December 16th, 1944.
We made our way to the lines in the forest, straddling the highway near the village of Losheimergraben. We relieved the 9th Division. Foxholes were already dug, and the transfer was uneventful. It was quiet, so we busied ourselves building log cabins, making the area a nicer place to exist. There were a few casualties from patrols sent into enemy territory. Dave Weamer was wounded at an outpost position. Another GI by the name of Wallace was killed there, and some of my buddies thought that it had been me. They were surprised to see me later.

On December 11th we had moved to a clearing in Buchholz, Belgium, where we were in division reserve. Battalion headquarters was set up in a farmhouse on a slight rise about 150-200 yards southwest of Bucholz Station where L Company had set up its command post.

On the 15th of December 1944 the lines remained peaceful, but in the early morning of the16th there was a terrible artillery barrage east of our position that lighted the horizon over the trees and went on for over an hour. We couldn’t hear any shells passing overhead, so we didn’t think that they could be ours.

Sometime during the peaceful days before the battle, I used a can of gasoline from a jeep nearby to restart a fire from embers of a fire of the night before (stupid thing to do). A flame crept up and spilling the fuel, my hand and arm caught fire. I rolled over in the snow to snuff out the flames but had a badly burned left hand. Blisters eventually formed all over my left hand, (I was a southpaw). The shooting war began soon after the barrage. From the farmhouse yard we could hear popping sounds coming from near the station. German troops had come out of the woods and L Company had taken them on. I couldn’t shoot from my position because I couldn’t tell who was who. I crept along the yard in the front of the farmhouse to a small burm and the hedges there. It was a little misty and vision wasn’t too good. I watched some of the fire fight near the station until I drew fire from somewhere NE of my position. Twigs were snapping on the shrubs above my head.

Sometime after the initial battle when the German advance broke down, there was an artillery barrage laid on L Company and the 3rd Battalion headquarters. We had dug slit trenches in the yard, but scampered into a box car (it was low to the ground without its wheels) instead .....and without thinking. The barrage lasted a while and the noise was shattering and ceaseless. No shell ever hit the box car directly, but it was very scary when I realized during the barrage that I should be in my foxhole. In examining the box car afterward, we noted that shrapnel had torn through the box car leaving gaping holes all along its side down to less than two feet above ground level. The yard was full of holes from artillery explosions. Again I felt lucky.

I remember three German prisoners brought back to the farmhouse during the battle. Two of them were old men that were frightened and almost in tears. The third was probably a regular SS and he stared coldly at us.