September-October - Air Defense Artillery

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34 out the lucrative target. The gunner coolly laid his sights on the airdrome and with thirty-eight rounds from his 37mm smashed three F\V 190's before they could take off. The fire power of the antiaircraft has also been used to shield tanks from enemy infantry at close quarters. Two 1'1-16's were sent with lioht tanks in a task force to clean o out two German villages near the city of Limbach. After one light tank was hit, and the 489th platoon leader was killed, Staff Sergeant Delmar Yount reorganized the small force. LInder his direction the 37's and 50's levelled the towns. An attached antiaircraft battalion must be highly mobile and flexible when operating with an armored division. Usually one battery of the 489th moves with each of the two fighting combat commands, while one battery is detailed to protect the vulnerable division trains. One platoon usually goes with division headquarters and another with the division's reserve command. However, this system is always subject to quick change. One combat command may need more antiaircraft protection, so the antiaircraft battalion commander supplies it as he sees fit. Usually that's quite, a job when miles separate the combat commands -miles that stretch over "Indian Country" that has never been cleared by American troops. Colonel l\/lurphy and his men have noted few unusual tactics on the part of the German air force. The Luftwaffe has a healthy respect for the men and guns of the 489th and like outfits. Gennan pilots like a low-lyino cloud , 0 bank from which they can dart in and out. As Colonel THE COAST ARTILLEHY JOLlHNAL l\Iurphy put it, "It's seldom that you'll see one of t so-and-sos on a clear day unless it's at first light or just a, dusK." Asked about warning systems, Colonel 1'Iurph snorted and said, "My men don't need to be warned, they'r~ always ready for Jerry. I don't know of a single instance when an advance warning has helped SI 11p, . " us down a Kraut .l- Records in this fast-mo\'ing war are difficult- to ascertain. For that reason the 489th claims no records, but it is proud of its one-day total of thirty-four planes, and its grand total of 128Vl destroyed and forty-one probables. As Corporal Honald Slack puts it, "So maybe they're not records, but that's a hell of a lot of planes in anybody's war." The battalion also has its share of decorations. Seven Silver Star Medals, sixty-three Bronze Star i\'ledals, two Soldier's Medals, two Croix de Guerre, seventy Fourth Armored Division Certificates of Merit, and .forty-five Purple Heart Medals are displayed by men of the 489th.! Every officer and man in the battalion wears on his right breast the blue rectangle with the gold border signifying thel coveted Presidential Unit Citation. The 489th AAA AVv Bn (SP) was activated Februaf\' 10, 1943 at Ft. Bliss under the present CO, Colonell'lu;., phy. In December of '43 they participated in the Louisi. \ ana maneuvers and in March of '44 they landed in Eng- [ land. The battalion trained in vVrexham, vVales, and until • they joined the Third U. S. Army and the 4th Armored Division on July 13, provided antiaircraft protection for English airfields. 90mm Guns at Balete Pass By Lieutenant Perry R. McMahon, AUS Antiaircraft <strong>Artillery</strong> used for Infantry Battalion support has proved highly successful in some of the toughest fighting on Luzon: the Battle for Balete Pass and the Victory of Villa Verde Trail. In the Battle for Balete Pass the 90mm AA gun came into its own-praises were sung by the Infantry all the way down the line from the colonels commanding regiments to the doughboys who watched the shells bursting in Jap caves no more than thirty yards in front of them. On the ViIla Verde Trail, where Bofors 40mm and multiple .50 caliber machine guns were used mounted, the Infantry was equally as enthusiastic-but this action will be discussed in a later article. The battles were fought over the worst terrain possible. During the latter stages the rains came and added to the' difficulties, but before the way was cleared a total of 16,100 Jap dead was counted. How many additional hundreds lie dead, sealed to their doom in the vast caves, or how many were wounded and dragged back can only be conjecturethe Jap does not announce his losses. Early intelligence in the Luzon campaign indicated that General Yamashita's final opposition would be in the wilds of the north-unmapped, mountainous, and in the end a possible escape route back to the homeland of Japan. As in all campaigns, time was the essence on Luzon. ' \Vould the Jap be defeated before the long rainy season set in, and would the passes north be cleared before mud on the newlv bulldozed roads, which would have to be constructed, 'make movement practically impossible? The northern mountains of Luzon rise above the clouds. They are 'rugged and there are no main all-weather roads \ except two-National Highway No. 5 which goes through J Balete Pass, and National Highway No.3 which leads to Baguio, both cliff-clinging affairs. Both could easily be defended by the enemy, he thought, until hell froze over. These roads lead to Aparri, that port in Northern Luzon where the Jap had landed Dec. 12, 1941, just five days after l Pearl Harbor. 1 Probably the most important of these escape routes militarily was Balete Pass, gateway to the Cagayan Valley. This valley has an. average width of forty miles and extends for 200 miles. Mounted troop movement would be easy for the Japs on his side of the barrier back and forth from his stronghold at Aparri. Approaches to the valley from the
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Page 4 and 5: "Target. I" Sensitive fire-control
Page 6 and 7: coming in fr~m the north. Between t
Page 8 and 9: Ground Defense Plan Antwerp X By Ca
Page 10 and 11: 10 of men and weapons needed to ade
Page 12 and 13: 12 _E COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL diffe
Page 14 and 15: Antiaircraft Operations in the . ~
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Page 18 and 19: 18 Sil'nal Corps British troops man
Page 20 and 21: 20 atop mountains out on the narrow
Page 22 and 23: THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL A Panth
Page 24 and 25: A Tiger Royal, stopped at Sterpigny
Page 26 and 27: 26 THE COAST ARTILLERY JOLIRNAL Sep
Page 28 and 29: SKETCH No. J ]\,116 half-track. tha
Page 32 and 33: the Field Artillery positions they
Page 36 and 37: JU Once Kembu Plateau was reduced,
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Page 40 and 41: -tv Retirement was at high speed, w
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Page 44 and 45: 1 Ht:.l..UA~ 1 AI{ 11LLI::.KY .I0LI
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Page 50 and 51: The l05th AAA Battaliotl The 105th
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Page 56 and 57: AAA Planning for the Inoasion1 of S
Page 58 and 59: 3d Inf Division D-Day 5 AAA Group -
Page 60 and 61: AAA Notes No. 22, ET EDITOR'S NOTE:
Page 62 and 63: 62 with PD fuze set at superquick.
Page 64 and 65: 64 battery was requested to bring f
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Page 68 and 69: 68 yards of range, based on firing
Page 72 and 73: CO~ST ~RTILLERY Citations and Comme
Page 74 and 75: 74 FOR: As Chief, European Section,
Page 76 and 77: BOARD NOTES All)' i1ldividllal, whe
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Page 80 and 81: 80 (Name) (Date) Regular Army Commi
Page 82 and 83: 82 Planning Industrial Mobilization
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Coast ~rtillery News letter Harbor'
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86 j~.. \ ~)~ Harbor Defenses AI':
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From the Front Office SELECTED SPEE
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90 Services Offered by the Coast Ar
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92 ' \X'ork for Veterans 500 POSTWA
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94 THE COAST ARTILLEHY JOURNAL Sept
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96 THE COAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL Sept
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48~OOO~OOO TONS to EISENHOWER By LI
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September-October - Air Defense Artillery

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