Dreux...Houdan...Nantes

By August 19 the Battery had sped through the villages of Dreux and Houdan on the heels of the 5th Armored Division and we suddenly found ourselves on the crest of a hill looking down on the Seine River at Mantes-Gassicort, thirty miles northwest of Paris. As we stopped for the evening, everything seemed to be quiet. Then about midnight we could see German and American tracer bullets flying back and forth across the river below us. By morning, the infantry of the 79th Division had a foot hold on the opposite bank and the engineers were installing a floating pontoon bridge to carry 5th Armored tanks across the river. We were also notified that we were now attached to the 693rd Field Artillery Battalion, armed with 105mm howitzers. They were a very short-range artillery outfit assigned to help protect the bridge and establish the first American bridgehead over the Seine.

I was sitting under a tree near the river having breakfast when I noticed a large flight of aircraft appearing over the horizon. They didn't look like the B-17 Flying Fortresses that I was accustomed to see going high over our heads toward targets in Germany. No they definitely were not B17's But weren't there too many of them to be enemy aircraft? Then suddenly someone shouted, "They're all krauts." And 32 of them came buzzing toward us- the biggest contingent of enemy planes we had ever seen There were a number of different kinds of planes and they broke into groups as they tried again and again to reach our bridgehead area We reported enemy planes overhead almost continuously from 1000 to 2100 on August 21 Our gunners claimed one definite kill and three planes damaged. The next day it was more of the same. The Germans, whose radio reported erroneously that the bridgehead was held by American paratroops counter attacked vigorously on land and threw in additional air support in a desperate effort to smash the bridge. Flights of ME-109's and FW-190's cnss-crossed the area from 0830 to 2230 trying to blast the bridge with bombs and rockets. Even some slow-flying, outmoded Stuka dive bombers were called in without success.

In the fierce melee, which continued all day, the Battery half-tracks on both sides of the Seine fired nearly all of their available ammunition. We claimed the destruction of 10 enemy aircraft which either blew up in the air or went down trailing smoke and flames. Not a single bomb or rocket reached the pontoon bridge. One of our half-tracks had its motor blown out of commission and two others were damaged by bullets but there were no casualties among the Battery's troops. For its work, the 398th Battalion, along with six other battalions, received commendations from Major General Wade H. Haislip, commander of the XV Corps, for its part in the destruction of 45 enemy planes and the damaging of 15 others in that two-day period. On August 23, American airplanes again appeared in the skies after an unexplained absence of three days, and enemy air activity diminished. However, there was one raid at 0930 in which one plane was shot down and hits claimed on three others. Nevertheless, the troops had time to relax and we were able to take our first bath of the campaign-a refreshing swim in the Seine River.

On August 24, we were notified that our Battery was now under control of the First Army rather than the Third Army and the following day we left the Mantes-Gassicourt bridge and headed for Paris. The German general in charge of defending Paris had defied Hitler and agreed to surrender in order to avoid destruction of that beautiful city. The surrender was made on August 26 to the French 2nd Armored Division, commanded by General Leclerc, and the U.S. 4th Division. Like us, the French had been transferred from the Third Army to the First Army for political reasons. While news releases reported that the French were part of the First Army, their troops didn't mind telling everyone they saw in Paris that they were really in the Third Army.

There was still sporadic fighting in Paris when we arrived on the 27th and in some places cobblestones had been dug out of the streets to make road barriers. In spite of this, the streets were overflowing with women and bicycles. I had never seen so many bicycles in one place at one time. Our halftracks had to proceed cautiously because people were climbing up on them to shake hands and offer gifts of flowers. We found that it was pretty nice to be considered a conquering hero!

General Eisenhower had evidently concluded that organizing a victory parade through Paris would be the simplest way of avoiding the gridlock of car and bicycle traffic in order to get troops to the other side of the city So we were included in the parade, which started at the Arc de Triompf and proceeded down the Champs Elysee. The poor GI's in the infantry had to march on foot but we rumbled down the Champs Elysee in our half-tracks jeeps and supply trucks. At the end of the parade, we did not stop but continued on through Paris into the countryside. We moved through Etampes and Fontainbleu to Nangis, where we would bivouac for eight days about 30 miles southeast of Paris.

We were back in the Third Army again and this exasperating delay was due to the fact that supply lines to Patton's onrushing spearheads were stretched almost to the breaking point. Also, it was rumored that large quantities of fuel and supplies were being diverted to General Montgomery's Bntish forces, who were still facing tough going in their sector of the Allied front near Caen. The British wanted him to break out to capture the launching sites for the German V-2 rockets which were still bombarding England. Despite the acute shortage of gasoline, we were able to drain the tanks on the half-tracks and get enough gasoline to power our jeeps for trips into Pans. More than a quarter of our personnel were able to visit Paris on 6-hour passes and join the local citizenry in celebrating their recent liberation. Upon our return to Third Army command, we were reassigned to guard the 961st Field Artillery battalion. We escorted them to new positions at Rambouillet before leaving them for a new assignment with the 989th Field Artillery battalion.

On September 93 we began our push toward the Rhine and, curiously, the Battery was split in half, much to Captain Kelly's consternation. The First Platoon was attached to the 276th Armored Field Artillery battalion and the Second Platoon to the 250th Field Artillery battalion of 105mm howitzers. This battalion was supporting Combat Command L of the French Second Armored Division. The Second Platoon and the French Second Armored promptly disappeared from our radio range and even the French were not sure where they were, except that they were supposed to capture Epinal on the Moselle River within five days. Captain Kelly, with Todesco and I in his jeep, stayed with the First Platoon for five days and then took off for Epinal to join the Second Platoon.

Captain Kelly, with Todesco and I in his jeep, stayed with the First Platoon for five days and then took off for Epinal to join the Second Platoon.

As we arrived at Epinal, it appeared to us that the French had done a very poor job of cleaning up the road. There were still large trees lying across it so that we were forced to drive around them through a large field in order to enter the town. Large white bedsheets were still hanging on the front of houses lining the main street. These were customarily hung out by French civilians as a trace symbol in hopes that their homes would not be shot up As we were commenting on the large number of sheets still remaining in place, we noticed a couple of French women ninning toward us shouting "Boche, Boche," and pointing up the street. Fortunately, our command of French was good enough to know that "Boche" meant "Germans " Then it dawned on us that the French Second Armored had been delayed and that somehow we had gotten ahead of them. We were, in fact, the first Americans to enter Epinal. Todesco almost spilled us out of the jeep in making a fast U turn and heading back out of town. As for the Germans they were apparently happy to have us leave peaceably.

Finally, we located the Second Platoon at Dompaire, where they had just arrived after fighting their way through Contrexeville, Vittel and Vaudricourt with the happy-go-lucky Frenchmen, Actually, the French 2nd Armored included a large number of black Algerians, who preferred to wear berets instead of helmets, and who looked for the nearest bar to celebrate as soon as they had captured a town. This allowed the enemy to regroup, so during the past five days our men had been completely surrounded once and at another time had been caught in the middle of a fierce tank battle. But, ironically enough, our only casualties occurred when a half-track collided with a tree, injuring Norman Giguerre, Warren McKinnon, Harold Whitworth and Granville Hunt All later returned to duty.

We were quite happy when the orders came through relieving the Platoon from the French assignment so that someday we could get our two platoons back together again. General LeClerc, commander of the French 2nd Armored, was well pleased with the Second Platoon and, in recognition of its work, Captain Kelly, as Battery commander, was later awarded the prestigious Croix de Guerre by the French Government.

Captain Kelly, Todesco and I continued to ride our jeep, shuttling back and forth between the two platoons since the Captain was still responsible for both of them. The First Platoon had drawn a more stationary assignment guarding critical gasoline storage areas at Lusigny, St. Dizier, Germay and Rapey. The Second Platoon had been assigned to guard the 87th Engineer Battalion for a week. This outfit was carrying one of the large pontoon bridges designed for spanning Ihe Rhine River, and would have been a choice target for the Luftwaffe if they could have located it. After moving through Charmes to Gerbeviller, we left the 87th and their future bridge to take over defending the XV Corps existing bridge at Luneville After sweating out Germany artillery barrages aimed at the bridge for a week, the Platoon was re-attached to the 961st Field Artillery on September 28 and was joined by the First Platoon the following day.

Then for reasons unknown the entire XV Corps, including us was transferred from General Patton's Third Army to the U.S. Seventh Army commanded by General Alexander Patch. The Seventh Army had moved from Italy to a landing at the port of Marseille in southern France and then fought their way northward to join the right flank of the Third Army.