Field Artillery observers are generally being left on their own when the enemy decides to pull a counter attack and the doughboys take up their positions previously assigned. Lt John Liljeberg, 191st Field Artillery Battalion FO with an infantry company on the line, didn’t exactly find himself "alone" on one particular occasion however. Upon arriving upstairs in a house, around which the doughboys had dug in, he found a German Officer in the room with him. The Lieutenant feverishly fumbled for his revolver but found the German all too eager to put up his hands in this embarassing situation. An enemy half-track at this point began firing on the position and the FO immediately began an adjustment -to bring fire to bear on the vehicle. In doing so, he got help from the German, who claimed himself to be a worthy artillery advisor. The prisoner claimed he gave help for fear the Germans would retake the position and that was one thing he didn’t want to take place.

A short while after Battery "C" of the 191st Field Artillery Battalion had put in their Howitzers and began digging their fox-holes a prisoner was brought in from his fox-hole in the same area. He was reported unusally heavily armed, with machine pistols, a machine gun and several Ml rifles.

Two experiences of the same kind are just too much for one G-I when Purple Hearts are in the offing, thinks Cpl Ralph Lee of the 191st FA Bn. Now he’s the holder of the Oak Leaf Cluster to the Purple Heart, awarded him after he sustained severe injuries in his first meeting with mines. In this accident the vehicle in which he was riding was destroyed, causing several casualties. The wire corporal returned to his unit from the hospital some time later only to see the same sort of accident occur again. But this time he was walking behind the vehicle and received only minor face injuries.

When the 191St Field Artillery Battalion entered Schlindermanderscheid, Luxembourg, on the heels of the 5th Infantry doughfeet there were less houses standing than there were letters in the name of the shell-beaten village, (As far as the 191St is concerned Schlindermanderscheid is the town with the longest name in the ETO.)

Sergeant James C. Foster, Battery "A", couldn’t believe his own eyes when one of his buddies showed him a picture of his girl friend in the states and made the mysterious revelation that he took it from a German soldier he had captured. How and where the Heinie got the picture, which was the exact replica of a picture Foster has been carrying around in his pocket, it is a mystery which the 191st FA Bn ammunition sergeant would still like to get to the bottom of.

The humility of being taken prisoner was very noticeable on his countenance but when the Heinie officer registered verbal complaint when lined up with the other 13 Jerries for frisking, members of the 191st got the biggest laugh since the capture of a Heinie Lt Colonel who claimed he was a Corporal.

The officer immediately took a dislike for a German-speaking Jewish boy of the 191st who was seen making him step faster than he had ever goose-stepped for Der Fuehrer, coming from the woods near the CP where the whole crop was caught in a farm house. It was learned later that the German would like to have been inspected by an American Officer.

A couple of 191st FA Bn forward observers kept going where the infantry stopped for the night and succeeded in cleaning out some Heinies for the tired doughs. With the town only half-cleared, 1st Lt Barrett J. Whiteley and 1st Lt John Liljeberg were looking for a place to sleep, and walked in on a housefull of Krauts, 70 in all. Surprised, yet seemingly happy that the war was over for them, they sprung up their hands obligingly and raised the bag of prisoners for the 191st to 80 for the day.

The crossing of the Rhine meant immediate good fortune to Pfc William F. Shults, "A" Btry, when he found his younger brother taking pot shots at mines, or "anything floating", under the bridge spanning the river. Later, in Czechoslovakia he met his older brother in a tank destroyer unit.

The Jerry was so cock-sure he had a volunteer American prisoner in 1st Lt Dale R. Stringfellow, forward observer for the 191St FA Bn, that he gave no thought to the tenacity and quick-thinking of American FO parties. Perfectly unaware that he was deceiving a German into believing he had come up to surrender, the "A" Battery Lieutenant had gone up to a promising spot to observe targets for his organization, leaving his driver, Cpl Joe Miley and radio operator, Tec 5 Raymond A. Rochlitz behind to decrease the possibilities of enemy observation. While he was shedding some of his equipment preparatory to digging in, the German standing nearby beckoned the Lieutenant to come over to him. Noticing the German was none too alert, he succeeded in grabbing a rifle from an infantryman and made his first shot "count" right between the eyes of the would-be captor.

Lt Stringfellow’s radio operator was near the scene but was unable to assist him as he was being held down by machine gun fire.

There were times when the 191st FA Bn moved so fast that the cannoneers had to stop and wait for the enemy to fall back far enough to "become a target". To them, the story going around that the field artillery stays back until the infantry mops up and the position is secure is a lot of baloney.

This fact was never more significant than the time when, shortly after arriving in a new position on the heels of the advancing doughfoot, members of the battalion sat on top of a hill and watched doughs storm and capture a pillbox full of Krauts. One mortar concentration and three rifle shots produced 33 prisoners and the high ground to the immediate front.

"No one told me to stop so I kept going right on through", replied Tee 5 Mack D. Holt, 191st FA Bn Mail Clerk, upon being informed by his CO that the road taken by him that day was considered in use by the enemy because it hadn’t been reported cleared. However, since the mail clerk spearheaded the whole thing the road was ordered ready for use by friendly forces and he and other unit mail clerks were using the short cut every day thereafter to be sure the mail got through.

"Mack", as he has been better known to his unit since it was formed several years ago, states, "They was blowin’ up alot of stuff when I went whizzin’ by."

"Could it have been mines?" was the immediate question in all his buddies’ minds—but no one yet has approached him about that, thinking it was just as well that they didn’t!
 
 

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