European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Mack morris5 yank staff correspondent with the 107th 30th Mission was to take Over the defense of stave lot and hold stave they were was in Friendly but As they approached the town they found an armoured infantry unit sitting on top of a Hill bating k who Are you they we thought you were holding the and the armoured infantry replied they ran us so the 107th regiment went into fought that night and next Day to Clear it of Ger held it for three Days against furious and then sat on it for 2mz slave lot was As far Northwest As the germans got in the Battle of the bulge before stave lot there had been five months of constant sustained attack for the it was their first defense since Mortain for most of the their first real defense in it they Learned and they argued among themselves the merits of defense and they found that there is a difference in the psychology of attack and the psychology of de but the psychology of attack was so Strong in them that the other was not Given a Chance to assert they never got to the Point where they thought said John Kent of commander of a they looked at defensive action Only As some thing leading up to and you  Call stave lot anything but an aggressive heres what i we occupied buildings on one Side of the and the Jerries were in buildings on the although we had received fire from the i had a sergeant who did not believe the Jerries were Over let me go and hed keep asking i  do it because he was one of my Best and i didst want him going out and getting i called up the battalion and asked them if they wanted to patrol Over and they said they a lint want to patrol Over so i said to the sergeant if we do Send somebody Over there til let you eventually we sent a patrol from another and he led it across the another time i had to hold the men Down was when they wanted to Cross the River and Burn out the buildings on the other at this time some is men were filtering Down into the buildings and and Tiger royals were hiding behind the buildings and running out to put direct fire on we were so extended at the Lime that i just  allow them to go because we  take a calculated americans Are just too my men wanted to go out and Knock off something and then come Back and they dont have the patience for but the infantry puts it this Way with this defense you get too nervous just sitting a Man hears something moving around in the a motor running or something like and he wants to know whats out there Are finer Points than Mere curiosity to the Workings of a the infantry at stave lot the enemy was wearing i clothing and some of them were driving it was difficult to distinguish an Ameri can from a and the responsibility for a wrong guess was now in an declared the whatever is out in front of you is bound to be a but at stave lot it was we got caught our first night in there were two boys on guard at a and a couple of Fellows came up to them and said have some of course we thought it was somebody from the Kitchen or but the next thing we knew we didst have any guards on the another time two men came up to a foxhole v v v woe n v yith o body to add to of atrocity Tims who wer ably vhf nazi in where we had one Man on guard and one sleep one of these men started arguing with the boy on and the other slipping around behind picked up and shot both our men through the during the Day the infantry found they had More trouble with snipers than they had while in for a while snipers didst make much and then it got to be the men haunt considered Jerry Small arms fire very said and although i had told them to do most of their moving at night they didst pay much attention to there was one spot that was pretty Well zeroed and two of our men got creased were in Hurt but their clothes were Cut by still they didst pay much a third Man came along and got hit in the he rolled under cover and bandaged himself All but he had to stay there until dark before he could get after he got the rest of the men figured i had some sense after the infantry casualties at stave lot were caused mainly by direct tank and because they were on the enemy support Artil Lery could Pound them in their More or less stabilized the attack minded infantry didst like the when youre in an they about the safest place you can As far As the artillery is is right up in its usually the Reserve company or people farther Back who get Hurt when one of those Tiger royals comes flying they let you have it right in the we hit one of those things nine times with and they bounced off like you were throwing rocks at company As riflemen almost unanimously preferred offence to and reasons simmered Down to the fact that they didst want the initiative taken away from a Man likes to keep said the Only mortar men said they liked it better on the on the said a Section we have to fire and but at stave lot we had everything staked and All we had to do was sit there and throw the machine gun Section Felt they could take it or leave when were in an said a you can give me open but in a town like stave lot id rather be on the i like them cellars when in sitting the infantrymen who were told to hold the town had the spirit of attack too strongly ingrained to stay put behind their own stave lot showed the infantry a new kind of or at least a German they haunt thought for a Long the Kent were just As determined to get in As we were to keep them who had seen Jer Ries wading neck deep across the icy River that divided the action were of the same them bastards was hopped they whether hopped up by Pep talks or a real shot in the the is did fanatical once three jeep loads of them raced across a Bridge that divided the sectors of a and b one jeep made it All the Way but no Ger Man got Back three times the infantry was driven out of its positions in the houses by the forced out by direct fire from and three times the infantry came Back and drove out is men who had crossed under that the infantry counted the bodies of four or five germans who tried u Wade the River in the less than 100 Yards from the rifles and machine guns of men who dont like w 1 defense of stave lot if they were crazy enough to try said the we sure As hell didst mind it was because of such attempts that the in inn try decided their enemy want rational German audacity at times was almost during one night of the fight they brought two jeeps and two Hal tracks american into the stave lot Square where they found an american manned tank blocking heir they drove the jeep up to the and one of apparently yelled move that for a while after that it want Safe to move a foot across that we Learned a few things about Jerries for one we found that wed get a counterattack on our left flank and half an hour later wed get one on our if they attacked on the left the last thing at they would attack on the right the first thing in rhe it was a Good thing they were that dumb we had just enough artillery to Stop 01 it attack at a but if they tried it on both flanks at we  have held but the psychology of defense is a state of mind this Case not a feeling of defeatism but a feeling of cold perhaps the infantry  have achieved this state of mind at All except for something that happened on the third Day of the on that Day there were six on each the germans got across the River into the part of the town held by the forcing them when the infantrymen fought their Way Back to their original they found the germans had slaughtered some civilians in a we counted 22 in one they it looked like most of them had been but some had their throats there were old people and some had their Heads bashed by Rifle and one Little kid looked like he had been Slung up against a Wall and his head busted Kent told what happened later i got a phone Call from the platoon and he said we got 12 prisoners Down what do you want me to do with pm 1 said what do you do with pm Send pm he said its a lot of trouble sending pm 1 said i know but we need Send pm he said i got an offer from a Man says hell give a months pay to bring them i said get those prisoners Back Here those 12 prisoners signed confessions about killing the and the reason they gave was that the kids crying bothered in a Way in sort of glad we were there to see that on account of the effect on the now they say Damn kill pm there All the prisoners and their confessions were what turned the mens the is certainly didst get any mercy from us after a Good fighter never gets or if he its an impersonal you Lake an old one who has been in this for a and he knows that when Hes attacking the germans they will try to pin him Down with machine gun it and As soon As he gets pinned they will throw mortars in on on attack Ive seen some of these old men charge right into a machine gun position rather than get stopped out in front of and  say to themselves you son of a and pin me  Tell you later i just got read thinking about what they was trying to do to but at after we saw those dead the men changed they make sure of where Jerry sit and watch him until they  and then pour everything they had at it seemed like they wanted to pulverize everything there was across the River that want impersonal anger that was and that was the infantry psychology of