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Normandy Thoughts
(6 of 10) |
I believe it was D-Day or the day after, we were standing in a field in a
small group talking, when out of nowhere a piece of shrapnel about 8
inches long and 5 inches wide from some distant bombing or Naval
shelling came from out of the sky and fell parallel with Lt. Quade's
arm, tore a slit in his jump Jacket sleeve without scratching him, and
embedded itself in the ground. It was spooky! It seemed to say that Lt.
Quade had a charmed life and nothing could hurt him. His invincibility,
however, was short lived; he had about two more days to enjoy the Norman
summer.
Also, about the same time we didn’t know whether or not the Invasion of
France was successful. We had no way of knowing if the beaches were
secured or our forces were pushed back into the sea. It was a perfect
summer's day with a beautiful blue sky and white puffy clouds scattered
about and a constant breeze when directly above us two Army Air Force
P-38's with their unmistakable twin fuselages went into a synchronized
barrel roll as if to say the sky was ours, and reason followed if they
could have the luxury of doing barrel rolls then, the beaches were ours
and the Invasion was successful.
Somewhere along the line we picked up more people and two were Officers
and two big German Afrika Corps camouflaged trucks, The Lieutenants were
one Lt. [Arthur R.] Stevens who I didn't know at all. I think he told me
he attended the University of Iowa at the same time as Nile Kinnick, the
great field goal kicker whom, I believe, was killed early in the war;
and a Lt. John [J.] Daly who was a very personable type. I believe he
played football at Manhattan College. Why in the world we tied ourselves
down with the two German trucks I'll never know, naturally we had to
travel along the road network with the trucks, and in so doing expose
ourselves to easy detection.
So it was this beautiful sunny day we were proceeding along a Norman
country road, and came across a heavy black communication cable running
parallel with the road in the bordering irrigation ditch. Jess [M.]
Alley, who I believe was Communications Sgt., said that he thought from
its diameter it was probably German Corp communications wire. So we cut
a piece of about fifteen feet from the wire - wide enough so it could
not be rejoined - and hid it as we walked along. Incidentally, no one
rode in the empty trucks except the drivers. We then came across two
middle-aged Frenchmen wearing the customary berets, standing in front of
a house, and our Colonel engaged them In a makeshift French-English
dialogue and they assured us there were no Bosche around - that they
(the Germans) had been through, but they all had left.
I was walking at this time with the Command Group, the Colonel, Lt.
Quade, and I believe Jess Alley, when the point walking up ahead hit the
ground and remained motionless. The Colonel or Lt. Quade told me to go
up front and see why the point had hit the ground. As I walked up the
road the lead group was laying on both sides of the road in the
irrigation ditches. Joe Ganz was laying on my right as I walked between
them. I asked him what they saw, and he pointed to the hill in front of
us that overlooked the road. Sitting up on the hill wore some shiftless
men who appeared to be sunbathing. We all carried a piece of cloth,
which I believe was red, to identify ourselves from a distance. I
wrapped the cloth around the tip of the barrel of my M-1, and being the
only one standing, started walking forward, waving my rifle to the left
and right like a banner. There was a farm house on the left side of the
road, and as I approached the hill, a rain of machinegun bullets came at
me. The sunbathers were German soldiers manning a machinegun covering
the road. When they saw the Afrika Corps trucks they assumed our little
band were German soldiers, I somehow got behind the farm house without
being hit. We must have come upon a German Army perimeter defense
because all hell broke loose. The shingles were flying off the farmhouse
I was behind and the road was being raked with machinegun bullets.
Being as I walked beyond the point waving my rifle, I found myself in a
very lonely position behind that farmhouse. I was all alone and the
enemy fire was intensifying. To my rear I heard chickens scurrying and
being harassed. I thought I heard a German rifle firing in the same
area. Then I heard someone running and hitting the ground. I thought it
might be a German, so I timed the next dash toward me with my rifle
pointed in his direction. Thank God the runner was Lt. Quade. He asked
if there was anyone with me and I told him no. He said we were going to
make a run for it.
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