Who was Joe DiMaggio?

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Finally, we moved forward with an attack that took the towns of Pfaffenhofen, Surbourg, Soultz and Wissembourg, where the Battery fired at two ME109's that went over high. Wissembourg was very close to the border of Germany and the beginning of Hitler's fortified west wall. We could see some of the pill boxes and dragons teeth tank barriers in the distance. One day a group of A-20 American bombers came over on a daylight raid to bomb the pill boxes. We couldn't see how much damage their bombs did, but two of the A-20's were shot down by German anti aircraft batteries. The pilots and crew bailed out but their parachutes came down in German territory where we couldn't reach them.

This area of France was known as Alsace-Lorraine and it had been fought over by Germans, French and others for centuries. It was quite interesting hearing some of the stories of the residents. Both French and German were spoken here. Some of the families had sons or daughters in both the German army and the French army. This was a little disquieting to find that you were staying in the house of a family with a son fighting in the German army. However, everyone seemed very friendly and I don't recall any problems due to this divided loyalty. The reason that we could occupy houses in these border towns was that we were now in the Seventh Army. We could not have done it if we were still with the Third Army. General Patton required his troops to stay outdoors. When asked about this policy by newspaper reporters, Patton explained that he expected continuous movement forward and didn't want his troops to get too comfortable in one spot.

One of the things of interest during our stay near Wissembourg was the Germans' use of huge cannons mounted on railroad cars. During the day, the cars would be parked inside railroad tunnels on the other side of the Rhine to escape our warplanes and then brought out about midnight every night. They were aiming at road junctions several miles to our rear. We could hear the boom of the big guns when fired and then hear the huge shells passing over head with the sound of an express train. Later we saw some of the deep holes where the shells had landed but as far as I could see no roads were hit.

It was now December 18, and in the north a major German counter offensive was in full swing in the Ardennes Forest area. The strength of this offensive against the U.S. First Army came as a great surprise to General Eisenhower and his staff. However, we were at a considerable distance from this action as we were on the right flank of the Third Airny or the left flank of the Seventh Army, depending on your point of view. Some of our units were guarding an area where elements of the 101st Airborne Division had been recuperating from their unsuccessful Arnhem venture, and we guessed that something serious was afoot when they loaded up and pulled out on December 17 to head north. Then we heard that much of the Third Aimy was swinging toward the north to help stop the thrust of General von Runstedt's German troops in what came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge.

Supplementing their new offensive in Belgium, the Germans had dropped SS troops dressed in American uniforms behind our lines. Their job was to string thin piano wire across the roads, tied to trees on each side. This wire could decapitate unwary jeep riders who went down those roads, so immediately all of our jeeps were taken to a maintenance area where a 4-foot high wire cutter was welded onto the front bumper of each jeep. Also, since Germans in American uniforms were expected everywhere, all of our sentries and MP's became very strict in enforcing passwords and asking questions that only an American would know. For example, even if you gave the right password when challenged, you might still be asked what team Joe DiMaggio played for and what position he played.

As a result of the Battle of the Bulge, the 14th Armored's front was broadened to cover some of the area previously occupied by Third Army units. Battery B moved westward as part of a task force that was to hold the mountainous terrain southeast of Bitche near the German border. On December 24, the Battery arrived in Barenthal, a sleepy little hamlet nestled by a lake between high hills. Our Christmas dinner was celebrated here and all was peaceful and quiet as we read in Stars and Stripes about the battles raging around Bastogne in the north, and the bad weather that had grounded our air forces.

But back in Surburg where two sections of the Battery were guarding the 14th Armored Division's supply trains all was not so serene. On December 30, a flight of what appeared to be American P-47 Thunderbolts circled the area and then attacked. Their bombs wrecked the heart of the little town and killed T/5 Robert Gorman as he walked down the street with another member of his crew. Similar planes of American design wearing American insignia but apparently flown by Germans attacked Division headquarters a short time later.