Chapter 18 - Kommaried

Part of a Germans field training must have been On how to surrender' because they all seemed to know exactly how to do it and all did it the same way, by clasping their hands behind their head and yelling "Kommaried" in a loud voice. I don't remember ever having any instructions in the unmanly art of surrender, and I sincerely hope it is never included in the training manuals.

The last big effort that I can remember we were involved in was the crossing of the Rhine River. We moved up fairly close to the banks of the Rhine to a little place called Pumpro, Germany.

I was in the advance party to select a site for our C Battery guns to occupy. We selected an old farm courtyard which had buildings on three sides, and a high wooden fence on the fourth. It was almost a castle. It was two stories high in most places and it contained a basement that went almost all the way around. Of course, the barn was next door to the living quarters as was the case in most French, Belgium and German houses.

The people living there must have been rich and also must not have been cooperating with Hitler very much. It seemed that they had been hoarding food, and many other items, since it was a virtual warehouse of goodies. When the advance party first got there and found a large supply of fresh eggs and cheese. One of the men in the party was an ex-mess Sgt. and cook (I don't remember his name), but he prepared us a feast and set the table with a fine linen table cloth and napkins, fine china and silverware, and crystal water goblets.

We sat there and dined like we were in the Waldorf Astoria. After we finished the old ex-Sgt. Said, "Someone get the other end of that table cloth." and they heaved it out the window. He said, "I've always wanted to do that."

This Rhine crossing was accomplished sometime around the middle or last of march. We were part of a terrific mass of field artillery. If memory serves me correctly there were something like thirty battalions linked together under the command of the 30th Infantry Division. The 30th Division could coordinate and use any or all of these battalions at any time they needed or desired. That was really a tremendous amount of fire power from the ground and they also had the air cover to call up if needed. This was such an awesome amount of steel to throw at the enemy and we shot everything possible across that river in preparation for the crossing. The infantry crossed first and then were followed by us. Those hurriedly installed pontoon bridges worked like a charm and everyone crossed safely, which proves again the ingenuity and skills of American fighting forces. When we reached the other side we found large numbers of German troops waiting to be captured, who were so shell shocked from the concussion of exploding shells that they didn't know who or where they were. A lot of them were real old men or just mere boys. Hitler had been scraping the bottom of the barrel for man power.