This gut-churning Kodachrome photograph by Private Joseph Gudas was taken at Okinawa on May 10, 1945.

 This gut-churning Kodachrome photograph by Private Joseph Gudas was taken at Okinawa on May 10, 1945. "Square 2," an M4A3 medium tank assigned to Company B, 6th Tank Battalion, triggered a mine made from two 500-lb aerial bombs.



 "The tank done a complete forward flip and landed on the turret and driver's hatch," said Sergeant Jack E. Gordon of Square 3. His M4A3 is seen in the background, vainly trying to get Square 2 back on its tracks.


Tank commander Cpl. Paul Durham and loader Pvt. Billy Bledsoe were riding on top of the turret when the blast occurred and were flung clear of the wreck. Despite wounds and a concussion, Durham rushed back to his tank and climbed aboard, desperately trying to open the bottom escape hatch as gasoline and ammunition threatened the three men trapped inside.


Rescuers managed to pry the hatch open, but the sudden rush of air fed the flames and a towering inferno blazed out of Square 2, immolating the trapped men. Shortly thereafter, the tank's ammunition exploded, and the metal coffin was left to burn itself out. 


Paul Durham was so severely burned that surgeons refused to give him morphine, believing he would shortly die. Durham and Bledsoe both survived their wounds; Bledsoe even returned to the company at the tail end of the war and served on occupation duty in Japan.


The three other crewmen – Cpl. Bennie Woodall (driver), PFC Earl Anderson (assistant driver), and Cpl. Donald Mason (gunner) – were listed as killed in action with "no remains recoverable." Several months later, a salvage crew found small pieces of remains and one of Woodall's dog tags in the burned-out hulk. This tag, plus the location and circumstances of loss, led to the identification of Unknowns X-75, 76, and 77 in the Okinawa Island Command Cemetery. Today, the three crewmen are buried in Ford McPherson National Cemetery.


Marine Corps cameraman Walter Spangler filmed the rescue attempts and violent explosion of "Square 2" in a short sequence titled "The Death of a Tank." He received a special citation from the Navy Photographic Institute for his work.










***

My full article on this episode, "Death in Square 2: A Marine Tank Crew's Fate on Okinawa" is available in the May 2024 issue of Leatherneck Magazine.

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