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.