Luzery Woods, Scene of the Woods Fight described in Don Burgett's book 'Seven Roads to Hell'
In 1979, Don Burgett WW2 paratrooper/author, returned to the woods where his company engaged in a vicious, close-quarters fight near Luzery, Belgium in December, 1944. He snapped the photo above, showing where A/506th turned off the Bastogne-Houffalize road and entered to clear the Germans from the forest. When I returned with Don to this spot in 1998, we found that this entire section of trees had been harvested and the scene of the action has been forever lost. A short distance inside the trees shown above, was the small hole where a German killed John Bielski and Salome Alvarado, before he himself was killed as Alvarado went down. Don took another photo inside these dark woods, right at the spot where the action took place, but the photo came out too dark to successfully reproduce here. In 1999, Don's book on Bastogne was published by Presidio Press and the action alluded to above is described in graphic detail, in Chapter 4 of that book. Photo courtesy Donald R. Burgett
THE MAN WITH NO NAME
The concept of one exceptional warrior slaying many times his number and living to tell about it, was recognized long ago in Japanese tales of the Samurai. In movies, Japanese director Akira Kurosawa depicted such characters in films like "Yojimbo". Another popular theme was the self-serving antihero, who killed without apparent remorse. American filmakers first picked-up on these themes when "The Magnificent Seven" was made in the 1950's- a Western inspired by a Samurai movie: "The Seven Samurai". But American audiences really responded in a big way in 1965, when Clint Eastwood's first spaghetti western "A Fistful of Dollars"( inspired by 'Yojimbo'), depicted him as a loner-Antihero, who shot down multiple opponents in a single confrontation. This went against the traditional Western theme of a showdown between only two opponents, one on one, but audiences loved it. Surely in American history, there were exceptional warriors who had actually achieved such feats. I found such a real life 'Man With No Name' in Melton 'Tex'McMorries, WW2 paratrooper of G/501 PIR. Out of the 900 WW2 101st survivors I've interviewed, Tex was a standout. This was no B.S.; Tex was proficient, not only in his assigned job of machinegunner on the M1919A4 light machinegun (LMG), but was also skilled in all aspects of modern war, from patrolling to knife fighting. Tall, lanky, and part Apache, Tex was the living personification of the lean and mean characters portrayed by Clint Eastwood on film. A product of the windswept badlands of West Texas, McMorries grew up in the wide open praries, where quail hunting was occasionally interrupted by dodging rattlesnake strikes.
In his unauthorized combat diary during the Holland campaign , Tex wrote: "A bunch of the men got a little drunk, treated me rather rough, wanted me for Platoon Sgt. They said I could destroy the MGs, got through the lines, used the knife, while others talked about ways to do it...that I was the ace killer. Pretty good compliment, even if they were half drunk. One thing: no soldier can swagger, put up a false front. Combat classifies him in the eyes of all that observe. Perhaps a few are born for combat, some for officer, some for troop work. Among the officers, Sheridan and Wasco-the latter, Serwatka, Case, Baldwin. Case the smartest, Baldwin the most skilled, Serwatka, the ideal trooper."
During the Market-Garden operation alone, Tex McMorries accounted for about 100 German
deaths. He belonged to the '30 in one day' cult of 501st machinegunners, achieving that score with his LMG at Eerde and later up on the dike west of Arnhem. Even with the machinegun, these kills did not come easily. It was not a simple matter of 'mowing them down', as in the movies. Al Lisk of F/501 says: "I'm of the opinion that with a machinegun, you're going to get as many as you can get with the first burst, then after that, the enemy is taking cover and returning fire." And so it was at the Eerde fight on 24 September, 1944. The Germans attacked with tanks and infantry after an intense artillery preparation. Tex's machinegun accounted for 38 of the enemy and was instrumental in halting the attack. The tanks held back when they spotted a phony minefield, planted as a ruse by American troops before the battle. Tex wrote in his diary: "Germans made an all out attack-they are giving my position priority. They have thrown approximately 600 rounds of artillery within a 50 yard radius of my position. They have used tanks and many machineguns. I got 38 and wounded others. They are smart. Only once did I get two with the same burst, and they were stretcher bearers."
Tex was later made a machinegun instructor and wrote a treatise on this subject, entitled "Pointers for Combat Machinegunners" A quote from that document follows: "In training as well as in combat...a mental and physical analysis of the terrain must be made from every position, the range, the outstanding features of the terrain, blind spots (where possible, an alternate gun position prepared to cover said spots). The correct time to do this is at the first opportunity; there may be no second chance for this. Knowledge saves time. A fraction of a second frequently determines who will need replacements-the enemy or your unit. When engaged in combat with a modern and well-trained enemy, the familiar saying mow them down is mostly bunk. If the enemy presents this type of target, most any machinegunner can align the sights and pull the trigger. A trained enemy knows the rate of traverse of a machinegun and the attack is paced accordingly. A gunner will have one clear target only at a given instant. He may see more, but for all practical purposes they are not there, because of the wide traverse and the time element. As a general rule, these targets appear for two or three seconds only. When the gunner has to traverse five or six mills, this cuts his time to practically zero. The wide traverse also has the disadvantage of causing a higher percentage of misses due to over traversing and due to the speed required. The shortest way to increase the number of good targets is to increase the angle of fire. A gun pointing straight into the enemy lines has the greatest disadvantage, because of the traverse required to bring it on various targets. A gunner's tendency to fire at targets which
threaten him most directly is understandable. Nevertheless, in most cases it is a fatal mistake in regards to obtaining the highest efficiency of the LMG."
McMorries combined the sharp instincts of a Prizefighter with technical expertise acquired from Army training. He also once commented that "a smart sharpshooter will score more kills than a dumb expert."
The photo above depicts ongoing training at the 101st Airborne's Combat Machinegunner School in 1945.photo courtesy of Bill Kennedy, A/506th.
MORE MACHINEGUN LORE
As mentioned previously, Stanley 'Pappy'Green of F/501 achieved about 30 kills in one day on two seperate occasions in Normandy.
The first time was between Angoville and St Come du Mont, when German troops were changing positions en masse. Green caught them from the flank, as they passed by a gate/gap in a hedgerow.
In his book 'With Geronimo Across Europe', medic Richard O'Brien of G/501 described a humorous incident in Holland. A machinegunner of his company had set up his tripod-mounted LMG, pointed at the dike embankment near Heteren. It was broad daylight, and the gunner had started a fire and melted chocolate bars and marshmellows in a cooking pot-he was making Fudge on the front line. Glancing occasionally to his right as he stirred the mixture with his left hand, the gunner would fire bursts at Germans scaling the dike to rejoin their forces near the river. Although 'O'Bie' didn't know the gunner's name, it is believed that he was Frank 'Big
Dog'Serwatka.
Another gunner in
'G' company, and very skilled in Tex's estimation, was Bob'Granny'Baldwin. Lee Parrish saw Baldy behind his LMG also in Holland one day. The gun was pointed at a slope and retreating German troops were running up, broadside. Baldwin was
TALKING while firing, as if the Germans could hear him. i.e.:
"Well you dumb sonofabitch, you're not going to make it..." As
Baldwin spoke, Parrish could see Germans falling and sliding back
toward the bottom of the hillside.
Paratrooper Humor
Because of the nature of their work, paratroopers have always embraced the macabre and gruesome in their humor, such as the lyrics to their Battle Hymn: "Gory, Gory, What a Helluva Way to Die". The interesting calling card shown above was created by Carl Cartledge of H&H S-2, 501 PIR, as a postwar afterthought.
“Then there weren’t any stitches to be discovered!” exclaimed Dick. “Here’s something that just came to me.” Sandy bent forward in the lounging chair. “Nothing has happened at night, for ten days. But all that time, Mr. Whiteside has been on the ‘day watch,’ as he calls it.” 246 They argued it from all sides during the whole of a day, and Campbell lent his advice, and the end of it was that Felipa Cabot came out to the land of her forbears. He had seen a large band heading for the ranch, and[Pg 128] had found a dead white man on the north road, he said, and he gesticulated madly, his voice choked with terror. Then he had to define "coward" for Cadnan—and from "coward" he progressed to another new word, "freedom." That was a big word but Cadnan approached it without fear, and without any preconception. "Marvor," Cadnan said after a second. "He is to come and aid them. He tells me this. We join him and come back with him, away from here, to where he stays now. Then none of us are punished." He paused. "It will be a great punishment." "So it be—I shudn't have brought you through all this damp grass. We shud have gone by the lane, I reckon." Another trial to him now was that Robert seemed half-hearted. Hitherto he had always worked conscientiously and well, even though he had never been smart or particularly keen; but now he seemed to loaf and slack—he dawdled, slipped clear of what he could, and once he actually asked Reuben for wages! This was unheard-of—not one of Reuben's sons had ever dreamed of such a thing before. That summer old Mrs. Backfield became completely bedridden. The gratefulness of sunshine to her old bones was counteracted by the clammy fogs that streamed up every night round the farm. It was an exceptionally wet and misty summer—a great deal of Reuben's wheat rotted in the ground, and he scarcely took any notice when Tilly announced one morning that grandmother was too ill to come downstairs. Supper was a quiet meal. Old Jury and his invalid wife sat at each end of the table, while Alice did most of the helping and waiting. They seemed a sorry three to Reuben, pale, washed out, and weakly, their eyes bright as birds' with the factitious light of their enthusiasms for things that did not matter. They ate without much appetite, picking daintily at their food, their knives never in their mouths. Reuben found himself despising them as he despised the Bardons. However, he refused all temptations to discuss this latest prodigal. If anyone asked him how his son was doing, he would answer, "I dunno; ask Pete—he's the nurse." "And Rose?" He gave up going to the Cocks. It had fallen off terribly those last five years, he told Maude the dairy-woman, his only confidant nowadays. The beer had deteriorated, and there was a girl behind the counter all painted and curled like a Jezebubble, and rolling her eyes at you like this.... If any woman thought a man of his experience was to be caught, she was unaccountable mistaken (this doubtless for Maude's benefit, that she might build no false hopes on the invitation to bring her sewing into the kitchen of an evening). Then the fellows in the bar never talked about stocks and crops and such like, but about race-horses and football and tomfooleries of that sort, wot had all come in through the poor being educated and put above themselves. Moreover, there was a gramophone playing trash like "I wouldn't leave my little wooden hut for you"—and the tale of Reuben's grievances ended in expectoration. "My lord," answered Holgrave; "I beg your pardon; but I thought your lordship wouldn't think much of the marriage, as your lordship was not at the castle, and I did not know when you would return. Here is the merchet, my lord, and I hope you will forgive me for not awaiting your return." "No," replied Edith, "and if he had, Stephen, your wife knew how to answer him as befitting a virtuous woman." Wells paused a moment, and then added— HoME免费的一级吃奶A片完整版
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