The Ontos was a strange weapon.
Posted on 01/03/2004 4:07:16 AM PST by snippy_about_it
A 3rd Marines account in Con Thien sector.
Gio Linh was 2100 meters from the DMZ. Con Thien was seven miles east of us. At Gio Linh, everything was dug down in holes and bunkers as every night between 11:00am and 1:00am, the VC would drop mortars on our small firebase--average 20-30 a night. They were close enough that you could hear them dropping them in the tubes with the "cadunk" sound, then the whistling as the round came in, and then the explosion of detonation.
One afternoon, we mounted up, and a large entourage of grunts, two tanks, two Dusters with their twin 40mm's, and our two Ontos, left the perimeter of Gio Linh and went out to the fire break to await large helicopters bringing in large wooden towers. The firebreak at this time was 200 meters wide and was bare dirt. (Many years later I found out how this was cleared--Agent Orange.) The firebreak was ultimately supposed to be 800 meters wide, going from Gio Linh to Con Thien, and was to have a series of manned wooden towers along its border. The idea was to keep the NVA from filtering down from the North through this area. I believe they gave up on that project. That day, when we were all on line sitting in the scorching sun on the bare dirt of the fire break waiting for the choppers with the wooden towers, we were told it was 140 degrees.
We started taking mortar fire from the north. After numerous close rounds to our troops and vehicles, the enemy ceased firing after artillery from Gio Linh fired on their positions. Finally, a large chopper brought in a wooden tower and placed it on the firebreak. At Gio Linh, the Army had four 175mm artillery pieces. They had very long barrels, and were on tracks. These were on the north perimeter. The Marines had five 105mm towed units, set up in the usual large circle-shaped battery position.
One day, we took a couple of incoming enemy rockets. That was odd, as we were only used to the nightly mortar attacks. And then one evening around 6:30pm when I was going to late chow after my two fellow Ontos crewman (Sgt. Mac from Chicago and L/Cpl Reavis from Indiana) returned from chow to relieve me from our position on the south perimeter, I was in the large GP (General Purpose) tent that was dug down;into a large three foot deep hole. I was in the process of declining the slop that was being served, figuring I'd go back and eat some "C Rats," when what sounded like a screaming Phantom jet with its afterburners on, went over my head, and exploded out in the minefield and wire on our perimeter. Another Phantom jet went screaming over my head and exploded. I then realized it wasn't a Phantom--it was enemy artillery. I expected them to drop several rounds on us and then stop, but it just kept coming and coming. I had been shot at with small arms, mortared, and been in rocket attacks, but this was the worst. The incoming scream of those rounds was terrifying and something I shall never forget, because you know they are either going to get you, or they are not, and there isn't much you can do to prevent it except pray.
During one lull in between rounds, there were about four of us hunkered down in a corner of that big, wide hole of the mess tent--we heard a Marine calling for help. We looked up, and saw a Marine that was not hit, but obviously suffering from shell concussion. He was in a daze. We told him to get down in the hole with us, but he either couldn't hear us or was just too dazed to understand. We grabbed his hands, and just as we pulled him down into the hole, a round came in, and exploded behind us about fifty feet away, fortunately above ground, and not in the big wide hole we were in. The concussion slammed us down into the corner of the hole and temporarily deafened us for a few minutes. It was like two giant hands coming together on your ears. When rounds hit close, the shrapnel sounded like it was ripping the air. The shelling stopped for a short time. I ran back to my vehicle and fellow crewman. There were craters and shell diameter-sized entry holes in the ground all over. My small bunker and two crewman and Ontos were okay. The only damage suffered to our Ontos was shrapnel cut off the two metal radio antennas, and the ammo can and its belted .30 cal ammo on the machine gun was pierced by a large piece of shrapnel.
I sat on the front of the Ontos that was sitting in a hole dug out by a bulldozer, with the loose dirt pushed up behind. I had the dry heaves as I tried to regain my composure. As a grunt Lt. and Sgt. were checking the lines, the heavy shelling started again. Instead of taking cover in my bunker that was about forty feet away, I opted to take cover underneath my Ontos. I don't know how I got under there wearing my helmet and flak jacket, but I did. {I was a lot slimmer back then.) The grunt Lt. and Sgt. took cover on the ground in the hole at the rear of the Ontos. And the artillery shells kept coming and coming. After awhile, you could just about tell where they were going to land, if they were going to be short or long. They say you never hear the one that gets you. Well, I don't know if you hear it explode, but I heard this one coming. I think my heart stopped for a second, as I stiflened up waiting for the impact, as this round sounded like it was going to be a direct hit on us. It came in screaming, and then their was a "wump" sound, and the ground shook. I held my breath, waiting for the explosion. It didn't explode. The grunt Lt. asked the grunt Sgt. where that round hit. The Sgt told him, "Don't move, I must be sitting on it!"
After another long duration of incoming artillery rounds, it stopped for a few minutes at which time I ran to my bunker, and the two grunt NCOs went back to their positions. We saw that that one incoming round landed in the soft bulldozed-up dirt on our side of the slope, less than ten feet from where we had taken cover. There was a nice round neat hole where it had cut a path downwards into the loose pile of dirt. If that round had gone off, we probably would have been scattered over the countryside. We later learned that there was an NVA artillery battery (or two) which dropped approximately 2000 rounds on our small firebase in a 1 O-hour attack. They were dropping point-detonating and delayed fuse shells on us. The first rounds made direct hits on three of the Army's 175mm guns, and the fourth 175mm's powder pit was on fire, taking it out also.
Those extremely brave Marines in that 105ram artillery battery kept firing and were basically out in the open in the waist-high sandbag wall of the large circle containing their guns. One by one, the NVA artillery took them and their guns out. When everybody else was hunkered down, these guys were standing at their guns firing back as fast as they could. Those were some brave guys.
Both of our ammo dumps had been hit and were on fire, with our own ordnance detonating. It was pure hell that night. All our artillery was gone. We had two Ontos, two tanks, two twin 40 dusters, and on 81mm mortar. That was the extent of our heavy weapons. Our wire and large mine field on our perimeter was pretty chewed up with some of the rounds landing there, and detonating out mines. We expected a ground attack during the darkness. All the other firebases were getting hit at the same time, so they could not support us with any artillery fire.
A couple hours after it started, we got a couple of Bird Dog spotter planes coming in from the south but when they got close to us, the NVA were shooting air bursts at them and coming close. After midnight, we got two Phantoms in that dropped their ordnance but when they came into the area, the NVA stopped shooting. When the Phantoms left to rearm, the NVA started on us again. The Phantoms were never able to locate the exact position of the NVA artillery. We had heavy casualties. We did get a medevac chopper in for some of the wounded. Heat tabs that burn with a very low blue flame, were arranged in a large circle to mark the LZ (Landing Zone). Just after the medevac took off, and cleared the LZ with the wounded, the NVA zoned in on the LZ and dropped several rounds on it, but didn't get the medevac.
All night, the artillery continued. It was constant. My Ontos Commander, Sgt. Mac, who was on his second tour, was a tough, lean, black Marine. He told me he had been raised Catholic but wasn't very religious. Sgt. Mac was even praying that night! Just before daylight, the shelling stopped. We came out of our holes. It seemed like almost every square yard of the ground was covered by jagged pieces of metal shrapnel, like leaves on the ground in the fall.
Everything was blown up. I was so happy just to be alive.
The Ontos was a strange weapon.
Was suprised to learn that Hitler removed a large Panzer Army..12th Panzer I believe from the Northern sector's assault planning..sending it East.
Also...the para drop..some 1000 troops..scattered everywhere.
About 350 of the German paras were able to rally and set about there mission.
Guess they realized they were in over their heads and made a run for their lines...only 100 got back.
Hitlers planning on this was pretty stupid IMHO.
Antwerp was the final goal...why the sweeping action over such a long front?
why not bolster a stronger assault in the North with with a unified seperate advance from the south to face Pattons 3rd Army which was sure to come up?
The documentary noted that General Jodel gave a thumbs up for the plan..along with the other Yes men Hitler surrounded himself with,
yet the majority of the actionable line commanders viewed the operation as a certain disaster.
During the first week of January the Luftwaffe finally got off its butt and really did some damage to the allies.
Guess they hit over 50 airfields...destroying some 300 allied aircraft.
Snippy covered part of Operation Bodenplatte on the New Years Day Thread.
The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Legend of Y-29 ~ Operation Bodenplatte (1/1/1945) - Jan. 1, 2004
At dawn on the morning of December 17th, Colonel Friedrich A. Freiherr von der Heydte surveyed the pitiful shards of Operation Hohes Venn. This paratroop drop had been scheduled for December 16th, but postponed when gasoline for the trucks to carry the paratroopers to the airfields was stolen by another division.
The drop had gone ahead 24 hours later, but everything went wrong. Heavy antiaircraft fire had broken up the formations of transport planes, scattering them all over the Ardennes. German paratroopers came down just about everywhere. High winds added to the confusion and caused many landing injuries. Colonel von der Heydte was one of the few members of the attack force to actually land on the objective. For the next few hours, his men combed the area, bringing in stragglers. By dawn, he had collected about 300 men out of the 1250 that had taken off from Germany 4 hours earlier. He had no working radios -- they had all been broken in the airdrop. His request for carrier pigeons had been contemptuously dismissed by Sepp Dietrich. Now he was completely out of touch. Then they heard the sound of approaching vehicles. It was a column from the American First Infantry Division -- the Big Red One, one of the toughest divisions in the American Army. The German paratroops hid in the woods and watched helplessly as the reinforcements they were supposed to delay rolled by. Operation Hohes Venn had failed in its primary mission.
Yep.
LOL. Good one!
Thank you Sam.
Clips of German Panthers moving past burning U.S. Halftracks and Shermans.....lots of German armor moving in the snow too.
The photo below.... 2 GI's and a bazooka....maybe a King Tiger is moments away.
Talk about having nerve to stand your ground : )
Sad but true.
Yep especially since in most cases the round would wither bounce off or fail to penetrate a Tigers' armor.
The turret comes off the tank upward at least 20 ft.
Cooper, Belton Y. Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998
The "death traps" of Cooper's title were Sherman tanks, outgunned and out-armored by their German opponents. As an ordnance officer in the 3rd Armored Division, Cooper learned more than most about how Shermans could be knocked out, what else could go wrong with them, and how they could be patched back together.
...One day in Mausbach, Maj. Dick Johnson told me that a tank from the 2nd Battalion was having difficulty in keeping 75mm rounds in the main ammunition storage box underneath the turret. He said this condition had appeared in other tanks before, and no one knew what was causing it.... For some reason the rounds were dislodging when the tank stopped. If the primer happened to strike a sharp object, the rounds could explode prematurely [inside the tank].... I got inside the tank and examined the front of the rack. This particular tank had thirty rounds of 75mm tank ammunition and four bottles of Cognac [in the rack]. The tank crew had decided this was a good place to store their extra Cognac. The diameter of the bottle of Cognac was slightly larger than that of the ammunition. There was enough clearance in the tube to allow the bottle of Cognac to go in, but not without stretching the clips beyond their yield point. The weakened clips would no longer hold a round of ammunition....
When confronted, the crew defended their actions. "This ammunition is no damn good anyway against a German tank. If the going got too rough, we could hide behind a building and break out the Cognac and at least ease some of the pain."
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