Colonel Grayson says to watch your fire. Only fire toward the beach.
Some of our men are moving in below.
Pass the word along. They"re not to fire into the palm grove. Only toward the beach.
OK.
Pass the word.
Keep your heads down.
- Hey, Hook. - Yeah.
How do you feel about killing... people?
lt"s kill or be killed, ain"t it? Besides, those ain"t people.
- Yeah, l know, but the first time? - Well, it was kind of rugged l guess.
Then it"s just repetition. Quit thinking about it. You"ll go crazy.
Hey, look.
(gunfire)
- That"s for me. - Wait. You nuts?
All we ever shoot at is privates. That"s a major.
You got enough to think about without going for souvenirs. And keep your head down.
Stay here.
(gunfire)
- Yeah, Tex? - You see what l see?
Oh, yeah.
- Are you Sergeant York or Gary Cooper? - They were good too.
(makes animal noises)
Scratch one squint-eye.
Hook.
- Hook. - What the...?
- Hook. - Yeah, take it easy.
Corpsman.
Corpsman!
l thought he was dead.
Yeah, l know.
- Hook, am l going to...? - Nah. You"ll be all right.
Beautiful sword.
l promised a certain party...
Yeah, l know.
lt ain"t possible.
We gota get outa here.
Think you can walk?
l guess so.
(planes overhead)
Hold it. l"ll lift you up.
OK.
- Hook. The sword. - Yeah, l know. You promised it.
Look, l"ll go back and get the sword for you.
You will? Thanks.
l"ll get you a couple of Japs to put on it too.
- There"s an ambulance. Can you make it? - Yeah.
- Hook, what time is it? - Told you to save your breath.
l mean, back home.
l never thought this would happen to me. What time is it, Hook?
Where"s the doctor? Doctor!
Yes.
Corpsman, plasma.
- You"d beter get back. l"ll watch out for him. - Thanks, Father.
The Battle of Matanikau is over.
And this war of mighty armies, of masses of men, of tank and plane and armour,
has been just an episode, a skirmish.
A few score men killed or wounded.
But the enemy has been defeated, almost wiped out, and one thing we"ve learned.
Colonel Grayson was right- it"s not going to be a picnic.
The first emotion, elation, is gone.
Veterans now, blooded bush-fighting specialists,
their bravado gone, or at least subdued, with a new respect for the Japs.
Weary, silent, stunned.
Men with glazed eyes holding their sides.
Limping along, shock-blast victims, staggering, sometimes falling,
the only sound an occasional groan.
Moving like drunken men or men in a dream.
Heads, legs bandaged, clothes torn.
Unlit cigarettes dangling from their lips.
Old before their times.
Boys with the memory of death in their eyes.
Staring, remembering friends they"ve left back there.
- You know what them monkeys say? - Nah.
They didn"t even know they was on Guadalcanal.
As for them killing themselves rather than get caught,
l saw a couple of these skivvies making a motion to commit hari-kari.
Did they break out in grins when nobody tossed them a knife.
- l ain"t got no use for this one. - Mail.
- Mail.
Yahoo! Mail.
Come and get it.
- Dubosky. - Here.
- Jensen. - Coming up.
- Malone. - That"s me.
Gimme that, will you?
Captain Cross.
- l"ll take it. - Here"s two more, sir.
- Father Donnelly. - Here.
- Bibles. - lt"s heavier than that. More like a cake.
- Harold Grayson. - How about Aloysius T Pots?
Take it easy. We"ll get around to you.
Mcllvoy.
Oh, that"s me.
""Querido Jesus.""
""Aquí tengo tu retrato cerca...""
Conchita or Lolita?
Margarita.
From the Flatbush Athletic Club.
""Are you keeping fit in these difficult days? You owe it to yourself to exercise regularly.""
""Course in body-building, $25.""
- lt"ll be a bargain. - Yeah.
Yeah, l know. She"s some hunk of woman. And she don"t give you no arguments either.
Hey, fellas, l"m a mother. Her name is Geraldine. She"s three months old.
He got up too soon.
Now, boys, l want you to study these. Diligently.
Thank you, Father. Now maybe we can find out how we"re doing.
From dear Mom - and no bills.
l wonder if Edith knows yet.
- What"s that? - My future publisher. Book Of The Month.
- What have you got? - Long Remember.
- What"s it about? - The Batle of Gettysburg.
- You know. Gettysburg Address. - Gettysburg Address?
Where Lincoln lived. Civil War, remember?
You mean the war they had in Gone With The Wind. Boy, that was a war.
That"s all.
Oop, one more.
- Dubosky. - Hey, that"s another one for me.
Are you sure there"s nothing for me? Sammy Klein?
Sorry, Sammy, that"s all there is.
They wrote to you. ltjust missed the boat. You know how mail is.
Let"s go, mac.
Hey, Sammy.
Come here. l want you to read this. ""From the future Mrs Malone.""
She must be some dame if you want to marry her.
The trouble with you guys is you never met a lady. Go on, read it.
What makes you think l can read?
- Taxi, how"s about lending me that razor? - What for?
l must have lost mine coming ashore.
Let me see.
Right there.
Oh, yeah.
- Hey, Tex, Soose, fellas. - Cut it out, Taxi.
We got to investigate this. Come over here.
- Look, a whisker. - Where?
Right there. You can see it with the naked eye.
- Think we ought to shave it off? - Let"s leave it and see what it turns into.
- Kind of cute, ain"t it? - Ow!
- Say, Hook. - Yeah.
- Look what l found. Limes. - Oh, boy.
lf l only had some ice, soda water, cherries and a botle of gin,
would l make you a Tom Collins.
- You know l"m just fooling, Father. - That"s all right, son.
But if you find those ingredients, drop around.
Condition red.
Here we go again.
Condition red.
- Condition red. - Sui.
Douse the fire.
- Where"s me helmet? - Sui.
Here, boy. Here, Sui. Come on, boy.
(gunfire and planes overhead)
- There they are. - (anti-aircraft fire)
Here they come.
- Hit the deck. - (bombs dropping)
(anti-aircraft fire)
Father Donnelly.
- He"s been hit. - You"ll be all right. lt"s concussion.
Don"t burrow in so deep. Next time, cushion yourself on your elbows.
(anti-aircraft fire)
Wait till our planes get here. They won"t look so pretty.
Yeah, but where are our planes?
Today is a red-letter day on the island. Reinforcements are coming in.
The army. And coming not a day too soon either,
for we are tired after days of heat and rain,
dust and disease, mud and malnutrition.
Weeks of constant fighting,
watching the enemy slipping more and more men ashore from Bougainville and Rabaul.
The target of his bombers and Zeros,
against whom we"re lucky to put up a mere six or seven Grummans.
ls it any wonder the welcome sign is out?
l never thought l"d be so glad to see an army man. My name"s Anderson.
Boy, am l glad to see you guys. You"re a sight for sore eyes.
Say, buddy, how many Japs you killed?
Quiet. Confidentially, that"s a military secret.
Thought you"d be in foxholes on the beach. This place looks great.
lt does, huh? Well, give it time, brother. The beauty will wear off.
- Where you from? - Minnesota.
- l"m from Flatbush. - Never heard of it.
What am l laughing at?
Every enemy thrust on our airfield so far has been beaten off.
His ships have been sunk, his dead are numbered in hundreds.
But the Jap is a persistent foe.
Now he is holed up in the caves on the island,
from which vantage spots he is a constant menace to our patrols.
He must be driven out, and to Colonel Grayson and his men has fallen the task.
Nor is it going to be an easy one.
These rocky ledges and great natural caves afford excellent positions,
from which his machine guns can sweep the countryside.
The men behind those machine guns are fanatics.
They"ll die at their posts, some chained to their weapons, rather than surrender.
One by one they must be blasted from the earth that hides them.
- What do you think, Hook? - l think it"s a trick.
There are probably 30 or 40 in each cave. We"ve got to get them out of there.
- Malone, you and Pots know the ropes. - l knew it.
Get above those caves and use grenades. We"ll cover you, OK?
- Yeah, sure. - OK, mac.
(gunfire)
Take some of those pineapples.
- All set, Sarge? - Yeah.
Davis"s idea. He says it"ll blow the place to pieces.
Let me have it.
(gunfire)
This gasoline and TNT ought to do the trick.
(laughter)
(radio announcer) And now for the world of sports.
All right, pipe down.
The Yanks"ll murder them guys.
- Aloysius T Pots talking for the Yanks? - New York"s my hometown, ain"t it?
Since when did Flatbush become part of New York?
Who said anything about Flatbush being part of New York? lt"s just vicey-versey.
(men try to shut them up)
Sportsman"s Park at St Louis was packed with 34,255 wild-eyed fans
as the Cards and the Yanks tangled in the second game of the World Series.
On the mound for the New York Yanks was Ernie Bonham.
Well, that setles it.
The Cards sent their 23-year-old rookie out in a surprise move to even the Series.
- Come on, you Redbirds. - Give us the score, will you?
Dazzling fielding marked every inning, but it was not until the eighth,
with the score tied one to one, that the fans got the real thrills.
Will you give us the score?
Jim Brown and Terry Moore proved to be easy outs,
but Enos Slaughter caught one of Bonham"s fast ones
and slammed a scorching liner to right field and slid into second base for a double.
- l knew he could do it. - Think nothing of it.
Take it easy, Ernie boy. Make every one count.
Roy Cullenbine, confused by the Redbirds earlier on, made a perfect throw to the bag.
Ataboy.
- But Phil Rizzuto let the ball slip through. - Tag the bum out.
While he was trying to locate it, Slaughter dashed safely for third.
- l was expecting that. - He isn"t home yet.
Stan Musial worked Bonham for a 2-3 pitch.
And then, with the home crowd yelling for a hit, he...
(signal is lost)
- And the final score... - You can"t do that. Give us the score.
Wait. Shh.
And that"s the way the game ended.
(shell whistles)
Condition red. Condition red.
Condition red.
Don, condition red.
First time l"ve ever had a tree in bed with me.
l don"t mind the one with my name on it. lt"s the ""To whom it may concern"" l don"t like.
They"re throwing everything at us but the kitchen stove.
(whistling)
(explosion)
That"s the stove now.
(sobs quietly)
- Here, take a puff. - No, thanks.
Sure makes you feel kind of naked.
Nothing between you and kingdom come except coconut logs.
lt isn"t so much dying. lt"s having to sit here and take it.
Anybody who says he ain"t scared is a fool or a liar.
- ls there any room in here? - Come on in.
Sit over here, Father.
- Those sound like eight-inch shells to me. - Bigger than that, l imagine.
There"s a report of a couple of batleships and about eight cruisers off Savo lsland.
- How"s it going up there? - OK.
You know, they"ve got some great navy doctors here.
When this started they were in the midst of an operation.
Had to go on or the kid would have died.
Think they ran off and left him? Not those boys.
- How do you know, Padre? Were you there? - Who, me? Well, naturally l had to stay.
- Hey, that was a bomb. - Yes, their planes are busy too.
They"re pasting Henderson Field.
(explosions)
Father, you got any objections if l say what l"m thinking?
Go right ahead, son. Don"t mind me.
Well, l don"t know about these other guys, but me, well...
l"m telling you, this thing is over my head.
lt"s going to take somebody bigger than me to handle it.
l ain"t much at this praying business. My old lady always took care of that.
Yeah, my old lady was like that too.
l don"t know as l mean that kind of praying. The Lord"s Prayer and things like that.
l know what you"re talking about, Taxi. l used to pray like that when l was a kid.
""Lord, give me this, give me that. Please let the Yanks win.""
l never been in a spot like this before in my life.
l"m no hero. l"m just a guy.
l come out here because somebody had to come.
l don"t want no medals. l just want to get this thing over with.
l"m just like everybody else, and l"m telling you l don"t like it.
Except l guess there"s nothing l can do about it.
l can"t tell them bombs to hit somewhere else.
Like l said before, it"s up to somebody bigger than me, bigger than anybody.
What l mean is l...
l guess it"s up to God.
And l"m not kidding when l say l sure hope he knows how l feel.
l"m not going to say l"m sorry for everything l"ve done.
When you"re scared like this, the first thing you do is start trying to square things.
lf l get out of this alive, l"ll probably go out and do the same things all over again.
The only thing l know is l didn"t ask to get in this spot.
(explosion)
And if we get it -
and it sure looks that way now -
then l only hope he figures we"ve done the best we could and lets it go at that.
Maybe this is a funny kind of praying to you guys, but it"s what l"m thinking and praying.
- Amen. - Amen.
Seeing your friends hurt and killed is not a thing you can easily forget.
True, we have killed four, five, six or even ten for every man we"ve lost.
That"s statistics. But l find it very difficult to think of these boys as statistics.
They were just Joe and Jim, Bill and Whiz and Alabam to us.
God rest their souls.
(faint aeroplane engines)
Here they come again.
Hey, wait a minute.
Those ain"t Japs. Those are ours. That"s our air support.
Thank God. At last.
- Our planes, Taxi. - Yeah, our planes.
But what"s this? More reinforcements? More marines coming ashore?
Kids full of big talk, itching for a fight.
Just like us a few months ago.
Hey, they got one of them here too.
""USO headquarters. Big dance tonight. All marine and navy personnel invited.""
l get it, Spike. FHA project 782.
Hey, good-looking, how"s the female situation?
- The which? - The love life, stupid.
What is this love life the gentleman"s talking about?
Never heard of it. Must be some strange custom they have back in the States.
You"re killing you, ain"t you?
Don"t look now, but a truck of gas just came on the field.
Maybe they can stop dishing it out with an eyedropper.
Perhaps we"ll get out of here by Christmas.
But which Christmas?
- What, no sheeps" tongues? - No sheeps" tongues.
Hey, Taxi, now maybe we"ll get three meals a day.
Must be some mistake. This tastes OK.
l don"t like it, boy. When these luxuries start coming it means us marines has got to go.
- Hot. - Oh.
- What"s up? - Your guess is as good as mine.
You can bet one thing. We"re not geting all that stuff for nothing.
We"ve learned not to underestimate them. We know now they won"t surrender.
We also know they aren"t supermen either.
We outshoot them, we outfight them and we usually outguess them.
lt"s taken us a while to get rid of our cockiness, but l think we"re ready now.
Here"s the enemy, with strong points stretching all the way through here.
About 10,000, as near as we can determine.
They"ve been building up their forces.
The terrain"s in their favour. There"s jungles and rivers and up here, caves,
like those on Tulagi, in which they holed in in the first days of our invasion.
Don"t make the mistake of underrating them. They"re good. But we"re beter.
So far we"ve been on the defensive.
We"ve done very well at Matanikau, Tenaru and Bloody Ridge.
But our ultimate success requires that we extend the area we occupy.
To do this we have three jobs.
One: to eliminate the Japs already on the island.
Two: to wipe out their heavy artillery, which is a constant menace to our airfields.
Three: to establish new bases from which to carry the fight to other enemy strongholds.
This will require an all-out effort,
and l can think of no beter date to begin it than tomorrow.
November 10th, the 167th anniversary of the Marine Corps.
(men sing)
Tomorrow, the battle.
But tonight, the last night for many of us perhaps,
there are other things to think of, to do.
A song. One we used to sing of an evening back home -
Bill and Joe and the rest of the gang.
Home. Most of all, home.
Things that are never very far from our thoughts.
That a letter managed somehow to bring closer to us, even here.
Little things that may give us the courage to face that tomorrow.
These boys are perfectly wonderful. Makes me proud to serve with them.
lf the other millions they"re training at home are anything like these,
then we have nothing to worry about.
(men sing ""Home On The Range")
Dear Mom. l"m fine and l hope you and Dad are not worrying,
because everything"s OK - no kidding.
Well, girly, l bet you never expected to hear from me again.
But ha-ha! l fooled you.
Because when a gentleman like l tells a lady like you something, that"s something.
They say that if we clean them out this time they"ll take us out of here for a rest.
That means l might see you for Christmas after all.
And l mean see.
(song continues)
- All set, Malone? - Aye-aye, sir.
- Tell the men to fall in. - Aye-aye, sir.
All right, you guys. Fall in!
Come on. On the double.
Left face.
Forward march.
At last the great offensive is under way, an offensive this time in force.
This will not be the last fight for Guadalcanal, but it is the beginning of the end.
Of that there can be no doubt.
And how the picture has changed.
The difficult early days, the critical days, from August 7th when we landed
through October 26th when reinforcements and supplies began to pile ashore,
those grave days are past.
No longer are we to be content merely to hold what we have.
With the army at our side we are out to get the Jap, to give him a dose of his own medicine.
To make Henderson Field, our first objective on the island, a real offensive base
from which to strike closer and closer to the heart of the Japanese octopus.
The plan is very simple.
Three detachments - one by the shore road,
one by boat and a third through the jungle.
Those who go by shore will fight a holding action.
Those who go by boat will land far to the west and attack the enemy in the rear.
The main action on the Jap positions will come from the jungle.
And what of the men who are now advancing?
Those sorely tried marines who fought so gallantly in the first days,
and who are now proceeding to the grim business of taking the fight to the enemy.
The long-awaited day of all-out action is at hand.
Gone now is the loud surface toughness of last summer.
ln its place is the cool, quiet fortitude that comes only with battle experience.
There is to be but one command.
Attack, attack and attack.
Ain"t that General Vandegrift with Colonel Grayson?
Yeah.
- Don"t he know it"s dangerous up here? - Why don"t you go tell him?
Hey, Jap. You forgot something.
(laughs)
You forgot something. Funny.
(gunshot)
(command in Japanese)
That"s one you taught me, Tojo.
(cries out)
Today, December 10th 1942, will be our last day on the island.
The job is done. We are going out.
lt"s from Admiral WF Halsey, commander of the South Pacific force.
lt says: ""Never throughout the history of the Marine Corps
have your deeds been surpassed.""
""Your courage and tenacity make for a fighting spirit
that has surmounted every hardship and conquered a treacherous enemy.""
""No commander could ask more than you have given each hour of the day and night.""
""By your accomplishments you have added a new verse to the Marine Hymn,
set the patern for our victory and tower as an inspiration for every American.""
""Today as never before we the Navy are justly proud of you.""
""ln deep appreciation for ajob superbly done, and knowing you will win until victory,
we say "God bless you all."""
Yes, going out for a well-earned rest, the job superbly done.
The army is coming in to take over.
lnto their hands we commit the job with full confidence in their ability to perform it.
Oh, boy. A whisker, finally.
- Hey, buddy, what"s it like out here? - lt"s pretty rugged, son.
- See you guys in Tokyo. - OK. We"ll be there waiting for you.