The scent of death, the rotting Japanese corpses and the mountains of unburied feces on Pelialu in the Pacific is said to have driven men mad. The island is hard coral in its entirety which made digging impossible so the Japanese dead just laid there where they fell until long after the fighting was done. In the hot Sun. The blo fly population exploded and that as well, drove men over the edge.
Funny...as I posted that, it was exactly what I was thinking of as I wrote, but I thought it might detract from the point I was making.
I think that was discussed in “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa” where the author said you simply could not escape the smell.
How people went through that, I cannot imagine.
Interestingly, many of those same Marines who had to fight on that island in 110-120 degree temperatures, were recalled in Korea and had to fight the Communist Chinese around the Chosin Reservoir where the temperatures got as cold as 30-40 degrees below zero.
Those were men.