Evening star., 1944-01-16

ana AioW 1 pleicu dny OIc WHO Idu
to ride that thing.
Naturally there was much discus
sion and guessing as to where we
would invade; although the logical
place seemed to be one of the Italian
islands, we were Immediately south
OF the southern coast of France, and
the islands were a long way east.
Then, too, we had just come from
Tunisia by truck; it would not seem
logical that we would get on boat
and ride back in that direction.
Without warning plans were
changed-only five of our eight gun
sections were going on the initial
wave, and these five were to 60 in
Let's Qanding craft, tank. This
was the small boat that had seen
from the LIST. BY this time our
equipment had been waterproofed,
and we went on practice run. The
less said about this the better.
Neckties Left Behind.
Our invasion uniform, decreed by
uniform conscious general, was
not to be fatigues as we hoped, but,
instead, wool ODs, with leggings,
helmets and neckties. We didn t
know whether to laugh or cry at
the idea of wearing neckties on an
invasion. So we only cussed. How
ever, just before we left the neck
ties were eliminated.
A few more days, and then we
loaded aboard the Let's. A Let
has an open deck about 80 feet long
and 80 feet wide. Besides our men,
we put on board some rs INNS.
(half tracks,, some los mms., peeps
and 40-mm. Bofors.
The unit that we were on the boat
with was the cannon company
from an infantry regiment of the
1st Infantry Division. To say that
we were crowded is a mild piece of
understatement I was fortunate and
slept on the bridge-I even had a
cot, courtesy of the Navy-but we
had brought only the lightest of
bedding rolls, one blanket, and the
Mediterranean is cool at night, even
in June and July.
Chow on this boat was horrible.
The galley was built to cook for lust
the crew, nine men and one officer.
and the I'd Armored had given us
&C. and *" rations only. Have you
ever tried a steady diet of &C" ra-
tions, meat and vegetable hash for
breakfast, meat and beans for lunch.
meat and vegetable stew for supper.
all cold, and with hard tack, SOL
uole drink of coffee, lemonade or
cocoa and three pieces of hard
candy? With few minor exceptions
we ate that every day during the
Tunisian campaign, and now aboard
our boat going on an invasion. Ad-
mittedly it's sustaining, but finally
your stomach rebels at the monot-
ony and heaviness.
TX" rations, which seemed such
a relief at first, soon became lust as
bad small can of precooked ham
and eggs, with fruit bar for break
fast; small can of cheese with
pack of matted milk and dextrous
tablets for lunch, and a small can
of cheese with bar of tropical choc-
olate for supper; all meals, of course,
with hard tack. TX" rations do
have a stick of chewing gum and
four cigarettes each, but somehow
the cigarettes always seem to be
Chelseas, Fleetwoods or Raleighs.
What made us most unhappy about
these rationS on the boat was the
fact that the Navy had regular Navy
chowvincluding plenty of hot coffee
all day and night. But they didn't
have enough for our extra Army
men.
Boats Get Separated.
We had crowded aboard, over the
ramp lowered onto the beach, on
June "a, and the next morning we
had started east. The troop COM
mander told me that we would dis
embark for a rest at Tunis-our
ultimate objective he couldn't tell
me at that time. Maintaining radio
silence the five Let's zig-zagged up
the coast. Thank goodness the
weather was calm and the deck,
where most of our boys had to sleep
(under the vehicles), remained
fairly dry. But travelling under radio
silence and without lights several
mornings we awoke to find only
about half our boats present, and
we would have to slow down until
they found us.
Several days later. after p,,ttinp