Lest I Forget

[continued from previous page] began to send their lighted footballs of death in long arcing forward passes that breathed warnings of disaster to whoever was their recipient. Soon despite much evasive action by the plane, 1-40 MM shell found its target and brought the plane into a dive. The 1000’s of M.G bullets which had never ceased in their efforts to climb to the plane, now took advantage of its decreased altitude and completely riddled it from one end to the other. It hit about 2 miles from our C.P. and exploded. The glare of the explosion could be seen for many miles. The 1^st Platoon which is defending a bridge across the Moselle River was subjected to both S.A. and Mortar fire. They have reported no casualties. We saw a P 47 crash not far from our C.P. late in the afternoon. It went into a long glide with smoke trailing from the tail. We did not see the pilot bail out. The usual, large, flights of bombers filled the sky with their roar and their bulk. Our objective of Coblentz is well on the road to being taken. Resistance of an organized nature is virtually non-existent. We are sending many truckloads of prisoners to PWE’s in our rear areas. They pass through about 80 miles of German territory on their way to the rear. The sight of them does little to add to the morale of the German civilians. I consider it good Propaganda. The weather has become cloudy but it is still warm. Our maintenance men repaired about 20 tires today. These were caused by nails, shrapnel, and a few by bullet holes. I hit the sack at 2300. Received 2 boxes of cigars. Happy again.