War Diaries (April 1) (nonfiction)
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Diaries
Duane Nelson: April 1, 1944
April 1st, Easter Sunday, April Fool’s Day and the invasion of Okinawa. Our landing met no resistance, not like Peleliu. ... Last night we got a glimpse of Okinawa from the ship. We had a very wonderful breakfast: real fried eggs and some swell steak. Boy, I really ate heavy since it might be my last time I have plenty to eat. Along about 5:30 the battle wagons and cruisers started opening up. Some Racket! At 0610 I saw my first Jap plane shot down. Boy, they got him in a cross fire and then he burst into flames. He tried to crash into a ship, but the plane just landed in the water. … We landed on the wrong beach but it was a successful landing in the Amph. Quickly we got to our original beach and found the line company was way up at the airport. So we went up to where they were. We passed by some burial vaults that had been bombed open. These people buried the dead sitting up. After 3 years they take them out, cremate them, and put them in a little box. The first part of the morning was spent going through the village of Sobe. The funny part was that no one gave us any resistance at all. We reached the airfield at about 14:00. We caught, butchered and cooked a pig for our first meal. … Everybody was really tired, especially the fellows carrying the heavy Army type ammunition. Later this afternoon we went through the town of China. The villages look like the natives are just a wee bit more advantaged than the ones down at Guadalcanal. The place in general is very pretty country. Raven said it reminded him something of Kentucky. When they raise anything like barley, wheat, onions, parsnips, and sweet potatoes, they have a lot about 30’ square. The land has rolling hills and some nice valleys in which the gardens are.
—Duane "Swede" Nelson (diary)
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External links
- Excerpts from Duane Nelson’s WWII diaries @ spokesman.com