Hershel Woodrow Williams' mind went as black as the beaches he had just stormed. Known affectionately as 'Woody', standing at a modest 168cm (5ft 6in) tall and having reached drinking age just few months prior, he struck an unlikely figure to be thrust into the fray at a time of immense peril. It was 23 February 1945, and American forces were faltering on the infamous Japanese island of Iwo Jima.
A series of reinforced concrete pillboxes stood in the way of securing the first of two main airfields a short distance from the shore, each individual position staunchly defended by troops prepared to die for their cause. The Marines needed to fight fire with fire, leaving Williams, armed with his flamethrower and accompanied by five comrades, with the chance to stand tall.
The odds had rarely been in his favour, yet he had defied them at almost every turn.
Born in Quiet Dell, West Virginia, weighing 1.6kg (3¹2lb), few had expected the infant boy to live. He nevertheless survived despite having already lost several siblings amid the flu pandemic. Years later, his father succumbed to a heart attack and his widowed mother was forced to look after the family dairy farm by herself. Williams would go on to work numerous jobs, including a role with the Civilian Conservation Corps in which he
was engaged on a Montana-based project when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. While personally compelled to serve like countless other fellow Americans, Williams had no wish to join his brothers in the US Army, believing that the brown uniforms were ugly; instead, he had his sights on the dress blue of the Marine Corps.
Denne historien er fra Issue 114-utgaven av History of War.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 114-utgaven av History of War.
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NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Einstein, Oppenheimer and the race to beat Hitler to the bomb. How a science project in the desert helped win a war