Rambling Anecdotes

1st US Sharpshooters

I worked 3 years at Gettysburg, working for every division in the Park except the one I desired to make a career. One of my favorite areas was Pitzers Woods, where the US Sharpshooters got in a hot scrape against Alabama troops.

On that second day of the battle, one hundred sharpshooters fired on average 95 rounds per man. They were supported by some infantry outfits or vice-a-versa. Another interesting fact is that over the course of the three days, the 1st US SS, with 450 rifles, fired 14,400 rds, according to Berdan.
 
Piss on it!

During the blackpowder era, when a musket fouled from blackpowder residue, some soldiers urinated down the barrel to rinse out the fouling. Here's a WW II equivalent.

One new replacement "saw movement and attempted to shoot, but the M1 misfired. The sergeant leading the patrol grabbed the rifle, which was dirty, and told the private to clean it immediatly. He told him not to waste water, but to piss the dirt off, which the soldier did."

Water was scarce in combat and urine was not. I'm certain the sergeant after the patrol had the soldier dissassemble the rifle for thorough cleaning. Survival depended on clean firearms.

See 150-1.
 
M1 doesn't do well in sandy / muddy environment. Too many places for the dirt to get into the action to jam it up. Flush with water or pee works.

Same problem with AK. AR actually does better with tighter fit (surprising).

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Pesky Patton.

New York, July 15, 1943 (UP)

In Sicily, Messerschmitts circled a nearby hill, but Technical Sergeant Richard Redding, stringing a wire atop a telegraph pole and a perfect target, worked on. Someone yelled up from below, "What are you doing up that pole?"
"Working," said Redding, too engrossed to look down.
"How long have you been there!"
"About 20 minutes."
"Don't the planes bother you?"
"Hell, no - but you do!"
At the foot of the pole was, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., who had been doing the yelling, kept his peace.

BTW, the movie Patton had a recreation of his speech to the GIs in England. Patton's version of that story was part of the speech. He praised the sergeant for his steadfastness in danger and dedication to the job.
 
Firearm safety

Make sure your bore is clear of any obstruction.

"Another fishing story: One of our soldiers had a British rifle, Short Magazine Lee Enfield, a distinctive weapon with a cutoff look where the bayonet stud sticks out beyond the end of the barrel. The water was so clear along the river that he decided he was going to shoot some fish. He concealed hmself on the bank, and when a big fish roamed around in the water just below him, he carefully took aim at the fish and pulled the trigger. Unbeknownst to him,he had stuck the barrel into the water, so his gun just blew up. It bloodied his nose, and his ears were ringing to beat the band. When he pulled his rifle back out of the water, six inches from the end of the barrel had just opened up like a flower."
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Arms were in short supply so the barrel ws sawed off and filed down. Muzzle blast was horrible b/c it was only 18" long from the original 24" length. They had to readjust the sight.

However he was of mind to bring the fish back.
 
"The 307th Airborne Medical Company had just cleared a casualty station out of a former monastery in a southern suburb of Nimijen. The paratroopers called it 'the Baby Factory' because SS soldiers were thought to have mated there with racially selected young women. Locals joked that this Strength Through Joy centre should be called the 'Lustwaffe.'

(Note: the monastery never served that purpose since work didn't finish until late 1943).

From Beevor's The Battle of Arnhem.
 
March 3, 1944:
P38 Lightnings were seen flying over Berlin for the first time in WW2, but there were no bombers as the heavies had turned back.

March 4, 1944:
P51 Mustangs from the Fourth Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, based at Debden England became the first single-engine fighters in the skies over Berlin.

Those P51s were from my Dad's group. The "Debden Eagles" -- so-called because they started life as the Eagle Squadrons flying RAF Spitfires with U.S. pilots and U.S. ground crews, but with RAF officers on an RAF base -- were credited as being the first fighter group to achieve an all-the-way to & back bomber escort of B17 heavies to Berlin.

That was the day that Hermann Goering looked up and saw the fighter escorts still with the bombers and knew "the jig was up".

My dad was Flight Chief for A Flight of 335 Fighter Squadron, and he and his ground crews put up all 16 planes, as did 334 and 336 Fighter Squadrons. The Fourth put 48 Mustangs in all into the air that fateful day. While my dad said he and his crews "did the easy part" compared to the pilots, he was always very proud of participating in that event.

~ Let We Forget ~

Old No7
 
Monty and the lads in Sicily.

@Old No 7. You might want to read Philip Caine's American Pilots in the RAF and his sequel, Spitfires, Thunderbolts and War Beer. Only a handful of American pilots declined entering the Air Corps. The American Sergeant-Pilots received officers' commission which meant substantially more pay than the RAF.

Monty and the lads.

The only other occassion that I had any contact with our Commander-in-Chief was one day when we happened to be lounging around chatting outside our billet. There were three of us just sitting, talking, kicking the sand about with our feet, when one of the lads spotted a car coming over the little bridge that was opposite our billet. He realised straight way that it was Montgomery, who then pulled up and call us over. We immediately thought that we were going to get a dressing down for lounging about. As it happened we were worrying needlessly because when we got to the car, he simply asked us how we were fixed for cigarettes.

When he heard that we didn't have any he said, "Well it just so happens that I have a girlfriend in England and she sends me quite a lot, so I'm sure I can spare a few." With that he rummaged in the back of his veicle and produced some packets; he passed over about 150 in total and said, "No doubt I'll see you again", and drove off.

On our return to the billet, we told the rest of the men that Montgomery had given us some cigarettes, but they didn't believe us and just laughed. However, they eventually realised that Montgomery was probably the only person they could have come from. From then on, the men would take turns to sit outside, hoping that lightning would strike twice, but it never did.

I especially can't see either Patton or MacArthur doing that.
 
"...Durnford-Slater went down the road, back toward the Orne. On the way, Durnford-Slater saw a huge German soldier standing by a ditch.

'Shoot him if he moves an inch!' Durnford-Slater shouted to Head. The German's hands flew up.

'Kaput,' the German said with a grin on his face. He was supposted to be acting as a sniper but he was delighted to be taken prisoner.

Durnford-Slater had his batman hold a pistol on the prisoner while conducting an interrogation. The prisoner was wearing a fine lumber jacket.

'You ought to have that,' Head said to Durnford-Slater. Head told the batman to strip the jacket from the German. The batman unthinkingly handed his pistol to the prisoner. Durnford-Slater recaalled, 'The situation was ludicrous: a German prisoner with a loaded revolver, faced by an unarmed British brigadier, a major, and a private soldier. Fortunately this particular prisoner had no guts at all. He surrendered his jacket. Then he handed back the gun."
 
A motorcycle with sidecar driver sabotages a planned night exercise:
"I arrived punctually.

'We are going to drive a route now,' said Fitzmann, 'because I intend to carry out a night exercise with the company tonight.'

It was a rainy day and not very suitable for an exercise, I thought to myself. We drove for a distance in the rain. As we were about to drive up a slope, I silently thought, I will screw up your night exercise. Halfway up I let the clutch slip a bit, so that it appeared as if we weren't moving forward. 'Obersturmfuhrer, you have to push!'

He climbed out of the sidecar, positioned himself behind the rear wheel and prepared to push. At that moment I let the clutch out, the rear wheel began to turn and mud sprayed his coat and face. He cursed and I - letting the clutch slip again - said to him, 'Obersturmfurher, you must push harder, otherwise we won't get anywhere.'

'Stop!' he sputtered, 'bacck to Breuna!'

I laughed to myself. When we got to Bruena, I asked him, 'Obersturmfuhrer, what about your night exercise now?'

His reply: 'Damn you, leave me in peace!'

And that's how I saved the company from a night exercise and allowed them to sleep in peace."
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Advice from a sergeant to German school boys who were drafted into auxiliary service as AA gunners:

"One day next week after school, you will report to the military hosptial in Lesum for your first vaccination, typhoid, I think. There will be five more: dyptheria, cholera, tetanus, dysentery, and yellow fever, you can't say the Army is not looking after you. A word of advice: try to get at the beginning of the line, those butchers have only two needles for 100 men and after fifty the are getting pretty blunt!" In the event, it turned out the needles lasted through perhaps twenty chests (not arms, they might stiffen up), after that it was pretty gruesome. The SM (sergeant major) was probably trying to be kind.
 
Before the portable radio & cell phone

”It was important that the Brigade Commander should receive early information of the progress of his forward troops since this would affect the movement of reserves in the rear. The problem then arose how to ensure the early arrival of the required information, and intense interest was aroused at Brigade H.Q. when it was disclosed that a pigeon would be used to convey the news. In due course the bird arrived and was kept for some days in a special pigeon loft. When the day of the attack arrived the pigeon was given to a soldier to carry. He was to go with the leading sub-units and was told that at a certain moment an officer would write a message to be fastened to the pigeon’s leg; he would then be release the pigeon which would fly back to its loft at Brigade H.Q. The attack was launched and the Brigade Commander waited anxiously for the arrival of the pigeon. Time was slipping by and no pigeon arrived; the Brigadier walked feverishly about outside his H.Q. dugout. The soldiers anxiously searched the skies; but there was no sign of any pigeon.

“At last the cry went up: “The pigeon,” and sure enough back it came alighted safely in the loft.

Soldiers rushed to get the news and the Brigade Commander roared out: “Give me the message.”

It was handed to him, and this is what it read:

“I am absolutely fed up with carrying this bloody bird about France.”

Imagine the American Civil War if one side had cell phones?
 
If you've read Blount's books, you'd know that in WW II the GI's love souvenirs.

"We enjoyed some leisure time, time enough to look through some of the builidngs to see if we could find anything of value, but small enough to carry in our pockets.

"While Fansler and I were looking through a chest of drawers, I saw a metallic object that I thought might be of value. I reached across in front of Fansler and 'click' - I though we had booth been booby-trapped for sure. My luck held and I came out with only a mouse trap hanging on my finger."
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From a Canadian soldier fighting in NW Europe.

As a clerk, I was now part of Company Headquarters personnel. It was not our job to go in on attacks, but at the last minute, our Major, Tom Jones, who was a drunken bum, came along dead drunk and orddered me to go on the attack. I grabbed my rifle, three or four hand grenandes, my small packsack and took off with the drunken Major in front of me. I soon caught up with Sgt. Tom MacDonald, one of the finest soldiers I have ever met in life.

"When I reached town, while our artillery should have smashed all to hell, many buildings were left standing. I crouched against a tree wall and could hear Germans talking, but it was still too dark to see just where they were. Every time I hollered at them, 'Han de hok' - hands up - a volley of machine-gun fire would whistle over my head. Once I smartened up, I got two hand grenades reaady and lobbbed them in the direction of the voices. That got results in a hurry!

"I had 12 prisoners on my hands, all scared as the devil! It was just starting to get daylight when an angel appeared in the person of Sgt. MacDonald. He soon had to lot of prisoners talking and sent one out to tell the other Germans to surrender. Soon we had 70 prisoners. As this was going on, our other men finally caught up with us. The Major was not one of them! We never saw that yellow drunken bugger again. He simply sat down somewhere and was eventually sent back to England with 'battle fatigue.' It was more like 'bottle fatigue!'"
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rodent control

From a GI serving in the Aleutian Islands:

"The rats were everywhere. Every ship brought in more rats... and there was garbage all over the island. Those rats dug through the floors to get into our huts. They must have smelled the food, and a rat will kill itself to try to get food. We wished we had a dog, but only the officers had dogs.

I woke up one night because something was crawling over me. I looked up and saw a hairy Norway rat sitting on my chest. I flinched, and the rat sprung at me and bit my nose. I roared, and the rat ran.

I wanted revenge, so I rigged up a deadfall in our hut. I baited it with garbage, and used a pitchfork powered by stretched inner tube to try to spear the rat. He was too fast, and always snatched the food without getting hit. I figured I'd try something different. I'd use electricity. Nothing can outrun electricity.

I tapped a 220-volt line... Then I set up the trap so that the rat would complete the circuit when he grabbed the garbage. That worked. There was a big flash, and the rat bounced a few times as he was electrocuted. Unfortunately, the hut stunk for days, and the guys all got mad. But I got the rat."
 
I read that whole camp Pendleton was full of fleas when the marines were training for Pacific theater operations. The ground would need to be cleansed with wood fire before they could pitch the tents. The rats could be slightly better.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Gun in the mail.

A World War II story about a GI who asked the wife to send him his pistol.

"Having to carry a camera case, gas mask and rifle wasn't too easy.... I tried to get a .45-caliber pistol to carry instead of a rifle, but couldn't get one issued to me. Not being an officer, that is. So I wrote to Ginny and asked her to send me an item I had in the top drawer of our bureau. It was a .32-caliber pistol. I couldn't come right out and say what I wanted because our mail was censored. She understood, and not long afterward, I received a package and the pistol was in it. However, no bullets. Well, I wrote back and again, my mail was checked out so I had to be careful what I wrote. I asked her for the .32 shorts that were next to the item I had just received from her. In the next mail [was] my package there were the ... shorts - boxer shorts, that is! Needless to say, I kept carrying the rifle."

Hey kids, don't try this today. Each piece of mail is photographed and x-rayed by the Post Office. This is how the Eff Bee Eye tracked down the anthrax laden letter to the sender (and later figured out the "sender" was being framed by the ex-wife).
 
Lightbulbs anyone?

Definitely a "Hey Kids, don't try this at home!"

One of our group, a Second Lieutenant we called "Red" because of his red hair, excited us by making a wager he could eat glass and would in fact, take an electric light bulb, break it into small pieces, and before our very eyes placed small portions of the bulb in his mouth and began chewing it until the bits of glass had been chewed into glass dust. He then gulped it down with a bit of water. We would not allow him to consume the whole bulb for fear the guy would have serious problems. I quietly went over to the Battalion Surgeon, explained what had happened, and he explainted that the guy had been instructed well because by reducing the glass to that state the hydrochloric acid in the stomach wall would render it harmless. He did however, advise against pursuing such pranks.
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WW II join the Ski Troops (US Army 10th Mtn Div):

The requirements were simple enough. You had to be a skier, an athlete, or an outsdoorsman. In spite of my pack-a-day cigarette habit, I was on the Senn High (school) track team, running the 440 and the one-mile races. I had been a weightlifter since I was fifteen, so I was wiry and strong. I would need three letters of recommendation attesting to my physical prowess and my sterling character. My coaches provided the former. A lawyer friend of my father produced the latter. Ironically, as it later turned, out, he had made his fortune by representing the Chicago Mafia.
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Walter Thompson, Churchill's personal body guard, recalled that shortly after Churchill arrived at the White House, he went upstairs to his suite to unpack and bathe. While Churchill was splashing about in the tub and inspector Thompson was checking over the room, there was a knock on the door. Thompson opened the door and was surprised to find President Roosevelt in his wheelchair all alone. Thompson remembered the President looking "curiously beyond me, not with fright but with something very unlike approval." Thompson turned around to see Chruchill standing in man's most natural state, smiling cordially, a drink in one hand, a cigar in the other. When Roosevelt tried to execuse himself, Churchill insisted that he come in. In Thompson's words, "the Prime Minister posed briefly and ludicrously before the President," then said, "you see, Mr. President, I have nothing to hide."
 
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