The 14th Armored Arrives

On November 20, the Second Platoon moved from Luneville south to Janmenil, where it was assigned to the 500th Armored Field Artillery Bn. of the newly arrived 14th Armored Division. On Thanksgiving Day the Second Platoon was joined at St. Quirin by the First Platoon which had been relieved from its assignment with 44th Division, which was then advancing on Sarrebourg.

It appeared that our sort of nomadic existence as a free-lance anti aircraft outfit had ended and that from here on we would be firmly attached to a single armored division -- the 14th.

The 14th Armored got its baptism of fire attacking through the Vosges Mountains to reach the Rhine River. The heavily forested Vosges Mountains were a terrible place for tanks and armored vehicles. The weather was cold,the roads were narrow and blocked by fallen trees toppled by the retreating Germans, and the woods were full of snipers. We finally burst out of the confinement of the mountains into the Rhine River valley of the Alsace region. We took the towns of Obernai and Neidernai and then sweated out two days of heavy shelling. The enemy guns were so close that we could hear the slamming of the breach blocks and the German commands to fire, giving us just enough time to drop into a foxhole before the shell arrived.

The 14th Armored Division was nearing the town of Selestat on December 1 when we were ordered north for what was supposed to be a 10-day rest at Geisweiler.

But there was never any rest for the anti-aircraft crews. The Battery remained on air guard as usual. At night we were quartered in a house near the center of town and the men spent the time playing poker or hearts. The Germans routinely shelled the town with long range guns in a very predictable fashion. We could hear the shells landing on one side of the town about every 10 minutes and slowly working their way across town in our direction. When we heard them hit in the next block we would all move down to the cellar until the threat passed and the shells were hitting in the next block. Then it was upstairs again and back to the poker and hearts games.