1944-09-08

IDAY. SEPTEMBER 8, 1944 THE SOUTH AMBOY CITIZEN PAGE ELEVEN
Ernie Pyfe at the Front
[rapped 8 Days in Plane,
[ce Lives and Grins S-
Courageous Allies See War at
Its Worst and Carry On > .
"mat's all I remember for a
he told us. "When I came
to, they were shelling all around
me."
• • •
Thus begnn the eight days. He
had crashed right between the Germans
and Americans in a sort of
pastoral no-man's-land.
For days afterwards the field In
which he lay surged back and forth
between German hands and ours.
His posture was pocked with hundreds
of shell craters. Many of them
were only yards away. One was
By Ernie Pylo
right at the end of his wing. The
metal sides oi «he plane were
|ON THE WESTERN FRONT.-When you're wandering speckled with hundreds of shrapnel
nd our very far-flung front"lines—the lines that in our holes.
wit rapid war are known as "fluid"—you can always tell He lay there, trapped In the midst
recently the battle has swept on ahead of you.
of this inferno of explosions. Tbe
[ You can sense it from the little things even more than the fields around him gradually became
kthings —
littered with dead. At last American
strength pushed the Germans
[From the scattered green leaves and the fresh branches back, and silence came. But no
es still lying In the middle of the road. . . help. Because, you see. It was
the wisps and colls of tele- ,-T- >•- -••*- '• V hi that vacuum behind the battle,
wire, hanging brokenly from | We tin ran to the wrecked British and only a few people were left
potos aad eatwtoing across plane, lying there upside down.'and
[reads. .
dropped on our hands and knees
- ¥ — - r - •"••'
the gray, auraed powder and peeked through a tiny hole fit
I of the shell craters in the grav- the side.
;r -~-. - •.-:. Vint aWyooet , :-V*^
el roads, their A man la; en his back In the The bayonet was used first as a
small space of the upside-down
temporary measure, when a Basque
amoothed by the cockpit His feet disappeared some-
regiment made a last-ditch stand on
B mountain ridge near Bayonne in
where in the jumble of dials and
tory traffic.
France.
rubber pedals above him. Bis
Tteja the Mttto shirt was open and his cheat was
When their ammunition was exhausted,
the Basques wedged long
bare to the waist Be was smoking
oa the roadside.
knives into the barrels of their mus-
a cigaret , „.•«•••
that
kets and charged. At the fearful
FoUowina* close on the heels of her outstaadiac aerfonaanoe la
only begun to He turned his eyes toward me spectacle of cold steel, tbe enemies "A pay Nasaed Joe.^rene Dunn* Is seen next Thursday, Friday aa4
conceal and turn when I peeked in, and he said in ran sway.
Saturday at the Empire theatre. Her newest asslfnment is by far
aftaefc. and the a typical British manner of oflhand The new weapon was subsequent- her best to date and you wtU agree she is a capital artist when you
punctured steel friendliness. "Oh. hello."
ly manufactured at Bayonne, and
4
see the picture. Alan Marshall plays opposite her anal a Betake*
hetanets nearby, "Are you sU right?" I asked, was soon adopted by other Euro-
the square Mocks of buOdpean
armies.
•f performers rounds ou the Impressive cast. ?
stooe ttiU scattered la the vflstreeto.
and Iron the sharprocks
in the roads, still unby
traffic
the sjsmeeVeat teaks and
carts sull unremoved from
road. From the cows In the
lying g**taaawatr with their
to the sky. so stewiy dead they
not begun to Moat or smelL
the scattered heaps of per*
debris around a gun. I doat
why it is. but the Oermaas
it seem to take off their coats
they flee or is*.
all these
Ithatthebetfea
these and from the
| recently that they te be
battles ate
But sa thai
• battle
lete
as asasv Taaa. eseae snve saw
amateur who wanders to thai
at the rear of a battle has
is dead—the men, the ma-
Ml aBve.
afleraoea we
lato a country M
rural villages at
at the
i et courage in Ma
as our
stupidly.
He answered. "Yes. quite. Now
that you chaps are here."
I asked him how long he had bean
trapped in the wiecked plan*. He
said he dktot knew tor sure as be
had got mixed up about the pas*
sage of time. But be did know the
date of the month he was shot down.
He told me the data. And I said out
loud. "Good Godl"
His space was so small be couldn't
squirm arouud to relieve hl« own
weight from his paining back. He
couldn't straighten out his legs,
which were bent above him. He
couldn't see oat of his little prison.
He had not had a bite to eat or a
drop et water. All this for eight
days and nights.
Yet when we found him his physical
condition was strong, and his
mind was as calm and rational as
though he were sitting in a London
club. He was- hi agony, yet in his
correct Oxford accent he even
apologized for taking up our time
to get him out
The American soldiers of our rescue
party eassed as they erased,
cussed with open admiration for
this British filer's greatness of heart
which had kept him alive and sane
through his lonely and gradually
nope-dimming ordeaL
One of them aald. "Ood, bat these
Limies have got guts I" i
• • •
It took us almost sn hour to get
him out. We don't know whether he
I will Mve or aat, bat he has a chance,
i at Daring the bear we were ripping g the
«s^**w • "PaTJHaW Vj^VaT w Wtmm9 • HfJf hole, he talked
to us. As4 here, la the best suitahell
I caa aeitee from fee eeevorastloa
quest
ea Ms Ugato to try a
laaitog. Thea they realty swwrea
a* ea aaa. Tee seeoaa aK pat
fetal to tbe lac- *** a IMra betel
atag every eae at ttssa to Me
***e/t kes «*•**#•. atf tbe
fjata* » bet* a** «Jf frfclM is***
•saaal oa a attain etoee We eouai
aaawaa ssaaA aVeaa^akHa» ii L f c J Aaaf aaaa> a«laawaMi
OTW "aaaj a^«^BBww/wj pa; Bjaaaa aawja| BBBT a»«BBBBai
M yaris. Tan it flapped, tall eve*
ajata, auto Its back. Tee pile* was
&n $ your psrsoffof rears*
MnfoMve of ffte fefapfcone
company — (he girl in fne
Bwiincst Office.
RATHER SAY
We don't like to tell pexipfe that thejH have to wait to get a
home Uhphone. We'd much rathrr »mj "ye** to requests for
aarvioa. That's tbe way it sjarH to be.
Bnt the nerd* of war have first claim on available telephone
arptJntnrnt and on t