Throughout July, top physical condition was attained through speed and night marches. The final rehearsal for the landing operation—as close a replica as possible of the projected Operation Anvil on southern France’s beaches—was held at the end of July. The men were in high spirits. Especially when they heard about the near-assassination of Hilter in the famous Berlin bomb plot. This resulted in great elation in Phils 30th Infantry Regiment.[1,2]

The final rehearsal for the upcoming landing operation was conducted toward the end of July in a training area that had been directly behind the German lines during the previous winter’s campaign. German engineers had mined everything so completely that it was one of the most fortified areas in all of Italy.

The major headache of clearing the beaches and shoreline of the dreaded anti-personnel S-mines[3]—nicknamed “Bouncing Betties” by the GIs—fell to the 10th Engineer Combat Battalion.

The nasty mines were planted beneath the ground in metal containers that held hundreds of steel balls and shrapnel pieces. When triggered, they launched about three feet into the air and then detonated, projecting a maiming spray of red-hot metal in all directions.

The intention was to mutilate soldiers rather than kill them. In particular, legs and genitalia were the most vulnerable—the latter being the wound that terrified the soldiers the most.

Phil told his men with great emphasis not to take even one step outside of the taped-off area that had been combed for mines by the engineers. Like most of his fellow soldiers, he took that instruction to heart. Some did not, however.

One morning, Phil and his men were following another platoon up a taped-off trail toward a railroad. As the men turned onto the tracks, their fresh-faced, brand-new-to-the-field 2nd lieutenant yelled at the top of his voice, “Get the hell off the damn railroad tracks! You wouldn’t do that in combat!”

Before Phil could react, the men reluctantly did as instructed. The lead man immediately stepped on a mine.

He was blown to bits with parts of his body sticking to the men behind him.

Phil sprinted to the spot of the blast, where he found the soldier—barely alive on the side of a still-smoldering hole about four feet across.

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW

[1] Prohme, 203-204.

[2] Champagne, 118.

[3] The S-mine (Schrapnellmine, Springmine, or Splittermine in German) was also called an “invention of the devil” by American soldiers.

[4] Larimore, At First Light, 116.

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