Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current, 1944-07-30
Ernie Pyle
Heavy Ordnance Division
Hauls Tanks for Repair;
Must Get EN- Back PrOntO
By ERNIE PYLE

BY ERNIE PYLE
SOMEWHERE IN NORMANDY
(By Wireless -Then ! moved over
to an ordnance evacuation COM
pany.
These men hancle the gigantic
trucks, ,ile long, low trailers and
the heavy wreckers that go out to
haul back crippled tanks and
wrecked anti-tank guns from the
battlefield.
The ordnance branch's policy on
these wrecking companies is that
i! they don't have a casualty now
and then, or collect a few Shrapnel
marks on their vehicles, then they're
not Going their job efficiently.
Tanks must be retrieved just as
quickly as possible after they have
been shot up. In the first place,
we don't want the Germans to get
them; secondly, we want to get them
repaired and back in action for our
selves right away.
Still Is Mystery
The lob of an ordnance eVacua-
ton company is often frightening,
although this company's casualties
have teen amazingly lew. In fact
they've had only four and it's still
e mystery what happened to them.
The four left one day in a jeep,
just on a normal trip. They cidn't
come back No trace could be found.
Three weeks later two of them came
in-just discharged from hospi-
tai On the same day letter came
from the third-from a hospital in
England. Nothing yet has been
heard from the fourth.
And the strange part is that nei-
Their the two who returned nor the
che who wrote from England can
remember a thing about 1t. They
were just riding along in their jeep
and the next thing they woke up
in hospital. All three were wound
ed, but how they didn't know.
Friends suppose it was shell hit.
At any rate, a sergeant in charge
of one section of the mammoth
IllObClS, hIlOhll dS -lOos VoOh nv
around to see some of his crew.
men. They all go by the name of
the Diesel boys"
Their vehicle is simply gigan-
tic truck with a long, skeletoniZed
trailer behind.
Like all our army over here they
were strung out around the hedge
rows of the field under camouflage
nets, with the middle grassy fields
completely empty.
My friend was Sergeant Milton
Radchff of oil N. 18th ST., New
ark, Ohio. He USED to be furnace
operator for the owen Corning
Fiberglas Company there. He anc
all the other former employees still
get a letter every two weeks from
the company, assuring them their
JOBS will still be there when they
return. And Radcliff, for one, is
going 10 take his when he gets
back.
Sergeant Vann Jones Of 17l2
Princeton ave., Birmingham, Ala
craWled out of his tent and sat In
dian fashion on the ground with
US. On the other side of our pasture
lay the silver remains of a trans
port plane that had come to a
mangled despair on the morning of
D-Day.
Quiet And SEany-
1t was a peaceful and sunny eve
ming, quite in contrast to most OF
our days, and we sat on the grass
and watched the sun go down in
the east, which we all agreed was a
he'll of a place for the sun TO be
going down Either we were turned
around or France is a funny coun-
try.
The ether boys told me later that
Sergeant Jones' Used to be the com
pany cook, but he wanted to see
more action so he transferred To
the big Wreckers and is now in COM
mand OF one.
His driver is smiling, tall young
fellow, with clipped hair, named
Dallas Hudgens from StoneWall
Ga. He was feeling stuffed as a
pig, for he'd just got a big ham
sent him from home and had been
having at 1t with vengeance.
Get Restless
There are lulls when the retriey-
er boys don't have anything to dc
besides work ON their vehicles
They hate these periods and get
restless Some OF them Spend their
time fixing up their tents home