Baker took a couple prisoners in Roermond and Able dug one out of a bunker near one of the gun positions those first few days of March. Able chased away a group of four FW-190's after they had dropped several bombs. Meanwhile the battle was going well with the enemy rapidly being forced east of the Rhine along the whole length of the river.
The Battalion moved up to positions near the Rhine and anxiously awaited the crossing. During the wait the Luftwaffe turned out in fair strength giving the boys with itchy triggers a chance to blow off steam. Able took on three ME-109's the 11th and hit one bringing it down on the opposite side of the river. Four more showed up a little later whereupon Dog proceeded to bring down one of the strafing Heinies within 500 yards of the gun position. Later on still another 109 was run off by Able.
Four or five days later more ME-109's came strafing and bombing the area. "A" and "D" got together and ran one Kraut back to the Fatherland and "C" caused another to change his mind about coming in low for a strafing attack. All during the build up of the Ninth Army's crossing the AA was kept busy performing their primary mission for a change. W e even furnished AA protection for an Engi-neer River Boom to be constructed at Duisburg. Able's half-tracks went out and set up down near the river so the Engineers could get their boom built without annoying tactics of the Luftwaffe to bother them.
Early on Marcli 24th the attack jumped off preceded by a tremendous artillery barrage. The Air-borne operation near Wesel started and all AA Weapons got "Hold Fire." The lonely Jerry plane that did come over late in the evening was shot at and chased away by Charlie. On March 25th there was a Battalion ceremony held at Lintfort, Germany, where the presentation of two Silver Stars for gallantry in action and ten Bronze Stars for heroic achievement and meri-torious service were awarded by Brigadier General Mickle.
Something new was tried while we were at the Rhine. The 40mm's were employed in an anti-torpedo boat role! Although no targets were encountered the general excitement was shared by all. Many little harrowing experiences will be remembered by the crews who were there. The constant rattle of machine gun fire and the whine of both incoming and outgoing artillery is not easily forgotten. The Rhine river itself wasn't more than 25 yards from our positions and the infantry of the Division were close enough to be curious about the 40mm's.
The night of the 26th the German air force came out in strength in a determined effort to knock out the Rhine bridges. Out of 28 planes over the area in 10 raids three were brought down by the 440th plus others by gun battalions near us. "A" got two 262's and "B" got a JU-88. The next day Baker got a Cat II which was thought to have crashed across the river.
"Unsuccessful"
While in route to the new positions east of the Rhine "B" suffered a setback, Tec 5 Frank E. Shortess was killed when an enemy artillery shell scored a direct hit on one of their trucks. Six others were wounded and the truck and trailer destroyed. "A" was relieved of assign-ment to the 899th FA for a short period of time and set up AA defenses around a synthetic rubber plant. In this position
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