MISCELLANEOUS
=Booby Traps= _Seventh Army Report, ~Sicily~_: “A German Luger pistol
was ‘booby trapped’ on a table. A new replacement picked it up. Two
were killed and fourteen wounded in the resulting explosion.”
★
_First Division Report, ~Tunisia~_: “A Luger pistol was found lying on
the ground. An American infantry lieutenant carefully tied a long cord
to it and then, getting into a hole, pulled it to him and put it in his
pocket. Later in the day while examining the pistol he attempted to
remove the magazine. The explosion killed the lieutenant and two other
men and wounded six soldiers.”
★
=Timeliness of Orders= _Major Kinney, Infantry, ~Sicily~_: “Our chief
difficulty throughout the campaign was the lack of time given for the
execution of orders. Frequently we received operations orders which
did not allow enough time for proper preparation and execution. At SAN
FRATELLO, we received an order after 11 PM to attack at 6 AM the next
morning. The battalions were in assembly areas some five or six miles
from the line of departure. The terrain over which they had to move
to get in position in the dark was the roughest, most rugged mountain
country you could imagine, and all the ammunition, weapons, and
supplies had to be taken by hand and by mule pack. Although it might
seem that from 11 PM to 6 AM was sufficient time, the actual conditions
were such that it was less than half enough, because of the terrain,
darkness, and transport difficulties. Also, the men had just completed
marches over mountain trails of nine to fourteen miles and were not
fresh for the new movement.”
★
=Maps= _Seventh Army Report, ~Sicily~_: “Instill in all personnel an
appreciation of the value of maps. The supply of maps will never be
adequate to the demand. Training in the _care and preservation of maps_
is as important as training in the care and preservation of matériel.
=AA Fire= “It was found necessary to issue instructions that ground
troops, with the exception of AA units, would not fire at airplanes
unless the planes attacked them or were close enough to be identified
beyond a possible doubt.”
=Security= _1st Division G-2 Report, ~Sicily~_: “Interrogation report
of a captured German pilot includes the following: ‘About the end of
June, 1943, German air crews were shown a report and given a lecture on
the tactical and technical details of the P-47 Thunderbolt, alleged to
be based upon the statements made by a captured U. S. Army Air Force
captain.’”
=COMMENT: The moral of this story is obvious. Hammer home the
necessity for saying absolutely nothing but, “My name is ...; my
rank is ...; my serial number is ....=”
★
=Strafing Aircraft= _Fifth Army Report, ~Salerno~_: “During landing
operations at SALERNO, many members of the --th Division would stand
up to fire their rifles, carbines, and even pistols at strafing and
bombing German aircraft. This resulted in many unnecessary casualties.”
=COMMENT: Personnel not assigned to a definite AA mission should
disperse and take cover, firing their individual weapons from such
cover at attacking aircraft only, and even then only when these
come within the effective ranges of their weapons.=
★
“=Gas!=” _Colonel M. E. Barker, Chemical Warfare Service, ~Salerno~_:
“On the third day of the operation we had a big gas scare. A German
airplane came in and released two or three radio-controlled bombs,
which gave off considerable smoke when released and while on the way
down. Several men on the beaches saw this smoke and concluded that
an air gas attack was being started. At the same time some vehicles
climbing the sand dunes from the beach to the de-waterproofing area
had become so hot that their gas-indicator paint turned red. The two
incidents together convinced everybody on the beach that a gas attack
was being launched. By this time, of course, there were plenty of
battlefield smells, including that always-present smell of rotting
animal and human flesh. The gas alarm ran up and down the beaches and
the roads inland.
“There was no panic. Everybody simply put on his gas mask and carried
on. The MP’s stopped all personnel going into the area who didn’t have
gas masks. _Those individuals who had ‘misplaced’ their gas masks were
really troubled for a while._ Both Colonel Guild and I investigated and
then gave the ‘all clear’ signal. _I think we would have carried on in
exactly the same way without much loss of time or efficiency if gas had
actually been present._”
★
=Counterattack Foiled= _Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, Infantry, ~Italy~_:
“We had just relieved the --th Infantry after it had had numerous
casualties from an enemy tank attack against our beachhead at SALERNO.
We were occupying a defensive, wired-in position. The Germans
counterattacked with tanks, but _because we were occupying a different
position from that used by the preceding unit_ the enemy first
started across our front, apparently believing that we were in the old
position. So it was duck soup. We knocked out eight tanks with our
37’s, 57’s, TD’s, and tanks.”
★
=Room for Improvement= The following comments, indicating weaknesses
which must be corrected, were made by the _Commanding General, --th
Division, ~Italy~_: “Sometimes units failed to dispose themselves
properly for all-around defense when halted on an objective or when
placed in a position for defense.
“In the attack, riflemen frequently failed to provide fire that would
cover the movement of adjacent units, merely because they were not
able to ‘pin-point’ definitely the location of the enemy rifle and
machine-gun elements firing on our troops.
“Some small unit commanders selected positions apparently with cover
and concealment as the primary objective rather than positions from
which effective fire could be brought to bear on the enemy.
“Due to the enormous division frontage in the second phase of the
landing at SALERNO _some commanders attempted to stretch their units
excessively, and as a result permitted faulty dispositions_.”
[Illustration:
PHOTOGRAPH BY U. S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS
_Japanese Pillbox_]