War Stories II (85 page)

In a daring raid behind enemy lines, Colonel Horton Smith, Lt. Colonel Henry Mucci, Major Robert Lapham (a Bataan Death March survivor), Captain Robert Prince, and 121 volunteers execute a risky plan—the greatest prison escape ever attempted—rescuing 500 American POWs from a Japanese prison camp on Luzon.

The battle for Iwo Jima is one of the most terrible of the Pacific war. It costs the Marines casualties of nearly 7,000 killed in action and 21,000 wounded. Japanese dead total 20,000 and only 1,000 survive to surrender or be captured.

In the start of “1,000 bombing runs” on Tokyo, some 334 American B-29s drop 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs, resulting in 100,000 deaths and a million homeless.

Okinawa, an island that has been in Japanese control for 5,000 years, is invaded when 458 American ships land almost 200,000 U.S. troops. American casualties total 68,000, including 16,000 soldiers, sailors, and Marines killed or missing in action and nearly 50,000 wounded. More than 131,000 Japanese troops die, along with some 150,000 Okinawan civilians. The battle is called “an awful warning” of what it will take to invade Japan's homeland. Many push to drop the A-bomb.

American forces liberate two of the most notorious German concentration camps of World War II—Belsen and Buchenwald. On 29 April they also liberate Dachau, another infamous prison camp.

Franklin D. Roosevelt dies during his fourth term as president. Some call it “Black Friday.” The new president, Harry Truman, keeps pushing FDR's policies and war efforts.

Veteran war correspondent Ernie Pyle heads to the Pacific theater after the war in Europe ends. He steps ashore on a small island just west of Okinawa. Traveling with a group of infantrymen, Pyle is killed by a sniper's bullet. Saddened, the soldiers pay tribute to their fallen friend with a simple plaque reading: “At this spot, the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy, Ernie Pyle, 18 April 1945.”

Italy's deposed fascist dictator, who was originally freed from an Allied prison by Germans, is captured by Italian partisans and killed. His body is hung upside down in a city square.

As the infamous Third Reich begins to crumble, German forces begin to see the futility of trying to stop the inevitable. In Italy, German armies surrender to the Allied forces, and two days later all German troops in Holland, Denmark, and northwest Germany also surrender. On 7 May the German High Command signs an unconditional surrender and the next day is proclaimed “V-E Day,” for Victory in Europe.

American B-29s begin destruction of sixty mid-sized cities in Japan. These attacks kill at least 250,000, more than will be killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Japanese militarists are not persuaded to surrender.

President Truman approves “Operation Downfall,” the code name for dropping the atomic bomb. No one knows exactly what will happen, although the Joint Chiefs predict some 200,000 casualties.

American scientists working at the “Trinity” site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, conduct a successful test of a twenty-kiloton atomic bomb. Word is sent to Truman, who is on his way to attend the Potsdam Conference the next day.

Over the city of Hiroshima in Japan, the B-29 named Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb to be used in war. “Little Boy” explodes with the destructive energy of fifteen kilotons and kills 140,000 and injures another 70,000.

A twenty-two-kiloton “Fat Man” atomic bomb falls on Nagasaki after its B-29 crew is prevented from striking the primary target at another Japanese city. This blast kills 70,000 and leaves hundreds of thousands homeless. Russia, which had been discussing the possibility of joining Japan in the war, instead declares war on Japan.

Emperor Hirohito surrenders on a radio broadcast. The message is recorded the day before for broadcast the next day. During the night a military plot to unseat the emperor and seize the surrender recording is narrowly averted. A Japanese general, determined to defend his homeland to the last man, still has at least 5,000 kamikaze planes and men to fly them. They have more than a million men under arms throughout the island but the general suggests calling on twenty million Japanese to become kamikazes to kill American invaders with sticks, stones, spears, and pitchforks.

Surrender documents are signed on the deck of the U.S. battleship
Missouri
anchored in the Pacific just outside Tokyo, as over a thousand carrier-based American planes fly overhead. The Stars and Stripes that fly that day on the mast of the
Missouri
is the same flag that had flown over the U.S. Capitol on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Amtrac:
Amphibious tractor, used to ferry troops in assault landings ashore

AP:
Troopship (non-landing)

AVG:
American Volunteer Group (the “Flying Tigers” unit in China)

AVT:
Aircraft Carrier (Training)

BOGEY:
Unidentified (possibly enemy) aircraft

CA:
Heavy (armored) Cruiser

CBI:
China-Burma-India; an operational area for Allied Forces in WW II

Chutai
:
Japanese word for “squadron”

CL:
Light Cruiser

D-DAY:
Day on which an operation is to commence and/or on which troops will depart (Day of Departure).
See also
H-Hour

ECM:
Electric Coding Machine

ETA:
Estimated time of arrival

GQ:
General Quarters (battle stations)

H-HOUR:
Time at which an operation is to commence.
See also
D-Day

HMS:
His Majesty's Ship (designation with ship's name)

HMAS:
His Majesty's Australian Ship (designation with ship's name)

HIGGINS BOAT:
An amphibious landing craft.
See also
Amtrac

HIKO
:
Japanese word for “air” that was generally used in describing something else, such as
chutai hiko
(air squadron)

KIA:
Killed in action

LCC:
Landing craft command ship

LCI :
Landing Craft Infantry

LCM:
Landing Craft Mechanized

LCT:
Landing Craft Tank(s).
See also LST

LCVP:
Landing craft carrying vehicle(s) and personnel

LCVR:
Landing craft carrying vehicle(s), ramped

LHA:
Amphibious Assault ship

LST:
Landing Ship Tank

MIA:
Missing in Action

MOTHER SHIPS:
Ordinary ships, usually submarines, that carried so-called “midget” submarines (
see
SPS
) to sites close to their attack objective

OSS:
Office of Strategic Services

PBY:
Patrol Bomber aircraft

POW:
Prisoner of War

RAF:
Royal Air Force (Great Britain)

RENTAI
:
Japanese word for “regiment”

RISKOSENTAI
:
Japanese word for Imperial Navy marines

SAR:
Search and Rescue

SEABEES:
Nickname for CBs (Construction Battalion personnel)

SENTAI
:
Japanese word for “wing,” as in
Sentai Hiko

SORTIE:
A single mission flown by a single military aircraft

SPS:
Special Purpose Submarine(s)

SS:
Submarine

TBS:
Talk Between Ships

VMF:
Designation for USMC Fighter Squadron

USAAC:
United States Army Air Corps

USS:
United States Ship

ZERO (AKA ZEKE) :
Nickname given by American pilots for the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M
Reisan
(pronounced ray-san) that ruled the skies over the Pacific. A later model of the Zero was nicknamed Zeke.

ZERO WARD:
Where wounded, sick, and dying patients were sent when nothing could be done to save them

P
resident Franklin D. Roosevelt, in one of his fireside chats to the American people in February 1942, said, “Never before have we had so little time to do so much.”

That's the way I've felt during this past year and a half after agreeing to do a series of books based on my FOX News Channel,
War Stories
television documentaries. The initial book was based on eyewitness accounts and reports filed while I was embedded with U.S. military units for FOX News from the middle of February through April 2003. Thanks to my producers in New York, my Iraq combat cameraman Griff Jenkins, and my friend Joe Musser, that initial work,
War Stories: Operation Iraqi Freedom,
stands as a first draft of history for a war that is still being fought.

For this second book in our series, my publisher asked me to focus on the Pacific theater during World War II. Since none of us involved wanted this to be just another historical review of major battles or key events, we agreed that it must offer the kind of in-depth, first-person observations by participants for which
War Stories
has been acclaimed.

That proved to be no mean task. It required reviewing hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of transcripts, and miles of videotape in
order to accurately capture the heroic experiences and subsequent reflections of those who fought these terrible battles. It was likewise important that the final product provide a context for their compelling eyewitness observations.

Accomplishing all that in the time available was a goal that could only be achieved with the assistance of those whose help I acknowledge here. It is their commitment and hard work that makes these war stories so compelling—and inspiring.

Foremost among those who made this book possible are the remarkable veterans who agreed to recount their experiences in the Pacific theater. All of us involved in this project have been enriched by their intensely personal recollections. We have all been moved by the way so many of them endured terrible privation, loneliness, fear, and savagery—and yet describe it all simply as “a job that had to be done.”

The participants explain their victories, so critical to the outcome of the war, in a selfless, matter-of-fact way, with modesty and grace. Many told me things that they had never shared before—not even with their wives or children. I am grateful to them for that and grateful for their valor, dedication, and service to our country. These brave Americans are featured in every chapter, and recognized in the epilogue. You will find their names listed there.

My admiration and gratitude also go to my wife and best friend, Betsy, and to our children and their spouses: daughters Sarah and her husband Martin; Tait and her husband Tom; and Dornin; and our son, Stuart and his wife, Ellen. There were all too many times when husband/dad was absent because of an always-impossible schedule, but they continue to show consummate understanding, devotion, and forgiveness.

This book would not have happened but for the team at FOX News led by Roger Ailes. He had the vision to make
War Stories
a reality and a great success. Kevin Magee, Bill Shine, and John Moody have made it possible for me to hang around with heroes—past and present—so that I can document what they do and have done. Jack Abernethy pays the bills and in between hurricanes, Dianne Brandi tries to keep me out of trouble.

Our
War Stories
Unit, headed by senior producer Pamela Browne, ensures that every televised documentary is flawless. Pamela personally made certain that the DVDs included in this book illuminate the eyewitness accounts of our participants. Producers Martin Hinton, Greg Johnson, Steve Tierney, Cyd Upson, and Ayse Weiting have all spent countless hours with each of the individuals we interviewed for this work, and in many cases built deeply personal relationships with these heroes and their families. My assistant producers were likewise essential to the success of this work. Kelly Guernica, Jason Kopp, and Bevin Mahoney devoted themselves to finding unique material for each of these heroic stories that otherwise might never have been recorded for posterity, while Michael Weiss mined hundreds of public and private sources for the historical photographs that appear in this book. My appreciation also goes to Peter Bregman for his help on the photo archives at Fox Movietone News, and to Don Brown for his contributions to the timeline.