Field Goals: Experiences Outside of Camp and on the Battle Field
These next four stories, Lynch-ed, Turkey in the Hedgerows, Tank Attack, River Rope and Truckin’ Taylor, all take place out in the field. Whether moving from one station to the other or directly under fire, these stories show a more personal side of the ‘glorious victories’ or ‘humiliating defeats’ that we read about in text books. Those events were the effects of the troop’s ability to make survival and tactical decisions. The following quote is from when George told the story about the turkey:We are coming by the turkey and the sucker gobbles again. And he [the British officer who accompanied me] is on this side. We were crawling along here. And he takes one leap and he takes that turkey by the neck. He wrings his neck. He said he’d make a fine dinner. See, they could live off the land. We couldn’t’. We weren’t permitted. The reason for that is that the Germans might have poisoned some food and left food. So, it was a good rule but we used to get eggs and shoot deer.
Stories like this display the soldiers’ ability to fend for themselves. The stories below portray how character played a huge role in life during WWII and show how such events shaped the characters of the people involved.
For the events that are retold in the story Tank Attack George was given a Silver Star medal “for gallantry in action in France, 15 July 1944.” His personal explanation for why he was given the medal has little to do with gallantry and much more to do with monetary worth. The Mark IV and Mark V tanks that he took out that day accounted for millions of dollars worth of equipment. Not only did he cost the Germans equipment but he also cost them much needed cash.
Lynch-ed
We were stationed with a view of a large field. Every night our position would come under fire but you could not pinpoint the position of the guns because you couldn’t see their flash. But, on the left side of the field, from where we were stationed, there was a knoll, which is where I believe the guns were. I was relieved of duty for two day by Captain Lynch. He was a big Irishman, who filled the Irish stereotype of drunkenness, but I didn’t doubt his ability to command so I took my days of rest. That evening I got a call. “Caspian. Come in, Caspian” (That was my code name, from the name of the town in which I grew up). I picked up the radio and on the other end was Captain Lynch. He said “I am in your position. What is this thing that goes ‘bing-bang’?”I knew that this was the gun that had previously been firing at us. It was a German 88, the first shell of which traveled faster than the speed of sound. The shells reached you before you heard the crack from firing. He repeated himself “What is this thing that goes ‘bing-bang’?”
“It’s an 88. Faster that the speed of sound. It’s a self-propelled gun shooting from the knoll on the left side of the field” I responded, followed by the coordinates of the knoll.
“What do I do about it?” he snapped, obviously looking for a quick answer.
“John, are you in a fox hole?”
“Yes, I am in a fox hole. What the hell do you think I should do?” he begged, extremely frustrated as I could hear the ‘bing-bang’ of the guns in the background.
“John, you can dig deeper,” was the only answer I could give. He came back swearing like a sailor but didn’t ask for any more instruction. This was good because I had no more to give. Nobody had any choice but to dig deeper.
Turkey in the Hedgerows
My troops went in on D34 (Thirty-four days after D-day). After the Germans moved off of the beach head the moved back into hedgerow country. We followed them and that is where we made camp. We settled into our position. There were enemy troops in two places but the ones of interest were directly in front of us, once you got across some hedgerows. They were dug in deep and they had transportation. To observe them I would crawl behind the hedgerow and climb into the hayloft of a barn. I had to crawl because if you stood up, the enemy would see you. I had to get into the barn because then I had a view of the enemy which I would otherwise be lacking. You couldn’t use field glasses due to their reflective lenses. From the hayloft, I could tell that not only were they really trenched in but they were very active and well defended.
I encountered only one difficulty on my way to the barn. About half way between where I started and the barn, there was a wild turkey. Every time I went by he’d gobble. I didn’t want him to gobble because the enemy was right over there and if they knew my position I was done for. But, I couldn’t do anything to make him stop. There was a rule saying that we couldn’t live off the land. The rule had good reasoning, there was always the possibility that the Germans had poisoned any food left lying around. But there were times when a nice turkey dinner would have hit the spot.
Shortly after our arrival there, we teamed up with some British. They were going to take the left sector and we were going to take the right so that it was easier to defend our post. So that the British officer could see what we were up against, he joined me on my daily crawl along the hedgerows. We were coming by the turkey and the sucker gobbled again. The British officer took one leap and grabbed that turkey by the neck. After he had wrung the turkey’s neck he said “He’ll make a fine dinner.”
Tank Attack
From our position you could hear the enemy’s camp but you couldn’t see it. There was a tree not too far off from our position, so I got up in that tree and I could see the enemy tanks. The distance between our position and theirs wasn’t that big so I started to prepare to take out the tanks. Taking out a tank was no easy task. They had heavy armor. The whole thing is full of armor so you couldn’t burn them unless you pierced that armor. It was easier to disable a tank by shooting one of its tracks. To burn one we used a shell with a delayed fuse so that it would pierce the armor and then go off.
Once I knew the location of the tanks I called in for a heavier gun. Just one was enough. But I couldn’t just give them the coordinates of the tanks and have them start shooting because the shells were inconsistent. The shells had a lot of powder and the powder is hard to regulate the exact amount. Then the weather, their age, there is a probability of error between the shells. So I picked a practice target. There was a tree two hundred yards to the right.
I registered the heavy gun on the tree. We fire. It is to the right. We adjust and shoot again. It goes over. We adjust and shoot again and repeat the process until we hit the tree. Then all I had to do was tell them to move it two hundred yards to the right and compensate for the difference of the distance.
The whole time, the Germans weren’t paying any attention to us. They saw the blasts by the tree and probably thought we were dumb for shooting over there. But the next thing they knew they were under fire. Accurate fire, at that. You always tried to bring that gun over and get the first hit. You put it right on top of them. The element of surprise was key. The element of surprise was how I burned one of those tanks and disabled several others.
River Rope
In France, we met more rivers than we could count and most of them did not have bridges. Some previously had bridges but they had since been blown out. One day we came to such a place. There was a blown out bridge over a fast moving river. But a little bit farther downstream there was a rope strung from one side of the river to the other with a boat connected to it. It was most likely set up by a German civilian to get himself and his goods across the river.I went upriver to examine the blown out bridge and see if there was another way to cross the river. I left the troops with an infantry officer by the name of Todd. When I looked back down towards the troops he was loading them into the boat. I yelled for him to stop. He didn’t hear. Each man had armor and guns and ammunition on their person so they were very loaded down. I yelled for him to stop. Instead of stopping he said “Come on. There is room for one more.”
“Stop. Todd, stop!” I yelled again, trying to tell him not to go, to get out of the boat. But he didn’t hear me. He pushed the boat off. I could instantly tell that there was too much weight in the boat. It tipped ever so slightly to one side, from the movement of the men, and the current toppled it. The current emptied the boat of it’s cargo of men and carried it all down stream. None of those men were ever heard from again. They all drowned.
Truckin’ Taylor
I was the commanding officer of troops who were moving across the countryside. We came to a field right in the middle of our path with enemy troops on the other side. The infantry could walk or crawl across the field and therefore were inconspicuous. But all of our equipment was in a jeep which also had to get across the field. Four men rode in the jeep with me. I rode next to the driver and the other three filled up the back. I gave strict instruction as to how we were going to get across this field. I told them “If you lose your helmet or anything, we are not going to stop. We’re not going to stop for anything. We’re going to put this up to forty miles an hour and we’re going to go.” And that is exactly what we did.
Part way across the field, we hit a rough spot, a bump in the middle of the field and one of the men in the back, by the name of Taylor, fell off the back of the jeep. The rest of us saw it happen but we had strict instructions, my instructions, not to stop for anything. We couldn’t. We were getting shot at, but we were moving just fast enough to stay out of their sights because they were using mortar or artillery, not small arms.
We reached the other side of the field intact. They never hit us but Taylor stayed behind in the ditch. We had no idea what had happened back there on the field. All we knew is that he didn’t make it to camp with us, that he was back there, somewhere.
Then that night he came home. He walked into camp. We were glad to see him. We were always glad to see a man come safely back to camp. Even if we were the ones who left him behind.
