European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 6, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                To be they explained that they had tried to surrender All Day Long but nobody wanted to Stop Long enough to pick them so they came Down to this waiting impatiently for some body to come downstairs so that they could sur Render and get something to they  understand Why were the americans in such a hurry it want a Breeze there were plenty of spots where the krauts decided to stay put until they were there was this Field partially surrounded by a semicircle of thick planted in the Woods were a dozen at plus some liberally scattered up guns and machine gun nests and the guns were All waiting and ready for the american Armor to try and get g2 of the 5th armoured knew what the score but alternative detours would take too much and a slugging Battle would be too expensive in the Long and besides these enemy guns had to be knocked out so the tank boys just raced across the Field at full their guns not All the tanks made some got hit on the run others bogged Down in the mud and sat like dead ducks until the nazi at guns picked them apart and burned them when the show was after the last tank had swept past the there were no More at guns in no More up guns or enemy tanks the 5th armoured boys also shot up two american Light tanks which the germans were using minus the Usa frenchmen walked Down the wearing their Blue berets and their frayed there had been a strict shortage of so much so that one my was often detailed to bring Back 300 prisoners All by when these sex French soldiers volunteered their All of them were Given rations and deputized As prison you could see satisfied expressions on their faces when they prodded the nazis to walk a Little it is Nice to have a gun pointed the other one of them said in there was a lot of French when the Xiii corps Liaison George spotted one of the incoming French the two of them had been in the same company four years now the Liaison officer told the refugee about their Mutual buddies this one was wounded and is running a perfume shop in this other one is Down in col somebody else is before the Roer our troops had found just As Many dead germans As live ones in these tiny rubbed but Muench Englad Bach was it was full of live estimated at and practically All of them were trying to butter up to us and sneak inside our especially the who Felt their favors were Worth bartering for nazi officers had their Awn women with said Bennett Pollard of Balti at the up of the 1st 175th regiment of the 29th i the up was a complicated network of hallways and with triple Decker steel Beds for the enlisted men and separate rooms for the the nazi co had a Pri vate who was still there when the troops came into the City during the Pollard held up a Flimsy night gown that he had found on the nazis i guess we really surprised them All he the Captain told How absolutely still it was when they marched How they heard nothing except their there had been no snip and the Only isolated Case of enemy activity yank the army Public Orion by Branch information a education War 2cs fast 42d new York fee production restricted a indicated in the Moi Titta on Trie Paye intend at second matter july at the office at new under 4ct of March shot Crillion Price printed in the 4 this the Way Dusseldorf looked to gis reaching the opposite Bank of the Rhine was the report of two Teller mines being placed on tank treads on tie roads during the they had been discovered in everything was smooth and easy so too he there was nothing smooth about the push into which sits smack on the just opposite outside the the krauts had built a big embankment near the Railroad and they studded it with their accurate mortars and fast firing machine after considerable artillery preparation the doggies of Baker and Charley companies of the 1st 329th regiment of the 83d finally swept through it at 0300 with marching they just walked in and kept they kept shooting even when they came Down the Neuss main Street because the houses were filled with within the next few some of the germans ran into the cellars and were burrowed out by hand grenades some of them just continued firing All Day killing some and when they ran out of came out smiling ready to sur Render and some of these vol Sturm boys just conned the stopped took the vol Sturm armbands off their civilian clothes and ran outside with bottles of Cognac to Greet the american we caught a couple of those bastards in the said the battalion Tim Cook of i had a Tough time trying to Stop my boys from shooting the whole Bunch of these people seem to think that if they take Down their nazi flags and scratch out face on the big portrait on the Wall of their front parlor there automatically anti nazis and our bosom i just dont Trust any of these the first Day in Neuss was typical of a whole weeks civilians were strutting around not pay ing any attention to snipers Well know ing that they we rent shells were drop Ping in the towns near the Only a few blocks and every once in a while the soldiers around the City Square would look around for doorways to run but most of the Guys didst seem to be worried too a few of them were tinkering with a nonworking deserted civilian several dozen others were Riding around on some were even Wear ing top if you wanted to see the Rhine River and dues you had to go to the unhealthy part of town and climb to the top of one of the big somebody told us where a Good spot two blocks turn you cant miss a window in the to floor toilet was the 3d battalion from there you could not Only see Dusseldorf and the big Bridge Over the but you could also see the War almost As clearly As if it were a play and you were sitting in the eighth Row you could see the krauts dug in for a Las ditch stand in front of the Bridge which was scheduled to be blown up and you could see our Guys ducking and running and falling Flat and you could see mortar fire falling among during All on the floor below some old women were scrubbing occasionally Star ing at the visiting can soldiers with expressionless Back at the Center of the sitting behind a heavy machine John Becraft of Brook and c com Pany didst seem to give much of a Damn about the id rather see the he 1 i is w v a four of the Beach from the Gar Rison atmosphere of one end to the bloody combat of the by Bill Reed yank staff correspondent Ith the marines on iwo Day plus8 the Southeastern end of iwo Jima had very nearly gone this had been the invasion stretch of Sand run Ning Down from Motoyama Airfield 2 to the foot of mount on Day the Road paralleling the Beach had been covered with mines and tank beyond the Beach were Jap a Chin gun nests and and the advancing americans headed into one of the worst mortar and artillery bombardments in Pacific now maps ordered marines to police up around their Foxholes higher brass was rumoured to be coming for a some Junior officers already snapped rotary club salutes at their a Brand new eight Holer had been rear Echelon troops were going awol to mount Suribachi to Hunt souvenirs in the the Beach was Busy and in bulldozers and trucks puffed Clouds of dust As they struggled from one area to huge cranes looked like robot giraffes As they moved cargo from lems and men sweated and cursed and trying to push their freight ahead of someone an officers Sedan on the Road looked As out of place As a dowager in a Bawdy there was a Seabee Camp on the and below it bulldozers levelled the land and 10 men with shovels dug a surveying Crew took measurements to fix the exact resting place of each behind a line of freshly dug Earth were several rows of filled in above each grave was a dog tag on a pointed later the Sticks would be replaced by White a few marines passed Between the rows examining the dog tags for the names of their pallbearers carried bodies shrouded in Green Broadcloth to the Graves and then returned for a lieutenant asked John Conloy of be in charge of a pallbearer for a Conloy handed him a slip of paper identifying the last body its too but you cant even get buried without a the lieutenant to the Northeast was an artillery the artillerymen had come in at 0300 on dplus1 and had fired an average of 350 rounds a Day since now they were resting while Wal Ter Edwards of received Tele phoned the first patrol is going into a new Edwards that must be where All those Geisha girls said George Delta of Berkeley one of the Crew i hear they got 400 of there was talk about the Geisha and then Edwards listened More attentively to his lets he the crewmen jumped to their change the deflection across from the artillery Post was a dump piled with boxes of Dand Floyd Barton of sat on a Mark ing figures on a he had no helmet arid his face puckered in a frown of concentration that was not interrupted by the Boom of the gun near his Job was distributing and he thought iwo Jima was a better place to distribute rations than either Saipan or where he had been its cooler and there Arent so Many he the rations were picked up at his dump by trucks that carried them As far to the front As they could then the boxes went the rest of the Way on mens Road traffic dwindled As you moved Steve Trochek of Lay on his Back on the Bank Between the Road and the first air repairing a communications he had been in the front lines for five Days As an Artil Lery observer and was working in the rear area As a the line he mended led directly to the front where he expected to return in the just two Days the front lines had straddled this first and already souvenir Hunt ers had searched through the ruins of Jap fighter planes and bombers strewn across runways and hard a grader worked on one end of the and tractors and other graders had been moved up to prepare the base for our own Darrel Farmer of broken ran a grader he had brought in Al most before the japs moved he started his work under mortar and sniper but it was quieter Well have the Field ready in two he told farther John Dober of operated a magnetic mine he was As careful with it As a housewife with a new vacuum he had to comb Over every foot of the Road to make sure it was Safe for the Bull dozers that would a battalion Aid station was set up in a Clearing above where Dober was corpsmen gave plasma to two Marine less than an hour had passed since they had been in another 30 minutes they would be aboard a Hospital a medical just Back from the Forward told Floyd Jen Kins chm of to prepare to move the station 100 Yards closer to the next Treyve been going like hell he and there shoving off again at at the top of the Ridge the Road blended into the Sandy fighting had been vicious an american heavy tank Lay flopped Over on one its Turret hurled 30 Yards away by a land the carried away by the had been butchered by a jagged piece of legs and bodies of other members of the Crew had been twisted As badly As their half a dozen american bodies were piled a few Yards above the they were covered with ponchos and shelter and from beneath the covers one clenched fist jutted american dead Lay this Battlefield was so new there had been no time to Clear beyond another Ridge were the frontline re souvenir serve they crouched in Foxholes and talked they inspected their weapons and occasionally fired them to make sure they the chewed on Fig bars and smoked cigarettes and pawed the dirt restlessly with their beyond them were the front compared with the bickering and confusion that surrounded the Southern Garrison end of the the front lines were on ddayplus8 we were just in front of air Field 2 and about 700 Yards from Sandy the last major objective on the the Battle Field was a desert like Plain with no shrubbery or Trees for and it was dominated from the Ridge by Jap machine snipers and we made headway every Yard advanced was an individual it was a Battle of Singleman charges from one foxhole to a Man would Crouch silently in a shelter and look across the Sand to a foxhole he would watch the other men try to reach that and he would figure the Angle and Range of the machine gun and sniper fire that sputtered to Stop after watching enough of the others Advance the Man would try to make it but when one Marine it was a psychological Hazard for everyone there were too Many there were too Many marines sprawled in the dirt with caked blood on fatigue the Field was a space of great there was no conversation about the War and no curs ing or when a Man stumbled into a the men who were there automatically made room for when he decided to there was no melodramatic when enemy bullets dropped a he went Down like a character in a silent were no groans or Calls for it was a hushed Panto mime of War which the sounds from machine sniper fire and mor tars seemed to a Rifleman from Lincoln watched from behind a Sand Dune on the Edge of the since Early morning he had been moving slowly ahead with the he was a reconnaissance and it was his Job to see that no unnecessary gaps occurred Between his regiment and the one on its since Day he had been advancing Yard by exactly As he was advancing on d he figured out be forehand every dash he made Between one Fox Hole and so far he had figured now the Vanguard patrols were beyond his Range of vision and it was time to dash he studied the next foxhole carefully and then he studied the Ridge from which a machine gun and two snipers fired consistently at anyone who tried to reach the dirt had splattered dangerously about the feet of two corpsmen As they Slid into the foxhole a moment a dead Marine who had made the wrong calculation Lay several feet to the right of the Mason rolled his Tongue in his Mouth As his mind worked on the then he grabbed his Rifle and hurled himself toward his his feet pounding out a Wake of dust and As he approached the shelter the machine gun spoke sharply and the snipers Bullet pinged Over his then he smashed into the a moment later he crawled carefully up the embankment on the other he had figured right Fready at