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Previously, on World War II in HD.
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This war is all hell and horror.
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Colorado native Bert Stiles takes off on one
of the deadliest assignments in the war,
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co-piloting a b-17 bomber over Europe.
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The only death we see is the death of our friends.
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All I know is, if I have to crawl back
in that bomber, I'll beat my brains out.
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While in the pacific. This, is war at its grimmest.
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War correspondent Robert Sherrod heads to Saipan
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and witnesses the mass suicides of 1,000 civilians.
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What does all this self-destruction mean?
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Do the suicides of Saipan mean that the whole Japanese race
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will choose death before surrender?
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Grant us a common faith, that
man shall know bread and peace,
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That he shall know justice and
righteousness, freedom and security,
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an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best,
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not only in our own lands but throughout the world.
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Very few of the things you did in combat
or experienced or endured ever go away.
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And, it never goes away.
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The starkness of these events never leaves.
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It is just a shock today that I am
talking to you, as it was back then.
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Physical wounds generally with time, heal.
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But we have these,
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these memories that are burden to our souls.
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And they will never go away.
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They are just too deep inside of us.
They will never go away. No, never.
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Part of me is ready to be a war
hero and make my family proud.
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But I'm also aware I'm being asked to
fight and possibly die for $1.66 a day.
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Five months after D-Day, 19-year-old Boston
native Rockie Blunt lands on Omaha Beach.
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Drafted in 1943, the jazz drummer is attached
to the army's 84th infantry division.
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It is his first time ever in a combat zone.
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We wade ashore and I stop to take it all in.
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I recognize this place from the newsreels
I've seen of the invasion back in June.
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Guns still on the bunkers, gaping shell craters
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as if the invasion was yesterday, not months ago.
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We are told to just start marching with
our field packs and other equipment.
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Nobody's telling us where we're going or how far we'll go.
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My combat boots don't fit.
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The pain is excruciating.
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But we keep marching.
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Blunt and the 84th infantry
are one of the many
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reinforcement divisions sent
in to bolster fighting forces,
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depleted since the D-Day invasion.
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By November of 1944,
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Allied forces occupy a contiguous
fighting front of over 400 miles
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stretching from Antwerp, Belgium, to the Swiss Alps.
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Reinforcements are needed to
relieve the battle-weary divisions
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who have been locked in stagnant
fighting on the front lines.
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But the Allies have not yet captured a usable port,
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so all new troops must land
at Normandy and then make
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an arduous journey of over
300 miles to the front.
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The evidence of battle is everywhere.
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Pastures and orchards are pocked with artillery craters.
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Trees, at least those few that remain
standing, are splintered and shattered.
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Horse carcasses rot in the sun.
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Burned-out tanks lie on their sides.
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This is so vastly different from my carefree life back home.
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The war is no longer far away from me.
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After 16 days on the move, Blunt and the
84th division have traveled over 400 miles.
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They are now closing in on the Dutch-German border,
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where the fighting is taking a
heavy toll on American troops.
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Within hours, he will be joining the battle there.
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After all these months of preparation, the
fear of the unknown is finally hitting me.
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My heart is pounding.
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I try to make myself feel better by
forcing myself to think about home,
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but it doesn't help much.
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My God, I don't know if I'll be able to do this.
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Though I've seen this many times, I can't help thinking:
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"nobody can live through this." but I know better.
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Five months after witnessing the carnage on Saipan,
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"Time Life" magazine correspondent
Robert Sherrod is on a ship
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off the coast of the remote pacific island of Iwo Jima.
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The 36-year-old Georgia
native is watching the final
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hours of 74 days of
pre-invasion bombardment.
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Many believe that we'll take the island in five days,
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while the major general in charge is saying ten.
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One opinion is universal: Everybody
knows we're going to lose a lot of men.
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But we have no choice.
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We have to take Iwo.
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Located midway between
Saipan and Japan, Iwo Jima
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will provide a strategically
important airfield
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for the Americans' continuing effort to bomb Japan,
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an effort that is coming at a high price
in terms of lost bombers and lives.
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By taking the island, American
forces can establish a fighter base
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that will provide air
cover for the b-29 super
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fortresses taking off from
Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.
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It takes a B-29 18 hours to fly to Japan and back.
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With Iwo's air base, long-range
p-51 Mustangs will be
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able to escort the bombers all
the way to their targets.
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Iwo will also serve as
an emergency landing
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base for crippled bombers
returning from Japan.
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The mission to secure Iwo Jima will be grueling.
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American forces face a
mixed terrain of cane
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fields, scrub growth, and
barren volcanic ash,
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At the southern end by the 550-foot Mount Suribachi,
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a dormant volcano that conceals a nest of
bunkers, tunnels, and fighting positions.
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The island is covered in a pall of smoke and dust.
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Only the topmost peak of Suribachi is visible.
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I've got the pit-of-the-stomach emotion I feel when I know
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many men who love life are about to die.
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I've climbed down cargo nets several times.
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I've seen tough beachheads before.
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But I feel I have no business being here.
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The law of averages is staring me in the face.
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A few hundred yards from shore, we transfer
to another boat and await our final approach.
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I run into a reporter who was part of the first wave.
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"I wouldn't go in there if I were you," he says.
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"There's more hell in there than in
the rest of the war put together."
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Today is the day I've been waiting for.
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This is the day that I will meet and
fight the Germans on his own ground.
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In the first combat mission of his life,
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GI Rockie Blunt is with the 84th infantry division.
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They're advancing toward
the city of Geilenkirchen,
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Germany, along Hitler's Siegfried Line.
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The company commander is yelling: "Go, go, go,
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come on, get moving, we have a city to take."
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I know the enemy is just yards away.
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We come up on some buildings
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And not knowing what have to do, having
never shot, fired a shot in anger,
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When I saw the first row of windows, I thought
I saw a movement, so I took a shot at it.
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And then I thought I saw more movement
and I took a shot at that window.
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And then I started running across at the vegetable field
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and suddenly somebody screamed they had
stepped on a shoe mine and blown his leg off.
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And I realized we were running
helter skelter through a mine field.
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My heart is in my throat.
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I see a GI lying on the ground.
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His leg is blown off below the knee.
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Another GI is blown apart at the hip.
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I'm frozen.
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I'm sickened by what I just saw.
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I wish I hadn't looked.
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After a frantic sprint, Blunt makes
his way out of the mine field
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and to the edge of the city of Geilenkirchen.
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There's no one in sight.
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I've got the sinking feeling that I have been left behind.
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That I'm totally isolated.
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What am I supposed to do now?
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Germany is a wretched land, but England is a lovely place.
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After surviving his required 35 missions,
co-piloting a b-17 over France and Germany,
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24-year-old Bert Stiles is convalescing at an English estate
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where war-weary fliers are sent to
recuperate from the stress of combat.
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We were talking about the world.
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Most of these jokers think the war is
just a necessary phase of a lifetime
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and it won't make any difference in the long run.
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Everybody here seems resigned to the inevitable.
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And pretty sure everything will
be the same when they get home.
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Well, I for one hope it isn't the same.
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Established by the army air force in 1942,
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bomber crews refer to these retreats as "flak farms"
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as homage to the deadly anti-aircraft fire
that causes so much of their anxiety.
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Men are sent here for a week of relaxation.
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They are encouraged to spend their days
biking, fishing, or playing badminton.
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Stiles, an aspiring novelist,
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spends his time writing about his
experiences in the cockpit of a b-17.
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"Portrait of a guy with blood on his hands," by Bert Stiles.
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A shell had just busted outside by
the waist of window of the fort.
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The waist gunner wore flak suit, and
flak helmet, but neither helped much
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One chuck hit low on the forehead, clip the top...
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"The Ranger comes back", by Bert Stiles.
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They were tired of losing airplanes,
digging charred pilots out of the ground.
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They want the "safe" pilots who flew by the book.
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My head was all dark inside, full of jagged lights...
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"By this I live" by Bert Stiles.
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"What I have written before I profoundly believe in.
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I'm sure of the life this self should
live, but the self is a thing of wonder.
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The strangest question I know is: Who am I?
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This being called "Bert Stiles."
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Although completion of his
required number of bomber
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missions makes Stiles eligible
to return to the States,
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he chooses to remain in England for another tour of duty.
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But instead of returning to the b-17s,
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he requests and receives an
assignment as a p-51 fighter pilot.
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I'm through with the big birds, and that pleases me so much.
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I'm transferring to the fighters, the 339th group.
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I figure I might as well stay until the end of the war,
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and flying a fighter is all I've
wanted since this whole thing started.
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When this war ends, I want to be here.
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Still flying.
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We only hold about one fourth of Iwo Jima.
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And already, our total casualties are almost 4,200.
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I have never seen such mangled bodies.
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In one shell hole are eight dead marines.
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Some are cut squarely in half.
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Legs and arms are 50 feet from bodies.
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Almost all of the casualties are American,
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and all died with the greatest possible violence.
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I see a string of guts 50 feet long
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and everywhere is the smell of burning flesh.
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This is even worse than Saipan.
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Four days after landing on the sulfurous island of Iwo Jima,
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"Time Life" correspondent Robert Sherrod
is surveying the Marines' progress.
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Although our naval and air
power is immense, there
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comes a time when power alone
has reached its limit,
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and men must pay for yardage with their lives.
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With the beachhead secure, the
marines have managed to push inland
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and overcome the southeast defenses
on the outer slopes of Suribachi,
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cutting off the mountain from the
rest of the Japanese fighting force.
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But the Marines still need to
route every last Japanese fighter
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out of his defensive positions inside the mountain.
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On the morning of February 23rd,
a patrol is sent to the summit.
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They are given a small American flag and
told to raise it if they make it to the top.
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About 11 o clock, someone yells for
us to look up at Mount Suribachi.
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They've got a flag on the summit.
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Tears well in the eyes of
several Marines as they
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watch the little flag
fluttering in the wind.
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If we can capture that vertical
monstrosity, it seems we can do anything.
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This is the first American flag
to fly over Japanese territory.
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But hours after it is planted, a Marine officer
orders it replaced with a larger flag.
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Six men raise this second flag,
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and as it is being lifted, Associated Press
photographer Joe Rosenthal snaps a photo.
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For Sherrod and the Marines
below, the raising
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of this second flag goes
virtually unnoticed.
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They are far more preoccupied with winning the battle.
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The Japs are raising hell.
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The are firing mortars and rockets from
every direction and great profusion.
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It's been days since the invasion.
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But the fighting is just the beginning.
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Most of the city is cleared,
except for a few diehard snipers.
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I don't know if I'll ever get used to this helpless feeling.
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At any moment, someone could take me out.
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After losing contact with his company
on his first day in a combat zone,
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rookie infantryman Rockie Blunt is back with his comrades.
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They're in the city of Geilenkirchen,
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from where most of Hitler's troops have fled.
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Blunt's orders are to clear buildings of mines,
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booby traps and any remaining Germans.
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We search the buildings, and so far,
there's no sign of booby trap or Germans.
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I'm happy not to come across any booby traps,
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but it would be nice to find a couple of souvenirs.
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Something to take home with me.
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Approaching the square, I signal
for my unit to check out a cellar.
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I am hearing voices. They are talking in German.
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They didn't know I was in the building.
233
00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,080
And I yelled at them in German:
"Come out with your hands up."
234
00:26:04,130 --> 00:26:09,570
And 18 of them came out like this and they
saw the mine detector. Oh, oh, oh...
235
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:11,690
They didn't know what a mine detector was.
236
00:26:12,550 --> 00:26:13,910
They thought it was a secret weapon.
237
00:26:14,790 --> 00:26:20,330
I marched them out into the street,
and already the MPs were there.
238
00:26:21,050 --> 00:26:24,690
And I marched them out the street, and
I said: " Here's a 18 crowds for you."
239
00:26:25,540 --> 00:26:27,098
and he said: "how did you capture them?"
240
00:26:27,099 --> 00:26:28,710
I said to him: "With my mine detector."
241
00:26:28,711 --> 00:26:33,180
he just shook his head and said:
"This couldn't have happened."
242
00:26:34,130 --> 00:26:39,230
One by one, I strip them of their knives,
their pistols, and their rifles.
243
00:26:40,100 --> 00:26:44,050
Before I march them out, I pocket
a few of them as keepsakes.
244
00:26:56,210 --> 00:26:58,900
I want to have something to remember to stay by,
245
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:07,660
my first day in combat, my baptism by fire.
246
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:12,220
For me, these are trophies.
247
00:27:18,050 --> 00:27:20,940
Now I can sling my rifle over my shoulder.
248
00:27:22,610 --> 00:27:24,110
Now I can be proud.
249
00:27:28,330 --> 00:27:31,660
A voice in my ear shouting: "Rich-Bitch Four!
Bandit at 6 o clock!"
250
00:27:34,210 --> 00:27:36,310
Rich-Bitch Four, that's me.
251
00:27:42,830 --> 00:27:46,620
Bert Stiles is on his fourth mission as a p-51 pilot.
252
00:27:46,970 --> 00:27:49,779
He is escorting a group of b-17s
253
00:27:49,780 --> 00:27:52,300
returning from a bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany,
254
00:27:54,810 --> 00:27:56,180
,when he spots trouble.
255
00:28:04,590 --> 00:28:07,230
My wingman pulls a screaming dive down to the deck.
256
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:15,230
He calmly tells me he's lost his oxygen and
needs to get low where he can breathe.
257
00:28:17,190 --> 00:28:18,980
I chase him down through the clouds.
258
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:26,860
Popping out over some town, and every
damn house is shooting up at us.
259
00:28:35,790 --> 00:28:38,220
Pulling back up through
the clouds, we run right
260
00:28:38,221 --> 00:28:40,650
into a swarm of Germans,
40 of them, maybe more.
261
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:47,780
Must be every damn plane left in the Luftwaffe.
262
00:28:59,940 --> 00:29:03,760
Breaking left, a fighter slides under
me, firing big red golf balls.
263
00:29:18,530 --> 00:29:20,660
The S.O.B.s are throwing everything in the book at us.
264
00:29:24,310 --> 00:29:26,670
And I still haven't gotten a kill.
265
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,740
If this keeps up, it's gonna be a long winter.
266
00:29:53,500 --> 00:29:59,740
On November 26, 1944, Stiles is on
an escort mission over Germany.
267
00:30:08,930 --> 00:30:13,190
Somewhere over Hanover, he encounters
and engages a Luftwaffe fighter.
268
00:30:19,390 --> 00:30:22,370
He is closing in on his first kill.
269
00:30:29,900 --> 00:30:32,750
Stiles follows the smoking
enemy plane as it
270
00:30:32,751 --> 00:30:35,600
descends into a steep
dive, firing all the way.
271
00:30:44,290 --> 00:30:50,110
Fixated on his target, he fails to pull out
soon enough and loses control of his fighter.
272
00:30:55,130 --> 00:30:57,210
Bert Stiles is killed instantly.
273
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:00,430
He was 24 years old.
274
00:31:09,820 --> 00:31:13,460
"Death stands by" by Bert Stiles.
275
00:31:16,670 --> 00:31:20,960
"Climbers, true climbers, are the strangest of men.
276
00:31:23,030 --> 00:31:27,630
Their love of the jagged peaks is so
intense it becomes almost a religion.
277
00:31:29,610 --> 00:31:33,819
The boy had loved climbing, and
he had gone out the best way, x
278
00:31:33,820 --> 00:31:36,100
returning from a bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany,
279
00:31:37,940 --> 00:31:41,709
We said nothing, but I found myself praying that I too,
280
00:31:41,710 --> 00:31:45,130
might die doing the thing that I love the best."
281
00:32:22,260 --> 00:32:26,890
Our hopes for a quick victory have melted away.
282
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:35,350
The Japs are making us fight them on their terms.
283
00:32:44,220 --> 00:32:50,360
Journalist Robert Sherrod is on Iwo Jima
with the invasion force of 80,000 Marines.
284
00:32:50,780 --> 00:32:55,689
After seven days of fighting, the
Marines have taken Mount Suribachi
285
00:32:55,690 --> 00:32:57,420
and two of the island's three airfields
286
00:32:57,950 --> 00:33:01,390
but still have little more than half
the island under their control.
287
00:33:01,850 --> 00:33:04,995
They are now beginning the
costly task of clearing the
288
00:33:04,996 --> 00:33:08,140
Japanese from their intricate
underground defenses.
289
00:33:16,220 --> 00:33:18,895
Everything is in caves
and tunnels, except for
290
00:33:18,896 --> 00:33:21,570
the muzzles of their
guns and their mortars.
291
00:33:23,570 --> 00:33:26,850
One cave near the airfield has a tunnel 800 yards long
292
00:33:27,460 --> 00:33:32,550
with 14 separate entrances each covered by
a series of pillboxes with machine guns.
293
00:33:33,620 --> 00:33:37,160
It's no wonder 74 days of bombardment have done so little.
294
00:33:39,900 --> 00:33:42,740
For all our technical skill,
we have no method to
295
00:33:42,741 --> 00:33:45,580
counterattack the Japs'
underground defense systems.
296
00:33:46,590 --> 00:33:51,030
It is agonizing to realize we progress
so slowly and at so high a price.
297
00:33:56,980 --> 00:34:01,280
By the fifth day, 5,000 Marines had fallen in combat,
298
00:34:02,010 --> 00:34:05,420
three men for every two minutes of action on Iwo Jima.
299
00:34:08,930 --> 00:34:14,169
By day seven, Japanese casualties number over 3,500 dead
300
00:34:14,170 --> 00:34:17,530
with only 9 enemy prisoners taken.
301
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,170
The Japs don't seem to mind dying.
302
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:26,020
They stay in their tunnels to the end,
303
00:34:26,770 --> 00:34:30,560
and we have to dig them out or
burn them out or seal them in.
304
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:34,010
There's nothing else we can do.
305
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:51,559
Our orders are to scout the area and gather
306
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:56,110
as much intelligence as possible without engaging the enemy.
307
00:35:00,730 --> 00:35:03,829
Biding time while in the German town of Immendorf,
308
00:35:03,830 --> 00:35:08,420
19-year-old soldier Rockie Blunt
volunteers for a reconnaissance patrol.
309
00:35:08,870 --> 00:35:14,560
But he loses his way and soon finds himself
detached from the rest of his squad.
310
00:35:14,960 --> 00:35:18,890
Once again, he's alone in enemy territory.
311
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,960
I try to orient myself, but I'm lost.
312
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:27,710
A machine gun opens fire
in the distance, but I
313
00:35:27,711 --> 00:35:30,580
can't figure out what
direction it's coming from.
314
00:35:32,170 --> 00:35:35,230
I hope I'm not heading deeper into German territory.
315
00:35:37,820 --> 00:35:41,209
Blunt retreats to a wooded area nearby,
316
00:35:41,210 --> 00:35:44,590
but he soon realizes he is not alone.
317
00:35:47,720 --> 00:35:51,320
I've been close to the enemy before, but this is different.
318
00:35:52,300 --> 00:35:56,440
I can't go back, and I can't move away
from him without being discovered.
319
00:35:57,360 --> 00:35:58,750
I don't have a choice.
320
00:35:59,710 --> 00:36:03,440
I approach him from behind and hit him
hard over the head with my pistol.
321
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:11,510
And when he fell, I slit his throat.
322
00:36:15,530 --> 00:36:23,610
And then I crawled away, and I put my
face into a little ditch-like defile,
323
00:36:24,050 --> 00:36:28,030
and I threw up with my mouth pressed against the ground
324
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:31,440
so I would not make any noise while vomiting.
325
00:36:37,510 --> 00:36:40,145
And I trembled, I was
shaking so bad when I got
326
00:36:40,146 --> 00:36:42,780
back at the thought of
what I had just done.
327
00:36:45,590 --> 00:36:47,970
I had trouble controlling myself,
328
00:36:51,090 --> 00:36:55,109
and I've never felt worse in my life as to
what I had just done for the first time.
329
00:36:55,110 --> 00:36:59,650
I was a musician. I was a nice
clean-living Methodist boy. Not trained.
330
00:37:01,690 --> 00:37:05,240
No matter what the army did to me, I
couldn't be trained to kill people.
331
00:37:05,630 --> 00:37:06,580
But I had.
332
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:29,380
War is a horribly fascinating thing,
however much man may hate it.
333
00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:40,090
"Time Life" correspondent Robert Sherrod
is filing his last story from Iwo Jima.
334
00:37:40,870 --> 00:37:44,270
Although the battle is far from
over, he has already received
335
00:37:44,271 --> 00:37:47,670
word about the next objective
in the pacific offensive.
336
00:37:49,240 --> 00:37:51,860
I don't cherish the idea of leaving Iwo Jima.
337
00:37:53,180 --> 00:37:55,870
I've seen enough bloodshed for one man in a lifetime.
338
00:37:57,410 --> 00:38:01,020
But Okinawa looks like the most
important operation of them all.
339
00:38:02,020 --> 00:38:04,020
God knows when it will all end.
340
00:38:07,270 --> 00:38:08,695
15 Days after Sherrod departs
the island, American
341
00:38:08,696 --> 00:38:10,120
military leaders declare the
battle on Iwo Jima over.
342
00:38:26,530 --> 00:38:30,839
Almost immediately, Iwo's airfields
begin launching fighter escorts
343
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:34,070
for b-29s on bombing raids to Tokyo.
344
00:38:34,460 --> 00:38:36,420
It is a major strategic victory.
345
00:38:59,260 --> 00:39:03,260
But the cost of the 35-day contest is catastrophic.
346
00:40:38,310 --> 00:40:41,830
As news of the casualties arrives back in the States,
347
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:47,120
so does Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the
second flag raising on Mount Suribachi.
348
00:40:47,380 --> 00:40:52,020
While the casualty figures discourage
and enrage millions of Americans,
349
00:40:52,250 --> 00:40:55,359
This photograph of six heroic men raising a flag,
350
00:40:55,360 --> 00:41:01,140
gives Americans the impression that an end to
the war in the pacific is finally in sight.
351
00:41:02,060 --> 00:41:05,869
All eyes are focused on the three
survivors of that immortal flag-raising
352
00:41:05,870 --> 00:41:11,150
who are present to raise that same flag again
over the statue commemorating their deed.
353
00:41:11,370 --> 00:41:14,709
The government capitalizes on the excitement of the image
354
00:41:14,710 --> 00:41:18,460
and ships the surviving three
flag raisers back to the States.
355
00:41:19,030 --> 00:41:25,000
For six weeks, sailor John Bradley and
Marine Corporals Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes
356
00:41:25,210 --> 00:41:30,890
go on a 33-city national tour raising
money for the seventh war bond drive.
357
00:41:31,490 --> 00:41:33,680
Although public support had been lagging,
358
00:41:34,230 --> 00:41:38,749
this drive becomes the most
successful war bond drive to date,
359
00:41:38,750 --> 00:41:42,100
raising over $26 billion for the war effort.
360
00:41:55,950 --> 00:42:01,910
And so this day in this year of war, 1945,
361
00:42:02,630 --> 00:42:07,379
we have learned lessons at a fearful cost,
362
00:42:07,380 --> 00:42:10,770
and we shall profit by them.
363
00:42:15,510 --> 00:42:19,290
In the days and the years that are to come,
364
00:42:20,140 --> 00:42:24,670
we shall work for a just and
honorable peace, a durable peace,
365
00:42:25,390 --> 00:42:30,550
as today we work and fight for a total victory in war.
366
00:42:55,640 --> 00:43:02,340
We can and we will achieve such a peace.33759
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