Patton’s
End Run
by
James
“Grumpy” Smith
General Patton rushed into
Headquarters tent. “The road is blown! Get the engineers down there to
fix it. The rest follow me. I have an idea.” I was
right there. I saw him go into the tent. He was so dramatic. I want to
smile, but this was
Sicily, and Patton’s idea was to involve me. In his book and in the movie
“Patton” his idea was called an “end around”.
Yes, the mountain road was blown. I had been there in my jeep and had to stop at
the damaged section earlier that day. And when Col. Ward arrived at
Headquarters, I knew we (17th Field) were involved.
The blown mountain road did not stop the infantry. They climbed around it. But
it did stop the trucks, guns, tanks etc. so the infantry would have no support.
Patton’s idea was to take one big landing craft, load it with four guns,
trucks and two tanks, go around the blasted section of road and
land them on a quiet beach up
ahead. Sounds brilliant. Not so!
Of all the gun batteries on the island mine was chosen. Instead of feeling proud
we all said “Why us?” We were to load at dusk and land under darkness in the
wee hours of the next morning. We arrived at a little port early enough. So did
the tanks. But none of us had any experience at loading onto
a ship. We had a terrible time. The guns had to be backed in.. Have you
ever tried backing a trailer into anyplace? The space inside the ship was too
small. We tried and tried. Forward, backward try again. All night long we worked
while the tank crews waited. Finally we uncoupled the guns and hand pulled them
into place. Then the trucks were backed in. The tanks had it easy. They were to
be the first off.
Away we sailed. We talked with the tank crews all night joking back and
forth. Good guys! About
3 AM
I remember being so, so tired. I just
flopped down. Next thing I knew the ship’s captain started yelling into his
loudspeaker, “We will reach our beach in broad daylight. You must attach yours
guns to your trucks. You must be ready to move when we hit the beach. He kept it
up until we woke up and tried to do it. No enthusiasm. Sleepwalking around.
But when we got the word “landing in five minutes” we got to work in
earnest. We all felt the ship hit
the sand. Down came the drawbridge. Now for the first time we saw the beach.
It was a beautiful clear morning. Terrible! A German plane or artillery could
have blown us all to bits. The captain of the LCT was yelling out of his mind.
He was screaming into his mike. Screaming about this madman Patton. He was
screaming “I’m not going to lose my ship. I’m pulling out.”
The
tanks rolled right off to get away quickly. I was standing right beside the open
ramp. Now came the first truck.. It hit the sand,
and that was it. The truck sank into the sand. The gun sat on the ramp,
and there it stayed. How could we have been so stupid? Who planned this?
I looked for something. I looked back over the beach. My eyes settled on the
second tank moving away up the beach. I started to run. It was the most
important dash of my life. I caught up with the tank. I screamed. I
yelled. I banged on its side with my gun. In desperation I ran around to
the front. I waved my arms. The tank stopped a few feet in front of me. The
hatch opened and a very angry lieutenant started swearing at me. I tried to
explain. Finally I simply pointed back at the stuck ship. He looked and the tank
turned around back to the ship to pull us out.
Those guys in the tank risked their lives. It still took us about two hours to
get us up onto the road. All the
time we worked out on the open beach exposed to enemy planes and guns. We were
so lucky! Unbelievable!
But it turned out not to be luck. It was accomplished at a sacrifice. Later that
day I came upon two destroyed tanks – one German and one ours. There they sat
with their dead all around. I hoped they were not our tank friends.
But
they were. A sad, sad day. I actually cried.
Are you wondering how all those tank crewmen got out of the burning tank?
The
infantry had found them and pulled them out only to find them all dead.
Editor’s
Note: Lt. Smith was a forward observer in the 17th Field Artillery
Regiment, 13th Brigade. The action described here took place in
Sicily
in
August 1943.
©
Weston
Military History Group, 2004.
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