"I came ashore with just an M-1 rifle. As the fellas you were trained with got wiped away, you'd fill in with another weapon. They'd call you forward with mortars or machine guns. I fired the bazooka, the .30-caliber machine gun, the .50-caliber machine gun -- and the flamethrower. We had a Ka-Bar knife that we carried in our leggings. I used it to open C-ration cans and other 'stuff' I don't want printed in the newspaper.
.
There was a cave where the Japanese had us stopped. It had to be some kind of office for Japanese troops. There was a huge rock in front of it. They had a Nambu machine gun -- the fastest-firing weapon the Japanese had -- in front of the cave. I got the machine-gunner with the flamethrower. He was one guy who wasn't going to go back and tell any stories.
Then I laid the flamethrower on top of the rock and put a burst in the cave. What the flamethrower does is dry up all the oxygen and wipes you completely out. It takes your skin off down to the bone. Nothing left. No matter who was in there, how many, they were gone.
I didn't hear much screaming. Everyone that was inside the cave was fried.
One guy got brave. He was ahead of the flame, just behind the rock, and he took off after I shot the burst. He ran by me, heading for an old shell crater with water in it. As he went by me, I let him have a spurt. He was screaming for a little bit. I made sure he was dead." – U.S Marine Stanley A. Parks (On the left holding his Flamethrower), Lima Co., 3rd BN, 5th Marines, Peleliu, Sept 15, 1944 #ww2 #marines #savage1000 #zerofoxtrot