World War II

As U.S. Army private John R. McKinney (featured image, far left) rests following his watch, 100 Japanese troops sneak up on a three-man machine gun position at Luzon Island’s Dingalan Bay on this day in 1945. McKinney receives a glancing head blow from a Japanese saber. He grabs a rifle and bludgeons the sword-wielding foe before turning his attention to the machine gun, which has been captured by ten enemy soldiers – and is about to be turned on the Americans.

McKinney fires as he charges the position, finishing off the remaining enemy with his rifle butt upon reaching the pit. As mortar and rifle fire hammers his position, he uses his rifle (the machine gun being rendered inoperable) to “cut down waves of the fanatical enemy.” When the smoke clears, 40 Japanese bodies litter the battlefield. McKinney – “the Pacific War’s Audie Murphy” – has single-handedly carried the day.