Chapter 19

The Drive for San Pietro

Key to the Liri Vally: November-December 1943)

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Million Dollar Mountain

I was talking in a previous letter about our first position we moved into when we
went back into combat. We were using two or three buildings in the village for our
C.P. (Command Post) and other essential personnel. The British 8th was using the

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others. Along towards the last of the stay there we found out why we couldn’t get
a handle on the enemy artillery fire. It turned out the Germans had a spy there
that we thought was an Italian civilian. He was getting on top of one of the
buildings and signaling the Germans when to fire. I sure wish the British had
caught him sooner.

We were some three miles back from a mountain they dubbed “Million Dollar
Mountain”. They figured that is what it cost the Allies to take it. We were set up
where we could fire at the top of it. The mountain dominated the mouth of the
Loire Valley. On our side it was steep and rugged. It sloped on their side so they
could move in supplies and reinforcements at will. In fact, on some of it, our
Infantry had to climb hand-over-hand to get up it.

Our Infantry couldn’t take it and hold it because of supply lines. They brought in a
crack Ranger Division. They took it and immediately got kicked off. They moved
them somewhere else and our Infantry finally flanked it and held on. In the
meantime, they had moved us about a mile closer. We couldn’t find our driver when
we went to move. He got in a hole and wouldn’t come out, so Stack drove while I
operated the radio. I never saw our original driver after that as they shipped him
out.

There was only one road we could move up and it was heavily mined. Engineers had
gone ahead and cleared all but the sides and cleared a little valley just off the road
for our guns to get in position. I only had Stack and Tuten for operators then and
Tuten was Forward with the Infantry.

We had to leave the radio car on the road. The German’s had direct observation on
the road and fired every time they saw a vehicle moving. So Stack and I dug a cave
about six feet back into the road cut under a rock ledge. We pulled the car across
the front and used extension cords to our mikes. It would have taken a direct hit
or a bomb to have got us.

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To go back a little, we hated some of the orders that come up from the army H.Q.
in the rear. Once they sent up orders that we would wear neckties at all times (we
ignored it). Once an order come up that everybody would start each day with a
clean shave. It come at a time when the Infantry didn’t have even enough drinking
water.

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We left our helmet chinstraps loose for a purpose. Orders come up that chinstraps
would be fastened at all times. We were keeping guards out night and day because
of German patrols. Most of us ignored the chinstrap order, but an old boy from the
hills of West Virginia was on guard one night. He kept his strap fastened. They
went to relieve him in the rain and couldn’t find him. You couldn’t use a light or do a
lot of searching so they just put out another guard. Stack found him about ten
yards behind the radio car at daylight. An artillery shell had hit in the night. He
was hit by some fragments, but concussion had caught under his helmet and the
strap broke his neck. It happened so quick that he still had his hands in his
pockets. That stopped the chinstrap nonsense. Later they did get over most of
the crazy orders.

One day our F.O.’s (Forward Observers) brought back a damaged radio. I had one
to replace it, but needed to get another one. I knew that they had moved a
forward “Supply Depot” into the village we had moved out of about a mile back. I

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didn’t figure they would fire at one lone man going up the road but would fire if I
took a jeep. So I walked back. On the way back I had the distinction of being
thoroughly chewed out by General Mark Clark. I saw three jeeps pulled into the
ditch. One had stars all over it but I wasn’t interested. After I got past, General
Clark stuck his head up and really let me have it. He said I was drawing fire on him.
I never did stop. After I got back to the Battery I told Curtis about it. He had a
good laugh and told me to forget it. I never heard another word abut it. Where I
didn’t stop, Clark had no idea what outfit I was out of.

I talked about the Colmar Pocket—actually there were numerous pockets, too many
to name in that area. When the Germans captured any area and held it, they named
that a pocket that had to be cleared out. The base of these pockets was always a
town. Our infantry would have to go in and clear them house-by-house.

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We will say they took back maybe eight houses. The Germans would counterattack
and take all or part of them back. That went on for days. When our Infantry hit a
house, they would move to dig the enemy out room by room with bayonets and hand
grenades. The basements would be especially hard to take. The Artillery couldn’t
give them direct support because of the close contact. All we could do was fire to
stop the Germans from getting more troops into town, supplies, and etc. The enemy
Artillery was doing the same on our side. So we would try to knock out their
Artillery and they would try to knock out ours. We had some wicked Artillery
battles while our Infantry was trying to take the towns. Along about that time
they brought in navy searchlights and created what they called “artificial
moonlight”. That way they could pick up night movements and cut down on surprise
attacks. It helped quite a lot.

All of the rivers and canals in the area were flooded so they couldn’t move in tanks
to help our boys. But due to the terrain the Germans could get tanks on their side.
That made it rougher.

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They moved an armored Infantry Division into our area but it didn’t help much. An
armored Infantry had tanks with Infantry specially trained to fight with tanks.

Back to the house-to-house fighting, often our boys would be holding a room in a
house and the Germans would be holding the next room. You can see that would
create some “tight” situations. They even trained the Artillery for some house-to-
house fighting. Thank the Good Lord we never got into that type of thing or at
least the 132nd didn’t.

As I had told you before, a lot of the troops the Germans had moved into the area
were S. S. Troops. They were the most fanatic of all the Germans had.

I was talking in a previous letter about Capt. Curtis getting a good laugh on me
about getting chewed out by Gen. Mark Clark. He knew it wasn’t me drawing the
fire. It was the three stars on Clark’s jeep. At that time he was commander of the
5th army.

I keep recalling things as I write. Curtis tells on me that I never had the respect
for “big shots” that I should have had. One day Curtis was called forward for a
“strategy conference”. He took me along as part of my training was to remember

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commands and data (I can’t do it now). As I remember there were 6 or 7 there and
I was the only enlisted man. We left the jeeps and drivers hidden in a draw and
walked about half mile forward. We were spotted and they cut loose at us with an
88mm. The closest cover was an abandoned rock house. We all made a run for it. I
hit the door at the same time as somebody else but I got in first. Curtis says that
was the only time he ever saw an enlisted man shove a Staff General aside and go in
a door first.

Curtis was our C.O. through the whole thing. I think I had told you he stayed on
and was a Colonel in Korea? He was a good C.O. in most ways and only mediocre in
others. However, he knew his shortcomings and compensated for some. For
instance, on reconnaissance for new positions he would get lost. He had two good

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men he would take with him–S/Sgt Wingate and Sgt. High. They were both good on
maps, terrain, and etc. They kept him straight and got him back. He also had a
good jeep driver that he used all the time. He was a tough officer in some ways but
if you did your job he let you strictly alone.

One fault he had was that he never learned any tolerance for the ones that couldn’t
take the pressure. He always felt that they were letting the others down. He lives
in Arlington now and comes to our reunions. He is a sot alcoholic and has mental
problems. He feels the pressure for all the boys that lost their lives while under
his command. He needlessly blames himself. He did all he could to take care of his
men at all times. He come up through the ranks and was Sergeant of another unit
until they sent him to Officer Candidate School.

I probably gave the wrong impression about getting shot at. Sometimes we would
go for days and only hear firing in the distance. Then all hell would break loose. An
incident I recall was the final assault on “Million Dollar Mountain”. They crowded all
available artillery guns they could crowd into the area. They even had some 8-inch
Navy guns that they had mounted on 155 Howitzer chassis. All our artillery and all

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the British artillery zeroed in on the mountain. They all cut loose at the same time
along with mortars, machine guns, and rifles. It was the biggest concentration of
fire I witnessed through the whole war. You couldn’t think, hear, and seemed to
even have trouble breathing. Through the whole thing the Germans were firing
back. We lost some more men there that couldn’t take the pressure. In WWII
they called it “shell shock.” The whole barrage lasted about two hours, but it did
allow our Infantry to flank it and hold it against all counter attacks. If I remember
correctly they said there was around 2,000 guns all firing at the same time.

Incidentally, I told you previously about the artillery barrage on Million Dollar
Mountain. I looked back in the history book. There were approximately 2000 guns
firing on it for two hours, 600 of which were heavy artillery. The rest were anti-
artillery tanks, aircraft guns, mortars, machine guns, and etc.

Two pictures showed up from my WWII days. We had the radio car behind the
house and run extension cords inside. So we were pretty well protected in that
position. We had moved where the Infantry had been just ahead of us so we didn’t
even have to sand bag the doors and etc. I don’t know who was in the house when
the artillery shell hit above the door but if they got out they were lucky.

The pup tent over the hole was quite common during the rainy season in Italy. You
dug a hole, covered it with logs, then piled the dirt back on top. You put up the pup
tent over it to keep it dry as possible. A hole was left at the end to crawl in. If
you couldn’t find logs you used empty shell casings. However, the logs were better
protection. I didn’t use that type much as I had to stay in or near the radio car.

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Whoever fixed that one up put it under a tree for protection from air observation.
I still wouldn’t have put it under a tree. A shell could have hit the top of the tree
and Hap can tell you that a “tree burst” were the worst kind as they scattered
fragments all over.

After Million Dollar Mountain, they marched forward to San Pietro. Beore they
could take that they had to capture Sammucro and then Mount Lungo.

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