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Previously, on World War II in HD.
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This war is all hell and horror.
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Colorado native Bert Stiles takes off on one of the deadliest assignments in the war,
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co-piloting a b-17 bomber over Europe.
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The only death we see is the death of our friends.
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All I know is, if I have to crawl back in that bomber, I'll beat my brains out.
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While in the pacific. This, is war at its grimmest.
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War correspondent Robert Sherrod heads to Saipan
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and witnesses the mass suicides of 1,000 civilians.
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What does all this self-destruction mean?
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Do the suicides of Saipan mean that the whole Japanese race
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will choose death before surrender?
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Grant us a common faith, that man shall know bread and peace,
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That he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security,
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an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best,
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not only in our own lands but throughout the world.
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Very few of the things you did in combat or experienced or endured ever go away.
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And, it never goes away.
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The starkness of these events never leaves.
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It is just a shock today that I am talking to you, as it was back then.
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Physical wounds generally with time, heal.
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But we have these,
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these memories that are burden to our souls.
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and they will never go away.
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They are just too deep inside of us. They will never go away. No, never.
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Part of me is ready to be a war hero and make my family proud.
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But I'm also aware I'm being asked to fight and possibly die for $1.66 a day.
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Five months after D-Day, 19-year-old Boston native Rockie Blunt lands on Omaha Beach.
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Drafted in 1943, the jazz drummer is attached to the army's 84th infantry division.
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It is his first time ever in a combat zone.
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We wade ashore and I stop to take it all in.
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I recognize this place from the newsreels I've seen of the invasion back in June.
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Guns still on the bunkers, gaping shell craters
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as if the invasion was yesterday, not months ago.
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We are told to just start marching with our field packs and other equipment.
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Nobody's telling us where we're going or how far we'll go.
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My combat boots don't fit.
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The pain is excruciating.
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But we keep marching.
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Blunt and the 84th infantry are one of the many reinforcement divisions sent in to bolster fighting forces,
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depleted since the D-Day invasion.
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By November of 1944,
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Allied forces occupy a contiguous fighting front of over 400 miles
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stretching from Antwerp, Belgium, to the Swiss Alps.
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Reinforcements are needed to relieve the battle-weary divisions
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who have been locked in stagnant fighting on the front lines.
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But the Allies have not yet captured a usable port,
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so all new troops must land at Normandy and then make an arduous journey of over 300 miles to the front.
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The evidence of battle is everywhere.
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Pastures and orchards are pocked with artillery craters.
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Trees, at least those few that remain standing, are splintered and shattered.
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Horse carcasses rot in the sun.
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Burned-out tanks lie on their sides.
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This is so vastly different from my carefree life back home.
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The war is no longer far away from me.
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After 16 days on the move, Blunt and the 84th division have traveled over 400 miles.
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They are now closing in on the Dutch-German border,
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where the fighting is taking a heavy toll on American troops.
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Within hours, he will be joining the battle there.
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After all these months of preparation, the fear of the unknown is finally hitting me.
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My heart is pounding.
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I try to make myself feel better by forcing myself to think about home,
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but it doesn't help much.
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My God, I don't know if I'll be able to do this.
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Though I've seen this many times, I can't help thinking:
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"nobody can live through this." but I know better.
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Five months after witnessing the carnage on Saipan,
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"Time Life" magazine correspondent Robert Sherrod is on a ship
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off the coast of the remote pacific island of Iwo Jima.
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The 36-year-old Georgia native is watching the final hours of 74 days of pre-invasion bombardment.
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Many believe that we'll take the island in five days,
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while the major general in charge is saying ten.
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One opinion is universal: Everybody knows we're going to lose a lot of men.
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But we have no choice.
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We have to take Iwo.
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Located midway between Saipan and Japan, Iwo Jima will provide a strategically important airfield
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for the Americans' continuing effort to bomb Japan,
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an effort that is coming at a high price in terms of lost bombers and lives.
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By taking the island, American forces can establish a fighter base
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that will provide air cover for the b-29 super fortresses taking off from Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.
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It takes a b-29 18 hours to fly to Japan and back.
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With Iwo's air base, long-range p-51 Mustangs will be able to escort the bombers all the way to their targets.
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Iwo will also serve as an emergency landing base for crippled bombers returning from Japan.
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The mission to secure Iwo Jima will be grueling.
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American forces face a mixed terrain of cane fields, scrub growth, and barren volcanic ash,
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At the southern end by the 550-foot Mount Suribachi,
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a dormant volcano that conceals a nest of bunkers, tunnels, and fighting positions.
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The island is covered in a pall of smoke and dust.
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Only the topmost peak of Suribachi is visible.
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I've got the pit-of-the-stomach emotion I feel when I know
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many men who love life are about to die.
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I've climbed down cargo nets several times.
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I've seen tough beachheads before.
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But I feel I have no business being here.
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The law of averages is staring me in the face.
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A few hundred yards from shore, we transfer to another boat and await our final approach.
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I run into a reporter who was part of the first wave.
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"I wouldn't go in there if I were you," he says.
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"There's more hell in there than in the rest of the war put together."
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Today is the day I've been waiting for.
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This is the day that I will meet and fight the Germans on his own ground.
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In the first combat mission of his life,
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GI Rockie Blunt is with the 84th infantry division.
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They're advancing toward the city of Geilenkirchen, Germany, along Hitler's Siegfried Line.
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The company commander is yelling: "Go, go, go,
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come on, get moving, we have a city to take."
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I know the enemy is just yards away.
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We come up on some buildings
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And not knowing what have to do, having never shot, fired a shot in anger,
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When I saw the first row of windows, I thought I saw a movement, so I took a shot at it.
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And then I thought I saw more movement and I took a shot at that window.
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And then I started running across at the vegetable field
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and suddenly somebody screamed they had stepped on a shoe mine and blown his leg off.
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And I realized we were running helter skelter through a mine field.
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My heart is in my throat.
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I see a GI lying on the ground.
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His leg is blown off below the knee.
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Another GI is blown apart at the hip.
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I'm frozen.
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I'm sickened by what I just saw.
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I wish I hadn't looked.
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After a frantic sprint, Blunt makes his way out of the mine field
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and to the edge of the city of Geilenkirchen.
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There's no one in sight.
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I've got the sinking feeling that I have been left behind.
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That I'm totally isolated.
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What am I supposed to do now?
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Germany is a wretched land, but England is a lovely place.
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After surviving his required 35 missions, co-piloting a b-17 over France and Germany,
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24-year-old Bert Stiles is convalescing at an English estate
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where war-weary fliers are sent to recuperate from the stress of combat.
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We were talking about the world.
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Most of these jokers think the war is just a necessary phase of a lifetime
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and it won't make any difference in the long run.
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Everybody here seems resigned to the inevitable.
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and pretty sure everything will be the same when they get home.
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Well, I for one hope it isn't the same.
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Established by the army air force in 1942,
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bomber crews refer to these retreats as "flak farms"
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as homage to the deadly anti-aircraft fire that causes so much of their anxiety.
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Men are sent here for a week of relaxation.
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They are encouraged to spend their days biking, fishing, or playing badminton.
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Stiles, an aspiring novelist,
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spends his time writing about his experiences in the cockpit of a b-17.
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"Portrait of a guy with blood on his hands," by Bert Stiles.
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A shell had just busted outside by the waist of window of the fort.
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The waist gunner wore flak suit, and flak helmet, but neither helped much
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One chuck hit low on the forehead, clip the top...
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"The Ranger comes back", by Bert Stiles.
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They were tired of losing airplanes, digging charred pilots out of the ground.
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They want the "safe" pilots who flew by the book.
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My head was all dark inside, full of jagged lights...
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"By this I live" by Bert Stiles.
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"What I have written before I profoundly believe in.
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I'm sure of the life this self should live, but the self is a thing of wonder.
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The strangest question I know is: Who am I?
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This being called "Bert Stiles."
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Although completion of his required number of bomber missions makes Stiles eligible to return to the States,
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he chooses to remain in England for another tour of duty.
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But instead of returning to the b-17s,
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he requests and receives an assignment as a p-51 fighter pilot.
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I'm through with the big birds, and that pleases me so much.
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I'm transferring to the fighters, the 339th group.
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I figure I might as well stay until the end of the war,
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and flying a fighter is all I've wanted since this whole thing started.
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When this war ends, I want to be here.
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Still flying.
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We only hold about one fourth of Iwo Jima.
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And already, our total casualties are almost 4,200.
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I have never seen such mangled bodies.
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In one shell hole are eight dead marines.
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Some are cut squarely in half.
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legs and arms are 50 feet from bodies.
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Almost all of the casualties are American,
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and all died with the greatest possible violence.
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I see a string of guts 50 feet long
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and everywhere is the smell of burning flesh.
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This is even worse than Saipan.
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Four days after landing on the sulfurous island of Iwo Jima,
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"Time Life" correspondent Robert Sherrod is surveying the Marines' progress.
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Although our naval and air power is immense, there comes a time when power alone has reached its limit,
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and men must pay for yardage with their lives.
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With the beachhead secure, the marines have managed to push inland
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and overcome the southeast defenses on the outer slopes of Suribachi,
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cutting off the mountain from the rest of the Japanese fighting force.
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But the Marines still need to route every last Japanese fighter
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out of his defensive positions inside the mountain.
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On the morning of February 23rd, a patrol is sent to the summit.
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They are given a small American flag and told to raise it if they make it to the top.
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About 11 o clock, someone yells for us to look up at Mount Suribachi.
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They've got a flag on the summit.
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Tears well in the eyes of several Marines as they watch the little flag fluttering in the wind.
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If we can capture that vertical monstrosity, it seems we can do anything.
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This is the first American flag to fly over Japanese territory.
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But hours after it is planted, a Marine officer orders it replaced with a larger flag.
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Six men raise this second flag,
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and as it is being lifted, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal snaps a photo.
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For Sherrod and the Marines below, the raising of this second flag goes virtually unnoticed.
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They are far more preoccupied with winning the battle.
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The Japs are raising hell.
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The are firing mortars and rockets from every direction and great profusion.
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It's been days since the invasion.
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But the fighting is just the beginning.
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Most of the city is cleared, except for a few diehard snipers.
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I don't know if I'll ever get used to this helpless feeling.
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At any moment, someone could take me out.
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After losing contact with his company on his first day in a combat zone,
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rookie infantryman Rockie Blunt is back with his comrades.
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They're in the city of Geilenkirchen,
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from where most of Hitler's troops have fled.
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Blunt's orders are to clear buildings of mines,
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booby traps and any remaining Germans.
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We search the buildings, and so far, there's no sign of booby trap or Germans.
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I'm happy not to come across any booby traps,
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but it would be nice to find a couple of souvenirs.
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Something to take home with me.
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Approaching the square, I signal for my unit to check out a cellar.
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I am hearing voices. They are talking in German.
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They didn't know I was in the building.
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And I yelled at them in German: "Come out with your hands up."
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And 18 of them came out like this and they saw the mine detector. Oh, oh, oh.,,
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They didn't know what a mine detector was.
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They thought it was a secret weapon.
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I marched them out into the street, and already the MPs were there.
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And I marched them out the street, and I said: " Here's a 18 crowds for you."
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and he said: "how did you capture them?"
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I said to him: "With my mine detector."
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he just shook his head and said: "This couldn't have happened."
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One by one, I strip them of their knives, their pistols, and their rifles.
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Before I march them out, I pocket a few of them as keepsakes.
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I want to have something to remember to stay by,
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my first day in combat, my baptism by fire.
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For me, these are trophies.
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Now I can sling my rifle over my shoulder.
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Now I can be proud.
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A voice in my ear shouting: "Rich-Bitch Four! Bandit at 6 o clock!"
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Rich-Bitch Four, that's me.
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Bert Stiles is on his fourth mission as a p-51 pilot.
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He is escorting a group of b-17s
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returning from a bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany,
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,when he spots trouble.
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My wingman pulls a screaming dive down to the deck.
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He calmly tells me he's lost his oxygen and needs to get low where he can breathe.
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I chase him down through the clouds.
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Popping out over some town, and every damn house is shooting up at us.
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Pulling back up through the clouds, we run right into a swarm of Germans, 40 of them, maybe more.
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Must be every damn plane left in the Luftwaffe.
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Breaking left, a fighter slides under me, firing big red golf balls.
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The S.O.B.s are throwing everything in the book at us.
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And I still haven't gotten a kill.
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If this keeps up, it's gonna be a long winter.
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On November 26, 1944, Stiles is on an escort mission over Germany.
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Somewhere over Hanover, he encounters and engages a Luftwaffe fighter.
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He is closing in on his first kill.
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Stiles follows the smoking enemy plane as it descends into a steep dive, firing all the way.
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Fixated on his target, he fails to pull out soon enough and loses control of his fighter.
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Bert Stiles is killed instantly.
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He was 24 years old.
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"Death stands by" by Bert Stiles.
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"Climbers, true climbers, are the strangest of men.
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Their love of the jagged peaks is so intense it becomes almost a religion.
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The boy had loved climbing, and he had gone out the best way, x
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returning from a bombing mission over Leipzig, Germany,
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We said nothing, but I found myself praying that I too,
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might die doing the thing that I love the best."
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Our hopes for a quick victory have melted away.
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The Japs are making us fight them on their terms.
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Journalist Robert Sherrod is on Iwo Jima with the invasion force of 80,000 Marines.
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After seven days of fighting, the Marines have taken Mount Suribachi
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and two of the island's three airfields
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but still have little more than half the island under their control.
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They are now beginning the costly task of clearing the Japanese from their intricate underground defenses.
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Everything is in caves and tunnels, except for the muzzles of their guns and their mortars.
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One cave near the airfield has a tunnel 800 yards long
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with 14 separate entrances each covered by a series of pillboxes with machine guns.
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It's no wonder 74 days of bombardment have done so little.
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For all our technical skill, we have no method to counterattack the Japs' underground defense systems.
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It is agonizing to realize we progress so slowly and at so high a price.
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By the fifth day, 5,000 Marines had fallen in combat,
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three men for every two minutes of action on Iwo Jima.
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By day seven, Japanese casualties number over 3,500 dead
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with only 9 enemy prisoners taken.
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The Japs don't seem to mind dying.
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They stay in their tunnels to the end,
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and we have to dig them out or burn them out or seal them in.
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There's nothing else we can do.
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Our orders are to scout the area and gather
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as much intelligence as possible without engaging the enemy.
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Biding time while in the German town of Immendorf,
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19-year-old soldier Rockie Blunt volunteers for a reconnaissance patrol.
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But he loses his way and soon finds himself detached from the rest of his squad.
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Once again, he's alone in enemy territory.
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I try to orient myself, but I'm lost.
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A machine gun opens fire in the distance, but I can't figure out what direction it's coming from.
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I hope I'm not heading deeper into German territory.
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Blunt retreats to a wooded area nearby,
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but he soon realizes he is not alone.
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I've been close to the enemy before, but this is different.
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I can't go back, and I can't move away from him without being discovered.
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I don't have a choice.
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I approach him from behind and hit him hard over the head with my pistol.
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And when he fell, I slit his throat.
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And then I crawled away, and I put my face into a little ditch-like defile,
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and I threw up with my mouth pressed against the ground
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so I would not make any noise while vomiting.
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And I trembled, I was shaking so bad when I got back at the thought of what I had just done.
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I had trouble controlling myself,
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and I've never felt worse in my life as to what I had just done for the first time.
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I was a musician. I was a nice clean-living Methodist boy. Not trained.
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No matter what the army did to me, I couldn't be trained to kill people.
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but I had.
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War is a horribly fascinating thing, however much man may hate it.
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"Time Life" correspondent Robert Sherrod is filing his last story from Iwo Jima.
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Although the battle is far from over, he has already received word about the next objective in the pacific offensive.
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I don't cherish the idea of leaving Iwo Jima.
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I've seen enough bloodshed for one man in a lifetime.
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But Okinawa looks like the most important operation of them all.
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God knows when it will all end.
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15 Days after Sherrod departs the island, American military leaders declare the battle on Iwo Jima over.
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Almost immediately, Iwo's airfields begin launching fighter escorts
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for b-29s on bombing raids to Tokyo.
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It is a major strategic victory.
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But the cost of the 35-day contest is catastrophic.
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As news of the casualties arrives back in the States,
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so does Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the second flag raising on Mount Suribachi.
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While the casualty figures discourage and enrage millions of Americans,
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This photograph of six heroic men raising a flag,
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gives Americans the impression that an end to the war in the pacific is finally in sight.
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All eyes are focused on the three survivors of that immortal flag-raising
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who are present to raise that same flag again over the statue commemorating their deed.
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The government capitalizes on the excitement of the image
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and ships the surviving three flag raisers back to the States.
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For six weeks, sailor John Bradley and Marine Corporals Rene Gagnon and Ira Hayes
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go on a 33-city national tour raising money for the seventh war bond drive.
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Although public support had been lagging,
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this drive becomes the most successful war bond drive to date,
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raising over $26 billion for the war effort.
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And so this day in this year of war, 1945,
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we have learned lessons at a fearful cost,
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and we shall profit by them.
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In the days and the years that are to come,
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we shall work for a just and honorable peace, a durable peace,
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as today we work and fight for a total victory in war.
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We can and we will achieve such a peace.32776
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