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The PT boat idled quietly in the darkness. Aboard, a small team of Alamo Scouts, Lt. Gen. Water Krueger’s elite Sixth Army reconnaissance unit, moved deftly in unison. Two men placed the rubber boats in the water and climbed in, while two more firmly held the mooring ropes. The others readied the equipment for the 800-yard journey to shore–their destination; occupied New Guinea–their mission; to infiltrate behind enemy lines and reconnoiter the area from the Taorum River west to Armopa, a small village midway between Hollandia and Wakde. Sixth Army needed to know how many Japanese troops were retreating westward along the coastal trail following the successful Allied landing at Hollandia, and if they were capable of mounting a counterattack.
First Lieutenant John M. (Jack) Dove, a husky six-foot, two-hundred pounder from Hollywood, had been selected to lead the mission. Dove’s all-American good looks and boyish sense of humor belied his true nature. He was all business when it came to winning the war. Rooted in deep religious values, Dove seldom swore and did not drink or smoke. Although he held no animosity towards the Japanese, he realized that it was either kill or be killed. Dove even prayed for his enemy, “Lord, if you don’t want me to kill him, don’t let me see him.”
Dove and his team were specially trained for this sort of mission. After a rigorous weeding out process, they had earned the right to attend the Alamo Scouts Training Center, where for six grueling weeks they practiced the finer points of scouting and patrolling, land navigation, communications, intelligence gathering, and other skills necessary for survival in the jungles of the Southwest Pacific. Day after day they drilled on how to slip behind enemy lines by rubber boat until it became second nature. They spent hours mastering a variety of weapons and learning how to kill silently with knives and even their bare hands. Killing was not their job, but they had to be experts just in case. At the end of the six weeks, each man voted for the men he preferred to serve with. After graduation most men were sent back to their units where they did similar reconnaissance work. Only the best were allowed to stay. They remained at the training center and formed tightly knit six-to-seven man teams.
Shortly before midnight on June 6, 1944, Dove and his men slipped into their boat and paddled for shore. The wind was beginning to pick up and the sea was becoming rough, but Dove had no intention of turning back. The rubber raft was crowded. Dove sat at the stern of the craft and steered. In front of him was T/5 James Roby and Pfc. Irvin G. Ray. At nineteen, Ray was the youngest Alamo Scout. Ahead of him sat Staff Sgt. John G. Fisher and Pfc. Aubrey L. Hall. Nestled between the two groups was a Dutch and a Javanese interpreter from the Netherlands East Indies Administration. At the bow of the boat T/4 Denny M. Chapman and Pvt. Alton P. Bauer stared straight ahead, their young eyes fixed on the ominous looking coast. Staff Sgt. Vern H. Miller from Jerome, Idaho, the ranking noncommissioned officer on the mission, remained on the PT boat as a contact man. His job was to monitor the radio and to advise the PT commander what to do. He would know where, when and how to contact the team if something went wrong.
“Do you see that?” Roby whispered, pointing to the growing illumination in the sky 300 yards to their right.
“I see it,” Dove said softly. Little did they know that two Japanese troops were building a campfire for the night. But they were in no immediate danger. The Scouts reached the beach at 1:30 a.m. and quickly deflated and packed up their boat. Dove led his team inland through the thick kunai grass to the coastal trail, where they moved off in a westerly direction. The team traveled barely 100 yards before Dove spotted a Japanese soldier sleeping along the trail. He raised his fist in the air and his men came to a sudden halt. Dove removed his soft jungle cap with one hand and drew his knife with other. He quietly inched his way towards his intended victim. In one quick movement he placed his cap over the man’s face and trust the knife downward into his chest. There was barely a sound. The men dragged the body off the trail and resumed their patrol.
Two hundred yards to the west the team encountered two more soldiers. They had made the fire the team saw while at sea. Sensing that they couldn’t get close enough to use their knives. Dove and two others opened fire with their carbines quickly killing them. After concealing the bodies in a swamp, the Scouts returned to the trail, but they hadn’t noticed a nine-man enemy patrol coming in from behind them. The Scouts rear guard opened fire and repelled the attack. But part of the Japanese patrol escaped into the swamp. At that moment Dove realized that he was situated between pockets of escaping troops. To avoid any more surprises, he decided to turn back and move headlong into the enemy. Since the Scouts were certain to run into Japanese by heading east, they opted to move ten yards off the trail and set up an observation post. For the next five hours the Scouts did what they were trained to do. They watched silently. They counted twenty-five enemy troops moving west, but only seven had rifles. Many looked tired and hungry. They noticed ranks and uniforms, smiles and frowns, and gained knowledge by observing things that their instructors had taught them. It was true, the enemy was on the run. Suspecting that Japanese patrols had by now discovered the bodies of their comrades, Dove moved further off the trail and led his team east through the heavy swamp to the Taorum River where they waited for nightfall.
At 10 p.m. Dove and his men began crossing the Taorum River. As soon as one man reached the east side, the next entered the river. By 10:30 the entire team had reached the other side. At that point, the men had not slept in over twenty-four hours and were growing weary. Now would be a good time to head north towards the beach where the walking would not be so difficult. The Scouts did just that and quietly made their way to the Mabaf River, passing sleeping Japanese troops as they went.
After crossing the river, the team returned to the trail. Shortly before 2 a.m. the Scouts arrived at the edge of Kaptisoe, a tiny native village. Dove and his men huddled in the brush trying to decide what to do. The trail ran directly through the heart of the village where some forty Japanese troops were sleeping. Fearing that they would wake the soldiers by going through the swamps on either side, the team was forced to walk through the middle of town. With Dove and a native boy leading the way, the team boldly moved through the village watching every shack. Suddenly, Dove spotted a soldier sitting on a porch. Had the man seen him? He didn’t know for sure. But he had to act fast. “I took four steps towards him.” Said Dove. “He was smiling at me, but it was a scared smile. He never changed expression or called out, he just kept smiling.” Dove raised his carbine and fired. The man’s head snapped back violently and within seconds the rest of the team opened fire and killed a guard standing in the doorway of the shack. The Scouts dashed through the village into the safety of the jungle. Upon reaching a swamp, Dove and his men laid down for some much-needed sleep.
“I couldn’t get to sleep.” Said Dove. “We slept two men together in case one snored. Bauer was with me and he was snorting up a storm. I nudged him in the ribs and he rolled over. Just then I got a whiff of somebody. It was three natives passing by. They passed within four feet of us. Although we weren’t seen, I’m sure they could smell us too.” Dove whispered to the team, who were by that time awake. “They’re natives. Let them go.” The next morning a native approached the area where the Scouts were hiding. One of the interpreters stopped him and explained that the Scouts were “good guys.” The native promptly led them to his village where they were given fresh food and water.
Later that morning the Scouts and some of the natives went looking for Japanese stragglers. The group ambushed and killed one with a club, but they were unsuccessful in finding any others. That afternoon with the mission all but completed, Dove contacted a small plane and arranged for the team to be picked up late that night, but stormy weather delayed the pickup and it had to be postponed until the next night. With twenty-four hours to kill, the Scouts declared “open-season on all passing Japs.”
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Dove added:
We knew that everything out there was going from east to west. So, we set up a series of roving ambushes. We would pick out a suitable place and wait for the enemy to wander in. After the ambush we would search the bodies for documents and drag them into the swamp. |
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On the third ambush, the Scouts were stalking a party of four enemy troops who had stopped at a small stream for water. Dove and his team fanned out behind the party and got to within ten yards when they were spotted. “Charge!” screamed Dove, unable to think of anything else to say.
“That’s what we get for having a lieutenant form Hollywood!” yelled Ray, laughing hysterically as he was spitting out rounds from his carbine. Seconds later four Japanese lay dead. By day’s end the Scouts had killed twenty-two and collected jungle packs of documents. Now it was time to wait.
The PT boat arrived shortly before midnight. So far everything had gone as planned. The Scouts had landed on enemy shores undetected and verified Japanese movement to the west. They had killed thirty enemy troops and gathered numerous documents. All that was left was to get back to the PT boat safety, but mother nature wasn’t cooperating. Despite the growing storm, the Scouts chose to try and make it out to the boat. The waves had now swelled to over ten feet. It would be a risky undertaking a t best, but they had to try. Since the Scouts had only one rubber boat. Dove sent Ray, Bauer, Hall, Roby, and a native boy, along with the captured documents on the first trip. The men fought tenaciously against the mounting waves and barely made it to the PT boat where Miller was waiting. After dropping off Hall, Roby, and the native, Bauer and Ray attempted to paddle back to pick up the rest of the team. About halfway to shore a large wave capsized their rubber boat. The two men were tossed into the air and then pulled under by the waves. Bauer struggled to the surface, gasping for breath. A few feet away Ray fought the powerful surf in an attempt to reach his friend, while Dove and the others waited unknowingly on shore.
Minutes later the rubber boat drifted in empty. For what seemed like hours Dove and the rest of the party waited helplessly for the oars to float in. “There was nothing we could do without oars,” said Dove. “all we could do was wait.” Once they had retrieved the oars, the team jumped in the boat and paddled frantically out to sea, hoping to find out what happened to Bauer and Ray. In the distance they saw a light bobbing in and out of view. It had to be them, thought Dove. The men paddled faster towards the light. After one-and-a-half grueling hours in the boat, they reached Bauer and Ray. Ray was holding a jungle torch in one hand and Bauer in the other. The party quickly hauled the two men in and resumed paddling towards the PT boat. Whoosh! Another wave had taken the Scouts by surprise, this time from the front. The Scouts were hurled over backwards into the sea, their boat their boat shredded by their equipment. Aboard the PT boat, Miller watched in horror. He immediately sent Roby and Hall out in another boat to rescue the men. Twice they tried, but both times they were driven back by huge waves. Realizing that a rescue was impossible in the heavy surf, Dove waved them back to the PT boat. Forty-five minutes later the exhausted party made it to shore.
Without a rubber boat, Dove knew that a conventional pickup was impossible. His team’s only hope of rescue would be to make their way on foot to the American lines at Hollandia, some thirty miles to the east. But the team was ill-prepared for the journey. They had lost all of their equipment, including weapons, food, and the radio. All that was left was a web belt with a canteen and a trench knife attached to it. Two of the men had even lost their shoes, but the others donated their socks to help spare the men’s feet. Armed only with clubs, coconuts, and one knife, the team headed east. They cautiously made their way through 16 miles of jungles, crocodile-infested rivers, and swamps before they reached an apparently abandoned village in the early evening of June 10. But it wasn’t abandoned. The sharp-eyed Scouts spotted two Japanese soldiers lying under a grass lean-to. It was a great opportunity to get some weapons, one that the Scouts couldn’t pass up. |
Dove commented:
We came right in on them and had a wonderful alley fight. We divided into two groups. We dispatched the first guy real fast. Two of the guys held him and I knifed him in the heart. It pumped blood right up my arm! The second guy wasn’t so easy to take care of. Bauer and some of the other guys rushed in and beat him with coconuts, while I went around from behind the lean-to and grabbed him by the leg. I pulled and we all come through the lean-to together. It didn’t last long after that. |
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Following the skirmish, Dove and his team continued on for several hours before nearing the village of Tarfia. As they approached a clearing, Dove heard voices from behind him “don’t go out there!” Dove stopped with his foot in the air. He turned around angrily and saw his men motioning for him to step back. Dove signaled for his men to backtrack into the jungle to talk things over. “I thought my men had lost their minds.” He said. “You never talk out loud while on patrol. Fortunately for me, they could see that I was about to step into an ambush.”
Sensing that something was not right, Dove took Ray and moved in from behind the ambush area. “Ray, do you see that?’ asked Dove. “It’s a telephone wire. This is what we’re looking for.” The two men stepped over the wire being careful not to make it vibrate. They followed the wire into a thick clump of trees. Dove called softly “Hey Yanks, everything quiet in there?”
“Yeah” answered a voice from within the trees.
“There are two of us, con we come in?” asked Dove.
“Sure, come on in.”
Dove and Ray entered, “I’ve got a scout team out ahead of you here, con I go out and bring them in?’ he asked.
“Yeah, we’ll watch for you.”
Dove went back out and collected the rest of is team. When he returned, the officer in charge of the ambush party had already called for a guide. From there the Scouts were taken to the village where they were welcomed by the native chieftain. The Scouts presented him with a bayonet and two pocketknives they had taken from the Japanese. In turn, the chief presented them with assorted fruits and fresh water. Following a brief rest, the Scouts boarded native canoes and were taken to Demta, where they rejoined the American forces on June 11. The next day, they were taken by PT boat to Hollandia, where they briefed several intelligence officers, including General Robert Eichelberger, commander of I Corps. Later that day they were on their way back to the Alamo Scouts Training Center. “The final count read 32 Japs killed, 132 seen, and 71 found dead on the trail.” Added Dove. “We didn’t do too bad of a job considering it was just our first mission!”
This successful action by the DOVE SCOUT TEAM is only one of some 106 missions that were conducted by this unusual group. The success came about because of a brilliant and farsighted commanding general, superb preparation, and by intelligent and inventive training. But before hearing more about the exploits of the Scouts, let’s look at the war situation and events in the Pacific which led to the unit’s foundation, and who the major leaders and participants were in the Scouts creation. |
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