Blood of Iwo Jima

Black Sand

Red Beach. Iwo Jima. Feburary 19,1945.

"When we land, don't stop moving!!"

The ramp on our LCT dropped and our platoon of marines onto the Iwo Jima landscape. The black volcanic ash sank up to my calfs and filled my boots with the grainy shit. Henry and Dale were at my side and flattening themselves into the bank of black ash. Henry turned towards me.

"You think they're all dead Will?"

"Well, we thought they were all dead on Peleiu and look what the fuckers did to our men. Dog Company was so fucked up that we had to transfer to the 4th Marines!!!"

An hour passed and I felt myself glancing at my watch more and more often. A frightened marine ran over the top of the bank.

"We found the entire jap fucking army!!"

Dale looked at the guy like he was crazy until the sound of machine gun fire rose up and engulfed the beach. Our captain Weston moved next to us and signaled to move forward.

"Move your asses or the jap artillery will take you-"

An artillery shell dropped at his feet and exploded at his feet. His body was literally blown out from underneath him. he was dead before i blinked and it seemed like his death started a system and shells began annhiliating our ranks left and right. I tried to move, but the marine in front of me went down. I dropped to the ground to dodge the sniper's bullets as the man sprinting behind me took a shot to the forehead and fell splayed on a wounded medic.

Troops were now beginning to bunch up on the bank of black sand and I thought of how jap was probably laughing at our men being targets the size of mountains. A tank rolled in onto the beach, but had to stop because wounded and dead blocked his path. The commander popped his head out the top and began waving his arms.

"You want the damn nips dead, then move!!!!!!!"

Wounded were dragged out of the way, but the tank ran over the dead. The bodies were squished into a red pulp as the Sherman rolled forward. It advanced maybe twenty yards before halting on the bank. It's tracks ammed with sand and ash, turning the gray tread black. The commander looked into the distance and began scrambling out. The commander had barely gotten out when an artillery round struck home and detonated the 75mm rounds inside. The man was blown apart as the Sherman burst into a explosive fireball. Machine gun fire sprayed the beach and men fell down trying to get up the bluff. Henry an Dale were ontop of the bank and peaking their heads over ever so slightly. I put my head up.    WHAM!

A bullet smacked my helmet and dazed me. Shit I thought as I rolled and tumbled into a little heap at the bottom of the black ash mound. Artillery dropped down and showered me with black sand and ash that caked everything on this island with a fine layer of toxic dust. Inhaling it was like filling your lungs with concrete. It freaking hurt. Ifelt my forehead and found a large bruise and a dented helmet. Henry was at my side.

"Are you-"

He saw the dented helmet and my smile among the carnage.

"-Why you lucky bastard!"

He grabbed me and hauled me up to the bank as a squad was cut down by machine gun fire. We tried to move towards the dormant volcano that dominated the landscape, but the artillery was in higher concentration there and prevented any forward movement. Dale was the first to charge the pillbox. A pillbox was nestled between a down jap bomber and the mountain. Rifle fire had proved ineffective and gave away alot of targets. One flamethrower starting to fire, but was hit in the back and exploded, leaving behind three charred bodies. Moving forward, Dale pulled a grenade from his pack and leaned against the outer wall. The machine gun was lest than three feet away when he leaned down and shoved the grenade through the firing slit. An explosion loed to screams of nips dying and a satisfied look on Dale's face. Henry smirked and turned right into the shot of a jap survivor.

Apparently grenades don't always kill. This one escaped and had shot a friend. In a instant my carbine was up and firing into the body. Henry was rolling on the ground in agony. The shot had hit his neck and blood was spewing out of his mouth and throat. Dale started yelling for a medic and i peered around the edge of the box to see four japs running out of a trench.

"BANZAI!!!!"

They yelled like damn banshees and scared me to death before i could even level my gun. i shot the first and second one, but my gun jammed when i was aiming at the third.

"Damn Sand!!!DALE!!!"

I ran back to draw the japs out and sure enoguh they came racing after me. Dale plucked the first one, but then his gun jammed.

"Fucking jap island. Your gonna have to kill em yourself Will!!!"

I turned and face the jap and pulled my knife out, my mind was racing as I ran in a circle. I put the knife down and pulled out a grenade. Yanking the pin from its holder, i waited three seconds beforing throwwing it over my head. A scream and explosion roared in my ears and I was flung forward.  My face smacked onto the soft ash and I went into almost a trance. I saw men dying around me and explosions destroying limbs and faces. Flames engulfed a pillbox and a jap crawled out amongst the burned carcasses only to be shot dead. I realized I was probably going to die, so I shut my eyes to get some rest.