The Haunting Day The small town of la Turbie located near Monaco. The town was the scene of some of the last holdouts of German resistance in this part of Southern France in September 1944.   The large structure in the center of the picture is a 2000 year old monument to Augustus Caesar.   On a sweaty September day in 1944, a small reconnaissance patrol lead by Lt. George Luenning and A Company scout Joe Cicchinelli were making their way into the small Southern French town of la Turbie, overlooking Monaco. At the time, la Turbie was a one of the last holdouts of German resistance in the area. Through a twist of events, the reconnaissance patrol turned into a combat patrol that was focused on eliminating a German machine gun nest. Prior to the patrol, Joe’s war was primarily fought from a distance, firing at Germans a hundred yards away, hurling grenades but never really knowing if either hit their intended target. That day at la Turbie, Joe confronted death on a personal level, a day that he has been struggling to live with for most of his life.   Cicchinelli recalls in my interview with him: "As our reconnaissance patrol made our way down a road into la Turbie, on top of the mountain we could see a fortress manned by Germans. I remember we had a several men in the patrol: Lt. Luenning, Sgt. Anderson, Bud Hook,Virgil Dorr, and Lou Waters." Cicchinelli remembers that he called back to Lt. Luenning to use the binoculars so he get a closure look at the fortress, as he was looking at the fortress through the binoculars he saw a German soldier peering at him through binoculars. The German then started running along the side of the fort. From the fortress the Germans were in a perfect position to direct artillery fire on the patrol. Cicchinelli sensed this and shouted to the men to clear the road. About a minute later artillery fire started pouring in and the patrol sought cover and moved toward the hills west of the town coming up upon a large stucco house. According to Lou Waters in a letter he sent to Cicchinelli in 1982: "The Frenchmen’s house was a big stuco building that, along with the shrubbery and trees, effectively concealed our approach from the Krauts. We were invited inside, by a Frenchman, named Charles Colari. Colari was a young, small man, wearing a plain white shirt, who told us the town was crawling with Krauts and the local citizens were warned to stay inside and out of sight." Once inside the house the GOYA’s (GOYA was coined by the 551’s commander, it stands for "get off your ass") were also greeted by the Frenchman’s mother and father and his two children. Colari offered them wine which they readily accepted. Colari stated that he knew where the Germans set up a machine gun nest. Upon hearing this information, Lt. Luenning decided that the patrol should investigate.

An early war photo of  A Company scout, Joe Cicchinelli. 17  August 1944, after the battle for Hill 105 near Draguignan, France.  (L to R) Hook, Anderson and Schultz.

Colari proceeded to take the patrol up to the spot of the machine gun nest. As they made their way through the outskirts of la Turbie the Frenchman’s white shirt according to Cicchinelli "made him look like he was carrying a white flag." The machine gun nest was located inside of a flimsily wooden shack. The area around the shack was terraced and was typical of the terrain in la Turbie. According to Waters: "the moment we confronted the Krauts is etched in my mind in blood and fire. I will never forget it - our first face-to-face encounter with the enemy." As the men of the 551 started to assault the shack, some of Germans tried to escape through the back window where they ran right into Lt. Luenning and several other men in the 551 patrol. Meanwhile, Cicchinelli and Waters were preparing to storm through the front door of the shack and eliminate any remaining Germans. According to Waters: "You (Cicchinelli) were getting ready to go into the shack, screaming like a mad lion, when I grabbed your arm (recalling basic training) that we should throw in some grenades." Both man screamed "hold your fire" to the other 551 men and then rolled the grenades into the shack. No sooner had Chic and Waters pulled the pins and rolled the grenades into the shack did Sgt. Anderson try to barrel through the front door. As Anderson was making his way through the door, Cicchinelli and Waters both yelled "grenades! grenades! get down!" and Cicchinelli adeptly caught Anderson by his web belt and hauled him down on the ground. According to Cicchinelli: "we entered the house and I started emptying my clip. I remember that after he fired a round or two Lou’s rifle jammed. On my side of the shack was a dead German soldier." According to Waters the dead German "looked like a bloody pile of old rags." Both men then made their way to the rear area of the shack by crashing through the window. According to Cicchinelli "We saw three Germans on the ground - two were dead and the other was barely alive. Bud Hook said to me ‘this one is still alive’ and out of mercy I put my rifle to my hip and pulled the trigger.

The three youthful German   solders killed in the machine gun nest in la Turbie.  Cicchinelli removed the photos from their "soldbuchs" or paybooks. Afterward, according to Waters, "the group was sitting around trying to put together what had just happened. Some of the men were either red-faced or white-faced, puffing like steam engines from the effort and excitement." The respite was short lived, as a German mortar round hit a terrace behind the group. Someone yelled "let’s get the hell out of here." And the GOYA’s started scrambling over the terraces in a mad dash for cover. In the process, Bud Hook caught his ankle on vines, badly spraining it. Lt. Luenning was also wounded taking a bullet in the knee. That evening, some of the members of the patrol spent the night in la Turbie to tend Luenning and Hook while Cicchinelli and others made their way back to the 551’s lines to report the information they gathered. Joe Cicchinelli returns 53 years later to the same house that was the focal point of  the assault on the machine gun nest in la Turbie.   Over the next 53 years Joe Cicchinelli, a religious man, would often reflect on this day and wonder why he was chosen to survive the war. Sources: Written by Patrick O'Donnell. Multiple Interviews and notes provided by Joe Cicchinelli. Letter written by Lou Waters to Joe Cicchinelli in 1982 Interview with V. Dorr Photos through Cicchinelli. Bibliography: The Left Corner Of My Heart, by Dan Morgan. Messengers of The Lost Battalion, by Greg Orfalea.