Priest leads U.S. troops in assault on French village
Cleric prevents barrage, sparing lives of civilians in Nazi-abandoned community
By Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff writer
Saint-Germain, France – (July 16, delayed)
This is how a parish priest happened to lead the assault troops into the village of Le Bot.
Maj. Joseph Novellino of Paterson, New Jersey, told me about it today during an interlude in the advance toward Lessay.
The assault troops were lined up ready to hit the village. Maj. Novellino had delayed them temporarily while he prepared an order for a heavy artillery barrage to soften up any lingering Germans.
“I was going to shell the village because I didn’t want to sacrifice too many men,” the major explained.
At that moment, a black-frocked figure, wearing the broad-brimmed black hat of the parish priest, emerged from the village and walked swiftly toward the American lines. The priest begged Maj. Novellino not to shell the village, explaining the most of the Germans had fled and that the barrage would annihilate 35 civilians.
The major said:
As proof of his good faith, he volunteered to lead one of my companies in the assault on the town to back up his statement that the majority of the Germans had cleared out.
When our boys got in, they found about 35 civilians, who, when they heard of their deliverance from death by shellfire, knelt down in the town square and offered tanks to the Almighty.
Maj. Novellino said the priest, who had been a captain in the French Army, repeated the process in several other towns in cooperation with the French inhabitants. He said the French did not hesitate to recommend bombardment where the Germans still remained in force.