The next day about 10 o'clock in the morning, we could hear the cattle making a lot of noise and the sound of German vehicles. They were moving in position just across the road. I called for mortar fire from the 81st and they really hit their target. It was said later that 83 Germans were killed in that area by the mortar fire. The Germans started: opening up with machine-guns, 88’s and mortars. I was in my slit trench and I heard the Jerries fire 3 rounds of mortars. One lit just behind me and the second just in front of me. I was sure the third was going to get me and thought, this is it. It lit just in front of me, a few feet away and actually shook the ground. Evidently someone’s prayers had been answered that day because it was a dud and didn’t go off. If it had gone off I wouldn't be here writing this. I lay there a little scared thinking it might have a delayed fuse, but it didn’t We had some 57 anti-tank guns up the road and I wondered why they hadn't fired. After investigating I found they had gotten scared and taken off leaving us holding the bag. Capt. Dress fired one and I was standing out in front of it and the concussion almost knocked me off my feet.
The Germans finally withdrew and we only had one casualty, He had a shot through his hand. A mortar shell lit in one of the mens’ trenches and tore all his equipment to bits. It was lucky he wasn't there at the time. Later we withdrew from this area and-went back on the other side of the river. We rode in trucks and went through the town of Etinville, This town .had been held by the Germans and they had put up quite a fight before leaving it. The town had received heavy artillery fire and also had been bombed from the air. Not a building In the town was left standing and the Engineers were beginning to clean it up,
We sat up in a big field and the men dug slit trenches, etc. We were told that heavy artillery fire had fallen in that area. Lt. Albrecht and myself slept in a two man slit trench. We met no enemy resistance here and got to rest for a day, The next day we moved out to: set up a road block north of Etinville, We didn't have any contact with the enemy here either, While moving in to this area one of our ammunition trucks had been hit and was ablaze and explosions could be heard long after the truck had been hit. We then received word that we were to move out the next day and cross the river again. This time we were to cross in small boats. This was done and it was quite an experience crossing the river in these little boats. After we crossed to the other side we sat up a road block and had just gotten into position when word cams up that we were going to move out and attack a little town by the name of Pretat. We moved out and were told it was about a 5 mile march. We moved very slow and were held up at a little town of Vindenbontains. Here the Jerries poured in a lot of artillery fire and mortar fire.
In the little town was a very high church steeple, and it was believed an; enemy observer was in that steeple because the mortar and artillery was so accurate,
We lost several men at that town. We were all scattered along a road and finally Capt. Dress told us to move into a little field and dig in. We did move in and faster digging I had never seen before, When we moved out H Co led' the BN. and the 3rd Platoon was out as the point. They ran into some machine gun fire and we were held up for quite some time. Contact couldn't be made with Lt. Wilde so the 2nd Platoon again had to put out the point.
Lt, Lahman ]Lehman] came with us to act more or less as a guide. I had Pollock and Polasky act as scouts and we started to bypass the enemy. The column kept closing up on us so that we didn’t have time to scout out the hedge-rows as we went. We came upon a group of houses and bad to send some men forward to search them out. Here we took two prisoners and they said' their company had moved out. We kept moving arid finally came to a position just about where we were to set up a defensive position, Pollock and Polasky were out in front and I was close behind. We were on the road now and just rounding a curve when I: heard Polasky yell something in German and then fired a couple of rounds. It wasn't long until the Jerries started opening up with automatic weapons. They fired right up the road and the bullets threw gravel in our faces. I sent some men around the right flank to see if they could run them out but no luck. Soon I called for mortar fire and the mortar squad leader laid in about three rounds.
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