HINTS ON THE HEINIE
=Reverse Slope Tactics= _Second Lieutenant S. W. Malkin, Infantry,
Platoon Leader, ~Sicily~_: “Enemy machine guns, mortars, and automatic
rifles were located on the reverse side of the hills so as to catch our
advancing infantry as they came over the skyline.”
★
=Don’t Gawk!= _Private George Scott, Infantry, Sicily_: “Several times
German planes pretended that they were involved in a dog-fight to
secure the attention of the ground troops. Then they swooped down in a
strafing run.”
★
=Traps and Mines= _Private First Class Edward Borycz, Infantry,
~Sicily~_: “The enemy abandoned his tanks with motor running. When we
tried to stop the motors they blew up.
“The Germans would put a mine in a road with another mine a sufficient
depth under it so that it would not be seen if the top mine were
removed. For a while our sappers did not run the mine detector over
the area again where the first mine had been found. But after the dirt
became packed down sufficiently by traffic, the second mine would go
off.”
★
=Minor Tactics= _Staff Sergeants Richard E. Deland and Robert J. Kemp,
Infantry, ~Sicily~_: “Never let an apparently lone machine gun suck you
into a trap. The Germans will usually not fire on the individual but
will wait, watch where he goes, and get a whole flock.
“Germans always approach their positions from the end and under cover
so as not to give them away.
“In the counterattack the Jerry machine gun is always well forward.
German weapons are faster but are less accurate than ours; they scare
you more than they hurt you. The German 81mm mortar is the worst
goat-grabber; it gives you no notice when it is coming in.
“Germans use tanks to maneuver and fire from a distance in attack. When
the going gets hot they pull the tanks in and, after a minute, bring
them out again.”
=Typical Attack and Withdrawal= _Lieutenant Colonel P. H. Perkins,
Tank Battalion Commander, ~Italy~_: “The standard German attack here
consists of three or four tanks in line in the lead. They are followed
by infantry in trucks at four to five hundred yards. The rest of the
tanks follow the infantry. When fire is drawn the infantry dismounts.
The leading tanks mill about, fire, and withdraw. We have never seen
the reserve tanks committed.
“In their withdrawals the Germans use tanks to good advantage. They do
not have to contend with mines and blown bridges. Their tanks fire a
few shots and withdraw, then move up again, fire a few more shots and
withdraw, and so on.”
★
=Rearguard Action= _Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, Infantry, Battalion
Commander, ~Italy~_: “My experience has been that we first meet two
armored vehicles which open fire for a few minutes with everything they
have on the first man of ours they see; they then withdraw rapidly down
the road.
“Next we hit their outpost, which, I estimate, consists of about two
squads. This outpost, protecting the road, has groups on the sides of
the mountains on the flanks. It takes four to six hours to drive this
outpost in due to its fine observation over us and the difficulties of
maneuver.”
=COMMENT: It should be remembered that this is the experience of
one battalion commander in one theater.=
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1944
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unbalanced.
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support
hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to
the corresponding illustrations.
On the Title page, “XXXXXXXXXXXX” indicates text that was blotted out.
The “G. C. Marshall” illustration at the end of the Introduction is the
General’s signature.