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papajoad
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The Last Man to Die By John Schuetz (4-3) Introduction: The letters from John Schuetz that follow were written about ten years ago. They tell the story of one of the two last Forcemen who died in combat. The question of who the last Forceman to die crossed my mind some years ago and I began a search. From the KIA/MIA roster in Burhans’ history I found that the last two force KIA’s were reported on November 5, 1944. They were James M. Davis (1-1) of Otway, Ohio and John Pinciak (4-3) of North Arlington, New Jersey. I was able to find nothing of Davis’s death but by great good fortune I found that a friend I’d made at reunions, John Schuetz, now deceased, was a member of the patrol on which Pinciak died. John agreed to recount the event and I was gratified that he wrote clearly and had a good story-telling ability. I received the story in longhand and had it transcribed. Apparently, after reading the patrol account and being impressed with John’s story-telling ability I asked him to tell how he and Pinciak became friends. I must have put his response aside for some other projects pushing and only recently discovered it in my files. I greatly regret that I did not continue to mine John’s mind for other accounts. His writing gives stark, realistic insight into a soldier’s life, at least of our soldiers, particularly life on Anzio. The letters are numbered and presented in inverse order to when written but in wartime chronological order. Between the two accounts there are large gaps of time and space: The campaign from Anzio to Rome, then the Invasion of Southern France and the push to the Franco-Italian border. There we were pulled up and on that line established defensive positions. It was from a point on the line the fatal patrol set out. Ed Thomas (HQ 1-2) Letter 1 Dear Ed: Pinciak and I got to know one another more intimately on Anzio. His position was about 100 yards to my left on the Mussolini Canal. I didn’t like to stay in my position (foxhole) for any length of time and every chance I got I would run up and down the line visiting each position. As time went on, I was spending more time in Pinciak’s foxhole than my own. We would talk for hours and smoke one cigarette after another and chew on C-rations of K’s. We both disliked them (Cs and Ks) but it was eat them or starve. When we started getting ten-in-ones, we thought they were great, but day after day of them … they started tasting lousy also. Se we would try to make different thing out of them by mixing them together and so on. S = John Schuetz P = John Pinciak S John, where are you from? P North Arlington, New Jersey S Do you have a girl friend? P Oh, yes S Is it a serious relationship? P Not really, where do you hall from, John? S Spring Valley, Illinois, but I was borne in LaSalle, Illinois, about 6 miles away. I also lived in Detroit, Michigan with my mother (father and mother divorced when I was eight years old). I was kicked around like an old shoe. I went to school there from age 11 to 15, then went back to Illinois and joined the CCC (Civilian Construction Corp.) – best thing I ever did. It prepared me for army life. P How old are you? S Nineteen. How about you? P Nineteen also. Do you have a girl friend? S I’m married and have a daughter. P Married! You must be nuts! You could have been deferred from this, being married and having a defense job. Why did you enlist? S Because I thought I would be drafted in time, hell, they were drafting everyone. The draft board in my county spared no one; they could care less who you were and what you did. So I beat them to it. P Why did you join the “Force”? S Well, when I got out of the CCC, I tried to enlist in the Marine Corp. I didn’t know at that time (June 1941) you had to be six feet tall or over to get in. The recruiting Sergeant said, “You will have to grow more, shorty” and laughed. I was embarrassed, but also mad – mad at everyone, even my parents for not being larger people. So when I heard about the FSSF I jumped at the chance. I just knew we would run rings around the Marines or anyone else who cared to try us. And john, I was right. P Your so right, Schuetz. They have assembled a bunch of men like no army has ever seen or will ever see again. Did you happen to notice how different we are compared to most of the men we took basic training with? (And how about those Canadians? They are just great, eh!). S They sure are. One thing, spirit and morale is sure high with us, and you are made to feel you are wanted and needed. P How did you like the training we got with this outfit? I thought they were going to kill us before we would see combat! We sure got into a hornets’ nest, but I love it. We must be opportunists, fatalists or realists. Maybe we are all of these, I don’t know. S Are you afraid of getting killed or dying? P No, I’m not afraid like some are. I don’t want to die or be killed at this early age, but if it happens, to me it has to be my fate. My main concern is to kill as many of the enemy as possible before they get me, if it’s to be. How about you? S I haven’t thought about it much. Guess I feel the same way you do. One thing for sure, the odds of getting out of here alive are not in our favor. P There’s going to be many $10,000 government insurance claims to pay. Ed, as time went by we shuffled our positions a little on the canal, dug new trenches, etc, John, Bill Miller and I dug a huge emplacement. We had the Johnnie gun, 1 Thompson sub gun, 2 M-1 rifles and a case of grenades, plus thousands of rounds of ammo. On patrol one night on Anzio, Pinciak and some others (8 man patrol) got close to a German machine gun position (they didn’t hear us coming). As the patrol got a little closer, one German saw us, made a dive for his foxhole, and threw out a grenade, Pinciak yelled, “grenade!” and everyone else jumped for cover. Not him. He had killed the other two Germans, and then thrown a grenade in their hole. After we got back to our lines, John remarked jokingly, “Wish Gen. Kessalring would have been there. I would have had his Lugar.” Remark: Knowing Pinciak, he wasn’t kidding. Every day Pinciak would say: P When the hell are the SOB’s coming? They are just wasting men sending patrols at us. God knows how many we have killed. This whole thing is complete insanity. Doesn’t that wallpaper hanger up there in Berlin know he can’t win this war? Where in the hell do people like him come from? Hey Scheutz, if they hit us with a full scale assault, we should be in good shape. I mean we are on this side of the canal so we got the best tank trap you could want, and the opposite bank is high enough to keep small arms fire from hitting us. I do believe mortars would rain hell on us and 88’s might get in a lick or two. Anyway, if they do come, they are going to have a lot of dead pe0ple. We’ve got a lot of fire power along here. And how about our artillery? You talk about shit hitting the fan! One morning at first light, they came out of Borgo Piave. It was a diversion attack they assembled around a farm house in front of us or to feel us out. Anyway, there came a hail of bullets that sounded a thousand times worse than in the rifle range pits. It continued for about 15 minutes. Our CP (a 2-story house) was behind and to the right of our trench. Two 88 shells hit the upper and lower windows. The people that were in it got out just in time. The small arms fire was coming from a flack wagon and a tank. Pinciak kept on saying, “come on, you’re just in time for breakfast, you SOB’s!” Then, all of a sudden, our artillery came raining down upon them, they were just out of our rifle range. One shell hit the flack wagon and blew it all to hell – and some soldiers with it. We shelled until they had to withdraw. There were a lot of dead Germans, I know that. The night before, we had sent two men out to this house in front of us. They were supposed to stay there a full day. The Germans had moved up to this place before dawn. The reason our men were there was to observe. Anyway, they were caught in a hell of a mess. Some of our artillery shells were air bursts. One of our men was near a window on the upper floor, and an air burst right at the window killed him. I remarked, “Not only does the enemy kill us, we also kill ourselves.” The name of this soldier was C.C. Waldrum (4-3). We had to leave him there: never did get him out. Walter Porchak (4-3) did try his best, but he was told by CO HQ to leave him there. The house was finally blown up with him in it. One night we went on patrol toward Littoria just to make contact. There were about eight of us. One of our men was coughing pretty bad and Sgt. John Abe, (4-3) said he would take his place. Well, we made contact all right. First there was small arms fire, more or less harassing, so we withdrew. Then came the mortars and it was time to get the hell out of there. When we got back to our positions, to our amazement, John Abs’ foxhole had taken a direct hit. He would have been in it if he hadn’t taken the place of the man with the bad cough. Anzio: Another time A. R. (Buck) Wilson (4-3) and J. H. Laporte were arguing about the best place to put the LMG; they didn’t like its present emplacement. The Germans started shelling and Laporte was killed while they were arguing. Some fate, hey? Well, then came the big day to change real estate, on about 21 May 1944. After 99 days in this hell hole, we were glad to get out of there. Early that first morning, Pinciak said: P Well, guess this is it. A lot of men are going to die today. I remember reading about Rome in school, but never did I dream I might get to see it. Hope we make it, Schuetz. S We’ll make it, john. 4-3’s objective was the Margherita Bridge over the Tiber River in Rome. After we got over Mt. Arrestino and to Highway 6, we took up positions along this road. The Germans were shelling the hell out of Artena, and all along our line, with big stuff. Then one morning, I heard Pinciak yell, “Here the bastards come!” I said, “Where in the hell do y0u see them?” I had been asleep, and when I jumped up, he said, “Over there, about 400 yards by that tree line.” We started firing at them and John said, “Something is wrong with my gun (Johnny), it won’t fire on auto.” I said, “Check and see if it’s on semi.” It was; then he let them have it. In the meantime, Lippy Lennox, Tom Ellis, Earl Arms, Bob Smith, Charlie Mann, Barney Snyder and others really let them have it as well. The Germans retreated after an hour or so. We got lucky and had no causalities. When we got to Rome, Pinciak said, “How about it, Schuetz? I didn’t think we would make it, did you? I had my doubts for awhile,” Lippy Lennox remarked, you know, if and when we get back home and settle into civilian life, all of this will be paramount over anything you do for the rest of your like. You will try to forget it, but it will haunt you the rest of your time here on earth.” France: Fifteen of us went down the mountain on patrol one night; the patrol was led by 4-3’s 1st Sgt. John chauffer. We wanted to see what “jerry” was up to and make contact. Seamed like it took forever to get to the bottom, it was so dark. The patrol was going along just fine until we heard a German patrol walking toward us. Hobnail boots make a lot of noise, that’s why we heard them. We hurriedly took positions along this path we were on. Pinciak and I ducked into a small shed and waited. Then Ben Alvastead threw out a phosphorus grenade, it lit up everything like daylight. The “Krauts” stood there in line before Ben threw the grenade. Pinciak was standing in the doorway of the shed when a German came up and said, “come on out.” He didn’t know we were Americans and Canadians. Pinciak said, “Here is your good night kiss!” and blew him apart. Then everyone started shooting and killed them all. We know because a Frenchman told us he counted them – fifteen in all. My section was about 25 yards from Lt. J. D. Moore early one morning when a sniper got him and then wounded my section SG, Ray Pursley. Lt. Moore was married, his wife had a baby while he was away and he never saw it…damn! He was a fine man and a leader too. He was commissioned in the field. Ed, there were so many things, big and small. I didn’t get into a lot if detail. If there is anything you care to know, let me hear. This is a rough draft. I could go on a lot more, but this covers about a third of it. As you know, we were at it a long time. I wish this could have been done 40 years ago. So many experiences went to the grave; use what you want of this. It’s all true, so help me god. And lots of luck. Best regards, John | |
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