A mortar shell landed several feet away and hit his platoon sergeant, Mike Schrock, and his corporal and assistant rifleman. Book excerpts The invasion Ready for his first battle, Hudson jumped out as soon as he felt the thud of the amtrac going up on the beach. He shows them the realities of a war in which both sides find they are fighting an unbeatable foe. He speaks to those who are the age he was in World War II. Through his story, Hudson explains these sacrifices. Sacrifices had to be made, sacrifices that may seem senseless to generations raised in easier decades.
War was not an occasional job for volunteers it was the goal of his life for the full “duration of national emergency.” War was a life and death struggle of soldier against soldier, nation against nation. This is war-war as his generation experienced it.
They had an unconquerable fighting spirit and couldn’t be beaten, only killed. To Japanese soldiers, life was unimportant compared with victory. His sergeant was a living example of the uncommon valor Iwo Jima was famous for, and his battalion commander received the Medal of Honor.īut his enemy also acted fearlessly. He learned the difference between courage and stupidity.
Hudson learned not only how to kill, but also how to survive and lead others. Yet he knew there would be an end to the battle, and he hoped to live to see it. Battle was work, gruesome and difficult work, exhausting in every way. Hudson swiftly discovered that battle was not as it appears in movies and adventure books. Generals and admirals kept declaring the battle over and the island secure, but the Japanese shooting at Hudson disagreed. The Marines moved forward at the pace of a snail. There was a second day and a third day and a week and another week. Amid the noise, smoke, death, and destruction of that first day, Hudson’s company lost all of its officers. and the Japanese opened up with everything they had. Each one vowed to take ten Marines with him.Īs Hudson and thousands of his fellow Marines invaded the apparently barren island and struggled across Iwo Jima’s coarse, loose volcanic beach sand, a flare went up. Watching from caves, tunnels, and mines, the Japanese laid their traps, resolved to die rather than surrender. The Marines had overwhelming numbers, but the Japanese were prepared. Nobody was prepared for the Battle of Iwo Jima, a battle unrivalled in the history of the Marine Corps. He thought he was prepared for his first day of combat. Hudson landed with the first wave of invading troops. After quickly taking Iwo Jima, the Marines would move on to Okinawa, setting the stage for the coming invasion of Japan. It was fewer than ten square miles and had been bombed for weeks. The island, they told him, would be easy to take.
Then they gave him a gun, made him an infantryman, and spent months training him to invade an island: Iwo Jima. He was a good swimmer, could shoot, and enjoyed explosives, so the United States Marine Corps put him through an early version of SEAL training. Excerpts from Fighting the Unbeatable Foe Table of Contentsīill Hudson hoped he’d see some action before World War II ended.