D-Day With the Screaming Eagles by George Koskimaki

Author:George Koskimaki
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027100
ISBN: 9781480407466
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2013-05-07T06:00:00+00:00

Mort Smit’s Patrol

During the morning, Battalion Commander, Lt. Colonel Pat Cassidy, had directed Captain Fred Hancock of Charley Company to set up a perimeter defense of the command post. These men had been posted for several hours. In the afternoon, 200 troops under the command of the 502nd Regiment’s executive officer, Lt. Colonel John Michaelis, proceeded east after the termination of the fighting in Mesières at WXYZ. Michaelis took over the command post. The new arrivals relieved some of the 1st Battalion troops. Cassidy then directed Captain Hancock with his company to move west of Mesières and Foucarville to set up additional roadblocks both to the east and west of Beuzeville. The lead element of this force was assigned to platoon leader Lieutenant Morton Smit.

Moving westward along a dry stream bed toward Beuzeville, Smit and his platoon had to pass through the small hamlet of Haut-Fornel. Smit had an opportunity to re-enact a portion of a movie he had once seen. He recalled, “Inasmuch as the enemy was in continuous movement and we were trying to locate them, my platoon was given the mission of proceeding toward Haut-Fornel. We encountered some resistance at this group of dwellings on the road to Haut-Fornel. I moved my men in to mop up the pocket and as the platoon moved through the small community, Private Harold Boone and I entered the main building looking for action.

“We came upon a large room. Some cots were there, and a couple of field desks. In looking over the correspondence and taking what looked important for G-2, we noticed some back packs made of fur. Later we discovered that this information proved the existence of Russian troops in this sector.”13

“While in the midst of this, Boone and I heard several German trucks arrive. We went into the little courtyard in the back of the main house and by looking out of the gate opening (a large wall, seven to eight feet surrounded this courtyard) I saw three or four German trucks unloading troops. I had an M-3 ‘Squirt’ gun and used it to advantage (blazed two of the trucks and must have knocked out 25 to 30 troops). We lobbed several grenades as well. Then they started moving in on the two of us.

“By this time we had realized that we were definitely alone, so we looked for an avenue of strategic withdrawal. The Germans were entering the house, so the only way was to go over the wall. I boosted Boone over and followed immediately. Once on the other side, we found a small mud pond and a copse of trees. The Germans were all around the area. (A company if not more.) So, into the ooze we went. I remembered an old flicker where the actor used a reed to breathe through to escape detection, and so I took the barrel off the M-3 and proceeded to enjoy the luxury of solitude.

“Some time later, we heard some mortar shells land in the area. We came

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