01/25/1944
HAL BOYLEAssociated Press Correspondent
ON THE 5TH ARMY FRONT IN ITALY, Jan. 23.—(Delayed)—A little El Paso sergeant who killed a German with his own machine-pistol, told today how he ran two and a half miles barefooted to safety after swimming the icy Rapido River when his unit was surrounded and cut off while trying to establish bridgehead.
He was one of four shivering survivors who said: "We would rather die than be captured by the Germans."
They plunged into the raging mountain torrent, risking death in ts waters, instead of German imprisonment.
Many similar bands have been forcing their way back across the Rapido after the sustained enemy attacks with mortars, artillery and machine-gun fire destroyed the American bridgehead in 24 hours of battle.
Casualties were heavy as the group tied up an entire German division—thus draining off forces which might otherwise have impeded 5th Army landings on the beaches south of Rome. As a result of the loss of the bridgehead, the Rapido has again become the boundary between American and German lines.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Dispatches today said the Americans had recrossed the Rapido River and reestablished their bridgehead.; "But we know we are still going across that river and the next time I am going to kill more than one German." said Sgt. Santiago Jaramilio, 2624 San Diego street, El Paso.
Jaramilio and three other soldiers— Sgt. Alex Carrillo of 1021 Olive street, El Paso; Pvt. Morris Crain of Barlow, Ky., and Pvt. Jack Moochnek, 19, of Brooklyn,—found refuge in the dispensary of an artillery battalion.
As they stretched full length on the straw-covered floor of the old Italian stone house which shook from artillery bombardment outside the windows, medics worked on their half frozen feet to restore circulation.
"These men walked two and a half miles on bare feet after getting across the river this morning," said Sgt. George C. Fox, a medic from Amarillo, Tex., pointing to Jaramillo, Carrillo and Crain.
"Like heck we walked—we ran two and a half miles,” said Jaramilio. "Those Germans were shooting at us with rifles all the way across that river."
Before dawn yesterday, his unit crossed a pontoon bridge thrown up during the night near San Angelo by Army engineers. They were pinned down after getting only a short way past the river banks.
After pounding them with a terrific mortar barrage, German infantry gradually closed in. Except for fog and timely American artillery fire laid down less than 200 yards in front of the slender bridgehead, all the Yanks might have been wiped out.
"We held out all day until we heard Germans around us begin calling, 'Give up, give up.'" Jaramillo related, "I raised up out of my foxhole and saw about seven or eight German soldiers scattered around in the fog taking hack some of our men, " 'Give up hell." I yelled and grabbed for my gun. There were Germans right by my side who had me covered. Suddenly I heard a shot. It apparently nicked a nearby German's shoulder because he dropped his machinepistol. I knew then that it was him or me.
"I lowered my hands and made a flying tackle for that pistol. He dived for it at the same time but I got it first. When I let go at him with a couple of bursts, he threw up his hands and cried: 'No. no, kamrad.' But he was too late. I already had six or eight bullets in him and they finished him off.
"I was afraid this firing might bring other Germans over but they were some distance away in the fog and seemed to have their hands full. They weren't anxious to come any closer. That fog saved a lot of our necks."
Jaramilio. Carrillo and Crain hid in a shell crater which the Nazis overlooked. Twice during the night, they tried to make their way across the river but German small-arms fire drove them back.
"This morning we knew we had to swim that river then or never get over it and we surely weren't going to spend the rest of the war in a German prison camp," said Jaramilio. "We took off our shoes and all our heavy clothing and slid into the river, we waded as far as we could and then swam as fast as we could when the German bullets began splashing around.
"That river is only 30 to 40 yards across, but they didn't name it Rapido for nothing. It was all we could do to keep from being swept away by that current. Some of the other boys who tried to get across during- the night didn't make it. When we got to the other side, we kept running until we were behind safe cover.
"I will surely be glad for a chance to get back at the Germans for making me run across those rocks barefooted."
Read more:
1944: Sergeant Who Fled Across River After Killing German Learned to Swim in E. P. Irrigation Canal
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