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THIRD OF YANKEES WITH MODERATE WOUNDS CUSS TO GET BACK IN FIGHT
By ERNIE PYLE

SOMEWHERE IN SICILY, August, 1943. - It was flabbergasting to lie among a tentfull of wounded soldiers recently and hear them cuss and beg to be sent right back into the fight.

Of course not all of them do. It depends on the severity of their wounds, and on their individual personalities, just as it would in peace time. But I will say that at least a third of the moderately wounded men ask if they can't be returned to duty immediately.

When I took sick I was with the 45th Division, made up largely of men from Oklahoma and West Texas. You don't realize how different certain parts of our country are from others until you see their men set off in a frame, as it were, in some strange faraway place like this.

The men of Oklahoma are drawling and soft-spoken. They are not smart-alecks. Something of the purity of the soil seems to be in them. Even their cussing is simpler and more profound than the torrential obscenities of eastern city men. An Oklahoman of the plains is straight and direct. He is slow to criticize and hard to anger, but once he is convinced of the wrong of something, brother, watch out.

These wounded men of Oklahoma have got madder about the war than anybody I have seen on this side of the ocean. They weren't so mad before they got into action, but now to them the Germans across the hill are all so-and-so's.

And these quiet men of the 45th, the newest division over here, have already fought so well they have drawn the high praise of the commanding general of the corps of which the division is a part.

FORWARD MANNER TYPES HIM AS JERSEYITE

It was these men from the farms, ranches, and small towns of Oklahoma who poured through my tent with their wounds. I lay there and listened for what each one would say first.

One fellow, seeing a friend, called out, "I think I'm gonna make her." Meaning that he was going to pull through.

Another said, "Have they got beds in the hospital? Lord, how I want to go to bed."

Another said, "I'm hungry, but I can't eat anything. I keep getting sick at my stomach."

Another said, as he winced from their probing for a deeply buried piece of shrapnel in his leg, "Go ahead, you're the doc. I can stand it."

Another said, "I’ll havee to write the old lady tonight and tell her she missed out on the $10,000 again."

Another, who was put down beside me, said, "Hi, Pop, how are you getting along? I call you Pop because you're grey-haired. You don’t mind, do you?"

I told him I didn’t care what he called me. He was friendly, but you could tell from his forward attitude that he was not from Oklahoma. It turned out he was from New Jersey.

One big blonde Oklahoman had slight flesh wounds in the face and the back of his neck. He had a patch on his upper lip which prevented his moving it, and made him talk in a grave, straight-faced manner that was comical. I've never seen anybody so mad in my life. He went from one doctor to another trying to get somebody to sign his card returning him to duty.

HOSPITAL INCIDENTS HAUNTS HIM FOR HOURS

The doctors explained patiently that if he returned to the front his wounds would get infected and he would be a burden on his company. They tried to entice him by telling him there would be nurses back in the hospital. But he said, "To hell with the nurses, I want to get back to fightin'."

Dying men were brought into our tent, men whose death rattle silenced the conversation and made all the rest of us grave.

When a man was almost gone the surgeons would put a piece of gauze over his face. He could breathe through it but we couldn't see his face well.

Twice within five minutes chaplains came running. One of these occasions haunted me for hours.

The man was still semi-conscious. The chaplain knelt down beside him and two ward boys squatted alongside.

The chaplain said, "John. I am going to say a prayer for you." Somehow this stark announcement hit me like a hammer. He didn't say, "I’m going to pray for you to get well," he just said he was going to say a prayer, and it was obvious he meant the final prayer. It was as though he had said, "Brother. you may not know it, but your goose is cooked." He said a short prayer, and the weak, gasping man tried in vain to repeat the words after him. When he had finished, the chaplain said, "John, you're doing fine, you're doing fine." Then he rose and dashed off on other business, and the ward boys went about their duties.

The dying man was left utterly alone, just lying there on his litter on the ground, lying in an aisle, because the tent was full. Of course it couldn't be otherwise, but the awful aloneness of that man as he went through the last few minutes of his life was what tormented me. I felt like going over and at least holding his hand while he died, but it would have been out of order and I didn't do it. I wish now I had.

22 Days Of Hard Fighting

45th Division Patch - Army

The 45th division was relieved by the 3rd Division on the last day of July, after 22 days of hard and constant fighting. Then Came a brief breathing spell for rest and rehabilitation, repair and cleaning of the guns and vehicles and equipment. The Division would reorganize and receive replacements of its weapons and material in an assembly area near the city of Cefalu.

The caliber and courage of the Division's fighting men were proved again and again in these 22 days. For example, there was the case of Lieutenant Robert Burns. Lieutenant Burns had a leg broken and severely lacerated by an anti-personnel mine in the fields outside San Stefano. Despite the severity of his injury he lay by the side of the road and continued to direct his platoon until they had completed their mission and reached the objective. Then he refused medical assistance until the other wounded men in his party were evacuated.

There was Cpl. Lloyd Logie. He suffered a severe gash in the neck torn by a piece of flying fragment from a mine. He found the pressure point upon the vein and held it to stop his own bleeding, coolly directing the first aid treatment of other men before he himself received assistance. Pfc. Robert Hamm, lying under a tree mortally wounded by a mine explosion, insisted with almost his last breath that his two canteens of water be saved for less severely wounded men. Whether in the fighting lines or making their way through minefields, the men of the 45th fought with unquenchable fortitude and personal gallantry.

Taken as a whole, these 22 days of fighting were devoted largely to rapid marches and movement against a force fighting a rear guard action, with "The Ridge" near Motta as the one determined effort to throw back the Americans. When this effort failed under the combined attack of artillery and infantry, the enemy went reeling back, with no determined stands, toward Messina and ultimate defeat in Sicily.

During this phase of the fighting 11,266 prisoners were taken by the 45th Division alone. Tremendous stores of arms, acres of ammunition and materiel were seized. The number of small arms and ammunition captured was so great that no accurate computation is available. Reports at the end of the campaign listed 167 pieces of artillery and anti-aircraft guns, 67, tanks, more than 200 trucks, and 162 airplanes of which some 40 were still operational.

Even with the enemy attempting to burn and destroy his installations, more than a half-million gallons of gasoline and allied products were captured, 433 new tires, gas and water tanks of a quarter million gallon capacity, 400 extra motors for planes, many locomotives and much rolling stock, and several hundred tons of quartermaster, engineering, and medical supplies.

The Division's losses in material and equipment were considered moderate in view of the amphibious landing and the difficult terrain over which long, strenuous, and exhausting marches were made. In the 22 days combat in Sicily, the 45th Division counted the following losses: 15 officers and 260 enlisted men killed in action; 31 officers and 542 enlisted men wounded in action; 2 officers and 139 enlisted men missing in action.

The medical men, armed only with drugs and healing medicines, accompanied the men who fought. Countless lives were saved by administration of First Aid under fire. Taking a typical case, S Sgt. Bill Fillman, attached to the 180th Infantry, remained with a group of men wounded in the Biscari area, attended to their needs, hid them from German patrols, and finally brought them all in safely, to rejoin their battalion. Corporal Caplau, attached to the 157th Infantry, remained alone to attend a group of severely wounded men in a minefield near San Stefano. His efficient work and courage was credited with saving several lives.

Capt. Peter Uraffagnino later administered First Aid to this group and directed their evacuation before the mines were removed. Many medical aid men were called upon to brave the treacherous minefields, as well as to give assistance under fire.

In the fighting south of Caltagirone on July 14, Sgt. Samuel P. Jenkins, Pfc. Ralph E. Brown and Pfc. Harvey H. Durr, attached to the 179th Infantry, performed an act of daring and gallantry under heavy enemy fire. Several men were wounded and the companies to which they were attached pinned down by fire.

The men were not only too seriously wounded to crawl out of danger, but were openly exposed to fire. With no regard for their personal safety, the three medical men left their comparatively protected positions, crawled forward at the height of the enemy attack, and treated the wounds of the men. Then they succeeded in evacuating some of the wounded under fire.

The Cavalry Reconnaissance Troops under the command Capt. Delton Flanders labored tirelessly in feeling out the enemy's dispositions. Theirs was the task of making advance reconnaissance of the roads over which the Division must advance, and much of the rapidity with which that advance was accomplished was due to their expert work. Naturally, they encountered some bizarre adventures. Lt. William Nolan and twelve men set out on the morning of July 13 on a mission to the town of Secili to contact Canadian troops who were presumed to be holding that town. Capturing four Italian soldiers about seven kilometers northwest of the town, they discovered by questioning them closely that there were two companies of enemy infantry and some 24 machine guns on two hills just one kilometer ahead.

Lieutenant Nolan decided to use persuasion first. He sent a message to the Italians to come out at once and surrender. The Italians promptly sent back one of their lieutenants who could speak some English. Lieutenant Nolan described what happened then as follows:

I told him we had many divisions of soldiers and artillery all around the area. I told him the artillery was getting ready to fire on the two hills unless the commanding officer of the Italian force surrendered himself and all his force.

Although the Canadians were not in Secili, and the nearest 45th Division troops were miles away somewhere west of Ragusa, Lieutenant Nolan carried out his bluff. Taking two of his own men, the Italian interpreter, and the captain. he advanced into the town with great assurance. There he told the same story to the Italian Colonel in charge of the defenses in the entire district. The colonel raved a bit, and pounded his desk emphatically, but Lieutenant Nolan remained outwardly unmoved, even indifferent. In the end, the colonel gave up and surrendered all his command, numbering several hundred men. Ten American paratroopers were released from the city jail where they had been imprisoned, to help take over the town. They were left in charge of the Italian prisoners while Lieutenant Nolan's party made contact with the Canadians northwest of Modica and informed them it was no longer necessary to shell the town - it had been captured.

Ammunition and kitchen truck drivers had ample opportunity to prove themselves under fire and past minefields. "Driving a truck through hell would be nothing to these boys," as one one man remarked. In the battle for Biscari, to take one case, the 2nd Bn. of the 180th Division was running low on ammunition. Sgt. Joe Smith and an unnamed private took their trucks and trailers through a hail of fire which riddled the vehicles, but got there with the new supplies. They continued to bring up ammunition until the operation was completed.

Special Services contributed to the well-being and morale of the 45th in Sicily in innumerable ways. Just three days after the Invasion began, "The 45th Division News" was published with material scraped together from local sources. Catering to the doughboy's insatiable appetite for news, the News was the first United States Army newspaper published in the European Invasion.

The work of engineer and signal corp was eulogized by all from high command points down to the individual gunner and truck driver, as they worked over fields and rock-bound hills, through littered streets and buildings that were little but pulverized masonry after the Germans had pulled out.

The work of the 120th Engineer Battalion under the command of Col. Louis G. Franse was notable. As General Patton put it, "The engineers performed prodigies in the construction and maintenance of impossible roads over impassable country." They paved the way for that phenomenal infantry advance by performing miracles of reconstruction on demolished roads and bridges and clearing miles of fiendish minefields. Their doggedness and sheer backbreaking work enabled artillery units to keep up with infantry units within supporting distance of the lead attacking elements. Often they had to put aside their tools and take up weapons to fight their way out of a "tight spot" or ambush.

On D-Day near Scoglitti, while the Invasion landings were taking place, infantry troops were fired on from a strongly fortified machine-gun position. Lt. Julian A. Yocum and Pfc. Lytton J. Ollie of the 120th Engineer Battalion crept to within 35 feet of the emplacement. With rifle fire and hand grenades, they killed two of the enemy manning the position, wounded five, and took nine prisoners, thereby wiping out the position and enabling the company to carry on the attack and reach their objective.

After the combat in Sicily had ceased, the work of the engineers continued. They removed thousands upon thousands of mines which the Germans had sewn throughout the 45th Division sector. Bridges had to be built across the dry Sicilian stream beds before the rainy season set in, as the Germans had demolished every bridge and pass.

Leo V. Bishop, Lieutenant Colonel (compiler) et.al. 45th Infantry Division. The Fighting Forty-Fifth the Combat Report of an Infantry Division. Army & Navy Publishing., 1946.

Following World War I, the National Defense Act of 1920 created the authority to form the 45th Infantry Division from the four states of Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. The division was organized in 1923, and Oklahoma members camped together for the first time at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1924.

In the period pre-dating World War II, the division was called upon to maintain order in times of disasters and keep peace during periods of political unrest. Governor John C. Walton used the Guard to prevent the Legislature from meeting when they were preparing to impeach him in 1923. Governor William H. Murray’s calls to duty included the enforcement of closing of banks and keeping open a free bridge on the Red River, in spite of a federal court order that it not be opened.

In September of 1940 the division was ordered into federal service for one year to engage in a training program. The division’s time in federal service began at Ft. Sill, and at the end of the first year they had participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers. By the end of the year the world situation had worsened, and the Thunderbirds continued their training and prepared for war.

The Thunderbirds trained at Fort Sill, OK; Camp Barkeley, TX; Fort Devens, MA; Pine Camp, NY; and Camp Pickett, VA. They had trained hard for their part in World War II, and on July 10, 1943 the division participated in their first of four amphibious landings. In all the division served 511 days in combat; fighting their way across Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. The National Guard Division of the southwest became highly regarded by both regular army forces and the enemy for their valiant efforts and fighting abilities.

The 45th Infantry Division served with General George S. Patton’s U.S. 7th Army during the Sicilian campaign, and when the fighting was done, the commander had this to say about the division, "Your division is one of the best, if not the best division in the history of American arms.”

The 45th Infantry Division Museum is located at: 2145 N.E. 36th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73111, The Museum is just East of Marting Luther King Avenue on N.E. 36th street, South of Remington Park, Omniplex, and the Oklahoma City Zoo.

The Rock Of Anzio: From Sicily to Dachau: A History of the 45th Infantry Division Anzio was one of the greatest battles of World War II--a desperate gamble to land a large amphibious force behind German lines in Italy in the hope that the war could be shortened by capturing Rome. It also turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. military history. Based on extensive research into archives, photos, letters, diaries, previously classified official records, and scores of personal interviews with surviving veterans of the 45th, The Rock of Anzio is written with an immediacy that puts the reader right onto the battlefield and shows us war through the eyes of ordinary men called upon to perform extraordinary deeds.

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