"WRONG TURN, SIR!"

Prologue: "The Race and Break-through to the Rhine River" - March 15, 
1945. Quoted from the "History of the 376th Infantry Regiment Historical 
Committee printed by Carl Weddigen in Wuppertal-Barmen, Germany, 
December, 1946.

"With more than its traditional lionine ferocity, the 
month of March, 1945 stirred the Western Front into frantic action. 
Following General Eisenhower's plan to destroy the Wehrmacht west of the 
Rhine, the full force of American, British and French armies was 
unleashed to sound the overture for the "G~tterd~mmerung" of Nazi might. 
No single Allied Unit can claim to have played the outstanding role in 
the race to the Rhine. It was a co-ordinated effort of all ground and 
air Forces; even the Navy followed along with its craft ready to 
navigate the Rhine. But the part played by the 376th Infantry Regiment 
in this drive is in itself like the story of an entire major campaign.

"To realize the importance of the Third Army drive, of 
which the 376th Infantry was on several occasions the southern 
spearhead, we must look at the entire Western Front as it stood early in 
March. The First Canadian Army had begun the attack on February 8th; the 
American First and Ninth Armies had followed on February 23rd. With the 
beginning of the second week in March they stood poised on the West Bank 
of the Rhine for 135 miles from the Moselle River north to Nijmegen and 
the First Army had a well-established bridgehead at Remagen. But on the 
south, facing the American Third and Seventh and the French First 
Armies, stood the still powerful German First and Seventh Armies, 
manning formidable defenses, including natural mountain fortresses.

"Undoubtedly, more of the Forces in the north could at 
that time have jumped the Rhine and thrust an armored spearhead into the 
heart of the Reich. But such an action was not in line with General 
Eisenhower's strategy. A break-through would have been dangerous because 
of the strong German forces on its southern flank. So the spotlight fell 
on the American Third and Seventh Armies. It was their task to destroy 
the enemy within the Saar-Rhine-Moselle
	Triangle.	To accomplish this a co-ordinated two-army attack was launched 
early
	in March.

"At this time the 376th was comfortably ensconced in its 
enlarged bridgehead on the east bank of the Saar River just south of 
Trier. The troublesome infiltration into the bridgehead area by the 6th 
SS Mountain Division had been repulsed. There was nothing to do but 
improve the defensive positions along the Regimental line in case of 
counter-attack, send out a few patrols -- and await the cue for the 
Regiment to take its part in the great offensive."

It is a veritable truth that the "best laid plans of mice 
and men" often go awry, the Military and heat of battle notwithstanding. 
Such was the experience of one young 21-yr. old Lieutenant who in 
retrospect, finds an element of humor among the many horrendous memories 
of combat best forgotten, as he relates the following incident to his 
family.

"There was a lull on the battlefront. This meant there 
was time for the men to clean their weapons in preparation for another 
push toward the Rhine River, our ultimate goal being the large town of 
Ludwigshafen.

"I received word to report to Battalion Headquarters to 
meet with Lt. Col. Benjamin E. Thurston, 3rd Battalion Commander, early 
in the afternoon of March 15, 1945. The Col. informed me that Company I 
and my Platoon would spearhead a night attack on the town of Grimburg. I 
gulped and was going to ask: 'Why me?' for the other Officers in our 
Company were OCS (Officers Candidate School) Graduates and I, who had 
received a Battle-Field Commission many months ago, felt unqualified. 
However, on thinking it over I figured I had more experience in the 
field than the other Officers, as they were all recent replacements. So 
-- what the heck -- let's go for it!

The Regiment S-2 Captain informed me of the strength of 
the Grimburg garrison as being 'Oh, I don't know -- maybe 500, 1,000 or 
more.'

"Great! I then asked for and received a number of maps to 
study which included topographical maps, supposedly to give me a better 
picture of our attack route and the area up to and surrounding Grimburg. 
After a few hours of absorbing and attempting to memorize as much detail 
as possible, the Col. informed me: 'By the way, Lt., we will have a 
platoon of light tanks from Company D of the 778th Tank Battalion as 
support.' Again I gulped -- and was about to protest for everyone knows 
that tanks can be heard thundering along for miles! And this was to be a 
sneak attack? I thought: 'Oh, sure, let the Krauts know we're coming!' 
But the Col. anticipated my protest and ordered me to: 'Button up, Lt.! 
Orders are orders. I'll be about 100 yards behind your Lead Platoon and 
we'll cross the I.P. (Initial Point) at 2000 hours.'

"My heart sank as I envisioned the tanks 'telegraphing' 
our attack. My knees shook as I went back to report to my Company C.O. 
(Commanding Officer) to brief him and the Platoon leaders on the coming 
attack. They all exploded in unison: 'TANKS!' Censorship will not allow 
me to quote other opinions! Ail agreed that hardly could this be a 
suprise attack with the lumbering tanks in support!

"The men were issued extra ammunition, K rations to last 
a week, and told to rest until Zero Hour. I could not relax for this was 
the first time my Platoon would lead a night attack. We had, in the 
past, led daylight attacks, but never under the cover of darkness.

"At 2000 hours, on the evening of March 15th, Third 
Battalion, with Company I and my Platoon as point, set out on foot to 
take the first objective, the town of Grimburg. It was a clear, cool 
night. The faint starlight was supplemented by 'artificial moonlight' 
from an anti-aircraft search light battalion somewhere off to the south. 
Walking alongside the tanks, with two scouts ahead of me, the attack 
began. The rest of the Battalion with Company M followed and in the rear 
of the column came the two mules which Col. Thurston had acquired 
(confiscated) to carry mortar ammunition and extra radio batteries. Col. 
Thurston was a West Point Graduate and a firm believer in radio contact 
at all times. For increased mobility the heavy machine-gun sections of 
Company M left their heavy water-cooled machine-guns behind and carried 
only light machine-guns.

"Entering the heavy woods, we encountered road blocks 
caused by the Germans when they neatly severed fifteen three-to-four 
foot in diameter pine trees over one hundred feet tall, dropping them 
over the road and making it impossible for the tanks to continue. I said 
a silent prayer, thankful that we could proceed with the attack without 
the noisy support tanks. (Don't misunderstand me. We in the Infantry 
were very grateful for tank support in the proper time and place.)

"As we were on 'radio silence' I then sent my runner back 
to the Col., asking him to come forward with further instructions. It 
took almost 1½ to 2 hours for the Col. to receive word from the Division 
Commander, to proceed on foot with the attack on Grimburg. The tanks 
were to catch up as soon as the engineers had cleared the trees from the 
road.

"After conferring with the Col., it was decided to leave 
the main road and head cross-country using logging trails to Grimburg to 
make up for lost time as a result of the road-blocks.

"Taking to footpaths through the dense woods of the Black 
Forest, we and the mules proceeded without armored support. I brought 
along two maps and one of them did show some of the logging trails but 
not the footpaths. The lead scout had trouble finding the proper trails 
because of the darkness in the dense forest, especially when there was a 
fork in the trail. He would then retrace his steps to my position.

"In order to maintain complete black-out conditions, I 
took my raincoat out of my backpack which the scouts then would hold 
over me while I lay on the ground to study my map and compass, using my 
flashlight (with the red emblem from a package of Lucky Strike 
cigarettes inside the lens to diffuse the glow) and would so attempt to 
pick out the right path.

"The route meandered over hills and across streams and 
three more times I had to refer to my map under cover of my raincoat. In 
places the dense foliage completely shut out any moon or starlight. My 
scouts often were only a few feet ahead of me and in some places our men 
had to hold onto one another's belts to maintain contact.

"After groping along for some time we suddenly came to a 
stream only to find that the water was flowing in the wrong direction! 
Even though we had been trudging up and down steep hills, this surely 
didn't look right. So --under the raincoat again! My suspicisons were 
right -- we were going down when we should have been going up! Oh, Oh! 
We were going away from Grimburg! Well, the heck with the maps -- from 
here on in I would rely only on my compass.

"We started to retrace our steps and as I approached the 
Col. he asked what was happening. I hesitantly whispered quietly: 'Wrong 
turn, Sir!' He didn't say a word, thank God. There were over 4,000 men 
strung out along this trail and now we had to turn them all around and 
backtrack. The black night was filled with griping, grousing and 
grumbling comments like: "Another Army snafu!'. (By the way, the 
sanitary version of this term which was coined in WWII means 'Situation 
normal -- all fouled up.) Of course the troops were bewildered and full 
of complaints, when suddenly I heard someone whisper "Silence, Soldier!' 
It was the Col. -- and now he was right behind me!

"This wrong turn cost us a loss of over two hours in 
marching time but we found where we had made error, then continued on 
very carefully for we knew we would run into German outpost stations all 
around the town of Grimburg.

"The Col. now dropped back to be with the main body and 
it took another 1½ hours before we suddenly came into a clearing -- and 
there was the town! I sent my runner back to report to the Col. who then 
deployed the main body of men around the town while "I" Company moved 
in, searching every house.

"The 'sneak attack' had taken the Germans completely off 
guard. No alert orders had been given to the sentries because local 
German Commanders hadn't the faintest idea that there were any American 
troops within miles. As the outposts were rounded up, their only 
apparent emotion was that of complete astonishment. Company I searched 
each house, rounding up the town's garrison, all of whom were found in 
their beds, either sleeping or being entertained by the local FraHleins. 
Apparently, more anxious than their soldier-protectors, the citizens of 
Grimburg were all awake, assembled in the most strongly reinforced 
cellars.

"By 0300 hours the town was completely cleared. A 
perimeter defemse was set up and those troops not actually manning the 
outposts found suitable barns and sheds and settled down for some much 
needed sleep.

"Col. Thurston sent a runner asking me to report to him. 
Oh, oh, I thought, I'm in trouble. Imagine my surprise when he shook my 
hand and hugged me so strongly that my helmet flew off my head. With the 
words: 'Lt., a job well done!' he smiled and winked at me. This coming 
from a West Pointer really pleased me as I had always admired this man 
as a true leader of men. He also told me that because not a shot was 
fired, and not one life was lost on either side, he was especially proud 
of me. One of the Platoons actually had been fired upon by a sentry, and 
our boys returned the fire, wounding him. However, this all took place 
AFTER the town had been taken.

"Col. Thurston made sure I received a commendation though 
I was embarrassed for I felt the Lord was looking over me and all those 
men that night. Had it not been for the German roadblock earlier that 
evening -- and the 'wrong turn' -- we would have hit the town around 
2200 hours by using the main road, with armored tank support, rather 
than after midnight when all was calm and peaceful.


Epilogue:

In December, 1994, Rolly received with his annual 
Christmas card from Col. Ray Singer, the news that Col. Thurston, at age 
93, was living in Seattle. As surely as "B" follows "A", we thought it a 
golden opportunity to visit him briefly during our visit to Portland in 
May with relatives. They graciously agreed to take us to Seattle where 
we enjoyed a brief but wonderful visit with this gallant gentleman. The 
most touching moment for me was when, on saying our goodbyes, Col. 
Thurston put his hand on my shoulder, looked directly into my eyes and 
quietly said, "I hope you realize what a very fine soldier this man 
was!" An historical moment. -- TGKV