Greatest Hardships:
A soldier's memories of Sicily and Italy
By: George Burrows
The Greatest Hardships
The heat, temperatures during and after the invasion were 114 degrees (45 Celcius), lack of drinking water, lack of food at regular intervals, dirty clothes, no way to wash, and full of sweat everyday. Marching through heavy limestone dust in summer heat, which was very difficult to breathe. Weapons care was very difficult in these dusty conditions. After England it was a chore to contend with the constant sweating, every day as well as most nights, during the hot summer months.
Greatest Challenges
Our greatest challenge was always in found in facing the enemy, not knowing where or when contact may be made. To always be ready for battle when it came, and to work together as a team sounds easy, but in battle it is not, especially when you are spread out and fired upon. Consolidation and co-operation always had to be there. Chasing the enemy was always a real challenge, for we never knew where the enemy might be dug in and waiting for us in well hidden cover. The hardest challenge was to hit the enemy hard enough to drive him out of his position.
Feelings About Fear
Fear is a natural phenomenon, built into all people. It depends upon the individual how it is handled. Some do very well, while others do not. In my case, I did very well, the same as many others, I presume. Death was not something we were afraid of. If we were, we would not have joined the infantry, in the first place. Ever since I was a young boy in my teens, I always felt close to God throughout my life cycle, and still do. To me, he was always there. When I joined the army (on July 28, 1940) I had only one thought in mind, and that was to fight for my country and the World for Peace. I wanted to do my part to get rid of Dictators who were starting to rule the world. I felt that if I did not do something, along with a lot of others, our own country could or would wind up in a similar situation. Even if I had to lose my life, it would be worth the sacrifice. We dealt with death from the very first days of training, and learned to live with it. One thing we very rarely did, however, was to make reference to "when I get back home."
The Applicability of the Rules of War
The rules of war, as we knew them then, were laid down following the First World War by the Geneva Conventions. We were taught and trained under those rules. Never shoot at random, unless we were positive it was the enemy and not a Civilian. We were told to hold our fire until sure of our target. As far as I was concerned, War was like a Football Game, or any other game. The rules of play were in place, so follow them, strictly. Any platoon or company that I was ever in never had any problem obeying them.
What we Looked for in Leadership
What I looked for most was common sense, fairness and a consideration of me as a person, and as a member of the team. I can honestly say -- I did receive that from the members of the original cadre of officers and N.C.Os.
However, once most of them were taken out of action, through being killed or severely wounded, the tradition did not in many cases carry on in this manner. Most N.C.Os. coming up to the line, or promoted from within, seemed to carry on very well and the comradeship, would develop normally.
However, where the big change came from was the new officers, who had an attitude in a lot of cases that said "I am an officer, I am smarter than you are, I know everything, you know very little, compared to what I know, so act accordingly." Consequently, a lot of these officers got killed, very easily, primarily because of their attitude and their lack of wanting to listen and learn from those with experience. They had never been in battle and did not have a clue what it was all about.
Another other point to note is that officers, and many senior N.C.Os. were afraid to exploit the use of some our weapons, when it would have been to our advantage to do so.
As a 2 inch Mortar Team Leader, with two others in my team, there were several times we could have deployed and saved lives of our fellow men. However, those in charge did not think it necessary to use the mortars for support. They felt if it were used, because of the noise, the enemy would then know where we were. What a waste of support. The enemy, used their similar equipment to supreme advantages all he time. It is my belief, that if we had used these 2 inch mortars in more tight situations, we may have been able to reduce some of the heavy losses we took at various times.