Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-09-05

here, so when the division moved
east to Hadjeb Ell Aioun, we moved
to guard the tank bivouac area in
the valley running between Hadjeh
and Fondouk.
While here areas adjacent to us
were bombed by Stukas and were
swell targets for us. After two sor-
ties, they got mad at us for hitting
| their dive bombers and sent ME-
109's along with the Stukas to come
| in behind and strafe us while we
were firing on the Stukas. But we
fooled them, and filled the ME-109' s
full OF .50-caliber as well as hitting
the Stukas with our 40-mm. shot
Two mornings of that and they quit
altogether.
One morning the tanks were to
make minor attack against Ger
man infantry which was reported
to have come down out of the noun
tains on our right flank, so I took
| two guns forward to set up ack-
ack guard at their attack point. We
left Immediately after breakfast
(the first time that we had moved
in daylight since coming to the
'front.', and moved up about three
miles, setting up our guns about 700
yards apart and about Is yards off
the left side of the road. The tanks
were to come up the road until they
were between our guns, then turn
right and comb cactus patch.
While moving up we were sniped
at, one of the bullets going through
the hood of our truck. That morn
Ing we dug our guns in faster than
we ever had before, and had not
quite completed when we heard the
tanks coming. But three of the
tanks made mistake, and instead
OF turning right, turned to the left.
I suddenly looked up from digging
into the muzzle of the gun on an
M-3 medium tank General Grant,
I waved and started to dig again
but the tank only advanced to-
ward us.
A Lucky Near Miss.
Another tank, also in the cactus
on our side of the road fired its
machine gun just after I ducked
and one Of the boys saw a tracer
miss my head by approximately one
inch. Several slugs landed in the
revetment, and one bullet even hit
our gun. Quite exciting! When !
looked up again the first tank had
moved and was pointing its machine
gun at me Square between the
eyes" After much waving. saluting
and bouncing up and down like a
Jack-in-the-box on my part he
moved on.
Shortly after, two ME-109s came
over, but we hit one, changing their
minds about diving on the tanks.
When we returned that afternoon
the road was being heavily shelled
by German artillery, but luckily we
got through without being hit
and found that our sortie had been
more dangerous and successful than
we thought. The Boche, instead OF
being 6O0-700 yards from the road
as l thought and had assured the
men While we were digging in, were
about only Is yards from the road
and were getting ready to launch ar
attack. Why they didn't shoot us
as we were digging in I'll never
mow-probably they were going tc
let us get the guns set up for them
then let us have it. Thank God
we didn't know about this until II
was all over.
A few days later we moved for
ward again-the big offensive was
to come the following day. This
time we protected the tank bivouac
area only, and though we had an
excellent view of the battle of Fon-
douk, we were just beyond the Ger
man artillery range and no planes
came over. We were in the battle
only technically.
rushing Ahead with Howitzers.
Fondouk and Kairouan ours. we
lett the tanks and were assigned to
the neld art1llery-155-mm hoWitz-
ers. The next day we moved with
them to bivouac area near Maktar
where, after a short rest for them
tout none for us-we had to guard
the blVouac area) we moved to
D)ebel Aboid under another divi-
sion. The following night we moved
out and up through the Sedjanene
Valley.
This was most interesting as
slgnment-We were with the fur
thest forward artillery in our Sec
tor, only about 400 yards behind
the infantry. Because we were in
sight of the Boche's artillery, we
mad to remain in our gun revet-
ments and foxholes all day-meals
sent us before dawn and after dark
We came in for lot of artillery
Smelling, but though some shells
landed close, none climbed down
| into our foxholes with us, so none
OF our men was hurt.
I particularly remember Easter
Sunday-the Nazis rolled some
Easter eggs pretty close to the gun
pit was in and cut communication
lines to the rest of the guns. Thew
paused, so the gun sergeant and ]
went out to repair the lines, where
upon the Smelling restarted. You
should have seen us hit the ground
After a brief respite we tried again
and again had to bite the dirt
When the Smelling quit again for a
couple of minutes we made tracks
for the gun pit where we waited
again for them to quit. A second
time we went out, and repeated our
first performance. The third time
we got communications back in
Some of those shells had landed
pretty close, but none quite close
enough. 1t was an Easter Sunday
I shall remember.
The armorers went into Matuer
and the infantry took 9 hill, SC