one of the largest sections in the battery. I had twenty-one or twentytwo guys in my section. Each battery had ten or twelve or fifteen trucks and
jeeps. Take those jeeps and tie a 75 Howitzer behind the jeep and carry a gun
crew on it...a lot of times the gun crew would have to get off the jeep to help
cross a stream; you’d have to break the gun down and carry it across piece by
piece. I imagine those Howitzers weighed a couple of thousand pounds. It would
take three or four men to carry the barrel and the main block and so on.
Each battery had four Howitzers, four gun crews and a machine gun
section to protect the guns...and that was my section: machine guns and
ammo. I had to keep the guns supplied. My boys had to haul...they’d be
called for ammunition during a mission and we had to deliver ammunition.
Anybody got short of ammunition they’d holler “Garrett!” (laughs).
We had one ton trucks...early on I was a driver, a Private; it took me eight
months to make Pfc. and eighteen months to make Corporal at Camp Lejeune. As
section chief I should have been a Sergeant, but for some reason advancement in
the Marines was slow. Just
before we left Camp Lejeune
they were going around
asking us if we wanted to
apply for officer’s school,
but a lot of us ‘tough guys’
said “Hell no, I don’t
want to be an officer.”
Diary continues next issue.
Written by James R. Gube
Sourced by Allen Reynolds
War Thunder Community Magazine
The GameOn Magazine // 55