“There was a stench that hung over that island that you wouldn’t believe,” PFC Allen Douglas, an engineer, later shuddered. “There were big blowflies all over the place; most all of the bodies were all bloated because a few days in that sun was all it took for the gases in your body to blow you up like a balloon.” Inured to squeamishness, some of the Americans plundered the remains with callous impunity, stripping them of valuables and flags and ripping out gold teeth. Some even strung the teeth together and wore them as grisly necklaces. The stink inside the confining, dank environment of the
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