Show With Ernie Pyle Py in N Normandy Ack-Ack Ack Crews Work on Guns Gun GunIn In Daytime Fire All Night f IN NORMANDY By Wireless Wire Wire- less This less This ack ack-ack crew of pf mine is having its first taste of ot war And after three weeks or orso orso orso so of ot It they feel that they arc are the best gun crew in the best battery of the best ack-ack ack battalion bat bat- tallon on the beachhead It would be close clos to impossible for a German bomber to pick out their position at night yet this crew feels that the Germans have singled them out ut because they're so good As far faras as I Ican Ican Ican can learn practically nil all the theother theother theother other gun crews feel the same way That's Thal's what is known in military terms as good morale My crew consists of ot 13 men Some of them operate the dials on the gun others load and fire Cire it others lug the big shells from froma a storage pit a few feet away These big millimeter 90 guns gun usually operate in batteries and anda a battery consists of four guns and the family of technicians necessary to operate the many scientific devices that control the guns The four guns of ol this particular lar battery are arc dug into the ground in a small open field about 50 yards apart The gunners gunners gunners gun gun- ners sleep in p pup p tents or under unde half tracks tracks' hidden under trees I and camouflage nets The boys work all night and sleep in the daytime They haven't dug foxholes for the only danger is at night and they arc are up firing all night The guns require a great deal of daytime work to keep them in shape so half hat of the boys sleep in the forenoon and half hall In jn the afternoon while the theother theother other half work Their Jl life e is rugged but they dont don't see the seamiest side of the war They stay quite a w while in one place which makes for comfort and they are beyond enemy artillery range Their only danger is from bombing or strafing and that is not nol too great They arc so new at war that they still stUl try to keep themselves themselves themselves them them- selves cle clean n. n They shave and wash their clothes regularly Their service section has not come over yet from England so they have to cook their own meals They're pretty sick of this and will be glad when the service boys and the field kitchens kitchens kitchens kitch kitch- ens catch up with them They eat cat in 10 rations heating them over a fire of wooden sticks sunk into a shallow hole in the ground The sergeant who is commander commander com corn mander of my gun is a farm boy from Iowa and none of the crew Is past his middle Only two of the 13 are mar mar- ried ned They ha have ve been overseas more than six months and like everybody else they are terribly anxious to go home They like to think in terms of anniversaries ries and much of their conversation conver conver- is given to remembering what they were doing a year ago today when they were in camp back in America They all hope they wont won't have to go to the Pacific when the European war var Is over My crew is a swell bunch of oC boys They all work hard and they work well wen together Only one man in the crew speaks peales French That one has already made friends with the farmers near by and they get such stuff as eggs and butter occasionally They have been promised some chickens but they haven't showed up ye yet Although the noise and andt of their gun arc te ter they have got used to It it I none of ot them wears wears' cotton his e ears cars rs They say the two i morale boosters are arc the theand S Sand St Stand and Stripes and letters j f fr home My boys are very proud their first night on the soU soiled France They began firing mediately from a field not noti from i the V beach bench TU The were still sun thick in the Ing hedges and bullets we ve singing around them all n nIgh The boys like to t tell Jl over over how the infantry all aro are them were crouching and era ing along while they had stand straight up and dig the guns gum in V VIt It takes about 12 hours r good hard work o. o dig in guns when they move to a a. an n position They dig in on one oneat 11 at a time while the three oUt othi u are firing My gun is dug duga a a. circular pit about four f f deep and 20 feet across has been rimmed with a p pet pOt of sandbags gs and dirt u un when you stand on the fl fJ of the pit you can just see o othe ov the top The boys are S down there from anything but direct hit Their gun Is covered in th tb daytime by a large g net My crew crow fire tire from rom 10 to shells a nigh In the very early days on th thi beachhead they kept firing tiring on night until they had only half halt dozen shells left But the su su ply has ns been built up now an aft there is no danger of their ru nit ning fling short again The first night I was wit wi them was a slow stow night and the fired only nine shells The boy were terribly disappointed The said it would have to turn OU out that the night I was with them would be the quietest and also the coldest they had ever had So just because of that I L stayed a second night with them And that time we fired all night long It 11 was indicated that we had brought down seven of the 15 planes we fired at t and the th boys were elated 1 |