Evening star., 1944-06-20
By THOMAS r. HENRY,
Star War Correspondent.

WITH UNITED STATES
TROOPS IN FRANCE, June 18
Delayed The hedgerow-to to-
hedgerow fighting of the 9th
Division across the 9OherbouFg
Peninsula from sea to sea must
rate as one of the most brilliant
military successes of United
States history. s .+
ssFor tour days I accompanied these
veterans, who, not only had turned
the tide in Tunisia with the capture
of Bizerte, but also helped wind
up the Sicilian campaign with the
seizure OF Randazzo. They were
brought to France to chop the tip
of the strategic peninsula and iso-
late the Germans in Cherbourg.
The hectic four days of almost
continuous marching and fighting
reached a elimination at 2::3O o'clock
this morning when word was flashed
to Division Headquarters, which
shifted position miles ahead each
day, that the La Haye du Puits-to-
Barneville road had been cut, put
ting the cork in the bottle"
The drive started at 10 o'clock the
morning of June IA. Most troops
have been on their feet for "a hours
sometimes moving miles in double
fire down dusty roads at fast rate
and again deploying through ORCH
ards and hedgerows to clean up en-
emy sniper pockets.
Casualties were relatively light
A tactical description OF the move
ment by a staff officer fell back on
football terms: End run; end cut
back off tackle"
During the night two units
pushed through to the sea, leaving
others to fight on through the GEN.
ter still full Of enemy groups firing
from tree tops, church towers and
crossroads with machine pistols
machine guns, antitank guns. ar
tlllery and mortars
Guns Drown Out Hymns.
Now comes an ideal June Sunday
with only the sound of guns drown
ing the hymns of chaplains' serv-
ices. Dead horses and dead Ger
mans lie in the bitches and along
the hedgeroWs.
I Joined this unit, of which Maj.
Woodrow w. Bailey of Laurel, Md,
former Biological Survey expert, is
executive officer. Another officer,
1t. Louis Russo. is from Arlington,
Va. found weary men of the unit
stretched for a brief rest around a
barn after an all-night move with
near continuous fighting for six
hours.
Later they took. with mysterious
ease, 500-foot high Hill no the
highest ground in the corridor
through which the division pushed
This caused worry from the start OF
the drive. The hill was found prac-
tically undefended. But from then
on until darkness fighting along
the hedgeroWs was constant.
At one stage there was continuous
llSllbAllS IOl lllOuSdlINS vi ydIuS. L lie
outfit got into sWampy low ground
approaching the sea Many pris-
oners were taken, including Luft-
waite officer who had bailed out
Some enemy trucks and motorcycles
fell into their hands. Resistance de-
creased as darkness fell and con-
tinued fairly light until daybroak
Once we were strafed on the road by
fighter planes.
At noon stiff fight developed at
the tiny, church-spired, crossroads
town of Carville where snipers were
believed to be in church SteepleS
1t RoSSo'S antitank unit was fired
on constantly for two and a halt
hours, but was so well camoutiaged
that the enemy could not get the
range Then a single bullet richo-
cheJed, tore the shield off the gun
and rendered it temporarily useless
Meanwhile enemy units moving
south from Cherbourg made con-
stant efforts to filter through. One
group OF German officers made
what one OF our observers called
IAN example OF terrific bravery.