Evening star., 1947-05-18
EDWARD 4. oRE11gE.

This IS q personal history. written
not by d lone historian, but by
n, ,000, 900 historians; BY American
fghting men who battled, ioked,
cursed and cried until they reached
their goa, to win the War-and get
back home. It issA cross -section of
tales told by al of these men, Of
narrowing ordeal and grim tragedy.
eyewitness accounts and sharp inn
|pressions: It Is history written by
those who made It,
They didn't particularly remem-
Der Pearl Harbor, Wake Island or
Bataan. They were not motivated
|by the politics Of warfare. They
were not fighting fascism, or naSi-
ism or what lay In the background.
Their enemy was before them, and
they had 8 nlthy job TO do. The
soldiers who wrote this history have
stuck to the terrible and vivid facts
Of that job, telling what happened
in the explosions.
Learned 10 XIII.
Thus the book begins: THE civil
ian went before the Army doctors.
took Of his clothes, feeling silly;
jigged, stopped. squatted; became
q soldier. He learned to sleep In
the mud, tie q knot, kill man. : :
And having learned this, II he got
back all right. the soldier came
home and took of his clothes, feel
ing silly: jigged, stopped. squatted;
became q civilian"
The infantry, that fought the
Battle Of the Bulge with mud-caked
uniforms and frost-bitten feet, found
frozen weapons more trouble than
ANYTHING else. Many Of the BARS
and carbines got stif and refused
to fire. Ingenious methods born Of
desperation helped many q GI save
his life and restore his combat
efficiency under such conditions.
The Marines took the island OF
TaraWa because they were willing
to die. They had to pay the stinest
price In human life per square yard
that was ever paid In the history OF
the corps. The Jap base has won IN
|76 hours. For four hours battle
ships and cruisers roared thousands
of rounds of shells in the atoll while
overhead, planes dropped loads Of
bombs in what was hoped to be q
thorough softening up lombard
ment, but the Japs were dug IN ana
waiting-and q thousand Marines
kept their date with death.
The Island Of Tarawa.
The PTS, chargers Of the Nays
splinter feet, had . definite job to
do in the Battle Of Leyte Gulf.
They were to cover every possible
approach Of the Jap naval units
that were reported steaming
through Surigao Strait, get their
strength, positDn, speed, and re-
port it all to our Commanders. Hav-
ling done this they were to harass
and confuse the enemy in any way
thay could. The first enemy the PIT
Lakacookie saw was q battlewagon
coming out Of q fog bank. When
lit lifted, they found themselves be-
tween the screening destroyers and
cruisers and bearing down on the
battleship. Radioing the informa-
ton in, they closed for . torpedo
attack. The Japs left their desig-
mated course and began chasing the
PTS. After q forty-flve minute run
ming battle, the little boats hmped
away, badly damaged, but they had
accomplished their mission. This,
the men boasted, for ''the PTS had
challenged q battleship and held
their own"
Truth About War.
There are other chapters Of this
book too numerous to put down
here. There is the death of Ernie
Pyle, 9th Air Force raids over
Germany, and the last days Of car
rier action In the Pacific-when
kamikaZes were q nickel q dozen.