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Show Ernie Pye's Slant on the War: Rode Between Nazi Tanks In a Jeep to Safety One of the First Times in History American Troops Retreat ; By Ernie Pyle (Editor's Rote): This dispatch teas written and first published when PyU teas with the Gls at the Tunisian jronU He is now on his way to cover the boys in the Pacific war zones. THE TUNISIAN FRONT. Capt. Jed Dailey of Sharon, Mass., got back safely in his jeep after the German breakthrough break-through out of Faid Pass. But he had a horrible time. He was beating it to the rear across the desert, along with the rest of the command post's personnel, when suddenly he saw a Mark Four tank staring him in the face not a hundred yards away. The tank was stopped, the crew had the turret door open, and a German Ger-man was just standing there, looking at Captain Dailey as cold as ice. It was enough to give you the creeps. Jed swung the jeep around and there was another Mark Four staring star-ing at him. He yrty kept turning and rV- dodging, but ev-ff, ev-ff, 4, - ' ery where he could X V Zv j V-' S ne would be xJ'"'' looking smack at fV-Wi the front end of V;vKl: a Mark Four, i- ' ' ' vJf& They just seemed t 10 appear m I ; f4yf' ifl nowhere, and I a Sriffafifk hiJJl there they'd be Ernie Tyle suddenly, until he felt like a mouse trying to get out of a room full of silent cats. Finally Jed did the only thing left to do. He took his heart in his hand and drove right between two German tanks, with their crews sitting there at the guns and looking at him as he passed 50 yards away. They didn't shoot, and he doesn't know to this day why they didn't. Then he stepped on that jeep and went soaring across the desert, flying fly-ing over irrigation ditches you'd normally nor-mally cross in low gear. German artillery got after him. They dropped an 88 on his right, and then one on his left, and then one in front of him. They had him pocketed When artillery does that, the next shot always gets you. But they never fired a fourth shell. ' He has no idea why. It was just kind of like a miracle. Things like that went on all afternoon. after-noon. Finally it got dark, and a sort of safety came. But it wasn't complete com-plete safety, for German patrols were out scouring the desert for stragglers. Jed finally got away by driving the jeep straight up .over the top of a mountain and down the other side. He just missed driving over several sev-eral sheer cliffs. From now on he hates Germans. Lost Razor Blades. Most of the men who survived, the German's surprise break-through on the first day of the Sbeitla battle lost everything they had. Major "Satch" Elkins of College Station, Texas, came out with only the clothes on his back. But he resented most losing 300 razor blades to the Germans. Captain Dailey swears he will get the German who is now sleeping in his bedroll. One soldier was sore as a hornet because the day before he gathered up his inertia and accomplished ac-complished the nasty job of writing six long overdue letters home. Now the Germans have-them, and he has that writing job to do all over. Again, Jed. Dailey lost his camera and a dozen rolls of film he had been taking for months. One of them was a foolish picture, such as the soberest of adults sometimes indulges in-dulges In. He had picked some desert des-ert flowers, stuck them behind his ears, and posed for the camera making mak-ing a silly face. 'The Germans will develop those films for what information they can get," he says. "And when they come to the one of an American officer offi-cer with flowers behind his ears, they'll probably tell Goebbels to put It out on the radio that Americans are sissies." One soldier told me his most vivid Impression of the afternoon after-noon was seclnp 10 brand new tires burning op on the wheels of a huge American truck. "With rubber so short at home, and tires rationed," he aid, "it seemed awful to see those brand new ones burning." Another soldier said. "You damn fools, here's the sky full of planes, "and the country full of tanks, and 88s dropping all around you, and you're worrying about tires!" i Lieut. Col. George Sutherlin of Shreveport, La., and Lieut. Robert Rob-ert Simons Jr., of Columbus, Ohio, walked 29 miles across the desert that night. They had a compass, and it saved them. We had been talking about them while they were missing. "George will show up," one officer said. "I'll bet any amount of money on it. Germans will turn him loose after two days, to get rid of him before he talks them to death." And show up he did. He and Junior Simons say they consider the compass the most valuable valu-able piece of equipment the army issues. They had one horrible experience expe-rience that night. An Arab they encountered en-countered in the desert ran them almost into the hands of a German patrol. They escaped only by lying deathly still, hardly breathing, for an hour, while the Germans hunted within a few yards of them. But another an-other Arab balanced the account by getting out of bed to give them drinking water. They were so thirsty that they didn't take time to purify it with the pills they carried, but at this writing writ-ing they are still feeling fine. Majestic Withdrawal. The withdrawal of our American forces from the vast Sbeitla valley, val-ley, back through Kasserine pass, was a majestic thing in a way. It started before dawn one morning, and continued without a break for 24 hours. It had no earmarks of a retreat whatever, it was carried car-ried out so calmly and methodically. methodi-cally. It differed in no way, except ex-cept size, from the normal daily convoys of troops and supplies. I left Sbeitla in the middle of it. Vehicles were so well spaced, it was not difficult to pass them on the wide gravel road. And, since I was not required to keep line, I could go forward and back to get a good view of the entire movement. Our planes were in the air almost constantly that day. So far as I have heard, the Germans Ger-mans did not do a single road-strafing job on our withdrawing columns. They missed a magnificent opportunity. oppor-tunity. Why they didn't try is still a mystery to me. First, before daylight, came the kitchen trucks and engineers to prepare pre-pare things ahead. Then came rolling roll-ing guns, and some infantry to set up protection along the roads. Then the great vast bulk of long supply trains, field hospitals, command posts, ammunition wagons, infantry, artillery, and finally when night came again the tanks started and moved on until the next dawn. The whole thing was completely com-pletely motorized. Nobody was walking. It was hard to realize, when you were part of it, that this was a retreat that American Ameri-can forces in large numbers were retreating In foreign battle bat-tle one of the few times in our history. We couldn't help feel a slight sense of humiliation. Yet, while it was happening, that humiliation was somewhat overcome by our pride in the orderliness and accomplishment accomplish-ment It simply could not have been done better. Military police patrolled the road with jeeps and motorcycles to see that there was no passing, no traffic jams, no loitering. I Not many of our American trucks ' broke down; and those that did were immediately taken in tow. There were almost no accidents. The withdrawal from Feriana and Thelepte airdrome was separate, and smaller than ours. They were evacuated in the dawn hours. Ammunition Am-munition dumps were set off, and all gasoline that could not be moved was set ablaze. Planes that took off that morning 1 on dawn missions did not return to the field but landed elsewhere. All planes that could not get off the ground, because of minor damage or needed repair, were burned. There never was anything built above ground at Thelepte. because the field had to take too much bombing. |
