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Upstarts
The ultimate communications crisis struck the 90th Infantry Division on about 10
July, 1944, early in our campaign to take Hill 122 and the Foret de Mont Castre. There
was a major crossroads roughly in the middle of the Division zone, about a mile and a
half behind the front lines. Owing to its central location, a high percentage of the
division's telephone lines went through it. At the southeast corner was a concrete cross
perhaps twelve feet high. It was a handy place to hang wire, to get it up off the ground,
out of the way of traffic.
I would guess there were fifty lines hanging on that cross when some German
artillerist zeroed in on the crossroads, and one chance round hit the cross, knocking chunks
out of it and spewing slashed telephone wire in all directions.
In no time there was a traffic jam. Wire trucks and crews braved the still incoming
artillery fire, all anxious to get their own lines spliced together. Even with so many different
wires kicking around, incredibly most of them got assembled correctly, but it was days before
one could be completely sure who would answer on any particular line.
Right then would have been the time for the enemy to counter-attack! We could still
talk to a limited extent by radio, but the lack of telephone definitely hampered our units'
ability to communicate with and support each other. Fortunately for us, the Germans missed
their chance.
Come to think of it, maybe their telephones weren't working either.
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