The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-02-08
With
The AEF
BY KENNETH L. DIXON

GU. o.-(De,
laye0-R-1t must be te-rjb1.
feeling for a keyhole pepper :.
find an eye peeping back at him
from the other side of the don.
AT any rate, it's mighty disco.
certing to discover that tho T Gun
man you are looking at is loo Eet-
back at you, even across aho,,.
mile of farm land filled WITH ' 81 a
diers. ' So''
Yesterday afternoon I wa,
with an infantry reconnaiss,n op
platoon a mile or so this sida ".s y
Cisterna, the key junction to,, "
which the Germans apnaro auMn
wanted to hold at all cost ay
Sgt. William c. Addison Of r.
Angeles, Calf, and Corp. pe rus
L. Bullock Of Long Beach, cag,y
were located in the second s,n.
Of a farmhouse observing S st.y
fire, enemy activity and anvth a.ll
else Of Importance in and aro,ns
Cisterna. ''u
A little earlier 1t. Col. A,s.,.
H. Manhart of Sedalia. Col, D W.
regimental commander, had , %s
it was easy to watch through pl I''a
es what was happening in Cs
terna.
Chats the trouble with tb,.
country" the lanky Westerna,ss
with the dark mustache drawlss
"you stand in your front door ."s
look at the .Kraut, and the Krs ,u
stands in his front door and looS D.
at you. 1t is too far for machna
guns, but each of you is safe only
until the other one gets around ~
calling in his artillery on vou"
This" I said to myself &c ,
good idea. Everyone is talkira
about Cisterna these days I will
60 borrow someone's telescope and
look Cisterna over and write
story about what is happening
there"
So I rambled down the road ,
piece, cycling with more than pass.
ing interest all the shell hole,
which pitted both sides and some.
times the middle Of it. Now and
then one would burst a few HIM,
dred yards away or closer. Once
again the barrenness of this flat
land front became almost oppres.
| sive.
i There was the feeling that lOOOO
eyes were watching every step
1t reminded me of what that sol.
der said the other day out here,
He said, II begin to understand
what they guy Joyce Kilmer was
talking about. I have never seen
anything so lovely as a tree ex.
cept perhaps more trees.
| Well anyhow, pretty soon got
to this house where Addison and
Bullock were looking out the win.
!; dow. They moved over and let
me have look through their tele.
|. scope.
!; Cisterna looked pretty well beat
up, with some of the buildings
completely demolished, but there
5. were plenty of signs of life. Be.
tween the shells falling I saw Ger
man soldiers walking along the
streets, lounging against wall
smoking, going in and out Of door.
ways.
It was a long ways from being
the county seat on Saturday night,
but it certainly didn't look like
any front line battle town.
There didn't seem to be much
traffic moving along the roads into
Cisterna, but there was some and
our artillery was plugging away
at it. Puffs of smoke and dirt
burst here and there, just as they
were bursting on this side Of the
line.
Suddenly l saw a German in a
second-story window in Cistena
At first 1 couldn't see what he
was doing. He seemed to have
something up before his face Then
there was a tiny CLEAN Of light
as the sun hit the face Of his
field glasses.
Now nobody can roam around
this or any other front for long
without seeing quite a few Of the
enemy from time to time as prs-
oners or in action from carefully
concealed observation posts Or
from airplanes.
Flying around the Casino sec,
tor I'd seen good many and
sometimes closer than this. but TO
the best of my knowledge this was
the first time Id ever been look
ing at one. and found him looking
right back at me.
"Oh, sure" said Bill Addison,
they see us. At first there wasn't
much traffic up here but now
there's quite a bit and they kno"
we're here"
We'll, I said, handing back the
telescope and putting on my nel'
met again, Its been nice vlslN
Thanks a lot. You must come lnto
NettunO and see us some night.