The halt along the road was for about three hours, so the S-4 decided the companies were in need of water. The only vehicles available were the two Bren carriers and the Weasel. We unloaded the vehicles and Henny and 'Lionel' took off to load up with water. This was a little out of our line, but sometimes the crew wondered what a maintenance section was for, anyway. It wasn't unusual for mechanics to be digging latrines, sumps and what have you. Many times the boys wanted to change their names so that "McTavish" would forget about them and get someone else for his shovel details.

Finally we left our roadside paradise and went on in to Lintfort. This trip afforded us with quite a bit of excitement. In one place we had to bypass the road and detour around thru a narrow dirt road and then thru an open field. The field had been pretty well torn up due to the traffic that had preceded us. In one spot, there was a hole big enough to partially bury a 2 1/2 ton truck. The night was pitch black and it was practically impossible to see the road hazards that were ahead.

Blackie with his recovery and Henny with his Weasel did most of the work that night. They pulled all the vehicles that were stuck in the hole and got them out on hard surface again.

After we had crossed the field, there was a bank about three feet high hindering the approach to the road, and the 'Night Riders' (as they can be truly called) herded thru and got back up on the black-top once more.

Lintfort is a place that none of us will ever forget. Some of us were way behind the column and when we pulled into town, no one seemed to know where the outfit had gone to. 'Baldy' was leading the column and when he got to the center of town, he pulled up along the curb and told us that we had been traveling on our own. Finally Capt. Carder came along and we continued on. We only went a short ways and came to an abrupt halt. We were to stay here for the rest of the night and stand guard. This town had only been partially cleared and the real fighting

was going on only a short ways ahead of us.

We stood guard at our vehicles all night and were given orders to short anything that moved. It was all quiet except for an occasional machine gun burst, when all of a sudden Muck cut loose with his carbine. He had spotted something moving in the field across the road and opened fire on it. The next morning we found to our surprise that Muck had killed his first German. (He killed one horse and hit another one in the leg.)

This day, March 5th, started a series of events which this section will never forget. Our first job was to recover a half-track that had been hit three times in the left side. The track had been knocked off and the suspension was completely destroyed. We towed it back to our improvised shop, which was located right on the main highway and started out for some other vehicles. We had all kinds of work to do. 'A' Co. needed a rear differential assembly, a transmission and other major units. Part of the crew started to strip down the worst vehicle and salvage all the necessary parts. Up at Rhineberg where the Letter companies were engaged with the enemy, they were receiving heavy vehicle and weapon damage. This kept all sections on the go. Vehicles and weapons were recovered under enemy fire and were repaired and returned to the companies in the minimum amount of time.

Whenever we had a dull hour or so, the men all worked under the supervision of 'Mortimer' and ambitious Goetz, who were repairing the weapons that we picked up in the field. This achievement enabled our Letter companies to be fully armed at all times. This also enabled us to have a supply of each type of weapon on hand and when a weapon was damaged beyond repair, we were able to supply the companies without any delay.

At Rhineberg, Blackie and his crew were out in a field to recover a half-track that had been knocked out. The enemy were firing into the field and some shells were coming too close for comfort. All that were present at the time can still recall Capt. Anderson yelling at Emary to get moving on the double, and how Emary had to run across the field with his pants at half-mast. Those damned Jerries didn't have any respect for a man or what he was doing when they let go with a couple of rounds.

Another incident that comes back to us is the American Indian who was driving a 2 1/2 down the road with all rear tires as flat as a pancake. The boys hollered at him and told him of his tires and all he answered back was, 'Hell, man, this is 88 avenue and ah isn't about to change those damned flats'.

This lasted for about a week and then we heard that we were going back for a rest. Everyone's face beamed with visions of good beds, plenty of time to lay around and sleep, etc. It was a rest all right. The only time we got any rest was at night when we weren't on guard. We were all still in Service Co. and the word rest is just omitted from our vocabulary. We still had those ever famous six-thousand mile checks to do and Gravel Gertie and Poncho had all sorts of gadgets to make up and weld on the vehicles. Gravel contracted to build an armored half-track and that took him a little over a week.

Some of us were kept busy going back to Lintfort where the Ord. Bn. had set up a graveyard for vehicles that were damaged beyond repair. We salvaged a number of serviceable parts and that helped us out in our repairs. Once more the transportation problem presented itself. Mac was in need of a 2 1/2 to carry his parts and to travel back and forth to Ordnance. There was a truck at the graveyard that had been left there for salvage. Marvin, Gypsey and myself took the wrecker and went after it. When we came back with the truck, we were met by numerous scowls and a lot of questions as to who was crazy enough to think that they could repair that heap of junk. Three days after we started work on the truck, it rolled out as good as new, painted and all. It didn't seem that anyone would want that truck before we started working on it, but when it was completed, we had to do some fast talking to keep it in our section.

Remember the night that we first received our liquor ration? I do. Someone said it was brandy, but most of us claim it was concentrated glycerin. A half of one canteen cup was enough to make you want to lay down and die, I had a little bit of that myself. I remember coming out of a house and walking down the street to where I lived. As I came up to the house, I went to go in the door and very much to my surprise, I found that someone had built a stone wall there. After I got back up on my feet, I brushed myself off and finally did get up the stairs. I tried to get into bed, but was too tired so I laid down on the floor. Good old 'Henny' tucked me into the sack after he got me undressed. That is where I acquired the

name of 'Stonewall'.

After spending a little over two weeks at Venlo, we were ready to move out again. We had a good 'rest' in that two weeks, so we were all set to go again. This time we were to cross the Rhine and back to battle.

We crossed the Rhine in good shape, even if Madden did have to ride on the fender of his truck all the way across the bridge and pump gas up into the carburetor by hand. After we crossed the bridge, Baldies truck had a fit and would not run. A small piece of wool had worked its way into the gas line and stopped it up. Oh well, that's what we were along for, anyway.

At our next stop, which was Bruckenhausen, we had to go over the entire fuel system on Madden's truck. Just about that time it started to rain and by the time we finished, we were soaking wet. That wasn't bad enough, but the Jerries had to throw some artillery at us to remind us that a war was still going on.

When we left Bruckenhausen, Blackie and his crew went ahead with the rest of the Battalion. We were with the Combat trains and finally wound up in a lot just out of Dorsten. While we were here, one of our 3/4 tons was evacuating the dead when the Krauts opened up on them with a 20 mm gun. They called back for the wrecker and 'Willsie', driving Capt. Anderson, led us up to where it was. It was supposed to have been all clear, but when we pulled up with the wrecker, we found out that there still were some active Krauts out in the woods. As Marvin and I climbed out of the wrecker to a safer place, a 20 mm tracer came in between me and the wrecker. Make believe we didn't hit the ground in a hurry. The officers with us wouldn't let us go any further so we went back a short distance and waited around a while.

After waiting for a while. I asked to have a tank drive me up to where the vehicle was at and then I could get at it. At first, I could not get the tank but after a while I managed to talk my way into it. We went up in the tank and after they turned around and got into a position between the disabled vehicle and the general location from where the fire was coming from, I climbed out and made a run for the 3/4 ton. Just as I got it started and backing it down the road, another shell hit the ground about twenty yards from me. I got out of there as fast as I could go backing up and got back to the wrecker. That was enough excitement for one day for me.

Back at our billets, some of the boys uncovered a good sized trunk that had been buried behind the house. It's a funny thing, but I don't think the German people trusted us very much. It seemed that every place we went, they would hide different articles such as guns, watches and jewelry. When we found it, one couldn't very well call that looting.

From then on, things went along very much the same. We had become accustomed to battle and in our line of work it was seldom that anything unusual happened. Half tracks were still running over mines, enemy fire still had us zeroed in and the work was just as hard as ever.

After a long stretch of continuous driving, we came to Unna. The companies were doing most of the fighting on foot, leaving the vehicles behind at Hemmerdes. We took a slight break here and the boys did a pretty through job of rounding up fresh eggs. A Russian gal at the place where we stayed fried the eggs for our breakfast. We had part of Bob Lockwood's fuel and lube section along and with the two sections working together, there was plenty of eggs for all. If I remember correctly, the average number of eggs eaten by the fellows was around nine apiece. Those were the first fresh eggs any of us had seen in quite some time.

While we were at Heminerdes, the wire section reported to the S-4 that they had seen a Peep along the road the night before while they were laying wire. Blackie and I started out on foot to see if we could find the exact location and make arrangements to get it. We walked for quite some distance and after a while it seemed as though we were away from all civilization. It wasn't long until we found out that Jerry was just across the field from where we were. It didn't take us long to get out of there. That was the first and only time we didn't get what we went after. Later we found out that the Peep belonged to one of our tank battalions.

One other slight incident which occurred in that vicinity was the night we went after an ammunition trailer. It was in a pretty hot spot but we never realized just how hot it was until it was all over. We had been following Hq. Co. all along. Their assault gun platoon leader contacted us and told us about the trailer being on a little dirt road alongside a cemetery. It had to be pulled back out to the

road and then lifted up, as the tongue was broken off. I went down to where it was with Capt. Anderson and made all necessary plans. After we decided what to do, he left me there to wait until the column had passed and to stop my vehicles.

After the column went by, I stopped the boys and told them the story. An officer came along and told me that there was some more of A Co. to come thru and not to stop them. We set to work getting the trailer out and when I saw the other vehicles coming along, I hollered to them to go around us and continue on. It was so dark that we were stepping on one another. Finally, someone told me that the vehicles that I told to pass on were our security. Did my morale hit a new low! There wasn't anything left for us to do but get out of there. A lonely dogface in a foxhole stuck his head up and told us to get the hell out of there before we all got shot up. What to do? The good Capt. had left us once more without any instructions as to where to go and there we were. You couldn't go far, because if you did, Jerry would be putting you in that cemetery. That was one time that we made a guess and hit it right.

Then started the big run to Wolfenbuttel. Remember Wolfenbuttel Sal, fellows? Quite a gal wasn't she? We did get to that town, even if it was three days later and we got there just in time to see the rest of the outfit pull out. That was when our maintenance section was attached to the 36th, to do all their work. I am still of the opinion that they should make up a new award, called 'The Bogie-wheel Cluster'. The only time we had for a break was the little while we would ride between changing bogie wheels. It wasn't bad enough that we were sweating out our own tracks with over one thousand miles on them. Every time we would see Mr. 'Gismo', we would haunt him about the new tracks we were supposed to get a long time ago. He almost went after them one time, but the truck was needed to take men on pass, so we just rode on our uppers. Hell yes, they gave passes when we were in combat. We are going to get one someday, when we get back to civilian life. We could get one now, but we just can't be spared.

Down to Derenburg we went. It was only supposed to be about 25 miles away. Somebody left the one off the front of the twenty-five. That's the way all the runs were. After a while we got so that when they gave us a certain distance, we multiplied it by ten and came out pretty near right.

Mr. 'Gismo' and Mac were kept busy here. We were hurting for bogie wheels bad and they just weren't to be had. Tracks for the tank were just out of this world. Blackie was even thinking about finding a permanent home right there and using his shoe-less buggy for a road block. We had to coax him to take it twenty miles further to Blankenburg. Finally he gave in and pulled out with the rest of us.

As soon as we pulled into Blankenburg, the L and P (looting and pillaging) squad went to work. They went out rounding up prisoners out of cellars, homes and jewelry stores. It got so that they reported back to my half-track every hour and then took off again in another direction. They were finding all kinds of guns which had been hastily buried or thrown into the woods by the fleeing Krauts. Willsie walked down thru a small stream and found a couple of guns. Emary and Scooter found three guns behind a building and Doughbelly found 'Lilli-Putt' buried behind another house. That's all he talks about now. He broke the magazine catch on it the other day and it almost broke his heart.

From Blankenburg we went up thru the Harz Mountains into Elbingerode. It was here that we had another and altogether different type of duty to perform. We had to clear all the German vehicles that were along the road and put them in one lot. In some places we had to clear the road of trees that had been dropped by the retreating Germans to slow down and hamper our advances.

While we were at Elbingerode, B Co. picked up a Peep that the Jerries had and it was in sad shape. The back end had been torn out by shell fire and it was beyond repair. I got the bright idea that it would make a nifty pick-up truck and told Gravel Gertie of my plans. We started out to look for the material that was needed and after we found what we wanted, he started to work on it. Three days later we had the finished product. Numerous remarks were passed as to what it looked like, but now there is a different angle to the story.

It seems that that Peep is the only one around when transportation is needed.

The one question that remains unanswered is, Why did everybody want to pull guard at night???

From Elbingerode we went on to Uslar. This was a real set-up. We had beer down in the shop all the time and a decent place to work in. The only bad part was climbing that hill to go up to the barracks. I guess that is the reason we didn't have calisthenics.

On V-E day, we all had the day off. Some of us spent our time in playing baseball and others just laid around. It may have been a great day for some parts of the world, but to us it was the start of a new question. What would happen to us now? Who would be the first to go home? The rumors started to come in so fast that you couldn't keep up with them. Baldy was the first to go home. With 44 months overseas, he had a total of 105 points. Mr. 'Gismo' is the winner as far as rumors go. Every time he comes back from Ordnance, he has a new one for us. Some day he is going to tell us that we are going to leave here and it is liable to happen.

Germany didn't have enough excitement and amusement for the outfit, so they sent us to a nice quiet place called Rokycany, Czechoslovakia. The women are like icebergs and the amusement is plentiful. Especially when you go up in the room that the Bn. Maint. section is in. It's a show to watch Doughbelly try to get, in an upper bunk. Pierre is trying to get the few remaining Marks off the boys in a poker game and Perky is buying and selling loot so fast that he is losing money.

In conclusion, I might explain a few facts about this section. It is composed of twenty-two enlisted men and two officers. These men come from the four corners of the States and never knew one another until they started their military training. They have worked hard and for long periods of time. To hear them cuss and moan at one another while they are performing their duties, you couldn't understand how they get along. In the most trying times they can and invariably will stand up and laugh. To these men go a heart rendering cheer and all Gods luck and good wishes.