 The DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of better things for better living through chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America. Tonight's star, John Hodyak. Tonight's story, The Green Wall. This is how it happened. It was the 4th of July, 1944. And the fireworks had been popular, right? Only these fireworks weren't for fun. The sky rockets turned out to be Akaak and the Roman candles were 105's. It screamed over your head on their way to a Nazi target. The place Normandy. And me? Well, I'm Curtis Cullin, a 102nd of Recon. A sergeant in the turret of my tank in the middle of a war. We've been moving forward and suddenly I stopped. I called Joe Dobson who was in the tank next to mine on his quadrant net. Fox 2-5. Fox 2-5. This is Fox 2-1. Sergeant Dobson, can you hear me? Fox 2-1. Fox 2-5. I got you, Kurt. What are you breaking for? Shall I call? Hedge rows, you dope. At the end of this field. See them? So what? This is Normandy, Sergeant Cullin. What's a couple of hedge rows to attack us? Fuck Joe, don't be a wise guy. Get hung up in one of those traps and the Germans will open you up like a tin can. They're on the other side of the hedge rows. Right on that side of the neighborhood. Flatfoot's gone through. Flatfoot. That's what Joe Dobson called his M5. I watched him gun her till the track screams. I was going to try to ram his tank through a Normandy hedge row. And that was no picnic. A hedge row is a solid green wall. Made out of leaves and roots and stalk and dirt. And on top of it all, a thick leafy mass of large shrubs and small trees. The whole thing may be six feet high and four feet thick. And ever since we hit the beach after D-Day, those babies had gone in our way, but good. I got back to Dobson on the message. Joe, don't be a goon. Cut back. I tell you the Germans are on the other side. On my breath. He was maybe a hundred yards away when she hit the hedge row solid. Head on. And then she stopped dead. That tank was hung up helpless as a kitten. Belly 45 degrees up in the air. I signaled my driver to give our tanks a gun to get down there fast. It was a lifetime too late. From behind that hedge row, a Nazi hand grenade got there first. Right in the open hatch. Those guys in Flatfoot never knew what happened. When you blow up inside a tank, you do it fast. The way it was on the 4th of July of 1944. When they pulled us out of the line the next day, I had a lot of time to think about it. A lot of time. Ferrari the mechanic had been working on the turret of the Falcon. That was the name of our tank. Gus, my driver was inside and I was standing by. Okay, Kuhlin. This turret ain't never had it so good. Hey, Sides! What? What's the matter, Ferrari? I said I got your turret working like it's tough. You dreaming of something? Get off my back, will you? Okay. Go ahead, dream away. You guys griped the turret, don't pick, so what do I do? I fix it and end what? Hey, Kurt, you want I should turn over? No, come on out, Gus. Okay. This ground big enough for two? Sure. Sit down. You look rotten, Kurt. I feel rotten. Still worrying over Joe Dawson, Eddie? What do you think? Look, pal, I know how you feel, but what's grieving going to get you? Joe Dawson and I lived across the street from each other. Coach we used to call him. Don't ask me why. He sure got sore every time we did. Yeah? Now where does Coach wind up? Dead. Murdered. By a hedgerow. Kurt, you've been acting a little squirrely these last two days. Get it straight. The masses finished off that tank. That's your enemy, pal. Not no hedgerow. We've got to lick those hedgerows. Oh, look, it took them farmers hundreds of years to grow the darn things. You figured on getting rid of them overnight? We've got to. Yeah? Or how? If I knew how, I wouldn't be marking time here. Okay, you're the mechanical genius. You're the guy that's always dreaming up gimmicks. You'll get cracking, do something about it. I wish I could. I only wish I could. You're old, I was over at maintenance, sir. Okay, fuel them, sit down with the others. All right, man, let's have it quiet. A gorgeous squadron officer's in non-coms here because he's got a problem. That's more than four weeks since we hit the beach here in Normandy. They were hot as firecrackers. The Nazis are on the run. And we got tangled up with the Green Death. These Normandy hedgerows. Now this invasion is going nowhere. And it's not going to move again until we get our tanks through. We've got to get through somehow. Now you all know we can't use the roads. The Nazis are squatting up there at Sandlow just itching for us to try. We're going to have to make it through the fields. That brings us smack up against our problem. The hedgerows. We don't lick them. They're going to lick us. Now somewhere in this army there's a man who knows how to get our tanks through those hedgerows. Maybe it's one of you. That's all you're dismissing. Well, where to next, Hanson? Oh, I don't know, Major. My maintenance men aren't getting anywhere with it. And the whole trouble it seems to me is, Major. Yes, what is it, Cuellen? Sir, I've been thinking a lot about these hedgerows. Yes? It seems to me we've been ramming our tanks against them like a bunch of stubborn billy goats. And everybody knows a goat can't butt down a stone wall. Now go on, Sergeant. Well, sir, we've got to punch our way through. So why not a kind of thing attached to the front of the tank? You mean like a bumper? No, sir. Like a snow plow, maybe. A snow plow? Yes, sir. You get any ideas on how to make it, Cuellen? I think so, sir. Could we go over to maintenance? I'll show you what I mean. A snow plow, huh? All right, you may have something, Sergeant. Let's see if we can give it a try. At this point, we'll try anything. Let's go. Let's hear about this gimmick you dreamed up. Well, it's like this, sir. Can we move over by that tank? All right. Now, look here, Major. Get the shape of the final drive on this tank. Mm-hmm. She's round. Nothing sharp about her. What happens when we're tearing along and busting into a hedgerow? Our tank just bounces off. Or it gets hung up. I know, sir. I've seen it happen. But maybe if we put something on the front of the tank, sir, something that's sharp, it'll cut in. Like a knife blade, you mean? No, sir. More like a fork, Major. You see, this fork contraption will bite into the hedge. Loosen those darn roots from the dirt. Maybe tear a hole right through. Well, that sounds all right. I'm sure it'll work, sir. I'm positive it'll work. Oh, maybe. Why don't I let maintenance try and work with blueprint on us? Oh, sir, if we make a blueprint of this thing, it'll have to plow through a lot of red tape. Maybe even have to go to the big brass in Washington. And that'll take too much time. We've got to do something fast. Well, I'm in just as big a hurry as you are, Sergeant. I'm sorry, sir. Don't be sorry, because you're right. We don't have time to be going through channels. In this war, you're either quick or you're dead. I know all about the dead, Major. And the rest of us better be quick. You want to try and make one of these forks of yours? I've got a crazy idea to work, sir. Then hop to it. Cue them on the double. Thank you, sir. On the double. Right from the Major, I figure this hedgerow assignment ought to be a breeze. But that's where I slipped my tracks. I needed heavy metal to make that fork. Big, tough hunks of steel. There wasn't anything like that in this man's army. I tried every ordinance depot in Normandy. Not a prayer. Finally, I got a brainstorm. Got the madro of our tank out in a field. It was almost midnight. Big hedgerows threw black, ugly shadows. Right in front of us, we could just see the burned-out hulk of an empire. Is that it, sir? Yeah, stop right here. All right, dismount. Yeah, sure, it's quiet. What's the matter? The masses are back in that hedgerow, they'll have a field. You sure this is Joe Dobson's tank? Yeah, I'm sure. You don't forget things like this. What's the sense of putting a toe to it, trying to get her back to maintenance? She's all burned out. We'll cut her up for scrap, use it for the fork. I figured maybe Joe would like to be in on this. Well, how'd you know it'll work? I did. Here, let's get the toe cable. All right. Hold it. What's up? Thought I heard something. Wait a minute. Sure is one bright moon. Anybody's on the other side of that hedgerow, he's got a couple of sitting ducks on this side. Wait a minute. Let's get to it and scram out of here. It's a plane player. There it is. Hey, he's pretty low. I don't know what he's coming back. Drop the toe. Come on, get in. Let's pull out of here fast. Okay, give her the gun. Big Dodson's tank out there. He got to it about five days too late. You think he got a bead on us, too? I don't think so. Well, let's don't hang around here to find out, huh? We better stick under these trees a while. Damn, Germans. Making it tough on us all the way from the beaches on in. They sure don't want us to win this war. They never figured we'd get this far. That's why we've got to be... Beaches. Holy cow, that's it. What's what? They never figured we could get this far in Normandy because they knew we'd never get to the beaches. What? Because 50 yards off every beach in this country, the masses loaded the ocean with underwater obstacles. Sharp middle spike to rip our LSTs to pieces. So? So there's our fork ready made for us. All we got to do is go down and get those spikes. Yeah, well, what about the tank out there? We don't need it, Gus. I've got a better idea. Tomorrow, you and me, we're going to fight as a boat and go fishing. What is it doing? What about this one? Oh, it's getting worse. As soon as Parody gets this demolition charge set up down there in the water, we'd better get this boat to shore. You mean not way to go down, sir, but those metal spikes after they blow loose? I don't even know if they will, Sergeant. Those prongs are buried in concrete blocks the size of a room. All right, so this wind gets any higher, and none of us will be around to use those spikes. Over here. It's Parody. Oh, there he is. He's swimming, too. All right, Parody, get home. Okay. Here you come. What? The demolition is set up. It should blow any minute. All right, let's get this boat out of here. You took long enough, Parody. What were you looking for, a mermaid? I'm a tank maintenance man-wise guy. I ain't no deep sea diver. What's this, Captain? Yes, Parody did a good job. Now what about it, sir? Can't we take a chance on this wind? Who means the left is that stuff now? Why not wait until this winds the tide, Sergeant? How do we know when that'll be, sir? We've got to get those metal spikes, Captain. It's gonna be what we're looking for, sir. I know it is. Okay, Sergeant. We go back there and get them. And after that, what? After that, sir, I start praying. If those babies work like I think they will, I've got a heavy date coming up with a hedge rope. It was the 13th of July, and in my battalion's maintenance outfit, it was a race against time. Our problem was to weld a sawtooth fork on the front of a tank so it wouldn't break off the first time we hit a hedge rope. I was standing around outside the maintenance area. Me, Sergeant Curtis Q, and a hundred and second reconnaissance squadron. I was thinking and I was worried. Hey, Kirk, what's with the disappearing act? Me and Parody looked around for you. You was gone. I took five, I saw. Two whole days I've been watching those guys slipping their tracks. I'd throw it if I didn't get out. Now move over, you've got company. Anything new over there with the tanks? No, same old rat race. What's the matter with those guys? Are the mechanics a creeper? Wait a minute, that ain't no push, pull, click, click. It's not their fault. There's a lot of angles to this thing. Parody's working that new angle of yours. How's it look? Who knows? Yeah, who knows? Look out, that guy. You see that steeple? Up on the high ground. I don't know. How far away your figure is? Maybe five, six miles. That's where we've got to get. This army's not going to go anywhere, we take that town. And you know something? There's maybe 10,000 hedgerows between us and this. Yeah. Well, here comes Major Old. I'll beat it back and see what gives with Parody. Anything happens, I'll send you a flag. Okay. I'll kill him and I'll be going. That's a new major. Nothing new to report. You look like you haven't slept in a week. Not quite that long, sir. I was at the core all morning, sergeant. They were in a stew about this hedgerow mess. General wanted to know how you were coming along. What'd you say, sir? Oh, I told him we had a natural-born mechanic on the job. Look at you. Looks like maybe you stuck yourself way out on a limb, Major. I don't think so. What do you think about us Americans? Kill them? We're a bunch of backyard engineers. I've seen a lot more. We're not going to get thrown by a hedgerow. No, sir. I guess we're not. But the question is, how soon do we lick it? I don't know, sir. But I better get back to work on it. Maybe this afternoon I'll be able to... Hey, Sergeant! Kill him! Kill him! It's Gus. Maybe something's up. Let's find out. He better call me if anything's this way, Major. Parody's got it, Major. That angle of yours, Colonel, it worked like a dream. How about it, Parody? Major, this here is the baby. She can't crack off. Brace with this ball. You see what I mean? Only catfish, Major. I think we got it. I think this is it. I'll soon be ready to test, Parody. Well, the welding ain't all done, sir. Maybe tonight, but for sure tomorrow morning. All right, kill them. We'll try it on a hedgerow in the morning. I'll get word back to the Corps. The general will want to be in on us. That's general, sir. That's right. You worried about it? No, sir. I think this fork will do the job. I can't get much sleep again that night. I kept asking myself over and over again. Will it work? Will it work? One morning finally came with a dark gray day. The general pulled into our seat right after breakfast. He looked like he hadn't had much sleep either. When we got out of the field for the big test, he called me over. Sergeant, Major Old tells me this idea of a hedgerow fork is yours. Well, yes, but lots of other guys don't get much sleep again that night. I kept asking myself over and over again. Of course. Well, yes, sir. But lots of other guys have been working on it, too, sir. Where's the tank you're using for this experiment? Up there, sir, on the rise. You know the driver? It's my tank, sir. And my driver, Corporal Gus Aberholley. He's the best driver in the outfit. He's going to smash into his hedgerow in front of us? Well, that's the plan, general. Major Old figured we ought to station ourselves behind the hedge, just like the Germans would be. That way we'll know exactly how good it is. It looks good to me, Sergeant. I think it'll work. I think my breath tight when I said that. But it was even tighter when Major Old signaled my tank and gave Gus the go-ahead. This was it. I watched Gus give my falcon the gun a hundred yards away and she's bowled downhill, both feet. Gus was driving that thing like a madman. And when she hit, something was going to have to give. I knew that. This thing had to work. It had to. That saw-tooth fork cut into that hedgerow like a knife into butter. He ripped out a whole second of hedge. The next thing we saw was the falcon busting on that hedgerow with an open gap behind her big enough to march an army through. But the army wasn't ready to march through yet. There was still a big job to be done. It was less than an hour later that I got a message to report to the general, by the way. All right, Cullen. Here it is. Yes, General. We're convinced that hedgerow fork of yours is the key to Sand Low. But we need duplicates of that key, lots of them, to get this army on the move again. Now you know why I sent for you. We've got a man-sized job for you, Cullen, and ten short days to do it in. What is it, sir? Sergeant, by the 24th of July, I want every tank in the U.S. Army, M-5s and Sherman's boats, fitted up with one of those hedgerow forks. In ten days? But, General, that means maybe more than 500 tanks. You're wrong. It means more than a thousand. I'm putting you and those other men who worked with you on special orders to make these contraptions for you. This job's got top priority. Anything you need, you get. I'll see to that. Is that all, sir? I think that's enough. Oh, true, Sergeant. Well, I can't say yet, sir. I'll let you know in ten days. No, Gus, no. Take a left. We're tapping or something. Sherburgs, that a way. We're not looking for Sherburgs. I know it's a big concrete bunker half a mile down this way. We need that metal, Gus. We need it bad. Hey, Sarge, what is it, Parody? Look, children, what do you say we break for the night? All this welding lights up the place. It's bright and time-squared. You out of your mind, we got work to do. It's a work-in-a-day time. What are you trying to do? We'll fight them cherries to a strafe and party? Okay, go out and round up some canvas, Parody. We're tending up this whole area. See it? You heard me. This job's gonna take 24 hours a day. It's tough. We ain't got 25. You got to set it up, Culin. Got maybe 200 more to go, Captain. How about metal? They're going to be enough? We got demolition teams up and down the beaches, sir. Lowering up those obstacles in the water. We'll get enough. But what about time? We got three more days, sir. Three days. Without their hedgerows on their side, those Nazis don't know what they're in for. With the 25th of July, that was 26th of August. I had a feeling in my stomach that it wasn't any problem. Fending up there in the turret of my tank, I could please stand low out there. That's where we were headed. You got to have a holly and mean, our tank Falcon. And our whole U.S. Army. Sir, how much more time? One minute, Dave Chow. We sure are flanking that thing low. Air Force is softening it up. After that, we go in and take it. Marks 2-1. Marks 2-1. Here, sir. I get you. A message just came down from the General's killer. He wanted you to get it right away. A message, sir? That's right. He just said, thanks for the key. That was awesome. Thanks for the key. You get it, killer? I get it, sir. Say bye. Five, four, three, two, one. That's it. Let's go, guys. All right, you hedgerows. That's it, sir. Thank you. This year, the award of honor for the 10th consecutive year was made to the DuPont Company. This is a record of which the 86,000 men and women of DuPont can be justly proud. Their cooperation, their attention to safety, and their commitment to the safety of the DuPont Company can be justly proud. They can be justly proud. They can be justly proud. They can be justly proud. Their cooperation, their attention to safety has made it possible. This is the first time anyone has won the Safety Council's highest honor ten times in a row. But interest and achievement in safety at DuPont are as old as the company itself. When Ely Fair Irine DuPont built his mills on the brandy wine in 1802, he designed the buildings and planned the manufacture of black powder for 150 years. The safety of DuPont men and women has been a matter of the greatest importance and the most careful planning. The 10 Safety Council awards are important because of what they signify. They represent the saving of many lives and the prevention of thousands of accidents. They serve as a constant reminder to DuPont men and women in plants, offices, laboratories, and warehouses that an effective safety program is their best insurance. These awards have been won by the men and women who practice safety every moment of their working days. As they produce the DuPont companies better things for better living through chemistry. Once again, here's our star, John Holiak. John, it's good having you back on Cavalgate again. Thanks, Si. I especially enjoyed playing the part of Sergeant Curtis Cuellen on tonight's show. I'm sorry he couldn't be with us himself. But he asked me to be sure and tell everyone that he was only one of the guys who helped with the battle of the head drones. Good night. Thank you. The Night to Farm Cavalcade was written by Robert Mason Pollock and was based on the article Sergeant Cuellen Licks the Head Drows by W. L. White, which appeared in the recent issue of the Reader's Digest. Original music was composed by Sergeant Cornwell, conducted by Donald Borey. The program was directed by John Dahler. In support of our star, John Holiak, our Cavalcade cast included Les Damon, Jeffrey Bryant, Bernard Lendrow, Bill Zuker, Chuck Webster and George Petrie. This is Si Harris speaking. Ladies and gentlemen, on Saturday poppy day, your American Legion auxiliary asks you to wear a memorial poppy in honor of our war dead from the Argon to Korea. Made by disabled veterans for the help of disabled veterans and the aid of war widows and orphans, these bright red memorial flowers are the veterans' way to honor the dead as they care for the living. Wear a poppy. Give as generously as you've received. Next week, the DuPont Cavalcade will be broadcast from the DuPont Nylon plant in Steefer, Delaware. Our story, the Valley of the Swan, pays tribute to a forgotten pioneer and the lost colony of Delaware. Be sure to listen next week when our stars will be Dana Andrews and Louise Albrighton. The DuPont Cavalcade of America comes to you from the city of New York and is sponsored by the DuPont Company of Burlington, Delaware. Make it the better thing for better living. Brukella Street.