WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:07.000 몇 00:30.000 --> 00:44.920 The 00:44.920 --> 00:49.960 training was over. A regiment of Marine Corps artillery stands its last inspection in the 00:49.960 --> 00:54.720 Pacific before shoving off for combat. Combat troops have always christened the weapons 00:54.720 --> 01:01.360 they fight with. So when an iron lady named 105 millimeter howitzer model M2A1 answered 01:01.360 --> 01:08.440 roll call as glamour gal, she wasn't just part of another section in G battery anymore. 01:08.440 --> 01:13.240 Ten men and a gun had become a team of 11. There was the section chief, Sergeant Pipes 01:13.240 --> 01:19.720 from the Louisiana bayou country, and the gunner, an ex-bomber named Bill Smith, Jr. 01:19.720 --> 01:24.160 Big Stoops Emulovich, a Wall Street clerk, fired glamour gal, and the loader was Chief 01:24.160 --> 01:29.960 Jefferson, a Choctaw Indian. There was Furman Alfonso Martinez out of old Spain by way of 01:29.960 --> 01:36.560 Montana, and from Cold Valley, Pennsylvania, a one-time welder named Tom Hanby. There was 01:36.560 --> 01:41.800 Tommy Bratcher, ammo passer who dreamt of raising her foods back in Tennessee, and Tex 01:41.800 --> 01:48.040 Kuhn who came strangely enough from Texas. Chris Benke, the Dutchman from DC with post-war 01:48.040 --> 01:57.320 plans in South America, and the old man of the outfit, Pop Reynolds. These were the ladies' 01:57.320 --> 02:01.920 escorts. They had bullied her and babied her from Camp Pendleton to Pearl Harbor. While 02:01.920 --> 02:06.400 they often wished she'd look like the portrait painted on her shield, they were proud of 02:06.400 --> 02:10.640 her. When the order finally came to shove off, everybody knew where they were going. 02:10.640 --> 02:15.720 Trump, Formosa, Malaya, French Indochina, every place from Tokyo Yacht Basin to Bremerton 02:15.720 --> 02:21.640 Dry Dock. They all had the straight dope except glamour gal. From here on out, the division 02:21.640 --> 02:26.780 would be in its combat phase. Many of the men were already veterans, and many had never 02:26.780 --> 02:31.760 smelled powder burning except in the range. The guns were arsenal tested and tried in 02:31.760 --> 02:37.720 the field, but the ultimate proving ground of men and guns together would be the battlefield, 02:37.720 --> 02:43.640 the secret destination sealed in the fighting orders of the task force. Down in the stuffy 02:43.640 --> 02:48.640 hole of a transport, the artillerymen were just passengers, bored, breathing last week's 02:48.640 --> 02:53.960 air and reading the print off last year's magazines, swapping lies about their hometown 02:53.960 --> 03:00.240 girlfriends and comparing the artistic merits of oceanside tattooing with that of Honolulu. 03:00.240 --> 03:04.660 But mostly, they wondered where they were going. One morning, they found out. The captain 03:04.660 --> 03:09.460 gave them the scoop, showed them their objective. It was the island of Iwo Jima in the volcano 03:09.460 --> 03:15.020 group, a godforsaken rock somewhere between the devil and the Dutch East Indies. He showed 03:15.020 --> 03:19.460 them Green Beach where George Battery would go in. He showed them where glamour gal would 03:19.460 --> 03:26.460 fire her first shot in anger. He showed them where some of them would die. 03:30.500 --> 03:36.840 D-Day. Iwo had already gotten the roughest preparatory rubdown of any spot in the Pacific, 03:36.840 --> 03:41.180 but it still crawled with jets, and it looked like the first wave was going to have to fight 03:41.180 --> 03:46.200 with its feet wet. With their guns still below decks, the cannoneers of G Battery waited 03:46.200 --> 03:50.340 for the word from shore, the message that would tell them that the infantry was beached 03:50.340 --> 03:55.480 and wanted artillery support. Following the debarkation plan, Sergeant Pytons and half 03:55.480 --> 04:00.220 the crew went in with glamour gal in an amphibious truck while the rest of the section clamored 04:00.220 --> 04:05.360 down the scramble nets into landing craft. It was just like maneuvers except for that 04:05.360 --> 04:09.900 funny feeling around their breakfast. Crossing the line of departure, the men of the assault 04:09.900 --> 04:14.740 force realized that the Japanese artillery had good seaward observation. As the rain 04:14.740 --> 04:19.980 shortened to include small arms fire, they knew the beach was still hot and that glamour 04:19.980 --> 04:26.980 gal would be plenty welcome. Running a hellfire of sniper shots and mortar bursts, G Battery 04:28.460 --> 04:34.260 hit Green Beach. It was shined deep with soft volcanic ash that rendered most towage vehicles 04:34.260 --> 04:40.020 inoperable. There was no time to deploy inland. The order was to set them up on the beach, 04:40.020 --> 04:45.100 which had already cluttered with traffic and supplies. It was exposed and enthralled, but 04:45.100 --> 04:49.100 the infantry was in trouble. And as quick as they came ashore, the guns were met by 04:49.100 --> 04:55.540 their crews, moved a few feet, and registered on their first combat target, menacing Mount 04:55.540 --> 05:02.540 Suribachi, the main observation post of the Japanese defense system. 05:02.540 --> 05:07.340 The Japanese fired her first shots like a veteran. There wasn't much to it, no mathematical 05:07.340 --> 05:11.980 searching for an invisible target. She rifled them right over the heads of the infantry, 05:11.980 --> 05:17.380 almost point blank range. The whole battery was in there pitching. And up on the rock, 05:17.380 --> 05:24.380 the Japs could practically look down our barrels and read the few settings. 05:24.380 --> 05:31.380 By evening, the casualties had started coming back. Glamour Gal hadn't lost any of her crew, 05:37.220 --> 05:42.420 but some sections were going to start short-handed the next day. 05:42.420 --> 05:47.380 The morning of D Plus One found Glamour Gal and G Battery still sighted in on the sullen 05:47.380 --> 05:52.940 planks of Suribachi. The beach was still cluttered. The guns were crammed into a 20-yard front. 05:52.940 --> 05:58.700 The range had dropped to 800 yards, matching trajectory with the M1s of the infantry. And 05:58.700 --> 06:03.180 somewhere inside that 800 yards, the infantry was starting the assault that would put the 06:03.180 --> 06:10.180 flag on Suribachi. But it took teamwork to put it there. 06:10.180 --> 06:17.180 As fast as the firing data reached her pit, Glamour Gal slammed her 33-pound projectiles 06:26.660 --> 06:30.860 into the caves and ledges of the big rock. But the ammunition supply had to be constant, 06:30.860 --> 06:35.560 incessant. It came in a rotating flotilla of ducts and amtracks and was dispersed in 06:35.560 --> 06:40.300 safe, separate, and convenient plans out of reach from Suribachi. There was more fire 06:40.300 --> 06:47.300 pouring into that extinct volcano than ever came out of it when it was active. 06:48.780 --> 06:53.860 Mountain fought back, but gradually the planes and ships and guns filled out the battle pattern 06:53.860 --> 07:00.860 that would end with Mount Suribachi once again, an extinct volcano. 07:00.860 --> 07:07.860 Close by Glamour Gal's gun pit was the surf-washed wreckage of hundreds of our landing craft, 07:09.580 --> 07:14.100 many of them gunned to pieces, bringing shells to the artillery. When they were hit, the 07:14.100 --> 07:20.180 debris wounded our gunners. The litter of derelicts made subsequent landings dangerous. But we 07:20.180 --> 07:27.180 owned the beach, an unshakable foothold on Iwo Jima. 07:27.180 --> 07:32.660 With the southern spit of Iwo in our hands, we still had to blast the Japs from the remaining 07:32.660 --> 07:37.620 three quarters of the island. The action was moving northward toward the Jap-held airfields, 07:37.620 --> 07:44.620 and there was no rest for G Battery. 07:48.340 --> 07:53.300 No place on the island was safe from the searching Jap fire, so Glamour Gal had to be dug well 07:53.300 --> 07:59.140 in in her new position. The men moved cautiously because the sniper fire was heavy, and besides, 07:59.140 --> 08:05.100 the infantry was waiting. A change of positions meant an uneasy lapse in artillery support. 08:05.100 --> 08:12.100 The firing lag had to be kept to the absolute minimum. 08:16.660 --> 08:21.100 The enemy was expert at infiltration, and local security was important. While Glamour 08:21.100 --> 08:26.020 Gal was digging in, her little sisters carried the ball. Traditional to the Marine Corps, 08:26.020 --> 08:30.740 the highly mobile 75-millimeter Pak howitzers delivered continuous fire to the north in 08:30.740 --> 08:37.740 the face of heavy losses from Jap counter-battery fire. 08:42.060 --> 08:47.460 Any level ground that the Japs weren't using served as an airstrip for our grasshoppers. 08:47.460 --> 08:52.620 Local observation aided the ground batteries by identifying targets, spotting bursts, and 08:52.620 --> 08:59.620 radioing corrections back to the guns. 09:02.180 --> 09:07.300 At the southern approach to the first airstrip, another battalion of 105s was set up on Glamour 09:07.300 --> 09:14.300 Gal's flank. Since the afternoon of D-Day, these two outfits had shared range and target. 09:14.300 --> 09:19.860 When Glamour Gal was properly emplaced in a well-protected pit, her alignment was checked. 09:19.860 --> 09:24.500 All guns in the battery had to be as parallel as an aiming circle and a lieutenant's mathematics 09:24.500 --> 09:31.500 could make them. 09:31.540 --> 09:35.580 Forward observers landed with and deployed ahead of the infantry, spotted a large concentration 09:35.580 --> 09:42.580 of Japanese. They phoned the target data back to the regimental 09:42.580 --> 09:47.260 fire direction center, who would pass it down to battalion and battery positions. From the 09:47.260 --> 09:51.620 front to the gun pits, the Japanese troops and installations traveled down the chain 09:51.620 --> 09:56.660 of artillery command, acquired a jumble of grids and decimal points, and emerged at G 09:56.660 --> 10:03.660 Battery as a fire mission. 10:05.660 --> 10:11.260 A synchronized barrage, with the entire regiment backing up Glamour Gal as she blistered with 10:11.260 --> 10:18.260 the paint off her tube to get her quota of effective rounds into the target area. 10:18.260 --> 10:25.260 The forward observers kept each section supplied with fire data. On this mission, the gun crews 10:32.060 --> 10:37.220 couldn't observe the effect of their own fire, but they knew that within 25 yards of every 10:37.220 --> 10:44.220 one of their bursts, no Jap could live. 10:53.100 --> 10:57.820 Up ahead, the infantry watched the smoke and bursts of the barrage. When it lifted, they 10:57.820 --> 11:04.820 were going in. 11:04.820 --> 11:10.160 The area neutralized, our riflemen moved in, but the Japs had managed to pull a few of 11:10.160 --> 11:15.160 their cliffside guns back out of our barrage. Enemy mortars and artillery were still zeroed 11:15.160 --> 11:20.560 in on the path of our advance. Rockets and tank teams delivered direct artillery and 11:20.560 --> 11:24.920 flame against the fortified bridges and into the firing ports and embrasures of the Japanese 11:24.920 --> 11:31.920 caves. 11:54.920 --> 12:01.920 From the air, observers directed the execution of the order that came down through the division 12:05.240 --> 12:08.240 to burn out the entire area. 12:08.240 --> 12:15.240 A lull in the fire requests meant no rest for the gun sections. Glamour Gal had to be 12:16.880 --> 12:22.340 cleaned and ready for the next mission the infantry might call for. And the ammunition 12:22.340 --> 12:27.680 had to be unpacked during spare moments, for there would be no time when the firing started. 12:27.680 --> 12:32.080 Whenever possible, it was prepared in advance as well. The shell casings were loaded with 12:32.080 --> 12:38.040 powder bags, the number depending on the probable charges to be used. On the projectiles, fuses 12:38.040 --> 12:44.000 had to be set, set for everything from super quick to come next Sunday. Everything was 12:44.000 --> 12:49.360 prepared swiftly and with mathematical precision. Anything else might mean the loss of seconds 12:49.360 --> 12:55.000 in serving the guns and seconds counted on Iwo Jima, where the Japanese in the desperation 12:55.000 --> 12:59.960 of their last ditch were pouring everything they had into our lives. They tried to stop 12:59.960 --> 13:06.960 us. The air was full of hot iron and purple hearts. Our advance continued on. 13:06.960 --> 13:13.960 A few days after Glamour Gal had hit the beach, the core artillery had landed its 155 millimeter 13:21.080 --> 13:26.280 howitzers. Not as fast or as mobile as the 105s, they had greater range and destructive 13:26.280 --> 13:33.280 power, and they were just the answer to the long-range JAP coastal guns. The nights were 13:42.880 --> 13:49.880 often very warm for February when a high trajectory artillery duel was on. It was give and take 13:49.880 --> 13:56.880 until the JAPs had a lucky shot in the division ammo dump. After that, things got strictly 13:56.880 --> 14:15.880 high trajectory, and the division and core artillery threw everything but the galley stove 14:15.880 --> 14:22.880 and the general's jeep into the JAP battery. In the morning, the Japanese guns were scrap 14:22.880 --> 14:29.880 ironed. All over the island, the enemy defenses were crumbling. For the first time in almost 14:29.880 --> 14:36.880 a month, the artillery could stop to pick up its brass. The campaign was over. After 14:45.960 --> 14:51.440 28 bloody days of fighting, the name of Iwo Jima went into the battle honors of three 14:51.440 --> 15:00.440 Marine divisions and into the glorious traditions of the United States Marine Corps. Glamour 15:00.440 --> 15:07.440 Gal was now a veteran. It had taken a paintbrush to name her and 28 days of blood and fire 15:07.440 --> 15:13.040 to baptize her. Now she and the boys were getting ready to shove off again, getting 15:13.040 --> 15:19.640 ready for the next operation. This time, too, everybody knew where they were going. Korea, 15:19.640 --> 15:26.640 Homo, Melea, French Indochina, but they didn't know that their next landing would be on Japan 15:26.640 --> 15:31.900 itself. They didn't know that inside of seven months, the war would be over and that Glamour 15:31.900 --> 15:54.480 Gal's next mission would be as a policeman's club to help keep order in greater East Asia. 15:54.480 --> 16:00.120 Some of them would never know. Pop Reynolds, the old man, was still back there, back on 16:00.120 --> 16:08.640 Iwo and so was the captain. They will be there forever. Just a small part of history, the 16:08.640 --> 16:30.760 story of ten men and a gun.