346 REUNION IN AMARILLO
THE FAIR-HAIRED BOYS OF WORLD-WAR II MEET AGAIN (3)
It was later than one thinks when the fair-haired boys sailed across the Channel and disembarked on Utah Beach in Normandy. For 9 days, in rain and soupy mud, the unit stored and shipped forward ammunition and fuel.
At the end of that time, it was time to move toward the forward lines, and it took 3 days to go through Paris and wind up in Valkenburg, Netherlands. The depot was set up even with a confiscated donkey railroad, and supplied forward units in and near Aachen, Germany about 15 miles away. This was the Bulge period and the MaImedy Massacre was barely 30 miles away, so close that the unit was alerted to special orders to reconnoiter should there be a breakthrough. It was a very cold winter, and it snowed about every other day. On a bitter cold morning in complete darkness the 346 moved to an old factory on the northeast side of Aachen. All hell broke loose on the night of George Washington’s birthday. Our troops had lain a devastating barrage across the Roer River where the Germans had holed up since the previous November. From there the 346 kept pace with the advancing troops through Munchen Gladbach. Then across the Plain of Cologne where a destructive tank battle had taken place, then to the Rhine and across it to the Ruhr Valley. At Dorsten artillery shells of Allies and Germans were whining overhead. The 346 had been the first ordnance depot company to enter Germany and to cross the Rhine. After Dorsten it was Ahlen, Hamelis, Braunschweig and finally Helmstedt, near the famous Check-point Charlie when the war ended.
Its never over till its over, and the 346 wound up in Bremerhaven for another 5 months. At that time the 40 and 8s arrived, and the outfit trained west to France and the embarkation camps, Camp Philadelphia and Camp Twenty Grand.