Hello Falcon,

Yes, they would be there for days waiting for an opportunity, and seldom passed up the chance to announce themselves with the crack of a rifle shot, a grenade out of nowhere, or a burst of machine gun fire as you catch sight of one of your men going down out of the corner of your eye.

If the sealed orders of your mission state no contact, you do not engage unless there is no other choice, going off mission endangers everyone involved, which includes the future objective, and all those who would be involved in recovering the landing party.

A jap patrol maybe a dozen or so, or it might be a spread out single file column of fifty or more, you take every advantage that presents itself, size up the group, how were they armed, where were they headed, are they a combat patrol searching for you, or a supply detail. Waiting to confirm the last one has passed can be tense, you can move along and follow not far behind them unnoticed if the opportunity arises. You can take them all out of circulation at once if need be.

There were all too many situations of meeting them head on when they were ready, one does not silence a prepared heavy machine gun position head on while on foot, that was one thing the jap command never learned despite all lessons we gave them on the topic. You get around behind it or to the side, knock the gun over with a grenade, then you can deal with the gun crew.

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All the Best
Jack