(Family)
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   The 488th was divided into four platoons:  Headquarters and Service, First and Second Bridge and Light Equipage.  During operations, the latter three are called upon to serve.  H & S has the rear echelon, tending to administration and the various other housekeeping and maintenance chores.  Despite it's favorable position in the rear areas and the occasional derision shouted in its direction by the "combat" men,  H & S holds the seams of the entire unit together.
        The rear echelon, with its roster of personalities, vainly strived to keep pace with the swift forward moving elements during the war.  After the move to Thal, 488th men were in so many different points that the operations table at the C.P.  became a very animated affair.
        Bridge platoons moved out one by one while Headquarters worked furiously running supplies, rations, mail, servicing vehicles and the million and one details needed to keep things functioning.
        At the C.P. usually was found the Captain, buried among papers when not on reconnaissance for new sites or on liaison duty with his convoys.  Naturally, wherever the Captain was, there too was Quinn, his jeep driver. The pair brought back many a harrowing tale and it was during this period that Cpl. Quinn's great talent for yarn spinning came to light.
        1st/Sgt. Broderick dutifully attended to morning reports and duty roster chores, while the Personnel Section, composed of Sgts. Sangrick, Tieman and Cpl. Chapman sailed along in its usual complacent fashion, quoting army regulations, sifting rumors, fumbling with forms, pounding typewriters and making great strides in the duplicate-triplicat-quadruplicate field.  While Tieman and Chapman assiduously devoted themselves to the WD AGO forms, Sangrik and Quinn took upon themselves a new and important assignment.  They became beverage testers and their renown as connoisseurs in the matter was spread far and wide.
        Cpl. Huby, mail clerk, was thoroughly wrapped up in his work.  Mail each day, sums of money for transmittal and the many oddments associated with his job required his constant attention.  The mail service was deluxe, of the highest standard, thanks to John Huby.
        In the Supply Section were found the following:  Lt. Robinson, S/Sgt. Rollins, Cpls. Balmer and Russell and Pfc Windsor.  A very delightful crew they were and second to none in the matter of Statements of Charges.  Many a trouser less man stumbled away from the Supply Room shaking his head and mumbling dire threats.
        T/Sgt. Schlabach was in charge of the Motor Pool, where mechanical versatility was compounded with a levity founded upon eccentricity.  Booth, Harless and Hughes were chief mechanics.  A driver who was attended by one of this trio did not care, after awhile, what was wrong with his vehicle, he wanted to know what was wrong with the trio.  Other mechanics were Bryant, one-step-ahead-of-the-law Boynton, Paul Swartz, spot welder Lloyd Frazier and fidgety Val.  Painters Herriman, Webb, and C. Johnson, rounded out the motor pool compliment.  The activity in the motor pool was furious and the drivers were furious at the motor pool.  And so it went; but these men performed well in their duty of insuring constant mobility of vehicles.
     The slum-burner society headed by S/Sgt. Eggenberger, was composed of several gentlemen, each of whom was more famous for some naturally developed specialty, usually zany, than for cooking ability.  The most distinguished member was Charles Alburger, who, shortly after arriving overseas, displayed phenomenal skill in slicing bread.  It was amazing how thin he could slice the loaves.  When a man received his bread ration, he could gaze through its translucency.  It was rumored about for a time that charles had invented somewhat of a secret weapon for the food front, which he employed in cutting the bread.  This was later found to be false when an irate Cpl. Mahoney, who declared he was starving to death, found Alberger using a razor blade to slice the staff of life.  The cooks, Waite, Scheidegger, King, Murphy, Opel and Pracht worked in shifts.  However this did not better the quality of the food, although it was a stimulating change for the eyes at least, since it usually meant that the gravy would be of a different color.  When even the K.P.s became underweight, no one was very surprised; it was in the order of events.
     To Headquarters and Service Platoon goes the credit for the only write up which the 488th received in the 6th  Corps newspaper the Beach Head News, Founded on Anzio .....Printed in Germany.   It all happened when Karsten and Hatley spotted some trout and decided to do a little angling in the river at Mosbach.   The immediate problem was that they had no fishing tackle, so being true engineers they improvised and although Isaac Walton would hardly approve, their technique proved successful.  Hand grenades were dropped into the water and then Hatley in a bosuns seat suspended from the truck crane, dexterously swung out over the river by Karstens and the haul was made.  Easy as picking daisies and the fish somewhat pureed were really very tasty!
        While located at Mosbach, company headquarters was jeopardized by the presence of strafing planes and the combat thirsty "rear echelon" men, sensing an opportunity to clothe themselves in glory, set up the units 50 cal. machine guns to provide anti-aircraft security.  Fortunately for all concerned however, the planes did not return.
        With the tumult of operations sounding in the distance, one man, working quietly and efficiently, directed most of the rear echelon activity.  His was an immense job which made seemingly impossible demands upon him.  It rarely afforded him a moment of relaxation, for if he was not actually engaged in work, he was planning for the next day.  It was a job for a man who could accept responsibility for equipment and men and it required the highest type of leadership.  The men of the 488th know that man to be M/Sgt. Martin White, whose unstinted efforts went largely unappreciated, since he made everything appear so simple.  He is indeed, a man not soon to be forgotten.
        In the minds of the rear echelon will always be the picture of town after town in Europe.  First, loading p vehicles with equipment and personnel, then, convoy fashion, with the Captain in the lead, on to a new town, always forward.  Upon arrival, billeting and the establishment of the installation so necessary for the support of forward elements was always accomplished with a minimum of delay.
        From Thal to Oberammergau they went, contributing their skills and ingenuity and serving faithfully their comrades.  They made themselves worthy.

   It was on the afternoon of March 30, while the company was located at Schifferstadt, that Lt. Barney H. Wilson to get his bridge train ready to move out across the Rhine sometime that evening.  The first step was a briefing on the assembly areas that had been established at each end of the bridge and in which the trucks would await their turn, according to priority, to cross the Rhine.
        Everything was ready at midnight but the 31st Engineers to which the train had been assigned, saw fit not to leave until 0230.  A blackout drive through several burning towns brought the convoy about an hour later to the Rhine.  Clearance had been obtained on the highest priority and without entering the marshaling yards, the trucks proceeded across the ponton bridge at Ludwigshaven-Mannheim.  Continuing on through Mannheim and to the Autobahn, The First Bridgers arrived at Heidelberg at 0700, to be greeted by American soldiers who had been held as German prisoners and who had been released just a few hours earlier.
        Moving into a barbed wire factory equipped with a very elaborate inter-office telephone system, the "executives" of the outfit - Stom, Gates, Conklin and McCauley, established a "corporation" and plastered the bulletin boards with notices, while the henchmen - Romeo, Lozano, Patnode, Levin, Vandenburgh, Nicholas and Bachorik went on a hunt for "assets" to serve as corporation capitol........ Twice in as many days the convoy was readied for movement, but the alerts failed to materialize.  On April 2, a move to Heidelberg for a link up with second Bridge resulted in both trains returning to the factory when it was discovered that the town to which the convoys had been ordered was still in enemy hands..............Three hours later, both convoys minus Vandenburgh and Bachoric, proceeded to Bad Rappenau and parked on a dirt road for what was expected to be a few hours but which turned into three days of rain, mud, K rations and general misery.  Most sleeping was done in the trucks and if you don't believe that it is possible to sleep sitting up in the sack in a truck cab, ask Walsh or Baggett.
        On April 9, transferred to the 2828 Engineers, both trains proceeded across the Neckar River.   First Bridge occupied the top floor of a five story building.  "Bed Check Charlie" made his appearance on the first night and the sprinkling of lights that had been in evidence was extinguished as if by a master switch when the first rat-tat-tat of the strafing planes was heard........
        In the evening of April 10 the First Bridge men moved to a bridge site in Offenau.   One truck at a time was sent to the scene while the others remained in the town.  Although the site had been subjected to intermittent artillery fire during most os the afternoon and small arms fire was heard during the erection of the bridge, things were generally quiet and the job was finished a 0800 the following morning..
        A trip to the company at Mosbach for reloading was followed by a return to Neckarzimmern.  Before moving out to another bridge site on the 13th, the news of the death of President Roosevelt had circulated but was received with skepticism. Not until a special edition of The Beach Head News, which was received at the scene of a new bridge at Jagtfeld, confirmed the report, was the convoy convinced that their Commander-in-Chief had "slept away."
        April 19th's orders sent the convoy rolling to Waspenhof where the 2826 Engineers built a bridge in broad daylight and with no indication of a war.  The reloading was accomplished at Weinsberg and half the train went with Lt. Wilson to a bridge site at Bachnang, while the remainder, under Sgt. Walsh, bivouacked in the woods near Denkoff..............But the stay here was short and by 1600 the convoy was rolling toward Kircheim.  Consternation seized the men as the train moved through Grunbach, where SS troops were seen pulling carts through the streets with perfect nonchalance, apparently oblivious of the fact that that the town had been taken.  For a while, as a matter of fact until the convoy had cleared the town no one knew what to expect next.
        Arriving at Kircheim, word of a German battalion that had been cut off was falling back in disorderly retreat toward this town, reached the convoy.  Trouble was anticipated but shortly after midnight when the Jerries arrived at Kircheim they were riding in trucks and were being taken to the P.W. enclosure..........
        A four hour stay at Geislingen on the top floor of an apartment house was followed by orders which sent the convoy to Albeck, the proposed sit of a bridge across the danube.  The 103rd Division Lieutenant who met the Bailey train en route and who claimed to be going ahead to get road clearance directly to the river, was never seen again and the First Bridgers pulled into the bivouac area of C Co. of the 2827 Engineers, an open field on the top of a hill.  Moving up, the train had passed Armored and Infantry units who were preparing to move out for night operations.  This fact bought home to everyone the precariousness of the situation.  The town in the valley a half mile distant was being shelled and across the open country to the north our tanks could be seen blasting away at Jerry strong points.  Joe Skaff never a fellow to take a chance, began digging in as soon as he arrived and the continuing bombardment caused others to follow suit.  The more daring decided to take a chance but the intermittent torrent of 88's caused them later in the evening to crawl out of the sack and to sleep in the shallow protection of a prone shelter.  Since one train was not equipped with enough bridge to span the Danube, it was decided to use a floating treadway.  After a fourteen hour struggle against Jerry fire and the strong current, the job was completed.
        At Krumbach, where the convoy ate dinner on April 27, Vandenburgh succeeded in getting the German version of a Ford in working order and took part of the convoy on a tour of the town.  Here too, the men of the First Bridge had an object lesson in the wisdom of leaving well enough alone.  Some of the boys from the battalion had picked up some dud magnesium bombs, very harmless looking aluminum bars and used them for a grill on their open fire which they had made to heat water.  These had then exploded, spraying particles of magnesium over the entire area, two men were dead and three were seriously burned.
        Immediately after dinner the convoy moved to Bad Worsinhoffen.  The remnants of the Luftwaffe had been active that day, strafing several columns of vehicles and troops in the vicinity.   Accordingly, the trucks were dispersed in a field across the street from a small house into which the men had moved.  At midnight, orders were received to send two trucks to a bridge site and Patnode and Vandenburgh were assigned to fill the bill.
        Two days later, on the 30th, the first Bridge trucks started for Innsbruck, Austria, but coming upon a demolished span south of Garmish-Partenkirchen, plans were altered.  this bridge, erected in a blinding blizzard of miniature proportions, this was one of the fastest in convoy history.  The eighty foot gap, high in the mountains, was bridged in three hours.  The snow, which in some ways impeded the task, prevented snipers who were in the area from delivering effective fire.  The convoy returned to Garmish and after a hot meal, bedded down in a large house.  The Battalion C.O. had given orders that the train must be reloaded and back at Garmish by noon of the following day.  This necessitated a 5 A.M. departure for the depot, supposedly located at Fussen.  Upon arrival there, no depot was found, but fortunately, our company headquarters had been set up there.
        The depot was at Ulm, some hundred miles west of Fussen and this fact rendered compliance with the Colonel's orders impossible.  On the afternoon of May 1 the convoy arrived at Ulm and by midnight four trucks had been loaded.  The return trip over unfamiliar roads made treacherous by hail and snow, is one not soon to be forgotten.
        On May 3rd the convoy trucks were used to assist the company in moving its headquarters to Oberammergau and on the same evening part of the convoy was at a bridge site in Lienbach and witnesses the surrender of a high ranking German General to the 44th Divisions's C.G.
        The next day after the convoy had moved to Mittenwald, word from VI Corps, ordering the 488th to cease operations, resulted in the convoy returning to Oberammergau.
        But it wasn't over yet, not quite.  On the nights of May 4 and 5, trains left for bridge sites in the vicinity of Imst.  No resistance was encountered at either of these locations and the remaining pockets of the German Army were engaged in wholesale surrender.  The end had come, but it lacked official confirmation as the 488th basked in the Alpine sun and tried to celebrate on German beer.
 
 

      Second Bridge convoy under Lt. James E. Childs and S/Sgt. Harold D. McKay had some hectic experiences.
Here is the way Sgt. McKay tells it:
        "Since noon we had been receiving instructions on traffic control regulations governing the ponton bridge across the Rhine.  We had expected a terrific tie-up, but were pleasantly surprised when the anticipated trouble failed to materialize.  We left Schifferstadt at 0230 and crossed the river barrier on which the Germans had counted so heavily, about an hour later.  The twin cities of Ludwigshaven-Mannheim were kaput!  seeing them at night left us with the impression that hardly a building remained standing.  We continued south toward Heidelberg along the super highway and made our first stop at Wieblingen.  Here a barbed wire factory was taken over as living quarters.  Since the products of this establishment had aided the German war effort, it was generally considered that it should not be left in working order.  Most assuredly, it wasn't.
        Shortly after settling this matter, we received orders to join the 1271 Combat Battalion, located in the outskirts of town........Dawn saw us pulling out for Bad Rappenau.  Here our bosom buddies of the 31st Engineers left us stranded along a road for three miserable days.  From where we were parked, we could see Heilbronn burning, and the 105 howitzers, set up all around us, seemingly never took a break.  On April 7 we moved back into Bad Rappenau, into a dentists house a semblance of heaven after being in the field.  Heree we cooked the venison that we had killed while hunting in the woods during the previous three days.
        We returned to Neckarzimmern for one day before pushing off for Heilbronn and a momentary stop before parting with the First Bridge convoy for good.  At Oringen, our next stop, we parked in a dead end street at the edge of town.  This town was hat as blazes!  It looked and sounded as if the Infantry was having a pretty rough time of it about three blocks away.  Shortly after noon, I was standing on Peters' truck looking through a range finder when a shell came screaming in and landed in a lake two hundred yards away.  I left the truck and landed in a ditch, now effort expended.  More shells accompanied the arrival of Infantry troops on half tracks.  The dough's promptly proceeded to dig in right around us, but soon they reloaded and moved out with us on their tail across town.  Things had cooled off and the fighting had moved to a range of hills east of town.
        Mainhardt was our location on April 18.  We set up in a combination butcher shop and home and had chicken for dinner!  Morse and Corley came up with a good motorcycle and just about everyone road it before it was disposed of.  We left here on the morning of the 19th, stopped for dinner with and Engineer outfit at Michelfeld and in the afternoon traveled down a valley that we named "Dead Horse Gulch."  A German horse drawn artillery train had been blown to bits there.  We passed between two columns of Infantry most of the afternoon, and some of the boys acquired pistols, courtesy of the 44th division.
        We parked at the head of the gulch but remained in readiness for another move.  Most of the men slept in the trucks, but others took over a small house nearby.  Cary Ware, on guard, went to get his relief, Wealdon, and accidentally discharged his carbine, the bullet passing through the ceiling.  Wealdon was wide awake and ready to go even before the plaster stopped falling.  That evening we could hear a few shells coming in but they seemed to be hitting the town of Fichtenberg.  We didn't think much about it but were at a loss to explain it.  The Infantry, Tankers and Artillerymen had been going bumper to bumper all afternoon and it was supposed that Jerry was on the run.
        Almost everyone had fallen asleep when Lt. Childs shook me and said that we had twenty minutes to get everyone awake before moving out to Lorch, just in case the retreating Germans blew the bridge there.  We were not to use any of the main roads, since all such roads were being shelled.  If ever there was an opposite to a main road, we took it that night!  It was simply two ruts, one deeper than the other, winding through the trees high up on the side of a mountain.  Blackout driving was an added hazard and when we finally cleared the woods we were met by the Corps Engineer who informed us that the bridges in Lorch had been taken intact and who told us to remain here and wait for further orders.  This was in the town of Altdorf.  A large white house seemed suitable and Grunes, our interpreter, was sent at 2 A.M. to give the occupants the "Heraus mit."  Three o'clock saw us comfortably bedded down.
        The following morning, after acquiring a sizable supply of leather for holsters, we moved into Lorch.  It was here that I landed the first Luger in the convoy and the town seemed to be packed with troops.  Everything was quiet until seven Jerry planes put in an appearance.  Then it suddenly seemed as if everyone had a machine gun.  The planes were flying high and the 40 mm. A.A. guns, were filling the sky with flak.  One of the planes peeled off and came in from the west to strafe and dive bomb.  The bombs fell in line along the railroad tracks.  As the planes continued toward the convoy position a mass of 488th humanity ran for the cellar.  The resulting congestion found half the men still at the door when the last bomb landed among the trucks.  Shrapnel whined all around but soon the planes were driven off.  In addition to high explosives bombs, the planes had also dropped the anti-personnel variety.  About an hour later later an Infantryman came in inquiring about Roundy.  He told us that he had been with Roundy in another part of town when the planes struck and that Dick had been hit by shrapnel.  This news came as a deep shock to all of us.
        The following morning Gaucher and I took off in the jeep to locate Roundy.  Inquiries at At aid stations directed us to a clearing station near Michelfeld.  Entering this town, where we had slept two night previously confusion abounded.  We learned that trucks hauling Infantry men had just been ambushed by a pocket of Germans who had used machine guns and mortars.  Reflection led us to believe that these were the same krauts who had fired mortars during our stay there.  It was a horrible sight and one never to be forgotten.
        We finally located Roundy at the 123rd Evacuation Hospital at Neckarsulm, sixty miles from where he had been wounded.  The only information we could obtain was that his condition was serious.  We supplied the medics with the necessary information and then returned to company headquarters at Weinsberg.
        Arriving back at Lorch, we found the convoy ready to pull out for Goppingen.  Here we spent the night in a large school building and those fellows who wandered about town returned very shortly, due to sniper activity.  this was April 22 and the following day we convoyed to Schelklingen, gave the occupants of a house thirty minutes notice and moved in right on the dot.  When one Frau insisted on remaining in the house to protect her property Corley was assigned to eject her.
        In the afternoon of the 24th we moved to Ehingen, across the danube.  While the convoy was parked here, the men mingled with French soldiers from a Moroccan armored outfit that had just linked with the U.S. column.  Things started popping when Uhle came up with a P38 pistol which he had obtained in trade for a carton of cigarettes.  When we moved to the outskirts of town that same evening, twenty three of the twenty five men had pistols and the early part of the night was spent in cleaning them.  Open country stretched to the south and when several jeeps of badly frightened M.P.'s drove up and informed us of a skirmish in which they had been involved while bringing in prisoners, those pistols were loaded.   Soon we heard small arms fire in the adjacent field and then a machine gun opened up.  A few minutes later, a truck which had just been fired upon, came screaming up the road.  The Signal Corps men in the truck were so excited they could hardly tell us what had happened.  Finally, we gathered that one of their men had been hit and was still down there.  We sent into town for help but none was available there.  At any rate, that was the end of the action for that night.
        At midnight, a terrific crash was followed by the sound of breaking glass and Ware was heard cussing about the door being locked.  Moseley, who had just relieved him on guard soon came back and asked me what to do with a prisoner he had just taken.  Since we had no place to keep him, I told him to march the Hun down the road and turn him over to the next outfit.
        At 0500 the next morning we were off to a bridge site at Illeriden.  Arriving at the site at about 0800, the first truck was sent down to the gap, while the remainder of the convoy stayed in the town, less than a mile away.  Ware and Wealdon, in the first truck, had just about reached the site when all hell broke loose.  The Jerries had zeroed in before we got there and there was no warning a full barrage right off the bat.  Later that day, the officer at the bridge site told us that the first shells had missed the truck by only a few feet.  The opening of the barrage was for us to disperse the convoy, take to the cellars and wait for the Air Corps or Artillery to knock out Jerry's guns.   The shelling continued at about thirty minute intervals the rest of the day.  During the lulls, we loaded a jeep with bridge parts and this vehicle ran a shuttle service to the site.  It was rough duty for the jeep and it had many close calls.  During one barrage, we counted 108 shells in fifteen minutes.  That gives you some idea of how determined the Germans were to prevent that span from being constructed.  By evening Jerry had been tucked away and the bridge went in that night.
        The following morning we rejoined the company at Merklingen and from there to Goppingen for another load of bridge.  The 27th saw us at Memmingen.  A wild trip ended in a large house on a dairy farm.  We lived like kings that evening, if kings live on milk and fresh eggs.  At midnight we moved up to Schongau, passing several German army cars with lights still burning, which had been abandoned at the side of the road.  At 0600, we started to build the bridge with the forced assistance of P.W.'s who were now surrendering en masse.  After a few trucks had been unloaded, a change of orders necessitated the reloading of the trucks and we moved into barracks at a nearby German airfield.  By 1000, orders had been changed again and the bridge was now to be constructed.  It was over a demolished railroad span and a tough spot in which to work.  Blasting was necessary and resulted in the death of one G.I. and one P.W.   Working conditions were so difficult that the bridge was not completed until 0300 the next morning.  Snow, which had been falling almost steadily, also slowed up the job.  We slept the rest of the night and returned to the company at Kaufbeuren after daybreak.
        We couldn't get any bridge there, so we moved to Fussen, where the depot was supposedly located.  Failing to find it there, our trucks were put to work hauling 1600 P.W.'s to Steingaden.  By the time this was finished, the depot had arrived at Fussen.  After being loaded, we set out for Garmish-Partenkirchen.  It was very cold and snow fell during most of the day.  That night was spent in the town and the next morning we rolled on to Mittenwald.  From there, over the Austrian border into Scharnitz, where a bridge was put in that night.
        On May 2, I took the empty trucks and headed for the depot at Fussen.  Just outside Garmish, I took the wrong road (with Cpl. Mahoney's help), and this error gave us the distinction of being the first American troops into Eibsee, a resort village by a beautiful lake, used as a German Army rest center.  Finally we reached Fussen, were reloaded and returned to Mittenwald.  It was here on May 4 that we received orders to return to company headquarters.  The war was over and the convoy of Second Bridge had done its part, and done it well."
 
 

      Two trains were operated by this platoon, one composed exclusively of Light Equipage men and the other of men from all platoons.  Lt. James B. Robert's was in charge and had Sgt. Robert Eidson to assist him.  We found "Eddy" feeling pretty good the other night and asked him to tell us about his experiences.  Here is the story he told:
        "I left on my first train while the company was in bivouac at Soultz.  Just across the Siegfried Line in the village of Reidstalt we made our first stop.  About 2200 that night we were strafed by two planes which we recognized as our own P-47's but which were piloted by Jerries.
        The next day we moved about ten miles up the road and finding that bridge had been taken intact, we moved into the town of Kandel, where we had our first meeting with French army troops.  Everyone enjoyed a restful nights sleep in the basement of a building.  The following morning as Cpl. Asa White was sitting on the fender of one of the trucks cleaning his rifle  two Jerries came up, tapped him on the shoulder and gave themselves up as P.W.'s.  fifteen minutes later, thinking the whole German army had surrendered and was coming down the street, we looked up to see Pfc Mongelluzzo bringing in eighteen Italian P.W.'s that he had found in a basement while engaged in a scavenger hunt.  Approximately a half hour later, the 88's opened up.  we were all standing around the trucks and when one shell hit about thirty yards in front of the first vehicle, there was a mad scramble for the cellar.  The 88 barrage lasted about ten minutes and the Sgt. Morgan and I went out to see how much damage had been done.  the first two truck were knocked out, all tires flat and the trucks themselves just riddled with shrapnel.  Lloyd Conklin taking advantage of this lull, moved his truck around the corner of a building, thus affording it some degree of protection.  the shelling continued periodically until about two o'clock that afternoon, and resulted in five of our trucks being put out of commission.
        Moving up to Rheinzabern the next day, we dispersed our trucks between the houses, but there was no artillery fire here.  Three days later we returned to the company at Schifferstadt.
        On March 31 we left the company and joined the 1271 Engineers going with them to Ludwishaven.  Then transferred to the 2828 Engineers, we crossed the Rhine into Mannheim.  A large bridge was needed here, so we unloaded our Bailey at the Airport and returned to the company for an additional twenty four truck loads.  Returning to Mannheim, we were ordered to Mosbach on the night of April 3rd.  It was one of the darkest nights that I have ever seen and in the course of the long blackout drive Perdue hit a soft shoulder, turning his truck completely over and Joe Roum ran off the the road and hit a tree.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.
        Arriving at Mosbach, we found that two bridges were out in the vicinity.  So we split the convoy.  Lt. Roberts took one half and I took the remainder to Osterbrucken, where there was a sixty foot gap to be spanned.  We finished early and on the way up to Lt. Roberts site we met with artillery fire.  Deciding not to risk the entire convoy, I left eleven of the trucks at Grindelsheim, every street was littered with dead Jerries, proof of the stubborn resistance that the Tenth Armored Division had met here a few hours earlier.  Then Keeling and I headed for Lt. Roberts at Tiefenbach.  After several miles we turned back, since the road was under heaving shelling.
        Shortly after rejoining the convoy, J. Bradley and Drew, who had been on the other site, pulled in and told us to fall back to the next town.  I found out from them that the Tiefenbach site was hotter than hell and that seven 2828 Engineer men had been wounded.  A later report on this bridge told of Sgt. Jandrinski and "Irish" Daly trying to crawl into the same hole.
        Within the hour, Lt. Roberts' convoy minus three trucks that had been hit, pulled into Grindel sheim.  They tried twice that day to put the bridge in, but artillery fire remained heavy and accurate.  It was finally agreed to catch some sleep and everyone was bedding down when Busch, trying to take his carbine into the sack with him accidentally pulled the trigger.  The bullet missed Hutchinson by a fraction of an inch.  Later in the night, Fowlers sleeping bag received a little rough treatment when a battery of 105 howitzers, located just outside the house, went into action.  Fowler just about tore the sack to ribbons trying to gain an exit.
        The following day Lt. Roberts took all the trucks back to company headquarters.  After an overnight stay here, we reassembled the train and moved to Adelsheim, where we lived in an apartment over a printing shop.  Enemy air activity, in the form of strafing, was frequent.  On the second day here we witnessed the shooting down of one of these planes by an A.A. crew.
        That night, orders came in for a train to proceed to Berangen.  Blackout driving again, and enemy machine guns were delivering very effective fire on the bridge site.  A squad of Infantrymen was assigned to eliminate the opposition and shortly afterwards the bridge was started.  It was getting routine a bridge every night, and sleepless nights were really playing havoc with the boys.  It wasn't until we reached Schwabish Hall that we were able to rest.  Even here, the pinging of small arms ammo from a burning ammunition warehouse across across the street kept us on edge.
        Griffin, while scavenging, came upon a store of knives and just about every man in the 488th had one or two new knives as a result of this discovery.  After spending two days and a night here, we left for Welgheim.  Forty five minutes after arriving here, we were off to Lorch.  I was inadvertently left in Welgheim while looking for a couple of friends of mine named Schnapps and Wine, but I rejoined the gang at Lorch later that night.  From Lorch where we had met Lt. Childs and the Second Bridge convoy, we went to Goppingen.  No bridge was need there, so on to Ehingen.  We hadn't eaten in about twelve hours and the 1271 st Major told us that the chow truck was still at Goppingen.  So we all climbed on one truck, went back to Goppingen and failed to find any trace of the chow wagon so returned to Ehingen and hungry to bed.  The delicacies of Ten In One rations greeted us in the morning.
        Moving out the next day across the ponton bridge which had been built instead of our Bailey, we convoyed to Memmingen still with the 1271st.  After a temporary stay at the airport, we procured the Adler Hotel.  Our interpreter, Keeling, was having quite a time evicting the occupants, but not that beautiful Fraulien.
        Two days were spent here and then we hit the road again.  This time Fussen was our destination.  Here it  looked as if the entire German army had surrendered at the foot of the Alps.  we put our bridge in here and returned once again to the company now located at Kaufbeuren.  After we were reloaded, we took off for Mittenwald and met with Lt. Childs convoy.  On the fourth day of our stay here we moved to a bridge site at Lienbach.  Arriving here, we found Lt. Wilson and his convoy already there, but there was need for both trains.  Here for the first time in this man's army, we saw the rare sight of a one star General doing M.P. duty and directing traffic.  While we were at the site, an endless stream of medics went by, bringing our wounded back from the scene of heavy and bitter fighting just a few miles up the road.
        Then it was back to the company again, this time to Oberammergau.  The convoy was reloaded and we went out to what proved to be our final combat bridge site of the war, five miles outside of Lienbach.  By this time, the enemy opposition had become almost non existent and we experienced not trouble whatever.
        For us the war was over, so we returned to Oberammergau to rest for a few weeks on our hard earned laurels."

  More --Sidelights
 

  It was at Helmstatd that the diminutive Lloyd Stom had his narrowest escape of the war.  Shortly after the D.P.'s had been admitted to the warehouse full of schnapps wine and honey, "Buckshot" uncovered a suitcase full of ladies clothing and unfortunately held it up to their view.  "Whew," he exclaims as he narrated the account of being trampled by this surging mass of femininity.
   Harvey Hightower still blushes when reminded of this incident at Gunstett.  Just before dawn he spotted a suspicious looking character lurking in the vicinity of the convoy and proceeded to take his first prisoner, despite the protestations in perfect English and muttered threats of courts martial.  Perhaps Harvey just doesn't like shavetails as his "prisoner" proved to be a second lieutenant.
   The bivouac area at Soultz is memorable for many incidents, not the least of which concerns the cooks.  The first afternoon there , Dick Waite and Murphy were observed plunging headlong into a ditch when the artillery opened up.  The fact that it was our own guns made no difference to them but perhaps they had a premonition of a "short round."
   Signal Corps men had just completed the stringing of a stretch of telephone wire along the road on which Don Nicholas truck was parked.  "Nickey" slept through the opportunity of a lifetime  when a Jerry patrol who had infiltrated the area climbed the truck ahead of his and cut these recently installed lines.   "Oh well," he says with a shrug of his shoulders, "who wants to be a hero anyway?"
    In March, when the drivers were drawing trucks at Antwerp buzz  bombs (V-1') were still being  fired at England and the coastal port cities.  Jim Ballard who had parked in a field for the night, was suddenly awakened by the sound of A.A. guns firing on all sides.  Suspecting an ambush, Jim decided to make a break for it in his underwear.  Jumping from the bed of the truck and landing in a huge puddle, he soon saw he had nothing to fear from the battery of A.A. guns, which was firing on the flying bomb.  Much relieved, he returned to the sack.
    It was close to midnight when Cpl. Baggett and Lt. Wilson pulled into Pfaffenhoffen looking for the 2827 Engineer C.P.  Cruising around town, which was rather noisy at the time, Lt. Wilson finally located an M.P. and walked over to ask him for the desired information, leaving Baggett in the jeep.  Shortly after Wilson reached the M.P., a terrific explosion was heard, but the Lieutenant didn't think much about it.  After turning back he was nonplused at finding that the M.P. had disappeared.  A few minutes later the policeman emerged from a cellar murmuring: "Gosh, Lieutenant, you sure are brave.  That shell landed right over there, and you didn't even flinch."  But after that learning experience, the First Bridge Commander lost his nerve and ever afterwards took refuge when the shells began to get close.