4: Peleliu landing and the airfield

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"Good luck marines!" Ack Ack ( Heldaine ) shouted as countless marines  all piled into the landing ship tanks.  The smaller boats each company were standing in were, inside a bigger loading boat that would take us closer to the island of Peleliu.
"Yoet!" Heldaine shouted as K company were squashing into their landing boat. " stay low, stay close, you'll be needed as soon as we land"
Evangeline nodded and sandwiched herself between Shelton and Eugene. Once the boats had set off a lot of the men started to get sea sick or throw up from nerves.

" you smoke?" Shelton asked Eugene.
"No" Eugene spoke dryly, looking very nervous .
" What about you little Marine?" Shelton jeered, turning to Evangeline holding a cigarette out to her. She shook her head and kept quiet as she focused on not throwing up.
Shelton then turned back to face the front of the small boat, he suddenly had a green tinge to him.

Oh no.

He span back round and threw up all over Evangeline's  shoes . He then looked up at her in amusement as he placed the cigarette he was smoking back in his mouth.

Evangeline swallowed the vomit in her throat and glanced over at Eugene who looked at her feet in disgust. Still chuckling Shelton puffed on his cigarette blowing smoke in her face. She groaned at the smelly bile as it seeped into her   shoes but she  had to suck it up, knowing that she'd  be dealing with a lot worse than vomit here.

"Here we go boys!" Someone yelled as the loading boats tore through the ocean waves. Thick black smoke erupted form the island and a layer of bodies had already started to build up on shore.
Evangeline looked around at the rest of King company as the nervous tinge in her stomach got bigger and bigger the more the boats closed in on the island.
Then the shells started to be fired at them from the shore, landing next to the U boats.

Everyone ducked down trying to avoid the shell and getting a face full of cold salty water.
"Stay the fuck down!" Hillbilly shouted everyone ducking  again when another  shell hit the other side of the u boat. Eugene started to silently pray next to Evangeline , which caused even more nerves to shoot through her body, as more shells dropped,  more freezing cold water was dumped over them.

"Fuckfuckfuck" Evangeline  muttered tapping her leg a little as the boats got closer and closer to the shore. The gunmen were then given the order to open fire at the jap soldiers on the island, once the front of the boat had somewhat reached the shore the marines  were all ordered to get out and move up the beach.
Everyone began to fling themselves over the edges, one guy infront Evangeline and Eugene got up and was immediately shot dead. He fell back landing on Eugene, the poor boy looked terrified.  K company were eventually thrown from the boat and unluckily fell directly onto a sea of dead bodies. Evangeline  swallowed hard as everyone around her was either getting shot, trying to crawl up the beach  or getting blown up.

" Corpsman!" She  was being called by a marine who had landed on a shell, his left leg had been completely blown off and he was loosing blood quickly. Her heart was beating 100 miles an hour as she desperately tried to crawl up the beach,  leaving Eugene to crawl up the beach himself.

Evangeline finally made it to him and took off his belt using it as a makeshift tourniquet to help stop the bleeding. She  sulphured what was left of his leg, tagged him and moved up with the  company knowing that the corpsman behind her would take care of him now.
Evangeline  continued to crawl  up the beach, now covered in wet sand and blood, the men around her were still dropping like flys. Eugene?, Bill?, Shelton? Were they all ok?
She then heard another call for a Corpsman. This man had been shot through the shoulder, thankfully there was an exit wound. The same routine, sulphur, bandage, tag, move on.

Heldaine came up behind her as she had just finished wrapping another marines wound. " Yoet! Get up with king company, move!" He yelled now running past her.
" Yes sir!" Evangeline yelled back, looking forward knowing that she would have to take a chance. With the sun and sand in her eyes, she sprinted forward to where Heldaine and a few king company men were crouched behind a tree with the dog company leader.
" Where the hell is love Company?" Heldaine shouted over the gun fire.
" up the other end, north side!" The dog company leader yelled back.
" Fuck!" Was Heldaines response " they've sent us to the wrong end!" He grumbled in frustration.
" your gonna have to regroup-" dog company's leader began only to be shot in the head before he could finish, his blood and brains splattering over Evangeline's  face. She cried out in shock before snapping out of it and quickly reaching for his dog tags.
Heldaine turned his head and called back to her , " Yoet you okay ?"
" yes sir!"

The corpswoman (Based off of the HBO mini series 'The Pacific'.Where stories live. Discover now