Of Men and War by John Hersey

Author:John Hersey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-10-13T16:00:00+00:00

SECOND DAY: We cautiously stretched ourselves, relieving some of our cramps, and looked out over the horizon. Nothing was to be seen on any side but water and sky.

A curious sea gull slowly flew over the raft, pausing, as if in amazement at the sight we made, a few feet overhead. Sergeant R. P. Anderson, the radioman (no relation of mine), took careful aim with the pistol, but just as he fired the boat rocked. A clean miss. There were no condemnations; we were getting used to bad breaks.

The next one, though, was hard to take. Another plane flew up, seemingly straight toward us. It passed not more than a mile away. We could practically see the pilot’s eyes. But it went on by.

We took our first bite of candy, one quarter of a bar, and washed it down with one sip of water. Even then the stuff tasted awful.

I rigged up a fishline with a piece of tinfoil as spinner. Late in the afternoon we had one strike, but we lost the fish at the boat’s edge. We were beginning to find some hope in all the bad luck, because we were confident it had to improve sooner or later: the law of averages had to be on our side.

Night closed down again on nine weary, sleepless men, who endured cold and discomfort tenfold that of the preceding night. Corporal D’Amour became delirious, perhaps as a result of a blow on the head in our landing. Always a taciturn, conscientious man, he was now a big problem. We quieted him as much as possible.

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