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As the company slowly marched out of the ravine and turned left toward Wheeler Point, the riflemen leading the company spread out and approached the cave they had gone into two days ago, dug into the bas the cliff. Just as they had searched the Strategic Materials Storehouse, the two scouts and the squad leader moved close to the entrance while the other men in the squad were laying on their stomachs on the warm stones, their weapons aimed at the opening ready to fire at the slightest moment in the darkened hole. The first scout looked briefly in the tunnel and then fired a short burst from his submachine gun [28] and entered the tunnel with the other scout. Moments later they came back out into the bright sun. They had found nothing in the tunnel but the flyblown corpses of enemy soldiers slain three days ago. The company continued to move south and the sheer bluff's facing the sea rose higher and higher. A squad was sent part way up the cliff about 50 feet above the beach to protect the men advancing below them. Movement on the cliff was so incredibly slow and tiring, the squad could not keep up with the company while working their way very deliberately south on the steep slopes. The men laboring on the cliffs finally were called down and continued their advance south with the rest of their platoon along the beach. The platoon tried not to bunch as they walked on the confined beach. As each man moved on the open beach they felt more and more helpless knowing they were in plain view of anyone who might be hidden in the silent, forbidding cliffs. Every eye was fixed on the slopes high above them. The great bluffs had eroded in many places forming countless shallow promontories and gullies. About 700 yards south of Cheney Ravine a distinct projection bulged out on to the beach and beyond it the base of the cliff bent in a slight semicircle to the east, ending at the foot of Wheeler Point. The 3d platoon rounded the point and the last squad had very nearly cleared the point when suddenly the startled. paratroopers on the beach heard gunfire cracking from the cliffs above them. Almost at once two men men from the 3d platoon , Staff Sergeant Holt and Corporal Kenneth Combs, fell on the beach mortally wounded. Seconds later, seven more men were wounded, many of them seriously, struck down by the deadly fusillade raining down from the cliffs above them. [29] The startled troops scattered as they raced off the exposed beach seeking cover. Part of the rifle platoon drew back to the cliff wall seeking some measure of cover, those further out on the beach could find little protection save for a large rock formation rising out of the water near the shoreline. The men caught in the plunging fire dashed into the shallow water to find protection behind the volcanic outcrop. Jim Gifford ordered Jack Mara, the 1st platoon leader, to scale the cliff at the point to locate the source of the deadly fire. Mara accompanied by PFC William McCarey began to climb the steep slope and with great effort, had worked their way 15 or 20 feet up the sheer cliff face when McCarey "suddenly grunted, moaned briefly and died, shot through the heart." He was undoubtedly shot at close range but the position of the sharpshooter could not be found. Neither did Mara locate the enemy firing from the cliffs at the 3d platoon. McCarey's body was lowered from the cliff. Mara returned to the beach. [30] The riflemen caught on the isolated outcrop in the shallow water anxiously eyed the cliffs above them but saw no enemy. They shot into the cliffs but without definite targets to aim at, their efforts did little to halt the deadly fire pouring down on them. The opening shots in the first few moments caused nearly all the casualties before the riflemen could find cover. The company's soldiers were unable to move from the positions at the outcrop or the cliff wall for nearly two hours. [31] The artillery and mortar observers high above the company at the edge of the cliff' looked down on the hapless riflemen but could do nothing to help the soldiers caught in the ambush far below them. The enemy was positioned on the steep slopes that could not be reached with mortar or artillery fire. Naval gunfire available from warships in the North Channel could have placed fire on the bluffs but no request for fire was ever made. The Company D commander had called for LCM's, that had been standing by, to remove the casualties suffered in the first skirmish but now he had nine more casualties and the fight dragged on. The fire from the cliffs had slowed somewhat and no more casualties has been taken but it soon became clear the company was caught in an impossible position. Company D certainly could not advance south along the open beach to Wheeler Point. Had they gotten there, what could they have done? It was hardly possible the company could dislodge the Japanese from their well hidden positions on the cliff, positions the company's soldiers had not been able to locate, much less attack. The ambush had succeeded all too well. Gifford knew some time ago he must somehow get the company out of there as soon as he could. The beleaguered paratroopers finally caught sight of the LCM's coming from the North mine Dock at Bottomside soon after they sailed past Cape Corregidor. The boats hardly seemed to be making headway at all and the waiting grew all the more agonizing with the craft in sight creeping at a snail's pace. As the LCM drew closer, a white phosphorus grenade was tossed on the beach to show the helmsman where to land. [32] At last the landing craft came in, stopped offshore and dropped their ramps. Gifford sent Mara to the boats lying ten yards offshore with a message for the engineers that everyone would be carried off the beach. Mara remembers going to the LCM and "how naked I felt running into the water then wading, then chest deep, expecting a bullet any second. None came. Then the damn MG on the Navy boat jammed, wouldn't fire." After delivering Gifford's message Mara had taken over the .50 caliber machine gun mounted on the stern of the landing craft and fired into the face of the bluff. [33] Without definite targets, quite likely the fire was ineffective but it made everyone feel better to hear the fire and, in fact, no further casualties were suffered as the company slowly loaded on the boats. The dead and wounded were the first to board. The men wading slowly on the slippery rocky bottom staggered and reeled under the burden of the casualties on their shoulders in chest deep water before they reached the boat rocking slowly in the gentle swell. The ramp had been lowered and they awkwardly handed over their burdens to the riflemen at the lowered ramp. [34] It was hard work and took a long time. The US Army crew manning the craft, was anxious to load the LCM and get out of range of enemy guns. They shouted encouragement and urged the paratroopers to move faster. Strangely enough, there were no further. casualties as the boats were being loaded out from the beach in the open water. Not all the wounded men needed assistance and many made it to the boat on their own or with little assistance. Several of the men, however, were seriously wounded and had to be carried. [35] The .50 caliber gun in the stern never stopped firing during all the difficult boarding. The boat loaded with the "living, the dead and the wounded" backed off, turned north and with as much speed as the underpowered craft could master, slowly headed for the placid sea toward the north Mine Dock."
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