The Twilight Warriors (70 page)

32
Call Me Ernie

1
“I much prefer a bird dog that you have to whistle in”: Buckner on Maj. Gen. Andrew Bruce, Buckner and Stilwell,
Seven Stars
, 24.

2
Comparing Ie Shima terrain to Iwo Jima: Appleman,
Okinawa: The Last Battle
, 150. Another enemy-held feature called “the Pinnacle” confronted the 24th Corps in the south of Okinawa.

3
“Their firepower is so great we dared not show our heads”: Japanese soldier’s diary entry on Ie Shima landings, ibid., 157.

4
Ernie Pyle’s death on Ie Shima is drawn from various accounts including David Nichols’s
Ernie’s War: The Best of Ernie Pyle’s World War II Dispatches
, 32, and Lee Miller,
The Story of Ernie Pyle
, 419–26.

5
“Base of Pinnacle completely surrounded despite bitterest fight I have ever witnessed”: Andrew Bruce quoted by Appleman,
Okinawa: The Last Battle
, 177.

6
Japanese lose 4,700 dead on Ie Shima: Gordon Rottman,
Okinawa, 1945
, 69.

7
Sailors go ashore on Mog Mog: Wheeler,
The Road to Tokyo
, 88.

33
Counteroffensive

1
Nimitz worries that the Okinawa battle is dragging on too long: Hallas,
Killing Ground on Okinawa
, 10.

2
“If this line isn’t moving within five days, we’ll get someone here to move it so we can all get out from under these damn air attacks”: Nimitz to Buckner, ibid., 10.

3
Buckner concerned that the proposed amphibious landing could turn into “another Anzio”: ibid., 11.

4
Spruance is “impatient for some of Holland Smith’s drive”: Buell,
The Quiet Warrior
, 356–47.