Slipdigit posting for Old Hickory

Old Hickory has gotten well and has been busy reminiscing about his warmtime experiences.

This is Old Hickory coming to you. I haven’t talked to you for a while. I wanted to tell you where we are. We had just crossed the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge on 24th day of March 1945. After crossing the Rhine River, we were waiting for orders to move out.
The Germans started sending artillery shells right on top of us. Three shells landed very near us. They were duds. They buried in the mud but never exploded. We were fortunate that day.

Finally, the 425 mile rat race from the Rhine River to the Elbe River began. This was ideal work for the Old Hickory Recon. Scouting and patrolling, we captured 485 prisoners in one day. We also captured ten 150mm howitzers artillery pieces (guns) that same day. In Reconnoitering, a town close by, the Recon lost 2 armored cars and some men (I don’t know exactly how many) in an ambush. So it was not all fun.

There were a lot of civilians in the road, a lot of German soldiers in small groups. Many were ready to surrender, but many were not. They put up a good fight a lot of times. We got the rats out of Hamelin. You know they got the rats out with the music, [but] we used a different kind of music.

We also captured the city of Brunswick. The Germans wanted to negotiate and General Harrison said that what we wanted was the troops. We didn’t care anything about the city. They refused to surrender so we gave them 30 minutes then we attacked and took the town.

During this trip, the Recon captured an ordinance plant. There were many different objects there of military importance. One was the largest artillery weapon, gun, that I’ve ever seen. I could stand up in the breech of it, turn my head down and stand straight up where the shell went. One end of the barrel was carried by one freight train and the breech and all were carried by another freight train. This was a huge weapon. There was a large box of Longines watches, which was German issue. There were many bags of silk and rayon that they made parachutes with. We saw many parachutes there also.

On this trip, we had a half track that broke down with a brake problem. I had to stay with it. I kept a man with me. We hid the half track in a barn behind a farm house. There was an older lady at the farm house. They left us K Rations for one day, but didn’t come back for 2 days. We were hungry and this German lady knew we were hungry. She killed a pet rabbit and cooked it. That was the best smelling food I’ve ever seen. When she got it cooked, she fixed a plate and handed it to me. I handed it back to her, and told her to eat it first, because I was afraid to take something unless she would eat it too. She laughed and took it and ate it. Then we ate it too. She didn’t give us any trouble and we didn’t give her any trouble.

On the third day, they returned with some food and parts to repair the half track. We repaired it and went in and thanked the German lady for her kindness and she hugged us and wished us well. Then we left.

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30th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop, Mechanized
30th Infantry Division