European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 26, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                These Are Hie facet of Teutons who have seen their town change hands three t vice t during the big German traffic went both ways in the front in tanks and Hal tracks toward the rear in anything that by de Cunningham yank staff correspondent somewhere in is the same feeling about the evacuation of a town As there is about a Wake you go mumble some incoherence to bereaved take a self conscious look at the Corpse and then tiptoe into another room to whisper with fellow even though you know you cannot possibly disturb the person you came to a frightened belgian woman Here tearfully asks if the americans Are leaving the town to its Fate before the advancing she does not understand that combat men Are staying behind to and that this whole evacuation is just a consolidation of the american lines to Stop the German Advance before it gains too much to rear echelons and consolidated lines and the Wisdom of moving Back to take and Page 4 town Vantage of natural defensive terrain mean Noth ing to she Only remembers the four years the nazis spent in her town and what their re turn will mean to her and her it is hard to look at the clusters of old Ven and women and children standing silently on every Street watching the army command cars and jeeps Assem bling in Convoy for they remind you of a bereaved family at its fathers then suddenly there is the sound of planes overhead and bombs being dropped on the con Voy Road that runs West of the on a Street Corner a Little girl with Blond curls buries her head in her mothers coat and the Mother pats the Blond curls tenderly and keeps repeating West West but there is no belief in her a Little farther Down the Street is a army formerly a belgian which was evacuated this the wounded and sick who slept there last night Are now in ambulances and bouncing Over that Road which has just been in the main corridor of the a stoop shouldered old Man and his Gray haired wife patiently fill wooden boxes with cracked dinner teacups without magazines and other across the Street from the Hospital Are three trucks with red crosses painted on their the Harry Poss of Stanley Smith of and James Myers of captured by the germans this morning in a town 15 Miles East of two 55 lieutenants had roared into town on grabbed the unarmed medics and forced them to wait at a Crossroads while they baited the trap for More half an hour later an american counterattack forced the is men to leaving their prisoners now the three Drivers with their truckloads of Hospital supplies were looking for the Field hos Pital that had been in this first we get said then we lose our the whole population of the town seems to be lining the cobbled streets to watch the Ameri cans the men stand but some of the women and Young girls cry Only very Small children still smile and wave As their elders did a few Short months ago when the americans first came to out on the Convoy Road the traffic going West is already stretched for Miles ahead Are the Halfton command weapons carriers and heavy ordnance vehicles linked in the moving Chain of the bumper bumper escape our jeep stalls beside a bomb Crater on the right Side of the hanging on a Fence Post is a pair of torn and Muddy of half buried in the mud below Are the remains of a i matted with blood and torn As if whoever took it Oft was in a great in the Muddy Crater Are two american bodies and an abandoned they have been pushed off the Road so that the passing vehicles would not run them an army Blanket covers each beside one body is a helmet with the medics red Cross painted on there is a Hole drilled clean through on the other Side of the going a Long Convoy of ads and Hal tracks of an armoured unit moving up to the our jeep passes slowly through a wedged be tween a weapons Carrier and an ordnance and the people of the Village line both sides of the watching the movement of the people on our Side Are silent and and their eyes have a mixed expression of dread and re they look at our column without because it is going but on the other Side there Are Young girls waving and laughing at the americans in the tanks and Hal tracks who Are going East to meet the older men and women smile behind their fears and give the Salute to the men in crash helmets and smiles at an old lady stands in the doorway of a House by the urging a Little boy by her Side to wave at the a the Edge of the still going Are Long lines of carrying suitcases and blankets and Tablecloth plodding slowly and painfully along the shoulders of the some of the More fortunate ride bicycles with their packs balanced on the others push carts loaded with lamps and favorite chairs and loaves of bread and sacks of a baby too Young to walk sits on a sack of potatoes and smiles at there is a feeling of Security along the Road when it gets dark and there is no longer the fear of the Convoy travels blacked with Only cats eyes and Tail lights to Mark its Prog and the Drivers Are very careful to avoid the tanks and Hal tracks on the left and the Long lines of civilians on the suddenly there is a murmuring from the human line on the everyone turns to the there is a Low hum Ming sound that grows gradually More and a Long fiery Streak flashes through the Black it is a German Buzz bomb headed toward the belgian cities to the everyone breathes in Hal takes until the flaming Arrow has passed Over the slow moving finally the rolling country gives Way to scattered Black which can be sensed rather than a City is coming far enough away from the lines to be a City of but its not that enemy planes Are overhead sirens Are moaning and red and yellow and Green antiaircraft tracers Are reaching up through the Black they make you think of a giant Christmas tree in an enormous blacked out except for the red and yellow and Green lights on the the lights suddenly shoot spend their brilliance and then sink Back into now you Start to think about the people who said so confidently that the european War would be Over by and when you think about them you begin to you can laugh spite of the Tackack Christmas tree before the Little Blond girl who cries at the sound of the old men pushing rickety carts on a Convoy Road running the americans in crash helmets and combat overalls who ride and the people of an evacuated town that gives you the same feeling you get at a int Tel 4 f War Wirty to a Fuff s j