one year, 312th drs, 41st adg, 15th af - part 02 north africa

8/14/2019 One Year, 312th DRS, 41st ADG, 15th AF - Part 02 North Africa

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P A R T \ N O

A("loQ, Well, we disembarked from the Santa Elena at Bizerte; it .was almostdark when the first of our bunch came off, and fully dark when the lastnran threw his barracks bags on the pile and fell into line. Right then westarted our,DS system, or while most of the outfit went out'to'thebivouac

area,'i group stayed with the boat. Thus our memories of Bizerte start di-verging, right there. Gues.sour biggest memory of that town was LaborD^y night - we all were quickly converted to the idea that a foxhole thatnight was better than two or three next rnorning. We were very lucky,aqd whether.wg had sweated t out in a fox hole, ar a shelter n .town (thatIh" Arabs usecl4s a latrine by day) it surewas good to see hat sun the nextd?y., None,,gfus were sorqr to say goodbye t'o that town; both becauseofour rather noisy welcome and the f.act',that contrar;r to "the ,song, therewasn't a Gertie in sight. The ride down to Tunis wasn't too bad; the heatand dust werent good by any means, but the trip was made interesting bysights along the road - a German tank still lying in its half - wrecked con-dition on the crest,of a hill one of their planes almostcompletelyburned,standing in a field, and other signs that showed what Hell had been raisedin that district, a short time before. We came through Tunis pretty fast,but not so fast, that we didn' t spot the local 'oCopper City " , and a few" Mademoiselles that might or might not duplicate their predecessors tArmentiers. Time would tell how about it brother what did it tell invour case?

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That first"night"at El Aouina, the base that was'to bg"our :Jt ofn@ w4f ,,home " for three months, was pretty confused -, w were ptetty' wetrt"i,i"to cold C rations by that tirne and '.the' nrost ,a11of us wanted,r,in/asi;,,'.:anyway. Italy had $urrendered hat d^y aa ,,that news,was rr.-ostvrelco'me.;rom the next morning on till the d^y we pulled out, we' were pretty'; so events written here 'may not follow ifr chronological orrder),-.

We put up ,those wo -,ma11 ents next, d^y and ,sweated (and that isnt literdlyl a, few days before starting our ,iobs. Mfe'd ,come:quite away to do those jobs, and each fellow' s individual,,memory , of i thetnserve as testimony to their being worth while. Along about this timebegan to wonder if we' d ever get an answer to those first letters wewritten. George Laidley was so harrassed y questions on that score hatrbegan' o seriously consi'derhaving a sign. made saying, ,!No --ylotryet!"Wasalsci about this time that those thrice ,blessed.evening, 'sw,ims;cameo being. Renrember how cool and green ,,the' llediterranea:il iwas :,afterB',, inthat sun all day?

Things went along tl-ratway for a couple of weeks, then one duy Turnersomething that was to shake the base to its very foundations, andall its resources o the test. He made a platform for his tent and addedfuw improvements here and there. Frorn that dafu on ,we all. beca,mesca-.ers of the first order and by hook or crook ,moved a greater:,,parrt,,,ofbase nto our ,lot to construct what was to be known as t' Shantytown .,,rniraclesbegan to appear edifices ike " Copper City " - that :streetcaf,.,-to top it all, four sixman tents appeared(apparendl, unaided) right .,inrniddle of our area.Slight of hand tricks that would have amazedHou-ni made that area ook nlore, each day, like a scene out of " Skippy "e days were. illed with a lot of new experiences, ome pleasant someWe visited the surrouRding towns - were amazedt.at the- miraclc ofi.+,ream and ,lemonadeserved by Dot, and Gwen at fhe Red,Cross -,wsre . -er amazed, y',the potency. of " vino " . There $rere. other .visits toq;i:ied and undignified ones to that. itt le tent outsi.Je,he'area'rlt all ,krours.;;*the l"y and night., Remember those flies ,-- those adhesiveli strictly,,good.,..nothing.,-' damn flies ? And, remember l' Atabrine ", and salt- pills;;,those

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were really " surprise packages . The ball team started its campaign whichwas,to end only when they were presented rophies attesting to its cham-pionship in that area.Those evenings were pretty nice along about thattime - the general trend being either a movie at the base " open- air "theatre or just stretching out on one of those beach chairs on the RedCross balcony and enjoying the cool evening breeze.We were pretty luckyin the way of entertainmentat El Aouina. BesidesGt shows, we had visitsby Jack fi.troy, Frederic March, ancl Adolph Menjou, Remember he Sultans'favorite Dancer oh brother, hor,v could you forget her ? She played thebase twice and is probably still wonderiug what " oh my back " means.According to her MC she knew what " Take it off " meant but she " playeddumb r' ! Or did she?

Well we finally got set up in the six man tents all eight of us, andtlre o'construction and improvement" movement began again. This timegreat ingenuity was shown in the procurement ancl set- up of stoves, as ithad begun to get chilly around ttre edges. Double deck beds were set upnot made according to TO' s, but durable. Thc area had its " face lifted "electricity installed in the tents and at last we had arrived in the upperstatus of the " Tent Dr,vellersSociety."

It was during the beginning of the cold weather hat an accidentoccuredwhich cost the lives of two fine men. The deaths of Lt. Price and FIOWilliams made each one of us consciousof a great personal oss. It will behard indeed for either the Officers or Enlisted Men to ever forget two ofihe most popular men in the squadron.

, Among the memories that should also fall into that period, were thos,esetting- up exercieswe did in the dark mornings followed by that goshawfulrush to the mess hall more or less tunefully accompaniedby the racket ofthose,mess kits. Packagesbegan to arrive and greedy looks appeared onthe laces of their owners when they spied one that looked as it .containedcandy, cookies or cake. We kind of felt tbe increasing coldness those


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and when we got .letters rom the folks at 'home consoling ue abouthe 'i terrif ic heat over there l? a few tops were blown. , ,.t.

Thanksgiving arrived ancl was celebrated y a really swell turkey dinnerthough the team had lost its touch - football game, everyonedrank their .rito and worriecl about nothing. " Things 6ack homs hadchanged according to the letters that were arriving, anniverseries,births,and brush - offs had their effect on the local wine consumption. Thereas a rather subtle change in attitude, around that time. We felt we wereto ask " newcomers instead of being asked ourselves- " Howsthe States, hese days? " You met a fellow " just over " in the'RedTunis and you bored him stiff with all sorts off fool questions.of Tunis - remernber that ricle on the " Tunisville Trolley " to Laand back ? The poor conductor was everyone's enem)r and waspaid his fare to the tune of depreciating shouts from Arabs andAll of us were pretty well acquaintedwith Tunis by then -" found a few spots where real " old fashioned eggs and a slice of cowwe hoped) could be had for a price. We more or less got used to theHey Joe bon bon, cigarette,chew gum " routine of its citizens from fiveand conversly ltr nzitive females, more or less, got used to theand rnangieclFrench that we used. Trre more high - brow memberssrnelly and " hysterical pilgrirnages o the Kasbah and Carthage.

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History was in the nrakirrgwhen escortedplar:es arrived at our basePresident Roosevelt,PM Churchill, Foreign SecretaryV. Molotovothers. In the days that followed, we were to learnthe reason or the nowTeheran Conference.The rumors sure flew thick and fast at thehougli, before we did learn the real reason

As the cold weather continued Coen finally gave up the ghost ando run loose n his shorts At no tirne however did Felkerand Vincenttheir fiendish howls' which were the envy of the animal kingdom,ut a bore to most of us who didn' t care much for sound effects from aBurgessstor|, especially n the middle of the night.

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Then rumor after lumor came true so r,vitha scrirrnble, ferv grunts,and a shove, the outfit pullecl out of El Aouina oh Decerrbergth. Runningtrue to form we ran into rain in Bizerte, bu.t managed those six mantents pretty well. lt was still raining the d^y we piled onto the trucks androde across or,vn o the clocksand thence onto lancling barges. The sunwas shining the next morning rvhen we started or italy.

So after three months in No Africa (ahnost o the d^y) we left. Duringthat time there, we'd gained invarluable xperience s a unit and hoped hatour humble efforts there had contributed in some manner to the taking ofterritory for which we were sailing. Even as we left the docks at Bizerte,not too many were thinking of, or renrembering North-Africa we werethinking and wondering about what l^y ahead, North Africa was from thenon a memory, and it is to recall a few of its highlights that this article iswritten. Each man can add a volume of his own !']Dalte, lDaodwortb

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one year, 312th drs, 41st adg, 15th af - part 02 north africa

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