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Hedgerows
When it ceased firing, Costain gave a signal and they all got up and started forward,
firing as they went. Respass held and fired the .30 caliber machine gun, which was theoretically
air-cooled but soon got blistering hot. The others fired carbines or pistols, neither very effective
weapons against a dug-in enemy. If they intended the firing to make the enemy keep their heads
down while they 'advanced, they were unsuccessful, for the machine gun re-opened before they
advanced far, and they ducked to the ground again.
This time after the machine gun stopped firing there were scattered rifle shots fired into
the grass apparently by snipers trying to locate individual men. Sgt Jackson later told his friend
Mike Palmer that he "could see the bullets hitting almost between his fingers as he lay on the
ground." Perhaps the machine gun was positioned so that it could not fire down into the surface
of the field where our men lay, and the German gunners dared not move it forward for fear of
exposing its position.
There was a lull, and again Costain signaled for an advance, this time yelling, "Let's get
the yellow bastards!" They got up, tall enough to see, tall enough to reach with machine gun fire.
When they dropped to the ground again, Costain and Respass had been hit. "Tuffy," bent over
double, hurried back toward the opening, with blood pumping from a head wound. "They got
me, Novelli!"
Soon Lt Schmidt crawled over to Novelli, whispered that Costain was badly wounded,
and asked for instructions, Novelli now being the senior unwounded officer. Novelli told him
that they had to split up, and sent him back through the opening to the field - the easiest way out
- to try and get help.
No one knew it yet, but Costain was already dead. Cpl Shaffer was not wounded, but he
was understandably reluctant to get up or even move around much for fear of disturbing the grass
and drawing more fire. So he lay still, listening to his heart beating. Hours later, when dark came,
he was still there.
Novelli finally crept over to a foxhole at the edge of the field and slipped into it. There he
stayed, possibly wondering what Col Costain had in mind when he tried to charge a machine gun
head-on with a handful of men, most of them untrained in infantry tactics. Why hadn't he
withdrawn and called for infantry support? Or artillery fire? Why hadn't he made some effort to
outflank the machine gun? It seemed like a mini-scale reenactment of the Battle of the Big Horn,
the Charge of the Light Brigade, or some other military disaster.
The firing had slowed by now, and after awhile Novelli put his helmet on the end of his
carbine and raised it above the grass-tops to see if it would draw fire. It didn't. After a wait, he
tried again. No response. After a third trial, he decided to chance jumping over the hedgerow into
the next field - and succeeded.
Understandably shaken, he made his way back to the Infantry 3rd Bn CP, which was
preparing to start forward. He asked for someone to rescue Costain and any others by taking out
the machine gun, but Col Lawrence declined. They had no time to mop up bypassed German
strong points.
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