CHAPTER VII THE THIRD STAR

A machine gun squad moves along rubble-strewn street as unconcerned cow forages in the debris . . . .
It was a similar scrap at Schmitten. After a preliminary softening up of the town, troops of the 3d Battalion moved in. Each house was a veritable fortress. When the troops finished knocking out the enemy from one house and moved on they later found the house they apparently had cleaned out full of the enemy again. The krauts launched a savage counterattack and successfully (but only temporarily) captured a platoon of Yanks. One house on the outskirts was taken over for the company command post. The enemy launched a counterattack at this point. The nazis broke through the first lines of defense and were attacking the CP with a heavy barrage of bazooka, machine gun and rifle fire when Pfc Primo F. Lanci and Pfc Alexander K. Hewett carried their machine gun to an exposed position and poured so much lead into the Jerries that the counterattack was repulsed. In the early morning hours of the 31st the enemy was driven out of Schmitten. Pfc Patrick J. Finn was his name, a medic with Company I, 417th Infantry. When it happened the company was clearing the woods near Schmitten. Finn was behind the line of fire but was watching the men approach the woods where the nazis were. Two soldiers were out in front and were rushing across the field. They were almost to the woods when out of the trees came the sputter of a German machine gun. One soldier spun around and then crumpled. The other dropped for a moment and then was up and running forward. He got it, too. Finn could see them. The bright red crosses on Finn's helmet were prominent and maybe the krauts knew the Geneva rules about medics and maybe they didn't, like the ones who fired at him earlier in the day. He looked at the wounded men and that was enough. He worked his way out of his spot of safety, moved across a small stream and then across the open field to the wounded men. One, a sergeant, was dead. The other, an officer, was seriously wounded. Finn administered first aid, heedless of the machine gunner and snipers in the woods only a few yards away. He managed to get the officer back in time for medical treatment . . . . .
The town has been cleared, a new route is marked and another attack begins . . . .
The attack on Arnsbach began at dusk on the 31st by Company B, 417th Infantry. The opening barrage was fired by the 901st FA guns. The fire fight began at the outskirts of the town but the Yanks moved in with marching fire, using bazookas, machine guns and rifles. A Jerry tank attempted from nearby woods to get into firing position, but it moved into a trap laid by S/Sgt Delmar Wilson's squad. The doughboys surrounded and smothered it, bagging twenty PW's. Live nazis always presented a problem during a battle. The squad spied a barn and shoved the PW's in, locking the door until a lull in the battle. The doughboys were slinging all the lead they had at the krauts. Tec 5 Peter H. Frejowski and Pfc Verle G. Pike sprinted to a parked jeep, yanked off a .50 caliber machine gun and ran into the fight spewing additional lead. One sharp-shooting kraut was doing plenty of damage. Pvt George L. Monge emptied his BAR at him but the kraut was too well protected in the house where he was hiding. He had already killed three of Monge's buddies and wounded an additional ten. Monge dumped his BAR and went into the house single handed. He got rid of the first kraut he met with a well-aimed hand grenade. The second he killed with his pistol. From a window he directed fire on the other occupants. There was not much fight left in the town by now for every ONAWAY doughboy was fighting as furiously as Monge. When the firing ceased, Company B had Arnsbach and 125 PW's, had killed more than a score of Germans and liberated twenty-eight enlisted men and an officer who had been captured in Schmitten. The company had also taken a German half-track, a jeep and recovered an American tank. About the same time the 417th began its attack on Arnsbach the 3d Battalion 385th was entering the outskirts of Usingen. Tanks moved into position to cut off attempts of the enemy to escape from the west, north or northeast. Troops of the 417th were in position to block any escape to the south. The men fought into the night by the light of the moon and by midnight the town was partially cleared. During the early hours of the morning prisoners were rounded up and by 0800 the toll had jumped to 300 not including a German hospital filled with enemy wounded.
Easter was not forgotten by the men of the 76th . . . GI's crowded into ancient pews with their rifles and steel helmets . . . .
It was Easter Sunday. ONAWAY troops continued their advance toward the east. Town after town, across a wide sweep of territory, were chalked up on the ever-growing list of places won by the 76th. There was resistance in some but it was half-hearted and quickly knocked out. The advancing troops passed truck after truck loaded with bedraggled, beaten German soldiers moving back to prisoner-of-war cages. The "powerful and aggressive" 6th SS "Nord" Mountain Division now could be written off the books. Easter was not forgotten by the men of the 76th. Where it was possible, GI's crowded into German churches, sat in the ancient pews with their rifles and steel helmets between their knees, listened to the words of the chaplains, sang Easter hymns. Services were held in mess-halls, barns and in the field. And on Easter Sunday the 76th had reached its east boundary. All objectives attained. Another mission accomplished. And the officers wrote on staff reports about their men: "Morale -- Superior."

Distinctive Insignia 301st Medical Battalion
	Distinctive Insignia 364th Field Artillery Battalion