Donnerstag, 20. August 2015

DON MARSHALL'S ACCOUNT (7): THE LAST BOTTLE OF WHISKEY

Don starting up an terrace with a water can.-Heavy barrage: "Sand, rock, chunks of concrete, boat and tank pieces, helmets, back packs, flesh, viscera and bone fragments rained down as we huddled in the shell-holes."-"One Marine evaporated in a multicolored explosion, his body parts flew in all directions."-A combat knife (K-bar) flying through the air: "It sliced the tip off a crouching Seabee's nose and laid open his cheek before burying its blade in the side of a crater where a Marine lay, his ankle and foot dangling from an elongated strip of muscle tissue."-Don helped him laying him beside his tractor.-He also helped a doctor putting together an aid station.-Together with Lieutenant Long they moved wounded soldiers aboard a LCVP.-"Once again, I started back with the water."-Picking up a pump shot gun he "joined up with the captain and his group."-They come under fire.-Keeping up "continuous fire into the pillbox openings."-A Marine crawling "on top of one" tossing in "either an explosive charge or a grenade."-High casualties.-"...we pumped a lot of slugs and kept the Japs pinned down."-Mortar barrage from the enemy.-"It pinned us down, a number of Marines were hit."-His shotgun was ruined by a "sliver of mortar shell".-
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sketch: Don dragging two wounded into a shell-hole.-In the background: a bunker. All occupants dead, but one. This one shot a corpsman who wanted to help. Don killed him with a grenade.
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Then, escaping "some incoming rounds", he asked some Marines setting up a mortar, if he could help.-Moving on his belly he plants marking stakes.-They drank a bottle of whiskey ("Four Roses").-When coming back the following day, Don finds them "torn apart by a direct hit."-He also finds the broken glass of the bottle.---


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