Stilwell Confers Silver Stars Upon Heroes

(CBI Roundup, May 11, 1944)

Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.
'Til all the lands stand presently at God's great judgment seat;
But there is no east, there is no West, no border nor breed nor birth,
When two brave men stand face to face - 
though they come from the ends of the earth.   - Kipling

MOGAUNG FRONT - It was, for the moment, quiet in the jungle. The crack of snipers' rifles and the deeper boom of heavier pieces were now stilled. The drone of the most lethal of all birds of prey was absent from the Burma sky, and the Japs, who once had marched proudly west as the advance guard of the Asiatic New Order, had retreated to the southeast, licking their wounds - except for those whose eyes stared sightlessly up at the burning, pre-monsoon.

And so it was time for a great and proud nation to pay a debt of honor - not to a vague and amorphous thing called China, but to seven slim, lemon-complexioned boys in mud-stained, jungle-torn uniforms, their shoe-button-bright eyes still slightly glazed by the fatigue of combat. For each had distinguished himself against a ruthless enemy of all freedom-loving peoples - each had recklessly risked his own life for the sake of his comrades and his comrades' cause, over and above the ordinary call of duty.

A sharp command rang through the jungle glade, and seven tired bodies snapped to attention. Into the clearing strode with brisk, jerky steps, a wiry, dynamic man in the battle-worn field uniform of a lieutenant general in the United States Army. A few crisp words in high-pitched Chinese. Then, representing the President of the United States in the second ceremony of this kind since the Hukawng-Mogaung fighting began, Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell pinned on the breast of the seven soldiers of China the ribbon of the American Silver Star.

Here is the Roll of Honor:

SGT WANG CHENG-CHI - For "able leadership and gallantry" during the battle of Patzi Hka, Jan. 24. Platoon Leader Wang led his unit in the capture of an enemy post held by an overwhelmingly superior enemy force, destroying two mortars, four heavy and two light machines guns and one 75 mm cannon. During the action, Wang, after killing a Japanese field officer, single-handedly grappled with two Japanese who were in the act of throwing hand grenades which would have inflicted heavy casualties on his unit, desperately risking his life to disarm them and take them both prisoners. （編者按：此人應是新編廿二師第六五團第二營第六連上士班長王成啓，作戰地點是緬北大洛北之百賊河。）

PVT. CHANG YU-CHUAN - For attacking a Japanese flank guard alone and fighting it out single-handed with five Japs. When attacked by the Japs, instead of retreating to join his main force, which would have endangered the whole Chinese position. Chang mowed down four of the enemy with accurate rifle fire. His chamber empty, Chang met the bayonet charge of the fifth Jap, receiving a bayonet wound in the ear, and then, though wounded, killing him.

PVT. YANG YUN-LIN - For killing five Japs single-handed out of a patrol of 50 or 60, and obtaining valuable information which led to the capture of a vital heavy machine gun post.

PVT. TENG YUAN-PANG - For crawling alone up to an enemy machine gun post which was holding up the progress of an entire Chinese column in the Shingbyan fighting. Edging his way to within grenade range, Teng threw his missile with such deadly effect that the enemy post was obliterated, opening up the advance for his unit at a crucial stage of the fighting.

CPL. CHAN TAI-SHAN and PFC. YANG LIN-YU - Who, on patrol duty together, saved a disabled tank from being captured by effectively holding off a superior party of the enemy, after which they brought back valuable information which affected the future course of the fighting.

CPL. HSIEH CHAO - Who, "disregarding intense enemy fire," led a charge on an enemy position at Maingkwan, capturing a Jap machine gun nest and himself killing several Japs.

Five other Chinese soldiers were commended for gallantry.