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.Themines were blown in place by exploding the charges on top.God, I love those guys!We were in the draw only a few minutes when the first Kraut shells started coming in.Several landed in the draw with us.We didn t hear them until they were right on top of us.As usual, we hit the ground as fast as we could.Standing up, even tens of yards away fromthe blast, was almost always fatal or nearly so.Several of my men were hit nonetheless.One of the shell fragments split open Cpl.Sidney Folmsbee s arm.I was going to try andhelp him when a small piece of shrapnel hit me in the butt, which hurt like hell! I reached around and felt blood.I thought for sure that my ass had been shot off, but I could walkand yell, so I knew it wasn t too bad.The shellfire moved about in search of Allied soldiers to kill, and Lieutenants Raymondand Cox left to find the rest of the battalion.It was almost daylight now, and we stillhadn t crossed the river, even though most of the battalion was already across.I decided tolook for Lieutenant Raymond.I met him on the way back from the river.His messengerhad gotten lost. The engineers were there and had rubber-and-plywood assault boats tocarry us across.We put fifteen men into each assault boat three engineers and twelve riflemen.Themen paddled while one of the engineers in the stern guided the boat with a paddle.Seventeen boats were usually sufficient to carry a rifle company across a river.SergeantFreeman and I stayed to take up the rear of the platoon.I remember taking furtive looksinto the eastern sky.Daylight was coming quickly.That was bad.Our artillery barrage, however, had done some good.The heavy pounding hadpulverized the German defenders and driven most of them out of our way.The few whoremained fired machine guns and 88s at the boats.The air was filled with zipping bulletsand screaming shells, some of which struck boats loaded with soldiers.When wediscovered the current was stronger than any of us expected, we all grabbed a paddle andpushed hard for the eastern bank.I knew that wherever we landed, Krauts would bewaiting for us.Were they are nervous as I was? I looked at my watch.It was 6:30 a.m. Chapter 4HILL 382 (ST.GENEVIÈVE)September 12, 1944 September 24, 1944e reassembled after crossing the Moselle River.The 1st Battalion was to follow usWacross the Moselle, then the 3d Battalion, then the 318th Infantry Regiment.Part ofthe 2d Battalion had already reached the top of Hill 382.Company G s objective was St.Geneviève, a small town on the north end of the hill.I llnever forget it.We started up the hill.It was about a mile to the top and tough going all theway.We reached the crest about 8:00 a.m.Things had quieted down somewhat, so thebattalion worked to consolidate its position.We had to hurry because we knew theGermans would counterattack at the first good opportunity.They had lost their hill, butthey would come back and try to retake it.Hill 382 was a long, kidney-shaped hill running north and south.As we looked to theeast, we could see to our immediate front a clear open space with splotches of trees.Toour left front were thick woods known as Foret de Facq.To our right front were morethick woods.On the north end of our hill was the little village of St.Geneviève.The sideof the hill to the east was steep and covered with brush.To the west, we could see thewinding Moselle River in the valley far below. Company G was ordered to hold St.Geneviève with two rifle platoons supported byBill Butz s machine gun platoon.The other rifle platoon of Company G extended to thesouth on the forward slope of the hill and tied in with Company F, whose lines extendedfarther south.Company E was in support, echeloned to the right rear of Company F, andthe 1st Battalion was on our right flank.The beachhead was formed.The plan now was tohold the high ground until the 318th Infantry crossed over under the cover of darkness,fanned out to our left front, and took the Fortress Pont-a-Mousson about two miles northof us.The hill we were on was full of natural crevices and World War I emplacements.It alsohad a few trees on it, so we took advantage of them.We put two sections of mortars in ahuge natural cut about 150 yards to the right rear of the two other sections.We set up twoOPs.One was to the left front of the mortar positions and the other was farther to the leftfront, near Company F.To our immediate front was low ground, some of it open, somethickly wooded.We could see Krauts all day long and, of course, we dropped mortarshells on them throughout the day.Occasional small arms rounds would zip over ourheads or through our position.Everyone was tense, waiting for something big to happen.I was with Company F overlooking our left front.As soon as my mortars were set up,we fired to establish a base point
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