World War II, Joe Dariano - Part III
To secure more of the northern sector, they moved about 10 miles and dug in for the night. That night the Japanese threw grenades into their area. One landed in a foxhole with Maroney and Korth. Maroney pushed it over in a corner and put his feet over it. The concussion knocked both men out. Bill Jenkens patched Maroney up the best he could and moved him out in a jeep the next morning. This was their first contact with the enemy in Okinawa.
That night there was a hell of an air-raid and they heard that there were four US. ships sunk. They were told to go back and garrison the airstrip. After doing so, a bunch of enemy fighter planes “softened” the field for bombers that would drop paratroopers. The U. S. planes shot down 17 of the 20 bombers and no paratroopers appeared. On April 19, l945, the brass realized that the Japanese would make their stand on the southern end of Okinawa. “K” Company was able to hitch a ride on Army trucks headed in that direction. They arrived at the lines and were soon greeted by an artillery barrage. The barrage continued through that day and night. Foley and Joe holed up in a cave with two soldiers from the Tenth Army.
The next morning when they got out of the cave, they saw an army “six-by” full of dead soldiers. The artillery barrage again forced them to move back into the cave and remain there another day and night. In the morning when they came out of the cave to examine the fox holes of two of their fellow marines, they found that their buddies had been bayoneted during the night.
After advancing inland, they had to dig in because of another barrage. The artillery was “ear shattering and nerve-wracking”. Hooker of their platoon was killed the next day in a shoot-out near another small village. Some distance away from the barrage, they noticed an old man trying to get water from a shell hole to give to a woman sitting against a tree. Joe noticed that the back of the man’s left foot had been blown away. Joe dressed his wounds and gave them both some water.
After attacking and taking a large village, the Japanese drove them out on two consecutive nights. The army ordered their tanks in and with flame throwers burned the village down.
Later they were to cross some rice paddies and attack a hill where the enemy had dug in. The Japanese started throwing hand grenades so they were forced to dig in. Bill Foster, a new replacement in their platoon threw himself on a grenade that was lobbed into his fox hole and saved the life of his buddy, Mel Hauge. He died a few minutes later. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and his remains are buried in Cleveland, Ohio, his home town.
On May 2, l945, they attacked the hill. As they advanced across the rice paddy, Japanese soldiers were seen firing their machine guns and rifles at them. As they neared the hill, a mortar barrage forced them to lie on their bellies. “Suddenly, a mortar shell landed between Clarence Lamb and me.”
When Joe came to, he was lying on dry ground with other G.I’s looking down at him. He was having difficulty breathing. Blood ran from his mouth and he couldn’t move his right leg. After they bandaged him and stuck a rag in the hole in his chest, he could breathe easier. He was now able to learn that all Lamb got was a busted leg.
As Joe and Lamb waited in a cold rain for evacuation, his dungaree jacket and the legs of his pants were cut off, and his wounds dressed. Joe believes that the corpsmen knew what they were doing, and probably saved his life. They gave Lamb and Joe a bottle of brandy to sip on and they found it very warming.
The road to the army aid station was very long and rough and the trip took most of the night. The brandy was gone when they arrived. There were no operating facilities at the station and Joe lay their a few days before evacuation to a hospital ship. By way of an LCM, they reached the USS Soliace. Examination and x-rays revealed a wound about six inches below Joe’s arm pit. Shrapnel had ripped through his chest wall and lodged in his right lung. The doctors agreed that removal of the one inch piece about as large as a cigarette was too dangerous. (That piece is still there today). Another shrapnel piece had lodged deep in the calf muscle of his right leg and that, too, was left The wounds on his left leg were dressed and a drainage tube was inserted into his chest. Plasma IV’s were started and he received shots of the new wonder drug, penicillin, every four hours for four weeks.
From May 11, l945, to late August, Joe was in the Naval Hospital #110 in the Mariana Islands. By the end of June he was able to walk around on crutches. From their hospital room, they could see B-29s taking off on nightly bombing runs which “were fire bombing the hell out of Tokyo” The Enola Gay left from this airfield on August 7, l945 and dropped it’s A-Bomb on Hiroshima. Japan surrendered on August 14 and formalities occurred September 2, l945.
Joe later learned that the entire First Marine Division had gone on to liberate Tientsin, China. He also learned that this division had over 7,600 casualties on Okinawa and that his platoon of 45 had lost seven.
As they were welcomed into San Diego, bands were playing and thousands greeted them at dockside.
Corporal Joe Dariano was discharged October 29, l945. He had received a Gold Star in lieu of a second Purple Heart.
By train, Joe arrived in Tiffin on November 4, l945. “ That night as I lay in my own bed, in my own house, in my own town, with my own mother and father, my own brothers and sisters, I thanked God again for getting me through all of that. I fell asleep not worrying about war with that wicked enemy that had taken so many of my buddies’ lives and fellow Marines and has caused our country so much grief and suffering.”.
Joe knows about thirty “K” Company survivors who keep in touch, and they often get together at the First Marine Association Annual Reunions.
Joe and Nita McDonald were married July 5, l947. They had corresponded during the war while Nita was in the Army Transport Corps. In l946 Joe’s first job was as a carpenter at the General Electric plant where he soon was promoted to an administrative position. He started the Dariano Construction Company in l960 and retired in l985. They have three children, Douglas, Debra, and David.
It has been a privilege for Mary and me to have talked with Joe and to read his own account of World War II. Joe and Nita have a beautiful home in the former clubhouse at Lake Mohawk.
– Percy