(E. T. presented the following, one of the last articles
contributed by Ernie Pyle. His tribute to the Marines and Army, fighting units,
in and out of foxholes, was important to all armed services.)
PAGE FOUR THE
PORT ARTHUR NEWS EDITORIAL PAGE TUESDAY, APRIL 17. 1945.
PYLE
Marines
Hate War
Just Like
Soldiers
By
Ernie Pyle
OKINAWA,
(By Navy Radio).—The bulk of the battle of Okinawa
is being fought by the Army—my
old friends, the doughfoots.
This time the Marines had it
easy, and by the turn of circumstance the Army is the one that has the job to
do.
But my self-assignment on the
Okinawa blitz was to write about the Marines and that's what I continue to do.
I landed with the Marines, cross the Island with them, and have been living with
them amidst fleas, mosquitoes, goats and a few Japs, hiding under bushes. So
naturally I want to tell you about them.
Marine corps blitzes out here
have all been so bitter and the Marines have performed so magnificently that I
had conjured up a mental picture of a Marine that bore a close resemblance to a
man from Mars. I was almost afraid of them myself.
I did find the Marines confident,
but neither cocky nor smart-alecky. I found they have fears, and qualms, and
hatred for war the same as anybody else. They
want, to go home just as badly as
any soldiers I've ever met. I found them good, human Americano.
They are proud to be Marines.
They wouldn't be in any other branch of the service. Yet they are not arrogant
about it. And I found they_ have a healthy respect for the infantry.
Join
In Praising Army Division
One day we were sitting on a
hillside talking about the infantry. One Marine spoke of a certain Army
division—a division they had fought beside—and was singing its praises. "It's
as good as any Marine division," he said. "What was that you said"
a listener cut in. The Marine repeated it and emphasized it a little. Another Marine
stood up and called out, loudly:
"Did
you hear what he said? This guy says there's an
Army
division an good as any Marine, division. ' He must be
crazy.
Haw haw, haw!"
And yet other boys chimed in,
arguing very soberly, and sided with the one who had praised the Army division.
An
Outfit of Ordinary People
Before I came into the field ,
several Marine officers asked me to try to sense just what the Marine spirit
is, just what caused it, and keeps it alive.
In peacetime when the Marine
corps was a small outfit, with its campaigns highlighted, and everybody was a
volunteer you could understand why Marines felt so superior.
Bat
since the war the Marine corps has grown into hundreds of thousands of men. It
has been diluted, so to speak. Today it is an outfit of ordinary people—some
big, some little, some even draftees. It has changed, in fact, until Marines
look exactly like a company of soldiers in Europe.
Yet that Marine corps spirit still
remains. I never did find out what perpetuates it. They're not necessarily
better trained. They're no better equipped and often not as well supplied as
other troops. But a Marine still considers himself a better soldier than anybody
else, even though nine-tenths of them don't want to be soldiers at all.
Envisioned
Corps End at Okinawa
The Marines are very cognizant of
the terrible casualties they've taken in this Pacific war. They're even proud
of that too, in a way. Any argument among Marine units is settled by which has had
the greatest casualties. .
Many of them even envisioned the
end of the Marine corps at Okinawa. If the Marine divisions had been beaten up
here as they were on Iwo Jima, the boys felt it would have been difficult to find
enough men of Marine corps caliber to reconstitute all the divisions.
They even had a sadly sardonic
song about their approach to Okinawa, the theme of which was, "Goodby,
Marines!"
Marines
Don't Thirst for Battles
The boys of my regiment were
continuously apologizing too : because this started out as a mild campaign.
They felt I might think less of them because they didn't show me a blood bath.
Nothing could have been farther
from my mind. I was probably the happiest American over here when things turned
out for us as they did. I told them that kind of campaign suited me. And without
exception they came back with the answer that it suited them, too.
I heard it said so many times
that it almost became a chant-It they could all be like this, we wouldn't mind
war so much."
So you see, Marines don't thirst
for battles. I've read and heard enough about Marines to have no doubt whatever
about the things they can do when they have to. No Marine need ever apologizes
for anything.
The
Marines are O. K. for my money. In battle or out.
GIANT
RED
OFFENSIVE
UNDER
WAY
Battle
Is Increasing
Hourly,
Nazi High
Command
Asserts
By Robert Musel
LONDON, April 17 (UP).
Nazi military sources said today
that a big Russian offensive gained up to five miles on the Berlin front Monday
and violent fighting now raged 17 miles from the imperiled capital near Hberswalde.
Use
Tremendous Forces
The German high command said the Russians
attacked "with a tremendous
deployment of men and
material" all day Monday before Berlin. The "brave attitude of German
troops and their flexible leadership" prevented a breakthrough,
it said, and "gaps which
-were torn in the German positions were closed by spirited
counterattacks."
Another Soviet onslaught 75 miles
southeast of Berlin, crashed through the Neisse river defense line for gains of
two and a half miles in the Muskau-Korst sector,
43 miles northeast of Dresden,
toward -which the U. S. Army was driving.
TRUMAN
OK'S
LEND-LEASE
WASHINGTON, April 17 UP).—
President Truman signed the lend-lease
extension bill today. He declared the measure is a "mighty instrument for
victory" and one of the "growing monuments to the boldness,
imagination and effective statesmanship of Franklin Roosevelt."
"Lend-lease," he said,
"will be can-led on until the unconditional surrender or complete defeat
of Germany and Japan."
The signing produced a historical
novelty—Truman's name appeared on the bill twice. He signed it originally as
presiding officer of the Senate, then again today as
President.
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