The Final Storm - Jeff Shaara [34]
The response was immediate, a chorus.
“Up, sir!”
“What do you do when you pass an officer on the line?”
There was a slight hesitation, then a smattering of responses, all the same.
“Nothing, sir!”
Porter seemed satisfied but Bennett said, “That’s right. Nothing. No salutes, no yes sir, no sir. No sir at all. I’m not going home in a box because you ladies suddenly decide to show me some respect within earshot of a Jap sniper. No officer is to use binoculars. That shows authority, and Japs will target anyone they think is in charge. No radio operator is to let his antenna show, no walkie-talkie operator is to stand in the wide damn open. The Japs have shown us what kinds of targets they prefer, and this company isn’t going to offer them up on a platter.” He paused. “Lieutenant, finish the briefing. I’ve got four more platoons on this boat, and every one of them is uglier than the last one. That makes you special, ladies. You were first.”
The captain turned, slipped out through the hatchway. Porter stood with his hands on his hips, eyed the men slowly.
“Right now, we’re headed for Okinawa. We cross the beach on one April. We’ll go in alongside the First Marines, and south of us, two army divisions are going in with us. Two more will be in support, and one more Marine division will be in reserve. You don’t need to know any more details than that.”
The inevitable laughter came, one man raising his hand.
“Sir, has the army finally learned that it takes a whole lot more of them ground pounders to do the job …”
“Can that, Marine! This is no damn beach drill. There could be a hundred thousand Japs on that island, and we don’t know exactly where they are. For the past few days, the navy’s been shelling hell out of every inch of that place, and the air boys are dropping every bomb they can haul there. The word that’s come down to us is that you might wade ashore into one big damn mess of Jap bodies. Don’t count on that. I’m betting it’ll be hot as hell. Japs have already shown us they can dig holes, and recon tells us that there are holes all over that place. Lots of concrete too. The captain mentioned the Okinawan civilians. There’s hundreds of thousands of them, innocents, likely to be caught in the crossfire, or, if they’re stupid, helping the Japs fight us off. They’re not savages. A lot of farmers, and there are regular cities too. Nobody in this platoon has ever fought an enemy door to door. The navy says they’ll level every building for us, but I’ve heard that before. You don’t need to know this, but I’ll tell you anyway. We’re hitting Okinawa for one very good reason that the captain didn’t mention. That damn island is three hundred fifty miles from the Jap mainland. We secure that place, and we’ve got us one hell of a good staging area for an invasion of Japan. But that comes later, and you’re not supposed to think about that. Me either. Our primary mission is to get across the damn beach as quick as possible, establish a hard perimeter, and hold off any Jap counterattacks. By the second day, we’ll make a hard push inland, extend the beachhead into the farm country. By the third day, we are expected to occupy and secure the Yontan Airfield. You won’t need any maps. It’ll be right in