Tom Lea states: "This is not a page from a history book, not an account of a battle. It is the simple narrative of an experience in battle; like combat itself such a narrative is bound to be personal, confused, benumbed and in its deepest sense lonely...As a LIFE War Artist my purpose in going ashore was to record the United States Marines in combat. On the beach I found it impossible to do any sketching or writing; my work there consisted of trying to keep from getting killed and trying to memorize what I saw and felt under fire...The narrative is printed here as I first wrote it except for minor chronological rearrangement. The sketches are untouched." -- [Signed] Tom Lea.