by Jon E. Lewis
It has become very unhealthy behind our ridge. They are still mainly hitting the top of it. So long as they stay up there it won’t be too bad. But there is always a nasty uncertainty about it. If they add a few yards to the range they’ll be landing right among us. One or two have already come half-way down the slope.
Rear Link getting excited again. He’s been talking to one of the troop commanders. Rear Link says Charlie appear to be on their objective. Can he signal “Snowdrop” to his R.H.Q.? John says, “No, not yet.” Rear Link gets another message from the tanks. Rear Link says Charlie have started to dig in. Can he signal “Snowdrop” ? John says, “No. They haven’t consolidated yet.” Kevin reports that he has arrived and is digging in. He says he has sent back more prisoners. More wounded, more prisoners, more Nebelwerfers, more shells, and the Monastery horribly clear. Rear Link has another conversation with the tanks. “How about “Snowdrop” , sir?” Rear Link almost pleads. “Not yet,” John says. “Not until they have consolidated.”
They’re shelling us hard now. Not on the crest any more, but just over our heads and to our right. It is a different battery. They seem like 105s. They are coming over in eights. About every thirty seconds. The hard digging earlier in the morning is paying a good dividend. The last three salvoes landed right on our mortars, but they are well dug in and they get away without a single casualty. None of the shells has landed more than thirty yards from the command post. It is very frightening. Kevin on the wireless. Charlie Company are being counter-attacked with tanks. More shells on us. Twelve this time. Two of them within twenty yards. Behind, fortunately. Harry has taken a bearing on the guns and passed it back to the counter-battery people. Kevin on the wireless again. The leading Boche tank has got into a hull-down position fifty yards from his leading platoon. He has had some casualties. Our tanks trying to deal with it but hampered by very close-wooded country and a sunken lane that is an obstacle. Boche infantry are edging forward under cover of the fire from their tanks. More shells on the command post. The same place still. If they switch thirty yards to their left we’ve had it. That is the frightening thing. Wondering if they’ll make a switch before they fire again. The accuracy of the guns is their downfall. John tries to get Kevin on the wireless. The signaller cannot get through. His toneless signaller-voice goes on saying, “Hello Three, hello Three, hello Three, hello Three.” But he cannot get an answer. A closer shell blasted me against the bank. It is a queer feeling when you are brought to earth by blast. There is an instant of black-out, then sudden consciousness of what has happened: then an agonized wait for a spasm of pain somewhere on your person. Finally, a dull reactionary shock as you slowly discover you are intact. The signaller’s voice again, “Cannot – hear – you – clearly – say – again – say again – that’s – better –hear – you – okay.” Kevin on the wireless. There is a tank deadlock. The rival tanks are now very close, on opposite sides of the same shallow crest. If either moves the other will get it the second the turret appears above the crest. The German cannot be outflanked. He has chosen his position cunningly. The sunken lane protects him. Kevin has had more casualties. More shells on the command post. Intense machine-gun fire from the direction of Kevin’s company. Not a vestige of haze round the Monastery. This is the climax. No word from Kevin. John saying, “Are you through to Charlie Company yet?” The signaller-voice tonelessly persevering: “Hear my signals, hear my signals, hello Three … hear you very faintly …” Then, after an eternity, “Through now, sir. Message for you, sir.” It is Kevin on the wireless. A fusilier has knocked out the tank with a Piat. It has killed the crew. The tank is on fire. The others are withdrawing. The infantry are withdrawing. Charlie Company are getting some of them as they withdraw. The counter-attack is finished. Consolidation may proceed. The tension is broken.
It went from mouth to mouth. “Bloke called Jefferson knocked out the tank with a Piat. Bloody good show! Bloke called Jefferson knocked out the tank with a Piat. Bloody good show! Bloody good show – bloke called Jefferson …” It passed from one to another till all the signallers knew, the stretcher-bearers, and the mortar crews, and the pioneers: and the antitank gunners waiting some way behind, and some sappers who were searching for mines along the track verges. Till the whole world knew. “A chap called Jefferson …”
Kevin on the wireless. “No further attacks. Consolidation completed.”
“Get on to Brigade,” John said, “and report ’Snowdrop’.”
“Snowdrop,” the Adjutant told Brigade.
“Snowdrop,” Brigade told Division.
“Snowdrop,” Division told Corps.
“Snowdrop,” Corps told Army.
In all the headquarters all the way back they rubbed out the mark on their operations maps showing our position in the morning and put it in again twelve hundred yards farther forward, on the chalk-line called “Snowdrop” . It was ten past two. The battle had been going for six hours.
“Command post prepare to move,” John said.
We advanced in extended order through the long corn, as the ground was completely flat and without cover. The smell of the barrage still lingered, and the lacerated ground testified to its thoroughness. Wondering how many of the farms away to the right were still occupied by Boche; wondering how many machine-guns were concealed in the woods and the olive groves which stretched across the front a thousand yards ahead. Wondering if anyone had spotted our wireless aerials, which are impossible to conceal, and which always give away a headquarters.
There wasn’t a vestige of cover in the half-mile stretch to where the reserve company had dug in. There was still a lot of firing in front, mainly from the tanks. They were taking no chances with the open right flank. They were dosing all the farms in turn. With nine tell-tale wireless aerials swaying loftily above the heads of the sweating signallers who carried the sets on their backs, we pushed on quickly through the long corn, wishing it was a good deal longer. And the Monastery watched us all the way.
As soon as the command post was established in the area of the reserve company, John went forward to where Kevin’s company were, and he took me with him. They had turned the area into a compact little strong-point. It had to be compact, because there were fewer than fifty of them left out of ninety who had set off in the morning. Besides which, the country was so thick with trees that you couldn’t see more than fifty yards ahead. They had adapted some of the excellent German trenches to face the other way. Some were reading the highly-coloured magazines left behind by the Boche. These were filled with lurid artists’ impressions of the Cassino fighting bearing such captions as “Our paratroop supermen defying the Anglo-American hordes in living Hell of Cassino” . They were all on that level. There was one copy of a sumptuous fashion magazine, which seemed slightly incongruous, and suggested that the Rhine-maidens weren’t all the drab blue-stockings the Nazis made them out to be. There was one of the famous new steel pill-boxes: an underground three-roomed flatlet, which included a well-stocked larder. Only its small, rounded, steel turret protruded above the ground, and this was skilfully camouflaged.
A few yards away Jefferson’s tank was still burning. They were all talking about Jefferson. They were all saying he saved the company. The tank had wiped out a section at sixty yards’ range, and was systematically picking off the rest of the company in ones and twos until fewer than fifty were left. Then Jefferson, on an impulse, and without orders, snatched up a Piat and scrambled round to a position only a few yards from the tank. Unable to get in a shot from behind cover, he had stood up in full view of the enemy and fired his weapon standing up, so that the back-blast of the exploding bomb knocked him flat on his back. Then he had struggled to his feet and aimed a shot at the second tank – but the tank was hurriedly pulling back, and with it the Boche infantry. It was one of those things that aren’t in the book. Jefferson was typical of the best Lancashire soldiers – quiet and solid and rather shy, yet able in an emergency to act quickly without seeming to hurry. Such men
are nice to have around in battles. It was one of those deeds the full implications of which don’t really strike you till some time later, then leave you stunned and humble.
… During the night we received orders to continue the advance at 6 a.m. and secure the next objective-line, “Bluebell” . This was to synchronize with the Poles, who were to make a final attempt to work round from our old position north-east of Cassino and cut the highway from their side.
It was well after three by the time everyone had been fed, ammunition had been replenished, and orders for the new attack had been given out. Before he went to sleep John said, “I’m going to put Jefferson in for the V.C.”
At a quarter to six the earth trembled, and once again the shells started pouring overhead so thickly that at times you fancied you could see them. At the same time another lot of guns began to pound Monastery Hill in support of the Polish attack. In next to no time dust and smoke and yellow flame enveloped the Monastery itself, so that when our Dog and Baker Companies passed through Charlie Company on the stroke of six it was hidden from view. This was the kill. We were going in for the kill. The Poles were sweeping round from the right: we, two and a half miles away in the valley, were on our way to seal it off from the left. It shouldn’t be long now. And once we had cut the Highway the very qualities that had made the Monastery an impregnable bastion for so long would turn it into an equally formidable death-trap. For so long the guardian and protector of its garrison, it would round on them in its death-throes and destroy them.
Compared with the previous day, we had a fairly easy advance. There were some snipers and one or two isolated machine-guns, but they didn’t seem disposed to resist very strongly, and by ten Baker and Dog, assisted by fresh tanks, were nicely settled on Bluebell, another thousand yards on. We were ordered to push on as fast as possible. So Baker and Dog advanced again, to the final objective line, “Tulip” , twelve hundred yards farther on. And Able, Charlie and Command Post pushed on to the area just cleared by Dog and Baker. By four o’clock in the afternoon Dog and Baker both signalled that they were established on “Tulip” – both had O.P.s directly overlooking Highway Six. Both asked permission to carry on and cut the road and search beyond it. We were ordered to stay where we were, however, as the exact position of the Poles was not known and mistakes might occur if we both started milling around by the road. We dominated it from where we were. We had done what was required of us. We were to stay where we were until we had further orders. The job was nearly done.
During the night Dog and Baker were told to patrol as far as the road. Not till the following morning were we allowed to send anyone beyond it. By that time it had ceased to be a military feat. It was a formal ceremony. So John sent a special patrol of three corporals, all holders of the M.M. They crossed the Highway and carried out a careful search of the gullies and ruined buildings on the far side of it, but the only Germans they could find were dead ones. Their time was not wasted, however. Each returned with a Schmeisser gun, a camera, a watch and a pair of binoculars of impeccable German manufacture. An hour later the Poles entered the Monastery. As so often happens when great events are awaited with prolonged and excessive anxiety, the announcement of the fall of Monte Cassino was rather an anticlimax. It was Thursday, 18 May. The battle had lasted a week. The job was done.
HOME FRONT: PURE HELL FOR A GUY NOT IN UNIFORM, CANADA, 1943
Anonymous
Don’t let anyone ever tell you it was all blue sky and sunshine for a guy not in uniform in those years. Sometimes it was pure hell.
Fellows who had tried to enlist and had been turned down, they got this little pin they could wear, and if people knew what it meant, then they were okay. I was a deferment, vital to the war effort. A classification like that meant I had no pin, and to a lot it looked like I was just running away from the whole thing.
Well, like hell I was. I was a master mechanic and stationary engineer and I worked in this little factory just outside Hamilton, and the family who owned it had wangled a job making parts for bearings for Liberty ships. If the government had given the contract to somebody bigger they’d have been better off, but as it was, we were vital to the war effort.
I was 29 and just ripe for a uniform, but there I was, keeping that damned plant going, running back and forth between the machine shop and the boiler room like an Olympic champion. Eighteen hours in a day and ten on Sunday was nothing, keeping that plant going. Every time I’d tell the boss to shove it – he was a canny old Scots bugger – he’d give me a raise and run off to the procurement board and get my deferment renewed. I couldn’t have joined the army even if I’d wanted to.
That didn’t help me, though. Look at me now. Well, back in 1943 I was still six-foot-one, and I was a good 195 pounds and none of it fat, but because I could make an engine part on a lathe out of scrap iron I’d find in the back of the shop, I was essential. And I took shit for it. Ask my wife.
We couldn’t go to a dance. We’d be bumped on the floor by army and navy types. The air force wasn’t too bad. But you’d hear all sorts of cracks like, “Maybe he’s got a wooden leg,” or, “Is that silver plate in his head where they pour the sawdust in?” and, “I guess his old man’s got money,” and on and on. Christ, if there were a thousand insults, I heard them all. We finally stopped going to dances. The wife just couldn’t take it any more. She used to cry about it.
You got it on the streets, remarks you heard as you walked by, and I remember once on a streetcar I was sitting at the back and I felt something tapping the bottom of my foot and there was a paratrooper kicking me, and when I looked at him he gave me the up-yours sign. Sure, I could have got up and whaled him one, but he had two buddies with him and if you don’t think that’s what they were waiting for me to do, then you’re wrong. You had to watch yourself.
There were thousands of us, I guess. Maybe we should have formed our own organization. A Mafia thing or something. For me, I just developed a hard shell. It got so I was immune, or I’m telling you now I was. I wasn’t really. You kind of got the feeling of what it must be like to be a Negro in Georgia.
My father-in-law, who knew what I was doing at the foundry, he would hear these insults and he’d get madder than anyone. Once we were fishing near Guelph in that little river and some soldiers were down the bank with some girls drinking beer and playing around, and soon we heard a few remarks come up our way. Harry, my father-in-law, that scored him out and he went down and told them a thing or two, what I was doing, and I can still remember one of the girls laughing and saying, “Ah, fuck off, willya. We know exactly what he is.”
It all ended pretty well when the war ended. A few of my friends when they got back from overseas would make the odd remark, joking, in a nonjoking kind of way, but that ended pretty soon too. But I can tell you now, right now, that I know I was more valuable in that plant patching up that equipment than if I’d killed five Germans a day.
D-DAY: EMBARKATION, 4 JUNE 1944
Alan Moorehead, war correspondent
The Allied invasion of Normandy, 6 June 1944, was the greatest seaborne invasion in history. Some 160,000 troops – British, American, French, Polish and Canadian – embarked in 5,000 craft from southern England to make the journey to Hitler’s “Fortress Europe” .
At three o’clock we were standing in a line on the path leading up to the gate. The young naval officer came by festooned with his explosives and rather surprisingly took up a position behind me. As each new group of troops turned up they exchanged wisecracks with the others already arrived. “Blimey, ’ere’s the Arsenal” … “’Ome for the ’olidays” … “Wot’s that, Arthur?” “Them’s me water-wings, dearie.” Even after waiting another hour there was still optimism in the ranks. Then we marched out through the gate and got on to the vehicles. An officer was running down the line making sure everyone was on board. He blew a whistle and we started off. Five miles an hour. Down Acacia Avenue. Round the park into High Street; a mile-long column of ducks and th
ree-ton lorries; of Jeeps and tanks and bulldozers. On the sidewalk one or two people waved vaguely. An old man stopped and mumbled, “Good luck.” But for the most part the people stared silently and made no sign. They knew we were going. There had been rehearsals before but they were not deceived. There was something in the way the soldiers carried themselves that said all too clearly “This is it. This is the invasion.” And yet they were cheerful still. It was a relief to be out of the camp and moving freely in the streets again. Every now and again the column halted. Then we crept on slowly again towards the hards.
Two hours went by and the soldiers began to grow bored. They seized on anything for amusement. When a girl came by on a bicycle she was cheered with salacious enthusiasm from one end of the column to the other. An athlete dressed in a pink suit began to pace round the cricket field. The soldiers watched him with relish for a minute. Then, “Hyah, Pinkie.” “Careful, dearie.” Derisive shouting followed him round the ground. Towards the end of the column a soldier who was trained as a sniper took down his rifle with its telescopic sights and fixed them upon two lovers who were embracing at the farther end of the park. His friends gathered round him while he gave them a lewd commentary on what he saw. The soldiers were becoming very bored. It grew dark and the cricket match ended. Every hour or so a tea-waggon came round and the men ran towards it with their enamel mugs. One after another the lights in the houses were blacked out and the soldiers, left alone in the empty street, lapsed into complete listlessness and tiredness. Rumours kept passing back and forth from vehicle to vehicle. “Our ship has fouled its anchor.” “There has been a collision in the harbour.” Or more spectacularly, “We have already made a landing on the Channel Islands.”