[continued from previous page] Up at 0800. Almost the middle of the day for us. I crawled out of my pup tent and the first thing to greet my eyes was two Jerries standing about 20 feet from my entrance. I immediately reached for my Grease Gun without consciously thinking about it before I noticed that they were guarded by one of the boys. I quickly dressed and went over to them. After searching them, I motioned for them to sit down and called an interpreter. A few questions revealed that they were members of a Panzer Division and that three more were still hiding in the woods, afraid to surrender. The two being questioned were only 17 years old. After breakfast (we will not feed the PW’s until after they have been questioned by Bn; a low morale makes them less reluctant to talk), I took two men and went after the other three Jerries. We rounded them up in short order. They were very submissive and looked like anything except Superman. We will not hesitate to kill any of them who offer resistance, however slight. We have just received word that Lt. Smith, one of our most popular officers, was killed while leading his plt. Hqrs. against an ambush party. 3 of the ambushers were killed but that does not even the score. About 1400, five of our men were ambushed while riding along in a 3/4 ton truck by 13 SS mountain troops, three of which were officers. At the first shot, they stopped the truck, dismounted and using their rifles and Tommy Guns, made things so hot for the ambushers that they raised a white, flag in spite of their superior numbers and greater firepower. Their 13 PW’s brought our score to 18 for the day. We suffered no [continued on next page]
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Wednesday, 11 April, 1945
