“The battalion took no transportation. I had with me the S-3, one runner, and one 511 radio.[A] The wire came up thirty minutes later, but was not necessary.
[A] A twenty-pound, battery-operated, short-range transmitter-receiver.
“I estimate the enemy had a reinforced battalion. His tanks and self-propelled’s came up later. Some of the enemy were air personnel, and there were about eleven AA guns set up for antipersonnel use.
“Our attack lasted thirty minutes. We had no casualties during the attack; two were killed during the counterattacks.”
★
Hand-to-Hand Fighting Captain Jarrold, Infantry: “At Biscari Airport I used my trench knife twice. One of my men got three with his bayonet. He shot one, then another tried to grab his bayonet. He got this one with the bayonet. That got him started, so he got three in all before it was over.
Small Arms Against Armor “We found that caliber .30 AP pierces enemy armored half-tracks at close ranges.”
★
Platoon Action Lieutenant Hollerich, Infantry: “Company A, moving forward in darkness to participate in the Biscari Airport fight, ran right into the enemy position. Before the fight started, my platoon crossed the road just above a culvert and reached the south edge of the airport, but I was ordered to take it back to a position just east of the culvert. I wish I could have stayed where I was because it was a perfect place from which to envelop the resistance in front of my company.
“When the enemy machine guns opened up we threw grenades. The machine guns pulled back out of grenade fire. Then NCO’s and Browning Automatic Riflemen went up over the embankment, through and beyond the initial enemy positions. Eventually we had a base of fire of about twenty men including the BAR’s.