LeMans ... Ballon ... Alencon

Advancing again behind the speedy armor, the Battery swept through LeMans, a city of about 75,000 population famous for its auto races.

Cheering crowds lined the narrow streets, throwing flowers and fruit and blowing kisses to the GI's on the passing halftracks. At the same time, German snipers were still firing into the streets from buildings and treetops and the chatter of American machine guns answered back.

Outside LeMans, more snipers. The Battery sent out a small task force to check suspected positions, and gunner Vincent Smith was slightly injured when his 37mm gun blew up while firing at a house where snipers were still holding out.

From LeMans, we swung north along with the Long Tom artillery through Ballon and Bourg le Roi to Alencon on August 14. It was during this drive that we came face to face (or perhaps nose to nose) with General Patton. I was driving the Captain’s jeep and had just entered the oncoming traffic lane to pass some artillery guns when I spotted a jeep speeding toward us. It did not take more than a glance to know whose jeep it was! It was clean and gleaming, and bolted to its front bumper were three large red plaques bearing gold stars - the symbol of a three-star lieutenant general.

General Patton was in the passenger seat, waving vigorously for us to get the hell out of his way. I immediately drove into the ditch and we all saluted vigorously as he whizzed past.

It had been just two weeks since the breakout at Avranches and the allied forces now had almost the entire German Seventh Army surrounded in what came to be known as the Falaise Pocket. There was only a small gap between the Third Army on the south and the First Army on the north. The Germans were abandoning much of their equipment in the pocket and scurrying out on foot through the 15-mile gap that was still open. The 155mm Long Toms of the 731st Artillery went into action there bombarding the fleeing German columns up to 15 miles away.

Our halftracks were deployed a few hundred yards in front of the big guns and the noise was deafening, day and night. It was not just the “boom” of the big guns that bothered us but the whine of spinning brass safety rings that flew off the shells right after they left the muzzles of the guns. (The shells were disarmed by these rings for normal handling but were armed and ready to explode after the rings flew off.)

On August 13, Patton was directed not to let his troops advance further into the pocket but to wait for the British, Canadians and Polish troops to close the gap from the north. When the gap was finally closed on August 19, the German losses are said to have reached 240,000 killed or wounded, 210,000 taken prisoner, 3,500 guns, 1,500 tanks and a large number of vehicles of all types. It was a crushing defeat. However, by that time, we were long gone from the Falaise Pocket. We had been detached from the Long Toms and reassigned to the 961st Field Artillery Battalion. This unit was armed with 155mm howitzers, which were shorter range and much more mobile than the Long Toms, which was an advantage as we headed east.

We left the Falaise gap at dusk on a grueling all-night convoy (without lights) over dusty, almost impassable roads and stopped at dawn in a large wheat field northwest of Chartres. Most of us could hardly see because our eyes were streaming tears and caked with a thick layer of dust. Under combat conditions, no windshields are in place on the vehicles so the dust cloud kicked up by the vehicle ahead of you comes right back in your face.

While the medics were going down our column passing out ointments to treat our eyes, there was a sudden roar and a German ME-109 came over a line of trees to the east of us. He wasn’t strafing or dropping bombs - he was just taking off from an airport there. As the unsuspecting pilot roared toward us, a couple of gunners leaped into action and shot him down as he passed over our road. Later another ME-109 and an FW190 took off and were promptly shot down. One pilot was captured alive. It seems that because of our speedy overnight advance, the Germans had no idea where we were and were sending up reconnaissance planes to look for us. None of them had a chance to report back what they had seen

In the same area the next day the Battery was strafed at 0930 and 1700 without casualties and shot down another FW-190.