Date: August 7, 1944

Action: Battle of the Falaise Gap

Unit: 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division

Location: Mortain, Normandy, France

The heroic stand of the 2nd Battalion on Hill 317, kept German divisions on the offensive trying to take the hill, while the American, British, Canadian and Polish divisions pressed the opposite way, further encircling the German divisions in the Falaise Gap.

So Weiss sucked in his breath, called his radio operator forward, picked up his binoculars, and started crawling to the top of the crag. "We had to be quick," Weiss said. "The fire missions had to come with almost the speed of the shooting in a quick-draw western and with comparable accuracy."

Sgt. Armon Sasser, tucked into the reverse slope, his antenna up, had his radio set up. "Ready, lietenant."

Weiss called Sgt. John Corn to move up beside him before scrambling up the precipice to the top. The sun glared. Head low, body flattened, elbows stretched far apart an resting on the ground, binoculars up to his face, just below his eyes, Weiss searched and waited.

The Germans began firing, 88s and mortars. Weiss put his glasses to his eyes. "Smome from the muzzles of the German guns wreathed their position like smoke rings from a cigar," Weiss remembered. He called out to Sergeant corn, "Fire Mission. Enemy battery," and gave the coordinates. Corn passed it on down to Sasser, who turned to his radio: "Crow, this is Crow Baker 3. Fire Mission," and repeated the coordinates.

Weiss could only wait, in apprehension. Who would fire first? "I watched the enemy guns through my binoculars, now a gun sight."

Sasser called up softly, "On the way."

"A freight train roared by from the left side," Weiss said. "Almost instantly clouds of smoke broke near the German position. I shouted an adjusting command to Corn who passed it quickly to Sasser and on to battalion. The next salvos were right on target." That German battery was out of action.

Shells came in from the left from six enemy self-propelled guns. Weiss repeated the sequence, with similar satisfactory results. Then a single tank and yet another battery fired on Hill 317. The tank was to the south, the battery to the north. Weiss called in a barrage on the tank and set in ablaze, then turned his attention to the battery.

"Fire Mission. Enemy battery. Six guns. Last concentration is 500 right, 300 short."

The American shells fired in response came in on line but way short. Weiss shouted an adjustment over the noise of the enemy shells bursting around him. Corn passed it on: "Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance," as Weis put it. The follow-up rounds were on target. "The enemy," Weiss noted with satisfaction, " had been neutralized."

Source: