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Hill 122
"
Sir, didn't you hear that one land in front of us just before those last two?"
"Oh, I said, "then you'd better start ducking now."
They did so, but I stuck around for a last look at my own fire mission, which was
just finishing. That was a mistake, for the next Jerry round was neither an 'over' nor a
'short.' It was range correct on me, but somewhat to my left. I wasted no time getting
through the hedge, to the sunken road behind me, and into the fox-hole conveniently dug
there. Artillery fire doesn't bother me much unless I get that uncomfortably intimate
feeling that the joker firing it has me personally in mind. This time I had that feeling.
When I saw the cross at the crossroad and realized that I had been only incidental, I felt
better. Funny, isn't it?
On another day Lt Ray Wright stayed at the battalion OP until dark, about 10:30
or 11. When he came in, he had an interesting story. At dusk he had seen a lighted object
like an airplane in the sky. "It made a big circle, and then took off north, faster than any
airplane I ever saw. "
"How much calvados have you had to drink, Ray?" "Laugh all you want to, but I
saw it!"
After the war, I realized that what he had seen was a V-I, the world's first guided
missile, being fired at London. Buzz-bombs, as the English called them and their bigger,
faster, successors, the V-2's. The British censored all reports of them, for fear the
Germans would find out how devastating they were and step up the program.
While we waited, the rest of the 90th Division came up beside us so all three
regiments were available when the attack started on July 3. Even so, we didn't make
much progress. We were still in hedgerow country, and had not yet found out how to
handle the German defenses there. To make it tougher, the Germans held Hill 122 and
could see every move we made that was not masked by the hedgerows. But worst of all,
the tactics used at division (or higher) level were unbelievably stupid. The infantry
"jumped off" every morning at 6 a.m., about dawn. The Germans noted this, and made
sure they were out of bed and ready to start shooting by then, But in case they might
forget, we would fire an artillery preparation for fifteen to thirty minutes just before H-
hour, by way of an alarm clock.
An artillery preparation consists of heavy fire right on the enemy front lines,
designed to keep their heads down until the attack is under way. But as soon as your own
troops start forward, it has to be lifted, because artillery shells are too dumb to tell friend
from foe, and will kill attackers as well as defenders. Sometimes you continue firing it at
a little greater range, to hold down the enemy reserve forces. Preparation fire is very
valuable at times, but not against well dug-in enemy who can pop out of their holes as
soon as it is lifted.
And not when it blows the possibility of surprise.
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