area. Nearly everyone had made the acquaintance of some Belgian, and many of us had a girl friend too. "Baker" moved to Huy where they had a really good set-up defending the bridge in town.
The whole Battalion enjoyed itself as much as could be expected of an outfit in combat during our stay in Belgium. The beer was good. the people treated us wonderfully, and plenty of recreation was had by all. Unfortunately it did not last. Incidentally though pleasure was not the only thing we encountered in Belgium, for between the period of 19 of August and the 28th of September the Battalion furnished a total of 170 trucks which covered a total of 50.700 miles carrying gasoline, ammo, and lubricants. That was during the Red Ball days! A fine job was done by all the drivers too! Baker played host to several members of the Battalion at Huy when we engaged in pontoon ferrying exercises. It was thus proved that automatic weapons could be used in setting up AA protection for a bridge across a wide river such as the Rhine. Guns were ferried across the river on pontoons and half-tracks and also anchored in midstream. It was found that 50's could be set up on the bridge itself.
The mighty Allied war machine had finally broken into Germany proper and of course the 440th wasn't far behind. We were attached to the VII Corps artillery and were due for some more hard work. The general area was in the vicinity of Friesenrath and the Batteries assigned to Field Artillery Battalions. "Able" was with the 980th or "Jetton", "Baker" with the 957th or "Jealous", "Charlie" with the 951st or "Jerky", and "Dog" had the 981st or "Jerkin." It was a peculiar setup for "Jetton" and "Jealous" were attached to the 1st Division and "Jerky" and "Jerkin" to the 9th Division. Each of the Divisions were more than satisfied with the AA protection for their artillery. We didn't encounter very much enemy air activity while serving with the Corps Artillery, so we can pass over that lightly just saying that we had an occasional attack to turn away. The was Jerry aircraft stayed away from the 440th would make one think that they were afraid of us. well who knows, maybe they were!
While the Krauts were busily engaged in staying away from us we did a little more Red Ball work, keeping the ammunition flowing up to the front in a never-ending stream. We also had some fun with the barrage fire in these days. At first it seemed a little confusing, but once we had tried it we found it to be simple as eating steak and onions. Come to think of it we sure spent some mighty cold nights

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