Chapter 12: America and World War II, 1941-1945 - Georgia ...

World War II has been called a “good war” because Americans were united and soldiers were
proud to be serving. Although many of the wartime experiences on the homefront were positive,
the war itself was devastating. Combat was brutal and demanding, with men in action suffering
terribly. To the soldiers who fought, the war was not “good.”
SOURCE 1:
Private Justin Gray served with the army’s Third Ranger
Battalion in Sicily and Italy. He was involved in a routine
mission guarding a piece of artillery along the front
lines. The guard mission suddenly turned into combat.
In 1945 Gray reported to Yank, the U.S. Army's weekly
magazine, about the incident.
SOURCE 2:
Sergeant Marion M. (Mack) Morriss was a member of the
staff of Yank. In 1943 he participated in the invasion of
New Georgia in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. He
reported on how the Americans were slowly pushing back
Japanese troops in his article, “The Five-Day Attack on
Hastings Ridge.”
I opened up my dinner unit and began to eat.
Everybody was just as relaxed. We called back and
forth to each other. We might as well have been out
of combat. It was a beautiful clear day. . . .
Suddenly I saw something moving in the brush
about 12 yards away. My jaw froze. I felt like vomiting.
It was a Jerry. 1 Only one I hoped. . . . He came out in the
open, looked around and turned to signal the others to
come through. Another came in sight. . . . Instinctively I
must have dropped my food and picked up my rifle. . . .
Without looking around I knew that Gerhardt had
seen them, too. I knew I should have held my fire, but
my finger squeezed the trigger. Almost immediately
Gerhardt fired at the second one. Both of the Jerries
went down. And then we knew there were many more
Germans behind them. You could hear them moving in
the bushes maybe 20 yards away, fanning out to see if
we were an isolated unit or the main line. . . .
I heard a scream on my left. Nemo was standing up,
his tommy gun 2 in his hands. He was hit in the chest.
He ran at the Germans. . . .
It was time to leave the position. More Jerries were
coming up. We all knew now that it was a full-fledged
German assault on the main American lines. We could
do no more good there. Bills gave the order and we
started to retreat in pairs. Gerhardt covered me. I covered
Gerhardt. We had to leave Nemo behind.
The American outfit, wise in jungle combat, makes
a habit of remaining silent and stationary at night;
then, if anything moves or makes a noise, it must be
the enemy. This is a measure taken in self-defense, but
apparently one man forgot it.
Lying in his foxhole, he looked up to see a dark
figure approaching, walking straight upright. The
infantryman, curious, demanded: “Who . . . are you?”
The figure moved boldly up to him, dropped a grenade
and moved on. . . .
➤ 1
Jerry: German soldier
2 tommy gun: machine gun Marines in the Solomon Islands
➤
618 CHAPTER 12 America and World War II