted men trained as forward observers, a practice which later paid big dividends when forward-observer casualties were heavy. The gun crews learned the dexterity which paid off in thousands of rounds which later blasted a path for the advance of the infantry in the hills of France and Italy. The battalion fire direction center learned to coordinate its three firing batteries, and tie in the battalion’s fire with that of other artillery units.

On the completion of this phase of training Lieutenant General Leslie J. McNair, chief of the vast Army Ground Forces machine, made an inspection of the Combat Team, arriving November 22. The following day, the infantry swung into battalion training, and on the 24th, the 522nd Field Artillery, having exhausted the possibilities of Camp Shelby, swung south to participate in the Louisiana maneuvers.

At about the same time, November 18, 1943, the War Department reclassified American citizens of Japanese ancestry for military service, restoring to them the rights and duties of citizenship which had been denied them shortly after Pearl Harbor. Then, in an unprecedented step, the War Department also permitted the induction of Japanese aliens into the United States Army, provided they volunteered and met certain other specifications. It was also announced that one of the chief reasons for the change in policy was the outstanding record in training and conduct made by the 442nd Combat Team.

Thanksgiving Day came and went and the men had turkey and all the trimmings, but they ate it out of mess kits in the field. The chaplains conducted services, and the men knelt on the ground and prayed to God to give them courage and to protect their loved ones. The war was getting tough right then, and the men knew it was getting closer for them. Not all the Nisei are Christians, and those who were not prayed to the Deity of their own faith in their own way because that was their right and their privilege.

The battalion commanders and their staffs were busy then, welding their battalions together. Simple problems came first: attacking an objective 2500 yards away with two companies abreast. That sounded easy because the only problem was to walk 2500 yards at a straight line, stopping at pre designated phase lines to reorganize. The problem was run solely to emphasize the difficulties of controlling a company of men in broken terrain when the men are moving forward at a considerable distance apart. The officers and men learned something new that day: control is the most important and most difficult single factor in warfare. So the officers thereafter used their sergeants more to assist in keeping the attack organized. The problem had served its purpose.

After that came more difficult exercises. The men were stopped and pinned to the ground by simulated artillery fire as they advanced to meet the enemy. The battalion commander was forced to commit his reserve company after the company commanders had committed their support platoons and failed. This problem demonstrated that the time involved in getting messages back and getting a larger group of men moving forward was much greater than was commonly supposed, for problems and training do not take so long to complete as the same operations in battle. Still other problems brought the heavy weapons company into play. Night attacks and night withdrawals to new positions gave the battalions insight into the difficulties of operating in darkness, when even the most familiar ground looks strangely different and it is almost impossible to move quietly. They learned that it was necessary to make elaborate plans, prepare for any eventuality, and make visual reconnaissance of every foot of ground before launching a night operation. Withdrawals had to be planned to the job of the very last man. In battle there was not always time to do these things, but the fundamentals were the same. Every man knew the how and the why, and as much preparation was made as time and the enemy permitted.