In all fairness to the English and the scow we came over in, we deem it advisable to start this narrative with our adventures in England.

Our first home was a pyramidal tent with the conventional inverted funnel for a stove. During the course of our stay we threw the damn thing out three times. It had tendencies, with the support T/4 Matt could give it, to assume the proportions of an "Eager Beaver". Besides making us all smell like a bunch of indians it would set fire to what we commonly called the floor.

But perhaps I'm delving on a lesser evil by mentioning our home, so I'll go on to what, to us, gave us the prize pain where we should have pleasure. Namely, the battle of synthetic rubber and how in hell to make it hold air. With a compressor that wouldn't run, plus cold patches, plus from 10 to 12 flats a day we eventually wound up working until midnight to cover P. M. checks that had to be made.

The fog also added to our plight especially if one waited until after dark to venture out. If one started for a definite place he invariably wound up somewhere else.

The summed up substance of the affair started us toward the Coast of France with a cliental that were fit to be tied. Tallman had aged considerably, Matt had to dispense with the use of one foot, Smitty had a weak back, Falvo was light headed, (although he called it air mindedness and Mantey could bear watching.

We landed at Le Havre after a rather uneventful trip across the Channel. It still continued to rain as it had all the while we were in England. We hadn't bettered ourselves a bit as far as weather was concerned. After a long drawn out process of unloading we eventually started our big 'skid' across France, stopping first at Totes. The rain which we had somehow began to take for granted gradually turned to snow, which added materially to our troubles. Mud, slush, and cold hands made our tire business more

The course of our stay here involved an inspection or two including one by Ordnance in which said organization failed miserably (they found nothing wrong). Falvo got gigged on his guns but he passed the buck. The G. I's hit us while there, but aside from losing a little weight we weathered the storm.

Our next move was a wild dash into Holland. After riding 160 miles involving eons of time our advance party succeeded in leading us smack dab in the middle of the road just outside of Sibbe with no place to go.

We had left the snow belt it seemed, but we were still battling the elements, again in the form of rain. Mud was second nature to us by now. We were rapidly acquiring the proportions of a duck in the vicinity of our lower extremities at least. Although he denied it on several occasions, Falvo made noises characteristic of his cousin Donald. By this time Tallman had worn his combat helmet for a month night and day and proceeded to encourage the habit far into the spring.

We eventually moved in under cover and were successful in getting our vehicles back in shape. We witnessed our first V-Bomb here. A flash through the sky, a violent explosion, and Company Maintenance

made a wild dash under the truck.

From Sibbe we drove to the Ruhr to get our first glimpse of combat. We put up our camouflage nets and set up shop in a big way, because by this time in the game the trucks had gone a considerable distance.

We crossed the Ruhr and found happy hunting grounds in Huckelhoven. We cleared out the trash in a suite of rooms and really set up housekeeping. It seemed like the Germans wanted us to have plenty of room, as the town was evacuated. The Company Maintenance C.P. looked quite prosperous after Huckelhoven.

The atmosphere soon grew dingy so we hit the road again. We got lost again and beat the Company to Kaldenkirchen, the objective, by 6 Hours. Here we had our first experience with Kraut Civilians. We asked an old German farmer if he had any room we could use, so he proceeded to show us three dingy, old, decrepit rooms with a beautiful view over the stable. We said good, you'll take them and we'll take over your house. Matt spent hours watching the women climb up and down the stairs and Smitty detailed himself to guard that pretty Polish woman. He even followed her to the little house.

Our outfit was spearheading toward the Rhine, so we followed and came upon our most eventful days of the war. We marched into Lintfort with machine guns barking, rifles singing, and artillery banging, and our decrepit Motor Sergeant froze to our old 50 cal. The order was 'shoot anything that moves' so 'Trigger Happy Falvo' almost shot up the Company.

Our stay in Lintfort involved a lot of things as far as the Company as a whole was concerned but to our particular section it was a matter of performing maintenance when and if the trucks stopped long enough to do so. Excitement ran rather high here as the fighting was taking place just a few miles from us. We were surrounded by heavy artillery and while there, saw the first plane shot down. We were obliged to take cover on a few occasions as a protection from strafing.

After a few hectic days we were moved to the rear, namely Venlo, Holland for a rest. However our trouble started at this point. T/4 Malt was evacuated to a hospital somewhere in the rear due to an infected foot. None of us have heard from him since. Our sincere regards go out to him wherever he may be.

We had time here to do a pretty good job of maintenance including the painting of most of our vehicles. The highlight of our stay being a dry run crossing of the Rhine in the dark.

I don't think any of us will ever forget the people of Holland. Their villages and cities were pretty well shattered but they never tired of showing us how grateful they were for their liberation.

At this point we lost Lt. P. M. D. as a motor officer as he was to assume the duties of our Company Commander. We secretly wondered who we would get in our section as a replacement. We weren't in the dark long however, as soon Lt. Wilson appeared on the scene. A swell fellow and easy to work under.

We left Venlo sometime in the night with quite a few of the populace to see us off. We traveled miles on end, it seemed, but finally crossed the Rhine.

Mechanical trouble was held to a minimum on this run and about our only stoppage was due to flat tires. After getting across the Rhine our sense of direction went snafu and we suddenly found ourselves ahead of the infantry support. We backtracked a few miles and bivouacked in the woods over night. We slept on the ground close to a foxhole and spent the night without interruption.

We started out the next day for we knew not where. Our first mechanical trouble developed on this run. We managed to nurse the vehicle along but it was destined to be our prize headache, as time went by. In fact with the exception of Mantey, we all lost our chances for Heaven due to the son-of-a so and so. We spent a night or two en-route and finally landed in a field just outside of

Kirchellen. Fox holes were dug and arrangements were otherwise made for the night.

After things in general were taken care of, we decided it was a little early to hit the sack and on the suggestion by someone that we play a hand or two of cards we proceeded to do so. Before long our card game was interrupted by 88's falling too close for comfort. It was a mad scramble for our tin hats and a dash for our foxholes. Eventually it was deemed safe to get back in the truck as nothing more in the line of artillery was forthcoming. The rest of the night was fairly peaceful with the exception of distant noises.

The next morning we were moved to the opposite side of Kirchellen and spent a couple of days in said vicinity. Nothing of much interest happened except occasional anti-aircraft fire, which although beautiful to watch brought no bacon.

Our next move was to be (we thought) somewhere in the neighborhood of Hamm. We made a rather eventful start but, as usual, landed in a cow pasture near Selm. We stayed there until about 10 P.M. and started to move. Big things were ahead of us, so we were told. We took off with a bang travelling at breakneck speed plus blackout driving.

Pfc. Connell was driving with the author riding in the front with him. I couldn't see anything and I was reluctant to ask him whether or not he could. As long as we continued on in some semblance of a forward direction I trusted he was on the road. However I damn near died due to holding my breath. We travelled that way for about eleven miles and stopped dead alongside the road. The reason ? -- there was none available. The kitchen served hot coffee and we proceeded to spend the rest of the night in that very spot. The time was about midnight. When daylight began to make its appearance we began moving around a little stretching our legs and what have you. We also noticed that our particular truck had stopped near two Krauts, one in the ditch on each side of the road.

That was nothing new to us by this time as we had seen similar conditions quite a number of times. Sometime that morning we started to move. We did pretty well for the rest of the trip and landed in the vicinity of Delbruck, at about 8 P.M. We pulled into a field and spent the night there. The fighting was taking place in the next town from us, namely Paderborn.

Our motor officer, Lt. Wilson, being in some way connected with the evacuation of casualties was detailed to Paderborn the next morning. He was wounded there by shrapnel and although we didn't know it at the time, it was the last we were to see him until after hostilities ended.

After considerable finagling and jumping around in damn near the same territory we eventually started for Lippstadt. Here the duties of the Ruhr Pocket were taken up by the Battalion.

It had rained considerably in the past and looked as though it would continue. We left Lippstadt with not the slightest idea where we were headed for. After travelling a short distance we stopped for the night in another pasture along side of the highway. Several vehicles bogged down but we managed to extricate them from the mud besides performing the necessary maintenance before dark.

We moved the following day to a school yard deeper still into Germany. The vehicle mentioned above was still acting contrary and seemed determined to act up in spite of our best efforts. We tackled it again and worked until long after dark. We weren't allowed any lights and were reprimanded several times by the guards for trying to sneak a flashlight into play.

Finally after a lot of sweating and swearing we felt that at last we were conquerors. The truck was detailed to go back to the former area to pick up gas. I decided to go back with it to render any assistance needed. It was a blackout drive and we experienced no end of trouble finding the place, landing various limes either in a blind street or some Krauts barnyard. We finally arrived at the spot and found that the ration trucks had gotten lost, and rather than venture on, had decided to hole up for the night. We brought them in but it had used up most of the night.

From this spot we eventually took off for Werl. We had fairly good living quarters at this place and proceeded to make ourselves at home. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Heavy artillery was all around us and 88's and a bomb or two continued to fall but no one was hurt. Our Maintenance went on and we stayed long enough to do several jobs that were hurting.

The weather had cleared in a sense and our feet were gradually getting back to normal. Our next move, with the exception of an overnight stay in an orchard, was to be another wild dash to the heart of Germany, and the target was Berlin. We had been relieved at the Ruhr pocket and ordered to take off after the 2nd Armored Division which by this time, we were sure, had beaten us to Berlin. Our course was to take us up into the Harz Mountains, where the roads were narrow, winding and dusty.

Smitty drove until sometime in the night, the drive being non-stop and blackout, when Falvo took over. He donned his cheaters, got behind the wheel, and away we went. The only time we were in the road was when we crossed it. After a distance of 160 miles or so we pulled leather and stopped in Wolfenbuttel. The events here wouldn't look good in print so I'll refrain from any mention of them.

We didn't stay long, however, as we soon took off for Halberstadt. We were told that on this run we might encounter trouble from Hitler Youths so we were again loaded to the gills, including several German weapons we had picked up. The trip was uneventful however, and we landed in a barnyard in the outskirts of said Halberstadt. We stayed here a couple of days then moved to a field in the same city that was by far the better spot. Quarters were found and the Company was moved in. Our first bathtub was found at this spot and was enjoyed by all.

We stayed here several days finally moving farther up into the Harz Mountains to Elbingerode. It seemed like we had almost gone straight up in getting to this God Forsaken place and a difference in temperature was noticeable. Again we were greeted with snow. We stopped here for quite some time and had a chance to catch up on a lot of maintenance. Road blocks were set up and guard duty pulled heavy on all of us. A number of prisoners were captured and a varied amount of souvenirs were acquired. Another Ordnance inspection caught us at this place but we got by without too much falderal.

Our next move was to Uslar, Germany, at which place we saw the end of the war.

A story like this could go on and on as most of us are still in the Army. Our lot from here on will be a lot of eyewash which interests no one generally and is a pain to everyone in particular. Our biggest problem at present is 'when will we get back to the States'. To those reading this in years to come, especially those of our Company, may I wish all of you the best in the world and may your troubles be little ones.