“Pappy” was adjusting on an enemy OP in a church and not realizing that he was on the opposite side of
the church, was calling overs, short, thus bringing the fire closer in. After a little discussion he became
oriented and got his adjustment on the OP.
Lt. McDonald, Liaison 1, was killed while almost single-handedly stopping an enemy attack.
Awarded a Distinguished Service Cross posthumously, Lt. McDonald perceived the losses which must
result should the enemy occupy a hill from which they had just forced our infantry and, “instantly, alone
and without regard to his own safety, climbed to the bare crest of the hill in order to secure observation
for friendly artillery. Although at times the fire of all the enemy’s weapons appeared to be directed
against him, he advanced upon the forward slope and by radio directed effective artillery fire against the
enemy, destroying two of their tanks, badly damaging others and decimating the attacking troops”.
A captured German field order indicated that we were on the axis of advance of the German 15th
Panzer Division. The battalion moved to the Combat Team flank, away from the probable approach of
the enemy. We received notice that our ammunition supply was critically low.
Division Artillery CP was attacked by some German Panzer elements and during the ensuing fire
fight received a number of casualties, seriously wounding our agent, Cpl. C. B. Woodson. The 712th
Tank Battalion came to the rescue.
Captured German beef was distributed and enjoyed by all. 10 September the Battalion moved to
Neuchef. The present mission for the 90th was to move on Thionville and cross the Moselle. The area
around the town was fortified. Captain Graf, Liaison3, while adjusting fire on some Krauts that ran
behind a haystack, observed some of the rounds bounce off of the stack. “That ain’t hay”, he radioed
back. Able FO fired on a novel target, a railroad train. 12 September the battalion moved to Marspich
near Hayange, an industrial center. The purpose of the move was to give a greater range across Moselle
River. Six target-marking missions for the air force were fired. Plans were changed, and as the infantry
jockeyed for a good crossing-site we were obliged to move. The Battalion traveled back thru Hayange
to Morhange. The CP was in a beer tavern – no beer!
New orders moved the 90th to relieve the 7th Armored Division. The 5th Infantry Division was
to establish a bridgehead south of Metz and relieve the 7th Armored. At 0840, 14 September, the
Battalion moved out through Neufchef, Avril, Briey, Homecourt and Montois. The firing batteries went
into position south of Montois, with the CP moving into a schoolhouse in Roncourt. As the CP truck
stopped, in came a fire mission, no survey data; Captain Ford and Sgt. Davidson outguessed the survey:
the initial rounds were only 200 yards from the target. Despite the fire mission, the CP was given
“march order”. The mission was completed on the way back to the new CP in the Montois schoolhouse.
This location was to be our home for some time to come. The Tough ‘Ombres were in the
vicinity of where the Texas-Oklahoma Division had been at the end of the last war, facing the fortress of
Metz. Could this series of forts, moats, tank traps, emplaced guns, all manned by men who knew every
inch of the terrain, could they possibly be taken? We were to find out in the weeks to come.
“Beaucoup” artillery was attached to us. The infantry probed around the various forts and found
that a frontal attack was next to impossible. Some progress was made north of Mazieres les Metz but
that was as far as the Doughs could go without artillery and plenty of it. Strange as it seems there was
more artillery around Metz than we had ever had before but the ammunition was not available in
quantities to support a large scale attack.
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