“Gosh, doesn’t it thrill you to think how fast and efficiently our country works,” said Mabel. “They tell me it wasn’t till the fall of 1942 that the first models of these landing ships were made—and look at this already.”
“Surely the Japs can’t beat a country like ours!” said Nancy proudly.
But even while she spoke there came a rumbling of heavy guns far beyond that jungle wall. Mabel had taken off her helmet to let the wind play through her red hair, that was like a nimbus around her face in the sunshine. Suddenly at the sound of firing she slapped the helmet back on her head.
“Say, but that doesn’t sound as if it’s going to be so easy to whip them!” she groaned.
Farther out in the deep water they could see troops still being transferred from the great transports to the landing craft. Another landing boat pushed up to the beach close to where they stood. It didn’t look to be longer than about a hundred feet. When its ramp was lowered it disgorged so many trucks and small tanks they wondered how they had all been stored inside.
As far as they could see along the beach, troops, equipment and boxes of supplies filled almost every available foot of space. The earlier invading army had cleared a road with tractors through the heart of the jungle. The leveled trees had been used on the most swampy ground to make corduroy roads. But the hospital unit was not to follow the marching troops into the interior.
Landing Craft Pushed up to Shore