Toward the end of the stay at Camp Old Gold, General Eisenhower paid a brief visit to the division, and on March 6 the regiments boarded the disreputable old "40 and 8" cars at Yerville for the trip out. Bails of straw were broken open to serve as bedding, but you found the dinky little rattletraps would never hold 40 men.
Chow Line at Camp Old Gold - ©71st UnitHitory
In fact, the 25 to 35 men in each were uncomfortably cramped.
Motor convoys skirting the Saint-Denis suburbs of Paris and crossing the Marne and Meuse Rivers carried the Division Headquarters and the Division Artillery.
14th Infantry Regiment doughs in the famous "40 or 8" boxcars - ©71stUnitHistory
The familiar "C" rations put in their appearance and after a few tries you were able to hop off the box cars and have a fire going to heat the rations before the train stopped rolling. This was nothing to write home about for the "slow train through Arkansas" was a fast freight compared with the French trains. Rumors as to final destination were. almost as varied as they had been on the ocean crossing, and some still favored Burma as a probable stopping place. Others pointed out that Belgium wasn't so far away, and a few hopefully stated that the war was about over, and they were being shipped back home.
The trains made a short stop at Nancy and while the harmonica players made with the music their buddies danced with shapely “mam'selles”. One doughfoot asked a sweet young thing: ''Do you speak English?" "No," she replied in perfect English, "Do you speak French?"
71st Infantry Division route from Le Havre to Alsace - ©71stUnitHistory
Finally on March 9th, 1945, the trains unloaded at Léning and Kirrwiller, and the three regiments (5th, 14th and 66th) went by truck to their assembly area. That night everyone slept in houses, but it was their first taste of the war as it possible for them to hear the sound of artillery over the horizon.
The next day men turned their extra sets of clothing and only had to keep with them only what they needed. By nightfall everyone trucked and was on his way to combat. Drivers were men whom worked day and night hauling men and supplies, back and forth until they could hardly keep their eyes open. It didn’t take longer for the 71st’s men to see the ditches along the roads crowded with vehicles that had slid off the road due to the mud. According to some of the boys, it was a strange felling, as they were moving toward the east the sky was bright caused by the reflection of searchlight beams from the low-hanging clouds with the moon in the background. This was in contrast to the sound of the artillery and small arms fire getting closer and closer. The night of the 10th to the 11th was spent in some villages, men searched for warm buildings in which they could stay in.
The natives here habitually spoke German plussed doughs were reassured somewhat when they realized this was the much-contested region of Alsace which lay between France and Germany. The general attitude was: "Here we are, the Germans are just over the hill, the Russians are ten miles from Berlin, and the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we'll be home. Let's go!"
The relief of the 100th Infantry Division by the 71st Infantry Division started on the 11th, the 100th was very well dug in against the 16th German Infantry Division and an SS Panzer Grenadier Division. 100th ‘s boys were cheering up their replacements by relating their own battle experiences with the wily Huns. Be sure, they said, to keep off of "Skyline Drive" where the road was under constant observation by enemy mortar squads.
On the warm sunny morning of the 11th of March, 1945, precisely at 1017am, Private Clarence Stevenson from the Charly battery of the 607th Field Artillery Battalion fired the very first round of the 71st Infantry Division against the enemy, that’s it “The Red Circle” was in combat.
Sergeant Milburn L. Rogers from "A" Company of the 1st Battalion, earned the first Bronze Star to be awarded to a member of the division when he laid and maintained, under enemy fire, a communications line from the company command post to forward observation posts enabling the placing of accurate mortar fire upon enemy positions.
Sergeant Rogers receiving his Bronze Star - ©71stUnitHistory
By March 13th, 1945, Division Headquarters was set up at Ratzwiller in Alsace and was operating under the 7th Army. Attached to the division were the 530th Antiaircraft Battalion, the 635th Tank Destroyer Battalion, and the 749th Tank Battalion. On the same day boys of the 66th Infantry Regiment moved from Montbrunn to relieve other boys of the 100th. While the 1st Squad of the 1st Platoon from the Antitank Company was emplacing its antitank gun, boys saw four P-47 fighters coming back from a mission. Problem is ? Pilots were not americans but Germans. Realising that the pilots were Germans, the 1st Squad dispersed. Two men were killed and three wounded. These boys were the first casualties of the 71st Infantry Division.
Note: In the early hours of the 14th of March , while "F" Company of the 66th Infantry Regiment was dug-in, two flares were set off and two enemies spotted. These two, taken prisoners without offering resistance, were the first prisonners ever captured by the 71st.
"F" Company's men of the 66th Infantry Regiment at Schwangerbach - ©71stUnitHistory
Couple of minutes after, the order to move forard was given. No moon, no light at all. Quickly, everyone was passing the word back "Five yards between men". "F" Company was quiet, not a sound, nothing. Boys had their thoughts. Men were loaded with their gear, ammunitions and packs in the pockets, ammunitions too, everyone was anxious. The hill ahead of them was steep, on both side with thick woods. No sound was heard. Just the heavy breathing of the boys, which became heavier and louder as they were moving.
Dark, cold, and no sound. The feeling was very strange and all of the sudden it seems hell was falling onto the boys of "F" Company. The enemy's artillery woke up, even though the noise came from far away off, some of the men threw themselves to the ground, while others remained standing. When everyone get back together, "Let's keep moving" was the order. But this time the all outfit was on alert! Every sound became suspect, but "F" Company just kept moving.
The area was full of unpleasant odors. A man from the 100th Infantry Division came out from the darkness and said " We have been getting it steady all day". The green boys of "F" Company started to whisper to each other "Why couldn't we relieve them in the daytime". But no one answered. The only things boys could hear was the solider of the 100th saying "Your home is a hole in the mud; they have been harrasing us since this morning, they don"t want us to sleep".
Written by Pierre Fallet