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Show First Hours Ashore On Peleliu Cost Marines Heavily By TSgt. Benjamin Goldberg PELELIU, PALAU ISLANDS (Delayed) (De-layed) The island was covered with' a pall of black smoke as the Marines Ma-rines landed. Each wave of Leathernecks was met with intense enemy fire. Mortar Mor-tar shells knocked out amphibian tractors. From the rocks flanking the beach came machine gun fire. From the groves came rifle fire. The Jap was everywhere. In caves, in pillboxes, in foxholes, under un-der brush, concealed in palm trees, wrapped in fronds. And he took a heavy toll. One marine reeled to the beach, arms dripping blood. As he was about to drop into a foxhole, he was slain by a Jap sniper. A corporal led his machine-gun squad into action. In 20 paces, he lost six men. An officer lay in a shallow foxhole speaking over the radio telephone A mortar shell plopped nearby. The officer was killed instantly. A corporal cor-poral beside him was chipped by shrapnel. In the first four hours, the Leathernecks Leath-ernecks advanced only 150 yards-One yards-One unit found a cave with three openings. Twenty feet away was a marine, lying on his side. He had been wounded at the front line and was returning, alone, for treatment when a Jap shot at him from inside the cave. A sergeant raced to aid him while the other men of the unit covered him with rifle fire. The sergeant crept to the mouth of the cave, emptied his clip. A second later he was dead from a bullet between be-tween his eyes. A lieutenant inched forward. He too, was shot dead-Flame-Throwers Flush Japs. One Jap was flushed out of the cave by flame-throwers. He was shot. A second one charged , out. He, too, was killed. Grenades were thrown into the hideaway and chased out a third enemy soldier. He was killed. There was one who refused to budge. Twenty pounds of explosive in one cave mouth and the flame-thrower in the other two accounted ac-counted for him. At dusk, the Japs counter-attacked. One of their tanks and some infantry broke through, almost but not quite to the beach itself. Two of our amphibs came up to meet the assault. They were knocked out. A third came up and put the Jap tank out of action. Two Japs leaped out and were filled with bullets before they reached the ground. The Japs lost 50 men and withdrew. All night the marines stayed in their foxholes, while mortar shells fell about them. From the rear came sniper fire. These snipers criss-crossed our positions with rifle and light machine-gun fire. i |