Thursday, 14 December [1944] Oermingen
Had our first casualty around 0230 this morning. Reuber wounded by shrapnel.1Private First Class Raymond Reuber. Not too serious. One M51 damaged by shrapnel. Men subjected to artillery fire every night. Second platoon moved to Woefling to protect 912 FA. Btry. C.P. moving tomorrow.
Reuber is first casualty in 549th. Awarded the purple heart. I hope that is the last one we receive.
Friday, 15 December [1944] Oermingen
Moved at 1100, thru Achen up to Gros Rederching about 12 miles.2Aachen, the westernmost city in Germany located in North Rhine-Westphalia near the border with Belgium and the Netherlands, was captured from the Germans after two weeks of bitter fighting in October, 1944. Saw dead Germans on the side of the road. Going through Siegfried Line. Pill boxes everywhere. Don’t look like much on outside. Everything is built underground. Set up C.P. in German House, still occupied. Men scattered pretty much temporarily.
Saturday, 16 December [1944] Gros Rederching3Gros Rederching is a small town in the Lorraine region of France.
We are under almost constant artillery fire. The town is a wreck and the walls that are still standing shiver and shake with each blast of artillery. We have been watching P47s strafing the enemy positions. They are doing a wonderful job. German ACK-ACK is scarce, their planes even more so. D Btry. suffered two casualties today. We seem to bear charmed lives.
Sunday, 17 December [1944] Gros Rederching
A lot of our F.A. moved today. 2nd Platoon moved with F.A. to Obergailbach. C Btry. helped shoot down a ME109 today. So far we haven’t even seen a [continued on next page]