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 By the 23rd of March, the once vaunted wall
was crumbled and our forward elements streamed east toward the Rhine. Patton's drive, from
the north into Kaiserlautern, and his unopposed sweep toward the river, made a narrow
corridor out of what was once a pocket. Prisoners came streaming back. One of these, a
bedraggled, unshaven straggler, with his tattered green trousers bulging with his day's
fare of black bread and pork, was picked up by a negro soldier in the vicinity of our
Service Company. As the proud American prodded his prisoner down the street, the familiar
plea was heard from the captive, "Me Polsky.""Get moving," retorted the colored soldier, "Me Jewish."
The enemy shelled us once or twice while we watched from our side of the stream., but other than that, warfare was almost a duplication of Strasbourg., Some of our part time mechanics fitted together a German fighter plane they had found in a captured assembly shed, while others up the river actually manned and fired an overrun 88 at the opposition on the German side of the Rhine. Vehicles, bumper to bumper, passed behind us, and poured across the Seventh Army bridgehead. The idle days — plus the newly issued "Non-frat" cards — caused much speculation as to the end of the war. It was a unique and unpleasant experience not to be able to talk with civilians or bargain for a jug of beer, but the orders were strongly stressed in those days. On the 28th of the month our old neighbors, the French, appeared again and with them the realization that we were to become rear echelon. By this time the war had rolled by us.
After finishing our work in that sector, we again loaded up, trucked to the fertile flat lands of the Palatinate, and continued with our screening in Frankenthal, Oggersheim, Neustadt and Worms, the latter merely a pile of mortar and bricks between two city limits signs. One man in the newly formed 4th Battalion claimed that a native there had to use a shovel to open his front door. It was our first real chance to see the result's of Allied air power. As a feeble contrast, lonesome "Bedcheck Charlie" paid us his last sad visit one night, dropped a bomb or two in the Rhine, and then droned away never to return. Perhaps the greatest selling point of this territory was the fact that it was the wine and champagne center of the Reich. Whether we liked the stuff or not, we had to drink it; it was so inexpensive we couldn't afford to let it go. Never since the days of Southern France had the refreshments been so plentiful. The only mar to those pleasant days of April was the shocking news of the sudden death of our Commander in Chief and President, yet the war in Europe, which he so vigorously and ably fought, was to end even before we had finished our mourning. We remained here about two weeks all told, screening and guarding, playing a bit of ball in the cooperative warmth of the sun, and had fairly well decided it was the proper place to celebrate the soon expected VE Day, when someone started a vicious rumor. A few days later we were to put on our helmets, load our, weary trucks and jeeps, and head back into the miseries of our profession.
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Copyright © 1945, 1998 141st Infantry Regiment
Association. |
There was no cause for delay. After a short
pause, the regiment completed the dash and secured the Speyer-Germersheim area along the
west bank of the Rhine. In three days of fighting we had completely eliminated the world's
most elaborate defense, had captured over 700 Prisoners, and helped anchor the Seventh
Army on their final springboard into the heart of Deutschland. A cigar factory near
Herxheim cut deep into the PX concession, and the price of P-38s fell to a ridiculous
level. Suffice it to say our morale was high.
After a short stay near Bergzabern we moved
some 60 miles to an area west of Kaiserslautern and began an intensive program of
screening bewildered and downhearted German civilians. Screening is tedious and monotonous
work, but infinitely better than fighting. It was here that we welcomed back an old friend
who had so delightfully displayed her wares for us during the Italian campaign. Marlene
Dietrich was a fine touch of the distant States.
