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. How far is it? he asked. About a mile up a little hill, I replied. No, they probably won t need me. I thought to myself, You old bastard, these men of yours have walked all the way fromUtah Beach, and the walk wasn t easy, but you re too damn lazy to walk a mile to let themsee that you re at least interested in what they are doing. Our objective was about a mile away over rolling terrain.Company E and Company Gwould attack abreast with Company E on the right and Company G on the left.CompanyE also had a couple of tanks with it.Both our 81s and some 4.2-inch mortars were set upto give supporting fires.The attack started off beautifully.Both companies were well spread out.When theywere halfway to town, the Krauts opened up on the men with machine guns, small arms,and 20mm and 37mm antiaircraft guns, and on the tanks with antitank guns.First Sergeant Bloodworth, Bill Butz, Emmett Taylor, and I were up on the hill withMajor Williams.As a couple of tanks rumbled by us, I hugged the ground as close as Icould, but that stuff was still coming too close.I got tangled up in a barbed wire fence andalmost ripped all of my clothes off trying to get loose.Our boys were down on the ground now, but they kept moving.The major had goodradio control and he kept both Damkowitch and McDonell abreast of one another sprogress.They captured the town about twilight.I learned that Lieutenant McAlpin hadbeen hit pretty badly.Part of his shoulder had been torn off from a round that had hit atank he was standing by.The rest of the battalion finally got into the town right after dark.We knew nothingabout the town and it was hard as hell to set up a defense at night.Company E was on theside of town facing Erfurt, Company F was to its right, and Company G wrapped aroundthe back end. The major sent for the burgermeister and, with the help of an interpreter, told him thathe wanted the same old thing: all civilians indoors and all weapons turned in.If any of theKraut civilians helped the Kraut soldiers or hindered the American soldiers, they would beshot.I told Jerry Sheehan that I didn t like this setup at all: it was dark and we couldn t seejust exactly what we had.Sergeant Walstad s machine gun platoon was with Company E,Sergeant Ross s machine gun platoon was with Mike Damkowitch, and the mortars set upnear the center of town.I was right to be worried.At 6:00 a.m.on April 12, some 300 SS troops accompanied by four tanks attacked us.The brunt of the attack hit Company E and Walstad s machine guns.A new lieutenant withCompany E pulled his platoon out and left Walstad s gunners with only one squad ofriflemen.I don t know why, but that single rifle squad refused to pull out when they sawthat the machine gunners were not going to pull out.I guess they weren t going to leavetheir buddies.Some of the Krauts and two of the tanks got through our lines.One of the tanks waspoking its nose around the corner of a building on the street when a Sherman tank sneakedaround the corner to get it.As the Sherman was creeping up the street, a Kraut civilianpoked a Panzerfaust out the window and knocked off one of the tank s tracks.The boysnailed the bastard a little later.One of our tank destroyers bypassed the Sherman and gotthe tank and its crew.Machine guns, both ours and theirs, were zooming up and down allof the streets and it was dangerous business to stick your head around a corner.A womanup the street came running out of her house frantically pointed to her cellar.MikeDamkowitch and I got some of his men to investigate.A Kraut was hiding in there.Theboys killed him.I guess the woman was afraid she d be shot if she was caught harboringan enemy soldier.If so, she was right; we would have.We lost contact with Company E and both machine gun sections that were bearing theblunt of the attack.The major told Mike Damkowitch to send one of his rifle platoons tofind out what was happening.Bill Butz went with one part of the platoon to look for onesection of machine guns, and I went with the other.The long lanky sergeant who was thetank destroyer platoon leader said that he would take one of his tank destroyers with us.Idecided to walk along with him.Things were fairly quiet now, but I was still scared as hell.We were down the street afew blocks when the sergeant and I saw some movement in a house.We thought that waswhere our boys should be.Since we did not particularly care to be out on the street, we ranto the house and flung open the door.About six Krauts were standing in the hallway.Theywere as surprised to see us as we were to see them!I never knew I could run so fast.I even outran the long-legged sergeant [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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. How far is it? he asked. About a mile up a little hill, I replied. No, they probably won t need me. I thought to myself, You old bastard, these men of yours have walked all the way fromUtah Beach, and the walk wasn t easy, but you re too damn lazy to walk a mile to let themsee that you re at least interested in what they are doing. Our objective was about a mile away over rolling terrain.Company E and Company Gwould attack abreast with Company E on the right and Company G on the left.CompanyE also had a couple of tanks with it.Both our 81s and some 4.2-inch mortars were set upto give supporting fires.The attack started off beautifully.Both companies were well spread out.When theywere halfway to town, the Krauts opened up on the men with machine guns, small arms,and 20mm and 37mm antiaircraft guns, and on the tanks with antitank guns.First Sergeant Bloodworth, Bill Butz, Emmett Taylor, and I were up on the hill withMajor Williams.As a couple of tanks rumbled by us, I hugged the ground as close as Icould, but that stuff was still coming too close.I got tangled up in a barbed wire fence andalmost ripped all of my clothes off trying to get loose.Our boys were down on the ground now, but they kept moving.The major had goodradio control and he kept both Damkowitch and McDonell abreast of one another sprogress.They captured the town about twilight.I learned that Lieutenant McAlpin hadbeen hit pretty badly.Part of his shoulder had been torn off from a round that had hit atank he was standing by.The rest of the battalion finally got into the town right after dark.We knew nothingabout the town and it was hard as hell to set up a defense at night.Company E was on theside of town facing Erfurt, Company F was to its right, and Company G wrapped aroundthe back end. The major sent for the burgermeister and, with the help of an interpreter, told him thathe wanted the same old thing: all civilians indoors and all weapons turned in.If any of theKraut civilians helped the Kraut soldiers or hindered the American soldiers, they would beshot.I told Jerry Sheehan that I didn t like this setup at all: it was dark and we couldn t seejust exactly what we had.Sergeant Walstad s machine gun platoon was with Company E,Sergeant Ross s machine gun platoon was with Mike Damkowitch, and the mortars set upnear the center of town.I was right to be worried.At 6:00 a.m.on April 12, some 300 SS troops accompanied by four tanks attacked us.The brunt of the attack hit Company E and Walstad s machine guns.A new lieutenant withCompany E pulled his platoon out and left Walstad s gunners with only one squad ofriflemen.I don t know why, but that single rifle squad refused to pull out when they sawthat the machine gunners were not going to pull out.I guess they weren t going to leavetheir buddies.Some of the Krauts and two of the tanks got through our lines.One of the tanks waspoking its nose around the corner of a building on the street when a Sherman tank sneakedaround the corner to get it.As the Sherman was creeping up the street, a Kraut civilianpoked a Panzerfaust out the window and knocked off one of the tank s tracks.The boysnailed the bastard a little later.One of our tank destroyers bypassed the Sherman and gotthe tank and its crew.Machine guns, both ours and theirs, were zooming up and down allof the streets and it was dangerous business to stick your head around a corner.A womanup the street came running out of her house frantically pointed to her cellar.MikeDamkowitch and I got some of his men to investigate.A Kraut was hiding in there.Theboys killed him.I guess the woman was afraid she d be shot if she was caught harboringan enemy soldier.If so, she was right; we would have.We lost contact with Company E and both machine gun sections that were bearing theblunt of the attack.The major told Mike Damkowitch to send one of his rifle platoons tofind out what was happening.Bill Butz went with one part of the platoon to look for onesection of machine guns, and I went with the other.The long lanky sergeant who was thetank destroyer platoon leader said that he would take one of his tank destroyers with us.Idecided to walk along with him.Things were fairly quiet now, but I was still scared as hell.We were down the street afew blocks when the sergeant and I saw some movement in a house.We thought that waswhere our boys should be.Since we did not particularly care to be out on the street, we ranto the house and flung open the door.About six Krauts were standing in the hallway.Theywere as surprised to see us as we were to see them!I never knew I could run so fast.I even outran the long-legged sergeant [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]