Word: ashe
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Norman, and Father Lyman Appleby, and Archbishop William F. Tyarks, a bony and ancient cleric. They all belonged to something called the American Catholic Orthodox Church. Everybody knew they Were not Roman Catholics-Mrs. Fitzgerald, who lived in a flat over the Mission, reported that they ate baloney last Ash Wednesday. But nobody minded that...
Three weeks of battle as bitter as any the world has known had raged on Iwo Jima, drenching its black ash beaches, ravines and cliffs in blood. The Japanese garrison was being squeezed into an ever smaller band around the northern shore, but it was fighting with D-day savagery. Its commander, Lieut. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, was still in radio contact with Tokyo. Most of the defenders had ample food and water (although some isolated positions had been short of water in the first days of the campaign). They had only a few mortars and cannon left, but they used...
Some had light wounds like broken arms or legs, and they would be evacuated soon. Others, despite the best efforts of many skilled men, would die and lie forever in the alien volcanic ash of Iwo. A medical corpsman who had severe multiple abdominal wounds died as we stood beside his cot. One minute his heavy rasping breath could be heard throughout the tent. The next he was quiet and the sheet was pulled over his head. I saw a big marine who might have been a wrestler, judging by his huge neck and bulging biceps. His barrel chest heaved...
...hold and it looked like a good one. But all hell broke loose before noon. From the north and from the south the hidden Japs poured artillery and 6-in. mortars into the marines on the beachhead. Nearly all our tanks were clustered near the black-ash beaches like so many black beetles struggling to move on tar paper. A few other chuffing monsters waddled up the steep incline toward the airfield, spouting flames now and then into the .pillboxes which were blended into the sandy approaches...
...sickening to watch the Jap mortar shells crash into the men as they climbed. These huge explosive charges-"floating ash cans," we called them-would crash among the thin lines of marines, or among the boats bringing reinforcements to the beach, throwing sand, water and even pieces of human flesh 100 feet into the air. Supporting naval gunfire and planes with bombs managed to knock out some of the mortars, but the Japs continued throwing their deadly missiles all afternoon. By noon the assault battalions reported 20 to 25% fatalities...