2.   THROUGH HOLLAND AND INTO GERMANY

On the 4th of January, 1945, finally fully equipped (in fact, over equipped as a result of some "borrowed" vehicles) and with vehicles combat loaded, we left Tidworth, making our way to Chickerell, England, where we bedded down for the night. The next day at 0830 we loaded aboard LSTs at Weymouth and a few hours later we were once again on the Channel, heading this time for France. On the following morning, we drove onto the beach at La Harve, formed in column and headed for Totes where the advance detachment was waiting for our arrival.

At La Havre, we had an opportunity to see at close hand the damage caused by heavy guns and bombs. It was quite a shock, after cutting through the battered German built coastal defenses, to see what must have been a beautiful port, torn out by the roots and chopped up by the engines of war.

For three days we paused at Totes to reorganize and then moved rapidly across France. The weather, which had been ideal, changed abruptly and we left Totes in a heavy snow storm. We bivouaced near Soissons on 10 January and on 11 and 12 January we slept in a snow-covered forest near Reims. From there we marched to St. Jure, France, through the worst weather France had experienced in 85 years. Our route to St. Jure was easy to follow because of the many trees and telephone poles knocked down by our vehicles as they skidded along the icy and hilly roads.

At St. Jure, located near Pont-a-Moussons, between Metz and Nancy, we became a part of SHAEF reserve and were held there for the purpose of turning back any threat on the light defended French sector of the line. St. Jure was a sleepy shell-battered town, practically minus a population except for a few villagers. With the weather remaining cold and freezing, we found a plentiful supply of fuel in the timbers of wrecked buildings and managed to keep warm. Houses with unbroken windows just didn't exist and boards and blankets came into use to bar the icy blasts of the cold French winter.

In order to escape aerial detection, we splashed great quantities of whitewash over our vehicles until one could be standing forty feet away and not see a tank around, just great mounds of "snow."

On the second of February, Ground Hog Day, like that celebrated animal, we stuck our heads out of our billets and decided that spring had arrived and we might as well move on. Then began a 24-hour road march, clipping off a corner of Luxembourg, through Belgium, and then to Margraten, Holland, where we pulled in late in the afternoon of 3 February. Our spring weather had changed enroute into cold wet weather and we arrived tired and hungry but within a few days found we had a "home" with the hospitable Dutch.

Everyone was impressed by the remarkable cleanliness of the Dutch people and their homes though we could never quite figure out the necessity for having a manure pile adjacent to your home. We learned that there were really windmills, wooden shoes and hand-scoured sidewalks --- as well as sweetish beer that even drove some of our men to drinking water. In Holland, we also had our first experience with buzz-bombs, the terrifying jet-propelled weapons that blazed trails across the sky to the accompaniment of a roar like that of a squadron of airplanes. We came to know the dreadful uncertainty that settles on everyone in the few seconds between the cessation of the buzzing and the inevitable explosion.

At Margraten, too, we had a "paratrooper" scare on the night of 9 February when Sgt. Bertram Sperling of Headquarters Company dashed breathlessly into the battalion CP and gasped "Paratroopers --- or something --- in a tree --- over in the orchard!!" Men from Headquarters and Headquarters Company dashed out, led by M/Sgt. Edward Conklin, and found the "paratrooper," which turned out to be a balloon carrying Allied propaganda leaflets which had fallen short of its target and landed in a tree near the CP.

While at Margraten, the 8th Armored Division was assigned to the XVI Corps, Ninth United States Army, and three times we were alerted to move to the vicinity of Heinsburg, Waldfeucht, Germany. Three times we loaded our vehicles and three times the move was cancelled. It began to look as if we might be stuck in Holland. Finally, though, we did move out as a part of Combat Command "B" of the 8th, with" A" Company of the 49th Armored Infantry Battalion and "B" Troop of the 88th Reconnaissance Squadron Mechanized, to Posterholt, Holland. Our" C" Company was attached to the 49th Infantry Battalion. We moved into Posterholt relieving the Durham Light Infantry of the British Seventh Armored Division

Posterholt proved to be a quiet, defensive sector where we practiced indirect fire on the opposing enemy positions in Vlodrop and where we sent out several successful night patrols from Troop "B" of the 88th and" A" Company of the 49th Infantry. The night of 24-25 February we took our first prisoners when the 49th brought in seven very scared and much surprised Germans. The reconnaissance platoon of the 36th also made a successful night patrol to study enemy strong points northwest of Vlodrop. Aside from an occasional shelling from enemy mortars and artillery, and even though the Germans were only several hundred yards away, our stay in Posterholt was relatively quiet. To keep up morale and prevent boredom, we established a recreation ball which boasted a coke and beer bar and also showed motion pictures, within three hundred yards of the enemy line.

On the 23rd of February we took part in the famous Roer barrage which shattered the silence of the night and prepared the way for Allied troops to cross the Roer. The very earth shook and trembled for forty-five minutes without ceasing as Allied guns spat out steel, death and destruction.

Plans for attacking and occupying Vlodrop on the west bank of the Roer had been completed but before the battalion commander could obtain clearance for the attack, orders came for us to move south to an established position and take part in an outflanking movement as part of. the attack of the Ninth Army. The battalion, with attached troops, departed from Posterholt at 1800, 27 February 1945, moving all night and the next day by way of Slttard, Gangelt, Geilenkirchen, Randerath, Brachelen, crossing the Roer River at Bilfarth, then going through Gladbach, Gerdenrath and Wildenrath, where we stopped overnight on the night of 28 February and 1 March. During this march we came through the now useless Siegfried Line upon which Germany bad based its hope of holding back invasion. Those fortifications and pillboxes were just so much junk and concrete mass now and hardly noticed by the passing troops.

Receiving orders to move to an. attack position in the vicinity of Wachtendonk, Germany, the battalion along with its attachments, nowofficially known as Task Force Van Houten, departed from. its position southeast of Wlldenrath early in the morning of 2 March and proceeded toward Wachtendonk with the mission of relieving a similar task force of CC "A" of the 8th. Task Force Van Houten arrived after dark southeast of Wankum, Germany, where forward movement was halted because of an anti-tank ditch.

It was decided to spend the night on the road while engineers were working on the bridging of the obstacle. When daylight came, the engineers were still working and we were forced to continue our halt on the highway. At about 0830, 3 March, things livened up a little when six German soldiers came marching down the road waving a white flag. This inspired action and soon patrols were searching all the nearby houses and villages and returned with more than 50 prisoners of war.

With the by-pass completed, the convoy moved out in short order and soon thereafter was deployed for action against the town of Aldekirk, Germany. Before any ammunition was fired, it was learned that CC ceR" of the 8th, which had also been assigned the task of aiding in the capture of the town, had entered the eastern portion of the city and found no opposition. With this word, we moved into the town, picking up surrendering Germans and securing billets for all personnel. We moved through narrow streets lined by old houses from which white flags of all shapes and sizes now hung from staffs which not many days before the red flag of the German Reich, emblazoned with the black swastika of Nazi-dom, had flown.

We remained in this town until the morning of the 5th of March 1945 - - a day long to be remembered by the men of the 36th.