E b sledge, eugene sledge was at okenaua and describes just what it was like over on the shurrey line. He says the mud was knee deep in some places, probably deeper in others. Around every corpse, maggots crawled about in the muck and then were washed away by the run off of the rain. There wasn't a tree or bush left. All was open country. Shells had torn up the turf so completely, he writes, that ground cover was non existent. As evening approached, the scene was nothing but mud shell fire flooded craters with their silent, pathetic, rotting occupants.