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Upstarts
Frustrated, Novelli returned to the CP of the 915th FA Bn to report in and see what they
could do to save their battalion commander. They discussed firing smoke shells to blind the
machine gunners until the survivors could crawl out of the field. Novelli wanted to go back and
adjust fire if someone would come with him. Lt Ray Wright, who was acting as liaison officer to
the 3rd Bn Infantry, volunteered and they drove back to the scene. The nearest place that would
afford any kind of observation was a farmhouse a few hundred yards away. The house turned out
to have the roof missing, so Novelli climbed up to the attic while Wright manned the telephone
from the ground. There turned out to be too many thick trees in between for any kind of
observation. Even the smoke from the shells could not be seen. After half a dozen "lost" rounds,
they got word from the FDC to cease firing. There was too much danger of hitting a survivor.
And there it stood. No one knew whether either Costain or Cpl Shaffer was still alive. Sgt
Jackson seems to have gotten out unscathed, but I don't know how or when.
Novelli's body was not wounded, but his psyche had suffered severe trauma. He did not
eat for several days, he was present at an officers' meeting in the 915th CP when two rounds of
German artillery came in and wounded an enlisted man whom Novelli had known and liked.
Then he went on another particularly frustrating mission as forward observer, crawling through
the mud for hours under machine gun fire, and had half a dozen more traumatic experiences. He
needed rest, but there seemed to be neither time nor a place to rest.
Lt Novelli now looked like a case of combat fatigue. He was evacuated for ultimate
medical treatment, which he got in England, coincidentally at the 182nd General Hospital, whose
personnel had been on the Athlone Castle crossing the Atlantic along with the 915th and part of
the 359th. There he refused a chance to be returned to the United States, and was eventually sent
to a port company in Rouen, France, later in Ghent and Antwerp, Belgium. With them he
performed with distinction, became company commander, and ended the war as a captain.
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