Needle Rock Traditional Cache
MajorDad: It's gone and landscape changed enough to invalidate initial intent. Thanks to all who visited the rock.
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Depending on the angle of attack, the cacher will encounter a labyrinth of tombs, a couple of maginot line like defenses that are easily bypassable,and a steep paved ascent amongst all of that. Near GZ, and if lucky, bushwhacking should not be required, but a small rock climb will be order. However a smaller rock is conveniently available to assist you with the minimal climb.
The Maeda Escarpment Barrier The eastern end of the Urasoe-Mura Escarpment dominated the 96th Division front in the center of the line. It loomed directly ahead on the division right--a huge, forbidding, sheer cliff. The part of the escarpment lying within the 96th Division zone was called by the division the "Maeda Escarpment" after the village of Maeda. At its eastern end the escarpment terminates abruptly in a gigantic sentinel like monolith, called "Needle Rock." On 26 April the attack against the Maeda Escarpment was launched. The Japanese on the Maeda Escarpment used to perfection their technique of reverse-slope defense. It was not difficult to occupy the forward slope of the ground, but the crest and the reverse slope were forbidden land. There the battle was to be fought. Company F at Needle Rock tried to place men on the point of the escarpment by means of a human ladder, but the first three men to reach the top were killed at once by machine-gun fire. When the 307th Infantry moved into the line on 29 April, it found itself on the flat top of an escarpment which at its eastern end at the Needle Rock was not more than two feet wide. Yet the top of the escarpment, in the words of the men who fought there, was "all hell rolled into one." It took Lt. Col. Gerald D. Cooney's 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry, on the left side of the line, five days to gain control of Needle Rock. Men of the battalion were driven from Needle Rock and the top of the escarpment nine times before they held them for good.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
V jbhyq gnxr Ovyy71'f nqivpr.