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Wanfrpei Made Bayonet Charge To Dig Out NazisThat 400 Yards in Open 'Longest I Ever Ron' But Thev Took RidoeBy HALST. MALO, Fi(Delayed)— (JP— Behind the capture of the town of St. Malo is the story of how a daring group of infantrymen made a bayonet charge across 400 yards of open territory to dig out Nazis en-. trenched in concrete pillboxes, I blocking the approach to the port.With them went little Lt. John Psarcik, chunky combat engineer from Simpson, Pa., who’s had j more than one man's share of battle thrills since landing in France.“The Germans were really in solid on the ridge line we had to take to get into the city,” said T-isarcik as he sat in a jeep at the command post before driving frontward with his men to remove some booby-trapped teller mines, used by the enemy as roadblocks/' He continued:Concreted Foxholes“They were in two-man ‘L’-shaped foxholes, stronger thanany I ever saw before. They were surrounded with concrete 26 inches thick—I measured it—and the foxholes had a cover of thesame thickness.HHHHHHMHlttSticking out of the top was a machinegun able to swing in a 360-degree arc and shoot soldiers coming at them from any direction. All the Germans had to do was sit in these pillboxes and i swivel the gun around. And the 1 top of the ridge was lined with these pillboxes, because it took a direct artillery hit to knock out these posts.“It had to be an infantry job because long-range guns couldn’t hope to get them at all. When the company was ready, we attacked. That was the longest 400 yards I ever ran in my life. We caught the Nazis in their concrete holes before they could pull out and gave the bayonet to every one that tried to get away.Ridge Line Was Hours“We found some Germans lv- j ing dead beside their guns, killed by the concussion from shells— but without a mark of any kind on their bodies. When we finished cleaning out the pillboxes, wehad 25 prisoners and the ridge line was ours.”Pisarcik, himself known as a “one-man army” to fellow combat engineers, has won a Bronze Star and Purple Heart with Clusters, he was knocked out by an 88 shell back in the hedgerow country, while trying to save the life of a wounded tankman.-----*Mad Colonel Gives Up Al SI. MaloMessoges Hitler Lock of Food Forced Surrender |LONDON, Aug. 18.—CP)—The mad Col. Andreas Von Aulock has surrendered the citadel of St,Malo after holding out 11 days under heavy American fire.The German high command announced today that “the garrisonof St. Malo succumbed to enemy superiority.”A wounded veteran of the Caucasus fighting who pledged to turn the battle of the Breton port into “another Stalingrad,” Aulock was reported in a DNBbroadcast to have messaged thefuehrer: “Further resistance Hadto cease as a result of lack offood. The fight is over. Heil Hit ler.’”Earlier the colonel had reported: One fortification after another is being reduced to rubble under very heavy fire. If we perish it will be only after a fight to the end.”x. ^,e,. Berlin radio announced that Hitler had conferred the Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross upon Aulock for his fight. He had won the Knight s Cross for his work on the eastern front.Allied headquarters confirmedthat the St. Malo citadel had fallen, but gave no indication whether Aulock was captured.
Newspaper Details
Ada Evening News
Ada, Oklahoma, US
Fri, Aug 18, 1944
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Antoine N.
FR 02 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Ada, Oklahoma
Ada Star
Ada Sunday News
Ada Weekly Democrat
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