Lieutenant George Lamm, Company A ordered me to accompany him on a patrol.
As we started the patrol, Captain Adams, A Company Commander took the lead with Lt. Lamm’s platoon constituting the main body.
Captain Adams wanted to locate and destroy a building containing the controls for detonating explosives allegedly embedded in the bridge.
We quickly identified the control building as a force of Germans armed with at least four machine guns and a 40mm AA-AT gun defended it. We deployed and assaulted the building. The Germans withdrew and we destroyed the building with grenades.
No attempt was made by the Germans to demolish the bridge.
Our patrol continued moving toward the bridge. At an intersection, we ran into heavy machinegun and rifle fire. We quickly determined we were cut off from the traffic circle by a large German force.
We fought our way out of the intersection -- I was the last one out as I had been ordered to provide covering fire for the remainder of the patrol.
Shortly thereafter, Lt. Lamm found a large empty building in which the patrol could take cover.
Deployed in that building, we spent the next three days fighting off Ger-man attacks. We escaped from our ‘fortress’ in Nijmegen through a series of connecting cellars.
We happily joined A Company - it had been withdrawn from the city and was fighting on ‘Devil's Hill.’
After months of combat in Holland, Hq1 broke contact with the German forces and we moved to Sissonne, France, for rest, equipment repair, replacements and recreation.
We intended to sample the ‘good life’ rumored to exist in the cities of Reims and Paris.
However, our brief flirtation with hot meals, showers, warm beds, and no one trying to kill us ended abruptly on December 17, 1944.
The Germans had launched a massive surprise attack to destroy the allied forces, overrun Belgium and capture the English Channel ports.
Early in the morning of December 19, 1944, Hq1 loaded (lock stock and barrel) into open trucks. After countless hours riding in the open trucks, in bitter cold and wet snow, we arrived in Werbomont, Belgium, a small village astride the junction of two major highways.
The mission of the 508th PIR was to help destroy the large determined German penetration. After days of maneuvering to find and confront the | 
