IX.   COMBAT

We were assigned to the 3^rd Army (Patton's Army) when we were at "The Bulge".

After we broke through at The Bulge", we were ordered to join the lst Army (Simpson's Army) in the north section.

As we were getting ready to leave, I heard a rat-a-tat. I saw a G.I. looking around the corner of a building. I walked down to where he was and asked what was going on. We walked down to a half-track where a G.I. was holding his head. When he took his hands down, we couldn't see anything wrong. What had happened was, he reached up on the half-track to get his sub-machine gun by the barrel and the bolt caught on something and the gun fired. A bullet went inside the helmet between the liner and helmet, came out and went between the skull and liner, went back between the liner and helmet ad came out the other temple and nicked him on the finger!

We drove all night in the dark. I stood up in the turret of the half-track and directed Cooper (our driver) left or right. Some of the roads were narrow. We arrived at Maastrict, Holland the next day. We stayed in a home of very nice people. They had a boy about our age who played the accordian for us. He was interested in the U.S. He thought Indiana was connected to Indians. I told him I didn't know but it could have been.

One day while there, the Captain (Malarky) came to the house and asked if I would like to go to Paris, France for Officer Canidate School (OCS). I asked him if I would go to the armored infantry. He said he doubted it, that I would probably go to the foot infantry. I refused the offer. What a mistake!

Maastrict is on the Maas River. Looking across the river, we could see a jeep lying on its side. Sgt. Abbot, our platoon Sgt., said he was going to drive out to the jeep and see if there was a 45 caliber pistol in it. We advised him against the idea. He went anyway. When he got out to the jeep, he came under fire. One bullet hit him in the arm. Sgt. Abbot was anxious to get into combat and here he gets put out of the war before he starts. My Sgt. Thein took over the platoon in place of Sgt. Abbot and I took over our squad in place of Sgt. Thein.

While at Maastrict, we saw a light in the sky making a putt-putt noise like a lawn mower. We discussed it awhile and finally decided it was a V-l bomb. The V-l bomb was not very accurate. It was powered by a gasoline motor that would shut off when it neared the target. We would listen and when the motor shut off, it was a little bit when we would hear the explosion. Some of the guys got to shooting at them, but an order came down to stop shooting because they were so inaccurate it was better to let them go than to shoot them down. One was shot down and it landed in the city.

While we were in Maastrict, I posted guards on some heavy equipment that was parked in our area (bulldozers, etc). I was talking to Everett Sorrells one day in Shoals after the war. After comparing notes, we found out that was our outfit's equipment. He remembered guards being posted on his equipment and remembered about the V-l bombs going over.

One night, we noticed considerable bombardment across the river. The next day we went into combat. What a day it was.

X.   MORE COMBAT

The Germans were on one side of a railroad track in trenches. We were on the other side. We would lob grenades over the track and fire our rifles. I told my squad not to fire singly, but fire as a unit because I knew they were sitting over there waiting to see somebody stick their head up.

I decided I would walk down to where there was an underpass under the railroad. While I was standing there talking to some G.I.s at the edge of the underpass, one guy said, "You had better get back. They were firing through there." I took about two steps back when I heard a "spat". When a bullet comes close, you hear a spat like a cap pistol. This is the sound made like a sonic boom. When I walked back up to where I left my squad, one of the guys said, "Jones got hit." He was lying on the berm of the railroad. I crept up there and got him by the ankles and pulled him down off the railroad. I looked to see where he was hit and noticed a hole in the back of his head with his brains oozing out. He had raised up to fire by himself several times and a German had zeroed in on the spot and had got him between the eyes. Jones laid there a good while before the medics picked him up. He had an ashy color and just breathed about l0 times per minute. I had intentions of taking my squad through the underpass and root them out of the trenches. After seeing what I had seen, I decided I didn't want to be a hero or endanger anyone unless it was mandatory. Jones was not in my squad.

The German regular troops were in their forward trenches and SS Troopers were behind them in trenches. How we knew that, the regular troops raised white flags once to give up and they were strafed from behind by the SS'ers.

Our first day with the lst Army, we lost 45 of our company and l40 out of our battalion and only gained about l/2 mile.

We were crawling in a trench one after another when I came upon one of our GI's lying in the trench face down. Thinking he was dead, everybody was crawling over him. After I crawled over him and went a little ways, I happened to look back at him. He was up on his elbows spitting sand from his mouth.

The next day some gave up and some withdrew. (Germans)

We started traveling toward the Rhine River. We would go until we met resistance, then we would dismount, clean them out and continue.

We finally got near the Rhine River. I crept to the top of the hill over looking the river. I didn't know it at the time that we were looking down on the famous Remagen Bridge.

Our planes (P-51's) were flying right over our heads and were dive bombing the Germans streaming across the bridge.

A runner came up to us and told us we were pulling back. The 9^th Armored Division eventually captured the bridge.