WW2 Marine Describes Hand to Hand Fighting on Iwo Jima | Legends of WWII Episode #2

the whole island i'll never forget the three smells that i never forgot the smell of dead bodies decaying bodies the smell of blood and the smell of sulfur there was a whole lot of there was a my idea of health on earth as i can imagine i even have right recently i have dreams about evil [Music] my first assignment when it went ashore we were went ashore and sat down again japanese foxholes and then we went down and started unloading the lfcs uh and setting up their 12th artillery which was the marine corps the third divisions uh artillery unit and we were carrying that ammunition up and sandbagging into the units and we stayed there the first night or the next day we were i was called up to the line as a replacement we were already suffering heavy casualties on the third division and uh i got to the lines of time to make the assault on the second airstrip the first aerostrip and second airstrip was completed the first airstrip was completely gravel and the secondary strip was mostly gravel and uh the third division we had the fourth and fifth coming up the flanks and the third division made an assault across the second airstrip that was my first taste of actual combat and it was a bloody mess the japanese were dug out on the north side and all the clips and and had pill boxes and everything lined up and they were dug in there you could go from one end to that island from the other underground four or five times they were sticking in a boat route it was just like a prairie dog town and uh all their placements were embedded underground and their pill boxes everything and then they'd hollow off the cliffs and make a park position out of the clips on the on the clips and the surrounding clips they were it was a kind of a two for tupa volcanic ash formation it was easy to dig and uh we assaulted the second aerostrip i went across it and i remember looking back and there was dead and wounded brains all across airship they had their artillery machine guns all set up to protect it we had to make two assaults before we finally took a secondary strip and uh of course our artillery units of the naval units and the air force or bombarding the japanese positions just ahead of us give us covering power so we had pretty good cover power but the japanese so when they were we'd go make advance of maybe 50 feet or 50 yards a day and we blow up all the holes and the pox holes and the caves and everything we could find blow those up and the next night you'd be sitting in a foxhole and you can feel vibrations wherever they were digging out the tunnels underneath that you had caved up and the next day there'd be japanese behind you as well as that in front of you they were really a resourceful and dedicated troops and uh evil was a volcanic island and they was named igojima japanese means sulphur island and uh the japanese had some uh big binding operations self-providing operation on imo uh on the north-central part of the island one day there was uh we were up on the upper ridge and we looked over about about 300 yards and we saw people running from one from behind a hole on one side of the cliff to a pit uh box hole on the other side and we i saw three or four run through there and they were so far all probably couldn't make sure where they were japanese or platoon leaders said those are japanese soldiers so i uh was a pretty good shot so i asked i said i better try for them so i i shot three or four times i deleted them and got a down pat and i know i hit two of them uh it was uh one time i definitely voting so many of the japanese soldiers were faced that were wounded we uh knew they were wounded but there were so many guys firing we didn't know actually who hit who and uh so there's a lot of confusion on that but uh i hate to say this but i know i caused some japanese deaths i don't know how many you know you should never feel bad about that because every japanese soldier that's killed that's that many more americans that got to come home that's right that's right we uh we didn't have any quality about it as i said we didn't take any pressures and we didn't want to be taken prisoner and uh that's the reason i went in the marine corps because i had a brother-in-law that was on the main court during the declaration campaigns and he said if you want good training go to the marine corps if you want good food go to the air force if you want an easy life with a warm bed every night go to the navy there's a lot of truth to that yeah and so you know for sure you got two of them yeah i know i got two of them we could only see them for about 25 yards and of course they were running like the dickens and the japanese were small people are running low on the ground they were hard to to make out get a bead on but uh i had to lead about i remember leading him about two and a half body weights and then when they'd stop and slow down and drop the jumps out of that particle that's where i time my shots could you please tell us did you have any experiences throwing grenades oh yeah yeah we do a lot of grenades we we went ashore they give us when we went into combat they'd give us uh four grenades we'd hook them under belt loops and uh extra battle layer of ammunition and uh we were constantly out of grenades we used a lot of glaze that was one of them we'd go up to a hole we'd throw a grenade in there and then uh if it was a big cave we saw grenades in the wall the grenade was going off and move a flamethrower man in front and they'd burn out those holes and the flame from a plane floor would suck the oxygen out and anybody in there would suffocate and uh they were most effective weapons we had against caves and the second most effective weapons was uh grenades and they were very affected the japanese had carried grains by the bushel basket they had a little grenade about the size of mix bottle and they died by putting the pen then they'd strike them against their helmet that would ignite them but then they'd have three seconds to throw it and they carried them by the bushel basket seamlessly but they threw a lot of grenades but they were not affecting the sandy areas i remember batting several grenades out of my possible different times i said because i had to come in and hit the dirt and not take the rival button push battles out of the paw patrol it's like baseball yeah most all of our people had to experience that you know you mentioned flame throwers can you tell us about some of the times you actually saw flamethrowers being used oh yeah we we used them we had a flamethrower was the most dangerous job we had in the marine corps the japanese hated them and didn't see a flamethrower operator accommodated because we needed to concentrate the power on him and they'd get we'd give them cover power didn't get into the caves or when they get cave and then they shoot the reach throughout the corner and shoot a ball of flame in there usually to have two one wait a few seconds of the second blast and you'd hear the japanese sensor on power they were they used jelly's gasoline they burned for a long time after the flame went out and uh we usually we had uh a flamethrower about assigned to every squad that was every twelve man and they were from a special weapons company and we we were constantly carrying uh flamethrower fuel up on the beach to refuel the flame sores and so when the flame throwers would be uh firing in the caves you guys would be covering them yeah we'd be covering them with rival power to keep anybody from coming out of the cave i remember one uh night it was late in the evening we moved a flamethrower man into a cave it was about a hundred yards ahead of us we moving in the cave and we were given a couple of hours every bubble we saw we would fire out and every hole and everything we'd fire into and the flamethrower man moved in and his flames were best fired and he went into and he played before best part it didn't far and uh the japanese caught him and dragged him into the hole they run out and grabbed him and drunk him in the hole what did he think we could do about it and we heard him screaming all night they really hated the flame swore about they were torturing him yeah they were torturing him that was another reason we wouldn't be taking prison by the japanese most of our people felt the same way if we were wounded we couldn't be withdrawn now whatever we either take our own life or get one of our buddies do it for us i never had to do it any of my buddies but i was prepared to if i had to but they didn't have a store shelter the japanese for what you crawled into your box holes when the star shelves were out they'd crawled in and they'd called into your foxholes and drop a grenade or maybe sometimes even jump in with a grenade in the hand jump in the punch hole and they all always carries a knife or a bad hat but they did that and we had a lot of people hurt several people hurt by japanese and pill traders do you remember any specific times that happened in your vicinity yeah we had almost the night we were on uh we were on point duty i was we had moved up all dip ways through the day and there was a little rocky doll on our left and we were asked it was our turn to be uh observation post and we crawled up with that little doll and we took our attention tools and dug out a little trench and pushed the dirt ahead of us and we were up there and we buy the bed big enough we crawled into the hole and then we hit some sulfur rocks and we would pry those rocks up and reach up and set them on top of the and i remember one we had the hole probably two feet high and i really i found a big soap of rock and it was too big to lift up my hand so i came up on my knees and lifted up i centered all that over that shoulder and the japanese machine gunner opened up on me and he hit a layer right below that rock and blue grapple of dirt in my face and a man that has that rock i probably been cut too and then that night uh we had a japanese soldier crawled into our paw patrol with us tried to walk wipe out an observation post and we'd have a little hole we'd lay rocks up have a little hole we look all the way around the park hole and watch where japanese crawled in with the star shells and walks were japanese bodies uh figures movement and oh that scientist japanese called in syria to apostle and uh my buddy and i killed him with the karatbars with their k-bar knives or attention time we couldn't get to a rifle as they i had a lot of experiences like that that was the only night that i had on japanese calls or parks over a lot of people did help i mean it's absolutely incredible i mean what you survived yeah and so this japanese soldier ah he literally just crawled in yeah i mean what's that like to have the enemy right next to you yeah he he called him the star shells to go out and they'd move ahead a few pieces then they'd blend in with the sand their uniform was almost the same color as the sand and they were hard to see and if i didn't wear a helmet the humble was a worse giveaway because it looked like i said a big mushroom and you can see the outline of that but the human body is harder to see and they'd crawl in and work your way in get close to foxhole and then toss a grenade in i remember our first diet assault uh through the to the north shore and uh there was about 15 men were called at random and uh we were lined up and bubbled all of our gear so it wouldn't make any sound and uh we went down uh i was kind of a steeper bead very very quietly went through the japanese lines and went down and climbed down a cliff and all the uh shelf or it was a drop off of the north beach and it was a shelf of sandy all of you was aiming for sandy uh we went down and to the cliffs overlooking the north beach and uh set up or right along the edge of the cliffs to intercept any japanese runners going through and uh about uh we'd been a couple hours and he did foxholes on iwo jima when he dug a foxhole in the sand it was about three feet deep and about eight feet wide because the sand would run in the pumice would run in and when you were walking in the sandy area especially climbing the terrace you take one step up and you slide back a half and you had to go up those terraces and things on your hands and knees the only way to climb up that loose sand and uh that night we dug in on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the north beach and the japanese covered us up that was the only night i gave up absolutely hope of coming home i'd already almost my mama that i would never be taken alive by the japanese i had a first cousin that was captured on bataan went through the japanese uh death march on japan and he was taken to japan and using porous labor the operations up there was a military uh construction work and uh he died of dysentery and boundaries and uh we got word for the japanese he died and and uh really broke man up and i promised my mama i would never be taken to life in the japanese and that night we were on the northern beach the japanese covered us up and they were throwing grenades right at us little japanese grenades and the thing that saved us was the sand the grenades would land on the sand that go in about six inches instead of blowing sideways it blows straight up so uh that worked really effectively inside the area and uh but that night we we bought all the japanese had uh two bar gutters and the rest of them was rockefeller and we held the japanese off about saltiness and overrunning us and the next morning though right at dawn of course had star shells going over all night the japanese couldn't advance when the star shells were up and the next morning of daylight the japanese pulled back and i looked up on the cliffs on the bombers 200 yards and there was helmets up there and we thought there were japanese so we said focusing on the rifles on them and somebody said those are marines and it was amazing this has been advanced to the top and ready to give us covering power they'd heard the shooting going on all night and they advanced the top of the ridge so we evacuated our position and went got back and uh that night there was i think three of our 15 were killed most of them shot a point black range and uh shear form was wounded i wasn't hurt at all but it was a lifesaver seeing those rain helmets going up on the cliff or bumper cell uh where we dug into the side of that beach and the japanese covered us up i don't know how many jobs there were probably 150 of them oh and uh binder was next to me in the parks over here the park shows were actually just a hollow there weren't a real hole they were just a hollow of the sand and binder was on my left and then they had the other parts holes on my right and the other partials on the left and uh when the japanese covered us up and started shooting and rolling grenades out of us uh we had a green sergeant in charge and he says well if he's an attacker let's jump the clip and we swim around and i remember telling nothing to do i'll be able to stay right here and and uh so the japanese was rolling grenades in on us and we had three or four drop closure parks homes they'd go down to the sand and blow straight up and when the star shell burst i saw this japanese soldier running behind the rock it was about probably four or five feet high three or four feet high and uh probably two feet wide it was a published rock that was blown up there and uh he ran behind that rock and i focused my rifle on the left-hand side i figured he probably left-handed and borrowed and i poked my rifle in general wrecks on the left-hand side of the rock and with the starship burst i saw his head and shoulders come out of on opposite side and uh on the right my right hand side and uh he fired just what i did and hit by the right to head of course biden was focused on the rock too i think he was and so after binder is killed what happens well i fired immediately it was just split second after the japanese fired and i hit the japanese uh you know i hit him somewhere on the side of the head of the head because uh he fell back by the rock and we could hear it boating all night and probably the next morning one of our bounty of black rock was when they when the brains relieved us he went up and finished off the wounded japanese with a bar gun i'm sorry that you had to go through that yeah well that was i tell you what it was a shock but i got over to hurry up accept it in a hurry is there anything you can tell us about binder what kind of person was he he was uh kind of rough and ready guy from new york city i think he was from the bronx i remember right and he was a kind of a dead-end kid kind of guy very rough spoken but he was a a good man he made a good brain and donahue and christians were just officer they were easy going and quiet and very badly considerate binder was considerable too but in a different way he was a good man and i'm sure he would say the same thing about you yeah that you're a good guy yeah well you know i really appreciate all your time today sir and and i can't thank you enough for what you went through in world war ii well dropped the sir my father was sir i wasn't i've never i've never been dying for anything i don't know after your experiences in the war i think you deserve it we were advancing into that one day and we took a pocket and we dug in for the day as a took over a bunch of japanese foxholes and the way we do that or when we get in we shoot some japanese in a box hole or artillery or get them or something we pull them out of the box oil directly dragging one side and take over their foxholes uh and uh they had really they had reinforced box holes all over that island and that day we broke out our sea rations and sitting down and running with dead blows bodies one side sitting out on a2c rifles right there now you get toughened up things like that and uh i when you on stretcher barrel duty i'd see the japanese soldiers dead and we'd carry our wounded down and we'd lay them out and if we were dead we'd lay them out with the burial area lay them out and go back to duty again i was saying about one day but it was all stretchy booty and we took a wounded uh marine down to the beach and turned him over to medics to take back the hospital ship and we went up this llc and we wanted to get uh officer came off said what do you need we said we needed a case of grenades five gallons of water and uh a a case of thirty calorimeters a lot of stretchers and he came in and he had a listen man he says get that stuff for these guys and he invited us up into the ship and how long has been since you had a square meal and we told a bit of days so they took us into the officer's mess and served his steaks and potatoes and everything officer's mess and then they had one of their people go get us a fresh set of dungarees our druggeries were all rattled on our bodies and so we had a saltwater shower and a clean set of dungarees and a good meal and i remember commenting to him i said i didn't know the navy lived this good he says we're not a navy or a coast guard unit and the first i knew the coast guard had been involved in the at bayes of biblica but i'll never forget how good they treated us you deserved it yeah what life advice would you like to give to future generations uh this nation is a great nation we've got lots of faults and those faults should be overcome but we've got to defend the constitution as written and it's a great document and we've got to defend the constitution as written not as we were literally wanted to interpret it and i would advise anybody to advise the school system to teach history uh geography reading writing arithmetic and grammar as being important things all the other junk should be left out but we shouldn't shouldn't disregard our history because all the the things we need to plan for the future can be found in the past and we just look for them everything that mankind's going through now has been gone through in the past and we never learned from our mistakes mankind could never look back on this history and figure out what's going to happen in the future and uh that's about the only thing i really need the kids shouldn't modern kids should learn more self-discipline and learn the facts of life and learn to not be afraid to work and exercise and and above all to learn and not just learn the present thing but learn plan for the future my time on evil of course we all swore we wouldn't list again but if i had to do over again i'd do the same thing again only i'd do it better knowing what i've done now i would i would probably better better braid because that time i didn't think i just did what i was told and i was scared to death the whole time i was there anybody that had any brains was carried uh but overcame the thing is the difference between a coward and a brave man is a coward is afraid constantly the brave man is afraid but it still does what he needs to do in spite of it a baby man is just as scary as the cowardice that's the only difference [Music] you

Channel: Legends of WWII (apart of Remember WWII)

Views: 1,012,582

Rating: 4.9446139 out of 5

Keywords: world war II, veterans, world war II veterans, world war 2, combat veterans, heroes of world war, heroes of war, soldiers, marines, navy, airforce, combat, army, interviews, WWII, fighting the germans, fighting the japanese, Allied forces, Allies

Id: 5BsBm-t4pMg

Length: 33min 0sec (1980 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 13 2021