Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

4.20. BARBY ON THE ELBE RIVER Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIwe were both killed. I told him that there might be a hard fight coming upfor Barby. 38 Finally he was convinced.Captain Overdite put Ray in an ambulance and he was sent back. I wasnot to see him again till several months after I was discharged from the army.4.20 Barby on the Elbe RiverWe attacked Barby on the Elbe River that morning. There was only a minoramount of fighting. The artillery was set up to shell the city and colonelSharp invited the burgermeister (mayor) to come look. The burgermeistersaw what they were facing and convinced most of the German troops tovacate the city. We stayed in Barby the rest of the day and that night.Barby is near Madgeburg. 39 At the latter place one of our armored divisionstried to cross the river and were thrown back with heavy losses. I wasin the first wave of assault boats to cross the Elbe at dawn the next morning.There were no shots fired at us and as soon as we landed we formed a skirmishline and started moving away from the river, across the fields. Germansoldiers occasionally raised up out of the grass and bushes surrendering.4.20.1 Shooting Down a PlaneWe were about a half mile from the river when a lot of firing occurred to therear on the other side of the river. We looked up and there was a Junkers88 German bomber right over our heads. I lifted up my carbine and fired aburst at the tail gunner. Only two of us even got off any shots. The bombercrashed a short distance in front of us. Apparently the guns across the riverhad shot him down.We advanced across the fields, captured a small town without incidentand stopped for a while.38 See #18 on the map in Figure 4.1 on page 40.39 See #19 the map in Figure 4.1 on page 40.83