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France (Part 5)
AVRANCHES
At Carentan, following the American breakthru at St. Lo and the beginning
of operations for the Third United States Army, the 115th realized it
would soon be on the move again. Back in May, before the invasion, we
had been assigned to the Third Army and while we'd been attached to the
First for our part on the beachhead, the assignment had not been changed.
First Army petitioned ETOUSA to keep the 115th, trying to trade one of
its assigned gun battalions to the Third because of the superior showing
we had made, but the high brass decided to leave us as we had originally
been assigned and on 1 August 1944, the date the Third Army became operational
in France, we reverted to General Patton's control and prepared to move
into a bivouac area just south of Cherbourg.
| "If the beach was
the freshman year of our combat, Avranches was the rest of the course
thrown at us in a hurry." |
This move never took place. The 4th Armored Division, breaking thru the
hole in the Kraut lines the Infantry had made at St. Lo, moved with unparallelled
speed thru Avranches to the base of the Brittany peninsula, swerving east;
its drive was dramatic and unprecedented and its supply lines were stretching
hourly in dangerous thinness, vulnerable to enemy air and armored activity.
So on the day scheduled for our move into bivouac to await developments
we moved south instead, with the mission of providing AA protection for
the all-important highway over which flowed Third Army supplies.
Our first day's move took us to our bivouac area a mile or so north of
Avranches, the funnel thru which all supplies to the Armor had to flow.
The recce parties arrived about 2000 hours but the batteries, parts of
columns of GI vehicles that stretched in an unbroken line for about 50
miles along the single- highway, did not arrive until long after dark.
Their trip, and the recce party's wait, was broken by dramatic attempts
of the Luftwaffe to strafe the columns, and to bomb out the road. In the
latter they received minor success, blowing out a crater some 10 feet
deep and 20 feet across in the road not far from the RC; this, however,
the Engineers took care of quickly.
The next morning we moved to our positions with the specific mission
of defending the damn across the Selune River between St. Hilaire d'Harcouet
and Ducey. Destruction of the damn would have flooded the all-important
single highway and it was up to us to keep Kraut planes away until the
Engineers had drawn off all the water behind it.
These positions were the first we had occupied for Third Army and it
was our first experience in following an Armored division before the Infantry
had had a chance to mop up. During the first days at Ducey, the Germans
made an attempt to break through the thinly held American flank at Mortain,
trying to cut through to the coast at Avranches and split General Patton's
combat teams from their supplies, which were still all coming from the
Beach. Naturally the plan didn't work, but at the peak of the counterattack,
German panzer troops had advanced to within a mile or two of St. Hilaire
(our A and C Batteries' positions) and isolated tanks were even closer
to the batteries. The battalion established liaison with the American
30th (Old Hickory) Division and plans were developed for emergency antitank
deployment of the nineties.
While this ground activity was incidental to our assigned mission, it
had a definite effect on our AA activity. To support their counterattack
and to prevent an American build-up of reserves, the Germans used their
Luftwaffe with an extravagance we had not seen before. Compared to the
capabilities of Allied air power what Goering sent over was pitiful, but
it made good shooting. He used his two main types of planes, Ju-88's and
188's for bombing and fighters (FW-190's and Me-109's) for strafing. Every
night for a week Jerry came over, starting his first raids in the last
hours of daylight (remember how late it stayed light?) and ending the
evening's work about 0400 the next morning. Because of the number of enemy
planes thrown over us, we got an idea what German tactics were like. A
high flying Ju-88 would come over and when our guns and the AW opened
up on him, low flying fighters would strafe or divebomb the gun positions.
Or a plane would be sent into our area from one direction in an attempt
to screen the main attack, approaching on another azimuth. In spite of
such tactics, our fire control and crews showed that American AA was more
than a match for the Luftwaffe. The nineties, designed for protection
against high-flying level bombers flying a straight course for even a
minimum bomb run, did a fine job on fighters and on bombers which in desperation
made no straight bomb run, and consequently never even came close to damaging
the target they were sent out to get.
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When the shooting was over the Battalion's record was compiled and it
looked good. Several hundred planes had attacked the area and of the many
bombs dropped none was anywhere near the dam and only one slightly damaged
the road between Avranches and St. Hilaire. In addition, the gun batteries,
supplemented by the temporary addition to the battalion of Battery C of
the 411th AAA Gun Bn, had brought down 35 planes. The four 115th batteries
fired during the period over 4,000 rounds of 90 mm ammunition. Even Headquarters
Battery, virgin as to AA fire, was initiated when strafed by two Me-109's
and fired back with the one truck mount fifty in the area. Dog Battery
narrowly escaped serious casualties during one of the Jerry attacks aimed
to neutralize AA resistance in the great St. Hilaire dam zone. They bombed
D Battery area just missing the center of the position with a 500 pound
bomb, spraying the area with shrapnel. Able Battery while moving into
its position was caught by strafing planes before they had a chance to
remove their water-cooled fifties from the convoy positions on the trucks.
One was low on water and as there was none available the gun cooled during
the next fifteen minutes of hot and fast action by the contents of a five-gallon
jug of hard French cider! After the first few days of intense firing the
battalion found itself seriously short of ammunition. Ammunition, being
hauled to the ammo dumps by a Negro Quartermaster trucking crew was sent
directly to the battalion in this emergency. The trucks had been strafed
and bombed on the way to the front and the drivers were weary, leary and
half-frightened out of their pants. Just as they arrived at the gun positions
Jerry came over in a high-level bombing raid. A quick transfer of ammunition
was made from the trucks to the guns and as luck would have it with the
first few courses we accounted for several flamers. This dramatic exhibition
brought the colored boys to their feet with loud and enthusiastic cheers
and sworn vows that they'd truck ammo anywhere any time for the ack-ack
boys. If the beach was the freshman year of our combat, Avranches was
the rest of the course thrown at us in a hurry. We suffered no casualties
and that in itself was something to thank God for, God and the wise selection
of sites, the able maintenance and acceptance of rigid black-out discipline.
Other AA units were not so fortunate.
For our work at Avranches we were commended by General Patton, a commendation
well earned and well fought for.
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