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Show landing ships and transports men wrote minute letters, played cards, joined Major m bull sessions. "Chaplains, Thomas Spencer Dallas of the 29th Divie business. sion recalls, "did a t land-offic- minister on a craft, Captain Lewis Fulmer Knon, chaplain for the 4th Divisions jam-packe- One d 12th Infantry Regiment, found himself serving as pastor for all denominations. A Jewish officer, Captain Irving Cray, asked Chaplain Koon if he would lead his company in piayer "to the God in whom we all believe, whether Protestant, Roman Catholic or Jew, that our mission may lie accomplished and that, if possible, we may be brought safelv home again. Koon gladly obliged. And in the gathering dusk. Gunners Mate Third Class William Sweeney of a Coast Guard cutter remembers, the attack transport Samuel Chase blinked out a signal, "Mass is going on. For most of the men the first few hours of the journey were spent quietly. Many-greintrospective and talked of f standards than tires dn new cars! ir n o things men usually keep to themselves. Hundreds later recalled that they found themselves admitting their fears and talking of other personal matters with unusual candor. They drew7 closer to one another on this strange night and confided in men they had never even met before. "We talked a lot about home and what it would all be like at the landing, Pfc. EaiLston Hern of the 146th Engineer Battalion recalls. On the slippery wet deck of his landing craft, Hern and a medic whose name he never learned had such a conversation. "The medic was having trouble at home. His wife, a model, wanted a divorce. He was a pretty worried guy. He said shed have to wait until he got home. I remember, too, that the whole time we were talking there was a young kid nearby singing softly to himself. This kid made the remark that he could sing better than he ever had in the past ami it really seemed to please him. I 'A .i w. .Z H.M.S. Empire Anvil,' Michael Kurtz of the U.S. 1st Division, a veteran of the invasions of North Africa, Sicily and Italy, was , approached by a new replacement. Private Joseph Steinber of W isconsin. "Corporal, said Steinber, "do you honestly think weve got a chance? "Hell yes, boy, said Kurtz. ' Don t ever worry about getting killed. In this m outfit we worry about battles when we get to them. Petty of the Sergeant Bill 2nd Ranger Battalion was doing his worrying now. With his friend, Pfc. Bill McHugh, Petty sat on the deck of the old Channel steamer Ne of Man watching the darkness close in. Petty took cold comfort from the long lines of ships all about them: his mind was on the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. Turning to McHugh, he said, "We havent got a hope in hell of coming out of this alive. "Youre just a goddam pessimist, " said McHugh. "but be, Petty, replied "May of uswill make it, Mac. McHugh was unimpressed. "When you gotta go. you gotta go, be said. Aboard Vv ( v -- ft i -- "L-Ro- 'rs'. sCf f i ' ii J rI - pass exhaustive tests like this marathon.' high-spee- d I fe --if T0U,R(MrF6TffrK lab NS . PLUGSAbovt tests tougher than any car THROUGHOUT will give them' U. S. A. YOU fTeTiN U 1 EV EfT F A R FROM ATLAS SERVICE! Ask ,A Vr - to see written guarantee on Atlas Tires and on retail price of purchase over life of guarantee and based AND CANADA i j at time and place of adustment be-ga- -- , e men tried to read. Corporal Bodct of the 1st Division "Kings Row by Henry Bellamann, but he found it difficult to concentrate liecause he was worrying about his jeep. Would the watei proofing hold out when he drove it into three or four fc'et of water? Gunner Arthur Henry Booh of the Canadian 3rd Division, on board a landing craft loaded with tanks, ' tried to get through a pocket book Milintriguingly titled "A Maid and a lion Men. Chaplain Lawrence E. Deery of the 1st Division, aboard the transport H.M.S. Empire Anvil, was amazed to see a British naval officer reading Horaces odes in Latin. But Deery him-- " self, who would land on Omaha Beach in the first wave withjhe 16th Infantry Regiment, spent the evening reading In Jsymonds "Life of Michelangelo. another Continued nn next page Some ON THE TRACK Atlas' Automotive Specialists insist Atlas Tires s' d only-on- A n ' - n - 17 -- I |
