Oberwampach, Stockem, Boxhorn, Binsfeld, Bieler, were all typical of the towns we had been
fighting in since our arrival here. Smashed Jerry equipment littered the roads and fields which, was a
pleasant sight to our eyes. The days were getting warmer and rain had taken the place of the snow
which had been with us – it seems – for so long.
The end of the month, January 31, we went into position along the Our River, near the town of
Wemeler in Belgium. This was in the general vicinity through which Von Rundstedt had made his
initial breakthrough. Vehicles of the 106th and the 28th Infantry Divisions, the outfits which had taken
the first blows of Rundstedt’s power drives, were still lying where they had been knocked out. Then the
rains washed most of the snow away and the river rose, of course, in flood stage; this revealed much
small arms equipment scattered about and some of the men found pistols and small arms of all types.
Wemeler and our position turned into mud and slop, the continual rains turned this hilly country into a
series of racing mountain streams. The Valley roads were underwater and the engineers were rebuilding
bridges and repairing roads and doing all they could do to slug up and over these sliding, crumbling,
roads.
4th February, we sloshed into Bliealf where the Germans had converted a railroad tunnel into an
underground factory. Excellent machine tools were in place and only needed the necessary power to
make them operable. Living quarters were adjoining this factory – in fact part of the tunnel was used for
sleeping. We remained at Bliealf until the ninth, then moved into the environs of Branscheid.
When we entered Branscheid we were really in the Siegfried Line. Large pillbox forts dotted the
hills, and the long rows of Dragon's teeth wound down through the valleys and up over the hills. The
Battalion passed through the teeth and on the ninth and an F.D.C. was set up in a two-room pillbox, on
the outskirts of the badly mauled town of Branscheid, a town which Von Rundstedt’s armor came
plunging through. Mute testimony was a large amount of US equipment, lying around in a completely
wrecked manner.
Again the question of supplies was becoming rather acute, for on the 13th of February a large
flight of C-47's came over and dropped a great many supplies to us. It was not so much a question of
out distancing the supply lines, but more the condition of the roads, which had been torn up not only by
“Mother Nature” but also warfare and its heavy traffic. The supplies thus dropped helped the
quartermaster to establish a forward dump in the fastest manner known to get large amounts of supplies
to a place in a hurry, by air transport. It was a rare sight not to see pillboxes on the prominent hilltops,
cleverly camouflaged and strongly constructed. As we saw them at the time they were of little use to
anyone, for the infantry and engineers had used a little composition “C” on them, cracking each one
wide open.
The 17th found us still in the same position, firing at a few targets. The early spring weather
with its bud stimulating sunshine was magnificent. The sun appearing with its new warmth seemed to
us a portent of ending this dreary fight. Only a few patches of snow remained, and that deep in the
woods and permanently shaded spots. Our old friend mud was still making it miserable working outside
but the newly found warmth of the sun compensated for a great deal.
Habshied, another very much blown apart town, typical of all Siegfried line towns, was our
stopping place until the 20th, when we took off down through a winding road and stopped at
Oberuttfeld, where Jerry laid down direct fire on our ack-ack guns. Two of the batteries were so situated
that it was necessary to keep them silent, for Jerry had observation on these particular positions. Several
casualties were sustained by the 537th ack-ack, our attached unit, though our own boys escaped all. The
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