| Show With lA Ernie Pyle Py in in Normandy Ernie Spends First Night oIn In Orchard Full dull of Nazi Dead SOMEWHERE SOME IN FRANCE By Wireless Would Wireless Would you be interested in hearing how we spent our first night in France Well Ven even f If you wouldn't wouldn't- Just after supper we got an order to unload our vehicles from th the L S T. T One of those big self propelled b bar a r g e c 1 11 i k e things made of steel pontoons bolted together came up In front of our ship and the vehicles were driven off onto it Th These se b bar barges a r g g e s are arc called rhinos They move very slowly I and it took us an hour to get getto getto to shore Then the I ter signaled us not to land for forthe forthe forthe the tide wasn't right So we had to loaf around out there thereon on the water for another hour They were blowing up mines on n the beach and some of ot our big naval guns were still thundering thundering thun thun- dering Bering away at the Germans The evening was cloudy and miserable miserable miserable mis mis- erable and it began to rain as we waited We Ve were all cold A At t last the beach master let letus letus letus us in The barge grounded ab about ut 50 yards from shore and runways runways runways run run- ways were let down It was wa several miles to our bivouac area On the way we p passed many bodies lying alongside alongside alongside along along- side the road both German and American but mostly German Some of the French people along the roads smiled and waved while others kept their heads down and wouldn't look up It was dark when we got to I our bivouac a grape and apple orchard on a hillside We Ve pulled in and parked under a tree First we posted sentries and then Wescott dug into his big ration box in the jeep and got out some grapefruit juice crackers and sardines While we were eating the first German planes of the night came over One dropped its bombs not awfully far away away- enough to give us our first touch of or nerves There were antiaircraft antiaircraft antiaircraft craft guns all around and they made an awful racket The night began to take on an ominous and spooky aspect We felt lone lone- ly There were still snipers around and shell holes e ev eye where and we could hear I it n chine guns In the dis distanced It was midnight by the ti U we had finished eating and anda J i a a. camouflage net over the jl jj l In p preparation r s for the first it l UJ next morning We de d decided ceded g get of what sleep we could didn't have our bedrolls y yet ct twe t we did have two blankets blanket apic api We Ve just lay down on the groL o Another jeep had pulled un ur un the tree with us Alto our little group sleeping on ground consisted of two color colon three enlisted men and m Y 1 We slept in all our cloth clothes Cloth s. s German planes kept com con com over one by one Our guns J 1 up their booming and crack all nIl n night long in fits its a and d je e After an hour or so o onE on ont our colonels said wed we'd b be move move our blankets so our hr would be under the jeeps cause pie pieces es of flak were ing inn all over the orchard He said the flak woul wouldn't do t you unless it hit you In the h b I said I guessed it would I I hit you in the stomach He it I still think it ity y we Anyhow I moved moped my my t under and left my stomach in the open My head was wast r behind the front Vh wheel cl UI iii u the fender It was a good pl pI pi but the headroom was so sos so's s that every cry t time me I would turn I I would get a mouthful of ofa from the fender i Then we got cold Our blankets might as 85 well il been handkerchiefs for tor all alt warmth there was in the j lit and smoked smoke ji u I our blankets We couldn't e I much anyhow for the not noli the thc guns r We all got at J up dawn coming a chance to move anand artand an art arcand and get warm Private W Wei opened some K rations and ate a scanty breakfast off oft hood of th the jeep Then a col co made a reconnaissance 1 When he came back he said our little orchard which toso to so rural and pretty In the theft thed dt was full of dead Germans |
