Today, Sunday July 26th 1942,
is a peaceful, lazy day of rest here on our transport
somewhere in the South Pacific.
(men sing ""Rock Of Ages")
And very pleasant it is too, here in the beautiful white sunshine of the port deck
with the blue panel of the sea to watch and a good song rising clear.
Where Father Donnelly, Notre Dame 1917, all-American fullback for two years,
now simply Chaplain Donnelly, is working the second shift.
Say, Sammy, your voice is OK.
Why not? My father was a cantor in the synagogue.
We"re on the signal bridge, where Colonel Grayson and his staff are relaxing,
as contented as if seated on their front porches of a Sunday morning back home.
What a way to travel to war.
l wish we had the funnies.
So we could see if Mammy Yokum got the termites out of the turnip patch.
However the favourite occupation, as usual, is shooting the breeze.
Exchanging scuttlebutt.
Boy, l"d sure like to be back home, sailing me a boat on Chesapeake Bay.
lf l was back home l wouldn"t be on no boat.
lf l was back in Laredo l"d go and see my Conchita.
- Maybe Lolita. - Well, make up your mind.
All right, Conchita.
And Lolita.
Ebbets Field, that"s for me. Watching them beautiful Bums.
Bums is right.
- Just leading the league. - Oh, sure. That league.
Got any dough which says the Yanks will take us in the Series?
The Dodgers ain"t even in it yet. What good"ll dough do where you"re going?
- How do you know where we"re going? - Oh, pipe down.
Besides, l don"t care if l never see any more dough again.
Of course, you monkeys understand l"m talking about Confederate dough.
Say, ain"t you a war correspondent?
- That"s right. - Put my name in the paper.
The funny paper.
- Sure. What is it? - Johnny Anderson.
You can call him Chicken. He"s just sprouting his pinfeathers.
A certain party l know will get a kick out of that.
You know your mother don"t let you go out with no dames.
Pipe down, will you?
l got him.
(PA) Sweepers, man your brooms.
Clean sweep-down fore and aft.
(men sing ""Sweet Genevieve")
Pleasant too to stretch out in the calm tropical night
with the lapping of the waves beating a soft, faint obbligato to our song.
They"re a great bunch of kids, Father.
- They"ll do all right. - Mm-hm.
Any news yet as to where we"re headed?
Even the colonel doesn"t know that.
(plays ""Chattanooga Choo Choo")
So then l says ""Listen, do you think what l"m thinking?""
She gives me one of them looks and says ""Yeah.""
That"s a tomato every time.
- Writing to that babe of yours? - Why not?
- Some doll, huh? - Yeah, she"s a real hunk of woman.
- And she don"t give me no arguments either. - She don"t, huh?
You know, l had me a dame like that once.
But so did a lot of other guys.
- Good night, Chicken. - Good night, Taxi.
OK, boys.
Come on, come on. Cut out the skylarking. Hit the sack.
Lights out, one minute.
Hey, Sergeant. Do you know yet what we"re up to?
Oh, the same old thing - manoeuvres. Don"t say l told you.
Up and down landing nets, in and out of boats - l"m geting tired of this.
The way you looked at Onslow Beach you could stand plenty of practice.
One of these days we"re gonna run up against the real thing.
- Hey, Tex. - Yeah.
- Hot, ain"t it? - Yeah.
Hoter than a Texas catle car in August.
- So you think it"s hot, do you? - Yeah.
How would you like a nice tall glass of ice-cold beer?
Beer. Strictly a middle-class beverage.
The last time l was in Brooklyn it was just such a night as this.
We was having cocktails.
The old lady brought them in, l took one taste, and boy, what a kick.
- You know what she did? - What?
She took "em out and put in another slug of gin.
- What a sweet old lady. - Yeah.
- Well, good night, Taxi. - Good night.
Yes, this has been a peaceful, lazy day of rest almost everywhere on the ship.
Despite the fact that tomorrow or the next day we"ll know where we"re headed.
Where possibly we may be wounded or die on some Japanese beachhead.
- What"s going on? - l don"t know.
- Where"d they come from? - Look at "em.
ls that a task force for ya! How many are there?
Must be about a thousand.
- So we"re out on manoeuvres, eh? - My eye. Looks like the real McCoy.
- Where"s Jordan? He"ll know the answer. - Jordan, come here.
Give us the lowdown. What are they?
The Pepsi-Cola. The llluscious.
- Boy, that"s a heap of "em. - Now if we only knew where we were going.
Looks like we mean business, Colonel.
lt"s a cheerful thought to be going into this with all this power and force behind us.
- What"s this coming? - That"s the FCPL.
They got a civilian with them.
How do you do, Mr Weatherby? l"m Colonel Grayson.
- Dispatches, sir. - Well, now maybe we"ll find out something.
- Tokyo? - Could be.
Gentlemen, we"re going to atack the Japanese strongholds
on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon lslands.
Guadalcanal?
The Navy and Coast Guard will put us ashore.
Once established, our objective is an airfield which the enemy has almost completed.
Mr Weatherby, who has supervised a copra plantation there,
will tell you some of the difficulties you may expect to encounter.
Well, fellas, this is a detailed map of Guadalcanal.
After crossing the beach you"ll have to penetrate a field of grass
from four to six feet high - and it"s good stuff for the Japs to hide in too.
""Headquarters, fifth regiment, first marine division, fleet marine force, 26th July 1942.""
""From Colonel Wallace E Grayson, USMC, to all members of this command.""
""Subject: mission of this force.""
""The coming action marks the first offensive involving ground forces of the US.""
- ""The marines are to initiate this action..."" - Ain"t it always the way?
""..which will prove the forerunner of successive offensive actions
that will end in ultimate victory for our cause.""
And all we have to do to prove it is to get shot at.
- ""We have worked hard for this action..."" - He"s telling us.
""..and l have every confidence in our ability and desire to force our will upon the enemy.""
- He took the words right out of my mouth. - ""We meet a tough and wily opponent.""
""But he is not sufficiently tough or wily to overcome us, because we are marines.""
- Now you"re talking. - ""Each of us has a task.""
""Let each vow to perform it to the utmost of his ability,
with added effort for good measure.""
""Good luck and God bless you. God favours the bold and strong of heart.""
Wallace E Grayson.
- Very well done, Hook. - Thank you, Brother Pots.
lf l"d only gone to high school... Hey, what is this?
""Annexe E to general order number 3, paragraph D.""
""Burial.""
""Graves will be suitably marked. All bodies will wear identification tags.""
Most of you have never had any experience in the jungle before and the Japs have. Plenty.
So let me give you a word of advice: keep your mouths shut.
Stop yelling your head off.
We can beat "em at their own game of silence if we try, but... you know how marines are.
Some dope"ll yell ""Hey, mac. ls that C company over there?""
lt isn"t funny. Don"t laugh.
lf any of you run over to see if C company is over there,
what kind of chow C company"s having, you"re liable to end up chow yourself.
Honourable bullet, take honourable death of honourable Japanese.
Keep an eye out for snipers all the time.
See a bunch of bananas in a coconut tree, shoot "em down. That makes sense, don"t it?
Hey, wait a minute. This ain"t government issue.
No, that"s Flatbush issue.
lf it"ll make the Japs happy to die for their emperor, l"ll try to make "em happy.
Going to take the island all by yourself?
That would cause no surprise in certain circles in Brooklyn.
And one more thing. Watch out for booby traps.
Don"t go round picking up anything the Japs leave laying around.
What if you promised a certain party a souvenir?
Just forget about it. You"re liable to find it"ll blow right up in your kisser.
lf you see any .45 with a beautiful pearl handle, leave it lay.
- The most beautiful pearl in the world? - Hiya, Father.
- How many Japs they got on that island? - Hard to say. Several thousand.
- Any natives? - About 16,000.
- Uh... cannibals? - No, l believe they"re strict vegetarians.
But then of course they"ve never tasted marine meat.
Don"t worry. Perhaps we"ll land on Friday.
- Well, Chick, looks like it won"t be long now. - Looks that way.
- Tomorrow morning maybe, eh? - Maybe.
Hey, Taxi, what time is it back home now anyway?
- How many hours" difference is there? - 19 between here and San Francisco.
And three more to home. But l never can tell which way it is.
That"s the trouble with me too. l can never tell whether it"s yesterday or tomorrow.
- Would you like to hold him a while? - Sure.
- Take it easy, boy. l"ll see you later, kid. - Yeah, so long.
- Geting bald? - lt"s beginning to look that way.
- How will Edith like that? - She won"t.
By the way, if you need any hair restorer l have an ample supply. A going-away gift.
What do you suppose they"re doing about now?
Sleeping, l hope.
Quite a difference to the days when l sat in your class
and listened to you propound the great philosophies of the world.
l don"t know. Philosophy might come in pretty handy these days.
Jim. How do you feel?
Scared?
l suppose so.
l try to look at it as just ajob, like selling a big order when there"s sales resistance.
Funny that we two should end up like this. The first two companies in.
- Three to one says my outfit lands first. - Three coconuts to two says you don"t.
Good.
lt"s odd we haven"t been atacked by a submarine. Surely they spoted us.
Yes, it is rather odd.
Couldn"t be a trap, could it?
By the way, we ought to be there by morning.
l hear the zero hour should be about 6.20.
Approximately. l"d say the landing would be nearer 8.30.
- Beter not go ashore with the first wave. - And why not?
That"s when l"ll be needed the most, isn"t it?
l guess l"d beter look down below and see if anybody"s got the jiters.
(harmonica plays)
(lively jig)
And now at last the great day itself: Friday August 7th, 1942.
The day for which we"ve trained so long. The day of landing.
There"s none of the gaiety and song which filled the few preceding days.
Every nerve taut.
Perhaps this is because the thing that"s happening seems like a dream.
Here and there a man wets his lips. Breathing is a little harder.
Waiting, eyes strained.
Field glasses pointing toward that high, irregular mass lying beyond the water.
Toward Guadalcanal.
Well, there she is.
We must have almost passed their bateries.
- Either it"s a trick or they"re awful dumb. - lf it works out, it"ll make a swell story.
Let"s not think of it any other way. lt"s got to work.
- Well, Sarge, looks like this is it. - Yeah.
Unbuckle your chin straps and your cartridge belts.
This ain"t no turkey shoot. Make "em all count.
Don"t worry, Sarge. l will.
- Well, Sarge, looks like this is it. - Yeah.
- What they handing you? - Something till they put up the galleys.
Biscuit, sugar, soluble coffee and meat and vegetable stew.
Sounds just like Thanksgiving, huh?
Thanksgiving!
Sorry we"re not going in the same boat.
No use puting all of our eggs in one basket.
Funny how we can stand here preparing to force a landing on the enemy shore
and act as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Yes, it is rather.
You know, Sarge,
times like these make me wish l was back in Brooklyn.
Driving my cab and keeping an eye on them Bums.
When the Yanks get another crack at them they"ll take "em apart.
l should live so long!
Hey, what am l saying?
- Good luck. - Same to you.
Hey, look. Our planes.
Heads down below the gunwales.
That ought to knock out any machine-gun nests or any artillery emplacements.
Hit the deck.
Watch every tree.
(fires)
- What"s up? - l thought l saw a Jap in that tree.
You"re learning fast. Beter to waste ammunition than take any chances.
l"m all wore out landing against such heavy fire.
- Don"t worry. We"ll hear from them yet. - So far so good.
l hope it isn"t a trap.
The second wave"s coming in.
Captain Davis.
- Captain Davis! - Aye-aye, sir.
- Any sign of the enemy? - l think they"re hiding in the hills.
Push right on, but be careful.
- How about those coconuts you owe me? - l thought it was a photo finish.
- You moving up? - No.
Colonel Grayson wants me to hold this village until the MPs move in.
- They sure must have left here in a hurry. - Yeah.
Wasteful, l calls it.
- Hook, there"s somebody in there. - Where?
Watch out, kid.
Ah, for the love of...
Give me a cigarete.
- Since when did you start smoking? - l"m starting right now.
Come on.
Easy through the door, fellas. That"s it.
- Hey, what are you going to do with that? - Sleep in it, l hope.
Just what l needed for Saturday night.
- l wonder what the Japs use it for? - l wouldn"t know.
l got me a case of Jap beer.
Hey, Bowman.
Caviar. l thought these monkeys lived on fish heads and rice.
Yes. lt"s hardly the primitive diet on which they"re supposed to subsist.
- Tastes good too. - Provided, of course, it isn"t poisoned.
lf nothing happens to you, let me know.
Gangway!
- Gangway! - Padre, where"d you get the bike?
- Hey, where did you get it? - Plenty more where this came from.
Must be a couple of hundred Jap trucks there. No telling how many radios, guns.
l guess we really caught them with their pants down.
That"s one way of puting it.
But from the reports from Tulagi, l"m not so sure they did over there.
(four gunshots)
Where"s me helmet?
Hey, Hook. This is it.
- lt"s only three monkeys on a rope. - Pretty small, eh?
Ugly, ain"t they?
Hey, Snow White, where"s the rest of the Seven Dwarves?
- Hart, Schaffner and Marx. - (laughter)
We found them under a bush. We thought it was a trap and let them have it.
A couple of them got away.
- Are these the monkeys we"re fighting? - No, these are labourers.
We can"t get much out of them, sir. This lingo they talk.
They keep pointing to the hills. l guess that"s where the rest of them went.
- Are they praying? - They think we"re going to shoot them.
Corpsman.
Fix "em up.
Arigato.
(others echo him)
We ain"t got no avocados.
Let"s get going. Turn these prisoners over to the MP.
There"s the airfield.
They appear to have moved out, so we"ll move in.
Pots, Anderson.
This flag belonged to Lieutenant Snall. He carried it all the way through China.
He"s had a heart atack.
lt"s his ambition to see his flag flying over captured territory.
- Run it up. - Aye-aye, sir.
(triumphant music)
Maybe we should have waited. Let the Japs finish it up.
Ahh, l bet there ain"t a Jap within ten miles of here.
(gunfire)
Hit the deck.
Where"s me helmet?
Corpsman.
(says prayer in Latin)
- ls he dead? - Yeah, he"s dead.
Amen.
May God have mercy on his soul.
Yes, he is dead. And now we know that not all the enemy have fled.
That in the jungle surrounding us men are lurking.
Silent, dangerous, with weapons.
How many? Where are they hiding? How grave is the danger?
No man can say.
We"ll have to wait and watch in the rain.
Each man with his own thoughts, caught and held in the grip of unseen danger.
And into the night too, with only the drip of the rain through the palms
and distant thunder of naval guns in our ears.
Knowing that if our people lose the battle,
the enemy will be ashore before morning and we"ll have to fight for our lives.
Suddenly most of us know the awful feeling of being pitifully small.
Know for a moment that we"re only tiny particles caught up in the whirlpool of war,
the terror and power and magnificence of man-made thunder making that point real.
And so, wet, miserable and sleepless,
at the mercy of great forces more powerful than anything human,
we face the first night of occupation.
- The Navy isn"t doing much sleeping either. - Not from the sound of that firing.
- Suppose they"ll come in here and shell us? - Could be.
Help!
lt"s a Jap. He"s got me. Help!
Help!
- What is it? - A Jap.
l"m asleep there. A Jap jumped out of a tree with a knife.
- Tojo himself. - (babble of voices)
All right, pipe down. Shove off.
Honest, Sarge. l could have sworn l felt his buck teeth.
Here"s your first Jap prisoner.
Who"s there?
(gunshot)
Jap snipers?
What"s the mater out here?
l heard something. l thought it was a Jap.
Knock off that shooting at every shadow. These men are trying to get some sleep.
- Next time, go after him with your bayonet. - Aye-aye, sir.
Right through the back.
Hiding up in the trees like apes...
Why don"t they come out in the open and fight?
There you are, Father.
ln his pell-mell retreat, the enemy has not even destroyed his equipment.
Already we are converting it to our own use.
Constructing runways, erecting hangars,
setting up defences against the day when we"ll have our own air support.
Knowing that until that day comes we"ve but one course to follow-
to dig in and wait.
(men sing ""Bless "Em All")
Come on, Taxi, step it up. Dig in, will you?
Maybe if we dig deep we"ll come up at Ebbets Field.
Sure. l"m practically standing on second base right now.
(song continues)
We lost four cruisers last night off Savo. We beat them off, though, but good.
- And our casualties in Tulagi and Gavutu? - Heavy. The Japs fought to the last man.
- How many did we get, sir? - About 400 on Tulagi. 800 on Gavutu.
We took them by surprise. Knocked them off like ducks.
Any way of geting our stories out?
There"s a navy plane scheduled in. l"ll see if l can get them aboard.
Thank you, sir.
The first hectic days are over, but we have not been idle.
Day and night our patrols have been out, pushing deeper and deeper into the jungle.
Catching occasional glimpses of the enemy.
Waiting, eager and expectant, for our first contact with the Jap.
The Japs have been parachuting them inside our lines.
They need supplies. Bring these men into my camp.
Lieutenant, you can read this. What"s it say?
Listen to this.
""The enemy before your eyes is collapsing.""
Look, l"m collapsing.
Wait, listen. ""A relief landing party is near.""
- What did l tell you? - Go ahead. l"m frightened.
""We are convinced of help from the imperial heaven.""
Only God"s children go to heaven.
Listen. ""Respect yourself. By no means run away from the encampment.""
(Japanese accent) lt make Tojo very unhappy.
""The enemy has suffered enormous losses.""
""All transports have been sunk and his choicest troops have been annihilated.""
- l guess we"re dead and we don"t know it. - We must be. How about that, Padre?
lf we are, at least we"re not in imperial heaven.
lf we ain"t, it ain"t the cook"s fault.
- Sergeant. - Yes, sir?
- Ask Captain Davis to come here. - He"s in the sickbay. A touch of cat fever.
Anything l can do?
These natives tell me there"s a big bunch of Japs at a village five miles from here.
The prisoner thinks they"ll surrender.
Seems they haven"t any food and most are without weapons.
Take a patrol and see what it"s all about.
- But don"t take any chances. - Yes, sir. lt"ll be a pleasure.
l suggest you go by boat and stay far enough off so they can"t snipe at you from shore.
- Malone. - Yes, sir.
Take this fella down to sickbay and get him fixed up. He"s a friend of ours.
The hair on them guys! What a spot for a matress factory.
Captain Cross, can l go with you? l know the woods pretty good.
- Sure. l"m glad to have you, Alvarez. - Thank you, sir.
Aren"t you the lucky stiff?
Lying here with a pretty nurse waiting on you while l"m off hunting Japs.
lf there"s any hunting of Japs to be done, l"m going to be in on it.
No, you go right ahead and goldbrick. l"ll do your dirty work for you.
Our first crack at the enemy.
Not just hiding in foxholes as he flies over,
taking cover every five minutes, shaking our fists at something we can"t even see.
At Matanikau there are Japs. Men of flesh and blood like ourselves.
We will see them face to face.
And as Captain Cross has put it, it"ll be a pleasure.
Hey, Captain, look.
He"s moving away from us.
He"s spoted us. He"s turning this way.
- Let"s turn back. - No, he"ll head us off.
- We can"t make it. - Coxswain, make a run for it.
Get your heads down.
- We may have to swim for it. - Well, boys, it"s been a great life.
lf you want my opinion, it"s ending a litle too soon.
Go alongside.
Those are our shore bateries.
They"re on the target.
(cheering)
Certain that the sounds of firing have revealed our presence,
Captain Cross has decided to wait for cover of darkness before landing near Matanikau
despite the insistence of the Jap prisoner that all will be well,
that his friends, starving and without weapons,
are waiting in the village eager to surrender.
Turn back. We"ll make our way back by land.
All right, men, dig in. Right on the beach.
- What are we digging in here for, Captain? - l"m not taking any chances.
Let"s have a look around.
(gunfire)
We got to get back to the beach.
- Can you make it? - Sure.
Hey, Corporal. There comes Captain Cross.
Cease firing.
Captain, what happened to Lieutenant Thurmond?
l don"t know.
Soose, go in and see if you can find him.
Aye-aye, sir.
(firing continues)
(intense fire)
l found Lieutenant Thurmond dead, sir. (rails in Spanish)
We got to get word back to Colonel Grayson we"re in trouble.
- l want a volunteer. - l"ll take a crack at it, sir.
- All right, son. Go ahead. - Aye-aye, sir.
(gunfire)
Slowly the night is dragged through.
Somehow our men, even the wounded, have managed to fight on
against an unseen enemy whose perfidy and deceit are now all too clear,
hoping against hope that help would come.
But with the rising sun the last hope fades.
Three men out of the entire patrol remain alive.
The others, to many of whom Guadalcanal was not even a name a few short months ago,
now lie dead in their shallow foxholes,
over which an indifferent sea is already beginning to roll.
We"d beter make a try for the palms.
OK, Captain.
We"d beter go back to Matanikau. This time we"ll go in force. And for blood.
Yes, we"re going back to Matanikau. And this time for blood.
Men, boys, going into battle for the first time in their lives.
Untried, new to the jungle.
High-school athletes, grocers, clerks, taxi drivers.
Men with memories of friends ambushed, tricked, slaughtered.
Those bayonets. l saw them.
l saw them.
Soose, they never knew it.
Beter get that bar off your collar. Don"t want to go round inviting trouble.
Thanks, Captain.
- How you doing? Still trigger-happy? - You"d beter wait and ask the Japs.
Here.
- There you are. - Thanks.
- Hey, Butch, you got a cigarete? - Sure. Help yourself.
- Jap cigaretes. - Half tobacco, half stinkweed.
Now l"ll enjoy them more than ever. l thought they were all stinkweed. Ew!
That"s one for Captain Cross.
Dig in light for a mortar barrage in this area.