On Coral Shores - Hail of Bullets

Tons of high explosives

Plastering the reefs

Amphitracs approaching

Offloading LST’s

Establishing the beachheads

Perimeter secured

Distant laying battleships

Roaring whilst harboured

Barbed wire and minefields

Concrete obstacles

Cautiously proceeding

Behind armoured vehicles

Say farewell to their comrades

Left in blood red waves

A sudden hail of metal

From camouflaged caves

Barrels of all calibres

Decimate the ranks

Concentrated fire

Hidden Ha Go tanks

Airborne harakiri

Devastating wings

Naval bombardments

Ever ongoing

Shermans cracking pillboxes

Grinding spider holes

Flamethrowers spewing

Burn nests on these atolls

Corsairs sending rockets

Drive the enemy back

Launch in desperation

Vicious counterattack

Storming on a noxious stew

Of putrefying dead

Fierce hand-to-hand combat

Charge with bayonet

Severed heads, blackened flesh

Blood, bones, filth, and gore

Torn cadavers exposing

The gruesome face of war

Insulate coral shores