| Show r With Ernie Pyle Py in in Normandy Norman y I Ack-Ack Ack Crews Wear Blanke To Ward Off Chill of Nights IN NORMANDY By Wireless Wire Wire- less The less The six hours of ot nighttime nighttime nighttime night night- time go swiftly for tor our ack ack-ack battery which is a blessing Time r races cc when you are arc firing And in the long lulls between the waves of enemy planes you doze and catnap and the time gets away Once during a lull long after aeter midnight half a dozen of the boys in our start singing softly Their voices arc excellent excellent excel excel- lent Very low and sweetly they sing in perfect harmony such s ch songs as Ive B Been cn Work in on the Railroad and Tipperary There i isn't n t anything forced or dramatic about It Its It's just halt half a dozen young fellows singing singing singing sing sing- ing because they like to sing sing sing- and the fact that they are in a in i France shooting at people trying to kill them thein is just a circumstance The The night grows bitterly chill Between B tween firings every man mandr dr drapes pes an army blanket around his shoulders and some times s. s up p over his head In the darkness they are just silhouettes silhouettes ettes looking strange and foreign foreign for for- ei eign n like Arabs After 2 o'clock there is a long lull Gradually the boys wrap I up in their blankets and lie down on the floor of the pit and fall asleep Pretty soon you hear them the snoring I talk taUt with the gun commander commander- for tor a few minutes minutes min mm- 1 utes in low tones Then my eyes get heavy too I wrap a blanket around me and sit down on the floor of or the pit leaning against the wall The night is is' isnow now as silent as a grave Not Nat a shot not a movement movement movement move move- move move- ment anywhere My head slacks over to one ne side Bu But I cant can't relax enough to sleep in that position And it is so cold I am so sleepy I hurt hur and I berate myself because because because be be- cause I cant can't go to sleep like the others But Im I'm asleep all the time For suddenly a voice shouts Stand by by and and d it is as shocking shocking shocking shock shock- ing as a bucket of cold water in your face You look quickly at your watch and realize that an hour has passed All the silent forms come frantically to life Blankets fly Men bump into each other Commence firing rings out above the confusion and immediately immediately imme immediately imme- imme the great gun is blasting away and smoke again fills the Sleep and rouse up Catnap and fire tire The night wears on Sometimes a passing truck sounds sounds' exactly like a faraway plane Frightened French dogs bark in distant barnyards Things are always confusing and mysterious In war Just bc- bc fore dawn an airplane draws nearer and nearer nea-er l lower we and lower yet we get no order shoot and we wonder why machine guns and Bofors' Bofors for miles around go goThe o after It j r The plane comes booming In long dive in a He lie Hebe be he heading right at us W We r f like ducking low in the pit Pil actually crosses the end o of field less than a hundred y from us and only Or f up Our r hearts are P pou pound We Ve dont don't lu know ow who hei heu what is he-is doing Our own own are not riot supposed to be bem 1 air nir Yet if this Is a G Ge why doesn't he bomb bomo bombus bombo o or i ius i ius us 7 We Vc never find out S' S S The first hint of dawn cori co o Most of us are asleep a Suddenly one of the b bow y ys out Look What's that We Ve stare into the faint iTi ii and there just above t ui uia a 11 great silent floating slowly through t th lIt It is a a ghostly sight ight Then w we recognize it in of us feel cel a sense of ot r ris is 18 one one ne of our barrage b ba which has has' broken loose drifting to to to- earth Some snags it in the next fIel it if hangs there poised apple trees until some comes and gets gets' it long lone long 1 daylight As fuller fullex light c cOm comes I j start lighting In n i open The battery comin comi asks over the phone how KM shells were fired and telli our tentative score for tor the nil is seven planes shot down 3 crew is proud and pleased please Dawn brings an h warmth and we throw off blankets Our eyes feel el grand gra gr and our heads heads' groggy The of the gun has kick kicked d u up j much dirt that our faces i at grimy as though we wel ha had din dinall all night in a dust storm i. i green Nor Norman a countryside wet and glistening with dew Then we hear our own pl drumming in the dist distance nce S iS denly they pop out of a ci dm bank and are over us S for another day has come cornea we surrender willingly the bo boden den deri of protecting the beads beach The last Rest is given and anh put the gun away until an th darkness comes f i |
