Shepard told Little to stop so he could check out the sack. Up ahead in the middle of the road lay what appeared to be a burlap sack with something in it. We had come around a gentle curve with a fairly long straight away ahead of us. We had travelled north between 8 and 10 miles and the roadway became even more winding although it was generally gentle curves following the course of the river to our right (east). We left at about 9 am on a two lane winding paved roadway. He was in the front passenger seat and I was in the rear. It was designed to cut ropes and cables the Germans would stretch across the road to decapitate the occupants. A pedestal mount with a 50 cal machine gun mount was in the back and on the front affixed to the bumper as a vertical piece of angle iron at the top of which was a sharpened hook. Our jeep, driven by Pfc Lionel Little was without a top and the windshield was folded in the down position. On that same morning, April 5th a courier run was being made to the city of Braunchweig to the north of us. This was near the town of Bad Lauterburg. On April 5th we found comfortable and dry billets in a German factory that formerly had manufactured hydrogen fuel for the German rockets. In early April we were reassigned to the 2nd Armored Division and within just a day or so were assigned back to the 8th Armored Division. (By the end of the war our unit had shot down 87 German aircraft and a number of probables). We were in constant action from that point onward and we were transferred to the 8th Armored Division on February 11, 1945.Most of our action involved protecting bridges over which our tanks had to pass. Since I was now a member of this unit with my brother I will refer to it as our unit. My brother's unit was part of the force that had, along with other forces, penned in about 60,000 Germans who were protecting the submarine pens at at St. My ride was on top of equipment on a 6 X 6 truck through rain, mortar and artillery barrages for three days making our way to the Brittany peninsula and the town of Heric. The Red Ball Express was a famous transportation outfit that ran trucks of all sizes along those roads leading to the front delivering supplies, fuel, ammunition and rations to all the units of the invasion force. Reaching a tent of officers who were nothing but traffic directors my orders were read and I was told to head up the road and contact somebody in the Red Ball Express and have them take me toward the Brittany peninsula and watch for signs of my brothers unit, the 473rd AAA AW Bn (SP). All the troops, including me, went topside and over the side on cargo nets. The ship pulled up to one of the famous Mulberry docks that had been towed from England in the first days of the invasion. It's not hard to imagine what would have happened if we had been hit by artillery or a torpedo. This was a fairly large ship and the remarkable thing about it that below decks all the bulkheads were removed and you could see from the bow to the stern without seeing anything but me, infantry men. My official War Department orders for me to be assigned to my twin brothers unit had their impact on the personnel people because I was re-leased and sent on my way to Southhampton where on June 10 I boarded a British vessel bound for Omaha Beach. It may seem rather lengthy for an e-mail but the history is in the details. I have the time, inclination and motivation to give you this story about my activities during the "big" war that you had requested some time ago. Everything is true, no stretching of facts, no embellishments just GI truth. ![]() I have no idea where you are going to put this but hope that it will add a little drama to your website. I realize that this is a long one but bear with me. Email from Bob Frink, 473rd AAA AW Bn (SP)
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