HACKSAW RIDGE | MAY 1945 | THE TRUE STORY OF DESMOND DOSS
May 5th, 1945. The Battle of Okinawa. American forces attack a 400-foot
cliff called Hacksaw Ridge. The Japanese counterattack is brutal. The
entire company retreats down the cliff.
Everyone retreats. Everyone except one man.
Private First Class Desmond Doss. A medic. Unarmed. He refuses to leave.
For twelve hours, under constant fire, he pulls wounded soldiers to the
cliff edge and lowers them to safety one by one using a rope and a knot.
Seventy-five men. Alone. No weapon.
This is the true story of the soldier who saved 75 lives without firing
a single shot.
WHO WAS DESMOND DOSS?
Desmond Doss was a Seventh-day Adventist. His faith forbade killing.
He enlisted as a medic but refused to carry a rifle.
His fellow soldiers hated him. Called him a coward. Beat him. Officers
tried to court-martial him.
But Doss wouldn’t break. He wanted to serve. Just not with a weapon.
THE BATTLE:
Hacksaw Ridge was a sheer cliff on Okinawa. The Japanese controlled
the top from fortified caves. American soldiers had to climb cargo
nets 400 feet up, then fight on an exposed ridge with no cover.
On May 5th, after a brutal counterattack, the company retreated.
Doss stayed.
He moved across the battlefield dragging wounded men to the cliff edge.
Using a bowline knot, he lowered each man 400 feet to safety.
After each rescue, he prayed: “Please Lord, help me get one more.”
He saved 75 men while mortars exploded around him. While snipers shot
at him. While grenades detonated nearby.
He was wounded multiple times—grenade shrapnel in his legs, a bullet
through his arm. At one point, he gave his stretcher to another soldier
and crawled 300 yards with a shattered arm.
He survived. He never fired a shot.
THE MEDAL OF HONOR:
On October 12, 1945, President Harry Truman awarded Desmond Doss the
Medal of Honor. He was the first conscientious objector to receive it.
The man who refused to kill became one of the war’s greatest heroes.
Seventy-five men went home because one unarmed medic refused to leave
them behind.
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COMMENT: Could you have stayed on that ridge alone?
This video is for educational purposes. All materials used under fair
use for historical documentary commentary.