COULD STILL WALK

We pulled back a mile and started digging in for the night, waiting for the rest of the company to come up behind us. Soon they came -- and kept going! Then we heard the story; Our battalion commander, more than pleased at the ground we had covered that day, had radioed the regimental colonel, telling him the men were very tired and asking permission to stay in the town that night. Said the colonel, "God dammit, your men can still walk, can't they? Then keep walking until after nightfall." (Our battalion colonel had been marching with us, the regimental commander was miles behind, riding in a Jeep). So we moved on into the hills, nearer and nearer Jerry and his pillboxes. Late that night we stopped, were given our posts and told to dig in for the night, keeping one man awake in each hole all night. Blank, Compton and I dug in on a little cliff and after getting a hole actually big enough for two men, all three of us crawled in. I slept with one ear open but both eyes closed and so did the others. Some night a German patrol was going to come by our hole but we didn't think it would be that night....so we slept. This was March 18.