It’s June 5th, 1944. In the hills north of Rome.
Bullets rip through the woods as American men and armor attempt to make their way back down one of the many Italian hills.
Soldiers take cover behind rocks and tree trunks, firing back at an invisible enemy.
They're unable to assess the threat of an enemy they can’t see.
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Navigating through the trees and fields are 4 Sherman tanks of C company from the 752nd Tank Battalion.
Within the lead Sherman Commanding Officer Frank L Heaton Jr
attempts to make sense of the situation as a never ending barrage of machine gun fire ricochets off his tank.
He can see very little through the periscopes and orders fire upon the tree line ahead.
“Fire!”
The Shermans fire their four 75mm cannons.
High explosive shells fly across the battlefield and impact under the greenery.
Heaton is struggling to see whether they’ve hit anything or not when suddenly
an enemy shell impacts on the ground just ahead, lifting a shower of dirt into the air.
“What was that?!“
“God damn it, where the hell are they ?! “
Heaton searches desperately through the periscopes. In the trees ahead and in the fields below.
Nothing.
Another shell impacts nearby.
He looks across the top of the hill.
Nothing.
Another of his commanders radios him reporting also being under heavy fire.
He checks the top of the hill again and spots a bright muzzle flash.
“Top of the hill!“
His orders are interrupted by a shell striking the Sherman’s turret with a deafening clang and making Heaton instinctively duck down.
But thankfully his armor holds.
Without skipping a beat, he returns to the periscope to look for his target,
up in the hills he sees the small shape of a Panzer 4 turret peeking above the dirt.
He grabs the commander’s turret traverse and swings the gun round to face the target as he barks :
“Gunner, target, top of the hill! Loader, Armor Piercing! Fire! Fire!”
The gunner frantically raises the weapon to bear and presses the button.
In a flash he already loaded High Explosive round is propelled out of the muzzle,
streaking across the sky and detonating into the earth;
it falls just short.
Swiftly the loader slams an Armor Piercing shell into the breach
and another round is propelled downrange, zipping past this time over the enemy’s head.
One by one Heaton’s Shermans find the target and open fire on three Panzer 4s firing down from the hill.
Back in Heaton’s tank the gunner prepares his third shot, carefully lining it up on the tiny target..
...and fires.
The APHE shell flies true and strikes the enemy square in a turret, the ammunition inside cooks off and a plume of fire rises from the hatches.
Moments later another one of the Shermans strikes down a second Panzer and the remaining German tank
retreats from the position leaving two wrecks behind.
Spotting an opportunity Heaton orders his driver forwards,
they roll down the hill under enemy machine gun fire as Heaton continues to scan the area through his commander’s cupola.
He continued to support the infantry advance, firing multiple rounds through the German positions in the trees.
Gradually the ear-piercing pings and clangs of the bullets
impacting on the armor slow and come to an end and infantry makes their way forward.
Heaton for his part ordered the tanks to climb onto the position previously occupied by the German Panzer.
Heaton’s tank rolls over the hilltop and comes down on the other side followed by his platoon.
“Stop!”
He keeps his eye on the periscope half-expecting for the remaining Panzer to attack, but instead they find nothing.
Heaton opens the hatch and takes a look outside.
They are totally alone, tank tracks across the ground show the enemy retreat, heading straight for a road and then disappearing.
He gets back inside the tank and orders everyone forward and to follow the road.
The American war machines trundle onward strangely unopposed,
Heaton watches cautiously from above expecting there to be some kind of resistance.
Landmines, the surviving Panzer in ambush, a long 88.. anything.
And yet, the fields remain quiet, the sounds of the raging battle left far behind.
They continue to push forward for about a mile
until they roll around a corner and stumble upon a convoy of 25 German trucks parked on the side of the road.
The Germans at the head of the convoy are stunned by the encounter and flee, some firing their handguns at the Shermans.
Heaton immediately drops back within his vehicle and orders everyone;
“Fire!”
The American armor shoots at the parked trucks from point-blank range turning them into
instant scrap and making the Germans across the entire convoy flee in panic.
Some of the trucks are full of ammunition so they explode in spectacular fashion when shot with the Sherman’s 75mm HE ROUND.
The Americans roll by laying waste to all the German machine's leaving behind a column of fire and destruction.
They then continue on, now knowing that they are definitely behind enemy lines.
They drive until a platoon of German soldiers heading for the front in bicycles rounds a turn on the twisty road
and find themselves face to face with the convoy of Shermans.
Heaton’s tank opens fire with the coaxial and hull machineguns, taking out the enemy in a lopsided engagement.
Meanwhile, further down the road the crew of a lone StuG tank destroyer are running some maintenance
when they hear the gunshots in the distance.
The commander is instantly alarmed as they’re not supposed to be anywhere near the front to be hearing gunshots,
he orders his crew to finish up immediately and jump in.
The Shermans continue on their way looking for things to destroy
when suddenly a shot comes from the trees and strikes Heaton’s Sherman square in the transmission.
Heaton is thrown about inside the turret as his tank screeches to a halt and the convoy behind is forced to stop.
Hidden in the trees the StuG crew reloads the weapon as the Shermans behind Heaton awkwardly maneuver from behind the immobilized tank.
The Germans fire at Heaton’s tank for a second time, he pierces straight through the hull below the turret slamming into the engine in the rear,
and starting a fire.
Heaton and his crew rush to escape as smoke fills the cabin.
Simultaneously the two other Shermans flank the now burning machine
and aim their guns right at the StuG who had just revealed its position with that second shot.
They fire one after the other striking down the enemy in a blink of an eye.
Heaton helps his wounded crew onto the back of the rearmost Sherman, he then climbs to the hatch and orders to retreat back to allied lines.
At the end of the day, they had driven an incredible 6 miles into enemy territory,
taking out a Sturmgeschütz, an enemy platoon, and the supply convoy.
The destruction of the supplies would prove to be the most impactful, limiting enemy effectiveness at the front and forcing a retreat.
First Lieutenant Frank L. Heaton would be awarded the Silver Star for his brave actions and leadership on that day,
but tragically he wouldn’t live to receive it. As he was killed in action just 10 days later.