Excerpts from Finding My Father's War

Click on the dragon to return to
Finding My Father's War Home Page

Return to Top
Return to Home Page

Preparing for War

"Nobody had ever trained a chemical mortar battalion before; none had ever existed before. Bob Breaks would personally author the first field manual for chemical mortar tactics in 1944 after he returned to the U.S."

Gun squads set up their mortars and dug them in, then loaded them on carts to move and set up again. Hours were spent in simulated firing. A squad would set up an M5 training mortar, which had the bottom section of the barrel cut out. They would pass wooden shells down the line to the man who "fired" them. The shells fell out of the barrel at his feet and were taken back to the end of the line. "We passed those things back and forth until it was as natural as brushing your teeth," said Clarence Jefferies. It was more fun when they went to the standard mortars to fire wooden shells. The squad assembled igniters with no powder rings, which made a nice "Bang!" and threw the shell a few hundred feet.

The ammunition squads had their own drills. Truckloads of shells were unpacked, hauled, stacked, unstacked, hauled back and packed again. Communications squads set up switchboards and ran wires to field telephones and inter-connected them with other switchboards. Then they took it all down again, cleaned it, packed it, and stored it until the next day. Then they started doing it in the dark. And in the rain. And in the rain in the dark.

Return to Top
Return to Home Page

Sicily

"All morning the Germans dropped shells wherever they thought the mortars might be. Four of the six platoons took direct hits in the gun positions. "

The blast knocked guns over and men set them up and dug them in again. Shell fragments broke the standards or dented the barrels of other guns, and those were finished. Sgt. Jack Shook was holding his rifle when the entire stock suddenly turned to splinters. A big piece of shell had hit it dead on, but he only got a small cut under one eye. Capt. Kuiper's jeep was wrecked by a hit.

A hot fragment from one of those shells hit Pvt. Eldridge Chandler, who was wearing a belt filled with cartridges for his carbine. One round went off and set the webbing on fire, then other rounds began to explode around his waist. PFC Aubrey Kessler was the first to react, running through the flying rocks and steel and dragging Chandler down to cover, pulling at the belt even as the ammunition continued to cook off right under his hands. Whether the first hit would have killed Chandler on its own nobody ever knew, but the other hits and his own cartridges finished the job. He died the next day.

Return to Top
Return to Home Page

Volturno

"Dave Goodell and his radioman, John Ward were once again out with the forward infantry units."

"We were in a slight depression with one of the 34th Division MG crews. The gunner drew fire from a German gun whenever he put his head up to sight his weapon, so the loader used a hand mirror to look up over the rim. Every time the German fired our gunner would squeeze off a couple of rounds and the guy with the mirror would tell him left, right, up, or down. He would just tap the handle and nudge the gun a mil or two. It took a long time, but finally they had that gun lined up right on the German MG. The next time the German fired, our guy gave them a burst that was so long I thought he would melt the barrel. After that it was pretty quiet over there. They took out two German MGs and when dusk fell we worked our way out."

Return to Top
Return to Home Page

Cassino

"Buck Smith, riding in a truck with Amos Grizzard, had pulled off in a grove of trees. About 2 AM they were both asleep when shells began hitting around them."

"I woke up and started yelling at Grizzard to get moving. Grizzard started the truck and floored the accelerator, looking through the windshield and wrestling with the wheel.I looked out the window and noticed that a tree right next to the truck was still there, it seemed like it was moving right along with us. Grizzard was still looking ahead just grim as death and moving the wheel just like we were tearing down the road, but the truck wasn't bouncing or rocking at all. Finally I realized that while we were shifting around in the cab to get to sleep, one of us had hit the lever and disconnected the drive to the wheels. I got Grizzard to slow down, or at least he backed off the gas and he thought we were slowing down. I reached down and slipped it back in, and we took off. I really don't think Grizzard ever woke up the whole time."

Return to Top
Return to Home Page

Germany

"On 16 April C Company's 3rd Platoon moved into the outskirts of Nuremberg."

"We came in after dark," said Elliot Stalnaker. "We were along the edge of a patch of woods. We set up the guns to fire over the trees toward town but we didn't get any calls. During the night we heard vehicles and sounds of digging from the other side of the woods. We figured it was one of our artillery outfits, but then somebody heard voices speaking German. We got real quiet and everybody got ready for a fight. We didn't know what was coming next." Woodford Mosely had gone to pick up rations for the company. "I got back right at daybreak, and all of a sudden a whole battery of 88s opened up right across the trees. I still don't know what they were shooting at. It looked like the 4th of July. We called for some infantry support, but that would take a while. The squads had ammunition laid out, but nobody knew what firing data to use. These things were just a few hundred yards away, and the minimum range in the firing tables was about twice that with 31/2 powder rings. We finally decided on 2 rings and put together 150 rounds of mixed HE and WP. Boy, those shells just barely floated over the trees. They were going so slow you could watch them for the whole flight. You could even tell when they turned and pointed down at the peak." Bob Ladson noted that the 4.2 shells "really tore things up over there. When the mortars ceased fire a single infantry squad went into the 88 position. They took 225 prisoners without firing a shot. Afterwards we found six 88s and one quadruple 20-mm cannon all damaged beyond use."