“Do look yonder,” she said, pointing to the eastern end of the island.
Mabel whistled softly when she adjusted the glasses. “That must have been where they took the beach-head!” she said. “Our artillery surely did riddle that piece of coconut jungle.”
Most of the trees had been topped, and reminded Nancy of blackened chimneys she had seen once when several city blocks burned. The open beach lying between the jungle and the sea was strewn with the wreckage of a campsite.
No nurse had been allowed to bring more than she could carry in her own hands, so Nancy’s suitcase and musette bag were packed to heavy tightness. For two hours they waited with their baggage around them. But at last they went aboard the landing craft. Nancy was relieved when finally the boat moved toward shore to see that they were not headed for that battle-scarred point to the east. Buzzards still circled above it, and she surmised they had not yet completed their ghastly task of cleaning up the remains of battle.
It was exciting to see landing ramps go down on each side of the craft’s bow, like stairs descending into the shallow surf. The nurses watched while the first men went ashore, their helmets on, their bodies padded with their packs, their guns held high above the lapping waves.
Then a line of men formed from the long ramps to the sandy beach as guard while the women went ashore. Nancy, Mabel and fifty others, took off their G.I. shoes, stuffed their stockings inside, tied their shoes together by the laces and hung them around their necks. They rolled the legs of their coveralls high above their knees, and with many excited squeals and giggles hurried down the ramps and into the cool water breaking on the shore.
As soon as she reached the beach Nancy sat down to put on her shoes for the sands were burning hot. Before she rose she paused to say a silent prayer of thanksgiving that at last she was on one of the Pacific islands, the goal of her dreams these many months.
“Surely looks as though we’re in for tropical living here,” remarked Mabel, glancing at the jungle wall not far from the lapping tide.
“Look farther down the beach,” Nancy pointed out. “Isn’t that a marvelous sight?”
As far as they could see along the beach, landing craft of every sort were pushing up to shore. The one next their own infantry craft was a huge affair, and even while they looked its large doors opened toward land. A tank rumbled forth into shallow water, and rolled up to dry land. It was followed by several others.