1. WHICH WAY DID THEY GO?
During about half of my combat time my assignment was to perform the duties of the Battalion Executive Officer. This was a major's job as the second ranking officer for a group of about 500 men and 100 assorted vehicles' 18 self-propelled 105mm howitzers, half tracks, jeeps and 6x6, 2 -ton trucks. Some pulled one ton trailers. The Executive Officer led the column and took them to their assigned place for combat. Normally this was an easy job since in daylight you followed the leading unit, usually an infantry or tank unit and the road would be fairly well marked by signs or personnel assigned to point out the way.
We crossed the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge near Oppenheim in the late afternoon and spread out on the flat ground where another large river joined the Rhine. We were waiting for the Engineers to bridge this river so we could cross, headed for Berlin. I was in my bedroll trying to get to sleep near my jeep about 11:00 PM when I heard the liaison officer arrive at our temporary headquarters. In one sentence I knew we were leaving soon with a new assignment. The new bridge had not been finished as scheduled and we had been assigned to a different Corps and headed in a different direction for Austria instead of Berlin. We were to follow a tank battalion leaving shortly and go 60 miles by daylight and attack a new objective.
The last tank went by about midnight and I moved our unit into column. The last tanks were going about twenty-five miles an hour trying to keep up with those ahead. I was afraid we might lose some vehicles at that speed so set the pace between fifteen and twenty miles per hour. This area had been recently liberated and some markers had been put out, but it was sometimes a problem knowing where to go. In the edge of a town on a brick road I faced a problem---there was a fork and no guide or marker. I solved the problem by getting down on my hands and knees with a hooded flashlight to determine which way the tank tracks had scratched the bricks. This proved to be the correct route which was fortunate. It is not easy to turn such a column around in the dark and some areas were mined.
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