Imperial Valley press., 1944-06-13

DOdbS. EVEN HON, several QdgS dIItI
the landing, we have cleared only
channels through them and cam
not yet approach the whole length
of the beach with our ships. Even
now some ship or boat hits one of
these mines every day and Is knock
ed out of commission.
HIDDEN HAZARDS
The Germans ha6 masses of those
great six-pronged spiders, made of
railroad iron and standing shoulder
high, just beneath the surface of
the water for our landing craft to
run into. They also had huge logs
buried in the sand, pointing upward
and outward, their tops just below
the water. Attached TO these logs
were mines.
L addition TO these obstacles
they had floating mines offshore.
land mines buried in the sand of
the beach, an6 more mines in
checkerboard rows in the tall grass
beyond the sand And the enemy
had four men on shore for every
three men We had approaching the
shore.
And vet we got on.
Beach landings are planned to
schedule that is set far ahead of
time. They all have to be timed. in
oroer for everything to mesh and
for the following waves of troops
TO be standing off the beach and
ready TO land at the right moment.
As the landings are planned, some
elements of the assault force are
to break through quickly, push on
inland, and attack the most OBJ
vious enemy strong points. 1t is
usually the plan for units to be
inland, attacking gun positions from
behind. within a matter of minutes
after the first men hit the beach.
SCHEDULE UPSET
I have always been amazed at the
speed called for in these plans.
You'll have schedules calling for
engineers to lane at H-hour plus
two minutes, and service troops at
H-hour plus 30 minutes. and even
for press censors to land at H-hour
plus Is minutes. But in the attack
or this special portion of the beach
where l am-the worst we had. in
cidentallY-the schedule didn't hold.
Our men simply could not get
past the beach. They we're pinned
down right on the waters edge by
an inhuman wall of fire from the
bluff. Our fist waves were on that
beach for hours, instead of a few
minutes. before they could begin
working inland.
You can still see the foxholeS they
dug at the very edge of the water,
in the sand ano the small, jumbled
rocks that form parts of the beach.
Medical corpsmen attended the
wounded as best they could. Men
were killed as they stepped out Of
lanc ing craft An officer whom !
knew got bullet through the head
Just as the door of his landing
craft was let down. Some men were
drowned
NAVAL GUNS DID 1T
The first crack in the beach de-
fcnSes was finally accomplished by
terrific and wono erful naval gun
fire. which knocked out the big
emplacements. They tell epic stor-
les of destroyers that ran right up
into shallow water and had it out
point-blank with the big guns in
those concrete emplacements a.
shore.
When the heavy fire stopped, our
men were organized by their Off
c, RS and pushed on inland, circling
machine-gun nests and taking them
from the rear
AS one officer said. the only way
20 take a beach is to face it and
keep going. 1t is costly at first, but
lis the only way. II the men are
pinned down on the beach. dig in
and out OF action. they might as
well not be there at all. They hold
up the waves behind them. and
nothing is being gained.
our men were pinned down for
a while, but finally they stood up
4 T.aIy