| Table of Contents < - - - return Chapter 30 - The Maginot Line < - - - next Don Bennett's War Chapter 29 - Neighbors _______________________ We went down, the hill to our company and had a little wait while we got organized, and our leaders decided our next maneuver. About dusk, after a meal of K rations - canned meat, crackers, and bullion soup - we headed back up the hill. We traveled along the road in the dark for a couple hours, scared once by a sound of the enemy ahead of us. We came into a good sized town unopposed, and after a little scouting around in the pitch dark city, we holed up in one of the main buildings in the middle of town. The building was full of rifle ammunition, mostly .22 cal. In the morning we found out why we were not shelled during the night - the enemy had been in the town all night, but pulled out just before dawn. We went forward the next day and had no contact with the enemy till late in the afternoon when we came into the outskirts of a transportation hub town, when we were dropped flat on the ground at the sound of 88 shells whistling immediately over our heads. The shells exploded in the woods behind us. That night our platoon was told to send out two patrols, one to explore the river area to look for bridges, size and depth of the river, and of course, the enemy, and the other patrol to explore the hills and fields east of town, and also try to make contact with another battalion of our regiment. I was picked for the second patrol and we headed out in the pitch blackness. We went through fields and fences pausing occasionally to check our compass (by lighting a match under a raincoat). We sometimes had to "freeze in our tracks" when a flare would light up the sky for a few minutes. We never made contact with anyone and returned to town questioning the people in a few houses on our way. We visited for about 40 minutes with one family and had a little drink of schnapps. At dawn we were off again,
heading east out of town, down river along the railroad tracks. We passed
stacks and stacks of 88 shell casings, piled up at the R.R. station.
We followed the river a couple kilometers and then up a cleared hill,
and halted temporarily on the hill about a half mile from the river.
From our viewpoint, we could see four or five towns highlight by their
church steeples. We could see some activity in a small community on
the river below us and didn't know if the action was by soldiers or
civilians, and so held our fire. We saw some white flags come out of
some windows and a little later a group of people holding white flags
made their way up toward us. They were taken to the rear and then we
moved down through the community, across the river, and up to the woods
on the other side of the valley. We hiked through the woods most of
the day, keeping the valley in sight to our right. We passed through
an area in which many small buildings, well separated, were located.
We guessed they were schnapps stills. In midafternoon the leading platoon
ran into an enemy rearguard waiting for us in a resort at the edge of
the valley. We ran up to help them, and they fired a few shots through
the woods in our direction, but when we got up to the resort, the second
platoon had things in control. They had two of their men wounded, though
we talked to the German officer who was captured. He said we were going
to be beat, and the Germans victorious. He apparently knew of the German
plan for breaking through our lines in two days Chapter 30 - The Maginot Line < - - - next Table of Contents < - - - return _________________________ Copyright, Donald Bennett
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