SAAR CAMPAIGN SNIPER STORY

The whole 12^th Corps. massed all the artillery they could get and when we jumped off, they fired - all of them at once along the entire front. "What a show." It lit up the whole sky along the front for miles in a straight line. The Germans had plenty of time to dig in, while we were massing for this campaign. Their foxholes were big maybe for 2 or 3 guys. They had shelves dug into the sides, where they had their dress boots "all shined and polished" also bottles of "snaps" and all their shaving equipment. What more could you ask for.

We put a footbridge across the "Blies River" for the 35^th Division. I was pulling arms across in a rubber boat and when I was done I was coming back across the bridge, but there was a German sniper firing from a building on the riverbank. The 35^th Inf. Division was starting to bring back prisoners, about 10 of them. It was a single file footbridge so we mixed right in with the Germans. One 35^th guy near the front, one near the back, and me in the middle. We figured he wouldn't shot at his own soldiers. When I got across, I took off running. I came up under the window on the second floor of this house. I looked up to where I thought he was. Sure enough, there he was hanging out the window. He was dead - somebody else knew where he was too.