Word: beaching
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...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...
...favor that first day. The weather was fine. A smooth sea enabled us to get more troops ashore and to emplace some artillery. With the rough seas of the second and third days, we might never have accomplished our initial landing. Not all the small boats made the beach that first afternoon, but enough made it to enable us to keep our foothold. By late afternoon we held perhaps 10% of the island-the most dangerous...
...tropics into a region of high winds and long periods without sunshine. Soon, U.S. fighting men will long for the dear old steaming jungles and sun-baked atolls. All through this bitter night the Japs rained heavy mortars and rockets and artillery on the entire area between the beach and the airfield. Twice they hit casualty stations on the beach. Many men who had been only wounded were killed. The command post of one of the assault battalions got a direct hit which killed several officers. An artillery battalion based near the beach had twelve men killed. One group...
Violent Death. Along the beach in the morning lay many dead. About them, whether American or Jap, there was one thing in common. They died with the greatest possible violence. Nowhere in the Pacific war have I seen such badly mangled bodies. Many were cut squarely in half. Legs and arms lay 50 ft. away from any body. Only the legs were easy to identify-Japanese if wrapped in khaki puttees, American if covered by canvas leggings. In one spot on the sand, far from the nearest clusters of dead men, I saw a string of guts 15 ft. long...
...beach this morning I saw at least 50 men still fighting despite their wounds. Captain William Ketcham, commanding Company I in Vandegrift's battalion, was nicked in the arm and leg by snipers' bullets, but was merely contemptuous of the Japs' aim: "Shot at me twelve times and barely broke the skin with two bullets," said he. This battalion, in its brief periods in the front line, has had more than 100 casualties (mostly wounded). As it prepared to attack again today, Vandegrift cautioned his men: "Sniper fire gets very hot around here-better keep down...