Evening star., 1944-07-30

'G4AA11cs8uA ueSto WO1e 0uG000Be1eo.
The position commanded Caesars
FORT Apparently thu German atten-
tion was entirely diverted. But the
enemy learned of his peril soon
enough.
Counterattacks came thick and
fast. The regiment held on to the
crest Of the nose" three days and
nights. Decimating mortar fire fell
upon them. One night there were
II counterattacks. The longest last
ed two hours. The next night there
were eight, the next seven. Mortar
ire cut supply routes behind.
Again 1t was necessary to form q
company Of clerks and cooks to
carry up rations. In one Of the
counterattacks one battalion was
left exposed on the brow OF the
nose" while its companion OUTFIT
was forced back onto the northern
slope. The men were kept on the
alert all night long. There were
rumors, apparently false but SEEM
ingly confirmed by some prisoners,
that the enemy were about to storm
the hill with namethrowers. Every
body caught just plain hell" says
1t. Col. Donald Gorton Of Tecumseh,
Nebr.. the battalion commander.
Toward the end Of the third night
German activity had seemingly
fallen to minimum. The other
battalion had pushed its way back.
So the next morning the regiment
Of the Goth decided to press the
attack southwark into the forest
itself. :
1t Is hard to exaggerate the difIi-
culties Of fighting in this forest.
Some OF the terrain in the South
Pacific may be a little more, or
q little less, hard to penetrate.
Throughout the Normandy cam
paign there have been several bat
ties In woods. But most French
forests" are like wen-kept sylvan
parks in America. They are neat
and trim, however dark and gloomy.
Underground Is kept cut away. One
can walk anywhere in them without
the slightest danger of a switch in
the face. from bent twig. La Foret
de Mont Castro is a wild tangle of
second-growth birches and chest
nuts tangled with blackberry vines
and interspersed with red-berried
mountain ash around islands of
rock.
There are no paths. There are no
clearings except space cut away by
the Germans as fields of cross-fire
for machine-gun nests set in thick
brush at strategic points. The
bushes had overgrown remains of
stone Notifications, presumably
trenches, built by the Romans.
These relics OF war 1000 years ago
the Germans had enlarged and
strengthened. Their own dugouts.
connected by systems Of tunnels. ap-
parently had borrowed some of the
principles OF Roman engineering and
have proved of great interest to
American Army engineers since the
capture OF the hill. Using rock and
timber alone. without any cement,
they were able to construct fortifica-
tions in which troops could remain
In relative security during intensive
shellings and over which light tanks
could pass without breaking through.
The regiment. which had taken
the nose and withstood three days
OF counterattacks, moved forward
TO overWhelm Caesars fort. obvious
ly intended by the Romans as the
key pom. OF the system but left by
the Germans with only q platoon.
racing weapons of modern warfare
1t was obviously urtenable once the
nose" was securely in the hands of
an attacking force. The regiment
cut through the western side of the
wooos, meeting stubborn resistance
all the. way. The commanding COL
onel is professional soldier who
has fought all over the world. He
has never before. he says, encoun-
tered such difficult terrain as that
hillside woodland.
The troops were utterly weary
after the long fight on the hill.
They faced. step by step, a murder
GUS machine-gun fire from dugout
nests covered and camouflaged with
piles Of cordwood. opposed to them
were men Of German paratroop
division, mostly boys under 20 but
well-trained and with a cadre of
men brought recently from the
Italian front.
They were expert grenade throw
ers. They wore cleverly designed
camoufage capes which made them
indistinguishable from the foliage
In which they hid. Americans and
Germans literally dropped grenades
over bushes on each other. There
was" says an American officer. "a
hailstorm of grenades." The one
great advantage of the attacking
forces was devastating artillery
oarrage which preceded them. de-
moralizing and in some cases throw
Ing into state of shocked numb
ness the boys who opposed them.
Meanwhile, another regiment of
Texans and Oklahomans had pro-
ceeded to a direct assault through
the center of the forest from the
north and during a night and day
Of bitter fighting forced itself over