THE LOIRE RIVER

While the prisoners from The Citadel were still being collected, the 329th Infantry was ordered across France to Angiers, to protect General Patton's right flank and rear while he captured Paris. For those who had fought through the hedgerows it was like going from hell into heaven. We relieved a regiment that had seen no combat. Its commander was a strict disciplinarian. He had all the houses of prostitution put "off limits" and imposed a strict curfew. As soon as his outfit cleared out Major John Mauldin, the regimental surgeon, inspected the bawdy houses and gave them a clean bill of health. The 329th had been through a lot of tough fighting and was entitled to any pleasure it could get. The "off limits" signs were removed and the men were free to stay out as long as they pleased when not on duty. The French people were very hospitable. The Mayor threw a party for the officers. (We furnished the food -- they furnished the wine and the girls.) The star of the party was the champion violin player of France, but everybody made so much noise that she couldn't be heard and she left in tears.

The regiment's tour in Angiers was not all wine, women, and song. It had been shot to pieces in the hedgerows, and had moved so rapidly into the Saint-Malo offensive that it had no chance to reorganize. Out of the 160 officers in the regiment when it crossed Omaha Beach, 45 had been killed and 94 wounded. Out of approximately 3300 enlisted men, 340 had been killed and 1716 wounded. Replacements for these had been received, but due to the regimental policy most of these were privates. The successors to the officers and noncommissioned officers had received battlefield promotions, but had to become accustomed to their jobs. Not one of the battalion and company commanders that had been in command when we crossed Omaha Beach was left, so the 329th was almost a new outfit, except for the fact that the company commanders had probably been lieutenants or sergeants, and the sergeants and corporals had probably been privates when we crossed. The first step at Anglers was reorganization, which was needed at every level of command. Following reorganization, basic drills were held to give the new commanders some confidence in themselves. Having survived the meat-grinder of Normandy they were not recruits, in a tactical sense.

Angiers is in the French chateau country, in some of the most beautiful countryside in the world. The Regimental Headquarters was established in the servants' quarters of an old and beautiful chateau. We could have taken the whole chateau but the upper floors were filled with priceless antiques so these floors were placed "off limits." After a few days the Count was asked if he and the Countess would like to have dinner with us at the headquarters mess, (the servant's dining room). He accepted with alacrity and thereafter they always had dinner with us. The Countess was a little woman -- about four feet six -- and spoke no English. She had a servant who always sat behind her and waited on her. The Count could speak some English and seemed to like to have us around. When we were finally ordered away he gave us a big sales talk about how he could convert his barn into a barracks if we would stay. He was the descendent of hundreds of generations who had occupied the same chateau and he still commanded the small settlement around the chateau in strictly feudal fashion.

The regiment was not exactly ordered to Angiers on vacation. The Germans were just across the Loire river and we usually exchanged a few shots each day. The Angiers city waterworks was on an island in the Loire, and one day a German detachment moved out from their side of the river and occupied it. Although they didn't cut off the water the danger was there, so after a few futile efforts by the local F.F.I. we sent a company to chase them back and occupy the island.

The regiment had attached to it an anti-aircraft battery armed with dual purpose caliber fifty machine guns. To prevent a repetition of the waterworks episode or similar forays, the anti-aircraft battery developed a unique technique. Each night Frenchmen would row across the river and report the location of the German billets. The next morning the A.A. battery would run along the road that paralleled the river and shoot up the reported billets. This must have been unnerving, for within a few days the Germans seemed to have disappeared entirely from the opposite bank.

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