While the division sounded out the enemy for the coming offensive, the service elements had their sights trained on the same objective. The balance of T/E equipment was brought up and integrated into the vast system that keeps a division primed for "fire and movement." Wrinkles in the handling of ammunition, food, clothing and equipment -- the countless items of essential combat supply -- were smoothed out. Although morale needed no bolstering, it was enhanced by Division Special Service activities. A group new to T/O's of this war, the SSO men supplied front liners with the Stars and Stripes and Yank, which, with the Information and Education section's daily news summary, furnished the latest news from both home and fighting fronts. PX rations, gratuitous issues of smokes, candy, soap and other necessities to the fighting men, were distributed with welcome regularity. There were even a few movies for ONAWAY troops when near the rear of the division zone.

As January waned there began a thunderous prelude to the tri-part drama that at once catapulted the 76th onto German soil, brought it to grips with the Wehrmacht, and hurled it against the West Wall. Had a silent , film record been made of liberated rear areas at the time, it would have shown local farmers going about their daily chores with the calmness of assurance that the war had been chased from their cottage steps to the outhouses in the rear, and soon would be chased farther away. They chopped their wood, fed their animals, drove their carts, and smiled. A sound film more properly would have demonstrated the reason for the smile. Germany was being hemmed in on all sides, threatened from every direction. Her artillery and Luftwaffe should have been coming to her rescue, but the pre-invasion Allied bombings had shattered her factories and storehouses, reduced her shells and planes. In direct contrast, the three-dimensional might of allied infantry, artillery and air forces was giving a display of manpower and munitions resources never before equaled in world history. The din had Germany quaking in her boots. To the Allies and the liberated peoples of Europe it was a lovely sound.

Brig Gen Henry C. Evans' Division Artillery sent its first round hurtling into the West Wall on 25 January. Lt Col Everett N. Smith, Battalion CO, yanked a lanyard at 1050 and from the muzzle of the 355th FA Battalion's 105's a missile arched across the Sauer and burst in the enemy defense zone. It was the first of well over a hundred thousand shells that were to explode with devastating fury ahead of ONAWAY's plunge through the Reich.

Suddenly, tons of high explosive shells streaked across the river and burst simultaneously on the German emplacements for salvo after salvo, in a crescendo of thunder that was a song to the ears of tolling gunners. Then fire subsided. Came the liaison pilot's report: "Mission accomplished. Guns destroyed."