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Sleeping Pill Needed to Keep General from BattleBy CIABK LEE. 1ON THE SICILIAN FRONT, July 18 (Delayed)—(INS)—The only way to keep one major-general on the Sicilian front from fighting the Germans and Italians with pistol, rifle, grennde or artillerv is to give him a sleepingpill.The medicos finally found itnecessary to do just that to adivisional artillery commander who has not slept more than a couple of hours nightly since the beginning of the invasion. Constantly in the thick of things, he was near exhaustion but would not take the time to rest.(For reasons of military security, the general may not be identified.)I had not seen him since I accompanied him to officially capture Vittoria. I finally located himtoday, directing artillery batteries dueling with the Nazis near Santa Catarina. Recounting his experience since I saw him last, he said:“The day after our wild west show at Vittoria (we had gone into the city prematurely and were forced to retreat in undignified haste), I assisted in the captureof The Com iso airdrome. We stormed it from three sides, shooting it out at point-blank range with rifles and machine guns until the Nazis quit. It was a hell of a lot of fun.“A couple of days later I scouted the town of Biscari with the leading scout of one of our regiments. A sniper shot at us. so I borrowed mv orderlv’s rifle and fired back. The Nazi fled from his tree.“Later I got pot shots at three Nazis at 300 yards. I can't under-stand how I missed.'’The general told me of some unusual incidents experienced byhis artillery crews. One battery«f 155's, firing at no particular target but just registering their shots, flushed 140 Italians, who promptly surrendered.Another 155 gun passing along a highway was fired on by Nazi-machine-gunners hidden in ahouse. The crew stopped and swung the gun around, fired two rounds at 300 yards range and blew the house off the face of the map.“Probably the first time heavyartillery was ever used againstsnipers,” remarked the general.:rI
Newspaper Details
Cedar Rapids Gazette
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US
Fri, Jul 23, 1943
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
CO, USA 13 Apr 2020
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