the bridge at 0300 on the morning of the 14th, the bridge that the hard fighting 315th engineers had put
in. The night was one of pitch darkness, with slow drizzling rain making it just that much more
unpleasant, and causing us to creep along yard by yard, as a blind man picks his way across rough
ground. The first vehicle across was a gun truck from C Battery, and the battalion came immediately
behind it, dodging the German shells that were coming in to the bridgehead area. Other than a few extra
heartbeats, there was no mishap on that river crossing.
On the 15th and 16th we were in position near Niederrhein, firing heavy concentrations at the
withdrawing Germans. Running through the battalion area was a huge tank trap, unfinished in parts,
with tools still in it, showing how recently work had been done on it, by slave labor. In the soft, muddy
earth could be seen the footprints of those who had worked on the trap.
We marched ordered at 1000 on the 17th. The fighting was almost as bitter as Normandy. The
most extensive mine fields we have yet run into. Large stacks of anti-personnel mines and teller mines
were piled along the roads – the engineers doing their usual good job of the deactivating and pulling
them. Brave man! The odor of death hung in the air, like a curtain, as our vehicles carefully threaded
their way along roads marked by signs reading: "DANGER! MINES!" We went into position in
Distroff, the town where G Company was nearly, or treacherously, trapped for a while; the familiar
scenes of shattered houses, burned out and blackened vehicles, dead men and horses, all here in great
numbers.
Alerted to reinforce the 915th Field Artillery on the eighteenth. The Jerries were retreating fast
and we had to move fast to keep within range and deliver effective fire. This running fight kept up for
three days, and as we moved from town to town we passed all the gruesome sights of a hard-hitting type
of fighting, roads marked by smashed vehicles, horse-drawn vehicles with their animals sprawled in a
bloody smear, and corpses all over the roadsides. Then we returned to Distroff to prepare a movement
into another sector, where we were to follow the 10th Armored into Germany.
On the twenty-second this battalion pulled into Perl Germany, the first complete outfit of the
90th Div-Arty to be in pre-1940 Germany. Up to now we had been fighting in the Alsace-Lorraine
country, the chess board that both Germany and France had taken turns in controlling. Our F.D.C. was
located at 34 Adolf Hitler Strasse. The Battalion fired a volley at 1300, on a target that was our first
blasting on the Sacred Soil of the Superman. Those that pulled the lanyards for the ceremonial rounds
were: Pvts. Deramus and Murphy, and Pfcs. Thompson and Clark of A Battery; Captain Johnson,
Lt.Webster, Cpl. De Lara, and Pfc. O’Daniel of B Battery, 1st Sgt. Lawton, Pfc. Joe Hansen, Pfc. Moret,
and Pfc. Jechna of C battery. Our plans soon changed and we went back to regimental combat team
control, instead of supporting the 10th Armored.
November 23, Thanksgiving day. Rain and Turkey, with all the trimmings. There was little
activity that day, though many were able to take shower baths, located in the modern school house. We
noticed a big difference in the towns and farms here in Germany, over those in France. One of the big
changes was the absence of the wealth usually found out in front of the French houses. The German
houses all had new furniture, modern plumbing and electricity, though the latter was out, because of the
fighting that went on in and around the towns.
Captain Smith took over as A Battery C.O. while Captain Andrews became Liaison 1. From a
position between Perl and Borg we went back under Division control in German controlled France, a
move of about 17 miles to Zewrange, passing through Apach, Sierck, Kirchnaumam, Halstroff,
Flashstroff. Our mission was to go into support of the 915th F.A. Pretty soon after moving into our
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