Blood of Iwo Jima

Off The Beaches

February 20th

Our second day on Iwo Jima. Henry was gone. Wounded in action on this hellhole of an island. The gap between Dale and I seemed larger since we didn’t have Henry to break the ice.Within one day of being on this island I was sick of it. Those mother-fucking nips had shelled the other beaches so hard that entire companies had been taken out of action. 2nd Battalion was positioned about five hundred yards from the base of Mount Suribachi. The dormant volcano had more guns embedded in it than five battleships. Our front line marines couldn’t take much more fire.

Our Lieutenant ordered us to move forward and reclaim the territory A Company lost. Advancing through the casualties and smoke made fighting difficult. Every step echoed in our minds as our eyes independently searched every inch for japs. To this day I remember the body of a Marine torn apart, lying there with more holes than a whiffle ball. I stared at the body and in the time that it took me to look over my shoulder all hell broke loose.

Machine gun fire spread across the plain and sent our first platoon into pandemonium. Men scrambled for cover while others bravely advanced. Honestly, the men advancing were the smart one. Iwo Jima offered little cover for the invaders. The machine guns and mortared made existence miserable as those slant eyed bastards took every man in the open as a target. I swear to fucking god if I ever got my hands on those son of a bitches I would slowly stabbed them until they couldn’t take it.

Are men were being pummeled and we knew it. Mortars got us zeroed and the rounds started hitting close. Dale sprinted from behind a boulder and ran towards me. The Jap gunner fired a point blank shot and blew Dale through the air and onto the ground next to me. I flipped him over to reveal a grin.

“Who needs to run when the japs can just blow you twenty feet?"

Does his sense of humor ever die? He huddled up next to me and lifted his rifle over the mound. Tracers zoomed in and took of the tip of his M1.

“God damn nips are trying to blow our asses off.  Lieutenant’s gonna get us killed!”

         More marines were beginning o fill the gap and now were clustered together so close that one shot of mortar fire would kill us all. The cries of medic were always present and were still vibrating in my ears well after everyone was quiet.

Nighttime on Iwo was the worst. You couldn’t see for shit and the japs were about as stealthy as they were invisible. The little fuckers snuck through our lines and killed 11 marines before we even figured out what the hell was happening. Dale says while he was back at CP getting ammo one Jap just leaped from a cave and hugged a marine as the grenades on his belt went off. Dale shivered when he said he had never seen so much red. It almost hovered in the air as the marine and Jap died.The night dragged on and felt like eternity as artillery leveled the plain. The japs were beginning to target the groups to conserve ammo. However, the snipes were there to inflict casualties and morale loss. They shot any thing that moved and particularly medics. Tracers illuminated the night and flares gave the island a dreadful glow. Suribachi had one gun in it that repeatedly pounded are position. We new it was the same gun because it shot in the same sector every time. We knew e could never call in direct fire from the cruisers during the night, so we had to hold until morning.  Dale and I were lying on the cold earth and shivering. I never thought the Pacific would be cold.Dale’s head almost perked up as the low sound of footsteps treading through ash reached are ears. I raised my carbine and heard another marine yell.

“We GOT JAPS!!!!!!”

“BANZAI!!!!”

         The blackness in front of us erupted with Japanese soldiers charging us. I squeezed off a few rounds and before I knew it they were on top of us. They ran in between our lines and began to swing at us with swords. Marines ran from the ridge and our artillery tried to hit the japs. They didn’t have a chance and the rounds were landing almost a hundred yards away and hitting our marines. This would have to be a close quarters fight. I drew my K-bar and pointed it menacingly at the Japanese. I realized that a knife was no match for a fucking saber. This one nip came over the crest of a hill swinging his sword like a drunken maniac and came charging towards me.

I tried to un holster my .45, put the pistol was lodged firmly inside the case. Yanking with all my might, I ripped the gun out of is holder and put three rounds directly into the Jap. The man stopped and stared at me with black eyes that almost said please as he tumbled onto me. The stench of death rose in my nose as the shouting and shoots reverberated in my mind.

The Lieutenant came by and did a casualty count. 43 marines killed or wounded. One-fourth of the remaining troops were gone. Down to less than a hundred able bodied marines and a whole lot of shit to kill left, we prayed for a miracle. Dale plopped down beside me with blood splattered across his chest.

“Are you hit?”

“No, but you look like you’ve been hit!”

“Ah, just some damn jap’s blood. Had to blown his brains out to stop him?"

         Sitting there in silence made me feel confident in surviving considering I have the craziest bastard in the Marine Corps sitting next to me with a rifle. The night brought more and more artillery and I could swear are own guys were shooting at us. Men were sitting, looking into the horizon hoping for the sun to rise before a nip kills them with a luck shot. I had never been more terrified in my life. When the sun rose, it was time for payback. The japs maybe sneaky at night, but they couldn’t do shit when we attacked during the day. The sun rose on February 21st to a new battle. A battle for justice.