By the time we leave Peleliu, I felt like I understood not only Sledge, but Snafu and Gunny Haney and the late Ack-Ack, where Leckie and Basilone were the only men in their respective stories who got much characterization. There's more action at night than there was in the previous two episodes, and in general, director Tim Van Patten seems content to let things seem as chaotic and blurred together as it does to Sledge, whose only real way to differentiate the days is with the tally he keeps in his Bible-cum-journal.
Ultimately, nothing seems to matter on Peleliu except the chaos. Ack-Ack is killed by sniper fire and his body is given a touching impromptu honor guard from the gathered Marines , Gunny Haney finally cracks under the pressure of a very different war from the one he fought as a young man, and the island itself turns out to have no military value.
At episode's end, Eugene runs into the water on Pavuvu to get clean, but there are some thing you just can't wash off. Some other thoughts. Sledge looks at Mac however with a pained look, which wipes the smile off Mac's face as he realizes his mistake. Sledge is later seen swimming naked off the beaches of Pavuvu, along with the rest of the Marines. During his time on Pavuvu, Sledge is minding his business brushing his teeth, when he notices an officer drop some maps and a book in a trash can.
Curious, Sledge walks over and picks up the book. It's called Men at War , and in it is the signature of their late beloved skipper Ack Ack. Sledge gulps and keeps it for himself. Later, he is annoyed by Snafu trying to convince Sledge that he has hepetitis, which Sledge says Snafu doesn't have. Right afterwards, Sledge, Snafu, and Burgin find out that De L'Eau would not be coming with them to Okinawa , due to being transferred to intelligence.
Having already been taking a toll from his experiences on Peleliu, Sledge's unit is eventually called upon once again to assist in the Battle of Okinawa, where Sledge, Snafu, and Burgin meet up with two replacements: Pvt. Hamm and Pvt. Tony "Kathy" Peck. Sledge assists in leading the replacements, all the while showing just how much humanity he has lost when he kills a Japanese soldier even after a cease fire with his revolver.
Some time into the battle, Leyden is once again blown back by an explosion, this time, the wounds are more serious. Eventually, Peck loses it and in a blind rage tries to goad some far off Japanese soldiers to kill him. Instead, however, Hamm is killed and Peck is taken to presumably be incarcerated like Pfc.
Sledge and Snafu then enter a house where a crying baby and a dying woman are the sole survivors of a mortar shelling. The baby is taken by one of the officers while Sledge finds the woman alone and comforts her until she dies of her wounds. Afterwards, Sledge then has a chance to kill a young Okinawan teenager, but denies it, and the teenager is instead killed by one of the other marines.
Eventually, the marines leave yet again, with Sledge having gained back some of his humanity. Leyden was confirmed to have survived again and headed back to the states.
The destruction of the city of Hiroshima by the atomic bomb was also revealed here as Sledge, Snafu, and Burgin leave via truck. Later, Sledge is seen celebrating Victory in Japan Day with his friends.
Sledge, Snafu and Burgin go back to their respective homes after they were discharged after some time stationed in China, with Sledge being the last to get home. At the station, he reuinites once again with Sid, who welcomes him home and drives him back to his house, asking about a pipe that Sledge had been smoking since Peleliu.
Sledge merely replies that it calms him down, and he is then told that Sid was going to marry, with Sledge accepting the position as best man. Disaster plagued the entire Japanese operation.
American naval units off the eastern coast spotted the assault barges and demolished the hapless craft, killing most of the engineers. Sorry we cannot return your demolition engineers. Buckner began a May 11 offensive against the Shuri Line with his rearranged forces, which must have pleased Nimitz.
Army forces in the east again encountered stiff resistance from Ushijima at a number of ridges, caves and draws. Closer to the east coast, the 96th Infantry Division bogged down for two days at a key elevation called Conical Hill before gaining a foothold on its crest. After withstanding fierce counterattacks for three days, the GIs expanded their perimeter until, by May 21, they had cleared both Conical Hill and nearby Sugar Loaf Hill, which opened a seam in the eastern edge of the Shuri Line.
Before dawn on May 17, Lieutenant Theodore S. Bell led men of the th Regiment to its crest, then waited for the enemy barrage that would inevitably come once daylight arrived. The Japanese delivered a deafening response, as mortar and artillery fire mixed with unbelievably thick machine-gun fire from both flanks and the nearby heights at Shuri. By 10 a. All day long the regiment withstood heavy fire as supplies rapidly diminished.
By nightfall, the isolated unit pulled back to its command post in a last-ditch stand to hold onto the ridge, hoping that reinforcements would arrive before the Japanese overran their positions.
One relief force tried to reach the beleaguered men, but had to turn back before gaining the crest because of stiff Japanese resistance.
Fighting continued the next morning. When soldiers exhausted their supplies of grenades or bullets, they crawled to the bodies of fallen comrades to retrieve whatever ammunition they could find there.
Some wounded men asked their buddies to prop them up and put a weapon in their hands so they could help fight, but by late afternoon only six reinforcements—one officer and five men—had been able to battle through the Japanese to reach the perimeter. Later that day a few more men arrived with fresh supplies, but the situation for the th looked bleak.
Help finally arrived late on the third day, when men from the th Regiment punched a corridor through to the surrounded men. As each fresh soldier checked in, an exhausted GI from the th was able to leave his position and stumble down to rear areas for much-needed rest. The regiment paid dearly for Ishimmi Ridge. Of the men who charged up on May 17, only 48 returned on May 20 without serious injury. To sweep into Shuri, Marines had to clear both Dakeshi and Wana ridges while under enfilading fire from their flank, then enter the yard mouth of Wana Draw and advance yards along its ever-narrowing path toward Shuri Heights and Shuri Castle, dodging machine-gun bullets and mortar shells from the hundreds of Japanese weapons emplaced on either side.
The 1st Marine Division jumped off toward Dakeshi Ridge on May 11 but gained little ground against an enemy dug in on both slopes. The Marines would move forward a bit, constantly exposed, then be driven back by deadly artillery or machine-gun blasts. Finally, after three days of arduous combat, Dakeshi Ridge fell. Wana Ridge and Wana Draw took longer. Marines first entered Wana Draw on May 14 but could not advance against the thick fire emerging from hundreds of positions.
One Marine tank crew pumped six phosphorus smoke shells into a single cave entrance, then watched in astonishment as smoke billowed forth from more than 30 other entrances. A Marine could knock out one location only to come under fire from three other hidden nests. The Japanese were so thoroughly dug in that even heavy artillery bombardment failed to shake them. Wilburt S. The incessant shelling from both sides, combined with torrential rains that commenced on May 21, transformed Wana Ridge and Wana Draw into stark landscapes denuded of any beauty.
Bodies of fallen Marines and dead Japanese infiltrators frequently had to be left where they lay, since retrieving them only further exposed more men to the artillery placed on Shuri Heights. He was shocked by being able to walk onshore without gunfire, a landing in which Eugene Sledge of Mobile also took place. However, the Army soon encountered resistance in the southern part of the island, with hundreds of kamikaze attacks simultaneously inflicted on the ships at bay.
Glenn Frazier of Mobile recalls being in his fourth prisoner-of-war camp since the fall of Bataan, and thinking that he would be killed by his captors if Japan was defeated. Roosevelt had died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and that Harry S. Truman would be sworn in to succeed him.
Burt Wilson of Sacramento, describes the news hitting him as "catastrophic," despite being a young boy whose Republican parents hated FDR. Infantry member Paul Fussell of Pasadena talks about his sadness over FDR not living to see the American victory for which he had struggled so diligently. Daniel Inouye of Honolulu was stationed in the hills of Northern Italy as a member of the Japanese-American infantry unit when he heard the news, after which he and his troop began an unauthorized attack on the enemy as a tribute to "the old man.
Aanenson and Greer describe how they got married two weeks later in Baton Rouge. In Northern Italy, Inouye led a charge against the German forces and was badly injured, resulting in the amputation of his right arm without an anesthetic.
He tells how he survived his injuries, going on to become a senator representing Hawaii. In Berlin, Russian forces decimated the city, prompting Hitler's suicide in his bunker.
Fussell tearfully recalls the subsequent liberation of the death camps, with Allies unable to believe how the Nazis had rounded up Jews and other "enemies of the Reich" and imprisoned men, women, and children alike. He describes the number of corpses and human remains found in crematoriums. Burnett Miller of Sacramento tells about discovering , survivors of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.
He remains convinced that locals in the town of Mauthausen lied to soldiers when saying they never knew of the camp's existence, stressing that anyone could immediately "smell all the death. As a Jewish medic, he recalls being "profoundly affected.
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