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Honn had knocked out one machine gun nest with his mortar. Most of Company E, led by Lieut. , and a company under Capt. , scaling the northern slope of the mountain after dark. All over the hilltop was the sound of digging by the men from the broken beachhead below. Rifles and machine guns kept chattering through the whole night. We lay in our slit trenches, dozing and wondering if the morning would bring another attack. Soon after dawn an observer came running to Bernard’s command post. “There are troops moving on the road with vehicles, sir,” he said.

They had escaped from the flats. And there came Lieut. Thomas R. , whose gunners had fought with the enemy tanks; and Second Lieut. , who had helped in the fight to protect the ammunition dump. “We beat off two attacks on the ammo dump,” Tatlock said. “Engineers, artillerymen and every man who could handle a gun was fighting. ” Sicily, Salerno, and Advance on Rome, 1943 23 Even as they withdrew, five groups tried to carry ammunition up the hill by hand. Only two succeeded, through the machine gun and shell fire burning mountainside.

The sight made you feel warm inside with the knowledge that this time the Allies were going for the knockout and that there was stuff going up to do the job. F. unit to which I am to report. But as yet, I am unable to catch up with it. It is always just ahead. Planes move into airdromes right behind the enemy withdrawal. That is how fast this advance is going right now. I left Cairo yesterday with only a vague idea of where I was headed. In fact, no one could say definitely where the advance units were.