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Upstarts
On another dull day, a report came in from a ground observer that he thought he
saw something moving somewhere between the villages of Merzig, directly across the
river from us, and Merchingen, a mile or so further north, but he couldn't see well enough
to tell what it was. I looked at the firing chart map. It showed a road between the two
towns.
I turned to Amico. "Call the plane and tell them to look for traffic on the road
between Merzig and Merchingen."
He took up the phone, rang it, and said, "Transmit. Fox Love Item 8, this is Fox
Love Item 3. Look for traffic on the road between Moitzig and -" Here he released the
thumb switch on the phone and gave me a stricken look. "Aw, hell, sir."
"Go on," I prompted. "Between Merzig and Merchingen."
"Transmit. Look for traffic on the road between Moitzig and Moichingen."
George Pezat, the observer in the plane, did not understand. Or maybe he only
pretended not to. "This is Fox Love Item 8. Say again all after 'Look for traffic. ,,, Amico,
blushing profusely, tried to catch my eye, but I was looking away, watching Col Hughes,
who had just come in and was now doubled over with laughter.
Finally, after several repetitions of "Moitzig and Moichingen," the observer
acknowledged the message and reported that the only traffic on that road was a farmer
pushing a cart, which seemed to be loaded with turnips, and did I want to shoot at it?
Slow as things were, it was a temptation, but I said no and closed the episode.
Come to think about it, I expect any native speaker of German would have found
my own Pronunciation of Merzig and Merchingen just as "absoid" as Amico's.
Even the efforts of the 359th Infantry were not enough to let the division punch
through the Siegfried Line. I have always thought that one of the reasons was that the
Regimental Commander, Col Bell, never took his command group and went across the
Saar River himself. He had crossed the Moselle on the opening day of that campaign, and
his presence had been most important, especially during the massive counterattacks. I
don't know why he didn't do the same here - possibly he was ordered not to - but his
absence was felt.
It could not have been because he was afraid: in fact he did go across by ferry or
footbridge every night to visit his battalions. However, I can't help believing that had he
been constantly present while the fighting was going on, things might not have been
better, but they would at least have been different.
And then we got the report that Lt Col "Fireball" Pond, CO of the 1st Bn, 359th
Infantry, had been wounded and evacuated. Bill Beck, our liaison officer, took it hard,
especially a month later, when we heard that Pond had died. As I told in an earlier
chapter, they had started out together. Fortunately for Beck, he was well acquainted with
the second-in-command, Major "Jiggs" Fisk, who took over the battalion and proved a
capable and popular commander.
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