The following account is by Francis Dhein, C/882, and first appeared in the Fall 1992 issue of the Trailblazer, page 24.

In Forbach, our battery had taken over a large bomb-damaged apartment near our guns. One morning I awoke and went over to the gun site where animated chatter of my buddies was going on. I asked what all the excitement was about. They couldn't believe it! There had been a terrific German barrage laid down on us during the night - and I slept right through it. I was overlooked as the others were routed out to safer places. If the building had been hit, I would never have known what had happened.

I was totally fatigued after working all day on the gun crew, and the memories of the heavy labor that was the artilleryman's life are with me to this day.

When we set up our howitzers in Forbach we were greeted by severe counter-assaults by German artillery. One time I was manning the gunner's position during a firing mission. Enemy shells were coming in ever closer and I had to jump into a protective ditch nearby. when I returned to resume our mission, I picked up a piece of shrapnel the size of a walnut between the gun trails, right in back of where I had been sitting.

It seems that some of the smarter C-battery officers showed unusual adeptness in morale building later on. When we crossed the Rhine at Bingen every man was issued a bottle of Rhine wine which had been liberated in Saarbrucken. There was a lot of hilarity that evening. Unfortunately, I was suffering from a severe second bout of dysentery and I had to donate my bottle to a buddy.

During the winter, soldiers wore knit stocking caps under their helmets. After the Trailblazers came off the line, the men wore only the caps, discarding the heavy metal hats. Unfortunately, the 70th had come under the command of the Third Army and its spit-and-polish Gen. George Patton. Those caps didn't look military enough for him and he ordered the men to wear only the helmet. That was pretty chilly as the bitter Alsatian winter was drawing to a close.