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| Men of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion
are firing a 105MM Howitzer in the battle for Leghorn, Italy. |
522nd FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION
For more information on the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion’s
role in the liberation of Dachau, the Go For Broke National Education Center created “Unexpected
Heroes: The Story of the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion,”
a joint project with the Museum of Tolerance of Los Angeles that
includes an interactive component with text, photos and interview
clips. Additionally, from the Hanashi archive, 18 oral histories
of 522nd veterans are viewable at the Museum of Tolerance’s
Multimedia Learning Center.
The 522nd Field Artillery Battalion was one of the fastest, most
efficient artillery units in the European Theater of Operations.
The 522nd supported the infantry by shooting heavy artillery fire
from 105mm Howitzers. A Howitzer was a type of long-range cannon
with a barrel that was 105mm (about 4.1 inches) wide.
About 650 men served in the 522nd, which consisted of a headquarters
battery, three gun batteries (A, B, and C), a service battery
and a medical detachment. Each gun battery had four guns that
were each manned with a crew of seven.
Officers and enlisted men took turns serving on hazardous forward
observer missions where they went to the front line with the infantry.
Each forward observer team had an officer who made decisions on
the targets, a wireman who laid the telephone wire between the
forward observer position and headquarters, an instrument man
who calculated the target coordinates and a man who used a crank
telephone to call in the information to the headquarters battery.
At times, when the wires were cut, the men had to use the less-secure
method of radio contact. The headquarters battery coordinated
the artillery attack. The battalion’s survey team provided
accurate gun-position information and the fire detection team
determined how the guns were to be fired. Each battery’s
instrument section oriented the horizontal and vertical controls
on the guns.
The members of each gun crew worked in unison, each performing
a specific job. They fine-tuned the gun’s settings, packaged
the correct amount of powder charge, cut the correct fuse setting,
assembled the shells and casing, passed the shells quickly to
the loaders, loaded the shells into the gun, and pulled the lanyard
to fire the gun.
Usually only one gun was fired. The forward observers then reported
on the accuracy of the shot. The fire detection center made any
needed mathematical adjustments. If the target was correctly ranged,
then headquarters called “fire for effect.” Soon all
the guns fired continuously until headquarters ordered a cease-fire.
The 522nd was able to fire a blistering three rounds in less than
a minute.
In fact, in mid-July 1944, during the bitter campaign to capture
“Little Cassino,” the firing was so fast that the
522nd had to stop to cool the guns. At times, the infantry asked
for fire much closer than the standard safe distance of 100 yards.
Fighting in the artillery was less dangerous than the infantry.
However, many men had close calls, especially the forward observers.
During the rescue of the “Lost Battalion” eight forward
observers from C Battery fought alongside the 442nd’s I
and K Companies. Along with the 442nd, they were pinned down by
machine gun fire. They ran up the ridge in the “banzai”
charge. The 522nd saw the 442nd fall, wounded or dead - one after
another - until only 16 riflemen from K Company and 8 riflemen
from I Company remained and they finally reached the besieged
“Lost Battalion.” Incredibly, all eight artillerymen
survived unscathed.
On the fourth day that the 442nd was battling to reach the “Lost
Battalion,” the 522nd had a close call. The 36th Division
Commander, General Dahlquist, ordered an immediate artillery strike
on a particular set of coordinates. But these coordinates were
right on the top of the “Lost Battalion.” The coordinates
were changed and the battalion was saved from destruction - thanks
to the vigilance and intelligence of a fire direction team and
a forward observer from the 522nd.
Many of the 522nd’s key men had IQs of 130 - 160 and backgrounds
in science and engineering. The men needed strong mathematical
skills to calculate target distance, gun range, gun angle, and
powder strength. Most of the 522nd’s officers were Caucasian,
and later, a few Japanese American soldiers received battlefield
commissions as officers.
In March 1945 the 522nd separated from the 442nd and was sent
to help with the 7th Army’s jump across the Rhine. The infantrymen
were sad to see the gunners go. They really missed them during
the Gothic Line Campaign. In the last drive in Italy, when the
infantry called for artillery support, there were no effective
forward observers.
The 442nd had come to depend on the 522nd for its accurate shooting
and its brave and skillful forward observers. So did the 34th
Division. Whenever shell supplies were short in the division,
the 522nd received the most, because it used the scarce resources
most effectively.
The 522nd enjoyed a reputation for something else too - its powerful
baseball team. The artillerymen had beaten teams from both the
100th Battalion and the 442nd RCT.
But the men were haunted by memories of the cruelest, most gruesome
scene in human history - the holocaust. The 522nd helped to liberate
Jewish survivors of the Landsberg-Kaufering Dachau Death March
and Dachau sub-camps. The irony of the 522nd's encounter with
the Dachau inmates was that many 522nd soldiers and/or their family
members were also incarcerated in segregated camps in their home
country during the war.
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