Evening star., 1944-07-31
5haveiaiI Becomes
Major in ; Rapid
Battle Promotions
by THOMAS n. HENRY

.eral held pieces with a bazoo,
ana was almost solely responsih
1or stopping a French counte
attack. '0
! 1t. Gen. George s Patton :,
sent for him. y
What is your name?" he as@'
Second 1t. Spindis, sir!" -.
You are wrong said Grnas, aa'- >.
ton. 1T is First 1t. SPIN now:
: In the Sedjanine fie,sins, ms
company commander W, kilieo. ".
Spindis took commar. his conduct
60 impressed Maj. zen. H.. Manson n,H .
Eddy. command- Oh tne YIN ~
risien, that be was given a fleld
promotion to captain.
! Later the major in command of
his battalion was killed. Capt.
,spindis took command and person.
ally led a hand-grenade and
tbayonet assault on hedge.
q Who Was He to Argue.
!, The next day Gen. Eddy came
around
:, "Spindis," he said. why in hell
aren't you wearing your majors
,ieaves?"
:. I'm a captain. sir!"
!, "Ill be damned If you are" said
.Een. Eddy, reaching for field
telephone and calling Army head
,euarters.
!. Capt. Spindis was q major in
,thirty minutes.
!. Down in the 30th Division, made
up largely Of Tennessee and Caro-
lima men, the current hero is Pvt
Henry A. Snotherby, who. twice cap
,tured in a single operation, ended
by playing the chief part in the cap
.ture of % Nazis with captured
imachine pistol of which he couldn't
locate the trigger and which later
turned out not to have been loaded
ANYWAY.
" Routed Enemy Tank.
80 Here's the story:
~ Together with two officers and two
other men, Pvt. Snotherby was sent to
the Sd Battalion on a mission. While
at the command post three enemy
tanks entered the area and proceed
ed to within Is feet OF the post. A
German officer raised the hatch OF
one tank to give a fire order. See
ing the vague outline Of the officel
in the darkness, Pvt. Snotherby
fired on him with his carbine. The
hatch dropped abruptly, and nc
further orders came from this tank
that night. A moment later ba
zooka team which had arrived from
one of the companies opened fire
and knocked the tank out. then an
other and finally the third, all IL,
swift succession. -. -.
With daylight approaching, Pvt
Snotherby ana the other four men
started back no. their position in a
jeep,e In the distance they saw
what they thought to be friendly
vehicle beside the road. When they
got within 10 feet of this car three
machine guns opened up on them
killing two enlisted men and wound
ing ores omcer in the leg. There
were about 50 Germans at the. ar
mored car. Another jeep was heard
approaching down the road, and
when it had come within close
range the enemy fired at it, killing
two men. Pvt. Snotherby. slightly
Wounded in the hand, was taken
prisoner.
Bazooka Knocks Out Tank.
The Germans placed him behind
the armored car with some other
prisoners they had taken and then
moved up the road to within 300
yards of the battalion C. P. Our ba-
zooka team, which was lying in wait
opened up and made direct hit
Pvt. Snotherby then relates:
Machine guns were firing. and in
the confusion I crawled over the
bank on our left. I tried to crawl
back to our C. P. to let our men
know what was down there I got in
the middle Of the orchard about so
feet from the C. p 1t was then
light enough to see. but could not
make out whether the troops which
were coming across in front of me
were ours or German They were
Germans. ond one of them saw me
He came over and hit me with
a machine gun, kicked me couple
of times. and made me get up. They
were the same ones who had cap
tured me before. They took me
over to a little trail that led down
from the C. P. We dispersed into
bitches besides the hedgerows and
lay there until daylight. From that
time until 1890 our tanks were
maneuvering all around us in the
area.
Il was looking for the tanks to
come down the trail most any time.
! was the only prisoner they had
then. Every time I would raise my
head the German guarding me
would tap me on the head with a
machine gun. About this time one
Of our men shot German who was
In front of me in a hole. The two
Immediately behind him raised up
and surrendered.
Il nudged the German behind me
and nodded in the direction of the
two men who had surrendered.
When he looked up I grabbed his
machine pistol which he was hold
ing down close to my right leg,
Jumped out of the ditch and covered
him. A. G. l. drew his gun on me
when he saw me jump out of the
ditch, but he saw I was an Ameri-
can and did not fire. He came on
up to me. making the Germans
come out of the ditch in front of
me.
while I was covering those be-
hind me with the machine pistol
a German jumped up and started
to run away. I tried to shoot him
but didn't know how to fire the
weapon. I was pulling on the maga-
zine. thinking it was the trigger.
However, he turned around and
came back with the rest of the
prisoners I had in the rear of me.
There turned out to be 20 of them
when they were counted and
searched. It was then I found the
machine pistol wasn't loaded"