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Contributions From Our Readers

 By Terry D. Janes

After the recent article on the Our River Crossing, Ken Aladeen (Thanks Ken!) sent the following:

As usual, your article triggered some vivid memories.  The position assigned to our unit (318th Inf. Reg.) must have been north of the 317th.  The junction of the Our and Saar rivers was clearly visible from our gun position.   Since both rivers were at flood stage, the water below the confluence was a raging torrent.  Our AT gun was assigned the mission of blowing out pillbox windows.  The range was too great for our 57MM so we had to sit and watch as the engineers and infantry trying to land on the banks of the river were blown up by a mine field.  It was bad enough that it was abandoned for a while so that saturation shelling could blow up the mines.  When foot troops were finally able to pick up the assault we had to deal with the pillboxes.  These were placed so that each had some help from the one next to it.  Eventually, engineers; using "shaped charges" or pole charges, were able to crawl upon top of those emplacements and blow out the windows.  When the infantry took over we had no explosives so we resorted to good old Yankee Ingenuity.  Actually, pouring about 5 gallons of gasoline down the front of the pill box and then igniting it seemed to work better than those hi-tech pole charges.  Usually, when the enemy smelled the gasoline in their box, they wouldn't wait - they came out the back with hands up high.  The banks of the river(s) were very steep, ideal for making defensive positions.  Then, at the top of the hill, were rows of the notorious "dragons teeth".  These were large concrete pylons set close enough together as to make it impossible for a vehicle to pass through them.  Unable to get our gun and truck across immediately, we were deployed as foot troops.  My birthday was on Feb 15, so I remember well "celebrating" my 20th in the Seigfried line.  I never did completely understand the military logic, but it suddenly became important for us to turn in our gas masks.  The thinking being that the enemy would never use gas in their own country.  Fortunately, that proved to be the case.  The crossing was one of the more horrendous encounters in my experience.  It was terribly expensive both in men and equipment.  For both sides.  It was not to improve for some time.