THE U.S.O.

When it was apparent that the Rhine would not be crossed in the Neuss-Dusseldorf area, the regiment settled down while the General Staff decided the next move. For the first time we came in direct contact with the U.S.O. There was a theater in Munchen-Gladbach and the U.S.O. brought up Lily Pons to give a concert. She sang a lot of old folk songs to what was probably the most appreciative audience in her career. The only disadvantage was that the theater had a limited capacity, and when the SOS had been taken care of there were not too many seats left for the combat echelon. This was our only contact with the U.S.O. during the war, except for the individuals who may have been in a field hospital somewhere or on leave of absence.                              

THE DRIVE ACROSS GERMANY

The fall of the Rhine river defenses, added to the defeat of the German armies by the Russians at Stalingrad, presaged the end for Hitler's regime. It was just a question of time. The Russians were driving the German armies back toward the Oder river, and General Simpson's powerful Ninth Army had forced a crossing of the Rhine near Wesel and was poised for a drive to Berlin. The 329th did not participate in the combat around the Rhine river bridgehead and was in reserve for several days thereafter. Soldiers are peculiar animals; some complained bitterly. The main bitch was, "There is fighting going on up there and we aren't even in it." They need not have worried. On the third of April the regiment was put in abreast on the 2nd Armored Division to lead the drive. The 2nd Armored headed for Magdeburg; the 329th, on a six-mile front, headed for Barby on the Elbe, and stayed in the lead with the 2nd Armored until the Elbe river was reached and crossed. It was expected that the 2nd Armored would be the first to reach the Elbe. They had a one-day start and their vehicles gave them much greater mobility. However, the drive soon developed into a horse race. The 329th had become accustomed to using unorthodox procedures. The battalions had found that the easiest way to capture a town was to call the Burgomeister on the telephone and ask him if he didn't want to surrender his town to prevent it being all shot up. This usually worked, unless the town was garrisoned by S.S. or Hitler "Jugend" and saved much time.

The first engagement of the 329th was typical. The regiment received orders to go to the assistance of an armored outfit on its flank. It was being held up by two hundred S.S. troops and twenty tanks at a place called Neuhaus. Cook's Battalion was sent to the rescue, and in a short time a laconic message was received from Cook. "We have taken Neuhaus -- no casualties."

This part of Germany was fairly heavily populated with many small towns and villages. The farmers, instead of having their houses on their farms, built their houses side by side in a village, the walls usually of stone set so that one wall served two conterminous houses. Many of the towns had the walls and sally-ports of feudal days. Defense of the small towns was usually at the sally-port on the main highway. Our troops, being veterans, seldom attacked the defenders at these positions but instead moved around to the flanks and rear, which usually brought surrender without a fight.

The regiment encountered one serious problem at the start. It normally moved on a two-battalion front, and did not take time to search out buildings and woods when no resistance was encountered or resistance had stopped. A few die-hard Germans would hide out in a house or woods, allow the combat echelon to pass and then try to bushwhack men in the supply and communications echelon who were following. When flushed out of their cover they would hold up their hands in surrender. This was corrected by a regimental order saying that any German who offered resistance to the combat echelon would, when he offered to surrender, be taken as a POW, but any who allowed the combat echelon to pass and then fired on the communication and supply troops would, when he offered to surrender, be shot down. Copies of the order were furnished to the nearest Burgomeisters, with orders to telephone the contents to the other Burgomeisters along the regimental line of march. In a few days and after a few extemporaneous executions the roads were safer than those in the United States.

The mass of the Germans knew that the situation was hopeless. Only the S.S. and the Hitler Jugend were still fighting. Both of these organizations had been so completely indoctrinated that they would, literally, "die for Hitler." It was bad enough to have to shoot a man when he refused to surrender it was worse having to shoot a boy. Most of the Hitler Jugend were in their early teens, but they could shoot a rifle like a man and had to be shot like a man when they wouldn't give up. Prisoners were not much of a problem. It was standing operating procedure to just take their weapons, line them up on the highway facing toward the rear, and tell them to keep marching and somebody back there would take care of them. One ludicrous experience happened to Lieutenant Joe Harpin, the supply officer of the 3rd Battalion. He was bringing up the rations for the 3rd Battalion, and while driving through a village saw a German soldier duck behind a house. Deciding to be a hero he stopped the jeep, drew his forty-five, and stepped out. His driver, desiring to get into the action, pulled his M-l out of the rifle boot and also stepped out. The driver, in cocking the M-1, accidentally pulled the trigger and the rifle discharged into the air. Immediately fifty-six German soldiers came from behind the houses and surrendered. Lieutenant Harpin formed them into a column, told them to keep marching to the rear, and proceeded on his way. When he reached the town where his battalion was located the troops were busy seeing what they could find in the way of loot. As Harpin walked along the sidewalk looking for the battalion command post a looter tossed a radio out of a second-story window, hitting him on the head and shoulders and knocking him out. He came to in the battalion aid station. His first remark was, "It's a hell of a war. I capture fifty-six Germans with a pistol and then get knocked out by one of our own men with a radio."

The regiment had crossed the Rhine river on the twenty-ninth of March, but was not committed to the leading position until April third. On this date it was in the vicinity of Sennalager busily liberating cognac from the warehouses there. The 3rd Battalion found a 500-gallon water cart somewhere and thereafter the battalion's transportation could always be identified by this cart which was marked "3rd Battalion Cognac." On the third of April the attack jumped off and thereafter never really stopped. Bad Lippsprings, Chalangen, Kohlstadt, Horn, Veldrorn, Schieder, Schwatenburg, Steinheim -- all fell one by one, with the defenders of the passes leading to Horn and Veldrom offering the most stubborn resistance.

The regiment's right boundary was along the Lippe Canal. Across the canal was the great Krupp steel and coal complex of the Ruhr. The Ruhr bombing was probably the most complete job of aerial destruction that has ever been done. Looking across the canal it appeared that everything had been leveled except the chimneys; these seemed to be immune. Hundreds of them remained standing, looking very much like the boles of great trees after a forest fire has destroyed the area. Although superficially destroyed, the Ruhr was not completely dead. As we passed by, hundreds of men dressed in what looked like pajamas boiled out of the ground. They reported that the Ruhr manufacturing had moved underground and was still operating at about seventy per cent of normal. The pajama clad figures were displaced persons from the countries on the German east flank. We motioned for them to march toward the rear and kept going.

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