Final Battle
Bottcher returned to his unit following the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, with the rank of Major. There he received the news that the US Government, by a special act of Congress, had granted him U.S. citizenship. Bottcher's men had spent 43 days behind enemy lines during the Battle of Leyte when, on December 30, 1944, a group of Japanese soldiers encountered Bottcher's men and attacked them with small arms fire and mortar rounds, one of which fell directly into Bottcher's position. The next day, Bottcher's men sent the following radio message: "Bottcher dead. Recon troop withdrawing west..." Captain (later Major) Dick Tucker, sent the following message to the news wires: "Major Herman Bottcher, veteran soldier in the fight against Fascism, hero of the battle of Buna and reconnaissance-troop commander, whose exploits had become legend among the men who were fighting the Pacific war, lay dead on a hill overlooking Silad Bay." Bottcher is buried in the Manila American Cemetery, Manila in Plot L Row 4 Grave 134.
Read more about this topic: Herman Bottcher
Famous quotes containing the words final and/or battle:
“If you complain of people being shot down in the streets, of the absence of communication or social responsibility, of the rise of everyday violence which people have become accustomed to, and the dehumanization of feelings, then the ultimate development on an organized social level is the concentration camp.... The concentration camp is the final expression of human separateness and its ultimate consequence. It is organized abandonment.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)
“Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
And the shrill neighs of destriers in battle rejoicing,
Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing!”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)