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ne;icr andcc, was lt;imatc-'s from •Is. The ircd in of thee prep-Misscs celling , Miss-Frahm y, and Steele, student :ollcgc,■*iie)lippinc eeping ys be-enemy ficially claim more ration, claim s thann this ng as-\c)is suf-military tutelage. A few weeks later one of the bloodiest sorties of the we moved to Algiers, in fact I was ( war.on the first American troopship to. Tho tragic Rapido River crossing go through the Strait of Gibraltar. was mado bv pciffcr-s outfil afler The Iowan landed at Algiers early, four disastrous failures by two regi-i» November. ‘We had one day s ments and (wo othor batlaiions. Menfighting, near Algiers, he said, mostly fighting snipers and small resisting parties. They kept us in Algiers, near the Free French forces, until Christmas week of 1942. We were sent to an airport as guard, fighting German paratroopers and others trying to filter through Allied lines.The really rugged fighting didn’t begin until the following February, though, when the 34th engaged the Germans and Italians on the line at Sened in North Africa.Our main job there was to draw off the enemy troops, weaken any concentrated offensive they might make, Sergeant Peiffer said. His outfit had had few casualties up to the Sened sector skirmishes, but German bombings during the next few days killed or wounded a large number of Americans.Trained as a squad leader of an 81 millimeter mortar crow, Peiffer moved to Fiad Pass. We moved around every day, guarding the pass, he said, and for a while our movement fooled tho enemy into thinking we were bringing in a lot of reinforcements. Fiad Pass has a 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 waswere getting trench feet, and truck drivers were pressed into service as riflemen to hold ground already taken.During the next few months Sergeant Peiffer fought in some of the most historic battles in Italy. He was in the attack on the monastery at Cassino, in the Anzio beach landings Cassir.o. in the Anzio beach landings, and in the terrific battle at Lavcrno. He was also with the 34th when it made a drive up Highway I north of Rome, made the crossing of the Sc-cina River, and in the Castcllina battle. This was followed by tl*c Arno River action, at which time his outfit got the first real break it had had during many months of action—a six-wccks rest at a delightful beach resort near Leghorn.It was soon after Peiffer helped break through the German’s Gothic line that he had a premonition of trouble.Late in October, 1944, he said, I was dug in with two other guys in a slit trench at the bottom of a sheer cliff—in fact, we were right up 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.nnd r« •*meiwhiorgidimWev,dayfairwhitheoneturecd I min byMarMarMarMarMarMarMarT1taticAlieIc com at S trail faile plur ing Con dollbuilto t
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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