Imperial Valley press., 1944-08-14

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get them out. Often in cases like
that we will just go around the
woods and keep going, and let
later units take care OF those
surrounded and doomed fellows.
Or we'll go through the woods
and clean it out and another COM
pany, coming through a couple of
hours later, will find it full of
Germans again. In war like this
one everything is in such confusion
/ don't see how either siuf ever
! gets anywhere
NOBODY KNOWS
Sometimes you don't know where
the enemy is and don't know where
your own troops are. AS somebody
said the other day, no battalion
commander can give you the exact
location of his various units five
minutes after they've jumped off.
We will bypass whole pockets
of Germans, and they will be there
fighting our following waves when
our attacking companies are a
couple of miles on beyond. Gradu-
ally the front gets all mixed up.
There will be Germans behind you
and at the side. They'll be shooting
at you from behind and from your
flank.
Sometimes unit will gee SO far
out ahead of those on either SiCe
that it has to swing around and
fight to its rear. Sometimes we
fire on our own troops, thinking
we are in German territory. You
can't see anything and you can't
even tell from the sounds, for each
side uses some of the others cap
tured weapons.
TANKS AND INFANTRY
The tanks and infantry had to
work in the closest cooperation in
breaking through the German ring
that tried to pin us down in the
beachhead area. Neither could have
done it alone.
The troops are of two minds
about having tanks around them.
IT you're a foot soldier you hate
to be near a tank, for it always
draws fire. On the other hand, if
the going gets tough you pray for
tank to come up and start blast
ing with its guns.
In our breakthrough each in
fantry unit had tanks attached to
it. 1t was the tanks and the in
fantry that broke through that
ring and punched a hole for the
armored divisions to go through.
The armored divisions practically
ran amuck, racing long distances
and playing hob, one they got be-
hind the German lines, but it was
the infantry and their tanks that
opened the gates for them.
BULLDOZERS TOO
Tanks shutting back and forth,
from one field to another, through
' out our breakthrough battle, re-
, ceiving their orders by radio. Bull
dozerS punched holes through the
, hedgerows for them, and then the
: tanks would come up and blast
out the bad spots of the opposi-
} ton.
1t has been necessary for us to
wreck almost every farmhouse and
little village in our path. The Ger
/, mans used them for strong points,
, or put artillery observers in them,
and they just had to be blasted
out.
. Most of the French Farmers
evacuate ahead of the fighting and
, filter back after it has passed. 1t
IS pitiful to see them come back
to their demolished homes and
towns. Yet it's wonderful to see
the grand way they take it.
In a long drive an infantry COM
pany may go for a couple of days
without letting up. Ammunition is
carried up to it by hand and oc-
caSionally by jeep. The soldiers
sometimes eat only one X ration
a day. They may run clear out of
water. Their strength is gradually
Whitfield down by wounds, exhaus-
ton cases and struggling.
ORDER TO DIG IN
Finally they will get an order
TO sit where they are and dig in.
Then another company will pass
through or around them, and go on
with the fighting. The relieved
company may get to rest as much
rs a Cay or two. But in a big
push such as the one that broke
us out of the beachhead, a few
hours is about all they can expect.
1he company I was with got it's
orders to rest about one after
noon. They dug foxholes along the
hedgerows, or commandeered Ger
man ones already dug. Regardless
OF how tired you may be, you
always Gig in the first thing.
linen they sent some men with
cans hunting water. They got more
X rations up by jeep, and sat on
the ground eating them.
Thy hoped they would STAY
there all night, but they weren't
counting on it too much. Shortly
after supper a lieutenant came out
or farmhouse and told the SER
geantS to pass the word to be
ready to move in 10 minutes. They
bundled on their packs and start
ed just before dark.
Within half an hour they had
run into new fight that lasted
all night. They had had less than
four hours rest in three solid days
OF fighting. That's the way life
is in the infantry.
SEVEN INJURED IN WRECK