Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

4.12. BATTLE OF THE BULDGE Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIFigure 4.10: Bunker ruins on the Siegfried Line near Aachen, Germany.4th and took up a position in the woods. We would attack the next day andtry to drive the Germans out of the forest. We started digging in and twoGerman planes strafed the road near us. A strafing run sounds like popcorngoing off all over the place. No one was hit that I know of by the strafing.4.12.1 Full Scale Bayonet ChargeThe next morning we attacked the Germans with a full scale bayonet charge.A friend of mine kept among others and was killed here. The Germans didnot have time to retreat and a large portion of them died in their holes. Weforced the Germans out of the woods first into a place called Hat Hardt andthen into Gürzenich, which is opposite Duren. 26I was given the job of taking some prisoners down a road from Hat Hardt 27to the rear. The German artillery was shelling the road but most of theirshells were hitting in a little valley beside the road. Freeman led, next camethe Germans and I brought up the rear.26 See the map in Figure 4.1 on page 40 #11.27 See the map in Figure 4.1 on page 40 #12.67