Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
B Company had been bleeding on the kunai slope for two hours. Under relentless machine gun fire and grenades, every push forward ended the same way: men dragged back or left twisting where they fell.
Tom Derrick watched another platoon get cut down trying to reach the cliff face. The Japanese had turned geometry into a death trap: each position covering the others, no angle of approach that didn't feed into their crossfire. Two battalions had already failed to take this hill.
Without it, the Allies couldn't push north. With it, the Japanese defensive line would crack.
The withdrawal order came through the radio.
Derrick turned to his company commander: "Bugger the CO. Just give me twenty more minutes."
He dropped flat and started crawling toward the cliff, grenades stuffed in his tunic, while bullets snapped overhead. The men couldn’t believe what they saw; they called it: Derricks Show.
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As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. -
B Company had been bleeding on the kunai slope for two hours. Under relentless machine gun fire and grenades, every push forward ended the same way: men dragged back or left twisting where they fell.
Tom Derrick watched another platoon get cut down trying to reach the cliff face. The Japanese had turned geometry into a death trap: each position covering the others, no angle of approach that didn't feed into their crossfire. Two battalions had already failed to take this hill.
Without it, the Allies couldn't push north. With it, the Japanese defensive line would crack.
The withdrawal order came through the radio.
Derrick turned to his company commander: "Bugger the CO. Just give me twenty more minutes."
He dropped flat and started crawling toward the cliff, grenades stuffed in his tunic, while bullets snapped overhead. The men couldn’t believe what they saw; they called it: Derricks Show.
-
As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Docs sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. I do my best to keep it as visually accurate as possible. All content on Dark Docs is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas. -
