Army & Navy – OPERATIONS: Resistance Buried

From the Treasury Islands attack recently came a legend of Seabee workmanship: a lone bulldozer man had wiped out a Jap gun emplacement. Last week came the details.

An hour after the landing, Fireman First Class Aurelio Tassone of Milford, Mass. was roaring along on his 20-ton ‘dozer when he spotted an enemy strongpoint. Skirting the coconut-logged bunker, he came at it from the rear. Bullets banged off the big blade which he had raised as a shield. The tractor rolled on like its armored offspring, the tank.

As he went over the log fort, Tassone expertly dropped his blade. The pillbox collapsed. Methodically, as if he were smoothing a rough spot in a road, Tassone bladed earth over it. After the battle, the hasty grave was shoveled open: twelve bodies and a large new gun were exhumed.