Pvt Johnson

Bernard Johnson was born at home in Milwaukee, WI on September 15^th, 1921, the second of five children.  The Johnson children were educated in Catholic schools thru the 8^th grade and went on to a public high school.  Young Bernard didn’t find high school much of a challenge after 8 years of Catholic education, but his teachers though he was an able student.  He became a member of the school wrestling team, doing well enough to place second in the city championship his senior year.

 

Bernie helped out at home with chores like all the Johnson kids.  At 14 he got a job pumping gas and washing cars at a filling station a few blocks from home.  After high school his boss gave him a job as a mechanic’s helper and he was soon doing some of the easier repairs by himself.  His seemed to have a natural aptitude for mechanical devices. 

 

Because of his wrestling background Bernie started training at a boxing club.  Money was tight and he almost had to quit the club but caught a break and was able to make some extra money working as a bouncer at a club down town. He was getting ready for amateur matches in Milwaukee’s new Golden Glove competition when his draft notice arrived. 

 

Kurt, his favorite uncle, was a private eye and tried to get Bernie interested in that line of work after high school.  His uncle took him out to a gravel pit a few times and taught him a little about shooting, first using an old hunting rifle “because everyone starts with a rifle” and then a revolver.  Bernie humored his uncle, even worked for him a few times as a “bodyguard” for some visiting big-whigs.  He didn’t mind helping Kurt, but didn’t see himself as a private detective.

 

Bernie had always been good at math and what he really wanted was go to college and study engineering or maybe accounting.  He knew this was beyond his means, and was thinking he might open his own auto repair shop.  But he still had a lot to learn as a mechanic and opening a shop would take money.  Just like his boxing hobby, the plans to open a garage got put on hold by the war.

 

After his group had completed their entrance examinations they were sent to a waiting room. A sailor came in and asked if anyone wanted to join the navy.  Bernie thought about that for all of 5 seconds and said to himself “I can’t swim, why the hell would I join the navy?”  So old Uncle Sam sent him off to be an infantryman and he wondered if maybe he should’ve asked for the navy.  One of these days I’m gonna learn to swim!

 

Basic training seemed to whiz by, Bernie was in pretty good shape to begin with and he tried not to attract attention from the drill sergeants.  He got chewed out a couple of times, but the D.I.s had bigger problems than Private Johnson to worry about.  Bernie got picked as a rifle grenadier and at first he didn’t think much of the Springfield ’03.  After training on the Garand in basic this seemed like a step backwards, but given a few days on the grenade ranges the ’03 earned his respect.

What came as a big surprise was that after years of wrestling, boxing and working as a bouncer he learned just as much about hand to hand combat from the Army in a couple of months.  Even more surprising was that the Army couldn't teach him anything about what they called silent killing he didn't already know.

The night attack, success for us, and for others?

My plan was unload all our equipment out of the Kublewagen, and to send Dubois and Smith in it down South and East of the town just before dusk. They were to set a couple of explosive charges with timing fuse to the Southeast of where we saw the armorer panzers parked the night before. Once these diversionary charges were set they were to head back to the wooded assembly area to the North of the airstrip. The rest of the vehicles we would leave in another area, further North and East of the airfield. Mckee, Capone, and Meister would remain with these vehicles, ready to move out and come to our aid with rapid transportation if we needed it. Meister had the jeep mounted radio in one of the jeeps, Smith had one hand-held radio in the Kublewagen, and I (SGT Lewis) had the other hand held radio with the raiding party.

The raiding party was led by myself (SGT Lewis), carrying Capone’s B.A.R., Karas with his M1 Garand, Greeley with his M1 Garand, Despaux with his Thompson, Crowinshield with his captured MP 40 and slung M1 Garand, and Johnson, with his captured Italian Beretta 38/42 SMG, and slung 03-A3. We left the bazookas, and belt-fed guns with the vehicles. We also carried enhanced explosive charges prepared by Mckee. Each charge was two blocks of TNT with a hand grenade wire-tied onto them. The TNT blocks were primed with non-electric fuse-igniters with eight minutes of timed fuse. I carried two charges, and Greeley and Despaux each carried four. Johnson had his rifle grenades.

The plan was we would start by silently taking out the two sentries we observed between two of the buildings. This was to be the job of Karas and myself.

Once we had done this, then Karas and I would use a grapnel and rope and climb to the nearby flat roof/veranda of the building to the South. This vantage point looked out over where we could make out four vehicles. There was a towed 88mm gun, and next to it one of the heavy halftrack haulers, like we had seen in Bir el Hafey. We also saw a quad mounted 20mm anti-aircraft trailer and a smaller armored halftrack which would have to be its hauler.

There were three buildings, and I figured at least two and perhaps all three housed German troops. I figured if we could silently take out the sentries, then Max and I could cover the rest of the squad while Greeley and Despaux set their charges down the tubes of the 88mm guns we had seen the previous night. While they were setting the charges, Johnson could check out and prepare to start the smaller of the halftracks. This would be out getaway vehicle once we ignited the fuses on the explosives. Crowinshield would provide mobile on-the-ground security for Greeley, Dexpaux, and Johnson, even as Karas and I provided cover from a rooftop which had a commanding view of the entire area.

Karas and I would be able to see the four vehicles, and the other 88mm guns which I anticipated seeing in the area between the two airstrips. Once the charges were set and fuses ignited we would all meet at the smaller halftrack where Johnson would be ready to quickly start it up and drive us out of there before the charges detonated. Karas and I would leave our positions last.

If it turned out that Johnson found it impossible for us to use the halftrack we would walk out, as we had the night before. We would have eight minutes before the first charge went off, and we anticipated the diversion explosions set by Mckee and Smith would confuse any German reaction and hopefully send them off in that direction.

I had established a signal with the squad that if we were detected pre-maturely, and I did not have ability to communicate with the entire squad through voice or hand and arms signals, and needed to abort the operation, I would shoot a green flare into the air.

The would be the signal for everybody to immediately converge on where Johnson was with the smaller halftrack, or if this was impossible, proceed by foot to the assembly area in the grove of trees to the North. If this too was untenable, each Soldier would do his best to get back where our vehicles were.

I am attaching a diagram showing the buildings and key features as saw them (or thought them to be) upon our approach. In execution, we found that the Germans had emplaced some barbed wire in spots. The execution of our raid proceeded as follows on 17 FEB:

We approached from the West after dusk. We could see two sentries between the two buildings from the light of their cigarettes. The buildings were dark and silent. The German convoy from the town was departing up the Kasserine road to the North, and I figured its noise would help cover any noise we might inadvertently be making in our approach.

The order of march was in column of twos. Karas and myself in the lead, followed by Greeley and Despaux,with Crowinshield and Johnson in the rear.

We reached the Wadi running South to North and Depaux wrinkled his nose, made a grimace, and said someone had been using it for a latrine. The Wadi was about eight feet wide and as deep. Crowinshield moved to the left, turned around to face us, crouched down, and lowered himself into the Wadi. Johnson followed. Slightly later, Karas and I (Lewis) moved up to the South and I descended into to the Wadi using a rope on a grapnel anchored into the ground by Karas. Karas, and Greeley followed me down into the Wadi. Despaux waited on the West bank and watched the buildings.

Crowinshield was first to climb up the East side of the Wadi and take up a prone position on the bank. Moments later Karas and I lifted (almost threw) Greeley up onto the East bank when we made our hands into a stirrup and propelled him upwards.

Greeley secured another rope on a convenient boulder on the East bank, and I ascended. Karas was next. We all took up prone positions on the East bank. Crowinshield was moving forward when we all heard the “Pouff” of a flare going up. I looked through my binoculars at the flat veranda roof of the nearest building, and a German was looking RIGHT BACK AT ME. I couldn’t help but think that someone of us had been spotted. Perhaps it was the movement when we catapulted Greeley up out of the Wadi, or perhaps Crowinshield. Either way, although I held out a small hope that we might be able to wait out the German flare without being detected, things started to happen quickly.

Two dogs approached Crowinshield at a run, barking and snarling. They were each black and brown, well-muscled, and instantly recognizable as German guard dogs. Crowinshield unlimbered his captured MP-40 he had taken from the German motorcycle scout and opened fire on them once they had gotten close. He hit both of them with his first burst, and they went down. That was pretty nice shooting by Crowinshield, to hit two moving dogs before they could put their teeth into him. It must have confused the Germans for a few moments to hear one of their own weapons cut loose from out where we were, but any potential opportunity to take advantage of this was lost as Greeley fired his M1 rifle at the German on the veranda, hitting him. The German on the veranda returned fire, missing. Karas fired at the figure on the veranda, missing as well.

Crowinshield was off at a run for the building in front of him. I started running for the same building and a closed exterior door about 50 feet South of the point Crowinshield was heading for. I didn’t want to be caught out by the Wadi. It was time to move and close on the objective.

Johnson also started running for the building, behind Crowinshield, who had a head start.

Greeley and Karas were in position at the bank of the Wadi, providing covering fire. Dexpaux was still down in the Wadi, out of sight.

The three of us (Crowinshield, Johnson, and Lewis), reached the wall of the building at about the same time albeit about 30 feet from each other. I was about to try to shoulder right through the door in front of me at a run when an explosion rocked me. A grenade had landed, and detonated just behind me as I got to the doorway. It must have been thrown at me by a German from either the veranda, or the upper floor window of the building above where Johnson was standing. Those stinkin Krauts ! Fortunately the grenade neither wounded, nor dazed me. I had been lucky. (What I did not realize was what had actually happened. Johnson had attempted to throw a hand grenade into the 2^nd floor window above him, missed, and it had bounced off the wall and landed right next to me.) Crowinshield was laughing, but I never noticed.

Karas was on the move by this time, leaving Greeley firing from behind the cover of the boulder on the East bank of the Wadi. Johnson turned shouldered a door to his left about eight inches open, and tossed a grenade inside. Boom !! The grenade went off, and smoke and splinters came out through the opening. Karas came up to my right, and was about to look in the window to the right of the door I was shouldering through as I hit that door at full running speed with my (Capone’s) Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) held at port arms.

I knew I was taking a risk hitting the door that way. If it had been locked and barricaded shut it would have been a painful impact for me. Likewise, if there was a squad of Germans inside at the ready if I did burst through, that would not be an exciting prospect either. I took a gamble that I could get through the door quickly without injury to myself, and IF there were Germans on the other side, that I would catch them off-guard, perhaps in the midst of donning their equipment, and force their surrender, or at least to flee at the point of my BAR.

As it turned out the door was not braced or fastened stoutly, and I burst through into a room without anybody in it. It appeared to be some kind of a workshop area.

For a few moments after I burst through the door I had a vision of another kind of a room, but this must have been a by-product of my impact through the entry door. In fact this room had a door on the South wall to my right, and as soon as I ascertained that the room was clear of enemy, I headed right for it.

While I was going through the room, Crowinshield and Johnson were about the North side of the building, going around that corner headed East. To their surprise they encountered several emplaced coils of barbed wire running from the building Northeasterly towards a second building, effectively blocking their progress to the open compound area where the vehicles were. I am providing a map of the layout of the buildings showing their position, and that of the barbed wire and vehicles.

Crowinshield set about cutting through a section of the barbed wire while Johnson covered him.

There was a lot of noise and activity coming from the building to the Northeast. It was obvious to Crowinshield and Johnson that there were quite a few Germans getting prepared to react to the gunfire they had heard.

I (Lewis) went back outside through the door at the South end of the building, and moved rapidly along the wall to the Southeast corner. From there I could see the open compound to the Northeast, another building further East, the vehicles, and the other building which was in front of Crowinshield and Johnson.

I saw a very threatening piece of German equipment parked about 200 feet away next to the building with all the noise coming out of it. It was a quad-mounted towed 20mm anti-aircraft trailer. I knew that if the Germans ever succeeded in manning that and turning it against us, it would be disastrous for our squad.

I moved rapidly, with Karas moving about fifty feet behind me, taking up my previous covered position at the corner of the building. I crossed the open compound at a run, again taking a chance that there would be no Germans in the building further East, or if there were, they would either not detect me, or think I was one of their own. The German flare has fizzled out moments before, so I figured I had a decent chance of reaching the 20mm guns.

I had reached a point halfway across the compound when a German voice called out to me, “Wer Ist Das?” - I mustered some German I remembered from the first war and yelled back as I ran in the general direction of the voice (and right at the 20mm quad trailer), “Americanischen Soldaten Sind Nord ! Alarm !! Alarm !! “

There was no shooting in my direction, so I made it to the 20mm gun trailer, and hunkered down on the forward side of the armor-plated gunshield. The bulk of the guns, gunshield, and trailer were between me, and the open vehicle bays of the building on the other side. As I pulled out my two explosive charges and set them on the gun trailer, one next to each pair of guns, right and left, I could see silhouettes of Germans coming in droves from an upper floor staircase at the back of the rightmost bay.

Behind me, Karas had turned the corner and moved quietly along the East side of the first building we saw. He took up a covered firing position behind one of the German vehicles just to the North of the Northeast corner, with a good bearing on the open bays of the building in front of me.

Crowinshield had cut through the wire successfully, and although I did not know it at the time, had ascended the exterior staircase to the first landing on the Southwest wall of the building I was facing, and taken a prepared firing position with his MP-40. Johnson had taken a prepared firing position with his captured Berretta submachine gun at ground level.

What this amounted to was a magnificent cross-fire position for the squad to have against the Germans pouring like ants out of an anthill into the row of open bays (empty aircraft maintenance bays) of the building in front of me.

I was in a precarious position and knew I had to decide whether to start the fuses burning on the charges right away, or wait and see how the Germans would react next. I decided to start the fuses burning and plan to be clear away from there before the ten minutes had passed. I didn’t want to give up my position too soon because I didn’t want the Germans to have the opportunity to find the charges and disable them before they went off.

The firefight that ensued didn’t last long. We were in good position, and caught the Germans in a bad one. We were also lucky, which was most important of all.

Crowinshield shot the first German who came into his view, from above him on the landing of the staircase, wounded him, not killing him immediately.

Johnson fired his Berretta at another German nearby, hitting him twice, and I saw that once drop to the ground unmoving.

I heard the “Crack, Crack, Crack, Crack” of Karas firing his M1 Garand, and another German dropped to the ground, dead.

I didn’t see them, but Greeley and Despaux were on the move, getting closer to the vehicles, and the fighting.

The Germans were in confusion from the gunfire coming from three sides. This did not stop there machine gun team from reacting. They started to come out from the bay toward the South, gun at the ready. But they did not realize Crowinshield was above them on the staircase landing.

I heard the “Bup, bup, bup, bup” of Crowinshields captured MP-40, and with three bleeding wounds, the MG 42 gunner dropped lifelessly to the ground. Moments later, Johnson perforated the assistant gunner as he tried to take over the firing of the MG 42, wounding him grievously so he could not be effective.

By this time I had finished setting and igniting the charges, and I fired a burst from my BAR into the group of Germans manning the MG-42. This finished one, and perhaps hit others.

Despaux took up position, fired and hit one of the other Germans while Greeley set explosive charges on the German 88mm gun. Greeley was focused on getting his task accomplished, just as he had been instructed.

Crowinshield tossed a grenade at the remaining Germans in the open bay, and the rest of us continued our fire. It was over quickly. The Germans were demoralized by our withering fire coming rapidly from three directions, and they had no cover. We ended up with five prisoners, of which two were wounded.

The German return fire had been ineffective and we had been lucky. None of our squad was wounded. I was a little disheveled from the grenade detonation next to me, but unharmed.

Johnson set about checking on the “getaway” halftrack, while I cut the fuses on the charges I had set on the 20mm gun trailer. Greeley set charges on the other vehicles, except for the halftrack Johnson was assessing.

Despaux and Karas disarmed, searched and watched the prisoners, while Crowinshield and I quickly searched the buildings. It was only about five minutes before we heard a big explosion to the Southwest. That was our diversionary team setting off their charges.

We also heard the approach of vehicles from our Southwest. Apparently the Germans had reacted immediately to the sound of our gunfire and their reaction force was approaching. I looked through my binoculars from a vantage point on the veranda of one of the buildings, and I could see that there were several vehicles, including troop carriers. We needed to get out of the area before they arrived.

I returned to Johnson and asked him about the halftrack. “No go”, he replied. The ignition system was completely disassembled. The other larger halftrack was raised off the ground on ramps on one side, and it was non-functional as well. We had no getaway vehicles. This ruined my half-formed plan of taking the AA trailer with us.

I ordered the explosive charges set and ignited immediately. We took the MG 42 gun and what ammunition it had with us, as well as any 9mm ammunition we could find. We blindfolded and took the prisoners with us too, giving first aid to the wounded using some of their own supplies. We found that these Germans were all privates and part of the artillery unit. Crowinshield had killed the solitary NCO at the beginning of the action.

We acted quickly. I sent Greeley and Johnson West, back across the Wadi with instructions to walk quickly as they could for ten minutes, set timed ten minute charges, then rendezvous with the rest of the squad in the grove to our North which was our assembly area.

The rest of us moved out with the prisoners to the assembly area. We heard multiple explosions as our charges at the airstrip detonated one after another. We hoped this would throw the German reaction force into a tizzy. Ten minutes later we heard two more explosions to the West as our diversionary explosives went off as set by Johnson and Greeley.

When we got to the assembly area CPL Meister was there with the rest of the squad less Johnson and Greeley, who arrived about 15 minutes later.

Smith and Dubois had already arrived with the Kublewagen, and related that they had placed their “diversionary” charges where they would destroy, or at least damage the bridge in the town so that the German supply route would be disrupted.

CPL Meister took on the task of confusing and feeding false information to our German prisoners. We could not afford to take them with us, nor did I want them telling the Germans we were a small number of men. Meister kept them isolated and blindfolded, and asked them questions which would lead them to believe we were a larger element. He even had some of the other squad members make noise nearby, and used the Kublewagen to drive by, out of sight, multiple times to make it seem like we had many vehicles, like we were a much larger element operating in the German rear area.

We needed to get back to the knoll where our other vehicles were, and I planned to head back to try to get back to our lines somehow. We also were going to need to acquire more food soon.

We set out, still in darkness with the kublewagen leading the way, and the rest of us on foot. We left the German prisoners behind, alive, tied, but with water. Sooner or later they would free themselves and rejoin their comrades, but hopefully with information which was false and confusing.

It was not very long, however, before Dubois reported something amiss with the kublewagen. The front end steering rack had sustained damage, either through previous overloading, the punishment driving over desert terrain, or both. In any event, it could only proceed very slowly. I sent it on ahead, and then followed with the rest of the squad.

Over time, first one, then another of us sensed we were being followed, or watched. Crowinshield dropped back, and I took a position further ahead on point, and we tried waiting in ambush for our “visitors”. This plan was not successful. Later events proved that we were far outmatched in stealth.

Finally, at one point Crowinshield put up a flare. As it illuminated the area we found that each of the groups of us, the four in the Kublewagen, myself up on point, the main group, and Crowinshield bringing up the rear, were handily caught right up close by well-armed, and well led locals.

I myself was confronted by their leader, who spoke perfect English, although with a British accent, and who ordered me to surrender my weapon. Since he and three of his men had the drop on me, I complied. The rest of the squad, being in a similar situation was compelled to do the same.

This leader, who said we could address him as “Lawrence” said that we would be conducted safely to a place of safety, where we would “talk”. Although they took our visible arms, we were not searched. This meant I was not yet unarmed, and thought it possible that some of the other squad members would be in a similar situation.

We had not yet reached even the halfway point to our parked and concealed vehicles, so I had hopes they remained undiscovered. We were forced to abandon our kublewagen as these native soldiers brought us by horseback to their encampment about five miles to the North.

There were between 20-30 of our captors, mostly equipped with German rifles, and harness, but there was a smattering of British equipment and harness as well. Where they wore any German clothing the insignia was removed. Lawrence wore highly polished German officers boots, and German officers leather belt, complete with pistol, however, his clothing was of native design and production.

Upon arrival at the encampment we were allowed to wash and were fed, well fed as a matter of fact, as if we were guests. Lawrence provided wine, which was accepted by some.

In response to my questions, Lawrence related that he and his men had been watching us for two to three days. I told them a little about what we had done, and he said we had been both skillful, and lucky to have eluded the Germans thus far. Lawrence also related what he knew of the German troop concentrations, and I realized it would be near impossible for us to reach our friendly forces for the time being.

Lawrence described himself and his band as basically native freedom fighters who wanted , and intended to be masters of this their native land after the German and other armies had gone. Until that day it seemed Lawrence had been preying on the German supply columns with his mobile band of irregular Soldiers with some genuine success.

The food and hospitality was excellent.

I asked what Lawrence wanted of us, and he said that we would talk about that later. Lawrence obviously was going to want us to do something willingly, and realizing from our conversation that he wanted to be on friendly terms, I suggested that perhaps there was some German target he had wanted to raid, but either he did not have the firepower, or otherwise was loath to invoke a German reaction against his band.

I suggested that if he and I acted together against such a German target, he would get the benefit of our firepower, and the Germans would perceive it as an American led raid, and not attach the blame to Lawrence’s band. That seemed to perk his interest a little.

Crowinshield, ever the gentleman, offered a very fine cigar as a reciprocal gift to Lawrence for his hospitality. This was apparently much appreciated.

We passed the night in comfort, resting well, and together with the fine meal, realized a full recovery and regaining of our strength.  

Day three Behind Enemy Lines

pte airfield through binoculars.

It was difficult to tell whether it was still held by the Americans or not. Smoke was rising from something burning on the airfield. There was a huge, ear-splitting explosion. Meister at one point wildly started to discard his clothing. He was about to change uniforms. Crowinshield listened over the radio and detected that it seemed that our side still held the airfield.

There was the sounds of artillery, or at any rate, large caliber gunfire coming from the South. It was close. I decided we would proceed as quickly as we could to the airfield and base we had passed through just a few weeks before. We all smartened up our appearance in our American uniforms, and spread our American flag across the hood of the Kublewagen. The jeeps once again took the lead.

When we arrived to the airfield it was deserted of any personnel. There were numerous 40 plus aircraft sitting on the field burning, flames rising skyward. There was a large fire at what was the ammunition bunker. I sure wished we had arrived sooner so we could have gotten some more .50 caliber Ammo.

We didn’t spend much time at the airfield, just long enough to count the planes burning and see if we could find something useful. We could see a long line of American military vehicles heading North out of the town, and I wanted to catch up to them and find out what had been going on.

We gunned it up the road to catch up to them. The road was deserted at first, and then we came up on solitary American Soldier running up the road. One of my companions asked what he was about. “That’s the guy they left behind to detonate the charges and set the planes ablaze.” I thought it rather odd they didn’t assign this task to a squad and leave them a vehicle. I later determined that they had, but one of the team was late at getting to the departure point. These Americans were anxious to get out of there.

We continued to hear explosions to our South. Crowinshield listened to the American frequencies on the radio, and we found that there was an American anti-tank platoon trying to make a rear-guard stand just South of Thelepe. From what we could hear on the radio they were being overwhelmed and clobbered by a much superior German armored force.

We came up on locals heading North on foot, then a couple old civilian vehicles, and then, finally, American military trucks and jeeps. We easily passed them by getting off the the road to one side. We passed several vehicles. None of the Americans seemed to have any heavy, or crew-served weapons. No towed-behind trailers, howitzers, or armored vehicles either. Jeeps and trucks only.

We eventually found someone with some rank on one of the vehicles and found that these were all rear-echelon Soldiers, and they had been ordered to abandon the town and airfield and report to the American forces to the North.

We continued North, overtaking convoy vehicles. Eventually we started to see American military vehicles broken down and abandoned at the side of the road. We stopped and checked them out for ammunition or equipment. One of them had an operational bazooka. This was a welcome addition to our arsenal. I sometimes wonder if it is fate or foreshadowing which puts a certain weapon into our hands which becomes useful later. We now had two bazookas in the squad.

Crowinshield continued to monitor radio traffic, and we realized that the American detachment putting up a rear guard defense was wiped out, and the Germans would soon occupy the airfields and town. I thought of the convoy ahead of and behind us, and they were not trained Infantry Soldiers. Then I considered the weapons and effectiveness of the fine squad I had… and reached a decision... - We would turn around and make trouble for these advancing Huns. They would find out that the American Army could deliver a painful sting.

We waited roadside as the American vehicles we had passed by earlier now passed us. Our Kublewagen and German truck got a few odd looks. I waved on vehicles that slowed and Soldiers who asked if we were broken down and needed aid.

Once the convoy had passed we headed back to a point much closer to the town where we could observe the town and airfield, and emplaced a “fake” minefield. We just displaced the earth, took the 1/3rd of the flatware and plates from the dining service and made spots that looked like mines. We spent an hour doing this. Then relocated North along the road ¾ of a mile and did this again. Then a half mile up and yet again.

Then a mile further North up the road and this time we made a minefield with some genuine explosives, along with some fake piles of disturbed earth. Hopefully the enemy would have gotten bored and sloppy after the previous three fake minefields.

Dusk was approaching and I took a couple of our vehicles off-road in to get a closer look at the Germans as they occupied the airfield. We observed many enemy vehicles, more than 40. Light to medium Panzer tanks, halftracks, and many trucks. Some of them towing the 88mm anti-aircraft guns which we had seen an example of in Bir El Hafey. The town was filled with activity, as was the airfield. I could see through my binoculars that the Germans were going to set-up camp for the night.

Night came upon us and I formed a six man night recon patrol. I carefully instructed the men that this was to be a quiet, reconnaissance mission. No shooting if possible. I wanted us to go in, find out where the targets were, and sentries, and then get out without being detected. I established signals and passwords, and the line of march.

We went in, avoiding the sentries, and found out where the armored panzers were parked, South of the airfield. I was more interested in what we found on the airfield itself. There were at least eight of the large 88mm anti-aircraft guns. I knew from the radio traffic that Crowinshield had monitored earlier in the day that it was these that were so effective against our vehicles. This would be our priority target the following night.

We also found several “staff car” vehicles parked on the airstrip. One of them, a larger high quality military car had the German equivalent of a Commanders bumper plate. One of my men couldn’t resist the temptation and quickly removed it and brought it along.

It was on our way out of the enemy encampment that I realized that we were being followed. I was in the lead, and stepped to one side. I tapped Meister, and Despaux to join me, and signaled the others to continue on. We crouched down in the darkness, and waited to jump our would be ambushers.

There were three Germans following us. CPL Meister took the first one, and rapidly overpowered him. At almost the same moment Despaux jumped the German 2^nd in line. They achieve surprise on their two.

Unfortunately, I was not so quick, and the third German saw what happened to his comrades, and turned to run. I had one chance, and one chance only to grab him. Fortunately, luck was with me on this occasion. I got a hold of him before he really got started, and put him down.

My Soldiers looked a question at me, and I quieted ordered them to take the bodies with us. In the morning it would just be “three missing men” to the Germans. I much preferred this to the Germans being alerted to nighttime clandestine operations.

We successfully avoided the sentries again and returned to the rest of our squad. We had the information we needed to form a plan for the following night. The three Germans we had killed and brought with us were all privates. We noted that the unit we were up against was 1/33 DAK with a swastika superimposed over a palm tree.

We buried the Germans, and then moved to observe the German activity from a distance during the following day. We remained concealed in a grove of trees to the North of the airfield. The Germans sent out some routine scouts, but none of them detected us.

There was German activity in the town next to Thelepe airfield. At least a Company sized element was moving in and around it. While Greeley, Karas, and I (SGT Lewis) were out reconnoitering and investigating avenues of approach for the upcoming nights raid, Crowinshield and the others watched the German activity in the town increase.

Crowinshield relocated to a high hill nearby, set up the OE-292 antenna, and tried different American frequencies to try to contact some American artillery unit. I was not there, but somehow, like a miracle he managed to contact one, and it actually was in range!

Crowinshield set about calling in a fire mission. He relayed to me that it took quite a few messages back and forth to convince the artillery that we were indeed Americans, and that we were where we were. I can only imagine how it must have been difficult for Crowinshield with his British accent to convince an American officer over the radio that he should perform a fire mission. Somehow he did it.

However, part of what it took was they insisted Crowinshield tell them his location. Crowinshield gave them not the squads true location neither to the North where our vehicles were, nor the hill he was transmitting from. Our sly Crowinshield gave our location as an orchard of trees to the North of the airfield, just to the East of the Kasserine road. It turned out it was very fortunate that Crowinshield did so.

The first fire mission from artillery was way off to the North. Crowinshield maintained contact and eventually facilitated adjusting the fire right onto the town where the Germans were. Greeley, Karas, and I could see it had a telling effect on the Germans. It interdicted their assembling a convoy, and definitely caused some casualties.

We all rendezvoused at our wooded assembly area to the North of the airfield. Crowinshield relayed to me how he called in the fire mission, and we continued to observe the airfield and its environs, awaiting darkness to conduct our operation.

It was not long before we observed a German recon patrol assemble. Two trucks, two motorcycles with sidecars, and armored scout vehicle mounted with a 20mm magazine-fed gun.

This German patrol headed North out of town, and deployed on the orchard to the North, next to the Kasserine road. 30 plus Germans dismounted from the trucks, and deployed on line while the armored car took up over-watch position. From our comfortable position, we watched through binoculars as the Germans opened fire on the empty orchard, and the patrol vainly searched the area.

Crowinshield chuckled and related to us about how he figured the Germans were probably listening to our radio traffic, and he gave them a “red herring” to chase.

Eventually the Germans came out of the orchard, mounted their vehicles, and returned to the airfield area. We could see that the Germans were in the process of assembling a convoy. As dusk approached we saw their convoy departing North along the Kasserine road. We watched carefully, but did not see any of the towed 88mm guns in the convoy. We could see there were still vehicles on the airstrip, but relocated to near the Western most landing strip. This would be our objective.

Germans Germans everywhere...

After Action Report – Four Hours Before Dawn 15 February 1943

First off, we topped off the fuel in our jeeps, Kubelwagen, motorcycle, and Truck #4 using our jerry cans, then drained most of the fuel out of captured Truck #2, to refill our cans. We took the canvas off all the German trucks except for #4. We took the Germans own personal canteens they had in their vehicles plus some more from the cargo, made sure they were full, and put them into Truck #2.

Meister was talking to Capone about a shooting contest with their BARs, and looking at the prisoners from time to time. Thought I heard some reference to William Tell, but that was just Meister’s dry sense of humor.

Then Meister, Smith, and Capone took some uniform items off the prisoners, tied the prisoners up, and took them a ¼ mile away in Truck #2. Meister explained to the prisoners that he was leaving them there with water, and as long as they stayed there we would not harm them, or at least so Meister relayed to me.

I stayed back with the rest of the squad and the other vehicles. We buried 14 of the 16 cases of ammunition in a soft spot in the bottom of the Wadi, then covered them over and ran an empty truck over the spot to conceal that we had buried anything there.

We also consolidated the cargo from trucks #1 and #3 into truck #4, and again made sure all our vehicles were topped off using fuel from Trucks #1 and #3. Johnson and Dubois went over all the vehicles we were taking with us, making sure they were roadworthy.

Meister, Capone, and Smith returned on foot. The truck they had been driving got stuck in a ditch on the way back after they left the prisoners. Apparently afterwards, Meister and Capone used the distributor cap of the truck as a target for their shooting competition.

We disabled German trucks #1 and #3, and loaded the Motorcycle into the back of Truck #4. Crowenshield jury-rigged the jeep mounted radio into the back of the German truck and managed to use the antennae from the jeep there too. We then headed Southwest along the road, in the direction the German convoy came from in our vehicles as follows:

Kublewagen with .30 Cal MG (Meister, Smith, and Capone)

Jeep #1 with .50 Cal MG (Lewis, Karas, Greeley)

Jeep #2 with .30 Cal MG (Mckee, Despaux)

German Truck #4 (Dubois, Johnson in cab, Crowenshield in back with radio)

After about a mile and a half we crossed a causeway over a Wadi. We kept going, following the road. It was more than an hour later (about an hour before dawn) that Meister discerned some vehicles stopped in the road ahead of us and he took a quick left off the road to the East just before the road took a sharp turn to the right. When he went off the road there was a four foot drop. I saw the Kubelwagen land hard, but apparently it was all right because Gus kept on going.

The rest of us followed Gus until we were about 75 yards off the road, and then I had the vehicles line up in a row parallel to, and facing the road.

We unloaded the motorcycle & sidecar from the truck. Crowenshield & Meister changed into German uniforms. PVT Johnson handed off his captured Beretta 38/42 to Meister. Then Crowenshield and Meister set off to investigate the stopped vehicles in the road.

The rest of us took up over-watch positions in our remaining vehicles, covering the road.

We had significant firepower with three belt-fed machine guns, including myself on the .50 Cal Browning. Capone with his BAR, and PVT Johnson with his Bazooka.

Crowenshield and Meister took the sharp right turn in the road and travelled about 300 yards when they came up on a line of Italian vehicles pulled over and stopped in the road.

Crowenshield brought the motorcycle to a screeching halt before they were detected by the Italians, and then after a caution by Meister that he would do all the talking, they approached the dismounted Italian Soldier near the last truck in the line.

The armed Italian Soldier at the rear of the column signaled them to halt, and he spoke to Meister in Italian at first. When Meister replied in German, the Italian switched to a heavily accented, but understandable German.

He asked Meister if he had seen the rest of their column, and remarked that there was a German MP checkpoint about four miles ahead of their convoy. He also revealed that they had come from their supply base at “Sened Bazier”. Just as Meister was thinking about how to keep the conversation going and get more information, he heard the noise of vehicles approaching from the West. Meister glibly said to the Italian that it must be the rest of their “lost” column. The Italian started waving his arms and yelling to attract their attention. Meister signaled to Crowenshield to turn the motorcycle around and take off back down the road the way they came. As they departed, Meister called out to the Italian (in German) they would direct the other Italians to them.

I also heard the Italian vehicles approaching, and “Trooped-my-line” (I started with Capone in the vehicle on the South end of the line and went from vehicle to vehicle outlining the plan for the squad).

I would signal to open fire by firing a flare into the air. Each vehicle was to open fire on its opposite number in the enemy column. This meant that Capone and Smith, being in the Kublewagen furthest South would take the lead enemy vehicle. Greeley, Karas and I in the 1^st jeep with the .50 Cal would take the 2^nd enemy vehicle in line. McKee and Despaux in the 2^nd jeep with the .30 cal Browning, would engage the 3rd enemy vehicle.

Johnson was to dismount from the German truck leaving Dubois in the cab, and take up a position with the bazooka. I left it to his judgment on the spot to decide which target to engage. I barely had time to get back into position behind my .50 Cal when Crowenshield and Meister again were catalysts bringing on the action with the enemy.

Crowenshield and Meister went North up the road to a point where the oncoming Italian column from the West (from a trail) would intersect with the road. Crowenshield set the motorcycle in the road to block the Italian column after they had turned South. Meister prepared to talk to the Commander of the lead vehicle, but this time the plan didn’t work out as expected.

The Italians came on as expected and turned South onto the road to rejoin their column, but apparently the lead vehicle (an enclosed armored scout car) ignored the motorcycle stopped in the road with Crownenshield sitting on the operators seat and Gus standing in the road in front of it.

Crowenshield and Meister relayed later that the armored car never slowed down. Gus had to adroitly leap out of the way to keep from being run over. Crowenshield’s heart was in his throat as he had to make a series of rapid and difficult choices.

He either had to quickly start the motorcycle and try to get it out of the way, or he could leap to safety, leaving the motorcycle and sidecar to get crushed by the armored car.

Crowenshield decided on the former, but I can imagine what he must have been feeling when he kicked the starter. Fortunately the engine roared to life, but as the armored car came bearing down, Crowenshield knew he wasn’t going to get out of the way in time.

The armored car struck a glancing blow to the rear wheel of the motorcycle as Crowenshield was pulling it off the road to the West. Fortunately, the motorcycle remained operational, and Percy (Puss as Gus called him), pulled it around the moving Italian column in a wide clockwise circle, so he could get back on the same side of the road (East side), as the rest of us were on.

Gus, with submachine gun in hand was able to get back to the motorcycle and clamber into the sidecar. Crowenshield drove the motorcycle parallel to the Italian convoy, and had a good chance to see what was there.

The enclosed armored car in the lead had a turret with a 20mm magazine fed gun mounted in it. There were five canvas covered trucks following behind. The ensuing action revealed that the trucks were filled with troops, but we didn’t realize that at the until the action was well underway.

The Italian column was moving at a moderate pace as it approached the sharp right turn in the road. My squad was ready to take it on, but even as I was considering whether to engage, Crowenshield fired HIS flare gun into the air. That had been our pre-determined signal that he would use to let us know where the enemy was.

Noteable quotes: Crowenshield: “I’m pissed off, they broke my motorcycle!”

Smith: (when he saw the flare go off and illuminate the enemy column) “Oh my Gourd !”

Johnson opened fire with the bazooka first, but his shot missed the moving armored car, and went into the berm short of it. I attempted to shoot the armored car with the .50 cal, but it was moving too fast, and I missed as well.

Greeley fired his M1 rifle next, and scored a hit on the driver in truck #2. Meister fired a submachine gun burst from the sidecar at one of the moving enemy vehicles and missed.

Despaux fired his .30 cal at the driver of truck #3 and hit him. Capone fired at truck #1 and missed. Smith took aim at the driver of truck #1 and hit him.

The rearmost Italian truck (#5) stopped, and a dozen Italian Soldiers armed with rifles got out. This did not bode well for us. Crowenshield saw this, and turned his motorcycle to the left to put some distance between it and the enemy Soldiers.

I kept firing the .50 cal at the armored car. I was really worried when that turret started to turn in our direction. The enemy 20mm was nothing I wanted any part of. Luckily, as my fire peppered the area of the junction where the turret met the body of the armored car, the turret stopped moving. It had jammed!! We were in luck, as it jammed pointing in the forward position, and unless the armored car turned toward us, the 20mm was useless.

Truck #3 stopped and six plus Italian Soldiers with rifles dismounted. The odds were looking worse. Truck #2 started to careen to the left and Greeley said he shot the assistant driver as the guy was reaching for the wheel to regain control of the truck. Apparently, Greeley’s shots on both the driver, and A-driver were good ones, as the truck careened off the road to the left and flopped over on its side.

Capone fired a BAR burst which peppered the armored car, but I saw no effect. Smith switched targets to the soldiers who had dismounted from the rearmost truck, and hit one of them. Gus was firing at that cluster of soldiers too with his submachine gun and hit another one.

Johnson took another shot with his bazooka, which Dubois was loading, and hit the armored car in the rear hull. There was a “pop” and a flash, and then the crew bailed out as the armored car clearly had been disabled. Way-to-go Bernie Johnson!!!

We kept up our fire and Smith says he hit another Soldier who had dismounted from the last truck. But I didn’t see any of them go down. Johnson took another shot with the bazooka at the rearmost truck, and hit it, igniting it into flames.

We started to take rifle fire from the dismounted Italians. The first few shots were ineffective, as the enemy were probably shaken and had only just taken up hasty positions. The bullets from the enemy’s second volley were striking among our vehicles.

Notable quote: “Those Italian Carcano rifles are minus to hit. They are not effective.”

Keene: “John Kennedy wouldn’t say so.”

Despaux took a hit (8) to his right arm. But he was still able to keep up his firing. Gus sprayed the group near the last truck again as they widened the range and as the motorcycle approached the rest of the squad. He said he hit another one of the Soldiers, but I did not see any of them going down.

Capone put a telling shot into another Italian Soldier, and I saw that one go down, but I didn’t pay much attention as the Italian truck #1 had turned in a clockwise direction so that it was facing West, with its rear pointed right at us. The tailgate dropped, and the canvas curtain on the back was thrown up by the occupants, revealing a Breda model 30 machine gun ready to open fire.

Fortunately Greeley and I reacted first. I think Greeley missed (a rare occurrence). I struck the enemy gunner with a round from my .50 cal, and that put him out of commission.

At this moment I realized that the rest of the Italian column which Meister and Crowenshield had seen up the road- had not been idle. They had heard the gunfire, and were approaching dismounted on our flank from the South.

Although we still had all of our firepower, and could have given a good account of ourselves, I realized we had nothing to gain from this fight except killing more enemy troops. There did not appear to be any supplies we needed, and we greatly were outnumbered. Despite taking out the enemy armored car, two trucks, and killing or wounding a 6-8 others, I didn’t want to risk my men any more than I had already.

With dawn coming soon I gave the signal to break off the engagement as I got into the driver’s seat of my jeep and fell in behind the motorcycle headed East. The rest of the squad was able to successfully disengage without any more casualties and follow me.

We traveled about 40 minutes. It was getting light when we came to a nice bigWadi. We drove our little convoy of vehicles down into it and set about covering them with the captured German canvas, and our camouflage nets. I treated Despaux’s wound.

I took my jeep, along with Karas and Greeley, and Crowenshield and Meister on the motorcycle, and we retraced our path back and found a good spot where we could obliterate our tracks to make it less easy should someone try to follow us.

I was not really surprised that the Italians did not pursue. We had taken out their armored vehicle and two of their trucks. They had taken fire from our belt fed machine guns including the heavy .50 Cal Browning (I am SO glad we had that), and the bazooka. I am sure they wanted no more part of us.

Upon our return to the rest of the squad Johnson and Dubois checked the vehicles for damage. I checked on our ammunition and water. We again, had gotten off lucky with only one of our own taking a light wound. But now I was concerned that the enemy was alerted to our presence and would come looking for us. It was time to hide for the day.

Inventory Dawn 15 FEB 43

Kublewagen

- 220 rounds remaining in .30 browning plus five belts of 250 rounds in cans.

- Two full BAR waist belts

- one 384 round can of M1 clipped 30-06 ammo

-12 bazooka rockets

- 3 illumination grenades, 3 smoke grenades

- two jerry cans of water (German ones)

- two empty water jerry cans (German ones)

Jeep #1

-50 rounds remaining in .50 browning plus one belt of 100 in a can.

- Two full BAR waist belts

- one 384 round can of M1 clipped 30-06 ammo

- one crate of hand grenades

- 3 illumination grenades, 3 smoke grenades

- four jerry cans of water

- two jerry cans of gas

- 1 case of German dry rations (3 days food for each of us)

Jeep #2

-200 rounds remaining in .30 browning plus five belts of 250 rounds in cans.

- one 384 round can of M1 clipped 30-06 ammo

- 12 bazooka rockets

- 3 illumination grenades, 3 smoke grenades

- four jerry cans of water

- two jerry cans of gas

- 1 case of German dry rations (3 days food for each of us)

German Truck

- bazooka in cab with Johnson and Dubois

- jeep mounted radio jury rigged by Crowenshield

- OE 292 antennae

- 8 bazooka rockets

- 3 illumination grenades, 3 smoke grenades

- 3000 rounds German 8mm rifle ammo in two crates

- four jerry cans of water

- six jerry cans of gas

- 1 case of German dry rations (3 days food for each of us); 1 case of medical bandages

- 3 sound phones and wire

- Squad duffle bags

- Picket posts and six spools concertina wire

- six spools barbed wire, two spools trip wire, one case trip flares

- German motorcycle and side-car, plus spare parts, tool kits, and empty GE flare pistol

- German uniform items and spare canvas

- 3 cases of opened topped canteens; 4 cases of mess kits; 1 case of medical compression bandages; 1 junior medical kit; 1 case of German Schnapps, and 1 small box of cigars.

- Two finely made latched cases, one case containing a silver utensil service, and the other case a dinner service for eight

Additionally, each man has his own full combat load including two days C-rations.

Johnson has the Berretta SMG which had fired three bursts during the action

Johnson still has his 03-A3 and all the rifle grenades he was carrying when he joined us

Johnson has custody of the squads bazooka and three rockets with him

Dubois still has his 03-A3 and all his rifle grenades and also his tool kits

Lewis still has the U.S. flare pistol with two flares and a hand-held radio

Crowenshield still has his own radio in addition to the jeep mounted radio

Meister has one hand-held radio and his own waist belt of BAR magazines

Despaux has the Sergeant’s Thompson SMG with six full magazines, plus one in gun

Karas carries a spare waist belt for the BAR which is Meisters

McKee carries the medical bag, which has used four of its dice (for Mckee and Despaux)

Evading Rommel

19430215 Adding Squad Members and Evening Action on Road South of Bir Al Halfa

About four miles South of Bir Al Halfa we found a spot where there was a Wadi (dry streambed) running roughly parallel to the road and about 70 yards to the West. By driving down inside it, this afforded concealment for our vehicles (two jeeps, a Kublewagen, with towed motorcycle, and Crowenshield riding the other motorcycle.

Once we came to a halt, I set up a security watch using Karas, Greeley, and Despaux. We did not detect any pursuers, so Dubois and Crowenshield immediately set about using the best parts from the towed motorcycle to bring the other one into optimum running condition. They wanted to make the best use of what daylight was left.

Crowenshield went through the contents of both motorcycles and took inventory of the following items we gained from our encounter in Bir Al Halfa: Two German Uniforms, including caps and goggles. Two German uniform overcoats, still wrapped up and unused. One pair of German boots, one pair of Zeiss binoculars, and one German flare pistol, with two flares, one “Rot” & one “Grun” (Red and Green).

Once he was finished with the motorcycles PVT Dubois conducted a complete assessment and spot repair of the other vehicles, checking for any damage that may have been sustained. CPL Meister joined him in this assessment, and did an ammo check on our weapons. He reported back to me that we had fired about 30 rounds from each of the belt-fed machine guns, leaving a 70 round belt in the .50 Cal in the first Jeep, and an unused belt of 100 in the can. We used about two clips apiece out of our M1 rifles, and one bazooka round had been fired, in addition to one “enhanced” hand grenade expended.

Although Mckee had taken fire in the 2^nd Jeep, there was no evidence of damage. In fact, PVT Dubois and Meister reported all of the vehicles unscathed and in good operating order, including the one motorcycle and sidecar, now with some spare parts.

Mckee, Meister, and I (Lewis) spent the next several hours resting as the rest of the squad took turns taking watch. We three had wounds to recover from, particularly McKee.

I was awakened well into the evening, perhaps 10:00 PM. There were people approaching on foot from two different directions. Meister and I situated the squad around the vehicle and listened as they approached. The night was very dark, but eventually we were able to make out the shape of the approaching figures. Two were approaching from one direction, from the Northeast, and the other from the Southwest. I couldn’t tell which of us recognized the helmets first, but someone called out, “Hey, they are Americans ! ”, followed shortly by, “We are Americans, too !”

Two were from the 168^th Infantry, Private Dan Smith from Seattle, rifleman, and Private Marco Capone from New York city, BAR gunner. The other, who was alone, was from the 6^th Armored Infantry, Bernard Johnson from Milwaukee, rifle grenadier. They had been caught up in the Germans attack and separated from their respective units. With these additions to the squad, I had an effective force to be able to disrupt enemy convoys.

The squad now measured up like this:

SGT Lewis, squad leader, carrying an M1 rifle, and a 1911, .45 caliber pistol

CPL Meister, team leader, carrying a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

PVT Crowinshield, radio operator and riflemen, with M1 Garand and French M-35 pistol

PVT Greeley, rifleman and scout, with M1 Garand, and P-38 pistol

PVT Karas, rifleman and scout, with M1 Garand

PVT McKee, rifleman, with M1 Garand and carrying medical aid bag

PVT Despaux, rifleman, but favors carrying the Thompson SMG.

PVT Dubois, rifleman, with M1 Garand and carrying the bazooka

PVT Johnson, rifle grenadier with 03-A3 rifle

PVT Smith, rifleman, with M1 Garand

PVT Capone, BAR gunner, with Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

We had ample water, gasoline, and ammunition, including nine rifle grenades, a case of hand grenades, and plenty of rockets (35) for our bazooka. Rations were in short supply. I thought the best course was to set about capturing some rations from a passing German convoy as a priority, and CPL Meister devised a plan of which I heartily approved.

Meister and Crowenshield found that the two German uniforms complete with soft caps fit each of them adequately so they could pass reasonably well in the dark as German Soldiers. They set the fully operational German motorcycle with sidecar in the middle of the road with Crowenshield maintaining his position on the operators seat, with his M1 rifle on the north side, concealed from northbound traffic by the motorcycle and his own body. Meister was able to devise some kind of makeshift fastener to fix his BAR to the German sidecar M.G. mount. He remained dismounted from the sidecar, with the idea that he would stop Northbound German convoys, try to ascertain what they were carrying, speaking German, and posing as a Kraut checkpoint on the supply route to the front.

The rest of us, in pairs of two (except for McKee who stayed with our vehicles in the Wadi), would be positioned prone strung along in a line parallel to the road 30 feet from the road 50 feet apart. We would lie still, watching Meister and act to ambush the convoy based upon a pre-arranged signal from him.

We were after food as a priority, so Meister said he would position himself in the road about 100 feet South from the stationary motorcycle, and stop each enemy convoy. He said he would wave on any convoy of vehicles he thought unlikely to carry much food, or otherwise would be a risky target without adequate payoff (such as a troop replacement convoy, or armored vehicles). I ordered that we would remain stationary in this case

If a convoy looked small enough for us to be able to handle, and likely to have rations aboard, Meister would stop the lead truck, then walk back to the motorcycle, arms straight down at his sides. We were to spring into action when he reached the sidecar, or if we could not see him (I was last in line on the Southernmost point of our line), when we heard gunfire.

My instructions to the squad were not to be trigger happy, and what we wanted to do was capture any transport trucks which might be carrying food, intact. Priority was to neutralize any gun trucks or escort element armed with machine guns first, and then dispose of any truck drivers as soon as possible, using physical force to get them out of the trucks, rather than shooting the trucks full of holes. We had the darkness of night in our favor, and hopefully the element of surprise. The way the action went off was like this:

We were all in position, when the first convoy approached at about 2200 hrs on 14 FEB 43. Meister brought them to a halt, and we could see that our spacing of our groups of two was not matched to the interval between the six German trucks. It would be very difficult and unlikely we could take out all the drivers simultaneously without a couple of them being able to react, and either drive off, or at the least give alarm.

We later found out from Meister that the leader of this convoy of trucks stated to him it was loaded with ammunition destined for the front. Not what we were looking for, so Meister waved them on. Crowenshield pulled the motorcycle out of the way and let them pass. We stayed prone and unmoving until the last truck was out of sight.

I made good use of this first experience and repositioned the squad so that we were in pairs of two, situated so we would be at the right interval for when Meister halted the next convoy for each pair to assault the cab of each of the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th vehicles in line. Meister and Crowenshield were responsible to keep the lead vehicle from moving.

The second convoy came at about 0200 hrs on 15 FEB 43. Meister halted it like the first, and I could see that we had our spacing just about right. We watched Meister, and after some conversation with the lead vehicles driver (we found out later from Meister that this was a convoy with some food, but was primarily carrying replacements for front line combat losses), Meister waved this convoy on through as well. We saw that one of the vehicles was towing an 88 mm crew-served gun. It was too bad we had to let that one through. However, one of my squad members relayed to me afterwards that they saw the back flap on one of the canvas covered trucks thrown back and a Soldier toss a cigarette butt off. Glad we passed on that convoy. There could have been three or four dozen, or more enemy on those trucks. That was a firefight I didn’t want to get into with my squad of 11. If we were to have to break off, we would be without food and behind enemy lines, with them alerted. Also, we were on the opposite side of the road from where our vehicles were down in the Wadi. I didn’t fancy leaving McKee with an enemy force larger then us between us and him.

It was at about 0400 hrs that a convoy of five vehicles approached. The lead vehicle had only one headlight, and I feared it would be some kind of security element vehicle. As it turned out, the lead vehicle was a German halftrack, the kind with 12 troop seats behind the driver and assistant drivers seat. The other four vehicles were standard German canvas covered trucks equivalent to our two and a half ton trucks. Two Soldiers were in each truck cab. Meister talked to the driver of the halftrack, and then turned and walked back to the motorcycle, arms at his sides. Upon arrival he turned and opened fire.

The squad was position. Despaux and Karas were parallel to the halftrack. Dubois and Johnson parallel to the 1^st truck. Capone and Smith parallel to the 2^nd truck. Greeley and myself (Lewis) parallel to the 3rd truck. The squad was fortunate that the 3rd truck had pulled up a little closer to the 2^nd truck, and the 4^th truck had pulled up closer to the 3^rd. This meant that I could approach the 4^th truck as easily as the 3^rd truck in line.

PVT Dubois sprang into action as soon as he realized Gus was opening fire. He ran up to the 1^st truck, pulled open the door, and pulled the driver out of the cab before the German had time to react.

I (SGT Lewis) went for the 4^th (last) truck in line. It wasn’t easy, but I threw the driver out of the cab and onto the ground at about the same time as Dubois pulled his out.

PVT Greeley did the same to the driver of the 3^rd truck, but bashed the guys head hard enough on the steering wheel to bend the wheel, and stun the German before pulling him out of the cab.

PVT Smith and PVT Capone took a different approach. Smith opened the door of the cab of the 2^nd truck , and Capone put a burst of rounds from his BAR into the driver at close range. This killed the driver instantly and left the assistant driver in a state of shock.

Meister fired his BAR at the halftrack. I think he hit the driver first because the driver had pissed him off with a condescending attitude. Crowenshield had a real flair for the dramatic, and fired the German flare pistol right through the windshield of the halftrack. The reaction of the German passengers was immediate and urgent. They dismounted out of both sides as the flare ignited and started to burn the interior of the vehicle. I think only one or two retained presence of mind to grab their weapons first. Gus poured his BAR fire into the group that dismounted out of the drivers side first, then switched to the group that went out the passenger side, after he had splattered one Kraut with his BAR.

PVT Johnson strode up to the 1^st truck, behind Dubois, and fired one round into the German driver lying on the ground, and then two rounds into the assistant driver using my 1911 pistol that I had handed off to him before the action started.

PVT Karas poured a burst from the Thompson SMG he was carrying into the four Germans who were on the drivers side of the halftrack, and this, combined with the BAR fire from Gus dropped two. The other Germans just put their hands up.

The bleeding assistant driver in the first truck gave up to Dubois and Johnson. The assistant driver in the 2^nd truck gave up to Smith and Capone. The assistant drivers in trucks 3 and 4 exited out the passenger side doors, and disappeared into the night, leaving their rifles and helmets in the cabs.

Crowenshield switched to his rifle and added a couple rounds into the group of Germans at the halftrack, then started up the motorcycle intending to pursue the fleeing Germans.

Meister didn’t stop firing, however, and poured another burst into the Germans on the passenger side of the halftrack, dropping the one with a submachine gun, and causing the others to put up their hands.

Karas had the group at the driver side covered, and Despaux wasted no time in getting all the German prisoners, eight in all, two of which were wounded, into a group, faced away from the road, under the muzzle of Karas’ Thompson, and Despaux’s M1.

We checked out the trucks, found they were all still in good operating order. We had enough drivers to move all four trucks off the road and into the Wadi, next to our other vehicles.

CPL Meister questioned our prisoners, with Karas and Despaux covering them, while the rest of us checked out the contents of the trucks. PVT Johnson took possession of the submachine gun one of the Germans casualties had dropped, and found it to be an Italian Beretta Model 38/42 in 9mm with an unfired full magazine of 40 rounds.

PVT Karas handed the Thompson back to PVT Despaux who seems to have a liking for it, and reclaimed his M1 Garand.

The contents of each truck was as is described below:

Truck #1 : 4 cases of dry rations (3 days food for each of us); 1 case of medical bandages

Truck #2 : empty

Truck #3 : 4 Jerry cans of water, marked with white “X”s; two finely made latched cases, one case containing a silver utensil service, and the other case a dinner service for eight.

Truck #4 : 16 cases of 1500 rounds each of 8mm Mauser rifle cartridges; 4 cases of opened topped canteens; 4 cases of mess kits; 1 case of medical compression bandages; 1 junior medical kit; 1 case of German Schnapps, and 1 small box of cigars.

I was elated that we had taken these trucks intact and in good running order, without any of our own being wounded. Only one of the trucks had taken any damage from gunfire (Truck #2). Of greater concern was the halftrack, which was burning away with live rounds cooking off and detonating, likely attracting attention. The German prisoners were on the far side of the road from the Wadi, being questioned by Meister. Karas and Despaux had kept the prisoners backs to the road so they could not see when we moved the trucks behind them, beyond the motorcycles position and into the Wadi.

At least two Germans had disappeared into the night, and were unaccounted for, although sans rifles and helmets. We treated the wounded Germans with their own medical bandages and compression dressing which we had captured. I had to decide what we would do with them, and what would be our next move.

Bir el Hafey, Tunisa, Feb 14 1943

Official Report of Squad Action at Bir Al Halfa, on 14 February 1943

Our squad, consisting of myself (SGT Lewis), CPL Meister, and PVTs Greeley, Dubois, Karas, Mckee, Despaux, and Crowenshield arrived at Bir Al Halfa at about 0800 hrs. We had all our assigned equipment, plus whatever we could scrounge prior to departing from the Battalion area. It turned out to be very fortunate for us that we did so, as it came in very handy in the subsequent action.

Crowenshield and I set up an observation point with the AC 556 radio and OE 292 antennae on a high hill about a mile southeast of the town while CPL Meister took the rest of the squad and the vehicles into the town to set-up defensive positions and secure it according to our mission instructions.

It was about 9:30 AM when the German attack came from the South and East. Armored and support vehicles in more than Battalion strength. We counted more than 40 armored vehicles by noontime (see appendix A of this report for number and types). Crowenshield did his best to get a signal out to headquarters as to what we were seeing, but the radio was so jammed with chatter, he doubted anybody could have distinguished his signal.

Eventually, we needed to take down our OE-292 antennae, so as not to risk divulging our position. Crowenshield and I kept low and continued to observe German troop movements through Bir Al Halfa with our binoculars, counting vehicles as they entered and subsequently left the town. The rest of the squad, led by CPL Meister hid in the town itself, about a mile from our position. Meister had the two hand-held radios. He and I had agreed that we turn them on only on each half-hour and check in with each other. This squad SOP served both to insure we would maintain contact at regular intervals, and also save on batteries we could not replace. When it was not on the half-hour mark, Crowenshield changed the crystals in the AC 556 radio to some others that he got from somewhere, and listened for German radio traffic. Sometimes, when he was able to tune in on something clear enough, I listened and tried to discern what the enemy was saying.

The German forces were extremely well-equipped, their advance was professional, and by about noon their front line forces and secondary support elements had pretty much passed by. Traffic had dwindled down to small groups of three to four light support vehicles at intervals of about 5 to 10 minutes between groups.

The balance of this report is a compilation of written reports and verbal statements from squad members who took part in the ensuing action, together with my own observations.

I transmitted in a short signal to CPL Meister when I estimated the lead German elements were about 10 minutes from the town. CPL Meister took the squad and vehicles and hid in a citrus fruit warehouse building near the center of town. There had been enough time for him to split the six squad members he had into two groups and reconnoiter enough of the town to choose this hiding place and back the vehicles in.

(Note the following paragraph in this “official” report covers the fact that we “kept” the Kublewagen we captured at the airfield for our own use without official approval.)

Through some strange and inexplicable quirk of fate, Meister found an intact and fully functional German Kublewagen, complete with a belt fed machine gun parked in the warehouse. There were no locals inhabitants, or Germans anywhere around to be found. All we could figure was that the car had been concealed there and left by some advance German scout element which must have taken cover elsewhere upon our arrival in Bir Al Halfa.

The warehouse building was rather large and had several sets of swing out double doors facing the center square of the town. Meister staged each of the now three vehicles with a machine gun in each facing nose out towards the square, and spread our equipment throughout the three vehicles equally. PVT Karas took the opportunity to load a couple of crates of the citrus fruits which were in the warehouse into one of the vehicles. This was commendable thinking on his part, because we were obviously not going to be getting any chow from our headquarters anytime soon.

Meister took one of the two hand-held radios the squad had and went up on the roof of the building to establish radio contact with Crowenshield and I. He also established an observation team on the roof with a tug-line running from the roof to the bays where the vehicles were. This is where the rest of the squad was hiding when the Germans arrived.

Meister did not have any luck contacting myself or Crowenshield by radio so he handed it off to PVT Karas, who kept trying until he got through. Meister relayed through Karas to Crowenshield and I on the hill that he would wait until the traffic of the Germans forces passing through the town dwindled to the point where he though it would be possible to escape using the vehicles. He planned on using our explosives as part of a diversion to catch the enemy off balance.

Once Crowenshield and I had established radio contact with the rest of the squad, we were able to communicate pretty consistently every half hour, using brief signals to keep each other informed of what we were seeing of the German forces.

Karas was part of the in-town observation team on the roof of the warehouse building, yet concealed on the backside of the roof ridge, while the rest of the squad took refuge with the vehicles. Meister kept one handheld radio and Karas had the other handheld on the roof. The observation team on the roof swapped out with squad members in the bays at intervals to insure the observers were fresh. Crowenshield and I were on the hill a mile outside of town with the AC 556 radio. For awhile we had the OE- 292 antennae up which helped our reception and transmission, but we eventually had to take it down.

We were able to pick up and translate one German radio signal from our position on the hill. It was, “Kampfgroup Heintzman – continue attack North to Sidi Bou Zid, secure communication and line of sight. 590th (garbled) moving west to the (garbled) to take airfield.” Without our 292 antennae in place it was useless trying to raise Battalion, and we did not desire to divulge our position to any German radio detection in any case.

There was one bit of useful information we observed from the hill and were able to relay to the rest of our squad in town. We counted vehicles entering the town on the road from the South, and then departing from the town on the road en-route North. At about 1400, we saw a German artillery unit pull into town, four vehicles towing guns entered, and only three went out North.

Meister reported that what his team first heard and then saw, was a heavy halftrack carrying eight Soldiers and towing an 88mm anti-aircraft gun. It stopped right in front of his part of the squad was in.

Two of the Soldiers dismounted and took up security over-watch positions with their rifles, while four others broke out their mess tins and started eating while still in the halftrack. The other two Soldiers from the halftrack dismounted and moved to the 88mm gun which was in tow and appeared to start some kind of maintenance operation on it.

Additionally, Meister’s observation team saw another group of four Germans wearing the breastplates of the Feldgendarmerie (military police), enter the square, moving from building to building. There were obviously clearing the town, checking each building.

Meister knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Germans clearing the buildings would get to the one where his squad and the vehicles were hidden. He devised a plan, informed his men, and executed it.

He assigned two Soldiers to each vehicle. The plan was to have one Soldier at the ready on the pintle mounted machine gun in each vehicle. The driver of each vehicle was to swing open the bay doors in front of it, then jump into the vehicle, start it, and take off. By immediately turning right down a secondary street this would avoid the main road through the town, and hopefully any additional Germans to deal with.

The desire was to take the Germans by surprise, with the machine guns opening up on the sector of Germans in front of each bay as soon as the doors were open. The fire would kill, or otherwise suppress the Germans, and give the drivers time to get in the vehicles, start them, and depart, turning right (South), down a side street, out past a citrus tree grove, then turn left (Southeast), skirt the edge of the grove, and arrive at a rendezvous point Meister and I had agreed upon, at the corner of another citrus tree grove on the Eastern side of the road entering the town from the South.

I had direct observation of the rendezvous point through my binoculars from my vantage point on the hilltop. It was a mile from our position, but figured we could get there on foot, and with a little luck, without being seen by the sporadic German convoys coming down the road. Particularly since we could choose the time we departed our position on the hill when no German vehicles were in sight, and radio this fact to Meister’s group.

The lead vehicle would be jeep #1 (in the bay furthest South in the building), with Greeley opening the bay doors, and driving, and Meister manning the .50 Cal Browning.

The second vehicle would be the Kublewagen, with Dubois driving, and Karas manning the machine gun. Dubois had an additional task after opening the doors of taking a shot with the squad bazooka at the halftrack before getting into the Kublewagen and driving it out. Dubois is the squads most experienced driver, as well as being our rifle grenadier.

The third vehicle coming out of the bay furthest North was jeep #2, driven by PVT McKee, with Despaux manning the .30 Cal Browning. McKee, our demolitions man, had prepared several hand grenades with a ¼ stick of TNT wired onto the body of the grenade with trip wire we had brought with us. He figured, (rightly so, as we found out) that it would enhance and enlarge the explosion of the grenades. What he didn’t realize until later is that it also made the grenades more awkward to handle.

When the time came when there were no German convoys on the road coming in, we radioed this fact to Meister’s group from our position on the hill, and Crowenshield and I started moving towards the rendezvous point. It was about two and half hours before dark. Crowenshield was packing the AC556 radio, but we left the 292 antennae, packed in its bag, buried and concealed on the hilltop. We were about halfway to the rendezvous point when we heard an explosion in town square. The rest of the squad provided the following account of events which I provide here for the record.

Dubois had opening his bay doors first, just enough so he had a clear shot at very short range with the bazooka at the halftrack. He put the rocket right into the grille, and the nose of the vehicle erupted into flames and smoke with a loud explosion.

The four Germans who had been in the halftrack, eating, leapt out two to either side, confused and taken by surprise. The two “guards on over-watch about 20 yards away from the nose of the halftrack at the ten’o’clock and two’o’clock, positions turned around in surprise and stared for a moment at the flames and smoke. They apparently had not discerned what cause the explosion, nor the where the rocket came from.

The four German MPs had been talking to a local inhabitant in front of a building about 75 feet in front of the warehouse. At the sound of the explosion, the local just seemed to instantly disappear. The German MPs were somewhat slower to react.

PVT Mckee had swung the doors in front of jeep #2 wide open first. PVT Despaux was the first to open fire with his .30 cal machine gun. He hit one of the Germans that had dismounted to the right of the halftrack (more or less in front of jeep #2), 50 yards away.

PVT Greeley got the doors in front of jeep #1 open next, and CPL Meister opened fire with .50 cal Browning, yelling and screaming as he did so. Greeley said, as he moved towards the drivers seat of the jeep after he opened the doors, that he could see Gus grinning ear to ear and laughing as he poured the .50 cal fire into the knot of four German MPs about 75 feet in front of the bay doors. Meister hit one of the MPs with the Browning causing him to somersaulted backward right to onto the ground, never to rise again. He reports the same burst grazed one of the others, but that MP didn’t go down.

PVT McKee’s jeep, although it was supposed to be last in line, emerged from it’s bay first. McKee turned it to the right, crossing in front of the flaming halftrack, and started to bear down on the German on that side which had been pulling security. The other German who had been pulling security on the North side of the halftrack, raised his rifle, and took a telling shot at McKee, hitting him in his left side. McKee was in the midst of trying to gently toss one of his “TNT enhanced grenades” out the drivers side at the feet of the other German security guy to the South of the burning halftrack. The grenade slipped from McKee’s grasp in mid-toss, bounced off the steering wheel, and then off the edge of the passenger side door opening, and… OUT of the jeep into the courtyard. I can only imagine how Despaux must have felt as that live, hissing, TNT enhanced grenade narrowly missed dropping into the passenger front floorboard of the moving jeep. As it was, the nearby explosion seconds later deafened PVT Despaux, and likewise stunned and knocked over the North side security German, who dropped his rifle as a result. PVT McKee was considerably shaken by the rifle hit, but was still able to drive the jeep.

Despite the explosion, Despaux was able to react, and fire a .30 cal burst into the German that had shot McKee, killing him before he could fire his rifle a second time.

PVT Karas, in the Kublewagen, was able to fire a burst at one of the Germans that had dismounted from the halftrack, dropping him. Dubois, driving the Kublewagen said he saw one German look at the Kublewagen, make an expression of recognition, and then lower his weapon. Dubois reports the German looked confused and bewildered as the Kublewagen veered to the right, falling in behind jeep #1 driven by Greeley.

Meister continued to pour bullets from the .50 Browning into the group of MPs, striking the one furthest away (although the moving jeep had brought Meister considerable closer). The shots reportedly cut the German in half, separating his torso from his legs. The same burst hit the last MP standing and took him down as well. Meister was alternately cackling with laughter, and yelling as he mowed down the enemy.

PVT Despaux kept up his fire with his .30 Cal Browning in the other jeep, and hit, and killed another of the dismounted Germans by the halftrack.

Karas concentrated on keeping the other Germans around the halftrack suppressed with his machine gun fire.

In the area of the square where this action took place, our six squad members led by Meister report seven of the 12 German there either killed or grievously wounded into unconsciousness, with the halftrack destroyed by the bazooka. PVT Mckee was the only one of ours Soldiers hit.

Our three vehicles successfully negotiated their way out of the square, through the grove, past a barn, and turned left (Southeast) towards the rendezvous point.

Crowenshield and I heard all the gunfire and explosions while we were en-route to the rendezvous point, but as we got closer, Crowenshield spotted two German motorcycles with sidecar mounted belt- fed machine guns. These two motorcycles, and the four Germans manning them had established a roadblock position right near our rendezvous point. Fortunately for us, and the rest of the squad, we saw them before they saw us.

Crowenshield and I (SGT Lewis) dropped prone. I instructed him that we would crawl up to within 75 yards, and open fire on them with our M1 rifles. I told him that he should take the Germans manning the motorcycle closest to us, while I took those a little further away. I also advised him to shoot the German manning the MG-34 on the sidecar first, and then the other second. I followed the same priority shooting at my targets. I could still feel the pain from my recent wound from getting hit at the airstrip just a day ago.

Crowenshield and I fired together, and effectively. Our first shots hit our targets, but did not kill them at once. The Germans returned fire with one burst from one MG-34, and another burst from an MP-40. Our second and third volleys succeeded in killing or wounding into unconsciousness all four. My final volley peppered the sidecar of my target pretty well.

Once the Germans were down, Crowenshield was up and running for their position, even as Meister and the rest of the squad approached with their three vehicles. I was sure glad to see them, and to see all the rest of the squad accounted for. My joy was short lived, because when I got a close look at Mckee, I saw he had been hit pretty badly.

As our three vehicles pulled up, I knew the Germans left in the town would need a few minutes to get organized and gather courage before they would be coming after us. I had Meister, Karas, and Despaux manning the three machine guns. Gus (manning the .50) and Despaux covered the approach from the town, and Karas down the road to the South, where the German convoys were coming from.

Crowenshield and Dubois, together with Greeley were doing something with the German motorcycles. Crowenshield managed to start the one that I had not been shooting at, while Greeley and Dubois were using tripwire, twine, and lengths of rope we had with us to rig the other cycle behind one of vehicle so we could tow it along. Dubois seemed excited with the idea of tinkering with the motorcycles, and I realized that Crowenshield knew how to operate one.

I applied first aid to McKee’s wounds using the Squads aid bag that McKee had in the vehicle with him. I didn’t want to stick around too long. We were too exposed. We had just about got the motorcycle rigged to tow when there was a noise from the town and I could see another German sidecar mounted motorcycle headed our way. Meister and Despaux each fired a burst with their machine guns at it, and it came no closer.

We got out of there, heading South down the road, stopping just long enough to retrieve the OE-292 antennae from its hiding place on the hill. - It would be dark in about two hours, and we needed to find a relatively safe place for the night.