For Headquarters Company as for all other Companies, the first months in the ETO meant constant battles against the elements, miserable convoys through the cold, wretched billets in Belgium and Luxembourg, up to the banks of the Sauer where, in Wecker, the first combat CP was established.  Here Communications went into action with a widespread net of wire to be strung, and the A&P Platoon helped the Line Company men blast foxholes.  In those days foxholes weren't to be dug simply by leaning on the handles of entrenching tools.  Two sticks of dynamite, however, did the trick in the frozen ground.

Beyond Wecker, the Company waited in Boudeler for the Sauer crossing. and on the 16^th of February crossed the river to set up shop in the vicinity of Ernzen.  Here the outfit had its baptism of fire, tasting incoming artillery in the already devastated town. In the days which followed, the Company crossed the Prüm at Holsthum and moved between the Prüm and Kyll rivers constantly in the thick of things, establishing CP's in towns a few minutes after they had been taken.  The I&R section was out front gathering information; communications was stringing wire day and night in that never ending job which made all wiremen heroes; and the A&P Platoon had vital roles to play, especially in blasting the "Katzenkopf" above Irrel.

On the 20^th of February, the Company moved into Olk, as the Battalion occupied high ground north of Trier.  Here the Battalion became part of Task Force Onaway, until General Mud and a bad road net called a halt to operations and the Force was broken up.

Headquarters Company, arriving at Boppard on the Rhine, found the picturesque town all but untouched by the War and spent eight days sitting calmly on the banks of the river with binoculars in one hand and Moselle wine in the other, watching Yank artillery crumble Nazi OP's and strongpoints on the far side.  And the 1^st Battalion aided the 87th Division in their Rhine crossing.

East of the Rhine, as was the case with almost all Headquarters outfits, it became a matter of keeping up with the riflemen, who in turn, were trying to keep up with armor charging ahead.  Headquarters Company assumed some of the aspects of a Service Company, keeping a steady flow of supplies and ammunition moving to the front, gathering information as fast as it came in, doing a tremendous communications job all the way to Oberlungwitz, where the Battalion went into defensive positions just twenty days after it had crossed the Rhine.

Someone once wrote that one of the major reasons for the success of the Yanks in the ETO was the huge amount of tedious, tiresome, drudging work done by the men directly behind the lines.  Nasty little jobs but contributing immeasurably in their total to the smoothness of the advance.  These unsung, unglorified tasks, are jobs which call for patience, teamwork and technical skills. And in all the situations with which it was confronted.  Headquarters 1^st was able to surmount the difficulties.  As the heart of the Battalion, the company kept its head as well.