| Show WiTh Erni Ernie Pyle Py in in Normandy One Man Electrically Control Aiming of Ack-Ack Ack Battery tl IN NORMANDY By Wire Wire- i lew It It is 1115 at night The sky ky darkens Into an indistinct dusk but It is not ot yet fully tully dark darl You can make out the high hedgerow surrounding our field and the seven even long barrels o of the other ack-ack ack guns of our battery poking upwards V We al all lean against the wall of our gun pit Just waiting wailing for our nights' nights work fo 10 o start We Ve have plenty of or time yet The G Germans wont won't be here for Cor 10 or 15 minutes But no Suddenly the gun commander who Is at the phone yells Stand by The men jump to their The plane is invisible but you can hear the distant motors throbbing in the sky Bley Somehow you can always sense just juat from the tempo in which things start when it is going to be a heavy night You feel now that this will be one One of the gunners turns turn a switch on the side o of the gun and it goes into remote control From now on a mystic machine at the far tar end of or the field handies handles handles han han- dies the pointing of ot the gun girn through electrical cables It is 18 all automatic The long snout of the tho barrel begins weaving Inthe Inthe in inthe the air and the mechanism that directs it makes a buzzing noise The barrel goes up and down to the right and back to the left grinding and whining a and d Jerk jerk- ing It i is like a giant cobra maddened and with its head raised weaving back and forth before striking Finally the gun settles rigidly in one spot and the gun commander commander com corn mander calls out On target Three rounds Commence firing The gun blasts forth with sickening force A brief sheet of flame lame shoots shoot from the muzzle muzzie Dense sickening smoke boils around in the gun pit You hear the empty shell case clank to the ground Darkly silhouetted figures move silently reloading In a afew afew afew few seconds the gun blasts again And once again The smoke is stifling now You feel teel the blast sweep over you and andset andset set et you back a little The salvo is fired The men step tep back You take lake your your fingers fingers fingers fin fin- gers from your ears The smoke gradually clears And now once more the gun is intently weaving about grinding and and whining and seeking for a new prey That's the way it is all night You never see a a. thing You only hear the of motors in the sky and see the flashes of guns and the streakIng streakIng streaking streak streak- ing of ot red traces far away You never see the plane youre you're shootIng shoot shoot- Ing at unless it goes down inflames Inflames in flames rid arid Chimera I merA are rare I found out one ne thing thing- b by be be- ing lug with the ack-ack ack at Itt j jAnd And that is that yo youre you're less nervous when youre you're the open with n a ngUn gun h hof In t toC of oC you than when youre you're 4 do doup doi up under tinder blankets in your yourt coiled and intent for eVe every 1 tie change of sound d dand dOU and imagining and We shoot off oCt and on f frest rest periods of only a 1 few utes for a couple of ot hour night Germans arc busy bo bov bOil l. Then suddenly a flare po 10 J the sky out to sea in f fi us Gradually the night toy rf ens ens' ens until the whole unive alight and we can ea easily each other out ut in the g gand gu and see everything around 1 the field t Now everybody I is tense tente staring We all dread The red tracers of the chine guns begin arching i ithe the flares but cant can't th them m. m Then our ow own II by byl order comes comes and thy Oil whines and swings and feet feel feela way into the sky until It Is Ison ison in inon on the high flares Yes we are shooting ii 11 flare And our showering b bof bor of or flak hit it too You dont don't completely out a flare But you bre brt up into small pieces ar arlight and nd light is dimmed and the come floating down more rt and the whole thing is ii sooner Flares Flare In the sky are re al all frightening They strip naked and make you cower and hide and pee peek from behind an elbow feel a great welcome when the last piece the ground and you can go goto goto I to shooting at the dark dar from out of ot the dark |
