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xiiursuay, November 23,1944THE STARS AND STRIPESfEfifaFageftAlpine Passes Weirdest BattlefieldBy Sgt. GEORGE DORSEY Stars and Stripes WriterON THE MARITIME ALPS FRONT—The mountains are mysterious,* High peaks are radiant with the bejeweled whiteness of deep snow, yet the moist walls of long, deep canyons are hung with an unnatural darkness. Men walk into the shadows of the mountains and sometimes they are swallowed up. Theyvanish like leaves blown away by the cold autumn wind.• * **The paratrooper battalion commanded by Lt. Col. Wood G. Joerg of San Antonio, Texas, mans a wide sector of the Maritime Alps front. It is a sec- 4--tor, not of large-scale, close-in j preys on the minds of soldiers:battling, but of calculating ar-1 tillery duels and bloody brawlsbetween opposing bands of rifle-1 on a rock alongside a mountainThe way men disappear up here.A tired doughboy was told to sitmen, who rove through the rock mountains and valleys of No Man's Land.Men of the battalion were trained for months in jungle warfare. They know the machete better than the ski, but here they are, pa-troling into snowfields that are already waist-deep. They are fighting against crack troops of the 4th High Mountain Battalion, composed mostly of Austrians of the Tyrol, who have lived in the mountains all their lives. But the Americans are learning fast and they hold their own.They know from lessons acquired the hard way that they must stick to the high ground whenever possible, if they want to live long. In the steep-sloped Alps it is extremely difficult during a fight to take cover from an enemy who istrail until the rest of his patrolmade a reconnaissance and came back. He has never been seen again. Wheh the patrol came back, he was gone.FRUSTRATION SETS INThe mountains are deceiving. They confuse the brain with the vast detail of rocks and scrubby trees that somehow seem all alike. Blinding blizzards come up fast in this country. Suddenly, a soldier feels the cold terror in hi.1 heart and knows he is lost.It has happened in this battalion several times now. Three or four men become separated, fail to report back from a patrol. And that night the boys who made it back sit around a wood fire and speculate. Captured? Shot to death? Injured somewhere and doomed to freeze? Or only temporarily lost and soon to come stumb-above you. The man on high ling in?ground, these Yank mountain fighters say, can maneuver about with little danger, but the soldier below cannot make a move without detection.HEIGHTS PREFERREDThe advantage of altitude was well illustrated in a recent fire fight staged by a patrol which included Pfc. John H. Deimage of Gary, Ind.; Pvt. Harvey K. Burrow of Troup, Texas; Pic. Richard D. Kelley of Kansas City; Pvt. J. D. Smith of Chattanooga, Tenn.; Pfc. Daniel Gudelunus of Philadelphia, and Pvt. Frederick J. Burley of Chicago.The Americans wex*e making their way along a high ridge when they noticed some Germans far below them. After watching for awhile, the doughboys realized that the Krauts were in a position for an ambush. Then they saw the quarry, another group of GIs, coming up the trail into the trap. The men on the top of the ridge closed in on the Germans.’’There were nine Germans,” Pvt. Burrow, a tall bewiskered Texan, said later. We opened up on them with our M-ls at a range of 500 yards. When we got finished with them, five were dead, two were wounded and captured and two got away. We ambushed the ambush. The Germans tried to take cover behind rocks, but we were so much higher we could see them every time. They had an officer who ran for his burp gun. We would hit him and he’d fall down; he’d get up again and we’d hit him and knock him down again. When we finally got him killed, he had six bullets in him.”Generally, the Germans are very skillful in setting up their ambushes. ’’They are well concealed and they let you come in close, then open up with everything they have,” Capt. James Evans, Douglas, Ariz., whose B Company has had plenty of brusnes with thecagey enemy.REALLY CORNEREDIt is sometimes virtually impossible to extricate yourself from one of these ambushes once you are caught, as in the case of 2nd Lt. Charles L. Buckenmeyer of Swan-ton, Ohio, and Sgt. Robert E. Anderson of San Francisco. They were trapped in the bottom of a ravine; they were being fired upon from every side and mortar shells were beginning to zero in. The two Americans took the only wayout—they threw themselves into an icy mountain stream, crawled and floated to safety.This is how it is, fighting in the mountains. Dangerous and bitterly cold. Men pitting their wits as much against the terrain as the Germans. The thought of being wounded in the rocky crags is a constant nightmare—litter teams can seldom bring a man out, even if they know where he is. Recently one soldier walked four hours, six miles to the company—with a bullet in his liver.There is yet another thing thatOnly the tall mountains know . . and they stand cold and silent.The Maritime Alps of France are deep now in the winter's snow, and fighting there takes on a new style between opposing bands in the rock mountains and valleys of No Man’s Land. Above, a patrol is deployed along the partially snow covered valley, skis go on or off, depending upon the terrain. Some of the snow is deep powder. At left, Pvt. Clyde Stewart of Detroit, and a BAR man, Sgt. John B. Long of Portland, Ore., who once trained for jungle warfare, adjust themselves to new conditions. (Photos by Pvt. Martin Harris)¥Wilson, McNarney IssueThanksgivingALLIED FORCE HEADQUARTERS, Nov. 22—The following are the full texts of the Thanksgiving Day messages of General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater,r.t den .Tnsmh T Mn'Nnr-npu Deimtii Suareme Allied Com-2aIeti:v\crsr«lccrt1t1lt;
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Rome Stars and Stripes
Roby, Missouri, US
Thu, Nov 23, 1944
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