[continued from previous page] country. Many women were working in the fields, plowing and weeding. One sees only old men and young boys and these two groups are either talking or playing. The women do most of the labor. We traveled for some distance through beautiful farm land and orchards. The Germans seem to lack for nothing, at least as far as food, clothing, and comfort is concerned. We stopped at 1600 in a little town named Montabaur which had been taken less than two hours before.1Montabaur is a small town in the Rhineland-Palatinate, northeast of Boppard and just east of Koblenz. We will bivouac at the edge of town and probably remain until morning. The people seem very friendly but are also timid, not at all like supermen and women. We passed several old castle fortresses perched high on the tops of hills. Most of these date back to the 14 and 15 hundreds. Every hill is made to produce its harvest of grapes or currants by extensive terracing. An industrious people, a misguided race. I hit the sack at 2000 after establishing security.
Thursday, 29 March [1945] Birlenbach, Germany2Birlenbach is a small municipality, situated just southeast of Montabaur and northeast of Singhofen, in Rhineland-Palatinate. See Map, Site #25.
Up at 0600. It was raining when I awakened and it rained intermittently for the rest of the day. Had chow at 0700, loaded and were ready to pull out at 0930. We are really deep into Germany now and there are no indications that we will be stopping soon. The country is still beautiful both in nature and arrangement and it is getting less hilly. German military equipment and personnel are spread all along our route of march. They have had losses from which they will never recover. [continued on next page]