Keith Tillotson
The Front Line (1944)
I had to go ashore to get some parts. I needed some valves, so I went over to this Navy depot. They had their Quonset hut set up with all the things they needed to run the war. And, of course, you had similar stuff you need aboard a merchant ship. I didn't know the part numbers or what to look for in their books, I just know what I wanted. "Just give me a basket and I'll pick out what I want."
While I was there, I see that the chow wagon was goin' out to take the food out to the front line. And they had four or five 155-millimeter guns out there on the front line. So, I'd like to ride out there.
So I got aboard the chow wagon, and rode I guess about ten miles up the road. They were getting ready to have lunch. And I said, "When are you going to start firing?" They said, "Right after we get done eating." That's the way the Americans do it, you know. If they could have had a refrigerator out there – they'd have had electricity and everything else set up.
The airplanes that fly over – spotters – they tell 'em where to fire. So, after lunch they started firing. They positioned me where I could get the most concussion, I guess. WHOOM! Oh, man! Those things go off – that's the same size they had aboard the destroyers, the five-inchers. And they'd just push the ship over like that when they went off. They're pretty loud. They're probably just as loud as the big sixteen-inch guns aboard the battleships. They'd really jar you – almost knock your teeth out.
So they fired a few shots, and then they were going to send a patrol out in a jeep and on foot ahead of them. To get more territory, advance a little bit. They said, "You want to go along with them?" I said, "No, I want to go back on the chow wagon."
Kind of stupid of me to do that. That's the closest I ever got to actually fighting. That was it. The rest of it was just floating around out at sea.