Account from Edwin N. Blasingim, First Sergeant, 160 Engineer Combat Battalion, Company B, as told to his son.
Combat Engineers commonly use floating bridge sections to ferry vehicles and supplies across rivers. In the early Fall of 1944, the 160 Engineer Combat Battalion was on the west bank of the Moselle River in the vicinity of Metz, France, making crossings and attempting to build bridges across it. The accurate artillery fire from the forts above Metz made bridge crossings nearly impossible. The Germans would destroy partially built bridges and wreck equipment still on the bank.The Engineers had ferried an infantry platoon across the Moselle before daylight that morning and they were "holding" the bridge head. These men were running short of everything, including ammunition.
The shelling had been constant all day and now into the night. If you were looking in the direction of a distant exploding round it was like looking at a camera flash. It blinded you temporarily and made the darkness seem even darker. When the rounds were coming in close by, you would hit the dirt and the explosion would make you bounce up off of the ground. In the dark, the screaming shells and explosions were louder than in the daylight. It was scary. Dad often says, " I was no hero, I just did what I had to do ".
What Dad and two other engineers had to do that night was to get the infantry what they needed to make it through the night. It was getting dark when they started. They commandeered a jeep and drove around, with no lights, rounding up the ammo, rations and supplies. They drove the jeep to the river bank and got it onto a damaged bridge section. Crossing was slow going and the men hoped that the Germans wouldn't target the jeep. The machine guns were not firing at night to keep from giving their positions away but if they valued the target enough, anything was possible. When they reached the far bank they unloaded the jeep and carried everything up the bank with a little help from the infantry. Back on the west side of the river they drove the jeep off of the makeshift raft and went several miles back to where B Company was bedded down. It was early morning and the company was sleeping in an open field. Nobody was sleeping very soundly and when the three men came in they were recognized and someone said, " We thought you guys had been killed ".
It was common practice for two men to roll their bed rolls together with a pup tent and share the bed roll. In fair weather the pup tent gave more warmth as part of the bed roll than as a tent. When it was shared by two men it preserved warmth even more. It had been a long day, Dad had a bed roll, some place. But he wouldn't be able to find it in the dark even if he knew which truck he threw it in. So a double became a triple and he got the middle, between two friends, shoes and uniforms on and rifles in their arms. They got a few hours rest. It wasn't the best sleeping but the men in foxholes across the river had it far worse.
Later that day, Chester Rydelski would be fatally wounded by a piece of artillery shrapnel.
Glen Blasingim