The Old Breed

Chapter 56

Rest Camp, Southern Okinawa 

May 18th, 1945 

Unsurprisingly, I thought about Jen's letter a lot. But it wasn't because it was Jen's and I loved her totally, which I did. But the letter had stirred something else inside of me. Almost... anger. Not at Jen. But at America. I could understand the celebrations for the defeat of the Nazis. But the air of happiness, the feeling of victory surrounding them? Could they not remember the quieter war being fought on the other side of the globe, one in which just as many Americans were dying, and the fighting and enemy were just as brutal and atrocious as the Nazis? I could not make myself believe that people had forgotten about us. They just didn't realize the nature of our war. There had been a somewhat clear front lines in Europe. With all the cave systems here, though, the enemy could come from anywhere. We would only clear an area when every last one of the Japs was dead. And it would be a long time before that happened. Okinawa had already taken us two months to capture, and progress was terribly slow, at least another month forecasted before the end of this fight. Okinawa was sixty miles in length. A semi-fit person could bike that in under a day. A car could do that in hours. But two months have gone by. And the worst of the fighting was yet to come. The Shuri bastion would have to be reduced, but before that Wana, and then after that the rest of the tip of Southern Okinawa. Yes. It would be at least another month.

The grind did not stop for us just because we were tired and wanted to sleep the days away. While the officers let us sleep in later, by nine we were up, doing drills and exercises to keep ourselves combat ready. The drills were cake for us veterans. They were supposed to be. The drills were designed more for the new replacements, who were still coming in droves. It still shocked me the amount of casualties we took after each battle, visible by the amount of replacements needed to fill the holes. There were hundreds of replacements filtering in for our battalion alone. Malaria, pneumonia, and dysentery had become big problems again, much like on Cape Gloucester, for the same reason also: the rain. It was unavoidable here, just another aspect of this horrendous life we lived on Okinawa.

The news that came from Wana just got worse as time went by. The 5th and 7th Marines were up to their necks in shit trying to take Wana Draw and Wana Ridge, the terrain itself providing a fortress for the enemy. Each time the 5th tried to push into the Draw, the enfilade fire from the ridges would massacre them. Tanks couldn't push through either, the draw mined, the ridges laced with bunkers with anti-tank weapons. There was also always the constant threat of sappers, who strapped bombs to their chests, and then would try and sneak up on the tanks and destroy them. Now, whenever our armor moved, there was always a squad of infantry around the Shermans, a mutual relationship. The men would protect the tank from sappers, and the tank would provide the heavy weaponry. Being put on tank duty wasn't always good for the infantry, though, for tanks were mortar and artillery magnets. On May 14th alone, we lost 18 tanks attacking Wana and Dakeshi. These ridges and the draw were the Japs' last line of defense before their headquarters garrison at Shuri Castle. They would make us pay in blood for every inch of Wana and Dakeshi we took.

May 18th brought with it the first day in weeks were the sun actually broke through the clouds. For a while, the rains stayed away, and we stayed dry during our drills. The Navy took advantage of the opportunity too, more fighters in the air than before, the planes flying out from the carriers to do constant bombardments on the Shuri bastion. After weeks of constant artillery and aerial bombardments, it was extremely hard to imagine how anyone could still be alive and willing to fight us. But the Japs were doing a good job at both.

While at the rest camp, the unit stationed there took a very keen interest to us, using every opportunity to ask us what it was like, the battles for Wana and Dakeshi, and combat itself.