Imperial Valley press., 1943-09-30

Il
captured in New Guinea. Young
Lundy was born on the Rose canal
four miles northeast of Imperial
He has been in the army five and
a half years and saw service in the
Philippines and Australia before he
was sent to New Guinea.
Word was received this week that
Lawrence Cook recently was grad
uated at Camp Davis, N. c., and
was made a second lieutenant. He
expected to be assigned to another
camp soon. His wife is in North
Carolina with him.
Frank Mousseau wrote Mrs.
Estelle Reid news Of her son Bob
Reid and told something of his
own experiences in the Sicilian and
Italian areas Mousseau said: since
Bob hasn't told you anything maybe
I can throw a light on his opera
tions. that is, if he was there the
same time l was, which was the
first day of invasion, July 10. had
ring Sioe seat to the whole al
fair. In regard to your statement
about Bob's wounded hip, I can
readily see where he might have
hurt it on the initial jump as the
paratroopers were the first ones to
land between 11:20 and IL o'clock
at night, Needless to say 1t was
very dark which would make
Jump difficult. Their job was to
land behind the enemy's line and
put searchlights and various gear
out of commission. And / might
say they did their job well. You
know I kept wondering when all
those big air transports were pass
ing overhead if Bob Reid was in one
of them. And when l thought of
his task ahead, said little prayer
for him. You would be surprised
how many of the boys turn to God
before the zero hour. In fact on
our ship just before we went in, the
captain called us all to prayer and
we recited the Lords Prayer. 1t
does a world of good Now back to
the battle. After the paratroopers
landed, our first assault troops went
ashore in landing barges covered by
the guns of the navy. Our job the
first night was to cover the convoy
as a whole so we didn't do much
shooting, just patrolling our as
signed area. So I sat on top of my
gun and watched the fireworks. The
cruisers were blasting up everything
on the beach. All the projectiles
had tracers so you could follow
them in with your eyes. And when
they hit . what was there wasn't
there anymore OF course, they
could shoot back onece in a while
but not enough to worry us much.
AS dawn began to break, we were
fairly well set up on the beach and
things began to looi, rosy. OF course
all OF this time We were under air
attack which isn't very pleasant.
About 10 O'Clock we received orders
to go into fire area No. l, which is
the hot spot of the whole show. Our
job was to stop advancing enemy.
tanks and troops which were rails
ing cain with our men on the
beach. So we moved in and start
ed blasting which we Kept up all
morning. 1t was pretty much a
one-sided affair as far as we were
concerned. You see, the tanks had
all they could do on the beach. If
it hadn't been for those dive bomb
ers, we could really have cleaned
them Up. But they kept drawing
our fire when they could. Well, any,
way, we broke up the counter-at-
tack and knocked off a bunch of
tanks. We kept up this operation
for a couple of days until things
quieted down. That was when I
went ashore and looked around.
this all took place in Celia. Next we
moved up to Palermo. Things there
weren't so hot as Iar as the navy
was concerned. But of course those
pesky Germans would come over
every morning about o'clock and
start bombing the ships. They
would drop flares and light Us up
like day. Not being able to see
them gave us very uncomfortable
feeling. Our guns are enclosed as
you know but up in top there is
a little door where the gun captain
sticks his head out to watch for
planes. That being my station, that
is where I was and 1 could see the
bombs landing all around us. They
would just about shake our teeth
out Then there were the whistling
type bombs that Just about ran us
nuts. We could hear them but we
couldn't tell where they were. We
would swear everyone was going
to get us. To sum it all up, I'll say
There was lot of blood and sweat
and a lot of good men lost. I
know if anyone ever tells me it was
easy, he'd better stand from under
cause I'll lower the boom on him."
Frank is gunner's mate and he
at present is in the United States
for gunnery training.
Pvt. G. Caplinger, former license
examiner at the California Highway
patrol in Imperial county, is at the
Aberdeen proving ground in Mary
land. He is starting to army motor
cycle school. He is in the military
police unit and said he finds the
work interesting. He already is
looking forward to a leave promised
him for next March and will come
to Ell Centre then.
MAILING nEAnIINE