Imperial Valley press., 1944-08-15

man shells started banging around
us. I jumped into a ditch between
couple of soldiers and Squatted
Shells were clipping the hedgetop
right over our heads and crashing
into the next pasture.
Then suddenly one exploded, not
with a crash, but with a ring as
though you'd struck high toned
bell The debris of burned Wadding
and dirt came showering Gown over
us. My head rang, and my right
ear couldn't hear anything.
SAVED BY EARTHEN BANK
The shell had struck behind us,
20 feet away. We had been saved
by the earthen bank of the hedge
row. 1t was the next cay before my
ear returned to normal
A minute later a soldier crouch
| ing next in line, a couple OF feet
away, turned to me and asked, Are
you war correspondent"
l said l was, and he said, Il want
to shake your hand" And he reached
around the bush and we shook
hands.
That's all either of us said. 1t
it was a sort of unusual experience
And I was so added by the close
explosions that forgot to put down
his name.
A few minutes later a friend of
mine, Lieut.. Col. Oma Bates OF
Gloster, Massachusetts, came past
and said he was hunting our new
battalion command post. 1t was
supposed to be in farmhouse about
hundred yards from us. SO I got
up and went with him.
We couldn't find it at first We
lost about five minutes, walking
around in orchards looking for it.
That was a blessed five minutes,
for when we got within SO yards OF
the house it got a direct shell hit
which killed one officer and wound
ed several men.
KEPT HITTING THE DIRT
The Germans now rained shells
around our little area. You couldn t
walk 10 feet without hitting the
ground. They came past our heads
so quickly you didn't take time to
fall forWard-I found the quickest
way down was to flop back and
sideways.
In little while the seat of my
pants was plastered thick with wet
red clay, and my hands were
scratched from hitting rocks and
briars to break quick falls.
Nobocy ever fastens the chin
strap on his helmet in the front
lines, for the blasts from nearby
bursts have been known to catch
helmets and break peoples necks.
Consequently, when you squa
quickly you descend faster than
your helmet and you leave it in mid
air above you. Of course in a frac-
ton of a second it follows you down
and hits you on the head, and set
ties Sideways over your ear and
down over your eyes. It makes you
feel silly.
Once more shells drove me into
roadside ditch. I squatted there
just a bewildered guy in brown, part
OF a thin line of other beWildered
guys as far up and down the ditch
as you could see.
REALLY FRIGHTENING
1t was really frightening. Our own
shells We're Whanging overhead and
hitting just beyond. The German
shells tore through the orchards
around us. There was machine gun
ming all around, and bullets tipped
through the trees above us.
l could tell by their shoulder
patches that the soldiers near me
were from a division to our right,
and l wondered what they were
dong there. Then I heard one of
them say:
This is a fine foul-up for YOU!
] knew that lieutenant Was getting
lost. He'll. we're service troops. and
here we are right in the front
lines"
Grlm as the moment was, I had
to laugh to myself at their pitiful
plight
left command post in a farm
house and started to another about
10 minutes away. When I got there
they said the one I had lust left
had been hit while I was on the
| way
A solid armor- piercing shell had
gone through a window and a man
l knew had his leg cut off. That
evening the other officers took the
big steel slug over to the hospital
SO he would have a souvenir.
When I got to another battalion
command post. later in the dav.
they were just ready to move. A
sergeant had been forward about
half a mile in a jeep and picked
out farmhouse. He said it was
the cleaneSt, incest one he had been
in for a long time.
SO we piled mco several ieeps
and drove up there. 1t had been
only about 20 minutes since the
sergeant had left. But. when we got
TO the house, it wasn't there.
A shell had hit it in the last 20
minutes and set it afire, and it had
burned to the ground. So we drove
up the road a little farther and
picked out another one. We had
been there about half an hour when
a shell struck in the orchard so
yards in front of us.
In a few minutes our litter bear
ers came past, carrying a captain.
He was the surgeon of our adjoin-
ing battalion, and he had been look
ing in the orchard for likely place
to move his first-aid station. A shell
hit right beside him.
That's the way war is on an aft
ernoon that is tense and full of