Incident on Patrol

The mission was to get a couple of Japanese prisoners for headquarters. The 32nd Division was moving in from the Saidor beachhead on New Guinea, and wanted more information. Twenty-four-year-old 2nd Lieut. John Lee Mohl had been scouting Jap trails far ahead of the American positions, and thought he knew where a small patrol could be ambushed.

Mohl chose seven volunteers, assembled a party of native guides and carriers, hit off toward the Yaut River with eight days rations. By evening of the second day they reached the spot: a jungle trail through tall grasses dipping through a dry creek bed. At first light next morning Mohl placed his men like a football coach running signal practice. At 9:40 a.m. a native scout posted 400 yards ahead ran back: six Japs coming. The enemy approached cautiously, rifles at the alert, walking single file, spaced about five yards apart.

The trap was sprung just as the second Jap was starting down the bank of the creek bed. In a split second:

Mohl jumped squarely on the first enemy; Corporal Frank Passarelli and Private Tom Boaz tackled the second; Corporal George Ickes stood up and shot the third at point blank range; Private Paul Reynolds, from behind a big rock, chopped down the last three with deft bursts from his Browning automatic rifle. Passarelli and Boaz had knocked their man cold; Mohl subdued his with a pistol butt. Back at an American outpost they radioed headquarters: "Mission accomplished, patrol returning." Sole U.S. casualty: Lieut. Mohl. His Jap had bitten him on the hand.

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