We had just taken the town of Lixing. Mearse was killed here.

Mearse was drinking schnaaps and riding a bicycle up and down the streets and thumbing his nose at the Krauts who were on the next ridge watching through binoculars. He would ride up the street to the top of the little hill and stop and turn around, take a drink of schnaaps, thumb his nose at the Germans, then ride down the street like the dickens and the Krauts would shoot him with an 88. We tried to stop him, but would not stop. So about the 4^th or 5^th trip they got him. He kept doing the same thing so they could figure him out.

We left Lixing in the afternoon, crossed a small valley and on the other side of the valley ran into small arms fire. I remember there was a concrete stairway, quite a long one, leading up to a grassy lawn beyond which were some woods. We were crouched on the steps talking and waiting for our turn to cross the lawn a squad at a time. When a squad would take off, we could hear them being shot at. When our turn came to go I ran as fast as I could and some of the fellows we had just been talking to laid on the lawn stone dead with a big smile on their faces…

We were shot at but made it to the woods. We were walking along the edge of a deep ravine when we started to 88's direct fire. I hit the ground and looked across the ravine and on a road paralleling the one we were on were two 88 guns being fired at us not very far away, maybe 300 yards, but the ravine was deep and narrow. We put the small arms to them and pinned them down so they quit firing the 88's.Then we continued up this road quite a distance. Darkness overtook us but we kept right on going and after a while climbed down the ravine and up the other side about half way up the other side (very steep). I took the belt out of the MG to make it a little lighter.

Near the top of the ravine we ran into the town dump and a couple of Kraut guards. They were young fellows and begged "mama" but we had an officer that shot them both with a 45 cal. pistol.

We walked a short distance on a path in the woods on the outskirts of town and some other Krauts started to shout at us in their guttural Kraut language that sound like pigs grunting. We had some new replacements so I shouted get off the path and the Krauts opened up on us. Bullets were popping over me real close! Bill, he was killed; shot in the head. I crawled to him. He would not answer me. I felt of his head and knew he was dead. Lee Tennis was killed there also. There was Mitchell, Marion Rowles and someone else I did not know that were left in my squad.

Officers got together and decided to send a patrol into town (just one street to see what was there). Patrol circled town, (we were lying on the outskirts) and started up the street, 6 men on each side of the street. Krauts waited till they were pretty well up the street and dropped flares on each end of them and one right over them and proceeded to mow them down not a one escaped. I thought 2 men could have done the job just as well. The town was full of Krauts.

So we retreated to some high ground and dug in a perimeter. Woke up the next morning and 2 Kraut tanks and some soldiers were sitting on a hill above us in woods and looking at us. We scattered when the tank started shooting. They would shoot one man at a time with the 88. Officer would holler "grenadier forward" and that would be the end of the grenadier. After that tank picked off 3 or 4 of us I saw him swivel the old 88 in my direction and I emptied M-1 at the soldier by the tank and took off for some brick buildings nearby. They were the blackest, most forbidding buildings inside I ever saw so threw in a grenade anb went inside. We played tag all day and during night the tanks and Krauts went by us in the dark. We all lay along a road; we could almost touch the tanks but left them alone. Next morning we were marching single file on Lixing side of mountain opposite Saarbrucken. All of a sudden started to receive small arms fire and a burst of bullets missed my helmet. I hit the ground. As I dove for the ground I saw the flashes from the Kraut fire and I put a couple of clips right back. This officer told me and another to rush the Krauts probably 15 feet away, so we did. When I got up there was a concrete pillbox and I ran into the door in the rear of the pillbox. No one was in there but there was fresh blood on the floor and walls. However, I didn't see anybody. Rest of the day was uneventful. We stopped at a large building on top of the mountain just above Saarbrucken on a black top road. They decided to set up line of resistance on each side of road to catch counterattacks from direction of Saarbrucken. There was a cut or back along road about 8 to 10 feet high and an officer had me put MG up here on left side of road.

Most of time had been on right side of road. We sat there awhile too tired to dig in. Pretty soon someone told us to cross road and protect right flank. Also I knew of trench on right side of road. Mitchell and I received some small arms fire and dove behind a pile of firewood all stacked up nice and neat. There was barbed wire fence about 250 feet below us and some Krauts were crawling along it so I started to shoot them around corner of firewood. Mitchell said Dibble don't move and there was a stick with a wire on it leaning against wood pile. It was a booby trap so we moved. Later in the day I was walking around by the end of the trench on top of ground when we received intermittent small arms fire. I saw the leaves move on a little knoll and a gun came out and started firing at our guys. So I fired back at where I thought the Kraut was. He quit firing and I ran over so I could not be seen. I threw a grenade in there; I think five or six Krauts came out and I motioned them to go down where some fellows took them. I went in the hole in the ground and they had smothered the grenade with German overcoats. After this things quieted down a little. We saw three men with a water cooled MG run down road toward Saarbrucken and set up MG by end of fence. These men were brave or darn fools because I could hear Kraut tank coming up black top road from Saarbrucken. I knew what they could to most anything let alone an MG.

The gunner laid fire on the tank and the tank fired..k-boom! k-boom! and it was all over. I can still see their bodies flying through the air. We could see big old cannon on railroad tracks on other side of Saarbrucken. It would disappear into mountain. One of our planes got a bomb into the doorway and that fixed that old cannon. I think the concussions from this big gun got Sgt. Topp and some others.

Night falls again. Had not had hardly anything to eat. Mitchell and I and Rowles and this man (I don't know remember his name) were lying on the ground and with guns pointed towards fence. I could hear Krauts talking but could not see them. All of a sudden 6 or more mortar rounds hit all around us. Bill Mitchell was hit in the buttocks and was gritting his teeth to stay quiet. Between the two of us he got to his feet and with the fireman's carry, got him back to an aid station. One of the Pete Wysocki's mortar men fired on us in the dark but just missed us with 45 cal. Thompson. I went back to position and Rowles was hanging onto a tree to stand up. He thought I was a Kraut but I told him different. I got him back to the aid station. Other man was dead. I was done in. All the other scraps finally got to me. I went down to the trench.