Newspaper Page Text
VOL. 2
SGT. JOHN J. SUTTON (left) SIGHTS THE .57 mm. ANTI-TANK GUN WITH
which he recently fired a perfect 200 score on Landon Anti-Tank range. Cpl. Anthony
Bushman, (center) of Brooklyn, N. Y., has just loaded a round, while T. Sgt. Thomas
W. Jackson, of Dothan, Ala., keeps an anxious eye on the target. (Official U. S. Army
Photo—The Infantry School.)
Knock Out Or Be Knocked
Out, Says Africa-Sicily Vet
“There’s only one strategy for a mortar section in com
bat,” said Sgt. Mearl Culver, veteran of Africa and Sicily,
when questioned this week upon joining the Academic Regi
ment as an assistant instructor in weapons.
“You’ve got to knock them out before they knock you
out," said the former railroad
worker from Kane, Pa., “That’s
the whole story ”
As leader of a mortar section
that fought in all the major en
gagements between the Ameri
cans and the Nazis from Oran to
Messina, Culver was in charge
of three .60 mm. mortars, with a
runner and three mortar crews
under his direct command
GET GUN NEST
“Once we were in an open
field,” he recalls, “when sudden
ly we noticed the tops of black
Nazi helmets sticking out of a
machine gun nest at the other
end of the field. It was knock
out or be knocked out. In a hur
ry we picked them up, fired on
them with all three mortars and
shot them up. Light tanks were
sent out to run over them. The
guns were preserved—we turned
those over to the French.”
Machine-gun nests weren’t the
only targets that Culver's sec
tion had to fire on. Once, at El
Guettar, they were in danger of
being run down by several Nazi
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light tanks.
’ “Our only chance was to hit
them square in the turret,” Cul
i ver said, adding that by sheer
. luck he was alive today and the
. tank crews were not.
J FIRE HAY STACKS
! “Very often we had to set hay
1 stacks or buildings on fire to
’ prevent the enemy from using
Night Phone Rates
Now Start At 7
Night rates on long distance
calls from Fort Benning now
begin at seven p. m„ thus giv
ing servicemen an extra hour
in which to place their calls,
Telephone Managers O. W.
Cobb and L. A. Wood announc
ed this week.
Formerly effective at eight
p. m., the night rates now hold
from 7 p. m. to 5:30 a. m.,
Fort Benning time, and all day
Sunday.
FORT BENNING, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, MARCH 16. 1944
them. Rather than risk sending
out a patrol to do the job, we’d
send mortar shells over. At Med
jez-el-bab we set a whole row
of barns on fire—in Sicily we
got a swell lucky hit on a well
armed barn that brought the
Germans piling out.”
Culver enlisted more than
three years ago at Fort Wads
worth, N. Y., and went through
all the big maneuvers in the
States and the British Isles dur
ing the training months leading
up to the invasion of Africa in
November, 1942. His company
was in the first wave to land at
Oran.
“The French fought like the
devil when we->first landed,” he
recalls, “but after three days of
street fighting Oran surrender
ed.”
5 MONTHS IN LINES
Just before Christmas his regi
ment went up into the front
lines and stayed there without
interruption until the end of the
African campaign in May. At the
battle of Medjez-el-bab his plat
oon was in a defensive position,
firing on patrols that tried to
sneak through the lines. Next
his outfit moved to the Kasserine
Pass, where they spent three
(Continued on Page 5)
New Post Personal
Affairs Office To
Help Gls, Families
In accordance with the activation of the Personal Af
fairs Division of the Army Service Forces, Capt. J. A. Lyons,
assistant chief, military personnel Branch at Post Headquar
ters, has been named Post Personal Affairs Officer, accord
ing to an announcement made this week.
SGT. SUTTON
FIRES 200 ON
.57 A-T GUN
For the first time in the his
tory of The Infantry School at
Fort Benning, a “possible” has
been scored with the .57 mm.
anti-tank gun. Sgt. John J.
Sutton, of C Company, Aca
demic Regiment, fired the per
fect score of 200 on the 1000-
inch Landon Anti-Tank Range
during a routine weapons
demonstration for an Officer Can
didate Class last Thursday morn
ing.
Sgt Sutton, an assistant in
structor in the Weapons Section,
has previously been credited
with nine “possibles”—Army lin
go for a perfect score—on the .37
mm. anti-tank gun.
'But the .57 is a lot different,"
one of Sutton's superior officers
Continued on Page 5)
SGT. MEARL CULVER, BACK FROM A YEAR OVER
seas in the British Isles, Africa and Sicily, relaxes in the main
day room, Academic Regiment, before taking up his new
duties as assistant instructor in weapons. (Official U. S.
Army Photo—The Infantry School.)
U. OF GA. LiBKARIEi
WITHDRAWN
The Personal Affairs Division
is designed to provide informa
tion, advice and assistance on
personal matters to Army and
discharged personnel and their
dependents, and the members of
the family of deceased soldiers.
The division will formulate the
policies and procedures of the
personal affairs program which
will be carried out at Fort Ben
ning by Captain Lyons. Person
al Affairs Division will be con
cerned chiefly with dispensing
information aimed at a solution,
through proper channels, of
problems pertaining to emergen
cy financial aid, allowances, ar
rears in pay, war bonds, gratui
ty pay, insurance pensions, legal
assistance, employment, voca
tional rehabilitation, hospitali
zation, housing facilities and per
sonal effects Neither the Post
Personal Affairs Officer nor the
Division will assume administra
tive functions of other Army.
Government or civilian agencies,
the announcement stresses.
Accordingly the PAO will
work closely with the War De
t Continued on Page 8)
No 26