Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-12-04

Advance slowly. Five feet be-
tween each man. They won't get
us all that way"
We started. Three more marines
fell, and We hit the ground. Inch
by inch we moved up. Each 10 yards
cost us the lives of more marines.
Each time I expected to get mine
Finally we were within Is yards Of
the beach. Ahead were shadows.
Throw away everything, including
your camera" told Matjasic
Wen come back and get it If we
can. We're making a run for it."
A sergeant beside me cracked:
Take your rife. You'll probably
never get to use it, but you might"
Steam Roller Offers Shelter.
I grinned. Ray and ran for the
shadows. 1t was an anticlimax. Not
shot was fired at us.
On the beach. the fire was still
hot We ducked behind the wreck
age of a japanese steam roller,
which appeared to be between us
and the enemy. I found shovel
and began frantically to dig, Within
five minutes, we had our first fox
hole on TaraWa. 1t turned out to
be the safest spot on the island.
There We spent the night. 1t
was am. when we got to lie down
At dawn, we found our position
precarious. Our own men were on
the left of US, the Japs not more
than SO yards on the right. We
were in no-man'S land.
At am. a fight began over our
foxhole. Scores of bullets nicked off
the big steam roller, while we bur-
rowed deeper.
Shortly before noon, the Japs were
driven back, and we came out of
hiding.
Our cruisers and destroyers re-
sumed their Smelling of the Jap half
of the island, knocking out the last
remaining big guns. The concus-
sion was terrific, for the shells were
landing not more than 100 yards
away. Our planes came in strafing.
waded and swan through small
bay to reach the opposite shore, but
was unable to find any one Vir-
tually every one knew was reported
dead or missing.
Told He Was Dead.
Far down the beach (not more
than so yards but it took me two
hours to cover it,, 1 saw a marine
with a camera. Painfully I crawled
to him, for my body was one mass
of bruises.
He was stranger.
"Where'd you get it?" I asked.
From Lucas" he replied.
where is Lucas?" I asked.
"Over there" he replied. Dead
I'm Lucas" told him.
From his description, I decided
he meant Sergt. Ernest j. Diet, SO
Hammond, La. Later, I found a
body I thought was that of our
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I was al
most historical when Diet showed
up "a hours later. He learned
finally that it was some one else's
camera, and that he had found some
Of my papers. But, meanwhile, he
had officially reported me killed in
action.
I left my foxhole at noon, went
100 yards, and returned at pm. 1t
was that tough.
The night was hellish. More men
came in, and more were killed on the
pier. slept until am, and Mat
ljasic from l am. until dawn. We
had had enough experience with the
enemy's infiltration tactics. We had
orders to shoot any man who came
toward us. During the night we
learned that guards on the pie1
killed Jap who had sneaked in
with a drum of gasoline, intending
to set the pier afire. 1t would have
been the end of us, for the pier was
loaded with high explosives.
/ Enemy Sends Bombers.
At dawn the enemy sent its first
bombers. There were only two OF
them, and five men were killed.
We awoke to one of the strangest
sights in history. We badly needed
requirements. Men were being
landed 500 yards from shore in the
surf at low tide and were wading in
past enemy machine-gun emplace-