Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1943-08-12
lA(k FROM HE'LL zly Buz4is Jenkins ~
Thought | \Wos Dead
In Afdoo But-Aow
He IS Out of the War
TNHERES SHORT, dark haired young man who sits
i the piano in dance hall Broadway these nights

He stares vacany beyond the soft lights and cleaning
polished floor that wrhes with swrng skirts and uniforms
until Betty the blonde beside him. says Dave Snap
out of it"
The throbbing drumbeat OF Van Alexanders Band ends
in brassy and the maestro grabs the mike an
nounce, And now-Dave Allyn
The kids eyes alive before the mike the soothing
saxophones and muted horns relax behind him. his
Sinatra baritone begins All nothing all Half love
never appealed to me
Gone is the whine and of Rommes guns smash
ing the rocky ledge his head beyond Ell Guetar the
screams of wounded and the gritty grinding the armps
and the taste of blood his mouth until he struck And the
war ends for little David Allyn
Perhaps fast for the young musician Five
years jerking sodas Hartford Conn try outs the
local radio station and finally Job as ballad vocalist with
Jack Teagardens Orchestra.
Things looked good then for Dave Allyn the singer But
with the of his father and mothers death
And then Dave drafted
Six and half months after induction Buck Pvt Allyn
finds himself landing under heavy shell bomb fire at
Arzeu 40 klometers of oran with field artillery unit
Trained originally the Medical Corps he has volunteered
with the First Division a Battery Aid man.
1t nearly m before they could unload us and we
caught everything right from the start Dave muers tnsey
as the cloudy look back his eyes We in as
Cannon Company Of pack rs howtzers Our mission was to
proceed left u miles TO La Maca trapped there
1t awful.
He sits at table away from the band and nervousy tears
at paper match before continuing wounded were
lying dry creek bed Is yards away can hear EN- call
ing Medic Medic crawl out to the edge and machine
gun cuts the bushes my head throw my pack over the
edge and they shoot it while and then dive over
They don't hit give the first aid two Of EN-
drag back with -
We fought weeks in the oussea Valley trying TO
knock out GermRn position the flat up against mountain
We never succeeded with all the guns three batteries
blazing because the German tanks buried the
ground
We moved north with the 10Th Infantry to take place
remember as Conical Hill W took a week Il raned
nearly every day
4 remember one afternoon sitting under an auto arp
with some fellows We had orders to fire for some reason
and was quiet IN the steady when hear this machine
gun year loose II goes on for long time Later learn that
Boots sayna OF Battery (hes my buddy now though
adn know him them csugh there one of two ufvv
ing men in machine gun unit Of 10
They were killing nearly 600 Germans as we listened
its all IN ms citation 600 Germans He takes deep
breath 'f
We move back into the ousseta Valley and that's where
get TINS The boy points angrily on the tip of his
nose II about IN the afternoon Of dark day I'm up at
an observation post with Capt Bren Cpl Cakes and sqt
beauoe We're lying there the rocks when machine guns
open up on us Cpl Cakes says Hey stuff is starting 10
'y linen rcocheng bullet clips off the end of my nose
The match cover shreds and the BOY goes on with
an effort thought was dead at first took off my helmet
ana ieIt the back OF my head for holes
mere was only this bleeding flap the end Of my