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thinking we were bringing in a lot of reinforcements. Find Pass has n lot of ravines and ridges, it snakes its way through a mountain stuck out in the middle of miles of hot, arid desert. A few days after we arrived at the Pass, the Germans broke through with overwhelming force—we were outnumbered terrifically, and didn't have a chance. Wfthfn a coup.'e of hours after the break-through, our battalion was completely cut off from our armored and other support.We stayed there, literally bottled up and surrounded by the men of the Afrika Korps, and fought for six days and nights.What happened then reads like one of those dream-world sagas coming out of Hollywood. The night of February 1G, 1943, an American P-40 flew over the terrain occupied by the besieged troops, and dropped a hand grenade message from the commanding general. Try to escape tonight, it said, and gave the men directions for creeping through the Pass to friendly territory.We started at 11:30 that night, Peiifer said, each company took a different route. The men were told that once wc started our escape; each man was on his own and under no orders from anyone. If he chose to turn back, to surrender, to fight, or no matter w'hat, it was up to himself. “Make your own decisions’ we were told, and it made you feel funny, after you’d been accustomed to orders and plans througout ycur military career.”I started out with some of my buddies. We crawled in and out of enemy lines, sometimes passing so close we could hear German machine guns and artillery crews talking. It was black night, a great advantage to us. We walked through eight miles of enemy territory before reaching friendly lines, and 1 must have aged 10 years that one night.”Though a mortarmnn handling a 135-pound weapon, Peiffer proved as handy svith the Army’s famed MI rifle. He got four Germans during the first day of the Sened battle. Hut the Find Pass break-through was a heart-breaking turn of the tables with the Germans capturing between 1.G00 and 1,700 men in Peiffor’s regiment.From February until May, Peiffer was involved in as much battle as many an infantryman is likely to -'ee throughout the course of the war. Few reinforcements came to North Africa in those months. In rapid succession the 34th fought al Fonduk Pass, reinforcing the British Eighth Army—took part in the historic fight for Hill 509—took El Ac Quilar—and then rolled into Tuni and Bizerle. The enemy surrender-ed its arms unconditionally with the rout of Rome !, and for a few weeks Peiffer was detailed to guatd German prisoners at a conccntintior camp. He then moved to Tuni:• gain, and helped train infantrymen for the invasion of Sicily. A •short stay at Sidi Besed and Oran we.:; climaxed by tin* Salerno beach-head landings.Describing his anival in Italy, the Sigourney sergeant .aid that ; n attack of yellow jaundice just tin* day before the Volturno River crossing caused his evacuation hack to North Africa. Three weeks later he was back in Italy, and took part in thev.iiu—in iiiti, we were rigniup against the cliff. The Germans were on the other side of the hill, lobbing shells over, but it seemed there wasn’t a way in the world they could drop shells where we were. About 2:30 p. m., while sitting talking with the guys, I got a premonition of danger. A few seconds later, through a miracle, a shell came whining over the hill, dropped down to about eight yards from us, and exploded. It got me.”Sergeant Peiffer was flown to Naples, given an emergency operation, and evacuated back to the United States. He arrived in Boston last month, and was flown to Fitzsimmons Hospital, near Denver.A son of Henry and Barbara Peiffer, also of Sigourney, the sergeant has one brother, Corporal Bernard, 29, in France with the 11th Evacuation Hospital. Another brother, Norbert, 24, was inducted recently.Coincident with the Fitzsimon3 release on Sergeant Peiffer’s story, it was revealed that several Iowa women are now assigned to the hospital as Wac students and permanent personnel. They include Tech. 5th Grade Irene M. Fedderson, Clarence, and Wac Pvts. Quitteen Huda-chek, Ilin; Marguerite H. Ludwig. Sioux City.Under the new Furple Heart Plan, Iowa Wac recruits, who specify duty with the Medical Department, will be formed into platoons for duty at Schick General Hospital, Clinton, Iowa. A company of 100 women will be assigned to care for 1,000 wounded patients.”PIXENDS TUESDAYKEYS TO THE KINGDOMEvening Performances at 7 and 9:25 P.M.Wednesday and ThursdaySelected Short Subject*
Newspaper Details
Le Mars Semi Weekly Sentinel
Le Mars, Iowa, US
Tue, Mar 20, 1945
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Sally P.
IL, USA 24 Apr 2017
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