Issue 26.13
My friend Ralph was an anti tank battalion officer and many times we exchanged World War Two experiences. His American anti tank outfit always had more equipment than the Germans did but the Germans always had more armor and bigger guns.
The American medium tanks were no match for the German’s heavier tanks when firing front to front, but our side developed tactics to enable them to more than hold their own. The first months in North Africa did not go well for the Americans but they had to learn. The Americans found out that the heavy German tanks could not turn their main 88 mm cannon to the rear one hundred and eighty degrees. They could only point it to the front one hundred and eighty degrees. The American tanks were much lighter and much faster. The tactic of our tanks and anti tank guns crews was to move fast in an encircling movement and come up behind the heavier German tanks. The American’s cannon could not penetrate the Germans front armor but from the rear they could knock the treads off and immobilize the Germans.
The rear of the German’s tanks were not as heavily armored as the front so a well aimed shot could kill the occupants. Ralph said after a battle there were always much abandoned and destroyed equipment scattered around. All German officers carried an automatic luger side arm which was very much prized by the Americans. Ralph was privileged to find two of these pieces. It was not good for him to have these in his possession for too long a time. He befriended an American sailor who was a crewman on a destroyer. Ralph gave the sailor the two pieces with his home address. The plan was for the sailor to keep one and deliver the other to Ralph’s home in Idaho.
After the hard fighting of the African campaign, and the fighting in Italy the time came when the victorious Americans came to Rome: They did not have to fight their way or destroy the city because Rome was an open city and was not defended by either side.
A huge victory parade took place with many battalions taking part to impress the civilian population. The Rome population went wild to see us and to cheer us. It seemed that many more females than males stood and watched. There was no doubt that even though Germany and Italy were allies, the civilians felt that the Germans were more occupiers than allies. Even though there was much visual evidence that food was scarce, there seemed to be no shortage of wine that day. As we marched, we could not share their generosity but when we stopped, we took full advantage of the exuberance of the day. After the march through the city, several of my buddies and I made our way to St. Peters Square where the real welcoming was going on. We found ourselves near the beautiful little landing that overlooks the square. At first we didn’t realize what was happening but the Pope stepped out and after the wildly cheering crowd fell silent, the Pope made his historic welcoming speech.
Rome was an open city and the Germans respected that and vacated the city without the Allies having to demolish their way into the city. The respite from the realities of war ended all too soon and then it was the same old grind of having to fight for every foot of ground we advanced.
Sam Wyrouck can be contacted at 801-707-2666.