An Eye For A Medal

WED 2 MAY 1945
Pacific
On Okinawa, Hospital Apprentice Second Class Robert E. Bush, serving as a corpsman with a rifle company with the 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, is administering blood plasma to a wounded marine when the Japanese launch a fierce counterattack against his unit. Steadfastly remaining at the wounded man's side, Bush holds the plasma bottle in one hand and draws his .45 with the other, expending his ammunition at the charging enemy. Seizing a discarded carbine, the battling corpsman, who suffers the loss of an eye among other injuries, kills six Japanese as the marines drive the enemy back. Bush refuses medical attention for himself until the marine that he had protected is evacuated. Bush then collapses before he himself can reach an aid station. For his selfless heroism, the corpsman is awarded the Medal of Honor.

Off Tarakan, Borneo, Japanese shore batteries sink motor minesweeper YMS-481 and damage YMS-364 03°27'N, 117°32'E, and YMS-334, 03°26'N, 117°40'E. YMS-363 is damaged by mine, 03°26'N, 117°32'E.

Submarine Raton (SS-270) attacks Japanese convoy SE-3, sinking merchant cargo ship Toryu Maru southeast of the Shantung Peninsula, 37°24'N, 123°50'E.

Submarine Springer (SS-414) sinks Japanese escort vessel Oga in Yellow Sea, 33°56'N, 122°49'E (see 3-4 May).

Japanese merchant ship Daian Maru is sunk by aircraft off Woosung, China.