WWII

Her superstructure was a flaming shambles, her skipper and 76 of her complement were dead, her wounded had to be placed in life jackets and cast overboard, but the destroyer Hazelwood refused to go down.

An infantry replacement who cracked a Japanese defense line that whole battalions couldn’t even dent is rapidly becoming a legend hereabouts.

Using every mountain climbing and flame-throwing tactic in the book, 7th division doughfeet have stormed and burned through the fortifications atop Yaeju-Dake plateau in what may turn out to be the final battle for Okinawa.

The going is easier now on Okinawa – and whatever hopes the Japanese had of stopping the avalanche of American fighting men is gone.

The most vicious type of hand-to-hand fighting is raging all along the southern front of Okinawa. The veterans of the 7th Division are engaging in more hand-to-hand combat than in all their other three campaigns put together.