QUIET HERO SNATCHED
COMRADES’ blood rained down on Desmond Doss as his battalion scaled 400ft Hacksaw Ridge, a gateway to hell.
Above them was a clifftop killing field already littered with bodies.
Many more were to die as US troops invaded the Japanese island of Okinawa in a brutal mission that lasted 82 days.
Some 20,000 American soldiers perished.
But many survived thanks to army medic Doss, the first soldier to go into battle armed with just a bible and the desire to save lives.
As a devout Christian and conscientious objector, he wouldn’t even carry a gun.
Doss, 26, was determined to serve his country, however, and even after his overwhelmed battalion retreated from the fanatical Japanese enemy, he braved bombs and bullets to rescue at least 75 critically-injured men.
Doss lowered each casualty down Hacksaw Ridge. Injured and bleeding from his own rope-worn hands, he then turned to God and said: “Help me find one more.”
PROUD
The act of selfless bravery earned him America’s Medal of Honor. And it inspired new movie Hacksaw Ridge, which has received six Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor – for Brit star Andrew Garfield, who plays Doss – and Best Director for Mel Gibson.
Doss died in 2006, aged 87. The film epic marks a proud moment for his son, Desmond Doss Jr.
His only disappointment was that the film could not chronicle all of his father’s incredible acts of bravery – mainly because nobody would have believed them.
Desmond Jr, 70, who lives in Ilwaco, Washington, says: “Mel Gibson made a very good point. He told me: ‘ Your father’s story is so damn unbelievable already that if you added any more to it audiences would say we ain’t buying it!’
“And he was right. Because my dad’s story is already pretty unbelievable. But the things they left out really were true. Like when he was with some men in a pothole made by a shell, then a grenade was dropped in.
“So Dad elected to stand on it with both feet and it blew him into the air. The only thing that saved him was his thick-soled boots.
“Someone came to help. He put his arm around this guy’s neck and a sniper hit him in the arm – and narrowly missed