H. K. Brown's WW II 1944--1945 Diary

Part 9 of 11
      Jan. 28, 1945: Since it was Sunday we accepted Frau Gammengingen's offer of 
Sunday dinner. We found out that her 21 year old son was in the German Wehrmacht 
(Army) and a PW, and that her 18 year old daughter was married to a German SS 
member and living in Germany. Susanna, the 14 year old girl had taken 4 years of 
English in school and could speak it very well. For dinner we had carrots, beef and 
gravy, pickles, French-fried potatoes, bread, butter and cherries. Later in the afternoon 
another girl came over, 16 years old, and she also could speak and understand some 
English. There were 6 of us GIs in the room with the Gammengingen family when the 
grandmother of the 16 year old girl came in demanding that she go home, as it wasn't nice 
for them to be associating with soldiers. There was no trouble, however, because Frau
Gammengingen soon dispelled her fears, saying she trusted us. A colored tank destroyer 
outfit had left them a phonograph and several Glenn Miller selections, including Stardust 
and St. Louis Blues. Susanna was very bright, but very superstitious. Naturally, a stork 
parked on your chimney is very good luck but an owl is the worst type of bad luck. She 
almost had a fit because we wouldn't shoot an owl perched on a house across the street. 
We at sauerkraut and apple fritters that evening.
     Jan. 29, 1945: We were kept on alert almost the entire day. Johnson and I spent much 
of the time talking with the Gammengingen family. We learned that Schillersdorf was 
a pro-German village and that it was the schnapps capitol of the area. I got a clean change 
of clothes from the Gammengingen cellar. That night H Company moved into town from a 
week on the line in a holding position and we moved out to take over their foxholes. 
So began a week of the most miserable conditions possible. We were driven to a position 
as near to the line as possible. From there we walked carrying full equipment and bedding 
across a plain covered with snow--about 8 inches. It was dark as pitch; the only trouble 
we encountered was when one stray artillery round landed several hundred feet from us. 
We eventually located our holes and crawled in to spend the next few days. That night 
wasn't too bad, as the holes were deep enough with a few logs thrown over the top for
protection and the whole thing covered with snow. We even had straw on the bottom. 
The hole was full of C rations, K rations, cigarettes and other odds and ends that H 
Company had left. Nice and dry. I even took off my shoe-paks and slept inside my 
sleeping bag.
     Jan. 30, 1945: The foxhole we awoke in was about 6 ft. by 4 ft., just high enough to 
sit on a box of ammunition without hitting the log roof with our heads. Room enough for 
two to sleep while the third stood watch. When Pogrmich, Byrd and I awoke that morning, 
we found we were located just outside the village of Rothbach, a little town which at that 
time was occupied by Germans. They would filter in one night and we would raid the town 
the next night. Our position was on a slope, out in the open, but well camouflaged with snow. 
The nearest houses in town were only about a 100 yards to our front. There was a 
graveyard and a shed to our left and about midway between the first houses and our 
hole, a creek ran. Our other gun positions were just above the creek and to our right 
dug in the open ground. Spurr and Johnson, our ammo bearers, were in a shallow hole 
several yards behind and above us. We had sound-powered telephone communications 
with the C Company CP and they had direct communication to the artillery CP. Our machine 
gun rested on a raised portion of the dugout and it's barrel peeked out from under the roof
between the ground and the logs. It had almost a 180 degree traverse ability. We read
pocketbooks left in the hole during the daylight hours but as the weather seemed to be 
getting less cold we settled down for another quiet, warm, dry night of sleep.
     Several hours before midnight we noticed water seeping in between the logs and down 
the sides of the hole. The snow was beginning to melt--the spring thaw had come! We 
maneuvered around in the hole several times that night to evade the puddles of water that 
were rapidly forming everywhere. Water was dripping and making so much noise that we 
couldn't have heard anything outside if our lives depended upon it.
     Jan. 31, 1945: As morning dawned, we had gotten no sleep. It found us with about 
3 inches of water in the hole and rapidly rising. It was difficult to find a comfortable position. 
We had to keep our feet out of the water to keep from freezing. To do this, we had to sit 
on ammo boxes and rest our feet on anything sticking out of the water. We phoned in 
our plight but were told that we couldn't expect any relief for at least two days. By this 
time our feet had gotten wet and water was literally cascading in, not only from the roof, 
but from the hillside in back of us. We burned K ration boxes, canned heat and anything 
else that would burn to keep warm. We began to bail water late that afternoon, 
disregarding any attempt to maintain camouflage or security. As it got dark we were still 
bailing. The landscape of snow about us was beginning to break up by little rivulets of 
water.  Pogrmich was about fed up. As darkness settled, we began our second night 
of sleeplessness. As soon as it got dark enough, all of us got out of the hole and 
walked around to warm up and stretch. Johnson came down to stay with me and Byrd 
replaced him in the hole with Spurr. Nick went back to the CP because he was having 
trouble with his feet. I guess he convinced them that we needed relief because they 
promised us relief the next evening.
     Feb. 1, 1945: More of the same, although the weather was not so cold. Around 
midday as we were watching the town, we could see several German soldiers going 
from one house to another; pretty soon one of them came to the door of the nearest 
house to us and threw a pan of water out. I called up the CP and they got in touch 
with our artillery. I directed about 6 rounds of 105 howitzer fire but never did hit the 
house we had in mind. I think the trouble was that when I said 20 yards left, the word 
finally passed down to the gun crew was 20 yards too far left. I was trying to correct 
and they were also correcting; as a result the explosions kept getting further and further 
away. As the afternoon wore on, we prepared our equipment in order to get away as 
soon as possible. Our relief came shortly after dark and we began our trip back to the 
CP. It was in a house located just out of sight of the town, behind a hill where the 
Germans couldn't see. All living quarters were on the second floor. Our squad slept 
with about two dozen riflemen on the floor of one of the upper floor rooms.
      Feb. 2 and 3, 1945: We awoke, intent upon getting our equipment dried out and in 
shape for another turn in the foxhole. Someone during the night had stolen my .45 pistol, 
belt and holster. It had been a mess when I brought it in. I had dropped it at the door with 
the idea that I would clean it after I had had some sleep. I had no weapon, so Slyford 
finally gave me a grease gun that McCarthy had carried around in the jeep. I took it with 
four clips back with me that night. I couldn't keep a clip in it. It kept dropping out at the 
slightest excuse. We relieved part of Rigby's squad; it occupied a hole near an antitank 
gun and was to the extreme right side of our machine guns. Rothbach had been raided 
twice by A and B Company, once by a platoon and once by a company. This time 
A and B Company were to raid it again. We were supposed to fire into the hill on the 
other side of the valley at zero hour. Make enough noise so that the two companies 
could enter the town. When our turn came to fire, one round was all that would go 
off. The dampness had tightened up the web belt so much that the rounds would not come 
out. The gun was in terrible condition. Several of the other guns opened fire, and it wasn't 
long before German artillery also opened fire. The muzzle blast could be heard and then 
a whine as the round sped up the valley toward us. It would land 50 yards or so from us 
but close enough to give us a scare. The raid turned out successful and once more the 
Germans were cleared from Rothbach. We had a good vantage point from that hole.
That morning we saw three German tanks apparently knocked out on the road in the 
valley. Occasionally, we could see men climbing around and several times our artillery 
scared them back into holes. I could see smoke coming from what seemed to be bare
ground--someone had a fire going in a well-concealed hole. That afternoon we were 
given a ringside seat to an air battle--what there was of it. Our 411th Reg. was parading 
back in the rest area before our new Commanding General, Maj. Gen. McAuliffe, and 
one lone German recon plane had strafed the formations. All AA in the territory took a 
shot at it and it was hit just before crossing the lines directly over our heads. The pilot 
bailed out and the plane dove for the ground. It smashed into the field right before us in 
the valley and burned all that night. The pilot was carried over the lines into German 
territory, but only after every rifleman within shooting distance had taken a crack at him. 
We went back for a night's sleep again and it was decided that half the platoon would 
rest while the other half watched. We were to be relieved every 24 hours. That night I
slept in the cellar; Byrd did not go back to the holes. He stayed around the CP as a 
guard and later was transferred to a driver's spot. It was decided that I would not go 
out the next night but rather the following morning in order to split up the men into two 
groups. I pulled guard around the CP the next day. By this time we were getting 
diversified C rations--franks and beans, spaghetti and meat balls, meat and noodles, 
stew, meat and beans, and hash.
     Feb. 4, 1945: Just before dawn I went out to take my turn at the foxhole and got the 
original hole again. Spurr and I moved into the hole--and what a mess! The roof had 
settled and when daylight came we saw that the gun could not be moved as the roof 
was resting on the water jacket. We bailed water and tried to get the gun loose by 
digging under the trail leg. We had convinced Slyford that it was best to abandon the 
hole and hunt for another. We were then told that M Company would relieve us and 
that we were going back to a rest area. That night at dark we gathered up all equipment 
and moved out, abandoning the hole. I carried 9 wet woolen blankets which had 
somehow accumulated in the foxhole, but they were so heavy that I could only manage 6. 
We got lost on our way back to the jeep but after about two hours of trouble finally 
made it. We were carried back to the town of Obersulzbach, which is located about 
3 miles from Ingwiller. As we were the last unit of the Bn, in town, we had to take what 
we could find in the line of a place to stay. We finally got the last place on the North end of
town. It was owned by a farmer with a wife, three daughters (one 9, one 18 and one 19). 
The old lady kept a pretty close watch on her daughters, but some things escaped even 
her watchful eyes.
     Feb. 5 thru 18, 1945: We spent 14 days in Obersulzbach. There wasn't too much 
happening during these two weeks. We got some replacements and a new medic. We 
called him Johnny and he had been in the Aleutians. We were presented to 
Gen. McAuliffe and had a parade. We saw several movies and I had a date with a 
dentist. I also had a visit from the Army Claims Officer in connection with two missing 
expensive cameras during the fight for Ville back in November. I told him everything I knew, 
and the truth, but at that time I didn't know who was responsible. We played tackle 
football and even spent one day on the firing range. It forced us to clean all weapons 
and gave the new men some experience. Among them were Zurowski, of Polish descent; 
Perez, a Mexican-American from Texas; and about this time Kountz returned,
a veteran of Itterswiller. We made one sham march and attack on Schillersdorf. I 
visited Ingwiller twice, once to see Russ after he paid me a visit on the 13th and another 
time to take sugar to the Gammengingens.  During that time an ammo truck blew up 
in Buchswiller and several GIs were killed. The CG seemed to have a lot of snap and 
go but all we could see was the chicken as it was passed on down to us. We were 
glad to get back into something a little more like action, possibly, but with a lot less
regulation.
     Feb. 19 thru Mar. 10, 1945: Again we were moving, this time to the town of 
Obermodern, just a few miles east of Schillersdorf and almost on the line. Our job was to pull 
roadblock at the East end of the town. We were close to Pfaffenhofen which in turn was close 
to our old stomping ground of Merzwiller. Obermodern was the home of the world's tallest 
human,  8 ft. 8 in. Georges Kieffer. We saw him quite often riding around on his special-built 
bicycle.  It was during our week pulling roadblock that Spurr and Haley returned to Schillersdorf 
and almost got into trouble. Haley got drunk and had to find his way back across several 
mine fields after dark. We covered up for him and everything was forgotten eventually.
     We lived on canned salmon and rice almost exclusively. Some of us left our chow 
and muscled in on HQ. Company which had much better food. We showered and slept, 
saw several movies and played a lot of touch football--between occasional German 
artillery barrages. One night after coming off guard duly, I climbed the stairs of the 
house we were billeted in to go to bed. It was very dark, and I didn't have a light. I 
felt my way upstairs and through the door to the room where I had my sleeping bag. 
There must have been 6 other fellows all asleep in their bags on the floor. I felt my 
way past everyone clear over to the corner opposite the doorway. There I took off my 
gloves and fumbled with my pistol belt--everything was hanging on it--the pistol, 
holster, 2 extra clips of ammo, a canteen of water, a shovel and a first aid kit. Just 
as I got it unbuckled, the whole mess slipped from my hands and thumped to the floor. 
I had always kept the pistol on half-cock with a round under the hammer. The drop to 
the floor was enough to set it off. With a loud explosion the gun went off in the enclosed 
room. It tore the whole end out of the holster and dug a hole slantwise into the floor,
coming out into the kitchen below and imbedding in the kitchen floor. Needless to say, 
everyone was up, thinking the house had been hit by some German artillery. But no one 
was hurt, and so to bed.
     Across the hall from our bedroom was a bathroom--nothing in it except a bathtub and 
an old-fashioned charcoal burning hot water heater. Two of us decided to heat some 
water for a bath; however, after about 20 minutes of burning charcoal, the lead around 
the pipe fittings began to melt and water began leaking everywhere. I guess we ruined the 
thing; probably the water was not circulating properly because we didn't know how to 
turn it on.
     Our ordinance was experimenting with a multiple-barrel rocket launcher. It consisted of 
64 barrels mounted on a medium tank. The 105 mm rockets were hurled at an amazing rate 
into one of the towns just across the line. We moved back into reserve by taking billets in 
another section of the town of Obermodern. There we had a room for each squad and in 
our house we found potatoes and sauerkraut. We stayed in that part of town until the 11th 
of March. It was during this time that Nick was sitting on the bed cleaning his gun and after 
he had put it together, shoved the clip in. As it was cocked, he accidentally tripped the 
trigger. Immediately six .45 slugs tore into the wall traveling the full length of the room 
about 6 feet from me and shoulder high. The flattened lead bounced back, some of it as 
far as the bed. Everyone was showered with plaster and mortar. That's how I spent 
my birthday. I spent some time across the street with a hunchback accountant who
worked in Strasbourg, but was unable to travel to work because of the war. He had a 
radio and we used to listen to all the news broadcasts, both in English and German. It 
was there that I first heard of the Remagen bridgehead made on the 9th. By this time 
Panowske came back a Lt. and we pulled a small problem on machine gun support. 
We also pulled a Bn. problem on a sham attack on the town. It was getting warmer 
and everyone was contemplating when we would attack and the 7th Army move. 
It seemed that everything was happening in the North. One night while C Company 
was pulling a night patrol, the men got caught in a mine field. Two injured men were left 
there until daylight and some medics within sight of the Germans managed to go out 
into the mine field and bring back the two men without drawing fire. Either 8 or 10 
men were lost on that patrol. These were the only casualties we had for the two weeks 
before and three weeks after.
     Mar. 11 thru 14, 1945: On the afternoon of the 11th we moved onto the line. We had 
only to walk about 3 Km in all. We followed the creek out of town and into the edge of 
some timber. Then staying behind a rise in the ground we walked across open ground 
about dusk and after dark moved up to the ridge and into well-furnished foxholes. The 
holes were deep enough to sit up in. The weather was warm during the day and the hole 
was so well concealed that we could have a candle lit during the night. The German 
positions were located all over the opposite slope of a narrow but fairly deep ravine between 
us. We stayed there that night and during the next day. We were then relieved and went 
back for food which had been brought from the kitchens in jeeps. The 1st Platoon which 
had not seen too much since the middle of Dec. was still being held back. The evening 
of the 12th I slept in the CP. It was located on the western edge of Pfaffenhofen. I guess 
that was as close as my trail ever came to crossing--from the outskirts of Pfaffenhofen
to the center of town. Our house was located near the power station for the town and 
the Germans kept throwing rounds in hoping to eliminate it. We stayed inside during the 
13th and that night went back to our holes. Our mortars were located directly behind 
us about 100 yards and they continued to throw harassing fire into the German positions. 
After a night and a day in foxholes, we were again back in the CP. This time tension 
seemed to be mounting. We were not to return to our foxholes. Rumor had it that the
7th Army was to jump off the following morning. Again all equipment was made 
battle-ready. The 1st Platoon was to accompany the lead rifle company--that news 
sounded good to our ears.
      Mar. 15, 1945: Holes were vacated early that morning. The day dawned very 
foggy and smoky. Our artillery had quietly set off hundreds of smoke bombs and the 
valleys were well concealed in the mixture of fog and smoke. At dawn we were 
standing under cover of the house waiting for the word to advance. The lead rifle 
units had already taken off and soon the artillery opened up with a 20 minute barrage. 
There wasn't much answer from the German side. Once in a while we could hear a 
small arms fire fight. Finally we got the word and single-filed off into the fog. We 
couldn't see 6 feet in front of us. The worst danger was mines so we kept very close 
together so as to keep contact. This was to be the first action for our new men, many 
of whom had spent Christmas and New Years at home. Johnny, our medic, new at the
job, seemed to sense danger--he didn't know what to do. All he could do was follow 
along behind, subject to danger, but with no means of defending himself. We followed 
the man in front across open ground, down into one dip, up the other side, then down 
into another. We passed several German machine gun nests our artillery had dug up. It 
had also dug up quite a bit of ground all over and the riflemen had been able to clear 
most of the trenches. We followed along and soon German prisoners were being sent 
back along the line of our march. As we were the last unit to come, we had to keep 
them with us.  None of us liked it much because it made too large a group of men
congregated in one spot in case the fog lifted. Some spots along the ridge the fog 
did clear and everyone would squat down so as to reduce the danger of making a target. 
We were halted momentarily every few minutes, but finally we heard a terrific mortar 
and 88 mm barrage being laid down in front of us. Later we found that part of the lead 
rifle company and the 1st Platoon had been trapped in a small dip and had taken a 
terrific beating. Soon part of 1st Platoon came staggering back--some of them walking
--some of them being carried on stretchers. One of the fellows had his foot partly 
blown off, and he was smiling. We thought it had been a mine but it had only been 
shrapnel. They had only lost Katzmarek, but for the most part the rest of them had
been wounded.

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