were not included in these supplies and the rain-soaked men spent the miserable nights in the
open without even so much as an overcoat. The wooded hills up which the men had to attack
were covered by some of the heaviest enemy mortar and artillery concentrations of the war.
Mostly shells which fell were tree burst, making their effect more deadly. A shell which
detonated in a treetop can make a whole squad casualties in one clean sweep. Moreover, the
Regimental sector included all the Maginot Line fortifications in this area. Although these
outmoded fortresses were for the most part facing the wrong direction, they served as an
excellent protection for the enemy machine guns and for belt-fed, automatic 75mm guns being
used by the Germans.
Day after day new heroism cropped out. Enemy entrenchments dug in on the slopes of
the steep wooded hills were overrun and the defenders annihilated in hand to hand combat. The
advance had carried the attackers out of range of the guns on the west bank of the river, so most
of these attacks were made without benefit of artillery support. Rifles and hand grenades are the
weapons used in this fight. This is one of the ways in which the infantry is obliged to carry its
share of the burden of fighting and winning a war.
By the 17th, the Regiment had broken through the entire enemy defense line, turned
south, and in two days it closed up to the Nied River in the vicinity of Brecklange. Here the
advance was halted on order. The crossing of the Moselle River by the 90th Division brought
the personal commendation of the Third Army Commander, General George S. Patton, Jr., and
was described by him as a feat of military arms unsurpassed.
After enjoying a thanksgiving turkey dinner on the 24th, the Regiment moved by truck to
an assembly area to the northeast near Colmen. It was in this assembly area near Neunkirchen
that the first elements of the Regiment, Company “A”, set foot on German soil.
On the 26th, the 3rd Battalion attacked the town of Furweiler and ran into stiff
opposition and fire from all types of weapons. By dark, however, this Battalion succeeded in
taking the town, along with 107 prisoners. Furweiler was thus the first German town to be
occupied in force by the Regiment. It was here that the first artillery fire from Siegfreid Line
emplacements on the east bank of the Saar River was received.
The mission was now to clear the entire west bank of the Saar River. Accordingly,
when other elements of the Division on the right flank came up online with the 357th on the
29th, the advance to the east and southeast was resumed. Resistance in the form of mine fields,
heavy artillery fire, and rearguard infantry action was encountered, but by the 3rd the Regiment
had closed up to the Saar River. During this operation, the most intense artillery shelling thus
far experienced by the Regiment was undergone by elements of the 1st Battalion when over 200
rounds fell on front-line positions in less than 16 minutes.
The next mission was no secret or surprise – to make an assault crossing of the Saar. On
the eastern bank of this swift running stream began the first Siegfried Line pillboxes, and the
operation promised to be a trying affair.
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