The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-11-18

Tom Wolf lighted to ac- cept his surrender, but that be- fore they could do so he would have to go back and bring in his rifle. They needed it.
 While this true story of the war on this Forgotten Front has It's comic opera aspects, its serious undertones are anything but comic. The FIT forces here. opposing some .75,0O0 Germans pocketed in key Att lantic ports, are simply too short of guns and ammunition to overlook even this method of getting more.
 It can be no secret to the Ger mans that the EFT is over 8 barrel for equipment. Only a week ago the Nazis in one area captured almost intact a whole FFI com- pany which ran out of aD1muni- tion after ten-minute battle.
 The situation, of course, varies from sector to sector along this long Segmented front. But during an extended tour of much of the front I found that overall con- ditions were fairly much the same everywhere. The war here is a sort of combination of Valley Forge and World War I.
 SUPPLIES SADLY LACKING
 It's Valley Forge in that so many front-line soldiers lack so much in the way of clothing and guns and ammunition. Luckily this is countryside rich in agri- cultural, fish and or dairy prod ucts, so food is good and plentiful It's World War I because it is static trench warfare with most of the activity limited to night patrols and smelling shelling that is woefully one-sided.
 The southern half of the Atlantic front is mostly semi-marsh, semi pasture land interspersed with large stands of pine. Almost every tree in the pine forests is scared with a slash at its base. It has been tapped for rosin, from which was made the turpentine on which 90 per cent of the EFT cars are run 90 per cent, that is, of those which aren't wood or charcoal burning. In the heart of the cognac area north east of Bordeaux some FIT cars are literally run on a combination of 85 per cent cognac and IS per cent gasoline. This is drowned on, however, because of the use of so much priceless and almost non-ex- iStent gasoline.
 The front itself is reached after climbing over a long series of felled-tree roadblocks and follow ing a maze of long connecting trenches. On the Hanks of the German pockets, that is on the sides nearest the ocean, these trenches are about half filled with water. Elsewhere there is about six to ten inches of mud.
 The front line usually consists of long trench which serves pri- marily to join a series of strong points and blockhouses. These are either hollowed out below the surface of the earth or slightly raised, built of longs and covered with corrugated iron roofing. Enemy lines are anywhere from 200 to 400 yards away.
 MAKESHIFT UNIFORM
 It IS already cold at the front, but the soldiers are thinly dressed for the most part. They are usual ly wearing whatever they brought from civilian life or whatever they have been able to get from Allied parachutings or plunder from the enemy. Most units have no semblance of uniformity in dress.
 One strongpoint I visited was held by six young men ranging in age from 19 to 27. One was formerly a merchant navy navi- gator. who wore warm black com bat dress including boots taken from & crack German unit. The second was an electrician dressed in navy blue. One, 8 former farmer, wore riding pants and a light chamois windbreaker. A milkman was in a German tank corps outfit. A former road repair worker wore faded gray civilian pants with chalk stripe in them and Q green wool blouse of the "Chantier de Jeunesse"-Vichy- sponsored youth organization.
 Those without boots had burlap tied around their legs. None had an extra pair of shoes. None had overcoats. All did have helmets. And each had two blankets in H1fS flY1001Yf for I1ioJafv
 Military security prevents an exact description of their equip ment. One company commander told me that his men had rifles as follows, two-f1fths American, one fifth British, two-f1fths German. They were obtained either by parachute or what the FFI learned in the Maquis to call ''piquage" plunder. Ammunition was obtained the same way. As a result one man with 8 British rife might have twice as much am- Maunition as his neighbor with a German rifle.
 UNEQUIPPED ON FURLOUGH
 On a different sector one regi- AAlCAAtd4 COAAAAAAaAAACI tO40 4kAG JAldb 40 per cent of his men were home on furlough because he couldn't get warm enough clothing for them to keep them at the front.
 Still a third officer-a regular army colonel -- said that until he could get properly warm uni- forms for his men he could not and would not insist on military courtesy from them.
 Such is the force of 10000 vol unteers who are manning for the Allies the Atlantic front facing some 75,0O0 Germans in port pockets from Lorient to Bor- deaux. Such is the force which is asking the Allies for arms and equipment to drive the Germans into the sea.