Download - 70th Infantry Division Association

while he went to the bathroom. The sun was coming up and it was a foggy morning. The vegetation had
frost on it and there was snow on the ground.
I stood guard at the door while he proceeded to leave the archway of the door and moved to the field
away from the house. He crossed over a barbed wire fence. The posts were good but the fence was
dilapidated. It was about 3-1/2 feet high. As he got to the other side of the fence, it was just getting light
and I could see his breath. As he's going to the bathroom, he's looking around for the enemy. All of a
sudden a German gunner opened up with an 88; it came over the hill and exploded in the town behind us.
When it went over the hill, it sounded like it would explode right between your eyes and part. your hair.
Sgt. Heckle thought they were shooting at him. He immediately jumped up and started to run towards me
with his pants down. He cleared that fence straight out. He was parallel with the ground and came down
on the other side of the fence, into the house and down the steps with his pants around his ankles. Well, it
was hysterical. I knew there was only one shell and nothing to be afraid of but old Heckle didn't
understand that. That was about the funniest thing I saw during the war.
On that particular day, Sgt. Jacobsen came up out of the basement and I looked at him .and asked,
"Jake, how do you feel?" He said, "I feel terrible." I looked into his eyes and they were yellow. It turned out
he had yellow jaundice; he was on disability for quite a while. We also lost Joe Strauss, our 2nd Lt.; he
went back to sick hospital.
It was that evening that the company commander took half of the company off the line at a time and gave
them hot food. It was pitch black when it came my turn to pull the fellows out of the line. We were
proceeding down to a house that the cooks had set up with hot food when we approached a squad of
Free French. Now the Free French had no relatives near them, no home or property. They were nomads
living off the land. If they wanted something, they had to ;o hunting for it. As a matter of fact they would go
rabbit hunting right in the middle of enemy territory and if the Germans were there, they would get a few
of them, too. They were vicious people. Anyway, as we were going down the road, we heard someone in
very broken English holler, "Give it to me." In the Army we have what we call "signs and countersigns".
When you were challenged with a word, you would have to come back with another word. They changed
the words every night. The object was to come back with the right word when challenged and then the
challenger knew you were not the enemy. On that particular night I didn't remember what the signs were;
we'll say they were "Black" and "White". The Free Frenchman said, "Give it to me" and he was after the
sign and countersign. If I didn't give him an answer he liked pretty quick, there would be no more soldier,
namely me. It turned out he had been in the basement at a cellar window and he and his buddies had us
pretty well covered. It finally dawned on me what he wanted, so I gave him the sign and he came back
with the countersign. He let us proceed down into town. But, I'll never forget that. I had no idea where he
was when he spoke or, at first, what he was talking about. All I could think about was that the Germans
had infiltrated our area and cut off our lines. I was overjoyed when I found out it was a Free Frenchman.
They were welcome in our outfit and had saved a lot of lives for us. They were efficient. with their
weapons and had done a lot of scouting and patrolling.
The next day Lt. Strauss went to the 7th Army Hospital.
On February 27th we listed John Shoup as missing in action. His name was dropped from the rolls and
later changed to "killed in action", after someone evidently found his body. It was on the 28th that
Jacobsen was finally sent to the hospital with yellow jaundice.
The month of March found the 276th Infantry Regiment in position as follows: The 1st and 3d Battalions
occupied positions in Forbach, Companies F and E (less one squad) were attached to the 274th Infantry
Regiment, Company G plus one squad from Company E was in Division Reserve and occupying
positions near Morsbach, and the balance of the 2d Battalion was in Regimental Reserve at Cocheren.
The 274th Infantry was on the right flank and the 101st Cavalry was on the left.
A group of approximately 150 reinforcements was training in the vicinity of Cocheren. This group was
called Company "J" for the purpose of administration.