First Shell Fire (Part 1 of 2)
Heroes Remember
First Shell Fire (Part 1 of 2)
Well, the land in Beveland, a lot of it's like a waffle, it's
reclaimed from the sea, and they build dykes cris-cross like
this, so little pockets of fields between them and the fields
are down maybe 20 feet, you know. So, if you, like overnight,
if you dig a trench to get in and sleep, you got 6 inches of
water on you in the morning, you know, cause it just comes up
from the ground, you know. So you couldn't, you had to dig in
the sides of the, of the roads. And of course the Germans, you
were in a restricted area, so the Germans knew you were coming,
you could only come down certain ways! I think the, some of
the infantry later had water vehicles, like, that, you know, a
combination track vehicle that could go across the water, small
ones, and I believe they used some of those but most of the time
they were going down these roads, so it was murderous, you know,
it was very difficult fighting. And of course the guns were
getting shelled a lot too on the crossroads because the, every
crossroad the Germans had targeted, you know. Yeah, the
first time I came under shell fire actually was on one of those
crossroads, you know. We were, we were about ready to go and
get something to eat. We had a little pup tent set up about 300
yards from the crossroad, but right next to the road, you know,
and then we were watching the MPs directing traffic up on the
road and the call went out, "Go and get, if you want something
to eat, go and get it." There was a little shack over near, not
far from the crossroad and all of a sudden these shells came in,
you know, where they were, the shack was where
they were serving the food.
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