Word: ashes
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...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...
Forty-five minutes before H-hour, rocket ships began belching their projectiles against smoking, dust-covered Iwo. When the first landing craft nosed into Futatsune Beach at 9 a.m., the opposition was thin and scattered. The Japs had pulled back from the black-ash beach, but they were calling their shots. In the next two hours, the leathernecks drove inland 600 yards to No. 1 airfield. The farther they went, as the day wore on, the stiffer the opposition...
...gave his old-soldier version of the name: "For over 40 years a Joe has meant a Jasper, a Joskin, a yokel, a hey-rube, a hick, a clodhopper, a sucker." Runyon remembered that in the last war G.I. (i.e., "government issue") meant "the big galvanized iron garbage and ash can in the back of each company barracks...
...covers the walls; bare electric wiring runs up the corners and around the baseboards. Hopkins works at an ordinary-sized desk, reasonably new. The rest of the office furniture is also routine: a brown leather couch, on which Hopkins likes to stretch out when receiving visitors, several imitation brass ash trays, and some WPA paintings on the walls. His office staff consists of one secretary...