War Film 18

this is a Sam these are the pact I hills on the Burma border forbidding 6,000 foot barrier between the Japs in Burma and our growing forces in India down there are hidden American outpost scattered through the hills this is one call it station X advanced eyes and ears of the 10th Airport standing a constant watch for marauding Jeff bombers winging over the pack guys trying to get through to vital allied bases and India although sometimes the naga tribesmen wander by to trade food for a couple of empty cigarette tins the eight men at X our alone time hangs heavy but even while doing the countless personal chores which fill their daylight hours each man is learned to keep eyes and ears keyed every second for the tell-tale drone of mitsubishi motors in the distance each soldier who starts the tough Trek inland to an outpost hitch has volunteered to go even though there's not a chance in a million of a DFC or a silver star in this kind of work at first the trips easy going up by Jeep until civilization quit and jungle takes over GI equipment swings on to elephant back and off they go again punching up through the Banyan's and bamboos deeper into the wild Naga country closer up to nowhere then the trail ends and natives shoulder up to push on through tracklist brush these are the headhunters and those immense knives are used whenever they get a hankering to slice off somebody's head but so far GI savvy combined with a few rupees and a little extra vigilance of kept them friendly and out here that's a life-and-death matter then the long jungle trips over and the outpost begins out on the real tag end of the tag ends of the line from now on in its dehydrated food unceasing responsibility to the 10th Air Force and solitude from now on in the only length of civilization in the USA will be these c-47 bananas of the Air Transport Command the fleet which will carry every ounce of every single thing the GI Hermits will get before the biscuit bombers came in low over the bamboo tops on their schedule the outpost soldiers have been setting up the important indicator panels and whipping wind drift brush fires into shape by the time the plane dips down for business they're really excited maybe up there in the c-47 this is just another one of the old milk runs below it's a lot more as the lifeline of supply tumbles down to them under silk its assembled to the solitary out posters that neither they nor their lonesome mission have been forgotten a symbol of their importance a lot of guys are doing vital jobs in this war alone and emergence out on the ends of the line guys fighting their own lonely kind of war in every remote and cockeyed corner of the globe what makes the battle this is what it takes to make a battle these are American supplies out of the factories boundaries minds harvested from the soil pouring in from all sections all states from the east the south the Midwest and the West supplies equipment weapons made with one purpose and one purpose only these are the factors of war the back form of papal take them away destroy them diminish them in number or quality tail to replace them in time and first the soldier than the nation faces defeat destruction death without no battle is possible you the millions of workers men and women young and old high school kids and grandmothers Democrats and Republicans Protestants Catholics and Jews white and colored you who make them know their purpose give them to our fighting men and you give them the overwhelming power of the world's greatest industrial democracy the power we are now using to rid the world of the Nazis the power that will break the Empire that produced the [ __ ] executioner's and mud here we are combat loading our transport American sea power probably the greatest naval force ever assembled head for our first plan penetration of Japanese territory the Marshall Islands center gate in [ __ ] fortress specific time with new glows at northern carom Ichiro and southern revolve the invasion of the 32 marshal at all stands as a masterpiece of amphibious strategy for 75 days our land and sea-based bombers blasted the outer islands this was the first battle mission for many of these aircraft carriers but hour later tactics depended on depended on their softening blows this was the first round to finish fight remember the look of those [ __ ] hangers you'll see them again later the Japs out of planes trying to drive us off ended in spectacular suicide like this this bombardment led the Japs to expect our attack on the fringe of the marshals but our blow was struck at the very center the quazel a Nassau we struck at both ends to the 70-mile at all simultaneously while the 7th infantry headed for the main island of Faja Lane in the south here in the north the 4th Marines prepared to invade Roy and nemore the battlewagons blasted Roy in the more with 5,000 tons of anger twice as much as Berlin was getting it just about the same time the man who climbed down to the assault craft and wait for the signal for HR there it is communication post coordinating the battles on land sea and air they started straight in covering her advance with water fight and a half mile wide coral island there's no room for complicated tactics and flanking there just in fight with the shell hole hopping across flat empty Sam with no cover each man fights his own war against the Japs hidden out there somewhere in the rubble from the start the jig was obviously up to jeff conroy Germans would have quit right away but Jeff's are gaps they crept behind wreckage and took potshots they dug into the ground like rats there's a matter of finding out where they were hiding and blowing them apart with bangalore's and grenade there they go through their [ __ ] ancestors the complete job on Roy to five and one-half hours the stuff you see here in the stuff you're going to see was brand new secretly assembled in the pose for this particular battle it was new because the older stuff gets used up burned up for worn out because the faster we move the more stuff we need each success leads to another and larger battle which cannot be one cannot even be launched until the mountains of equipment earmarked for it are actually at dockside while the Marines were organizing their supply dumps here at Roy and the more the 7th infantry were riding in for the kill 50 miles south they surely Raja Lane was a bigger island than Roy on a more more powerfully defended it was harder for our planes and naval guns to level it completely easier for the Japs to hang on before the direct assault our tactics were to flank partially we landed artillery on the two small island on either side and blasted at close range we brought our tillery shell to shore it's our only a few moments of firing to empty these shell cases 60 seconds after the Mirage was lifted the infantry hits the beach if modulate one more job on some times they go crazy try making a break for nowhere like that who's the same size of dirty business smoking and burning and blasting about dead or alive only it was tougher out of ten thousand Jeff's only 264 surrendered when they did they came out dazed and shaky this chap made signs indicating that there were 10 other Imperial Marines still living in that kill box he can't blame them much for not believing what the loudspeaker was telling them that we treat them fairly under the rules of the Geneva Convention the guy was nuts enough to believe that Japan was going to dictate peace in the White House you'd hardly expect him to believe the truth when he heard it or even when he saw it as we fixed up the womb these sullen human beings were in terror that they received the same faith they had given our boys at the tan instead we gave them cigarettes food and water saw the record shows who's soft we just happen to be civilized that's the difference we told you to remember those hangers this is what it took to make a battle burn twisted broken equipment stuff made for battle and destroyed in battle you've got to be able to lose it lose it all make it all again keep on making it no matter what for that last couple that final battle Jeff pillboxes five feet of concrete it took 16 inches of American firepower to let the air in antiaircraft guns gun mounts Georgia radio tower that flashed a last message to Tokyo that came too late and this also is what it took to make a battle you and this and this and but none of these men will be forgotten this American will not go to his grave on Kwajalein unidentified he'll be remembered too the brave Marines and soldiers who fell here have comrades who will never forget nor let the murderers in Tokyo forget yes there'll be more battles harder and fierce over until all these honored dead or revenge with a terrible justice and from home in the millions who make the stuff of battles must come the power for this justice