The Soldier from Independence by D. M. Giangreco

Author:D. M. Giangreco [Giangreco, D. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2018-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

Very shortly after leaving Salisbury’s position behind, Truman’s column moved south past the fleeting position long since vacated by C Battery, commanded by his old friend Marks, then pastthe regimental headquarters at Payrou, where Truman left the march to report the loss of his 2nd Platoon guns to Colonel Klemm. Truman believed himselfto be in utter disgrace over leaving them behind, and asked if he should turn around and retrieve them. Klemm offered no criticism and, with German fire increasing noticeably and no risk at all that the 75s might fall into German hands, told Truman to just go back the next night and pull them out. The following morning, Klemm would receive reports that both Battery C and Keith Dancy’s Battery A had lost a gun apiece and some horses along the slippery mountain tracks during their withdrawals, although Marks’s soldiers were able to retrieve theirs.

Truman hadindeed gotten the men outin the nick of time, but it was his and the other units’ excellent shooting that had bought him those precious minutes. The utter saturation of the most forward German batteries with poison gas had effectively rendered them incapable of responding. So many German artillerymen were either killed outright or incapacitated that counterbattery fire was not possible from these guns, and heavier weapons farther to the rear had to be brought into play, with all the attendant delay that required. Even then the Germans’ initial probes in the direction of the single American battery site that they could confirm were tentative-twenty rounds plunging into the soft earth in the vicinity of D Battery by Housholder’s count, and perhaps a similar number southwest along the ridge near Auf Rain. And then, of course, there was the ground at the bottom of the slope, blessedly sodden from periodic downpours and runoff. The same muck that held Truman’s cannons fast greatly suppressed the blast of even large-caliber shells, and, in a letter written a few days later, he mentioned that “one exploded [with]in fifteen feet of me and I didn’t get a scratch.”18

Battery E was pounded throughout the night but suffered no losses, and the road where C’s fleeting position had been located was given a very thorough going-over shortly after D passed it. Other heavy shells had overshot E, falling in the vicinity of a 130th Field Artillery battery, prompting that regiment to respond with its own big 155mm howitzers. This startled Truman’s men, who were marching in front of them toward Herrenberg when firing commenced and hadn’t known that there were heavies concealed in the woods.

Back at their original position, the two remaining 75s were manhandled into their camouflaged gun pits; then the 1st and 2nd Section limbers, the weakest horses, and extra phosgene shells were sent down to Kruth with Lieutenant Jordan. Food in ample quantities had finally been brought up during the men’s absence, and the cooks prepared a hot meal, so thoroughly enjoyed that it is mentioned in nearly every commentary and oral history interview of men present that night, be they privates or sergeants, or their captain and his XO.

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