Egan kept Cherry off-balance tugging at the waistband of his underwear as he slipped the bayonet blade into the other side and cut the material. Then he whipped the tattered cloth away and flicked it into the jungle brush. “You can’t wear underwear here,” Egan chuckled. “It’ll rot yer balls off.”
“Here,” McCarthy said handing Cherry a tube of salve. “Rub some of this on it.”
Suddenly from behind them 60s and 16s erupted. Cherry hit the dirt pulling his pants up. Egan charged toward the firing. Grenades exploded. Snell, Nahele and McQueen from 3d Pit came racing through, running to the fight. The initial firing lasted less than ten seconds. Jackson, Marko, Brunak, Lairds and Denhardt had fired simultaneously down the slope of the mound. They were at the very rear of the column. They had d
