End Of The War

Each town was luxuriantly decorated with French and American flags. Having heard so much of Luxembourg and knowing its population to be Germans we expected to be received with cold stares but much to our surprise we were received with open arms and as victorius troops. We arrived in the village of Kayle at 11:30 a.m. where we were billeted in cafes, private residences and some few in barns. The night we spent in Kayle will long be remembered by the soldiers who participated. We found plenty of cafes with plenty to drink, and many pretty Luxembourg maidens to tend our wants and after spending a night of eating, drinking, and dancing we escorted the Luxembourg ladies to their respective homes and then retired to try to sleep away the "schnapps." We awoke the next morning with dizzy heads to find that we had 11 kilos to hike,departing from our city of joy at 7:30 a.m. leaving our lady loves to settle once more into their daily routine of life of the small Luxembourg village. Our officers insisted that we hiked only 11 kilos but at 12:30 noon when we arrived in the village of Asphelt every soldier declared he had hiked 25 kilos. We departed from Asphelt 8:03 a.m. December 4th, arriving at Assel at 11:40. Here we rested the following day departing December 6th. at 7:40 a.m. marching through Remish, Luxembourg where we crossed the mosel which was the international boundary line into Nenning, Germany. Thus; settling our foot for the first time on German soil. Through the mistake of the infantry we marched some 28 kilos arriving at Cohren at 4:30 p.m. after marching 18kilos out of the way. We departed at 8 a.m. December 7th arriving at Coenen at 2:15 where we were again received as royal guests. We departed at 8:15 December 8th. arriving at Essel where we had a new experience in the line of billets. We had been in barns, private houses, churches, cellars, factories, saloons, and every conceivable place but in this little German village we were billeted in the " Temple of Knowledge", the local school house. We departed at 7:52 December 9th arriving at 12:05 noon. Here again as usual we were treated royally departing at 8:32 December 10th. arriving at Platten at 1:12 p.m. Here we were informed by our C.O. that an inspection of machine gun equipment and of our train would be made. The roads being very muddy and the weather being very bad our equipment was in bad condition but an inspection at this with our trip just half done, the roads still muddy, the weather continuing rainy, seemed an absolute folly to the weary foot worn soldiers of the 345 Machine Gun Battalion but we had long since learned that "orders are orders", and each man set to work to clean up his equipment, but "Generals will be Generals", and this inspection was not held until we had marched about 1 kilo through the mud and rain and our equipment looked fully as bad as preceding the cleaning, therefore an order was issued to clean our machine gun carts every day on our arrival at our destination and to wash and oil our helmets and to see that our leggings were free from mud as well. We left Platten at 8:00 a.m. marching 13 kilos arriving at Kinderburen at 12:00 noon on December 11th. We expected to renew our march the next morning but much to our surprise and enjoy ment, orders arrived late that night saying we would sit tight and not move as expected. This was indeed joyful news to men who had been enduring the hardships of soldiers sho have the honor of being among the troops of occupation, but let it be said here that during this unusual march that not a soldier has whimpered. The cooks being forced to march with their packs little felt like cooking when we arrived at our day's destination therefore: our meals were rather scant. During this march of 262 kilos we have not seen the sun shine a single day. The weather has been very bad, the roads muddy and plenty of high hills to climb. We left kinderburen at 8:00 a.m. December 16th. arriving at Gillenfeld at 1:10 p.m. where we went into billets expecting to stay here and do garrison duty but after two days rest we were ordered to move to Rachtig on the Mozel River. Here we spent Christmas and one the morning of December 27th. we hit the trail up the mosel through Berncastle to the village of Filzen A Co. at Dusemond. January 27th. we have been here one month drilling, going to Machine Gun school and snow balling and passing away the time as best we can.

The End Of The Second Diary