Evening star., 1943-11-09
BY L. s. B. SHAPIRO,
War Correspondent OF the Montreal

Gazette.
American troops, scurrying down
landing ramps in white moonlight at
0330 zero, saw nothing ahead Of
them, not even barbed wire. Shell
from our own destroyers were
screaming overhead. Engineer COM
panies gingerly began sweeping the
beaches with mine detectors. Be
hind them troops were pulling
ashore antitank guns. Huge ducks"
trundled out of the water like sea
monsters. Nothing happened - for
fve minutes.
Suddenly the night air was filled
with fire. The first American troops
fell, uttering sharp cries. Others
dug into the sand where they stood,
or found uneasy cover behind shore
bound craft or ducks.
The fire, machine-gun and rife,
was coming from pillboxes cleverly
built into sand dunes rising about
so yards from the waterline. A
frantic reconnaissance showed that
-millimeter fire was coming from
Mark VI tanks so yards behind the
pillboXeS. TracerS Sheared the air
above the loW-lying Yanks. An in
tantry landing craft was the first to
ne put out of action. But no enemy
vas visible.
Casualties Light.
Officers made a quick estimate of
ty,o cit ToS,1o1tiac icto
and scattered, all out of proportion
10 the fire power hurled by the
enemy. Reforming their ranks, the
assault troops raced across 100 yards
or more of open beach. Some per-
shed on land mines. This ma jority
flung themselves into the sand at
the foot of the dunes in uneasy Sc
nurity under the barrels of enemy
guns still splitting wildly at the
shoreline
At close quarters, the cheaply
constructed pillboXeS were easy to
take out Assault engineers, crawl
tng on their Stomachs through the
confusing light and shadow of sand
dunes under half moon, used their
erenades and bayonets. The first
Germans surrendered.
Three miles out at sea, our de
stroyers moving in slowly, marking
the fire of the 86s, concentrating
on the suspected areas. Within an
hour the German tanks began to
withdraw to the main highway
nearly three miles back.
Strip Is Cleared.
Under fire, the engineers cleared
200-yard-wide strip, removed the
mines, marked the paSSageWay with
white tape. Hundreds more troops
scrambled ashore, joined their com
rades deploying on mine-free farm
land about mile inland. German
tanks and troops were retreatine
slowly, fighting every inch OF the
way.
The Germans obviously had fallen
victim to tactical surprise and po-
litical manipulation. We learned
later that they took over the pitifu!
italian beach detenses on the night
Of September 7, the moment they
suspected the capitulation Of Italy
Under covering fire of cruisers
which had now joined destroyers
we'll inShore, our troops moved
through the town of Paestum. Sc
curing a strip OF main coastal high
way. and pushed the Germans into
the hills of Mount Soprano.
Thus objeCtiveS all along the
bridgehead were attained subSt an
TALLY within four hours after the
initial assault.
Aboard the headquarters ship
news with tempered satisfaction. He
knew that the battle of the bridge
head. far from being over, had
scarcely begun.
Nazi Tactics Described.
The German command (as we
discovered later adopted the fol-
lowing plan of action:
The 18th and 10Th Panzer DiVi-
sions will keep constant pressure on
the British American force by fire.
quent sharp counterattacks The
Sele River line of demarcation will
be held by German troops as long
AS possible. Battipaelia must be re-
gained al all costs. A strong sus-
tanned counterattack will be mount
ed as quickly as possible with the
object of driving the Allies into the
sea. Immediate and heavy air
bombardment of ships in Salerno
Bay will be undertaken Immediately.
The beach areas must be made un-
tenable for the unloading of sup
plies.
The German command felt that
# they could keep Allied troops
ashore fighting until exhaustion.
meanwhile so disorganizing beach
supply lines so as to prevent the
landing of reinforcementS. strong
counterattack at the psychological
moment must succeed They had
the interior lines by road and rail
They had the men and supplies
They had the nearby airf1elds. Above
all, they could assume the initiative
al any time.
That was the German plan. On