While eating our meal under a big tree, I was startled by a noise from dried leaves nearby. I looked around and came face to face with a big forest lizard.
I got my rifle and fired at it. This alarmed the whole camp. They traced the shot to me. I got a severe reprimand. My rifle got confiscated.
My only firearm was a .45 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver after my WHI vintage Enfield rifle was taken away. It was a blessing in disguise, because that rifle was just a burden to me. I did not need it, anyway, because we who were in the Hq. Phil. Army were back from the front lines, inside the thick forest of Bataan.
When the war broke out, we were issued in Manila the revolver with two packets of ammo, around 24 rounds, before we left for Bataan. When I had gone to visit Pat after we were issued the revolver, I proceeded to the place where the present City Hall of Q.C. is located and fired at a target paper. To my great surprise when I went to mark my target, not a single bullet had hit it. I was wondering why? Could I be that blind? All the shells were empty! Where did the bullets go? I did not see bullet marks on the rock where I placed my target paper.
When I tried to clear the bore of the gun, I saw that it was blocked. I found out that all the six bullets got stuck inside the barrel!
Had I fired at a Jap, he would be laughing aloud.
Later on in Bataan, I saw that the bullets are first inserted into two clips before they are inserted into the cylinder. No doubt the bullets did not have power strong enough to go through the barrel, because I had not been issued clips to go with the bullets!
Anyway, the only time I fired a gun in Bataan was when I tried to kill the lizard for dinner and I missed it!
Could it be that that bullet also got stuck inside the barrel of the rifle? I had no way to find out.
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