45 Colt pistol, and fired a few rounds as a panzer lumbered toward him. The panzers turned toward Johnson, and less than 100 yards away a brave but foolhardy lieutenant stood up, aimed his. The panzer crews machine-gunned the Americans and deliberately spun their machines atop foxholes until the man beneath was little more than a red stain in the parched earth. He wanted it deep enough to protect him from the powerful panzers firing their heavy shells into American machine-gun positions, trucks, and jeeps. The veteran of the fighting in North Africa clawed feverishly at the terrain, determined to dig a foxhole that would protect his six-foot two-inch frame from the oncoming Tiger tanks. He barked orders to his 1st Infantry Division men to quickly dig into the rock-hard, sun-baked Sicilian soil. Army must have offloaded the tanks early on July 10, 1943.īut then it hit him. As he glanced down a big valley to the north, Johnson spotted tanks moving in a tight pattern some 2,000 yards away, their pennants flapping colorfully in the wind. Sergeant Alfred Johnson peered from behind a boulder on a rock-strewn hillside at Piano Lupo about six miles inland from the southern coast of Sicily.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |