Evening star., 1944-06-13
|D-Doy No Surprise, Say Nozis,
But Yunks Are Inclined to Scott

DaQ licking III UIllS Snow SO lar.
The Germans dropped their 9Th
Parachute Regiment here on D-Day
plus one, and this tough segment of
the Adolph Hitler Division also took
a mauling it won't ever forget.
have just come back from what
is called the front line, where a regi-
mental command post is installed
in a French farmhouse overlooking
some fiat land 2 miles from a little
village. I went by jeep along road
"a hours ago and there was terrific
fighting. Dead Germans are still
sprawled along roads and in the
fields. The American dead had been
removed and were being buried in a
field not far away. Guessing, I'd
say the American dead were less
than the German
Through binoculars I can see shells
bursting around the edge of the
town. The colonel explained, be-
tween sips of cognac, that the artil-
lery doesn't want to hammer the
town too much because rubble in
the streets provides perfect cover
for German Snipers and makes tank
warfare difficult.
Out in front, mile or so away,
occasional bursts of rife fire and
the staccato hysteria of machinegun
fire punctuates the spring stiffness
of this pretty French countryside.
We came down a road to see
wrecked CAT burned in a field but
an MP stopped U.S.
1--WE haven't fully secured this
road" he said, which meant that
Jerry snipers were at their work
few hundred yards away.
1t is fantastic kind of warfare.
The German, even though he says
he knew what was coming, showed
evidence of complete surprise. He
fought like a cage of wildcats, but
he was attacked from every isolated
spot, pinched of, killed and thrown
out of spots in which he has lived
the life of Riley" for four years.
Lets Go Rabbit Huntinx."
Groups of American boys, many
of them around 20, line up every few
minutes equipped with rifles, car
bines, grenades and pistols and go
out hunting for Germans.
Lets go rabbit hunting" they
say.
Our jeep driver, Pvt. Joe Vargo of
Charleston, w. Va, says the show
reminds him of deer season at home
only this time men are getting
killed instead of deer.
Tonight most of the staff is going
TO scatter to safe cover somewhere.
Jerry is up to his old trick of
bombing hospitals. I visited an
orderly hospital yesterday in the
quadrangle of the usual French
farmstead used as a field hospital.
There was a huge Red Cross flag
about 100 feet square identifying it.
The wounded were treated in near
by tents and upstairs in the building
was the operating room.
L was asleep in a farmhouse 300
yards away when the familiar. un-
even drone of German planes came
overhead. There were two tremen-
dous shocks as the house rocked and
the Windowpanes shattered. 1 got
downstairs and into a field where l
snlVered the rest of the night. This
morning l went over to the hospital
one entire wing of the building had
been hit and knocked off.
Many wounded were killed and the
entire building was ruined. Fifty
yards away was another bomb crater
40 feet deep and rs feet across.
Sleeping Is feet from the crater
were two G1s. They were blown un
into a tree but, except for slight
conclusion, they are OK. Men so
yards away were killed.
Death is lottery in this theater
tonight. 1t win be healthier to bed
down in field somewhere. jerry
may have been ranging on this
building.