WEBVTT

00:00.000 --> 00:05.000
["The Star-Spangled Banner"]

00:30.000 --> 00:35.000
["The Star-Spangled Banner"]

00:35.000 --> 00:40.000
["The Star-Spangled Banner"]

00:40.000 --> 00:45.000
["The Star-Spangled Banner"]

00:45.000 --> 00:47.000
The training was over.

00:47.000 --> 00:53.000
A regiment of Marine Corps artillery stands its last inspection in the Pacific before shelling off for combat.

00:53.000 --> 00:56.000
Combat troops have always christened the weapons they fight with.

00:56.000 --> 01:05.000
You know when an iron lady named 105mm Howitzer Model M2A1 answered roll call as Glamour Gal.

01:05.000 --> 01:08.000
She wasn't just part of another section in G Battery anymore.

01:08.000 --> 01:11.000
Ten men and a gun had become a team of eleven.

01:11.000 --> 01:20.000
There was the section chief, Sergeant Pipes, from the Louisiana Bayou country, and the gunner, an ex-barmer named Bill Smith, Jr.

01:20.000 --> 01:27.000
There was the next stoop, Simulavich, a Wall Street clerk, fired Glamour Gal, and the loader was Chief Jefferson, a Choctaw Indian.

01:27.000 --> 01:31.000
There was Furman Alfonso Martinez, out of old Spain by way of Montana.

01:31.000 --> 01:36.000
And from Cold Valley, Pennsylvania, a one-time welder named Tom Handy.

01:36.000 --> 01:41.000
There was Tommy Pratcher, ammo passer, who dreamt of raising her foods back in Tennessee.

01:41.000 --> 01:45.000
And Tex Kue, who came, strangely enough, from Texas.

01:45.000 --> 01:50.000
Chris Benke, the Dutchman from D.C., with post-war plans in South America.

01:50.000 --> 01:56.000
And the old man of the outfit, Pop Reynolds.

01:56.000 --> 02:02.000
These were the ladies' escorts. They had bullied her and babied her from Camp Pendleton to Pearl Harbor.

02:02.000 --> 02:07.000
While they often wished she'd look like the portrait painted on her shield, they were proud of her.

02:07.000 --> 02:11.000
When the order finally came to shove off, everybody knew where they were going.

02:11.000 --> 02:17.000
From Hermosa, Malaya, French Indochina, every place from Tokyo Yacht Basin to Bremerton Dry Dock.

02:17.000 --> 02:21.000
They all had the straight dope, except Glamour Gal.

02:21.000 --> 02:24.000
From here on out, the division would be in its combat phase.

02:24.000 --> 02:30.000
Many of the men were already veterans, and many had never smelled powder burning except in the range.

02:30.000 --> 02:33.000
The guns were arsenal tested and tried in the field.

02:33.000 --> 02:38.000
But the ultimate proving ground of men and guns together would be the battlefield.

02:38.000 --> 02:43.000
A secret destination sealed in the fighting orders of the task force.

02:43.000 --> 02:47.000
Down in the stuffy hold of a transport, the artillerymen were just passengers.

02:47.000 --> 02:52.000
Bored, breathing last week's air, and reading the print of last year's magazines.

02:52.000 --> 03:00.000
Swapping lies about their hometown girlfriends, and comparing the artistic merits of Oceanside tattooing with that of Honolulu.

03:00.000 --> 03:03.000
But mostly they wondered where they were going.

03:03.000 --> 03:07.000
One morning they found out. The captain gave them the scoop, showed them their objective.

03:07.000 --> 03:10.000
It was the island of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Group.

03:10.000 --> 03:14.000
A godforsaken rock somewhere between the devil and the Dutch East Indies.

03:14.000 --> 03:17.000
He showed them Green Beach, where George Battery would go in.

03:17.000 --> 03:22.000
He showed them where Glamour Gal would fire her first shot in anger.

03:22.000 --> 03:25.000
He showed them where some of them would die.

03:30.000 --> 03:32.000
D-Day.

03:32.000 --> 03:36.000
Iwo had already gotten the roughest preparatory rubdown of any spot in the Pacific.

03:36.000 --> 03:38.000
But it still crawled with jets.

03:38.000 --> 03:42.000
And it looked like the first wave was going to have to fight with its feet wet.

03:42.000 --> 03:47.000
With their guns still below decks, the cannoneers of G Battery waited for the word from shore.

03:47.000 --> 03:52.000
The message that would tell them that the infantry was beached had wanted artillery support.

03:52.000 --> 03:58.000
Following the debarkation plan, Sergeant Pines and half the crew went in with Glamour Gal in an amphibious truck.

03:58.000 --> 04:02.000
While the rest of the section clambered down the scramble nets into landing craft.

04:02.000 --> 04:07.000
It was just like maneuvers, except for that funny feeling around their breakfast.

04:07.000 --> 04:14.000
Crossing the line of departure, the men of the assault force realized that the Japanese artillery had good seaward observation.

04:14.000 --> 04:19.000
As the rain shortened to include small arms fire, they knew the beach was still hot.

04:19.000 --> 04:22.000
And that Glamour Gal would be plenty welcome.

04:24.000 --> 04:29.000
Running a hellfire of sniper shots and mortar bursts, G Battery hit Green Beach.

04:29.000 --> 04:35.000
It was shinned deep with soft volcanic ash that rendered most towage vehicles inoperable.

04:35.000 --> 04:37.000
There was no time to deploy inland.

04:37.000 --> 04:42.000
The order was to set them up on the beach, which had already cluttered with traffic and supplies.

04:42.000 --> 04:44.000
It was exposed to dental on it.

04:44.000 --> 04:46.000
But the infantry was in trouble.

04:46.000 --> 04:53.000
And as quick as they came ashore, the guns were met for their crews moved a few feet and registered on their first combat target.

04:53.000 --> 04:56.000
Menacing Mount Suribachi.

04:56.000 --> 05:00.000
The main observation post of the Japanese defense system.

05:01.000 --> 05:04.000
Glamour Gal fired her first shots like a veteran.

05:04.000 --> 05:06.000
There wasn't much to it.

05:06.000 --> 05:09.000
No mathematical searching for an invisible target.

05:09.000 --> 05:13.000
She rifled them right over the heads of the infantry, almost point blank range.

05:13.000 --> 05:15.000
The whole battery was in there pitching.

05:15.000 --> 05:31.000
And up on the rock, the Japs could practically look down our barrels and read the few settings.

05:31.000 --> 05:34.000
By evening, the casualties had started coming back.

05:34.000 --> 05:36.000
Glamour Gal hadn't lost any of her crew.

05:36.000 --> 05:41.000
But some sections were going to start short handed the next day.

05:41.000 --> 05:49.000
The morning of D plus one, Glamour Gal and G battery still sighted in on the sullen planks of Suribachi.

05:49.000 --> 05:51.000
The beach was still cluttered.

05:51.000 --> 05:53.000
The guns were crammed into a 20 yard front.

05:53.000 --> 05:58.000
The range had dropped to 800 yards, matching trajectory with the M1s of the infantry.

05:58.000 --> 06:05.000
And somewhere inside that 800 yards, the infantry was starting the assault and would put the flag on Suribachi.

06:05.000 --> 06:22.000
But it took teamwork to put it there.

06:22.000 --> 06:28.000
As fast as the firing data reached her pit, Glamour Gal slammed her 33 pound projectiles into the caves and ledges of the big rock.

06:28.000 --> 06:31.000
But the ammunition supply had to be constant, incessant.

06:31.000 --> 06:39.000
It came in a rotating flotilla of ducks and ham tracks and was dispersed in safe, separate and convenient flight out of reach from Suribachi.

06:39.000 --> 06:48.000
There was more fire pouring into that extinct volcano than ever came out of it when it was active.

06:48.000 --> 06:50.000
The mountain fought back.

06:50.000 --> 07:04.000
But gradually the planes and ships and guns filled out the battle pattern that would end with Mount Suribachi once again, an extinct volcano.

07:04.000 --> 07:13.000
Close by Glamour Gal's gun pit was the surf washed wreckage of hundreds of our landing craft, many of them gunned to pieces, bringing shells to the artillery.

07:13.000 --> 07:16.000
When they were hit, the three wounded our gunners.

07:16.000 --> 07:19.000
The litter of derelicts made subsequent landings dangerous.

07:19.000 --> 07:27.000
But we owned the beach, an unshakable foothold on Iwo Jima.

07:27.000 --> 07:34.000
With the southern spit of Iwo in our hands, we still had to blast the Japs from the remaining three quarters of the island.

07:34.000 --> 07:48.000
The action was moving northward toward the Jap held airfields and there was no rest for G Battery.

07:48.000 --> 07:51.000
No place on the island was safe from the searching Jap fire.

07:51.000 --> 07:55.000
So Glamour Gal had to be dug well in, in her new position.

07:55.000 --> 07:58.000
The men moved cautiously because the sniper fire was heavy.

07:58.000 --> 08:00.000
And besides, the infantry was waiting.

08:00.000 --> 08:05.000
A change of positions meant an uneasy lapse in artillery support.

08:05.000 --> 08:16.000
The firing lag had to be kept to the absolute minimum.

08:16.000 --> 08:20.000
The enemy was expert at infiltration and local security was important.

08:20.000 --> 08:24.000
While Glamour Gal was digging in, her little sisters carried the ball.

08:24.000 --> 08:41.000
Traditional to the Marine Corps, the highly mobile 75 millimeter pack howitzers delivered continuous fire to the north in the face of heavy losses from Jap counter battery fire.

08:41.000 --> 08:47.000
Any level ground that the Japs weren't using served as an airstrip for our grasshoppers.

08:47.000 --> 09:02.000
Aerial observation aided the ground batteries by identifying targets, spotting bursts, and radioing corrections back to the guns.

09:02.000 --> 09:08.000
At the southern approach to the first airstrip, another battalion of 105s was set up on Glamour Gal's flank.

09:08.000 --> 09:14.000
Since the afternoon of D-Day, these two outfits had shared range and target.

09:14.000 --> 09:19.000
When Glamour Gal was properly emplaced in a well-protected pit, her alignment was checked.

09:19.000 --> 09:30.000
All guns in the battery had to be as parallel as an aiming circle and a lieutenant's mathematics could make them.

09:30.000 --> 09:42.000
Forward observers landed with and deployed ahead of the infantry, spotted a large concentration of Japanese.

09:42.000 --> 09:49.000
They phoned the target data back to the regimental fire direction center who would pass it down to battalion and battery positions.

09:49.000 --> 09:55.000
From the front to the gun pits, the Japanese troops and installations traveled down the chain of artillery command,

09:55.000 --> 10:08.000
fired a jumble of grids and decimal points, and emerged at G-Battery as a fire mission.

10:08.000 --> 10:14.000
A synchronized barrage with the entire regiment backing up Glamour Gal as she blistered the paint off her tube

10:14.000 --> 10:27.000
and sent her quota of effective rounds into the target area.

10:27.000 --> 10:31.000
The forward observers kept each section supplied with fire data.

10:31.000 --> 10:35.000
On this mission, the gun crews couldn't observe the effect of their own fire,

10:35.000 --> 10:53.000
but knew that within 25 yards of every one of their bursts, no jet could live.

10:53.000 --> 10:57.000
Up ahead, the infantry watched the smoke and bursts of the barrage.

10:57.000 --> 11:06.000
When alerted, they were going in.

11:06.000 --> 11:13.000
The area neutralized, our riflemen moved in, but the Japs had managed to pull a few of their cliffside guns back out of our barrage.

11:13.000 --> 11:18.000
Enemy mortars and artillery were still zeroed in on the path of our advance.

11:18.000 --> 11:28.000
The rocket and tank team delivered direct artillery and flame against the fortified bridges and into the firing ports and embrasures of the Japanese caves.

11:48.000 --> 12:12.000
From the air, observers directed the execution of the order that came down through the division to burn out the entire area.

12:12.000 --> 12:16.000
A lull in the fire requests meant no rest for the gun sections.

12:16.000 --> 12:21.000
The glamour gal had to be cleaned and ready for the next mission the infantry might call for.

12:21.000 --> 12:27.000
And the ammunition had to be unpacked during spare moments, for there would be no time when the firing started.

12:27.000 --> 12:31.000
Whenever possible, it was prepared in advance as well.

12:31.000 --> 12:36.000
The shell casings were loaded with powder bags, the number depending on the probable charges to be used.

12:36.000 --> 12:43.000
On the projectiles, fuses had to be set, set for everything from super quick to come next Sunday.

12:43.000 --> 12:47.000
Everything was prepared swiftly and with mathematical precision.

12:47.000 --> 12:53.000
Anything else might mean the loss of seconds in serving the guns, and seconds counted on Iwo Jima,

12:53.000 --> 12:59.000
where the Japanese, in the desperation of their last ditch, were pouring everything they had into our lives.

12:59.000 --> 13:04.000
They tried to stop us. The air was full of hot iron and purple hearts.

13:04.000 --> 13:16.000
Our advance continued on.

13:16.000 --> 13:22.000
A few days after glamour gal had hit the beach, the corps artillery had landed its 155 millimeter howitzers.

13:22.000 --> 13:27.000
Not as fast or as mobile as the 105s, they had greater range and destructive power.

13:27.000 --> 13:42.000
And they were just the answer to the long-range JAP coastal guns.

13:42.000 --> 13:52.000
The nights were often very warm for February, when a high trajectory artillery duel was on.

13:52.000 --> 14:15.000
It was give and take until the JAPs had a lucky shot in the division ammo dump.

14:15.000 --> 14:19.000
After that, things got strictly high trajectory,

14:19.000 --> 14:24.000
and the division and corps artillery threw everything but the galley stove and the general's jeep into the JAP battery.

14:24.000 --> 14:27.000
In the morning, the Japanese guns were scrap ironed.

14:27.000 --> 14:39.000
All over the island, the enemy defenses were crumbling.

14:39.000 --> 14:44.000
For the first time in almost a month, the artillery could stop to pick up its brass.

14:44.000 --> 14:46.000
The campaign was over.

14:46.000 --> 14:53.000
After 28 bloody days of fighting, the name of Iwo Jima went into the battle honors of three marine divisions

14:53.000 --> 15:00.000
and into the glorious traditions of the United States Marine Corps.

15:00.000 --> 15:03.000
Glamour gal was now a veteran.

15:03.000 --> 15:10.000
It had taken a paintbrush to name her and 28 days of blood and fire to baptize her.

15:10.000 --> 15:15.000
Now she and the boys were getting ready to shove off again, getting ready for the next operation.

15:15.000 --> 15:19.000
This time, too, everybody knew where they were going.

15:19.000 --> 15:22.000
Korea, Omosa, Manila, French Indochina.

15:22.000 --> 15:28.000
But they didn't know that their next landing would be on Japan itself.

15:28.000 --> 15:31.000
They didn't know that inside of seven months, the war would be over

15:31.000 --> 15:54.000
and that glamour gal's next mission would be as a policeman's club to help keep order in greater East Asia.

15:54.000 --> 15:57.000
Some of them would never know.

15:57.000 --> 16:03.000
Bob Reynolds, the old man, was still back there, back on Iwo, and so was the captain.

16:03.000 --> 16:06.000
They will be there forever.

16:06.000 --> 16:12.000
Just a small part of history, the story of ten men and a gun.

16:12.000 --> 16:31.000
Music