We were all very tired when we reached Venlo, Holland. We had to separate from one another to go to some homes for a few days. We went to a house where five people were living, but for some reason there were only two brothers, one seventeen, and a young boy. We stayed in the living room.

After some time passed, my companion decided to clean his rifle and I did the same. Then after about l5 minutes, the youngest of the boys came to my companion with some kind of gadget in his hand that looked like a battery. He asked my companion if he could tell him what it was. But he ignored him and kept cleaning his rifle.

I was very sorry that he didn’t come to ask me because he went to the kitchen and all of a sudden there was an explosion. We both went to see what had happened. We looked down under the kitchen table where the boy was lying flat with his stomach blown up. We called the military police and told them what had happened.

The boy probably picked it up from some place outside of the house not knowing what it was. The explosion broke the kitchen window and some of his fingers were stuck on the concrete wall outside the house. It was a booby trap. The police found another one in the boys pocket.

After Venlo, we went passed Dorsten Unna (it was March 30th, 1945); we fought crossing the Ruhr and the Rhine river; we encountered the enemy; there was a minor battle, then stayed some time in Uslar which was March 30th, 1945. That was in Germany and on to Ruseland, Germany. We went through Gotha where we met the Gennan paratroopers. They gave us some trouble. They were in the foxholes. A few of them were killed when we took the town.

The battle started with a line of ambulances behind the tanks, which were about to start firing toward the town. We dismounted the half track and started walking and firing in a standing position. At the same time there were some civilians walking toward us. They were trying to get away from the fighting by getting out of town. We lost some of the men and some were wounded. We also took some prisoners. On another day, we had an encounter with the enemy not too far from a cemetery. It was very large and covered a lot of ground. Then the Gennans got too close to us. There were many, and we were taken by surprise. We didn’t have any place to run until one of our Sergeants lead us to the large gate. We all went inside.

We started to dig fox holes and got in position to defend ourselves. Meanwhile we didn’t have our half tracks. The drivers were taking care of them someplace else. We could see very clearly that the hedges were getting hit by bullets.

We saw a company of tanks which were friendly and they were sent to help us. They were ordered to drive in front of the cemetery, then we were ordered to walk alongside of the tank in order to get away from the attack of the Germans. The half track picked us up from there. We kept doing our job on the half track once we were safe. That was the only way to get out of the cemetery. We continued riding and taking other towns.

When the war was over, we were still traveling towards Pilsen, Czechoslavakia. And on our way there were many trucks full of prisoners passing us on the opposite side. Every time one of them got close to us they asked us for cigarettes and candy. War or no war to me they were humans and the way they looked and their conditions, I felt sorry for them.