WASHINGTON – Sgt. Ray E. Eubanks, parachute infantryman of LaGrange, North Carolina, who stormed a Jap position singlehandedly and challenged the enemy to “get up and fight,” has been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. The medal will be presented to his father, Ezekiel Eubanks, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, tomorrow.
The heroic action took place on Noemfoor Island, Dutch New Guinea, last July 23.
By Ernie Pyle
OKINAWA (By Navy radio) – Now that we are ashore im full force upon the Japanese island of Okinawa I would like to go back and tell you in detail how the invasion went off.
As our regimental commander said the night before the landing:
All I’m worried about is getting past the first two days when we are on our own and will have to improvise to meet every situation. But after that we will be established and from then on, we can just go by the book.
The first two days are over – accomplished with an ease that had everybody flabbergasted. By evening of the first day, we had done much more than the most optimistic planner figured we could in the first three days. So from now on it’s “By the Book.”
For some reason which I haven’t fathomed yet the conventional name of D-Day was changed for this invasion to “Love Day.” Possibly it was because we were landing on Easter Sunday and somebody felt the spirit of brotherly love.
At any rate when dawn came on Love Day and the pink, rising sun lifted the shroud of oriental darkness around us, we were absolutely appalled.
An all-out job
For all our main convoys had converged and there they lay around us in one gigantic fleet, stretching for miles. There were around 1,500 ships and thousands of small landing craft which the ships had carried with them.
There weren’t as many small ships as at Normandy, but in naval power and actual force of men and fighting strength it was equally as big as the invasion of Europe. We certainly didn’t go at Okinawa in any half-hearted manner.
We had ham and eggs for breakfast at 4:30 a.m. We strapped our unwieldly packs on our backs. Our heavier gear was left aboard to be taken ashore several days later.
It was only half-light when we went on deck. You could see flame flashes on the horizon toward shore. The men on the deck were dark and indistinguishable forms.
This was IT
Our assault transport carried many landing craft (LCVPs) on desk. They were lifted by a derrick and swung over the side. We piled into them as they hung even with the rail. Then the winch lowered them into the water.
I went on the first boat to leave our ship. It was just breaking dawn when we left. It was still more than two hours before H-Hour. Our long ocean trip was over. The days we had reluctantly counted off were all gone. Our time had run out. This was it.
All around us hundreds of other boats were putting off and churning the water, but there was no organization to it. They weren’t yet forming into waves. These early boats carried mainly the control crews who would manage the colossal traffic of shore-bound invasionists in the next few hours.
We chugged shoreward for more than an hour, for we had stopped far offshore. Our destination was a small control ship lying about two miles from the beach.
Easy to get lost
Scores of these little control craft were forming a line the entire length of our long beachhead, about a quarter of a mile apart. They were the traffic policemen of our invasion.
They all looked alike, and we had to find ours by number. In all the welter of mules of ocean traffic. It was easy to get lost and we did. We were half an hour finding our control boat after getting there.
An assault on an enemy shore is a highly organized thing. It is so intricately organized, so abundant in fine detail that it would be impossible to clarify it all in your mind. No single man in our armed forces knows everything about an invasion.
But just to simplify one point–
Suppose we were invading an enemy beach on a four-mile front. It is not as you would think, one over-all invasion. Instead, it is a dozen or more little invasions, simultaneously and side by side. Each team runs its own invasion. A combat team is a regiment. Our regimental commander and his staff were on the little control ship. Thus, our control ship directed only the troops of our regiment.
We had beaches “Yellow One” and “Yellow Two.” Troops of our regiment formed waves directly off those beaches, miles at sea, and we went straight in.
Other control ships on either side, having nothing to do with us, directed other waves having nothing to do with us. Each was its own private little show.
As I’ve written before, war to an individual is hardly ever bigger than a hundred yards on each side of him. And that’s the way it was with us at Okinawa.
By Gracie Allen
Well, if anyone calls you “fat as a pig” these days, you’d better worry about your health. Because you’re really down to skin and bone.
It’s positively frightening the way pigs have wasted away. They haven’t got hams any more or bacon or chops or even salt pork on them.
It would be exaggerating to say they’re on their last legs because there aren’t any pork legs; all that is left on them is feet. At least that’s all I can ever find at my butcher shop.
Maybe we can blame this pig shortage on Walt Disney. His cartoon showered the pigs how to build brick houses so strong that the big bad wolf couldn’t get them. Now the rascals have gone and built houses so strong that even the OPA can huff and puff and not blow them down.
Work mounts with each returning shipload – Congress adds duties – help scarce
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer
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Veterans bureau head ‘disturbed’ by size of rolls, hopes to bring veterans, jobs together
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U.S. Navy Department (April 5, 1945)
Pacific Area.
The LCI (G) 474 was lost in the Iwo Jima area as the result of enemy action.
The next of kin of casualties have been informed.
Our troops in both the northern and southern sectors of Okinawa continued to advance on April 5. By 1800 on that date, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps had moved forward generally 8,000 to 9,000 yards on Ishikawa Isthmus, the southern end of their line being in the neighborhood of Kin Town. Japanese opposition in the north continued to be ineffective. Army troops in the south made advances up to about 3,000 yards. In this sector, elements of the XXIV Army Corps moved into areas organized for defense by the enemy and at nightfall resistance to the advance was increasing. Our advancing troops were supported throughout the day by gunfire from units of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and by carrier aircraft. During the period of April 1 to 1800 on April 5, 65 enemy aircraft have been destroyed over our forces attacking Okinawa. During the Okinawa operation as of midnight April 4‑5, 175 soldiers and Marines had been killed in action. Figures as to Naval personnel are not available. Seven hundred and ninety-eight soldiers and Marines had been wounded in action during the same period.
Organization for military government in the area of Okinawa under our control has been established and is functioning satisfactorily. About 9,000 civilians have surrendered to our forces. Considerable stocks of enemy foodstuffs have been captured and are available for civilian use.
On April 5, Hellcat and Corsair fighters and Avenger torpedo planes of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing attacked targets in the Palaus. A warehouse was destroyed and barges and vehicles were damaged.
Die Versprechungen von Lebensmitteln gibt Amerika als bewusste Täuschung zu
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Führer HQ (April 6, 1945)
Im Süden der Ostfront wurden an der Mur, nordwestlich Steinamanger, im Raum südwestlich und östlich Wien heftige Angriffe der Bolschewisten abgewiesen. An der oberen Raab gewannen unsere Verbände Feldbach und Fehring im Gegenangriff zurück und säuberten weiteres Gelände vom Feind. Preßburg ging nach harten Häuserkämpfen verloren. Östlich der March stehen unsere Truppen in schwerem Abwehrkampf gegen die in westlicher und nordwestlicher Richtung angreifenden Sowjets.
Zwischen den West-Beskiden und- dem Stettiner Haff fanden keine größeren Kampfhandlungen statt. Nur gegen die Westfront von Breslau setzte der Gegner seine starken Angriffe fort. Er wurde bis auf einige inzwischen abgeriegelte Einbrüche von der tapferen Besatzung abgewiesen. Ein Festungsregiment unter Führung von Major Mohr hat sich in den harten Abwehrkämpfen um Breslau durch unerschütterliche Standfestigkeit und entschlossene Gegenstöße besonders hervorgetan.
Nördlich Gotenhafen lösten sich unsere nur noch auf schmalem Küstenstreifen kämpfenden Verbände vom Feind und setzten zur Putziger Nehrung über. Durch ihr zähes Ausharren haben sie starke Kräfte des Gegners längere Zeit gebunden und die Einfahrt zum Hafen gesperrt. Gegen den Westrand der Weichselniederurig und die Festungsfront Königsberg führten die Bolschewisten zahlreiche Angriffe, die abgewiesen wurden.
Jagdflieger wehrten vor der westnorwegischen Küste Angriffe eines britischen Kampfverbandes gegen ein eigenes Geleit ab und brachten in heftigen Luftkämpfen fünf Flugzeuge zum Absturz.
Im Westen hat sich die Lage an der Issel-Front nicht wesentlich verändert. Nordöstlich davon dauern die beweglich geführten Abwehrkämpfe an. Aus dem Raum von Lirigen warfen unsere Truppen die Engländer zurück, schnitten ihre rückwärtigen Verbindungen ab und stellten die alte Hauptkampflinie westlich Rheines wieder her. Angriffe auf die westfälische Pforte, auf Rinteln und Hameln an der Weser sowie gegen unsere Sicherungen im Raum nördlich Warbung scheiterten.
An der Nordfront des Ruhrgebietes, wo sich der feindliche Druck verstärkte, brachten unsere Truppen starke Angriffe östlich Recklinghausens zum Stehen. Im Südteil von Hamm wurde der Gegner abgewiesen, über die Lippe vorgedrungene Kräfte zurückgeworfen. Auch im Raum von Winterberg und beiderseits Siegen verhinderten unsere Verbände durch harten Widerstand und Gegenangriffe größeren Bodengewinn der auf breiter Front nach Westen und Nordwesten angreifenden Amerikaner.
In der Schlacht um Thüringen ist es gelungen, zahlreiche Stützpunkte zu behaupten, dadurch den Gegner zu binden und sein weiteres Vordringen nach Osten zunächst aufzuhalten. Neben den Besatzungen von Eisenach und Meiningen hielten sich auch die von Mühlhausen und Gotha gegen feindliche Angriffe.
Zwischen Fulda und dem Main-Dreieck südöstlich Würzburg erwehren sich unsere Truppen zäh des überall vordrängenden Feindes.
Besonders stark war der Druck gestern zwischen Heilbronn und Karlsruhe. Unsere Truppen fingen die angreifenden feindlichen Divisionen wenige Kilometer südlich ihrer Ausgangsstellungen wieder auf.
Insgesamt verloren die Engländer und Amerikaner gestern an der Westfront 42 Panzer und Panzerfahrzeuge.
Gaullistische Angriffe am Kleinen St. Bernhard und Mont-Cenis brachen in unserem Abwehrfeuer zusammen. An der ligurischen Küste führte der Feind gestern südlich Massa stärkere Angriffe. Er wurde, nachdem er zwei geringfügige örtliche Einbrüche erzwungen hatte, abgewiesen. Banden, die gleichzeitig vom Rücken her in den Kampf einzugreifen versuchten wurden zerschlagen. An der dalmatinischen Küste westlich und südwestlich Bihac dauern die Abwehrkämpfe gegen neu zugeführte feindliche Kräfte an.
Terrorangriffe amerikanischer Bomberverbände richteten besonders in Nürnberg, Plauen und Ingolstadt schwere Schäden an.
Im Monat März wurden durch Jäger und Flakartillerie der Luftwaffe 1233, durch Verbände der Kriegsmarine weitere 128 anglo-amerikanische Flugzeuge abgeschossen.
In den Kämpfen in Kurland hat der mehrfach bewährte Rittmeister Bruno Richter, Kommandeur des Füsilierbataillons 24, mit nur sechs Mann seines Bataillons einen breiteren feindlichen Einbruch durch entschlossenen Gegenstoß bereinigt und dadurch den beabsichtigten Durchbruch der Bolschewisten verhindert.