Download - 70th Infantry Division Association

Here we were in battles with the Germans on top of hills covered with snow and the commander sees fit
to promote 18 enlisted men.
On January 19, 1945, at Folkling, France, we dug new fox holes at the same positions and held a practice
alert at 1400. The company CO made a recon over the company position and selected withdrawal routes.
We also had night patrols. I was getting kind of antsy when he started talking about withdrawal routes.
They called it a strategic withdrawal but what it really meant was that he expected to retreat and he was
looking over the hills to try to figure out which way would be the best way to get the hell out of there. We
were all starting to get antsy. We had practice and alerted everybody in the company to fire a main line of
resistance. That meant if you have a full strength of 190 men and six officers, they all open fire, including
the mortars, the machine guns and rifles. Everybody shoots and it's a devastating sight to see. Then we
found out we were going to have to withdraw. I always panicked when he would talk that way because
there was always someone left behind to fight a delay action to hold the enemy back while. his buddies
withdrew. That is miserable. It is probably the most lonesome thing a person could do--sit there and
watch your buddies going off the hill knowing you are the only one left.
On January 20, Captain James Michael transferred to the 2nd Battalion Headquarters. The new company
commander was 1st Lt. Harry Shoem and we had 2nd Lt. Charles Spencer assigned to Company A. We
were holding a defensive position and organizing patrols. It really doesn't sound like much, but it's a
miserable job. The outfits would dig in on the hills, usually two men to a hole and the patrols are fixed so
they usually have about 4 or 5 men. They would make a diamond shape with one man in front, two men
on the flanks and one to bring up the rear. Now, the guy in charge of the patrol would be in the middle so
that he could control the patrol. In other words, tell the patrol what they are going to do and which way
they are going. These five men would leave the area, cross through our lines of organization and move
into the enemy territory. The objective was to find out what the enemy was up to.
Now this was a quiet, satisfying, relaxing job. You tiptoe out to no-man's land, look the situation over and
stick your head into a German foxhole, taking notes on what the Germans are talking about. Then you
withdraw, tiptoe back and if you can get through your own lines without getting shot by slap-happy Americans,
you report to the Company Commander, "For pity's sake, they're cooking hot dogs over there!"
What you were supposed to do was find out what the Germans intended to do. If you were trained in the
Army for a while, you could anticipate things, assume what was going on, see reinforcements coming up,
see if they had full strength and if they were fully equipped and with what pieces of equipment.
Our morning reports say "holding defensive positions, organizing patrols, morale of enlisted men good."
Sure it was good for the guy who was in his hole with his top covered over and calmly smoking a
cigarette, making a pot of coffee and worrying only about his own little world in that hole. But not so for
the guy who had to go out there on patrols, and they were ungodly patrols sometimes lasting 5 to 6 hours
into the night. The next morning if the company was moving out, that guy would come in and start moving
again with no sleep.
On patrol you would tape your dog tags together so they wouldn't jangle, blacken your face; and if you
were out at night, try to keep your clothing dark. We had white covers over our overcoats to blend in with
the snow, like the Finnish troops. They didn't work for night patrol. Nobody, I mean nobody, talked to one
another. It was all done through hand signals with as little communication as possible. If the Germans
heard one man, they assumed there were two more and they would lay and wait, setting a trap for five
slap-happy Americans, shooting the breeze, walking in German territory. Then you were a dead duck.
On January 22, we sent Robert Meredith to the hospital, which means that he was sent to the rear.
Robert Meredith was one of the guys that got married in my outfit when we were in the States side. He
married a young girl about 18 years old. That same day we lost four men who were transferred to the
headquarters company 2nd Battalion. The Company Commander promoted 10 privates to PFC. Another
man was transferred to 236th general hospital from battalion hospital. On the 23rd and 24th of January
we had quite a few men in movement back and forth from the sick hospital battalion or battalion aid
station and the 21st headquarters station hospital. The Battalion Air Station was really the rear of the
company area and the battalion area which was the equivalent of moving back four companies. They