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.Initially, two rifleplatoons made it to the edge of town.It wasn t until the middle of the afternoon that theother two rifle platoons reached the rest of the company.When they got on the outskirtsand the Krauts turned their guns on them, the men dropped face down into the ground andwouldn t move.The old timers were picked off trying to show the new kids how it wasdone.When the situation became hopeless, we were ordered to withdraw.This was about6:30 p.m.on October 4.* * *I ll never know why we were ordered to take that damn town.What possible benefitcould we have derived from taking Sivry, without also taking the strategic andcommanding Mt.Toulon and Mt.St.Jean? I guess when you re looking at maps from acomfortable position several safe miles to the rear, things look entirely different.There were a few medals given out for the little action around Sivry.About 380 menhad taken part in the attack, but only 191 escaped from Sivry, half of them wounded.Kadbroke up a counterattack while he and his men were trying to get in, and he received theSilver Star.A sergeant from Company G, Jimmy Adkins (no relation), got theDistinguished Service Cross.Only forty men were left in Company G.These menprobably owed their escape to a rearguard action fought by Sergeant Adkins.He waswounded, but made his way back through the village after covering his buddies.Lieutenant Ellsworth refused to surrender until all of his men were gone.For my piece ofthe action in Sivry, I was awarded the Bronze Star.About 3:30 p.m.on October 4, Monahan, Ackermann, Ellsworth, and a few others werecaptured by a German force of about four hundred men.As Monahan was being takenback up Mt.Toulon he stopped, turned around, and waved to us.We could see himthrough the glasses.There were now only two of the original thirty-seven line officers leftin my battalion.The others had been killed or wounded.After the Krauts took Sivry, they set up a public address system on Mt.Toulon andcalled for us to surrender.The guy on the PA spoke perfect English and called us by ourcode name,  Headache. He said one of our other regiments (Hayseed) had beenannihilated. Lay down your arms, form in a column of twos, bring your mess gear andyour best girl s picture, and chow will be waiting for you. We answered with artillery.Some of my boys took me to the aid station.The medics also brought in a couple ofmen who had shot themselves.One kid had put his left hand over the muzzle of his M-1and pulled the trigger with his right hand.Boy, those bones were splattered.The other kidhadn t been as smart.He had put an M-l slug through his knee, and it was a mangled mess.I couldn t see how the medics could do anything but amputate his leg.Of course, both ofthem were  accidental, but it does seem as if they could have chosen a more fleshy partof the body.Before I went to the aid station, I had a feeling the doc wouldn t let me stay with mymen, so I called them together and told them that I would be gone for a few days and forthem to take care of themselves until I got back.I realized then how close we had becomeduring the past couple of months.Usually I could get my men together and talk to themfor hours on end, but this time I got all choked up and could only sputter a little.The menwho came out of Sivry with me said,  Thanks, Lieutenant.A few days later, on October 8, two of our regiments supported by XII Corps Artilleryand a battalion of.50-caliber machine gun squads, stormed Sivry, Mt.Toulon, and Mt.St.Jean.My mortars fired 985 rounds in fifteen minutes on Mt.Toulon and were creditedwith killing between five hundred and six hundred Krauts.Chapter 7MEDICAL EVACUATION AND RECOVERYOctober 5, 1944  November 21, 1944hen a man was wounded on the front lines, he was carried toward the forward aidWstation by whatever means possible.Sometimes there were litters available, butmost of the time the wounded were carried or dragged by one or two men to get them outof the line of fire.After he was moved back, litter bearers from the forward aid stationcame up to evacuate him.They hauled the man to their jeep, loaded him up (ambulancejeeps usually carried up to four litters), and drove like mad to the battalion aid station,which was usually a mile or so to the rear.Doc Bobb, our medic, and Doc Furnish, our battalion surgeon, put me into anambulance after they examined me at the battalion aid station.I was to be evacuated to therear for further evaluation and recovery.My first stop was to the collecting company, andfrom there I was transferred to the clearing company.I finally ended up in the 39thEvacuation Hospital located near Nancy, France, around October 6.Boy was I feelinggood because of the morphine! I was floating through the clouds with absolutely no painand no fear [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]