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Over the years, I've collected information about the 54th
FA from the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I've forwarded
some of that to both the 3AD.com website and to our University
of Illinois Archives. One of the most interesting portions were
the Day Reports about "Hogan's 400." Battery C of the
54th, commanded by Captain Billy Watson, who died about two years
ago in Hawaii [about 2007], supplied the artillery support for
Hogan's Task Force. It was that TF that performed an amazing
feat -- cut off and surrounded, out of ammo and essentials, getting
out on foot through almost 20 miles of enemy territory, and without
losing a man in the process.
Through a happenstance of geography, I, apparently, was the
only radio operator in contact with the Task Force at a critical
time. My half-track was located on top of one of the highest
hills in the area and I could contact C Battery's B.C. with my
AM CW (Morse Code) transmitter, but not with my voice- only unit.
I was busy doing what radio operators do, when a peep [jeep]
came tearing into the area and slid to a stop next to my vehicle.
Colonel John Smith, Gen.Rose's Chief of Staff, charged over,
accompanied by his aide, a Major. I confirmed I could reach Hogan's
unit and he ordered me to do so.
The state of the art of secure long-range radio transmission
in those days was rudimentary by the standards of even 30 years
ago - no "micro-bursts," and no automatic recording
devices. It was agonizingly slow, even when topflight operators
were involved - and I had a "radio operator, high speed"
MOS number. The Col. said he wanted the messages enciphered,
which meant I had to run the text through a small encrypting
machine, which I had, one letter at a time, then transmit it
in Morse Code. The receiving operator then ran the garbled message,
one letter at a time, through his cipher machine. The exchange
of even a short message could take 30 minutes or longer. The
Major kept urging me "Hurry up, hurry up!" and I kept
waving him off until the Col. finally told the Major to "Let
the man do his job!"
I no longer recall the exact wording of the exchange of messages,
but it related to an assessment of the condition of the Task
Force and possible actions. Our message books made carbon copies
of all messages. The original went to the recipient named in
the message; the yellow carbon copy stayed in the book - but
when he left - the Col. also demanded the carbon copies! Only
time in the war that ever happened. I lost some great souvenirs
there.
The text of the original document, according to the National
Archives, was, in places, almost indecipherable, so, for 3AD.com
and Illinois Archives purposes, I have retyped the copy they
sent. Wherever the text was illegible, I left question marks
or blanks.
That National Archives information included a piece about
the 54th's B Battery's encounter with the Kraut train loaded
with Mk.VI tanks. That incident illustrates, I think, how many
short, vicious battles are overlooked and unknown to the average
historian. The whole thing was over in less than 20 minutes.
My vehicle was tagging along at the end of the column; we could
hear the cannon fire but couldn't see the action; and we were
not ordered forward. The train and cargo of tanks was still burning
when we passed the area.
A 3 Sep 1944 excerpt from 54th records relates to an action
that occurred just south of Mons, Belgium, when my battery, Service
Battery, tangled with about 300 Kraut paratroopers in a sugar
beet field. About 60 of us were trying to hold a ridge in the
field, but we were heavily outnumbered and running low on ammo.
My B.C., Capt. Robuck, ordered me to get the Fire Direction Center
on the radio, a monumental task because I had to re-configure
it from CW (Morse Code) to voice transmission. But I was the
guy who called in the fire mission. The records indicate the
results of our artillery: we killed almost 100 of the enemy and
captured 145 prisoners.
Because my battery had been cut off from the rest of the Bn.,
the gun batteries were almost 6 miles ahead of us. The FDC had
to turn B Btry 180 degrees to get on the target. We asked for
a concentration on an area 500 yards from our position. They
fired 110 rounds in 2 minutes and every single round was on target
- not one stray! Those guys were good.
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