WWII Diary of Chick Bruns – 70 Years Ago

We were up at 6:30am and made some coffee from our “K” rations and then went to work.  While they were changing the wheels, I got my first glimpse of the town.  Frenchy and I went in to see if we could buy some wine, but no scoop.  the town had been shelled pretty badly as the French turned their own guns on the town when they saw that they were defeated.  The natives are sure dirty and ragged.  They are all beggars and bum cigarette and money from you all the time.  the French people are sure glad we came.  We all wear an American flag on our arms, and the French were getting for our arm bands, some were even crying for them.  the Fighting is still going on in Casablanca and the casualties are high but we are still pushing forward.  One Colonel was crying and said that he wanted the boys to retreat but they just laughed and kept right on going.  It is night now and we are not working on the railroad.  you can hear the artillery firing in Casablanca.  We keep a guard posted all the time as the natives steal everything they get their hands on and the snipers pick a few men off every night.

We were up bright and early this morning and what were we greeted by but 15 German bombers.  We shot down tow of them and the rest flew away.  Later they came back and bombed and strafed the beach.  So far casualties have been few but we don’t know how many dead are in the city.  we are getting  ready to go over the side now so I will finish this when I can.  We went to our stations but only part of us went to shore the rest of us will land in at the docks.  What will happen from now I cannot tell.

(Editors note:  It appears that Chick was unable to write for a few days and made the following updates to catch up)

Well today is  Friday and I will try to put the rest of the days together the best I can.  We had no sooner hit the beach when the bombers came back.  Boy did we go for cover.  You could see every one falling flat on their stomachs all over .  Tuesday I loaded our guns and were going to try and hit a couple but they were miles high.  Ever the anti air craft couldn’t tough them.  We then took our equipment up to a school house and put it in one of the rooms that had been shelled.  Our first Sgt came and took four of us  to work on a railroad.  It was an old time charcoal burning engine and only we started it and ran it about a block and the axle broke so we spent the night fixing it.  We got the bed a 4am.  We slept on the ground with out bedding at all

Wow! today is the day.  It is now 9:30am and the zero hour is getting near.  The announcement just came over the phone, batter up so that means a fight.  Now came the play ball.  Everyone is anxious to find out what is going to happen.  Wow! all hell has just broke out.  I’ll finish this latter.  It is now 10:00am and the navy’s big guns are still blazing.  Boy oh boy, what a battle.  I have been out on deck all during and you can see the big shells falling all around the ships.  The coast is just literally being blown to bits.  Wave after wave of men are going in.  One destroyer just came by and it had the back end of it shot off.  About 20 big, four motored German bombers came over escorted by fighter planes.  Man did they ever start bombing us.  Bombs just fell like rain.  the Ships guns all opened up and soon drove them off.  They came back once more but no damage was done.  Five destroyers tried to get out to the port of Fedala but our cruisers sank three of them and the rest went back.  The Jean Bart and the Massachusetts was having a big battle down at Casablanca.  This battle has been going on all morning.  the battle ships are having a hard time of silencing the coastal artillery.  they have all silenced but one gun.  Two cruisers teamed up to knock it out.  You could see the shells falling all round the cruisers.  There were firing some range finder  shells.  They  were colored red when they exploded.  It would have gave  anything to have technicolor camera.  They would run in toward shore fine going in , then turn broadside and fire.  And would also fire as they were retreating.  The coastal guns have stopped firing and the time is 2:00pm so they must have knocked it out.  Not much happened the rest of the day and tonight have been playing cards.

Tonight is the night, Oh Boy!  It is very calm today and as quite as hell, something is bound to happen.  The planes have been out scouting all day and ever one is at their battle stations.  Everyone is running around and getting things ready for tonight.  They are going to try and talk peace.  We should learn very soon what will happen.  They announced over the loud speaker that if they announce “batter up”, it means that the French are taking a hostile attitude and “Play Ball” means for us to take action.  Everyone is all excited and is it getting late.  It is now 11:30pm so I had better get some sleep.

About midday the sea began to quit down and it’s getting nice out.  I sure hope it’s not rough when we land.  We are going to start to unload tomorrow night at midnight.  The planes were all out scouting all day today and the destroyers were left busy dropping depth charges.  We are in general quarters now so it will soon be dark and we will either be playing cards, singing or reading.  I am going to try to write home.  Last night I wrote a letter and it was practically all censured.  So long for now, I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Boy was it ever rough today.  I was sick all day and had to go on guard at 3:00pm  I got a post outside so I felt a lot better.  It started to storm again and boy was it ever rough.  We ran onto an Italian ship and captured it so it’s in the convoy with us.  The days are getting numbered now and we are expecting an attack any moment.  We went all through the day and nothing happened.  It’s still stormy and I have to go on guard.

I am off guard now and boy are those waves ever big.  Last night they came way up over the bow every dip.  The wind is very strong and some times it feels like your trying to climb a hill.  I lost my breakfast but I wasn’t sick.  Most of the fellows were sick and had puked all over the ship.  When I saw it I just couldn’t hold my breakfast at all.  It has been rough all day and I hope it quits soon.  We played cards and had a session on maps.  It rained a little today. I guess I had better turn in now so good night.