It was tempting but one rule that governed "Battlefield Commissions" was that you could not return to your original outfit, in this case the 2nd Platoon of "M" Co.  I gave this a lot of thought but declined his offer because I did not want to leave the 2nd platoon.  Capt. Broussard understood my feelings about the 2nd Platoon and did not push the matter any further so I remained the Platoon Sgt. of the 2nd Platoon until the end of the war.

          We spent a lot of time cleaning our weapons and training the new men in what they should do when we moved into our next attack.  Some of the new men had not fired the heavy machine gun during their basic training so we spent quite a bit of time teaching them how to fire the gun.  We tried to tell them what to expect when we got back into combat but there is no way or words that I know that will prepare anybody for the experience of enemy artillery, mortar or small arms fire that is directed to kill or wound you.  If a new man survives his first encounter with enemy fire he can become a veteran in a very short time.

            We did preach one thing over and over that when under artillery or mortar fire to take cover the quickest way possible and when the fire stops get up and move forward.  It is human nature to want to remain on the ground but if you don't get up and move your chances of being hit are greatly increased.  Another problem with new men was the feeling that if they did not shoot at the Germans, the Germans would not shoot at them.  This one thing probably caused about one half of the casualties among new men.  It does not take long to figure out that the enemy is trying to kill or wound you so you better prepare yourself to take action against the enemy.  It’s a "Kill or be Killed" situation and to some extent you have the power to survive and live a long life if you let this be your number one thought.  Make no mistake the enemy is trying to kill you with artillery, mortars, machine guns and many other weapons. 

          Finally on February 3rd we loaded on trucks for the move back to Germany in the area we left when the Battle of the Bulge began.  We moved into the town of Zoop into some houses with partial roofs still in place.  The weather was drizzly and the ground was quite muddy but we were free of the snow.  The original date for the Roer River crossing was February 9th so we were getting ready for the attack.  On the 6th of February we moved forward to the town of Inden that was to be our assembly area prior to the river crossing.  Patrols sent across the river during this time brought back the news that the river was about fifty yards wide but that the current was quite swift.  The swift current would cause plenty of trouble in building and placing of infantry footbridges.

            On the 7th of February a patrol crossed the river and found out the river had risen over a foot and that made the river about seventy yards wide.  This was not good news and if the river did not start to drop the crossing would be extremely hazardous.  On the 8th of February the river crossing was postponed because the river continued to rise.  The problem with the river continuing to rise was caused by the fact that the Germans had blown the flood control gates on two dams upstream from us near the town of Schmidt.  The gates could not be opened or closed so the lakes behind the dam would drain slowly thus keeping the Roer River in flood stage for what turned out to be fifteen days.

            So we went back to training the new men and one thing I wanted to do was let every man in my platoon learn how to load and fire a bazooka.  It seems as though these new men had their basic training in the states cut short because of the Battle of the Bulge and none of them knew anything about the bazooka, our best infantry anti-tank weapon.  We moved out in some open ground near Pattern and I found a large farm tractor sitting in a field.  This would be our target and we had about thirty rounds of bazooka rocket ammunition.  Every man who had not had bazooka training was required to fire at least one round and most important how to safely load the bazooka before firing.  While we were firing the bazooka at the tractor from a distance of about fifty yards, I noticed a jeep going down a nearby road had stopped and two G.I.s were headed towards our group.  I really didn't pay any attention who they were as we continued to load and fire the bazooka.

            One of the men from the jeep walked up behind me and said "Sgt. can I fire a round or two with your bazooka?"  I turned around and the first thing I saw was the one star on his collar.  This G.I. turned out to be Brig. Gen. "Billy" Harrison the assistant Division Commander of the 30th Infantry Division.  I identified myself as the Platoon Sgt., 2nd Platoon, "M" Co. and needless to say I agreed that he could fire as many rounds as he wanted too.  Gen. Harrison told me that he had never fired a bazooka and he would like to learn how it was done.  I told him I would load the bazooka while he had the bazooka in the shoulder firing position.  When I had the bazooka loaded and ready to fire I tapped him on his steel helmet, as this was the right procedure to let him know that he could put his finger on the trigger, aim and fire.  His first shot landed about five yards short of the tractor so I reloaded and told him how to aim properly and this time he scored a direct hit on the tractor.  The General turned around with a big grin on his face and thanked me for letting him fire his first bazooka.  He then told his jeep driver to watch how I loaded the bazooka until he could safely load.  When he was convinced that his jeep driver could load a bazooka, he said he had to get back down the road to Regimental Headquarters.  I saluted and he returned my salute and thanked me again.  This was the highlight of my ‘bazooka training’ program but for sure my men could load and fire a bazooka should the occasion arise.

           I do not know for sure but I do believe that the training program that Gen. Harrison participated in led to my first Bronze Star Medal. The citation stated that I had taken it upon myself to see that my men were well trained as possible before going into combat.  I shall always believe that Gen. Harrison must have told someone what I was doing because it was not long after that    I was ordered to report to Regimental Headquarters for an awards ceremony.  There were about thirty people there to get awards and Major General Leland Hobbs gave me my first Bronze Star.

          On the 17th of February we moved from Inden to the Division Rest Center at Kerkrade, Holland for two days rest.  On the 19th of February we returned to Inden and continued our preparations for the Roer River crossing that had been set to begin early in the morning on February 23rd.  After dark on the 22nd of February we moved forward to the town of Pier.  Starting at 3:30 PM a forty-five minute artillery barrage from some fifteen battalions blasted the area across the Roer and the town and woods around Krauthausen.  The attack was to begin at 4:15 AM but due to the deep mud the 2nd Bn. was about forty-five minutes late getting off so by this time the Germans had really zeroed in on our section of the river.  We were attached to "I" Co. and were to cross in small boats or by infantry footbridges built by the combat engineers.

            Because of the swift current the small assault boats had a really bad time trying to negotiate the current.  This attempt to cross by boats was soon abandoned and we moved to the area where the footbridges were in place.  Mike O'Hara and I were moving up some fifty yards ahead through heavy mud almost knee deep when a mortar shell landed about eight yards in front of us. The mortar shell went down in the mud to the hard ground before it exploded so Mike and I were saved from possible fatal shrapnel wounds by the deep mud that smothered the shrapnel. 

          About that same time an enemy artillery shell hit the footbridge and knocked it out.  We knew that there should be another foot bridge about two hundred yards north so we continued to move towards that bridge.  We located the bridge that was also under artillery fire so we had to send the men across in groups of four or five between brief pauses in the artillery fire.  That bridge was about two feet wide bobbing up and down on the water anchored by a cable at each end.  I am sure the two of us must have covered that fifty yards or so in world class time.  Both of us had abandoned the life preserver that had been issued to us because it was too bulky.  I am sure that one or both of us would have drowned if we had fallen into the river but our Irish luck held again and we got across the river and started to move away from the river.

           The mud on the other side of the river was just like on the west side but we were combat wise enough to know we had to get away from the river as soon as possible.  The enemy artillery and mortar fire continued so we had to move forward in between the rounds coming in around us.  We moved up to a railroad track that ran between Krauthausen and Julich to the north of us and prepared to jump off for our attack on the tiny village of Berg on the high ground east of Krauthausen.  The 2nd Bn. had been held up in trying to clear Krauthausen due to a minefield in the woods due west of the town.

            We were ready to move into the attack on Berg by 11:30AM and before noon we jumped off across the open ground after a heavy artillery barrage was laid on Berg.  We did come under some fairly heavy mortar fire but most of the mortar shells were landing behind us.  Berg consisted of one large brick and stone house and several other farm type buildings.  We suspected that the main house was being used as an enemy artillery observation post and when we did reach the main house, our suspicions were confirmed.  This house was a perfect observation post for all the area because it was the only high ground anywhere in our area.  We covered the three fourths of a mile to Berg with no casualties but "I" Co. had three or four men wounded.

            By 1 PM we were digging in and preparing for a counterattack from the large rural town of Niederzier about one mile away.  Some eighty Germans had surrendered when we took Berg and we knew our position was not very good because we were receiving intermittent tank fire from Niederzier and we had no tanks or tank destroyers with us.  Luckily the sun was out and the P-47 dive bombers were working over us so there was no way any German tank was going to start across the open ground towards Berg.  About 3 AM the next morning we moved into an attack on the northern side of Niederzier.  A night attack was called for because of the flat ground that must be crossed was covered by three pillboxes having a 75MM anti-tank gun each and that could inflict many casualties on our men.  We moved into the northern part of Niederzier with complete surprise and as far as I know there were no casualties in "I" Co. or our Platoon.

            As far as the big picture was concerned this crossing of the Roer was called "Operation Grenade" in which the 9th Army was to cross the Roer River and turn northeast and come up behind the German forces west of the Rhein who were holding up the British 2nd Army.  The British and Canadian armies were suffering heavy casualties and unable to move towards the Rhine River.  The 30th Division was on the right flank of the 9th Army and because we were pivoting to our left we had the most ground to cover in order to keep up with the 29th Division on our left.  I am sure we could have pushed due east to the Rhein and probably been on the west bank in about two days after we crossed the Roer.  However this was not the plan so we continued to move as fast as we could although we did not have any tank support.  Night attacks were required to keep our momentum going and actually it saved us many casualties from accurate sniper fire that caused some problems during the daytime attacks.

          On the 25th of February we set up roadblocks on the roads that led to the south and east because the outfit on our right, the 104th Infantry Division, 1st Army, had not moved fast enough to protect our right flank.  By this time we had plenty of tanks and tank destroyers across the Roer so it would have been disastrous for the Germans to try and hit us in the flank.  Actually the Germans had begun a general withdrawal to the east bank of the Rhein River so this was not a real threat.

           Late in the afternoon of February 26 we moved forward again to the town of Kirchherten that was to be our jumping off point for the attack on Garzweiler.  Once again we were attached to "I" Co. and we moved into the attack at 3:30 PM.  We had two M10 tank destroyers with us as well as two M24 light tanks.  We deployed in a giant armored and infantry skirmish line because it was all open ground from Kirchherten to Garzweiler, approximately two miles, although not perfectly flat.  We did not encounter any resistance until about half way to Garzweiler when we came under some machine gun fire from a couple of houses about six hundred yards to our right.  We set up two of our heavy machine guns and opened fire on the houses.  The rest of the platoon went with Lt. Dezman and continued to move forward with "I" Co. while I remained with the two machine guns we were using to return fire.  There was a M24 tank about two hundred yards from me so Mike O'Hara and I took off to get him to blast the two houses with his 75MM tank gun.  I beat on the side of the tank with my carbine and finally got the Sgt. who was in command of the tank to open the turret.  I climbed on top of the tank and asked him to blast the two houses with his 75 MM tank and to my surprise he agreed.  I figured that I would get some argument but this was not the case.  He brought his gun around to fire at the houses and at this point in time an incident occurred that at the time was not the least bit funny but after many years Mike and I can recall what happened and enjoy a good laugh.  When the Sgt. had his gun lined up, Mike decided to go around to the other side of the tank and he yelled at the top of his voice at the Sgt. not to fire until he passed in front of the gun to get behind the tank.  Just as Mike walked under the gun (it was about two feet over his head) they fired and the concussion caused Mike to turn a flip and he landed on the ground.  Mike was not hurt but for sure he could not hear very good for about an hour.  What Mike did not realize was that the tank Sergeant had his headphones on and he could not hear anything that Mike had yelled at him.  The tank gun fired two times hitting each house.

          We returned to where our guns were firing and the Germans ceased firing and I assume they were knocked out or they took off for better cover.  We then ceased firing and started our move to Garzweiler.  By this time the leading elements of "I" Co. were very close to Garzweiler and they came under some small arms fire from the right flank.  The only people who hit the ground were people who had been hit while everyone else opened up in what the Infantry calls "Marching fire" and continued to move forward.  The heavy "Marching fire" convinced the Germans that they were going to be overrun so they just surrendered - all fifty-one of them.  The advance continued and in short order we were in the outskirts of Garzweiler.  The house to house clearing started and this was made somewhat easier with the two M24 tanks helping.  It was later estimated that out of the three hundred fifty or so Germans in Garzweiler some two hundred twenty gave up.  By 7:30PM we occupied the town and only then did we realize that this had been one of the key defensive positions in the German plans.  There were three self-propelled guns, three 105MM assault guns and four tanks that had been abandoned by the enemy.

          The capture of Garzweiler was the final stroke that caused the Germans to start a general withdrawal of all remaining troops west of the Rhein River.  The Canadians and British were able to break through and in short order the entire northern section of the 9th Army and British 2nd Army were on the west bank of the Rhein River.  We moved out of Garzweiler on the road to Gustorf and set up a roadblock with "I" Co.  We were close enough to Cologne, Germany to see the spires from the famous cathedral and later the next day some civilians from Gustorf came out to our roadblock and told us the Germans had pulled back across the Rhein.  We did receive some artillery fire from across the Rhein but no one was hurt.

            This ended our part of "Operation Grenade" when the 83rd Infantry Division pushed through us into Cologne.  We were some seven miles from the Rhein but we did not get to see the river as we started to move back into Holland for some rest and training for the Rhein River crossing that was to begin early in the morning of March 24.

           It's very seldom that a really funny event takes place when you are under enemy artillery fire but such was the case shortly after we had moved into the village called Berg.  Our platoon leader, Lt. Dezman, was moving around outside among some of the farm buildings when several enemy 88 shells started to land in the area.  Lt. Dezman in his hurry to seek cover behind one of the buildings ran around the corner of the building and stepped on some boards covering a septic tank.  The boards gave way and Lt. Dezman fell feet first into the septic tank up over his waist.  I was standing near by and saw what had happened so I moved over to help him out of the septic tank.  I helped him out but the smell was not too good.  What made things worse was the fact that it was at least twenty four hours before he could get out of his clothes and try to rid himself of the smell.  Lt. Dezman was not the man to be around for a day or so.

          On the 5th of March we moved to the rear near the town of Sittard, Holland although we were billeted in houses in Germany.  A look at the map of Southern Holland will indicate that it was possible to go from Germany across part of Holland and into Belgium in about fifteen minutes.  We were fairly close to the Maas River and we would spend several days and one night practicing crossing the river because the terrain was similar to the area of the Rhein River where we were to cross.  We would put six men and one combat engineer in each assault boat and row the boat across the Maas River.  Then the combat engineer would crank up the small out board motor and we would return to the east side of the river.  The current was fairly swift so we had to be on our toes especially during the night crossing or we could drift down stream a half-mile or so.  The idea was to get all six men rowing together thus keeping us on a straight route to the other side.  This did not happen every time and as a result we would get spread out on the other side.  At least no one drowned but I am sure there were some close calls. This training was worthwhile I am sure but as things turned out we did not cross the Rhein in assault boats.

            We remained in the rear area until the 20th of March and then at night we moved forward to the Rheinberg-Ossenberg area and transferred from the XIX Corps to the XVI Corps for the actual crossing.  It was during the three days prior to the crossing that all Platoon Leaders, Platoon Sgts., Section Sgts. and Squad Leaders attended a briefing at the Regimental Headquarters where a sand table had been set up showing the exact area where we were going to cross.  This was Col. Perdue's idea and everyone was quite impressed with the planning that had gone into this major river crossing.  Also during the day we would rotate all the men in the Platoon forward to the dike on our side of the river where everyone could see exactly what we were going to do early in the morning on March 24 as well as what things would look like on the other side of the river - in a few words we were combat ready to get going.

            After dark on the 23rd of March we started to move forward on foot some four miles to the assembly area Which was about one half mile from the river.  We dug in and waited for the massive artillery barrage to start.  We were to cross the river with all three Regiments abreast, something we had never done before.  The artillery barrage was set to begin at 1AM and last two hours.  We had 1,250 pieces of artillery in direct support of the 30th Division and this included 105MM up to the big 8-inch guns.  I had never seen or heard anything like this before in my life.  The other side of the Rhein River as far as you could see erupted into daylight from the constant explosions of artillery shells.  The fire moved inland some 700 yards and continued until 2AM then the fire shifted back to our crossing areas and continued until 3AM.

            At this point we started to move forward over the dike and down to the river.  We were receiving some enemy artillery fire but we were able to move down to the river without any casualties.  There was a lot of smoke in the air and we were having some trouble finding the landing craft that was to take us to the other side.  We did not know it at the time but some of the people manning the landing craft were drunk and therefore they could not find their assigned areas.  This caused a delay and we were quite upset at not being able to get across the river.  We knew it was only a matter of time before the German artillery would locate our crossing areas and we would come under heavy artillery fire.  Finally after some fifteen or twenty minutes we found a landing craft and hopped over the sides and told the driver (a navy man) to head for the other side some 300 yards away.  Our driver appeared to be sober and he did get us across as fast as possible. 

          We landed on the east side of the river and hopped over the side and started to move inland away from the river.  We crossed a railroad track then turned to our right parallel to the river and moved towards Gotterswickerhamm about one and a half miles away.  So far we were spared from any heavy enemy artillery fire although we did encounter some machine gun fire from our left.  We were attached to "K" Co. and about 5AM we were about five hundred yards from Gotterswickerhamm.  Around 5:30AM we jumped off in our attack and about that time we began to receive some enemy artillery and mortar fire.  By daylight we were in the edge of town and meeting heavy resistance from anti-tank weapons and machine gun fire.  It was a “house to house” fight as we moved into the center of town.  As we learned later there were three or four SS Officers and they were making the regular army soldiers fight for every foot of ground.  By 8:30AM two or three of the SS Officers had been killed so the other German soldiers decided to surrender and for the most part all resistance ceased.  Co. "L" moved through us to take the town of Mollen and when this had been done, we moved into Mollen and prepared to move into an attack across open ground toward the town of Rottanshof some two miles away.

           While we were in Mollen waiting for our artillery fire to cover the open ground and woods on our left, I had been hearing on my radio a call for 86 (86 being the Regimental Commander, Col. Purdue) from 76 (3rd Bn. Commander).  My radio operator, Cpl. Bob Bauman, commented that he had been hearing the same call for the past thirty or forty minutes.  I was leaning up against a stone barn waiting to move out when someone walked up behind me and said "well Sgt. how are things going?"  I turned around and it was Col. Purdue.  I told him things looked pretty good so far because we were still moving away from the river and our casualties had been unusually light for such a major operation.  I also told him I had been hearing a call on our radio from 76 to 86 for the past several minutes and he asked to use our radio to see what the Bn. Commander wanted.  He talked for about three minutes and said he would get back to him when his radio operator caught up with him.  We started to move out about this time so he thanked me for the use of our radio and wished us good luck.  As a mater of fact he probably should not have been so close to the front but it did make us respect him and appreciate the fact that he was concerned about our well being.

       We moved into a skirmish line and started towards Rottanshof.  We were expecting enemy artillery fire but the P-47 boys were up in force above us so the German artillery remained silent.  We moved into Rottanshof without much opposition.  We then swung to our right through some woods for about a mile still meeting no opposition and we then turned left again (East) and in short order we moved out of the woods.  We were headed in the general direction of Bruckhausen, a small village in the middle of the woods that many country roads passed through.  About 4PM a platoon of the 744th Light Tank Bn. arrived in our area and a lot of "K" Co. people loaded on the tanks and took off for Bruckhausen and moved to the east side of town and set up a defensive position.  We could not continue our attack because we had reached the maximum range of our artillery support.  At that point we were over six miles beyond the river and the furthest penetration east of the river of any outfit in the 9th Army.

          The next morning we prepared to jump off to the east to clear the wooded area in front of us.  We moved out about noon attached to "K" Co. we met little opposition and by 1PM we had reached our first objective, a wooded farm area.  What opposition we met was overcome by another fine example of "Marching Fire".  In short order we crossed a north/south Autobahn that was still under construction and into Bruckhausen Heide.  We continued to move east and then turned south to set up a defense of the right flank of the 120th Regiment and to allow the 2nd Battalion with some tanks to move through us into the Staatsforst Wesel. By this time we were about half a mile ahead of all other units and we ran into an enemy strong point but with the help of some tanks we were able to knock out the strong point and continue our advance.  About 3PM we came under heavy enemy artillery fire and suffered some casualties.  The enemy resistance had increased and because of the thick under growth in the forest we were not able to move as fast as we had been moving.  The enemy was well concealed so a heavy artillery barrage was called for and after the barrage lifted we moved forward again till dark and dug in to be prepared for a counterattack.

            On the morning of March 26 about 8:30 we moved along the southern edge of the Staatsforst Wesel and what resistance that we encountered was overcome by our infantry/artillery working together.  We did come upon several large enemy ammunition dumps that had been wired for demolition so we had to swing around these areas.  Late in the morning we came upon some men from the 35th Infantry Division who had wandered out of their zone and into our area.  At this time we were ordered to leave "K" Co. and become attached to "I" Co. for the attack towards the town of Kirchhellen. 

          We continued to move forward until about 4:30PM then we stopped and dug in for the night.  In short order we had our holes dug and most everyone had a top on his foxhole because of the possibility of tree bursts.  About 5:30PM we came under heavy artillery fire from German 128MM aircraft guns located near an airfield to our left, a mile or so away.  Those big shells created havoc with the trees in the forest but luckily no one in the platoon was hit.  When the enemy artillery stopped firing I found out from Lt. Dezman that a night attack was to be made by the 1st Bn. on the airfield and we were to support the attack with heavy machine gun fire across the open ground around the airfield.  We were getting short on ammo for our guns so I decided with Lt. Dezman's approval to move back through the woods in an attempt to locate some ammunition.  About two minutes after I started back, the Germans opened up again with their 128MM guns, making my trip back through the woods very hazardous.  I had no hole to get in so I just doubled up in a knot and dropped behind the largest tree I could find.  After about fifteen minutes the fire stopped and I was able to continue back to a road that ran through the forest.  It was beginning to get dark but I did find one of our jeep drivers and we got an abandoned tracked vehicle called a "weasel".  We found our jeep that had the ammunition, so Cpl. Boudreaux and I loaded about forty boxes of ammunition and took off back up through the woods to where the Platoon was dug in.  We could move through the woods in the "weasel" and about 6:30PM we had distributed the ammunition to our four machine guns.  For this action I received my second Bronze Star Medal.  In the meantime Cpl. Boudreaux took off in the "weasel" to get us some "K" rations but when he got back to the road the enemy artillery opened up again and he was badly wounded but did recover.

            About 8:30PM we opened up with all four machine guns and our 3rd Platoon (81MM mortars) laid down a heavy mortar barrage on the woods across the open ground in front of us.  At the same time the 1st Bn. jumped off in an attack across 600 yards of open ground on our left.  We came under heavy artillery fire shortly after we opened up but by that time the 1st Bn. was halfway to their objective and meeting little resistance and by 9:30PM they had captured their objective with very few casualties.  About 6AM, we moved out with "I" Co. to the right of the 1st Bn. and we stayed in the edge of the woods because we did not want to get caught in the open ground directly in front of us.  By 9AM we were on our objective and had made contact with 1st Bn. on our left.

           As we moved about to clear the area of our objective we came upon the 128MM anti-aircraft gun positions that had been giving us such a pounding the afternoon before.  The positions had been abandoned in a hurry because we found several racks of the 128MM shells intact except for the firing pins.  We also rounded up about twenty prisoners as well as a 20MM anti-aircraft machine gun.  For the most part this ended our part of the Rhein River crossing because the next morning the 8th Armored Division passed through us and started the breakthrough north of Ruhr Industrial Area of Germany.  This was not our last combat but in less than six weeks the war in Europe would end.  We had opened the door north of the Ruhr and now the Armored Force could take off.

          We moved into the town of Holthausen and for the first time since the morning of the 24th of March we were able to get some hot food and some rest.  We had a couple of men wounded since the Rhein crossing but not seriously.  On the 1st of April we received orders to move behind the 2nd Armored Division that had broken through on our right and were moving north of the Ruhr Industrial District.  About 1:30PM we loaded on trucks and took off to the east through Wulfen, Haltern, Dalmen and Ludinghausen to a point near Ascheburg.  We passed just to the north of what was known as the Ruhr Pocket.  This is where the 2^nd Armored Division bypassed 250,000 Germans.  We could hear the heavy artillery fire to our right as we moved along the main highway towards Detmold.  I would assume we covered some fifty to sixty miles that day before we stopped near the town of Drensteinfust around 7PM. 

          We had to be combat ready at all times because we never knew when the Germans would decide to make a stand.  Actually I think most of us were more concerned about moving so fast even though we did not have to cover the ground on foot.  From past experience we knew we had to keep moving forward thus depriving the enemy from having time to organize any kind of defense.

          We moved out again on our trucks through the towns of Sendenhorst, Vorhelm and Wiederbruck to the area around Veol.  We could not help but notice the peaceful countryside as we rolled along because we were so used to seeing towns and villages almost completely destroyed.  Although we did not know it at the time the 2^nd Armored Division had run into a major strong point in the Teutoberger Wald.  This was a dense area of woods and hills that covered both sides of the road to Detmold.

          Early in the morning on the 4th of April we moved out of our area near Veol on trucks and reached our assembly area just west of the small town of Hiddesen around 9:30AM.  We moved out on foot to the line of departure (jump off point for an attack) to a wooded area near Hill "393".  We were attached to "I" Co. on the right of the Battalion.  We jumped off about 2PM and ran into quite a bit of small arms and machine gun fire.  The German defense was based on a series of strong points that were manned by some SS Officers.  It looked like a long and heavy typical infantry battle but we found some way to bypass the strong points and in fairly short order we were in behind the strong points and had them surrounded.  They continued to fight but mortar fire was called for and as soon as the SS Officers were killed or wounded the strong point would collapse.  Co. "L" on our left moved into Hiddesen and started to clear the town while "I" Company circled to the left and came into the far side of Hiddesen thus preventing any attempt to withdraw to the east.  By 5 PM we had set up a perimeter defense. 

          In all the 3rd Bn. had captured some eighty-six prisoners from the woods around and overlooking Hiddesen as well as in the town itself.  We remained in Hiddesen till the 6th of April and then took off through Detmold towards the next objective, Bad Pyrmont.  We jumped off about 8PM and by 11:30AM the leading elements were in Bad Pyrmont, a German hospital town and army rest area.  It was weird to see the German Medical Officers, their staff and hospital patients moving freely down the streets being protected by the Red Cross armband.  We did not know that Bad Pyrmont had been declared an "Open City".  This meant that the Germans would make no effort to defend the city and we were obligated not to shell or bomb the city.  We had a traffic problem because of all the hospital vehicles moving up and down the streets.  We spent the night in the village of Grohnde outside Bad Pyrmont but we were on 100% alert for some possible sniping from the town.

           After spending the 7th of April in Grohnde, we moved out the next morning about 7:30.  Once again we were motorized and our objective was to a point called Ridgeline "433" some thirty-five miles away.  We were still attached to "I" Co. and moved through Espende, to Salzhemmendorf and on to Ockengen.  We did not meet any resistance and we set up roadblocks in Ockengen and were in position about 10:30AM.

            We remained in our positions until the 11th of April.  Then we moved forward on trucks through Levedagsen to the outskirts of Vallsted.  We moved out on foot about 1PM over a canal lock installation across about one and half miles of wide open flat terrain without any resistance to a small village of Steterburg.  As soon as we reached the village we were ordered to continue our advance across the Oker River to the town of Klein Stockheim about one mile away.  We reached our objective about 4PM and with only a brief stop we jumped off about 6:30PM for Rautheim some three and half miles away and about 9PM we were in Rautheim with roadblocks set up.  We had cut the main road leading out of the large city of Braunschweig thus the German forces were for all practical purposes cut off from any withdrawal. 

        We had covered some ten miles since we moved across the canal and we were pretty tired and ready for a little rest overnight but this was not to be as things turned out.  General Hobbs (Commanding General, 30th Infantry Division) ordered a temporary truce about 1PM and sent some of his staff into Braunschweig to ask the German General Karl Veith to surrender or be bombed and shelled with everything we had available and this would lead to many civilians being killed and wounded.  General Veith refused to surrender and said his orders required him to defend Braunschweig to the end.  Sometime later that night some twelve vehicles approached our roadblocks and when they ignored the order to "halt" our guns opened up and in short order "I" Co. had rounded up some forty-five Germans.  Many were wounded and when all was finished that night we had captured General Veith and his entire staff.

          We remained in Rautheim until the 13th of April and it was here that we heard the first news that President Roosevelt had died and that Harry Truman was the new President.  We were saddened and shocked that President Roosevelt had not been able to see the final surrender of Germany and the end of World War II in Europe some three weeks later.  During the three days (April 11, 12, 13) the 120th Infantry Regiment had captured almost 3,500 prisoners, most of them from makeshift outfits and during the same three days we had covered some sixty-five miles.  We remained in Rautheim until the morning of April 14th then we loaded on our Service Company trucks and moved eastward through the towns of Helmstedt, Born, Dolle to Wolminstedt.  We arrived in our assembly area about 3:30PM and at that time we were about two and half miles west of the Elbe River, just north of Magdeburg, Germany.

          The "big picture" regarding the capture of Magdeburg called for the 2nd Armored Division to take the southern half of the city and the 30th Infantry Division to take the northern half.  All three infantry Regiments (117th, 119th and 120th) would be committed to the attack on Magdeburg on April 17th.  The 120th Infantry Regiment would move due south down the main road between Wolminstedt and Magdeburg.  The 117th Regiment would be on our right and the 119th Infantry Regiment would be on the right of the 117th.  Our jump off point was the southern edge of the small town of Barleben across flat and open ground to the northern edge of Magdeburg some three miles down the road.  The 3rd Bn was to lead the attack with a Company of Tank Destroyers and a Company of tanks attached to our Battalion.  On the 16th of April Gen. Hobbs had tried to get the German General in Magdeburg to surrender but his offer was refused so an air strike was called for the next day shortly after noon.

            We were attached to Co. "I" for this attack and we moved out about 3PM.  There was a tremendous amount of smoke and dust over the city after the air strike and this helped our advance because I am sure the German artillery observers were having a hard time seeing us.  Also our own 81MM mortar platoon was laying down a heavy smoke concentration some 500 yards to our left thus making artillery observation from across the Elbe River almost impossible.  We stayed away from the main road because we knew they would have it zeroed in and would shell the road as much as possible.  Our mortars continued to move forward with us and did a beautiful job of keeping heavy smoke to our left towards the Elbe River.  For the most part we got across the open ground with little or no resistance until we reached the outskirts of Neustadt where we ran into some machine gun fire.  Later some 20MM anti-aircraft guns hit us slowing our advance.  Our tanks moved forward to help clear out the enemy fire but they ran into a 88MM anti-tank gun that slowed them down.  We continued to move forward but we had to clear every house along the streets because of sniper fire.  When we got up fairly close to the enemy 88mm anti-tank gun, the crew took off and this let our tanks move up with us.  By 7PM we had road blocks set up in our area.  "L" Co. was on our right and they were held up by heavy small arms and machine gun fire and were about three blocks behind us still trying to clear as many houses as possible before dark.  It was extremely dangerous to move across any street that night because we were not sure just where the Germans were located.

            About 2AM the Germans started a small counterattack but they were stopped in short order.  We jumped off again about 6:30AM and we did get some enemy machine gun fire mostly from 2nd story windows but we got one of our tanks and they blasted away with their 75MM gun and in short order the resistance faded away almost completely.  We rushed forward through the heavy bombed area and about 11:30AM we had reached a warehouse area along the west bank of the Elbe River.  We captured some 280 prisoners that morning and most of them were very glad to surrender.  As we began to clear the area around us we came upon a brewery and as we moved into the large building German civilians started coming up out of the basement and a lot them were carrying large mugs of beer.  Before they would hand us one of the mugs of beer they would drink a couple of swallows of the beer in what we realized was their way to show us the beer was not poisoned.  Needless to say we accepted the beer and to this day I must say that was the best beer I have ever tasted.  Believe me these people were glad the war was over for them. 

          We set up our machine guns on the 4th floor of a warehouse building and fired across the Elbe River whenever we saw something moving.  This fooling around got us in some trouble the next morning when we were firing on a truck that had moved out of a barn.  We did not notice an enemy tank moving from behind a house until he fired a round from his 88MM gun.  The shell hit the wall of our building on the third floor about six feet below our gun.  We immediately grabbed our machine gun and moved into the interior of the building because in about thirty seconds his second round scored a direct hit on the wall below the window we had been firing through.  It blew a hole in the exterior masonry wall about four feet in diameter and would have killed or wounded four or five of us that were in that room.  Needless to say we moved our gun to another location but we only fired the gun at military targets. 

          Later that same afternoon I had another close call as I was walking along a canal that branched off the Elbe River.  The walls of the canal were built out of stone and sloped up from the water line to a road next to a warehouse.  One lone 88MM shell came in and hit the side of the canal about eight feet below the level of the road.  If the German gun crew had raised the level of their gun one more notch, I would not be writing this story today.  We took off and got behind another building but no more shells came into our area.  One of my men, Sgt. John Howard, said he thought he had been hit so we called for the Platoon medic and he determined that probably apiece of stone from the canal wall had hit him in the small of the back but he was not hurt.  We all knew the war was going to end soon and all of sudden we were becoming quite careless.  We were exposing ourselves in situations where the utmost caution should have been exercised.

          About the 20th of April we were billeted in houses in Wolminstedt that had not been destroyed and we remained in this area until the war ended on May 8, 1945.  We were alerted to get ready to force a crossing of the Elbe River about the 25th of April but this was called off when we were told that as far as we were concerned our part of World War II in Europe was over.  We were only seventy miles from Berlin but believe me we had no desire to move into action again.  We had managed to secure several kegs of beer from the brewery we had liberated in Magdeburg and we were enjoying our rest from combat.  We received three hot meals a day and were able to get a hot shower in an army unit that had set up a portable shower facility.  We also got some clean clothes and PX rations including Coca Cola in bottles, candy, cookies, peanuts and cigarettes for those who smoked.  Those of us who did not smoke traded our cigarettes for candy and peanuts.  On the 30th of April the 2^nd Platoon moved from Wolminstedt to Gr. Ammenslaben and set up in the Mayor's house and we became the Military Government in the town.  We also had to send daily, motorized patrols to Kl. Ammenslaben.  On about the 2^nd of May I had to return to Wolminstedt for a meeting and while I was there I noticed that some artillery outfit had set up a landing strip for their Piper Cub airplanes that were used for airborne artillery observation.  I stopped by to see if I could talk one of the pilots into taking me for a ride in his plane and to my surprise he said, "hop in".  I had never flown before so I moved into the plane and in short order we were on our way.  We flew south over Magdeburg and I could see all the damage done by our bombers and artillery; then we turned back north over the Elbe River and flew along the river for about ten miles.  It was about this time that it dawned on me that if something happened to the pilot or the plane I was going to be in deep trouble.  Although we did not draw any enemy fire I began to think that if something did happen and that little plane went down it was going to be hard to explain how an Infantry Platoon Sgt. had been killed in a plane crash.  As things turned out it was a short ride but one great experience, and we landed safely.  I thanked the pilot and jumped in my jeep for the trip back to Gr. Ammenslaben.