Word: mortaring
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Despair in the Dark. The second evening of the attack we could not sleep. From over the ridge came the steady crash of mortar shells, the rumbling, ugly sound of artillery, the rippling of Japanese machine-gun fire. Now and again enormous flashes-whether of artillery or ground lightning from summer heat I could not tell-silhouetted the area in red and black...
...Said Lieut. Joe Grimes, a white Texan: 'I watched those Negro boys carefully. They were under intense mortar and artillery fire as well as rifle and machine-gun fire. They all kept on advancing until the counterattack was stopped...
...batteries boiled while charging. Their equipment was frequently choked by clouds of coral dust from the roads. But they managed to stay with the foot soldiers, pausing to explain the action, letting the microphone gather the battle noises: wounded groaning, Jap bullets pinging against metal, the sharp splat of mortar shells exploding, the high hum of planes, artillery in the background, and the cries of men giving battle directions...
Turnover in Command. This officer's battalion commander was wounded in his command post about an hour after it was set up-a nasty mortar tear in his backside. The major took over command, but after a couple of hours he was slightly wounded in the back by a shellburst. Then an observer took over until a regular turned up. He was the fourth commander of the battalion within ten hours...
...shell hole on the edge of the airstrip the Japs had evidently registered a direct mortar or artillery hit. The six Americans who had been occupying the hole had been blown to pieces and no more than half of any one man remained. One man's hand, ten feet from the hole, still held the trigger of his piece. Said the artillery captain: "That man loved his rifle...