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Upstarts
A heavy storm on the English Channel had messed up the docking facilities at the
beach and cut off the flow of supplies to a trickle. Artillery ammunition, a heavy,
cumbersome item to handle, was in particularly short supply. We were given a daily
quota for the amount we were permitted to fire, to make sure we wouldn't end up without
any at all.
We never did have enough to fire all the infantry would have liked, but the crisis
came there at the Seves River. During the night, the 2nd Bn, 359th, started to receive
heavy fire from the far bank, which they thought was the beginning of a counter-attack.
Our liaison officer, Lt Maurie Smith, called on us to fire a defensive barrage in front of
them.
It was the end of the day, and we had already shot up most of our quota, so what
we fired was pretty meager, compared with what they wanted. The CO of the 2nd Bn, Lt
Col Donald Gorton, was so angry that it was months before he stopped talking about it,
and I'm not sure he ever did forgive us.
Ironically, it wouldn't have mattered if we had gone ahead and fired, because the
quota for the rest of the week never got fired at all. On the other hand, it wasn't necessary
to fire it, because the Germans had no intention of attacking: they were just
demonstrating to cover up a complete withdrawal.
That was Col Gorton's last battle as a Bn CO. Colonel Bacon, the new regimental
commander, made him regimental executive, and he kept the job for the rest of the war.
The unfortunately named Major Leonard Dull (he really wasn't) took over the battalion.
After we had crossed the river, we stopped for a few days in a position along the
edges of a wooded area, waiting for something big to happen - Operation Cobra, as we
found out later. But although we sat still, there was no lack of excitement. The enemy had
tried to make an orderly retreat, but some soldiers got left behind in the confusion.
Possibly they were deliberately left behind to fight a guerilla war. Anyhow, the first night
we were there, Germans slipped through the woods and heaved grenades into some of our
positions. We called on the 359th Infantry to come and clean out the woods; infantry is
supposed to know how to do that sort of thing.
They sent a squad from their I&R (Intelligence and Reconnaissance) Platoon, who
had a couple of jeeps drive along all the roads in the woods. They came back and
reported the area free of Germans.
That night more grenades were lobbed in.
When I described our battalion reconnaissance party in the last chapter, I failed to
mention Battery D of the 537th Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) Battalion. I'm ashamed to
say that the omission was fairly typical.
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