I next recall that we stopped in this small farm village, or  town, miles off of the Autobahn, late one evening as we were getting near Mulhausen, which was not too far from Nordhausen, and right on the heading to Berlin.   I had read about the huge Concentration Camp at Nordhausen before I ever came into the service.  Also near Nordhausen was a very large underground factory where U2 rockets were built by slave laborers.   We had expected heavy resistance in this area because of these two facilities, as well as a last ditch defense of Berlin.  Why we found ourselves in such a rural and remote area, and off of the beaten path, as this was, I was unable to understand, however, one had to trust the guys in Command, in the rear, who had all of the facts, and who kept up with everyone’s movement, by radio.  This was really a remote and rural town.  It was about dark when we arrived here, at a town called Struth.  It was late in the afternoon, getting dark quickly.  This I knew, because we all were hungry as one could be.   None of the tankers had any rations with them.  This was a rather large rural town, and immediately the tankers went to the northeast edge of the town where they stopped, at just about dark.  All of them spread out, about a block apart.  There were miles and miles of open fields as far as one could see, in every direction from this town, or at that part where we stopped.
    Our Pershing tank took cover inside a big barn that had big doors that were open on each side, one facing the open fields to the northeast, the other facing houses.  As we arrived, I noticed that the tankers were quite nervous.  The wouldn’t talk to me, or anyone else.  I and the other men riding the tank went into the house just across the street from the barn to see if we could find a place to sleep, and to fix something, whatever we could find, to eat.   There was nothing, but it was a clean farmhouse with nice beds where we then thought we would be able to sleep.  We rested a few minutes and went back to the barn to see what the tankers were doing.  We saw that other tanks had moved into a combat ready position, as well, further down the street, and they all were facing the open fields to the northeast, too.  The men on those tanks were also from my Platoon.  A couple of them came over to where we were and we talked.   At that time none of us foot soldiers were really aware of the seriousness of the situation.
    As it got later in the evening, just about dark, no infantry in trucks had arrived.  I knew right away that this spelled trouble for us.   This is the first time that they failed to come up to where we were when we took, or began to take a town.  No supplies arrived.  The town seemed deserted, but yet, it didn’t to me, I noticed something eerie about this place.  Maybe it was because we were so alone, no Infantry support had arrived.  It was also the suspicious actions of the tankers.   I had a rather strange and eerie feeling because it was very unusual for this to be happening, because we needed infantry to help guard the perimeter, as well as to search out the houses for enemy troops.  We needed guards for the tanks as well as door guards if  we intended to get any sleep to amount to anything.  When our infantry was not up with us, as it got dark, I got scared, especially when your common sense tells you that you have been cut off, and that is the reason you don’t have any infantry and supplies.  We had never been in a situation like this before, with no support, not for any more than a few hours, anyway.
There were lots of things that we needed, ammo, fuel, water, and rations, as well as a lot of infantry soldiers to search out the town, or city, before we went to sleep, to make sure that there were no Trojan Horses in the town.   For all we knew, there could have been a big Wehrmacht contingent hiding there somewhere.   But, this time it was just the tankers and us few infantry, about eight or ten men on each of the big tanks, riding shotgun, and we were the only GIs in this rather large farm town.
    Things were different with the tankers this time.  No one talked, no one would say why we stopped, or why our tanks immediately took cover in barns, and all of them facing in that direction, with hay all over them.  It was very quiet, nothing moved.  I didn’t see any other infantrymen other than Al Sperl and I, and a few riflemen on our, and other tanks that were, this time, well dispersed.   We first started to stay in a house by the barn, that was on the corner of the city, for the night, which was just across the street, from the large barn that our tank was sitting in.  This house and barn was bordered by large fields on two sides, right at the corner of this farm town.
    I told Al that we were not going to stay in that house that night, even though it was very comfortable there, where we had beds to sleep on.  We had no one with us to stand guard while we slept.  Nor were there any of our infantry troops there to search out the houses, so we may be in real danger.  Not building, except the one next to the barn where our tank was, had been searched.  For all I knew that night, there could have been a whole battalion of Wehrmacht infantry, or Waffen SS  hiding in the cellars of those houses, who would pop out suddenly at the right time, and destroy all of us and our tanks there, too.  Incidentally our tanks were Pershings, new, just arrived in February, from America.  They all were assigned to General Patton’s Third Army, and we were spearheading on them, out on the point, further east than any other outfit in the Allied forces.
Al Sperl, my closest buddy, and friend asked me why I didn’t want to stay in the house, and I told him that it was just a feeling that I had, that things just didn’t look right, and feel right to me.  I asked him what would prevent a Kraut from coming in the house that night while we were asleep and blowing our brains out.  That made him think, and be more on guard.  It was the Cherokee Indian in me, one-eighth to be exact, that makes me sense things when they are not right.  I had a strong feeling that even though we were alone, and couldn’t see anyone, that there were enemy around there, somewhere.  Things were just too quiet.  I had one of those  strange feelings of insecurity, and I told Al that.
    The tankers stayed constantly, all night, right by the tank, with a driver inside, most at all times.  I am sure that not any of them got any sleep that night, except maybe a few winks at the time, there on the hay.  One of the infantrymen on another tank, a man from my outfit, a tall, careless acting man, told me that he had met a German girl and that he had a date with her that night, and that he was going out with her.  I thought that it was awful strange, and I couldn’t give a rational interpretation for anyone “going out” in the middle of a battle, that late at night, and in a town we had just captured, or thought that we had captured, and not having seen one living soul, just before dark, being deep into enemy territory where we were obviously cut off from our support, and were surrounded by enemy,  back there somewhere, who had cut our supply and support lines, and also, where there were no civilians to be seen anywhere.  I never saw a girl anywhere.  I asked him, sarcastically, “What night club here, are you all going to?”  He never answered me.   I had a strong feeling that he would never be seen again.  Things just weren’t right.  I was right, he has never been seen since.  So, Al and I, as well as the others with us, wouldn’t stay in the house alone that night, so we went over to the barn and tried talking to the tankers.   We decided to stayed in the barn by the tank, and we slept on the hay.  The next thing that I see is Al out in the front of our tank, that night, trying to make some hay stay on the long barrel of the 90mm cannon that had new slick paint on it, and the hay just kept sliding off of the barrel.  He however, helped the tankers put enough hay on the tank, but to me it sure wasn’t properly camouflaged very well with that long barrel cannon sticking out from what looked like a big pile of hay sitting right in the center of the open double doors of that big barn.
    I spoke with one of the tankers about our camouflage of the tank and told him that it looked strange to me that this pile of hay, sitting in the middle of the door of the barn, and I was afraid that it wouldn’t fool anyone who saw it because a farmer never blocks the entrance to his barn with a big pile of hay.  The tank commander said that he was just following the book.   He related to me how, one day, he was alert for enemy tanks and he suddenly saw this big pile of hay moving slowly across a field.  He fired on it and hit a Panzer Mk4 and destroyed it.
    The following morning the tankers woke us up early, at the break of dawn.  They are always up early, and I was afraid, because I could sense danger, because no one was saying anything, about anything.  Not only that, the fuel tanks were empty, and no where to go, yet, the tank Commander woke us up early, but didn’t tell us anything.  I knew that all of the tanks were just about out of fuel, and that there were no rations that I knew of.   We had nothing to eat and I was literally starved to death.  I also observed that the tankers were not on the move at daylight like they had been all times previously.  It was obvious that the tankers were just waiting for something to happen, and I didn’t know what it was that they were keeping from Al and I.  I knew that something serious was about to happen.  There was an eerie feeling in the air, most obviously.
     Al and I, along with the other men of our squad, were by our tank in the barn, watching, early that morning.  The sun was bright that day, but yesterday it was overcast.  The tankers wouldn’t tell us anything.  They just wouldn’t talk at all.  I not only sensed that we were in big trouble, I now knew it.  There was no other conclusion that one could draw.  We just looked in the direction that they were looking.  Early that morning as the sun came up, all I could see was nothing but the rolling fields, beautiful farm land, peaceful looking, it appeared, but it did not feel that way, to me.  Everything seemed so peaceful and quiet, yet, eerie and frightening.   Suddenly, all at once, coming over these rolling hills of large open fields, we see tanks coming, big tanks, many tanks, the ones with the very wide tracks, low profile, and long cannon barrels.  They were about two miles away.   I knew that the Tigers had those deadly 88mm’s on them, and that the Panthers, and the Mark IVs  had 75mm’s on them.  Looking closer, behind them, and along beside them were German Infantry, on foot, lots of them, hundreds of them, all coming right towards us at a slow, menacing walking pace, about the speed of the soldiers walking.  It was obvious that we were terribly outnumbered, and too, that they had more firepower than we did, plus the fact that they had fuel and could move, but we couldn’t.
    I knew that this was the end, that we had a terrible fight on our hands, a fight to the finish, unless a miracle happened.  One of the tankers, looking through his field glasses said that he counted them, and that there were seventeen of the tanks, and the infantry were too many to count.
    I knew too, that we were heading for Berlin, and that not too far ahead were those two cities, Muhlhausen,  and also, Nordhausen, where this large Concentration Camp was located.   I knew that the Concentration Camp at Nordhausen was one of our prime objectives.  We had been told this since we left the Rhine that these two cities were our next objective, then to Berlin.  We just waited, terribly apprehensive, scared, as we watched the approach of this Panzer unit, and Wehrmacht foot soldiers, slowly but surely moving directly towards us.  To make things worse, while we watched this deadly Panzer unit approach us, one of the tankers told me, after I bugged him for some information about what was about to take place, that we went too far out front, and that we were now cut off, and surrounded,  where no help, or supplies could get to us, and that all of our tanks there were about out of gasoline, with only a few gallons left in each.
    I knew then, that unless a miracle happened we were doomed.  Never had I seen so many enemy soldiers in an attack, along with so many large tanks.  I had gotten to recognize the Tigers and Panthers, and the medium sized, Mark IVs, even though there wasn’t much difference in the silhouette of the Tiger and Panther.  Both were very low profile, a low and flat turret where the cannon was mounted, and the tracks were extremely wide, making them ideal for wet, soft dirt, like in the fields in front of us, as opposed the narrower tread of our Shermans, and Chaffee’s that we sometimes rode.
     Not one civilian, so far as I could determine, was in this town, a small town, and I had yet to see one.  I was beginning to realize that all of the Nazi armed forces and civilians alike were all well coordinated, and were kept well informed about where we were, and what our strength was.  We had several light tanks with us there, but not that many.   All of our tanks were under cover, hidden, we thought, but I wasn’t too sure that we were so well camouflaged, because I grew up on a farm, and I know that no farmer places a big pile of hay right in the center of the big double doors of the barn, with them open, and with a big cannon barrel sticking out of the center of the hay pile.  We knew that the enemy knew we were there, and probably how many tanks, as well as where they were located, since this was kind of hard to hide.   This Panzer and Wehrmacht  outfit was coming directly towards us, getting closer by the second.
    There was nothing to do but to just wait and fight it out, in a very short while, which wouldn’t be very much longer.  I did learn from one of the tankers that they were not only out of gas, but were also out of water and rations.  Also, I was told that we had gotten too far out on the point and our supply lines had been cut by the Krauts, we were cut off,  surrounded, no one could get up to where we were with our supplies, or support.   That made me more afraid, knowing that there were only a few gallons of gas in the tanks, and I knew that if they tried to move to find better cover, that they may run out of gas and be caught sitting out in the open as a perfect target.  I also knew that I didn’t want to be on it, when the shelling started.  There seemed no other way out but to fight to the finish, right where we were.  Somehow I was convinced that that lead Tiger knew just where we were, there in that barn, with the big doors open and a pile of hay sitting right in the middle of the doors and the barrel sticking out of it.   I also knew that the German soldiers, especially the Panzer soldiers weren’t stupid, and that the hay over the tank was not very convincing, even to me.   We just had to wait and handle the situation the best we could, but I felt that our tank would be the first target to be fired upon.  So, we waited as the Panzer units got closer and closer.  I could also see that we few infantrymen were terribly out numbered by these foot soldiers coming at us with the tanks.   I could see the automatic weapons that the Wehrmacht soldiers were carrying in the ready position as they walked straight toward us.
    I borrowed the tankers field glasses, and I could see the ground troops with these weapons in their hands,  walking briskly alongside, in front of, and behind all of those tanks.  It was a menacing sight, to say the least.  I don’t know of anything ever, that was such a deadly menace to our security and safety.   I was too shaken up to count them, but there were an awful lot of them.  One of the tankers said that he counted them and that there were 17 German Tanks in that Column.  I also got a good look at the lead tank, a big Tiger with that long 88 barrel.  The tank commander had his upper body protruding out of the turret and was looking at us with his field glasses.  As I looked at him with our field glasses, I could see his field glasses looking directly at where we were, most likely right at me, as I knelt down between our tank and the edge of the opening, partly concealed by hay.
It was a most frightening, and threatening sight, to say the least, that I had ever seen.  I was counting the seconds until they opened fire on us with those 88s that the Tiger tanks had on them, and the 75s that all of the others had.  This was going to be a test of the qualities of the Panzer tanks, and our Pershings, which had not seen much tank to tank combat to test the capabilities of each.  Our Pershing tanks had 4 ½  inches of armor and the Tigers had five inches, but now, that didn’t make enough difference to amount to anything.  I had seen the Panzers fire at us before and they always came to a complete stop just before they fired, supposedly to properly sight their cannon.  However, when up close, I had seen them fire while they moved very slowly.  I told Al and the tank commander that the moment that they fired that we infantry should move to one side or the other, and away from the tank, to avoid getting hit by shrapnel in the event a shell hit our tank.  The tanker didn’t like the way that I described it.
    We were like a sitting duck.  Chills were running up and down my spine, and I know that every one else was feeling the same.   We all knew that we were outnumbered, greatly, and that our lines had been cut, we were surrounded, and under heavy attack by ground troops and seventeen large Panzer tanks,  the best Panzers that the Germans had, were approaching us, more rapidly now, moving at a faster walking pace.
    These were very tense moments to say the least.  I felt that we were doomed.  I spoke quickly to Al, and we planned our strategy.  We agreed to stick by the tank, there in the barn, but that when the tanks stopped to fire, or after the first shot was fired at us, or when they got in close range, that we would disperse into the surrounding area where we could protect our tank from Wehrmacht soldiers carrying Panzerfausts, and things like that.   We would  stay together, take cover behind something solid, move away from the tank, to avoid being hit by the shrapnel from the shells that these big tanks would fire at this tank, and we would fire on the foot soldiers as they approached, and kill as many of them as we could.   Everyone agreed to this plan.  We knew that being on the ground beside these tanks,  when they were being fired upon, that we would surely be killed by flying shrapnel and bullets ricocheting off the tank.  I knew that when heavy armor was hit by an armor piercing shell that it heats the metal and small, white hot fragments spew everywhere, not only inside the tank, but out into the sides from the point of impact, so no one was safe around a tank that has been hit by an armor piercing shell.  Also we could do no good by being by the tanks when they were under attack and we could accomplish more by firing on their foot soldiers from a safe distance on either side of the tank, and where we could move to a new location from time to time to take cover.  That was our plan, plus some very sincere prayers.
 I, and Al, as well as the other men with us, who were depending on Al and I to tell them what to do, as well as all of the tankers knew that this was the end, or at least we believe that it was the end.  I closed my eyes and said a prayer.  I asked my Almighty God to somehow bring about a miracle to save us from this enemy, and to Bless and take care of my parents, my brother and two sisters, and to protect them, and keep them safe, and bless them all, and for them to not to worry about me, in that I had given my life for my Country, a noble and worthy cause.
    The Panzer units were getting closer by the second.  The tanks looked larger and wider, the infantry more menacing, and we felt more helpless each second.  I could see that they were moving directly towards where we were, in as straight a line as you could see.   I also knew that, considering the odds, that we would surely be killed by enemy fire, quickly after it started.  We were totally outnumbered in men, firepower, and armament.  There were about six or eight of our tanks to their seventeen.   I told Al that my rifle was more accurate than their automatic weapons, and that I would find a good position to fire from and that I could pick off a lot of them before they got me, but that I needed a secure place to fire at them from.  I told him to not waste his ammunition for his BAR, and to make every round count.  Also, I considered that should we be taken prisoner, which was not very likely under these kind of battle field conditions, that they would not take us prisoners in the first place, but would just kill us on the spot.  I also reasoned that even if they did capture us, that they would soon be on the run again, and that they would not ever be burdened by having to guard us as prisoners, and would most definitely just shoot us rather than releasing us.   Things looked extremely unlikely for us being victorious in this battle.  I told Al that we should just fight to the finish, kill as many as we could before they killed us, which was inevitable.  We were completely outnumbered in tanks and infantry, and the situation looked totally hopeless.  I also feared that the Germans most likely, considering what I was seeing, that they had many soldiers in the cellars of the buildings in that town and that they would come out when the shooting started and shoot us in the back.  Not one cellar had been searched in that town.  I told Al that if these Krauts were as good and seasoned soldiers as they are suppose to be, surely they had planted Wehrmacht in the cellars there as they set their trap to cut off our supply lines.
    I recalled my history of the Spanish Civil War when Generalissimo Franco who was marching on Madrid with only four Columns, he was asked how he intended taking the city with only four Columns.  His reply was that he had four Columns marching on Madrid, and a “Fifth Column” within the City that would rise up at the opportune time and take the City from within.  Thus, the term, “Fifth Column” was coined.
    Just as the situation became more tense, and at about the very moment that all of us expected the Panzer unit to start firing on us, suddenly I heard airplanes, I looked up, and there, to my profound surprise, as well as in answer to my prayers for a miracle, there were four, P-51 fighter planes,  and they came in from the flank of the enemy tank column at a very low altitude.  One plane peeled off, out of formation and fired his rockets, from under his wings, at the  big Tiger that I had just seen the tank commander protruding from the turret of, which was the lead tank.  I saw the first missile hit this most forward Tiger and set it afire.  It’s fuel tanks exploded.  Now, that tank Commander that I had just been observing through my field glasses, was now just a statistic.   One plane at the time would peel off and come in for an attack, it would return to the formation and another one would peel off, and attack.  They also fired machine guns at the ground soldiers accompanying the tanks, and we could see them falling to the ground, dead, or wounded.  After about several minutes of this attack, we could see that there were about six or eight big Panzer and Tiger tanks burning and exploding, this all took place about two, or three hundred yards, directly in front of us.  It was a ring side seat for an air and tank battle, the likes of which I would never dream.  The planes kept coming, another group of four of them,  then more, and in about five minutes, the infantry, and the remaining tanks, suddenly turned around and began to run back the way that they came from.  The infantry were running this time, not walking, trying to keep up with the fleeing tanks.  There was no place for any of the Wehrmacht to take cover out there in those open fields, so they had a long way to run to find a place to hide.  So the P-51s kept coming.  It was the most exhilarating sight that I have ever seen.
    Our prayers had been miraculously answered.   It made me very proud and Patriotic to be and American Soldier.  It also gave me great faith in our leaders back there behind the lines, who really knew what they were doing and that they had our interest in mind, and hadn’t forgotten about us.  But foremost, all of us had total and complete faith in our Almighty God and Jesus Christ, our Savior.  I knew that my Almighty God would not forsake us.   I wondered what would have happened to us if the weather this day was like it was yesterday, cloudy, cold and overcast, where our planes couldn’t fly, or see the ground.  This was the most beautiful sun shiny day that I had ever experienced.  We learned a little later that these rockets fired from under the wings of these P-51 fighter planes, were the first rockets of this kind ever used in this War, in actual combat.  I can accurately attest to their efficiency and precision, as well as to the skill of the pilots, not to mention all of the Officers in our outfit back there somewhere who brought all of this about.  Someone back there was really on the ball, in a very serious way.  I feared to think that if our planes had gotten there only five minutes later, it would have been in the heat of battle, with no telling what the consequence would have been.
    It is so lonely up on the point, that it makes you often wonder if our Command is on the ball doing their job, and this time I knew what great leadership that we had, and that they were highly skilled and dedicated, and I was so thankful that I was a member of such a great organization, and too, that General Patton was back there riding herd on all of his field commanders and looking after his tanks, as well as us infantry, who were riding shotgun on them.
    Our tankers all got out of their tanks and were shouting, screaming and jumping up and down, slapping Al and I  on the back, and everyone was hugging everyone else.  Never had I seen anyone so excited, and that included myself, and Al,  and the others with us, as well.  It was as though all of us had been given a new lease on life.   I asked the tank Commander, what now?  He told me that he just heard on the radio that trucks had gotten through and were coming to carry the infantry that was there, in a new direction.
    Suddenly some twin engine DC-3s appeared in the sky, flying low and they opened their side door and large flats of supplies were pushed out and they parachuted to the ground right out there in the field directly in front of us.  I don’t know what the supplies were, some said cans of gasoline, ammo, water and rations, but it would seem that they would burst on impact, I had not ever seen such a drop as this.  It was  food and water,  I am sure, but we left before the supplies were retrieved.  I then fully, and without question, trusted our officers in the rear, with greatly renewed trust and faith in them.   Al had told me daily that the 65th Division was the greatest one in the whole of Europe.   There was no question in anyone’s mind that all of the people in our command were really on the ball, were highly skilled, and dedicated to the fullest.  We really had some fine people leading our troops.  Who ever it was back there that was running this operation was wide awake and knew what they were doing, and we thanked God for that.  We now trusted explicitly, our commanders, whoever, and wherever they were, back there somewhere.  But, this was one very frightening close call.  I heard one of the tankers ask the other one, “Do they giver medals for being scared half to death?”
    I learned several days later that the troops that replaced us there in Struth, that they searched out the houses and cellars there and found several hundred, in fact, 250 armed Wehrmacht soldiers hidden in the cellars in that town, ready to come out when the firing started and wipe all of us out, completely, as well as all of our tanks.  The name of the town was Struth, Germany, near Mulhausen, and Nordhausen where a very large Concentration Camp was located, as well as where Hitler’s underground factory that made the U2 Buzz Bombs, which were rocket powered flying bombs that caused so much damage to London and the rest of England.   It was commonly known  that these two installations were to be protected by the Nazis at all cost.  But they lost.
    At about the same time as this attack, our other Battalion had taken the City of Mulhausen  when they came riding into town on two and one-half tons trucks shooting up the town wild west style to hurriedly take the river bridge in the center of the City before the Germans blew it up, so Pattons tanks would not be delayed.  They took the bridge and then occupied the city that was full of Wehrmacht soldiers, hidden in cellars there, too.  Also at about the same time one of our Battalions had set up their headquarters in the nearby town of  Langensalzer, and soon afterwards, just at daylight that same day, a lone Panzer tank destroyer with a 105mm howitzer on it had moved right up to the front entrance of our Battalion Headquarters and fired directly into the front door, killing all of our men inside.  I am convinced that the Nazis thought that this would be their day to turn the tide of the war, and stop our attack on these very important targets that the whole world was listening to on their radio.
    It appeared that General Pattons fast thrust towards Berlin had been stopped, and that we were now headed in a different direction.  I hated to leave these tankers with no one to ride on them and protect them.  I didn’t know if  we would be with them again, or if they would have the men of the 26th Division riding shotgun for them.   I assumed that they pulled back from this extended point pocket that we had gotten trapped in, or that support had broken through the enemy lines, behind us, and our Command were bringing in much needed help, and with a new outfit taking our place with the tankers.  Things happened so quickly, the trucks arrived, we said good bye to the tankers wishing them well, and left riding these trucks in a southerly direction.
    This convoy of trucks loaded with we infantrymen that had been with the tanks back there, was moving fast on a narrow road as we moved in a southerly direction.  Soon we saw some of our own  twin engine bombers overhead, they had their bomb bay doors open, they were B-26 twin engine bombers.  They made one pass over us, with their bomb bay doors open.  Every one waved excitedly, then I saw them circle and head back towards us.  I wondered why they were coming back again, and with their bomb bay doors still open.  I saw that they had made their turn and were coming in a very straight line, directly towards the head of our column of trucks, like they were lining up for a bombing run.   I just knew that now, we were going to be mistakenly bombed by our own planes.   I then realized that I didn’t see any color panels displayed on these trucks, as there should have been.  I wondered why no one had sense enough to know that we needed those  Color panels displayed.  They are about the size of  a single bed sheet with  a red color on one side and yellow on the other.  I knew that all of our vehicles were suppose to display them so our planes could identify our troops from those of the enemy.  They are large plastic color panel that you display to friendly aircraft so that they will be able to identify you and not attack you.  We had too many fine fighting men on these trucks who had just endured an ordeal beyond belief.  So, being concerned about my own safety, from our own planes, as well as the safety of everyone else in this convoy, I asked the dumb ass’ed driver why he didn’t have his color panel out, and he replied that he didn’t know.  I asked him where in the hell it was, and he said the assistant driver was sitting on it.  I made him get off of it, and I got it out, unfolded it, and we waved it in the air, as we did, the planes saw it and they closed their bomb bay doors immediately, dipped their wings and flew on directly over us, and  away towards Struth behind us.  What a relief that was.  I am certain that they were looking for the fleeing enemy soldiers that we had almost had to fight, back there in Struth, before those P- 51s came and saved us.  That had to be who they were after, and they flew off in that direction.
    We were traveling down this road at a high speed, a  convoy of about six trucks, when suddenly two German Messerschmits came over a hill and strafed the whole column with machine gun fire, killing several, on almost every  truck.  They disappeared about as fast as they came, over the hills.  We hardly had time to look up before they were gone.  These trucks all had an open cab, with a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a turret over the assistant drivers seat, but these drivers, this day didn’t seem very alert, maybe they got no sleep last night, coming up there to get us.  I was beginning to learn that it takes some soldiers quite a while, and others, maybe just a few minutes, after they have been  under fire, up on the point, to realize that this is war, and that you have to think and then act, if you want to survive it.  Every man on the truck that I was on, was highly nervous and agitated.  With having to experience what we all had on this day, was enough to unnerve anyone.
    We traveled south where there was less enemy resistance.  All of the resistance back there in that town was done to stop our advance to Nordhausen Concentration Camp and the V2 factory,  that we thought that would be our next objective, and then to Berlin.  The Stars and Stripes, the American Forces news paper had been saying that Patton was headed for Berlin, and we had been, but something changed that.  We learned that the High Command had directed General Patton to proceed south to the southern part of Germany and Austria in what was termed the Redoubt Region where it was believed that the big wig Nazis were there hiding in remote and secluded places in the mountainous regions of Bavaria, and Austria.  The 26th Division replaced us at Struth, but we were pleasantly surprised when, the next morning our tanks arrived at a farm house where we had pulled into the evening before.  We were delighted to see them, to say the least.  It was these same tanks and tank crews that we fought with all the way into Austria.