MY ARMY DAYS: WWII (71-80)

            -71-

And once the trees had all been cleared

We came down from the hills

And moved along much faster now

Accompanied by tanks.

We once were stopped in a village

Where snipers held us up

But heavy tank fire into town

Convinced the Krauts to quit.

But soon we reached the dragon teeth

That lined the Siegfried Line.

It was then that we all did know

We were in Germany

Which outfit had first crossed the line

Will never now be known

The skipper called for us to halt

And move into the woods.

We stayed in this spot for a day

Until ‘twas figured out

Which outfit would make the attack

Into the Siegfried Line.

We rested back just far enough

So we would not be hit

And somehow knew with certainty

That we would be the ones.

            -72-

And sure enough when darkness came

Our leaders spoke to us

And said that we’d attack at six

After a huge barrage.

This time we were not that concerned

About our losing feet

For when artillery hit that hard

It would explode the mines.

And so we ate some C-rations

That just had been brought up

Then sat around and quietly

Did speak of times gone past

Of our girlfriends, and also wives

We reminisced a lot

Then turned into our cold gas capes

And spent a chilly night.

At four o’clock we all arose

And got some K’s to eat

The mortar squads were still attached

As they had always been

First and third in skirmish line

Would make the first attack

While second platoon was in reserve

To fill in any gaps.

            -73-

And so we waited once again

For our artillery

And promptly at five forty-five

It came down with a bang

The noise was unbelievable

The cordite stench was bad

But right on time, at six o’clock

We started our attack.

The artillery lifted as we moved

And threw shells to the rear

While we with useless mortars could

Do nothing to help out.

But many of our riflemen

Had spotted a pillbox

And if we could take that one out

We could move right ahead.

Then one who had a satchel charge

Did creep up to its side

And threw that charge into the slit

And – bang – that box was ours.

We then moved quickly up the hill

Right thru the dragon teeth

Our engineers came right behind

And blew some all to bits.

            -74-

The tankers now went right on through

And we just followed them

Our casualties in this attack

Were not one single man.
We then got back onto the road

And moved along all day

The Krauts had seemingly pulled out

And were in full retreat.

We then continued on our way

And came upon a sight

Of what artillery can do

To a convoy in flight.

There were wagons just everywhere

But most along the road

Both men and horses had been caught

By that terrific fire.

We had a slow time passing through

The damage was so great

But some Kraut wagons did contain

The blankets for their group

And these we took most gratefully

For nights were very cold

But then we heard we were pinched out

And would stay put a while.

            -75-

Then when we reached the little town

Of Dimbach, we were told

To spend the time just rounding up

The horses that survived.

We also used the horses to

Flush out some hidden Krauts

The remnants of the Tenth Mountain

The one we just destroyed.

I never had been on a horse

But Borders showed me how

He had ridden most of his life

I took his training well.

And then one day while we were out

Just riding thru the hills

We saw a couple of Kraut troops

And took them prisoner.

I dismounted from my horse

And held the two at bay

While Borders rode back into town

To find out what to do.

I learned that they were Polish troops

And had been forced to serve

They wanted to surrender to

The first Ami they saw.

            -76-

And so we turned them over to

Prisoner Detention

And then the two of us went out

To round up all the strays.

And these we turned into the town

To use as they saw fit.

And so we were afoot again

And finally got some rest.

We stayed there for about a week

We packed up all our gear

Then left in trucks on Easter morn

To go across the Rhine.

We rode all day and when night came

We crossed it on pontoons

And all the trucks had half-lights on

As we headed into Worms.

We traveled just about all night

And when the dawn did break

We halted in a little town

To catch some sleep and wait

It must have been late afternoon

When we did get the call

To move, and so we headed east

But this time ‘twas by foot.

            -77-

Now Würzburg was our latest goal

It lay upon the Main

But in between were villages

And each had to be cleared

So we devised a strategy

For taking these small towns

We’d move in column on the road

Until we got some flack.

Then two platoons would form a line

Extending right and left

And we’d set up all three mortars

In the best place we could

The skirmish line did then move out

With scouts out way ahead

And if resistance then was met

They all would go to ground.

Now it was then our mortar squads

Would show what they could do

And for the first time in this war

A section we became.

We had our three guns all lined up

In close proximity

To fire wherever needed most

And only on command.

            -78-

We then received our fire requests

Directly from platoons

And when they asked us for support

We always did the same

We set up for four hundred yards

Then drove the base plate in

By firing first with a charge four

Which sent those rounds way out

Which always made the Germans think

We hadn’t spotted them

Then each gunner would set his sight

Level and on base stake

But this time he would use charge one

To reach four hundred yards

Then each squad would fire a round

Thirty seconds apart.

And as the rounds would hit and burst

Each leader would adjust

To hit the Krauts with the next round

Without a bracket first.

When all were ready – they were fast –

We’d all get set to fire.

Each assistant held one armed round

And waited my command.

            -79-

I dropped my arm, they dropped their rounds

And all were on their way

We watched to see where they would land

And then fired for effect

Five rounds now went out of each gun

Before the first did hit

And when those rounds dropped in so fast

The Krauts just up and quit.

Our riflemen then started in

And moved in very fast

Before the Krauts decided that

They may have quit too soon.

The bed sheets started coming out

White flags were everywhere

It’s then we knew the town was ours

We moved to clean it out.

We captured many prisoners

In that one town alone

Then sent them off to prison camps

Where they would end the war.

We then went house to house to see

Where we would sleep that night

For in the morning we would start

This whole routine again.

            -80-

We captured many towns, and hiked

So many, many miles

In taking major cities like

Würzburg, Schweinfurt and Fürth

But Munich was the best of all

If war can be called “best”

For here we rode the tanks all day

Where we had hiked before.

Würzburg was mostly Two Three Two

Although we did help out

What I’ll remember mostly is

The castle on the hill

It had a rainbow painted on

With our division too

Before the city had been ours

By a good hour or two.

I also think about three vats

We found at Würzburg U.

They were wood vats of giant size

And filled right to the brim,

With wine, that all would love to have

If access could be had,

But word passed fast, the general heard

And promptly put out guards.

MY ARMY DAYS: WWII (81-90)

            -81-

So we who had found all those vats

Had not a drop to drink

While those in the rear echelon

Just drank ‘til all were drunk.

That’s still what I remember most

Although I had a scare

Came face to face with a big Kraut

Who wanted just to quit.

Schweinfürt was the next biggest town

That we were told to take

It housed the great ball bearing works

Where we’d lost all these planes

In making daylight air attacks

Against these factories

But that was just before we came

And now it was our turn.

The date was April, the Fifteenth

That I remember still

And so will every G.I. Joe

Who fought that day as well

For it was on this very day

We lost our President

Our politics did differ some

But still I felt the loss.

            -82-

Our dawn attack was scheduled to

Begin at six o’clock

Preceded by an air assault

That came as a surprise

Medium bombers came in low

To keep us in the clear

And bombed the center of that town

‘Til there was nothing left.

Wave after wave, we watched them come

Left nothing but debris

Over which we had to climb, as

We started our attack.

We saw no one, we heard some shots

Resistance was quite low

We went right through and cleared that town

And never fired a shot.

We searched for billets when we stopped

So we could sleep that night

But only found some raunchy bunks

Where D.P.’s had been kept

But straw bunks were much better than

Sleeping on the cold ground

But right next door, to compensate,

We found a Kraut drugstore.

            -83-

This store was something else again

For it was so well stocked

The things associated with

Drugstores did not exist

Instead, as search revealed to me

Big crates of pink champagne

Why it was here, we’ll never know

Just made the most of it.

The next day was a day of rest

And it was just as well

Too many men in our platoon

Had heads that hurt like hell

And I suspected this was true

Among the riflemen

For we had shared our loot with them

With only guards exempt.

Perhaps the champagne did some good

For now most were relaxed

And when big heads did disappear

We were all set to go.

Our brass had figured that we’d turn

And head southward toward Fürth

Other outfits were then assigned

To take out Nuremburg.

            -84-

We traveled back the way we’d come

But this time was by truck

Back past Würzburg’s painted castle

And then we headed south

We moved on trucks for half a day

And then went on by foot

Each regiment had its own road

So off we went again.

Our usual approach to each small town

Was as described before

With mortars working as a team

And riflemen out front

Most every town as we approached

Would show the great white sheets

Then we would check each house in town

And then head for the next.

These towns were not too far apart

Perhaps three miles or so

But I have vivid thoughts of one

Late in the afternoon

We were about ten miles from Fürth

Had reached an open field

When Krauts were spotted digging in

Outside of the next town.

            -85-

There was no spot where we could place

The mortars out of sight

There was nothing our riflemen

Could do except lay flat.

We set our guns and placed our stakes

Right out where all could see

Then fired those guns to set the plates

And then the fun began.

Our second rounds were at the Krauts

That then were digging in

And once we had adjusted guns

We fired for effect

The rounds came down upon the Krauts

And gave them pause for thought

Our light machine guns took the flanks

And started their own fire.

The riflemen then moved ahead

In rapid jumps and starts

While we kept dropping in those rounds

As fast as we could fire.

Our combined actions did the trick

The Krauts began to run

We stopped our fire, knocked down our guns

And moved ahead again.

            -86-

The Krauts had mostly disappeared

Except the wounded few

And those whose war had gone kaput

Hit by our mortar rounds.

And when that skirmish ended there

We moved to clear the town

And found it full of big white sheets

That told us they had quit.

It now was getting on toward dark

So we picked out a house.

The men did eat some rations first

Then settled down to sleep.

They slept on beds, and slept on floors

And when I had returned

From setting guards out for our watch

There was no place for me.

The only place that was not filled

Was a new baby crib

There was no way that I could stretch

My legs while in that thing

But if I curled up on my side

I might just make it work

So that is what I had to do

And thus earned a new name.

            -87-

I will not say just what it was

But each can take a guess

It mattered not, for by the dawn

We all were rousted out

To start the new day off again

As we had spent the last

We ate our rations, then took off

Just chasing after Krauts.

We slogged our way along the road

That led us on toward Fürth

Then as we neared that famous town

We passed right through some woods

And here we found artillery

Counting about twelve guns

That they were big, that much we saw

We did not know the size.

They had been camouflaged quite well

With ammo at each gun

Yet there was not a Kraut around

They had abandoned them.

And after we had passed them by

We moved most of the day

And early in the afternoon

We reached the town of Fürth.

            -88-

Now we were high upon a hill

That looked out o’er that town

And we could see just everything

That lay across the plain

We saw the road, there was a stretch

About a half mile wide

That carried German vehicles

Both to the north and south.

We were among apartments now

With gardens down below

Where we could set out mortars up

We then could hit the road.

We spotted well from on the decks

And so had each gun fire

To set each base plate deep enough

Before we opened up.

I watched these base plate shells explode

Way out beyond the road

Then brought the guns back in toward us

And gave them each the range

I varied each a little bit

One long, one short, one on

To see which one would be the best

And closest to the road.

            -89-

They fired, and as I watched I timed

So I would know how long

It took those shells to hit the road

And then go on from there.

When they exploded, by my watch

‘Twas twenty seconds flat

And knew that I must time the rounds

To traffic on the road.

I then adjusted each to hit

As close as we could get

Then timed the traffic from each end

To see how far they went

The motorcycles crossed the space

Faster than we could shoot

But tanks and half-tracks poked along

And thus were ideal game.

The tanks we could not touch at all

While they were buttoned up

But half-tracks full of German troops

Were what we waited for

And soon a convoy came along

Heading south to north

And when they reached a certain point

I knew we had them cold.

            -90-

I gave directions to each squad

To have six rounds apiece,

With charges pulled, ready to go

With one all set to drop.

Each squad now waited for my sign

To start their small barrage

And when the half-tracks reached a point

I dropped my arm to fire.

It took not more than ten seconds

To get off eighteen rounds.

The last was gone before the first

Had even hit the ground.

But when they hit among those ‘tracks

The damage was so great

It bottled up the fields and road

No traffic now could cross.

And so we cleaned our mortars out

And stayed right where we were.

We waited for the night to come

So we could settle down.

We’d moved on foot a lot that day

And fired our mortars some

Now we were tired, and needed sleep

And so we hit the sack.

MY ARMY DAYS: WWII (91-100)

            -91-

We wakened when we heard some shots

And wondered what was up

We thought it was just nervous guards

And so went back to sleep

But later on we were to learn

The Krauts had sent out troops

And killed three men from First Platoon

While they were fast asleep.

At three o’clock they wakened us

And said we would attack

Across the field and road we’d hit

And then we’d be in Fürth

We moved across the field quite fast

The road and river too

Then up the other side we went

To wait for six o’clock.

But just before we made our jump

White flags began to show

It was still dark, but we could see

The Germans coming out.

They surrendered, all of them,

And we just went on through

We sent the Krauts back to the rear

With just a guard or two.

            -92-

It was the same, where’er we went

The Germans just gave up

We saw one Kraut in uniform

Just kiss his wife goodbye

And knew that he had been called up

Not many days before

The old, the young, the crippled too

Would try to make a stand.

So after we had taken Fürth

We headed south again

Thru many towns and villages

All flew the big white flag.

We had but one slight incident

Some miles south of Fürth

There we were strafed by three Kraut planes

That came down on the road.

They came in line, and opened fire

Before we spotted them

Then each man jumped to save his life

It mattered not just where

One of my squads had moved thru town

Along a garden wall

And when they jumped, they fell ten feet

And nothing broke their fall.

            -93-

The mortar, sight, and cleaning rod

All ended up in mud

But as each man got himself up

Not one of them was hurt.

We looked again to find the planes

But found that they were gone.

We later learned they’d been shot down

By our P51’s.

We went across the Blue Danube

That wasn’t very blue

It was a wide and muddy stream

And so we crossed in boats

When the south side had been secured

Our engineers then built

A pontoon bridge to get the tanks

And vehicles across.

So we continued on our way

When evening called a halt

We stopped right near the autobahn

That led down to the south

Toward Munich and still further on

This open road did go

We thought of how we’d move along

If we were on that road.

            -94-

We spent the night in this small town

Without an incident

And in the early morning dawn

We saw a lot of tanks

They now were on the autobahn

And waited just for us.

We climbed aboard and off we went

And now it was a race.

The Third Division raced us hard

The Forty-Fifth did too

All tried to reach the old beer hall

Where Hitler got his start.

It took two days to reach the town

For often we did stop

To clear the road of SS troops

Who tried to block our way.

We’d passed by Dachau in our plunge

To get to Munich first

And later learned that some of ours

Had gone into that camp

They saw the horrors in the stripes

The living and the dead

The living only skin and bones

The dead lay everywhere.

            -95-

The German guards were shot on sight

Wherever they were found

But very little could be done

For those close to their deaths

The dead were stacked as cordwood is,

Around each oven door

While inside, ashes and their bones

Were all that once were men.

And now we were so very glad

That we’d been picked that day

To ride the autobahn on tanks

And miss out on Dachau.

We had no envy for our friends

In our first battalion

Who had a most distasteful task

Of cleaning up the camp.

At last we came into Munich

And stopped quite close to dark

We jumped down off the tanks we rode

And looked across the street

For here we saw a storage plant

That was chock full of food

It did not take us very long

To load that tank with crates.

            -96-

We then jumped back onto the tanks

And rumbled down the road

Until we came to the billets

Selected for the night.

We took the food down off the tanks

And carried it within

Then had a feast, the likes of which

We’d never had before.

The Swede was a machine gunner

Who liked to eat his eggs

Now he had a whole crate full, but

Could eat just twenty-eight

The rest of us just ate and ate

‘Til we could eat no more

Then after setting guards about

We settled down to snore.

Now as for us, we slept that night

And rested one more day

And then we started south again

Thru old Bavaria

Town after town, we passed on through

Without a single stop

Sometimes we rode the tanks or trucks

But mostly we just walked.

            -97-

There was one time that we were stopped

By just a bunch of kids

They had an MG forty-two

And stopped our movement cold.

So we had to set up our guns

As our riflemen deployed.

We thought four hundred yards would do

For nothing could we see.

We got a call, from out in front,

On where we were to fire

The range was right, but where to shoot

Was anybody’s guess.

And so we dropped one round ahead

“You’re shooting far, far to the right,”

The answer soon came back.

We then adjusted all the guns

And moved them to the left

Then dropped another round out front

And hoped it would be close

“You’re long about ten yards or more

And now just to the left.

Come in a bit, and move more right

And you’ll be where we want.”

            -98-

These weren’t the ways that mortar men

Were used to firing guns

But this is what we got that day

From someone out in front

So we corrected all our guns

According to his word

Then started firing while we searched

Traversing left to right.

 “You’re on,” I heard him shout in glee

Over my five three six,

“One landed right on that bunch of Krauts

And now confusion reigns.

I do believe they’re giving up

Stop firing anytime.”

And so I gave the sign to halt

And sure enough they quit.

The Germans just threw up their hands

They were about sixteen

They all were just a lot of kids

Whose officer was dead.

He had been hit by mortar fire

That rattled these young kids.

And with him dead, they chose to quit,

And this is what they did.

            -99-

We moved on out, when we were sure

The village had been cleared

This was the last time in the war

That we would have to fire.

In two more days of marching so

We entered Austria

And there we rested for a while

Just waited out the war.

The war did end officially

The seventh day of May

But for most of us at least

It ended days before

We now began to occupy

The villages and towns,

The western part of Austria

Known mainly as Tyrol.

We traveled now by German trucks

We’d captured in the war

And first went up to Krimmel

The last town to the west

Where the Salzach River begins

So high up in the Alps

It was a pleasant place to stay

The fishing was just great.

            -100-

We stayed in Krimmel for a month

And then were called upon

To furnish General Collins troops

To act as honor guards.

We went by truck to Kitzbühel

That lies in the Tyrol

This was a ski town ‘fore the war

But none of us did ski.

We stayed in Kitzbühel for a month

It had a great hotel

Where General Collins lived in style

With non-coms as his guards.

We stood our watch throughout each night

Two man on every floor

And then had four days of our own

To see the sights of town.

We went up on the Hoehnenbahn

The ski lift for the town

Went way above the timberline

And could see all around

The snowcapped peaks just to the west

Was where the Alps began

While down below we saw the town

It looked so very small.