Word: valleyful
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Typical was the fighting in central Tunisia, near Sened, where battle-green U.S. troops got a fiery baptism. Their objective was the Sened railroad station, 50 miles from the coast. As their half-tracks and anti-tank guns advanced through a sandy valley, German 75s and 88-mm.s in the hills opened up. German planes dive-bombed them, strafed infantrymen as they rolled up in trucks...
...industrial heart of Italy, left "colossal" fires blazing at Turin and made their first swoop over Mussolini's naval base at La Spezia. R.A.F. bombers by night, U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators by day, flew over western Europe. They gave Hamburg its 95th plastering. They roared through the valley of the Ruhr. They swarmed over the U-boat base at Lorient, where ten acres of the naval arsenal have now been reported destroyed. Apparently unable to pierce the eleven-foot roofs of the concrete sub pens, the Allied bombers have concentrated on softer targets which are vital to maintenance...
...calls this expedition into a sniper-infested valley "just an episode in an insignificant battle" (the Marines won the battle, though not this particular skirmish). It "illustrated how war feels to men everywhere. The terrain, the weapons and the races of war vary, but certainly never the sensations . .. for they are as universal as those of love...
...valley, once penetrated, had to be abandoned. The Japs had the Marines at the mercy of well-placed mortars and the Marines could not bring their machine guns to bear. Before the order came to withdraw, the Marines were near panic: "This was a distressing sight, and though I myself was more than eager to be away from that spot, I had a helpless desire to do something to stop the flight. ... I couldn't do anything about it because I was caught up in the general feeling...
Hersey was curious to know what these tired, hungry, hard-worked Marines thought about war. "They did not want that valley or any part of its jungle" and yet they willingly went down into it. So he asked what they were fighting for. "They did not answer for what seemed a very long time. Then one of them spoke . . . and for a second I thought he was changing the subject or making fun of me, but ... he was answering my question very specifically. He whispered: 'Jesus, what I'd give for a piece of blueberry pie.' . . . Here...