June 16, 1944-D-Day+10-The Hedgerows

For the past two days the Rangers had lucked out by hitching rides on Shermans of the Second Armor Division. First, they went to Carentan and met up with 101st. Being an aggressive assault force, the 101st Airborne and the 2nd Rangers were ordered to head out in to the French countryside and begin the long task of expelling the Germans from France and out of the war. They had no idea how long it could possibly last, but most were hoping that the war would be over by Christmas. That was one thing a lot of men shared, that and the will to live.

The ride on the Shermans was noisy, hot and then slippery once they rain started. A few times, the men had to dismount mostly when they came under fire. Short wouldn't have mind the ride so much if weren't for the thought that he was a sitting duck on top of that thing. One time a Sherman in front of his was hit by an 88, the men were tossed like trash from the tank. The concussion was so powerful that it knocked Short off the tank he was sitting. He remembered rolling to clear the tank behind him only to stop in front of a severed arm. The thing that almost gave him a heart attack was when he saw fingers flex and relax on their own. That wasn't a good day.

Sleeping was a hard and nerve racking experience for Arlen, especially in the hedgerows. Sometimes the lines of giant bushes were no more than 50 yards apart while others could be miles. He didn't like it when the hedgerows were that close. A common event was one hedgerow would be clear of Germans while the next was loaded with them. OP hedgerows were worse.

It was common for the Germans to attack right at daybreak or a little bit after dawn. They'd open up with machine guns and drop mortars and we word return round for round. Once in a while after thirty minutes of intense small-arms fire, it would stop. The company would wait patiently for another 30 minutes to see what the Germans would do then battalion HQ would order a company to move on the hedgerow with the other two companies in support. Baker got this assignment several times.

Short's eyes were wide with anticipation as were a lot of his comrades. The anxiety could kill a man and slowly but surely, the company would reach the hedgerow, clear it and give the signal for the rest of the battalion to move up. This process seemed to be time consuming but it got the job done and that's all that counted. They would take a quick breather; refill canteens and the whole squad, platoon, company, battalion, regiment and division would be on the move again. If they were lucky, they would run into a town along the ways. It was even luckier if the town had already been liberated. The towns were always named after some saint and Short could never pronounce them. As a solution he began calling them by number. It was "St. town 1" or "St. town 4" or something like that. Even towns that didn't have the "St." in front of them he still called them that. The fellow soldiers didn't understand what the hell he was doing and would go about butchering the name of the town as much as possible.

If the town was liberated, it was full of grateful as ever French. The women would come up and kiss the soldiers on the check or mouth and if they were young, with their tongues. The men would give hearty handshakes and offer them wine or bread, which was always accepted by both officers and enlisted men. "St. town 8" was not such a place.

Around late June, early July, Patton's 3rd Army began sweeping through France at an incredible rate. To keep, a certain crossroads would have to be captured to allow supplies to follow him. Unfortunately, the Germans were still holding the town and they knew how essential those roads were. 2nd Rangers was given the task to clear out the town and capture as many prisoners as they could, Baker Company would be assaulting the town from the East or behind. That meant that town would have to be surrounded and experience had shown that there were often German OP's outside the town waiting for any allied army. They were always armed with MG-42's and they always had plenty of ammo.

The assault on "St. town 8" was scheduled for D-Day+21 at 6:30 AM. The division had one day to encircle the town and clear out any OP's. Strength of the Germans was unknown, which always made things exciting. The division had just been re-supplied so every soldier had plenty of ammo and was instructed to take more.just in case. At 5:00AM, Baker and the newly reestablished Charlie Company began moving around the town along the north side. Charlie Company led the way even though Baker had further to go. They ran into little opposition and a few snipers but that was it. By 9:00 AM after one of the slowest, most cautious advances Short had ever been apart of, Baker Company made it to their position. The rest of the day was spent waiting to see if the Germans would try to pull out or send any more soldiers in. No such luck, they were there to stay.