134th Infantry Regiment
Combat History of World War II

By Major General Butler B. Miltonberger, Former Commanding Officer, 134th Infantry 
Regiment and Major James A. Huston, Assistant Professor of History, Purdue University
Transcribed by Roberta V. Russo, Palatine, Illinois, 2001
134th Infantry Regiment Website - www.coulthart.com/134
Table of contents
DEDICATION	1
PREFACE		2
CHAPTER I - THE HERITAGE OF "NEBRASKA'S OWN	2
CHAPTER II - INTO WORLD WAR II	10
CHAPTER 111 - P. O. M.	24
CHAPTER IV - NORMANDY	33
CHAPTER V - COUNTER-ATTACKS AT MORTAIN		78
CHAPTER VI - ACROSS FRANCE	90
CHAPTER VII - GREMENCEY DEFENSIVE	126
CHAPTER VIII - THROUGH LORRAINE TO GERMANY	137
CHAPTER IX - THE ARDENNES BULGE	156
CHAPTER X - THE ROER TO THE RHINE	173
CHAPTER XI - EAST OF THE RHINE	183
CHAPTER XII - THE WAR'S END	195

Dedication
Dedicated to the Gold Star Mothers of the 134th Infantry and to those who shared with them the deep loss of a man who did not come back. Theirs is a courage of the order to be found on the field of battle itself. Theirs is a faith which can recognize the truth of the old saying that "old soldiers never die." 
Preface
A complete history of the 134th Infantry Regiment in World War II would consume many volumes the size of this. Nevertheless we hope that there can be presented here a summary of its action with sufficient detail to give and accurate picture of modern battle and of the Regiment's role in winning the victory in Europe - that it will explain for a man what happened in other parts of the Regiment while he was fighting his personal war, or what happened to his outfit after he was wounded, or will refresh his memory for events in which he participated; and that it will be a guide for the host of friends who maintain a keen interest in the Regiment's activities.
A letter from a brave mother of Independence, Missouri, whose son was killed in action on 31 July 1944, tells of her deep interest in the 134th Infantry, and she asks for information to fill in certain gaps in the big scrap book which she has kept of the Regiment's action. The date of departure from New York, madam, was 11 May 1944, and the name of the vessel, a Navy transport, was U.S.S. General A. E. Anderson. Beyond that, the Regiment disembarked on 25 May 1944 at Avonmouth, England. It moved to France 4 - 7 July, and the 2nd Battalion went into the lines 8 July - to return to the Regiment two days later - and the 3rd Battalion moved into the lines in the hedgegrows of St. Lo on the night of 13th July. The Regiment launched its first attack - aimed for Lt. Lo - on 15 July. Ahead there lay the confusion of counterattack at Mortain, the great race through France, the local attacks and hard defenses in the mud of the Gremecey Forest and Fossieux, the attack through Lorraine in cold rains and early snow, the bitter winter fighting in the Ardennes, the treacherous mines along the Roer and closing to the Rhine, attacks through the Ruhr Pocket and the dash to the Elbe River.  Unfortunately this story will not always serve as a reference guide to place a man, a platoon, and event at exact places at exact times. It does, however, attempt to adhere with complete accuracy to the facts with which it deals. Toward this end reference has been made to the regimental unit journal, S-3 journal, operations reports, intelligence reports, the "Daily Log," battalion journals (where available), general and special orders, field orders and operation memos, after action reports, newspaper accounts, personal notebooks, personal correspondence, and interviews. It has been found that these sources do not always agree on particular points, and in those cases it has been necessary to pass judgment according to the merits of the conflicting sources and according to personal knowledge.
It is a history which needed no addition of color to add to its glory.
B.B.M. 
Chapter 1 - The Heritage of "Nebraska's Own"
Honor has come back, as a
king to earth,
And paid his subjects with
a royal wage;
And Nobleness walks in our
ways again;
And we have come into our
heritage.

Rupert Brooke

America's reaction to the surpassing swiftness of the Nazi blitzkrieg in 1940 was one of immediate concern for her own defenses. Military preparation in time of peace was something foreign to the American mentality, but the lessons of Germany's war in the West were lessons which suggested that delay might mean catastrophe. Even William Jennings Bryan's "A million men shall spring to arms overnight" would be insufficient in the face of totalitarian war. Allied defeats in Europe successively brought further steps toward military preparedness in the United States. Industry began converting to war production; military appropriations leaped to record figures. Then late in August, 1940 Congress authorized the President to mobilize the National Guard, and less than a month later it passed the first peace-time conscription act.
For members of Nebraska's 134th Infantry Regiment, this legislation took on a very personal meaning when the Regiment was called into Federal service just two days before Christmas that same year. Mobilization was a procedure familiar to the men concerned.  They were familiar with their organizations and equipment and ways of doing things through the training of weekly drill periods, the annual summer camps or maneuvers, service in times of domestic disturbance. 
It was no surprise to a man of the 134th that his regiment had been called, and yet when the order came it demanded a response of anticipation, of expectation, of wonder at the future. As he donned his O. D. uniform - complete with service cap or campaign hat, breeches with wrapped leggings, and of course, the inevitable black necktie, perhaps he paused momentarily to inspect the one item of insignia which he wore in common with every other member of the 134th Infantry, officer or enlisted man - the regimental "crest".  Perhaps first to arrest his glance would be the scroll beneath the shield, a scroll whose inscription would imply a connection with the Indian country, for the words - LAH WE LAH HIS - had come from the Pawnee.
"The Strong, The Brave" was the English translation for those Indian words, and they were appropriate for a regiment proud of its military tradition. The motto suggested a description of the regiment of the past, but it was a challenge for the regiment of the future. Its bravery would increase with its strength, and its strength would grow with its bravery.
The 134th Infantry claimed as its own tradition of the First Nebraska, which traced its beginnings back to 1854 and 1855. There had been Indian troubles associated with the opening of the West, and it had been necessary for Nebraskans to depend upon their volunteer militia for protection. Full military operations had been soon to come with President Lincoln's call for volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil War. The First Nebraska had been with Grant at Fort Donelson and Pittsburgh Landing, and then with Freemont in Missouri. Mounted as cavalry in 1863, the unit had finished its Civil War service in Arkansas. Already travel had become a part of the Regiments tradition, for I t had moved by marching, by rail, and by steamboat, some 15,000 miles in the course of the war.  Vaguely, but prominently in that tradition of the 134th Infantry which associated it with the Indian Wars loomed the figure of W. F. ("Buffalo Bill") Cody. Whether as scout, or aide-de-camp on the Governor's staff, or with the regimental commander, Buffalo Bill Cody's renown for daring and skill and selflessness grew as a model to be emulated by succeeding members of Nebraska's militia. A feature of the Indian disturbances had been the development of friendship between the Pawnee and the Nebraska troops. They had shared a common enmity with the Sioux, and when the Pawnee Scouts had been organized in 1865 they had very soon proved their value. Indian troubles had persisted until the Sioux were defeated for the final engagement with Indians in the Battle of Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890. It was a tribute to the assistance of the Pawnee that their words had been chosen for the regimental motto - LAH WE LAH HS.
Looking immediately above the scroll - that is to say at the base of the shield - the soldier would notice the figure of a palm tree. Here was an apparent connection between the regiment and the tropics. Yes, it had been tropical service in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. May 16, 1898 - just 20 days after the order for mobilization, the First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry had entrained for California. It had been a rail movement over three routes - the Burlington and Missouri River, the Union Pacific, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific. It had been a movement characterized by gay welcomes at the station en route: sandwiches, coffee, cigars, fruit, flags, bunting, flowers - and admirers' addresses. It had been the first regiment to arrive at San Francisco's Camp Merritt from outside the state, and on June 15, it had sailed for Manila. There had been a pause off Wake Island on July 4, while "a party went ashore, hoisted the Stars and Stripes and took possession in the name of the United States of America". The First Nebraska had arrived at Manila Bay on July 17 - amidst the wrecks of the Spanish fleet which Dewey had left ten weeks earlier - and went into Camp Dewey (five miles south of Manila) where they had pitched their shelter tents in a peanut patch. It had been the rainy season, and the traditional rain and mud of warfare had engulfed them. After a minor defensive action on August 2, the First Nebraska had participated in the big attack against Manila - a joint operation involving the VII Corps and Admiral Dewey's naval support. "The sight that morning with thousands of armed men moving forward in battle formation, the shrill calls of bugles, and the boom of naval guns as Dewey opened fire, battle flags floating in the breeze, black smoke belching from the ships' funnels and everything combined to make a scene of military splendor that will not soon be forgotten by those who witnessed it". But already the Spanish War had ended, and the total casualties of the expeditionary forces around Manila had been 17 killed and 106 wounded.
Higher on the shield of his regimental insignia (technically in dexter chief), the soldier of the 134th would see represented the Katipunan sun - a symbol taken from that new and worse conflict which had awaited the First Nebraska at the termination of the Spanish-American War. A secret military organization of the Filipinos, the Katipunan society, under the leadership of Aguinaldo, had been quick to transfer its hostility from the defeated Spaniard to the newly-arrived American. Dedicated to the expulsion of all foreigners from the Philippines, the society insured fidelity by requiring each of its members to sign an oath in blood. Aguinaldo then had sought to extend the society's regulations to include all male Filipinos. Such was the nature of the enemy which had faced the Regiment when the Insurrection broke out on February 4, 1899, in response to the challenge and shot of a First Nebraska bridge guard. If Manila had been an easy victory, it had been made up in the warfare against the Filipinos. This action had reached its climax in the battle at Quinqua where the First Nebraska had found itself in something of a trap when Colonel John Stotsenburg, the regimental commander, had arrived on the scene to order a charge. The response had been such as to cause General Hale, an eye-witness to the action, to exclaim. "There goes the First Nebraska, and all hell can't stop them!" And hell had not stopped them that day as the Nebraskans had overrun the insurrectionist trenches, but it had been a costly victory; the leader who had inspired the charge had fallen as a bullet pierced his heart. Colonel Stotsenburg, formerly professor of military science and tactics at the University of Nebraska, had won high honor in American military tradition; his name endured in Fort Stotsenburg, Philippine Islands.  Brigaded with the First Nebraska in that grim warfare had been the Twentieth Kansas - the regiment later to be associated with the Nebraskans again as the 137th Infantry.  As his glance paused over the palm tree, the 134th soldier undoubtedly would notice the snake entwined thereon. This might recall to him stories of the regiment's service on the Mexican border on 1916 - 17 - of the mobilization at the state fair grounds at Lincoln (the Regiment was called the 5th Nebraska then), of the not-too-complimentary remarks of the inspector general for the Central Military Department prior to the muster of the Regiment into Federal service, of the training and field experience at Llano Grande, Texas, of the return to Nebraska and the state bonus of $25 per man. And a very personal association stems from the service on the Mexican border, for in those days, it was "Corporal" Miltonberger, and later, "Sergeant" Miltonberger.  pposite the Katipunan sun on his regimental insignia (i.e., in sinister chief), the 134th soldier would see the olla (a more picturesque way of saying "water jug"), which, with its red steer skull, he might recognize as the insignia of the 34th Division , the division with which the Regiment had been associated during World War I. The Nebraska National Guard had been called to Federal service July 15, 1917, and the Regiment had arrived at Camp Cody, New Mexico, where (now designated the 134th Infantry) it had joined with the National Guard units from Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota to form the new 34th Division. During October and November 5,000 draftees had arrived for the division from Camp Dodge and Camp Funston, but losses - from orders for replacements, sickness, and transfers - had totaled about 4,000. Then in June, 1918, the division - and of course the 134th Infantry with it - had lost practically all of its trained personnel to meet the requirements of the A. E. F. automatic replacement system. (And in the process your Sergeant Miltonberger, 134th Infantry, had found himself headed for combat with the 4th Division.) Once again, however, the unit had been filled with new men, and within two months it had moved to Camp Dix preparatory to overseas shipment from New York. The 134th Infantry, with division headquarters, had sailed in September and disembarked in Liverpool after a 13-day voyage (while the remainder of the division remained quarantined at Fort Dix until October 12). After a short stay in rest camps, then, the Regiment had moved to France via Cherbourg and LeHavre. It had gone to the Labrede Area to begin the training program on which General Pershing had insisted for all newly-arrived divisions. But once again the division had fallen prey to demands for replacements, and with less than two weeks of the training program completed, orders had come to skeletonize the division. These orders had indicated that the division was to be subject to reconstitution, but a few days later (October 29), word had come that reconstitution no longer was contemplated, and it had been reduced to a record cadre. The 134th Infantry, as such, therefore, had not seen action in World War I, but in its tradition it remembered the service of those original Nebraskans and their successors who had gone out to other units for their full share of combat service.
But as our National Guardsmen of the 134th Infantry adjusted his uniform and made his way through the streets of his home town to the local armory, his thoughts probably were not focused on the significance of his regimental badge or the traditions of his Regiment - though undoubtedly there was a deep awareness of all these influences in the background of his thought; probably his thoughts were running to anticipation of the future and reflection on his own experience with the Regiment. If he had not participated in the reorganization of the Guard after World War I, he certainly had heard about it, and the early difficulties of training. As an "old timer' now, he probably had been on hand during the troubles of 1935 - the first flood duty on the Republican River - then the trouble in Omaha growing out of a two-month old street car strike, when the best of tact and consideration was required in that tense situation - and then there had been the "water rights" dispute in Scotts Bluff County.
More prominent in the thoughts of the soldier of the 134th would be recollections of summer camps and maneuvers. Now that he was participating in the mobilization of the division, perhaps he would recall the first assembly of the 35th Division - made up of National Guard units from Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri - at Fort Riley, Kansas in 1937, to participate in Fourth Army Maneuvers. There he had first become fully conscious of the magnitude of a division, and its Santa Fe cross insignia and taken on new significance. Again there had been the Army maneuvers in Minnesota in 1940 - only a few months before mobilization - and still the men of the company were telling tales of the size and abundance of Minnesota mosquitoes.
But probably the fondest memories of the National Guard experiences centered around the summer camps at Ashland, the site for all summer encampments - except those special occasions in 1937 and 1940 - since 1923. There, chow lines in the hot sun, before small, trim, white mess halls, quarters in pyramidal tents supported by wooden frames, assemblies in the horseshoe stadium, refreshments in the attractive masonry National Guard Canteen, sick call in the neat little frame hospital, field exercises out on those lands which once had been the bed of the Platte River - all these would be such as to demand a nostalgic recollection in the repetition of similar experiences in the days to come. Best of all, those new experiences would be in the company of those same men who had become familiar at Ashland.
No doubt the soldier of the 134th would be looking forward to renewing those acquaintances, and he would remember those who had impressed him during that last camp at Ashland. Trying to recall some of their names, he might have thought of some of the boys from Nebraska City - Company A - Sergeant Gerald Felthauser, Corporal Leslie Gump, and Privates First Class Ed Parish and Jack Stewart, and the McGinnis boys, Bill and Clarence, and Privates Herb Rawlings, and Joe Simms, and Melvin Van Winkle.  With Company B, from Falls City, he might remember First Sergeant Harper Marsh, and Sergeant Woodrow Mosiman, and Corporal Joe Pool, and Private First Class Tom Harmon, and Privates Gilbert Simmons, and the younger Pool, and the two Kirkendalls, and he would remember the two Nanomantubes, even if he could not recall their names.  Several names no doubt would stand out as he thought of Company C, from Beatrice, the company claiming distinction as the regiment's leader in rifle marksmanship. There would be, for example, First Sergeant John Pope, and Sergeants Paul Carstens and Garold Gormley, Joe Van Lieu, and, of course, Sergeants Francis Mason and Lorin McCown, and then there was Corporal Harlan Heffelfinger, and his younger brother, Hugo (a private), and Corporals Kenneth McRae and John Conley, and Privates Starkey and Jim Faris and Orval Black and Don Naumann.
Of course there would be a number of names of Company D, North Platte, which must have impressed the soldier during the camp. Proud of its record of winning the award for the best National Guard company in the state four years in a row, the machine gunners had boasted of such representatives as First Sergeant Dan E. Craig, Sergeants Claude Faulkner and Raymond Plaugher, Corporals Byron Mudge and Jim Kovanta, Privates First Class Don Barraclough, Bob Faulkner, and Vic Janecke, and Privates Charlie Hake, Jim Jeffers, Willie Ellis, and Ray Gillespie.
From out in Western Nebraska there would be Scotts Bluff's Company E, with Corporal L. D. Asher and the other two Ashers, Harry and Ward, and Francis Ginther and Cliff Keiser, and Roy Houser, and Fred Knaub.
There would be First Sergeant Clinton Nagle of Company F coming from Hartington, and Sergeants Walter Carstens and Don Jones, and Corporals Fred Buckman, Lou Hirschman, Cliff Livermore and Joe Peitz, and Privates First Class Bob Martenson and Art McClain.  Prominent among the men of Company G, from Hastings, would be Sergeants Carlyle McDannel and Sylvester Ryan, and Corporals Don Kresbach and Virgil Keith, and Privates First Class Jim Bassett and Bob Howell, and Privates Dick Arnold and Jim Hiatt.  Company H, from the railroad town of Grand Island, would include such names as First Sergeant Clifford Sanderson, Sergeants Francis Swartz and Francis Callihan, Corporal Jack Clark, Private First Class Milton Stonebarger, Private Earl J. Ruby.  From the state capital, Lincoln, would come Company I, and certain to be remembered among that military company would be its "old soldier", First Sergeant Frank Conner, a man who wore two wound stripes from World War I, and already carried five hash marks on his sleeve to indicate a service of at least 15 years. Others with Company I would include Sergeant Bob Failing, Corporal Bill Harris, Pfc. Ernest Heinz, Privates Elmer Dunbar and Don Hansen.
Acquaintances in Omaha's Company K might include Sergeants George Buchanan, Willard Cole and Chris Jensen, Privates First Class Bill Brodbeck, Evon Redman and Ted Mezger, Privates Lawrence Langdon, David O'Keefe and Andrew Siedelman.  Omaha's other rifle company, Company L, had included such men as First Sergeant Dick Melcher, Sergeants Pete Larson, Art Hursh and Jacob Redl, Corporals Dick McDermott and Ed Moe - a man who had missed neither an armory drill nor a summer camp in eight years - Privates Sam Basso. Don DeVoe, Tom Lawless.
The Third Battalion's machine gun company - Company M of Seward - would bring with it, among others, Sergeants Paul Wiehenkamp and Paul Jones, Corporal Leron Stromer, Pfc. Earl Noxon, Privates Bill Baumbach, Albert Detmer, Charles Foster, Lloyd Whitmore.
There would be other units from Omaha: Regimental Headquarters Company, with Corporal Byron O'Keefe and Private First Class Vincent Nehe; 2nd Battalion Headquarters, with Sergeants Leslie Wilson and Leroy Littell, Corporals Lysle Abbott and Earl Sorenson, Pfc. Dick Reed, and Privates Rodney Brown and Robert and William Hill.  First Battalion Headquarters, with Sergeants Leslie Wilson and Leroy Littell, Corporals Lyle Abbott and Earl Sorenson, Pfc. Dick Reed , and Privates Rodney Brown and Robert and William Hill. First Battalion Headquarters Company, then of Nebraska City, had included Sergeants Herb Bueler and Cliff Persell, Corporal John Preston, and Privates First Class Bob Belcher and Frank Erwin; 3rd Battalion Headquarters Company, at Lincoln in those early days, had included Sergeants Hans Schnitter and Frank Scott, Privates First Class Herbert Hill and George Thacker, Privates Arnold Nelson and Alfred Schwartz.
Again from out on the western fringes, at Gering, would be the Antitank Company - which just recently had exchanged its short-barreled 37mm guns, the ones with the wooden-wheeled carriages, of a howitzer company for the new 37mm antitank guns. Its ranks had included Sergeants Everette Boggs and John Reavis, Corporals Don and Townsend Rubottom, Privates First Class Victor Flohr and Hearly Tanner, Privates John Hoover and Oliver Stuckey.
There remained on other - one of the so-called "spare parts" units - whose members were likely to be more familiar to the soldier of the 134th through their association with administrative functions of the Regiment: Service Company, at York. Here was the company with the stripes - Master Sergeants Robert Moline, John Pfenning and John Roth, and First Sergeant Worth Downer, and Staff Sergeant Del Kuntzelman, Michael Luxford and Paul Voss; then Sergeant Milton Maurer (younger brother of one of the first lieutenants) and Sergeant Virgil Hyde, and Corporals Dean Grass and Ronald Thorpe, and Pfc. Robert Barth and Private Homer F. Barth. Even more familiar would be the Regimental Band under the direction of Warrant officer George McCall. And not to be forgotten were the medics - the "attached medics" - of the medical detachment at Omaha; 
Staff Sergeant Luther Thompson, Sergeants Herman Kortright, Norman Mannweiler, Fred Schultz, Corporal Clare Sherrets.
Though it might be require a roster for the 134th soldier to name all of the officers of the Regiment, most of them would have become familiar by now. Of course everyone would remember the regimental commander, Colonel Clyde E. McCormick, and members of his staff: Major Fred H. Stoll, Captain Harold L. Collier, Captain Howard R. Turner, Captain Lee W. Heaton, and Captain Alfred Thomsen, recently commander of Company L.  Among the officers of the special units the soldier probably would remember Capt. Albert L. McGill and 2nd Lt. Holton R. Adamson, Headquarters Company; Capt. Harry Beckley, 1st Lt. Raymond J. Anderson, 1st Lt. Arnold I. Maurer, and 2nd Lt. Clark E. Valentine, Service Company; Capt. J. Ned Allison, 1st Lt. Leslie J. Laughlin, and 2nd Lt. Warren C.  Wood, Antitank Company, and the medical officers: Major Rolland R. Ensor, Capt.  Norman H. Attwood, Capt. Floyd L. Paynter (the dentist), 1st Lt. Leo V. Hughes, and 1st Lt. Clinton C. Millett.
Officers of the 1st Battalion had included, in addition to the commander (it was now Major Miltonberger, lately captain of Company D), 1st Lt. Leslie Yager and 2nd Lt. John Pitzer of Headquarters Company; Capt. Ray A. Thurman, 1st Lt. Thomas S. Morton, and 2nd Lt. Robert R. Wilson, Company A; Capt. Merven F. Myers, 1st Lt. Leo L. Smith, and 2nd Lt. Dewey E. Jackson, Company B; Capt. Dean E. Coonley, 1st Lt. Alford C.  Boatsman, and 2nd Lt. Harrison F. Scott, Company C; Capt. Fred C. Petersen, 1st Lt. 
Denver W. Wilson, and 2nd Lt. Dale M. Godwin, Company D.
In the 2nd Battalion it had been Major Louis R. Eby commanding, and 1st Lt. James A.  Bradley and 2nd Lt. Thurston J. Palmer, Headquarters Company; Capt. Ora A. Eatwell, 1st Lt. Harold M. Runyon, and 2nd Lt. Kenneth E. Eckland, Company E; Capt. Lloyd R.  Hardy, 1st Lt. Julius Stejskal, and 2nd Lt. George E. Ready, Company F.
And in the 3rd Battalion: Major Edward J. Geesen, commanding, and 1st Lt. Clifford L.  Dier and 2nd Lt. Keith K. Turner, Headquarters Company; Capt. Rolla C. Van Kirk, 1st Lt. Clarence J. Stewart, and 2nd Lt. Foster H. Weyand, Company I; Capt. Edwin C. Gatz, 1st Lt. Harry B. Jacobsen, and 2nd Lt. Emil C. Wagner, Company K; Capt. Earl H. Kelso, 1st Lt. Wallace B. Hall, and 2nd Lt. Albert B. Osborne, Company L; Capt. Erwin A.  Jones, 1st Lt. Paul C. Hauck, and 2nd Lt. Harold J. Firnhaber, Company M.  Change, no doubt, had brought new faces and promotions since the last encampment at Ashland, but it would be interesting to see what they had been.  And so as the soldier of the 134th Infantry made his way to the local armory, wherever it might have been, there mingled within him the rich traditions of his regiment, of his state, of his nation. Out of that heritage of the 134th Infantry, and esprit de corps had planted itself, and he was a part of it. Commanders and comrades had come and gone, but each had contributed a bit of his own personality to the larger personality of the Regiment, and it seemed that the Regiment - and indeed each company - had developed a soul of its own.  The soldier of the 134th Infantry, a volunteer now answering the call of his country, represented that great common denominator of America - the Middle West, and he breathed the spirit of the heartland. His state was the state where the corn belt of the Midwest met the Great Plains of the Far West, where the improvements of the 20th Century touched most intimately with the pioneer days of the 19th. He shared the common burden of soldiers everywhere - he carried with him the hopes and the fears of all which he held dear.
Chapter II - Into World War II
War has been declared on this Country by the AXIS POWERS.
The 35th Infantry Division stationed at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas will move by rail, destination unknown.
This Regimental combat team will move at once by rail with all personnel, equipment, and transportation, except as indicated below, destination unknown, and duration of movement unknown.
Field Order No. 1

Christmas week, 1940, meant mobilization for the 134th Infantry. While people sang of peace on earth and good will toward men, National Guardsmen began assembling to prepare for war. War itself had no attraction for those men, and they held no enthusiasm for it. But they did hold an enthusiasm - not often expressed - for the things which they associated with freedom - the things which they regarded as "America". Now each new success of Nazism in Europe and of Japanese expansion in Asia made more apparent the impending danger to those things which the American held dear.  The men were glad, however, that mobilization was not so rapid as to take them from their communities before Christmas Day. In Christmas celebrations that year there was something of a mingling of over-played enthusiasm and of melancholy - the over enthusiasm for the holiday growing out of a determination to make every moment count in what might be the last Christmas with families for a long time, and the melancholy growing out of the irrepressible awareness that separation, perhaps of long duration, possibly of permanence, lay ahead.
While National Guard units in some states had become seized with a growing peace-time lethargy, interest and morale in the 134th had been maintained to such an extent that it was - and had been for some time - at authorized strength, with a waiting list of applicants, when the President's call came on December 23. By now, numbers of the outstanding enlisted men who had been at Ashland a year and a half earlier held commissions - Second Lieutenants Dan E. Craig, Dale M. Godwin, Harlan B. Heffelfinger, Carlyle F. McDannel, Richard D. Melcher, Robert E. Moline, Albert B. Osborne, Paul H. Weihenkamp were some of those who had been wearing their gold bars for some time; some of the others were brand new - Garold A. Gormley, Virgil E. Hyde, Peter Larson, Leroy O. Littell, Francis C. Mason, Milton H. Maurer. . . . 
Initially men of the 134th Infantry gathered at their local armories. Perhaps it was the attractive two-story brick Memorial Building which Company A shared with the American Legion and other organizations in Nebraska City; perhaps it was the low silhouetted stone building of Company B at Falls City; maybe it was the trim, one-story brick armory of Company G - and Company F, 110th Medical Regiment - at Hastings. In any case, it was the place which had been home to the particular unit concerned during the years of weekly drill and domestic duty. Here it took several days to perfect the organization and complete preparation for movement. Here the soldier of the 134th encountered the first of a long series of inoculations, the first of repeated lectures on the Article of War, the first of many preparations for movement and change of stations.
It was hardly more than two weeks after the President's call for mobilization that the 134th Infantry closed in at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, on January 8, 1941. The newly-constructed camp was not yet finished to the satisfaction of its newly-arrived occupants, however, and the first days were taken up largely in building walks, in developing facilities which would make the stay - it looked like it would be a long one - more comfortable, in introducing measures of traditional Army "eye-wash." Then came the weeks of training. It was progressive training, which began with several weeks of basic training of the individual soldier - military courtesy and discipline, first aid and hygiene, physical training, Articles of War, weapons. There were squad problems and combat field firing - with such weapons as the 60mm mortar and the light machine guns usually simulated. Rapid-fire exercises involved some time and effort at mastering the bolt manipulation of the Springfield rifle. Then followed platoon and company problems with blackout conditions prevailing. Finally there were regimental problems - some of the most interesting being against and "enemy" made up of the 137th Infantry, sister regiment to the 134th in Colonel Per Ramee's 69th Brigade. Colonel Miltonberger became regimental commander on 6 May. But this was only the beginning. More serious tests of ingenuity and physical endurance lay ahead - in the direction of Louisiana.
During the weeks at Camp Robinson, the 134th Infantry had been finding its place as a part of the team of Major General Ralph E. Truman's 35th ("Santa Fe") Division.  Organized then as a "square" division, the Santa Fe - made up of National Guardsmen of Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri, - included four infantry regiments, the 134th, 137th, 138th and 140th. On their shoulders, men of the 134th wore the blue and white Santa Fe insignia. The division insignia represented a white Santa Fe cross upon a wagon wheel with four quadrant projections, the whole on a blue field. The cross was taken from the crosses used to mark the Santa Fe Trail on dusty plains in the West. The men who wore it carried a symbol of the courage, hardiness, self-reliance, and pioneering spirit which characterized their forbears who opened up the lands west of the Mississippi.  With the other units of the 35th Division, the 134th Infantry moved in August to the vicinity of Prescott, Arkansas, to join the concentration of Lt. Gen. Ben Lear's Second Army. It was preliminary to participation in the biggest peace-time maneuvers scheduled in the country. The very evening of arrival, an 11-piece band, made up of musicians from the Regimental Band, played for a downtown street dance in Prescott given in honor of the 134th Infantry. Twenty men from each company of the Regiment rode the motor convoy into town for the affair, and Miss Verna Marie Porter, Chamber of Commerce representative in charge of arrangements - particularly of arrangements for a corps of southern belles to be on hand - became first of "Sweethearts of the 134th." There were a few days for adjusting mosquito nets, shelter tents, and hammocks, and for reconnoitering the dense timberland - and of course, for additional company and regimental training - prior to the opening of the official exercises on Monday, August 18.  There was particular interest during this preliminary training - and marksmanship was a favored and well-developed subject with Colonel Per Ramee - in becoming aquatinted with the new Garand M-1 rifle, the semi-automatic successor to the old Springfield which had replaced the bolt-operated weapon in the regiment just prior to the departure to Camp Robinson.
Maneuvers extended through the "Corps Phase," "Army Phase," and "GHQ," in which the headquarters concerned directed the exercises, but it made little difference to a regiment and its individual soldiers whether they were participating in division or corps or army exercises. The marches were as difficult, the mosquitoes as persistent, the chiggers as itch-worthy , the darkness as complete. A squad's problems or a company's frontage did not vary necessarily with the number of such units involved.
In the "Corps Phase," the 35th Division was joined with the 27th and 33rd Divisions in the VII Corps, under command of Maj. Gen. Robert C. Richardson, Jr., whose chief of staff was Col. J. Lawton Collins. After eight days of make-believe war between the "states" of "Almat" and "Kotmk," this phase came to a close with a final success of the 134th Infantry at the end of a 60-mile night move of the 69th Brigade. A Second Army press release noted:
The last problem in the "Corps Phase" of the Arkansas-Louisiana maneuvers came to a 
close at 8:	00 A. M. Thursday after the invading Kotmk forces had accomplished their 
mission, that of destroying the Missouri-Pacific Railroad between Camden and the Little Missouri River. The unit that did the job was the 134th Infantry, composed entirely of Nebraskans and led by Lieut. Col. Butler B. Miltonberger, of North Platte, Nebr.  In these and succeeding exercises the men of the 134th learned to apply field expedients and to improvise in every kind of situation. Supply personnel encountered the difficulties of moving up chow in blackout - of difficult roads and tactical conditions, of timing to get supper up after darkness and breakfast, and prepared dinners, before daylight. Men learned to maintain contact at night through the dark timberland by forming columns of files in which each man grasped the belt of the man ahead. There were the skirmishes and rapid movements and night withdrawals which became a part of training and a parcel of memory. There were the rapid thrusts of the supporting dust-swirling tanks of Maj. Gen.  George S. Patton JR's 2nd Armored Division; the 2nd Cavalry Division's crossing of the Ouachita River two days sooner than the Second Army staff thought possible, and its attack straight into the 134th Infantry; rest days and the quest for relief from the sultry heat of summer in the South in the old swimming holes.
In the main event, the operations in which General Lear's Second Army of 130,000 men faced Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger's Third Army of 330,000 men, it was more of the same for the 134th Infantry. But the men had something to look forward to on completion of maneuvers when they heard that members of the 35th Division had been adopted as "foster sons of Arkansas" in a proclamation by Governor Homer M. Adkins, and a big "Military Mardi Gras" was being planned to welcome them back to Little Rock.  Attached to the 5th Division, a unit which carried the tradition of the Regular Army, for a particular operation, the 134th Infantry was able to demonstrate a versatility and cooperativeness which won for it a commendation from that division:
HEADQUARTERS 5TH INF. DIVISION 
APO #5 
Camp Robinson, Arkansas
21 September, 1941
SUBJECT:	Services of the 134th Inf. Reg. With the 5th Inf. Div. 
TO:	Commanding General, 35th Infantry Division
	1. 	I desire to express my appreciation of the highly effective services of the 134th Infantry Regiment of the 35th Infantry Division during the period of its attachment to the 5th Infantry Division, September 16 to 18, 1941.
	2. 	Sent as a temporary reinforcement to the 5th Division, the 134th Infantry, Lt. Col.  Butler B. Miltonberger, commanding, arrived promptly in the area of the 5th Division. Its elements then participated most effectively in the assault on and encirclement and capture of 150 officers and 2,200 men of the Blue Forces. The spirit of co-operation, readiness for action, and the aggressive performance of this fine Regiment are greatly appreciated.
CORTLANDT PARKER, 
Brigadier General, U. S. Army, 
Commanding.
 
While, from the soldier's point of view, maneuvers had their points - an escape from camp routine and Saturday morning inspections and the monotony of drill, most hard-bitten (i.e., chigger-bitten) veterans of the 134th Infantry were ready to exchange the long quack grass and hammocks of Louisiana for the tents and cots of Camp Robinson, the dust and mud for refreshing showers, the irregular meals in blackout for chow lines, the constant moving about in the vast timberland for the visits with friends in Little Rock.  It was a royal welcome which greeted these "adopted sons of Arkansas" on their return. A full-dress parade before the governor touched off the two-day festivities of the Military Mardis Gras. Under the slogan, "A Chicken Dinner for Every Soldier," men by two, threes, fours, and scores were invited into private homes for southern fried chicken.  Closed to traffic, Fifth Street became one long dance pavilion - and there was a dance partner for every man.
Whether this tour of duty in the Federal service for the 134th Infantry would be limited to the one year's duration anticipated in the original act had been made clear to the contrary.  Not so clear, however, was how world events were moving to sweep up the Regiment.  The Regiment was ready, however, to meet whatever tasks might confront it. On return from maneuvers, the regimental commander was well pleased with the state of training demonstrated by his command. According to the recorder of the Daily Log, his comment was, "This regiment is now ready for war."
Another interlude in the routine of life in Camp Robinson came with orders for the Regiment's participation in a great Armistice Day parade in Memphis. The 134th executed its role, in the rather quaint uniform combination of blouses and leggings and World War I type steel helmets, but, with bayonets fixed and smart alignments, the massed battalions presented a striking appearance and won the plaudits of the enthusiastic crowd which gathered to watch. More than that, it won for the Regiment the personal commendation of Lt. Gen. Ben Lear, a second commendation from the Second Army Headquarters for the police of the buildings and the area which the 134th occupied at the Memphis Fairgrounds, and the additional commendation of Maj. Gen. William H. Simpson, who had just recently succeeded General Truman as 35th Division commander, "for the progress shown in . . .training for combat efficiency, and for the splendid appearance and conduct of the troops who participated in the Memphis Armistice celebration." Duty of a more serious nature loomed as a definite possibility when, on November 13, all leaves were canceled, and orders came to prepare for immediate movement with full equipment and to maintain an alert status, ready to move on two-hour notice. There was no general answer for the big question in all men's minds - WHERE? Naturally such an order generated a series of rumors and speculation. Was the Regiment destined for Africa, or Iceland, or strike duty. Actually, the last possibility was the real reason for the alert.  Training in aid to civil authorities during domestic disturbances began the next day. The alert for possible movement to the coal fields - growing out of disturbances brought to a head by the efforts of John L. Lewis . chief of the United Mine Workers, to extend the closed shop to certain additional mines, and by his ignoring of three requests from President Roosevelt for a return to work - remained for two weeks. Finally the mine workers' dispute was settled by an arbital board, and men of the 134th once more could concentrate their attention on preparing to repel external enemies of the Republic.  It was not many days afterward that it appeared that this too might be an immediate possibility. Just a week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Regiment was completing its packing for movement. (On Saturday the marriage licenses in Pulaski County hit a new high.) The latest development had caught the regimental commander (it had been Colonel Miltonberger for four weeks now) on leave, but he was hurrying to rejoin the Regiment as it moved out - "destination unknown." Lt. Col. Edward J. Geesen issued the movement order - Field Order No. 1 - that Sunday (it became a tradition to move on Sunday) in December, 1941:
HEADQUARTERS 134TH INFANTRY REGIMENT 
Camp Joseph T. Robinson 
Little Rock, Arkansas
14 December, 1941
Field Order 
No. 1
Maps: None available
1.	a.	War has been declared on this country by the AXIS POWERS.
	b.	The 35th Infantry Division stationed at Camp Joseph T. Arkansas, will move by 
rail, destination unknown.
2.		This regimental combat team will move at once by rail with all personnel, equipment, and transportation, except as indicated below, destination unknown, and duration of movement unknown.
3.		Troops: Commander, Lt. Col. Edward J. Geesen.
	a.	All officers except those over age, all enlisted men except sick in hospital and on 
D-S., will move with this RCT.
b.	Organization: The Personnel Adjutant will make a special strength report showing effective strength of all officers and men and will forward same to the G-1, 35th Infantry Division, at once. Strength returns will be forwarded by train commanders immediately upon arrival at destination.
c.	Equipment: Full Field with gas masks. All units will take WD T/BA (War Department, Table of Basic Allowances) Col. 2, Mobilization Tables, except add one trunk locker. Individual equipment for all those present and all organizational equipment will be taken based on strength as per existing T/O (Table of Organization). Helmets in barracks bags.
d.	Uniform: Field Service, overcoat, field jacket, field cap, woolen shirt, woolen O. 
D. trousers, leggings, belt, pack, arms, gas masks.
e.	For time of entraining, composition of trains and groupings, and time of departure, see Entraining Table attached hereto. Trains will be spotted in camp area as indicated in table.
f.	Battalion commanders, surgeon, commanding officer of Hq. Co., Ser. Co, AT Co., will notify the Regimental S-3 when their respective organizations are ready for inspection, and then again when organizations are ready for loading.
g.	Records: Strength Return: Company commanders will immediately report the number of officers and enlisted men present and absent through the Pers. Adj., and individual records, service records, allied papers of enlisted men not moving out with the Regiment will be left behind. The records will be kept on forms provided by this Hqs. and on the original AGO Form 33. Temporary mimeographed forms will be prepared anticipating the changes to be made. If a man will remain behind, a return of his records will be forwarded to his unit, and the mimeographed form destroyed. The following records will be immediately brought up to date if not already in such conditions: Service records of individuals, extract from AGO Form 25, individual equipment records, AGO Form 33.
h.	Property will be disposed of as follows: camp, post, and station property will be placed on memo receipts and submitted to Major Wm. G. Utterback who is in command of the area. All personal equipment and furniture will be crated, boxed, and inventoried, and tagged. Such property will be left in day rooms, packed for shipping. Individual property of men who are expected to join their organizations en route or after arrival at destination will be taken with the units.
i.	Police of buildings and areas: All mess halls, latrines, day rooms, and store houses will be thoroughly policed and when given a clearance by the inspector in charge, the buildings will be locked and keys delivered to the officer in charge of the area. Officers in charge of the areas are: Major Wm. G. Utterback, entire regimental area; Capt. Myers, 1st Bn.; Capt. Peterson, 2nd Bn.; Capt. Yager, 3rd Bn.; Capt. Thurman, Sp. Troops; Capt.  Kimmell, Brigade Hq. and Brigade area.
j.	Ammunition: The ammunition officer will immediately draw one day's mobilization supply of ammunition and same will be issued as follows: 10 rds. to each rifleman, and one clip of .45 Am. for each pistolman. Balance to be equally distributed within the Regiment according to the firepower of the weapons.  3.	a.	All leaves, furloughs, and passes are canceled and officers and men are directed to report to their units.
	b.	Laundry now at laundries will be secured if possible and returned to units.
	c.	Steel cots will be left in tents or in mess halls, Sheets, pillow cases, mattresses , 
pillows, will be piled and stored neatly either in mess halls or in tents. Memo receipts will be prepared in triplicate for same.
	d.	Personnel in stockade will be returned to their units.
	e.	Tentage: All heavy tentage will be taken.
	f.	No public address systems will be taken.
	g.	Transportation: Canvas on vehicles will be down and securely lashed.
	h.	Trains must be loaded within four hours from time spotted in yards. The S-4 will 
cause consolidated shipping tickets for all baggage and vehicles by type and amount that are to go on trains.
	i.	Train commanders will order periodic halts for exercise.
	j.	Safety precautions: Extreme precautions will be taken in the handling of gasoline 
in the kitchen cars.
k.	Train commanders will appoint water details ahead of detraining time, who will be ready to expedite its collection.
l.	Troops on the train will not detrain without specific authority and will not ride on platform or steps of cars. Commanders of trains will take such other necessary measures including the establishment and maintenance of guards as may be necessary to prevent such practices.
m.	Detraining en route will be permitted only by details or individuals under proper orders.
4.	a.	Supply: 7 days rations will be drawn and issued. Two weeks supply of staples, soap, toilet paper, will be drawn and issued. For further details, see Administrative Order, 35th Infantry Division.
	b.	White gasoline will be drawn for entire movement.
5.	a.	Regt. CP closes at this address H hour 14 December, 1941. Opened on train H 
hour 14 December, 1941.
b.	Axis of signal communications, route of march.
By order of LT. COL. GEESSEN: 
ROLLA C. VAN KIRK, 
Major, 134th Inf., 
S3
OFFICIAL: 
THOMAS S. MORTON, 
Capt. 134th Inf,. 
Adjutant.
The direction of movement was west. The itinerary of Train No. 1 assumed this form:
1.	Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, entrained 5:55 P. M. , 14 December, 1941. 
Train made up and pulled out at 6:50 P. M.
2.	Uneventful night, 14 December and 15 December.
3.	Stopped at Coffeyville, Kans., 9 A. M. , 15 December. Troops detrained and 
exercised for 30 minutes. Train pulled at 9:35 A. M.
4.	Officers' meeting, 11:25 A. M. Capt. Bradley discussing train discipline.
5.	Arrived at Kansas City, Mo., 4:35 P. M., 15 December. Detrained for exercise 25 
minutes, switched from Missouri Pacific to Santa Fe Road. Pulled at 7:45 P. M. Delayed at Kansas City due to light failure in two troop cars and poor brake shoes on two cars.  Also some time lost on switch over from M. P. to Santa Fe, and remaking of train.  6.	Emporia, Kans., 11:35 P. M., 15 December All cars serviced, lanterns placed in two cars without lights.
7.	Arrived Higgins, Tex., 9:30 A. M. 16th December. First town in Texas.
8.	10:30 A. M., 16 December, train commander gives conductor telegram to be 
dropped at Miami, Tex.
9.	Arrived Amarillo, Tex., 1:25 P. M. Mess kits were washed and troops had some leg stretching in the warm Texas sunshine.
10.	Pulled at 2:12 P. M., 16 December.
11.	Officers' meeting, 2:21 p. m.
12.	Lost 45 minutes, Clovis, New Mexico.
13.	Arrived at Belden, New Mexico, 11:59 P. M. Left 12:30 A. M. , 17 December, 
Service Stop.
14.	Arrived Holbrook, Ariz., 8:40 A. M., left 8:50 A. M., Service and water.
15.	Arrived at Winslow, Ariz., 9:35 A. M., 17 December. Troops were exercised in 
warm sunshine. Pulled at 10:05 A. M.
16.	Arrived Needles, California, 9:00 P. M. Troops exercised. Warm. Pulled 9:40 P. M., 17 December, 1941.
17.	Arrived San Beradino, California, 9:10 A. M., 18 December, 1941. Warm, clear weather, pulled at 10:58 A. M.
18.	Arrived Los Angeles, 1:20 P. M., 18 December, 1941. Clear, hot weather. Pulled at 3:30 P. M.
19.	Officers' meeting 3:35 P. M.
20.	Struck a truck, 7:40 P. M., 18 December, driver possible skull fracture. Simple 
fracture upper leg. Pulled 8:10 P. M.
21.	7:00 A. M., 19 December, 1941, uneventful night. Weather fair with some fog.
22.	Arrived at Fort Ord, California, at 11:55 A. M., 19 December, detrained and made 
camp.
As a matter of fact there had been a corps forming earlier that year, a corps to include the 35th and 30th Divisions, among other troops, to reinforce American forces in the Philippines. This was a part of that movement. Upon arrival at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, however, there was found to be an acute shortage of shipping. Pending the availability of suitable vessels, then, men of the Regiment and the Division were assigned to temporary duty on nearby installations while Fort Ord remained the "home station." Christmas Day was spent in pup tents in the cold rain.
The appearance of a Japanese submarine near Santa Barbara, and its shelling of the coast, emphasized the possible danger to the California coast. There was a real need for well-trained organizations to take over responsibility for the defense of California. There was need for the discipline and efficiency which would restore confidence to a disturbed civil population, and for the skill and self-confidence which would be effective in the face of a real threat. Fresh from Louisiana maneuvers, and already in the area, the 35th Division was one assigned to the task, relieving local units of the National Guard which had been distributed initially along the coast. The only unit of the 134th to walk up a gangplank during this time was Company E which boarded the liner Aquatania in order to settle a strike among crewmen which threatened to delay her sailing.  The result was that by the time ships were available, the 35th Division was on other duty, and the 32nd Division, then awaiting ships at the New York Port of Embarkation for movement to England, was brought all the way across the continent to take over the transports which had been intended for the 35th; thus it was the 32nd Division which was destined for the long fight against Japanese from the Southwest Pacific to the Philippines.  While at Fort Ord the 35th Division went through the "streamlining" process of reorganizing as a triangular division. This meant that one of the four infantry regiments - the 138th - was lost, brigades were abolished, and there was considerable reorganization of the division artillery and special troops. Most of the excess units then were ear-marked for eventual movement to Alaska.
Successive moves took the Regiment to Camp San Luis Obispo - where a big beach defense problem and demonstration was the feature of the training, back up to the Presidio of San Francisco, then down to Centinela Park, in Inglewood, just outside Los Angeles.  The concentration at Inglewood was temporary, however, pending the location of a suitable headquarters and training area farther north. Assigned to the Southern California Sector of the Western Defense Command, the 35th Division had deployed to carry out its defensive mission. May 21 Regimental Headquarters and the 2nd Battalion moved to scenic Ojai Valley Country Club, while the 1st Battalion remained in Inglewood with an anti-sabotage mission, and the 3rd was deployed along the coast on either side of Ventura.  This was the beginning of the war's golden era for the self-styled "Hollywood Commandos" of the 134th Infantry.
For some time now, additional officers had been joining the Regiment to replace those being transferred from time to time to fill vacancies created in the adoption of new tables of organization. At this particular period, most of these were reserve officers who had just finished the basic course in The Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Undoubtedly one of the great institutions of the war, The Infantry School provided a common background for every infantry officer commissioned in the United States. National Guard and Reserve officers followed the basic course, and the Officer Candidates' course, for men working toward a commission, was of similar content. A fresh group of officers arrived now in May. They were second lieutenants all - Ray Carroll went to Company K, Robert Lio went to Company B, Romer went to Regimental Headquarters, Malowney went to Company D. . . . One of the group had undertaken to keep a diary of his days as a member of Basic Class 28, Company N, 1st Student Training Regiment:
February 22 - Sunday - The war takes a new turn as men report for Basic Class 28 in the Infantry School. Lines form for processing. Equipment is drawn, including haversacks, cleaning rods, combination tools, and 27 Field Manuals. 
February 23 - Monday - Free time to purchase uniforms and equipment. Those days are gone forever. 
February 24 - Tuesday - 
And then one officer who had been left behind as over-age in grade rejoined the Regiment, much to the satisfaction of all concerned. Major William G. Utterback - he was Lt. Col.  very shortly thereafter - arrived and took command of the 3rd Battalion at Ventura.  The approach of a Japanese fleet toward Midway Island brought alerts and dawn and dusk "stand-to's" and more patrolling for the 134th Infantry.
Patrols covered the waterfront: Malibu . . . Point Magu . . . Oxnard . . . Elwood Oil Fields . . . Carpenteria . . . Santa Barbara . . . Gaviota . . . Surf. Those were days of bulky S-2 journals filled with notes on alleged submarines (which frequently turned out to be sea lions) and on mysterious lights which were observed along the blacked-out coast. Those were nights of "pounding the sands" as two-man patrols tramped up and down the beaches in a darkness broken only by the phosphorescent glow of breakers and by the signals of blue-covered flashlights which they carried so that their officers could find them. Later, mounted and foot patrols from the Coast Guard had taken over much of the sector and sometimes their untrained recruits were accused of shooting horses and cows when they failed to heed the challenge, "Halt!"
Lt. Col. Dean E. Coonley's 1st Battalion, remaining in the Los Angeles area, had local readjustments to make from time to time. Battalion Headquarters moved to Mines Field, and there men posted to guard the North American aircraft factory watched the new B-25 "Mitchells" and P-51 "Mustangs" go through their tests. One reinforced company moved into newly-constructed barracks at Hawthorne, and it had the responsibility of operating motor patrols through the Torrance oil fields and of maintaining guards around the Northrop Aircraft plant. There they admired the new XP-61 night fighter, the "Black Widow," and the curious little experimental plane, the "Flying Wing." For Lt. Col.Frank Dunkley's 2nd Battalion, it was training during these first few weeks at "Camp Lah Wee Lah His" - otherwise known as the Sun Valley or Ojai Country Club.  Here, there were squad problems and rifle and machine gun field firing with 60mm and 81mm mortars, (which frequently amounted to a few minutes of firing the weapon and then spending the remainder of the day in fighting brush and grass fires).  And Ojai was the scene of the inevitable formal guard mounts, and battalion and regimental parades. The Regimental Band, in white leggings and cross belts and shiny helmets, always put on a good show for those dress occasions. At guard mount the spic and span members of the guard would execute their movements in precision; the commander of the guard would inspect the guard and arouse the admiration of numerous spectators with his skillful spinning of the rifles as he stepped from one man to another while the band carried on with the "Missouri Waltz." Regimental parades on Sunday afternoon always were an attraction for hundreds of California friends and wives and sweethearts. It was a thrilling sight to stand on a hill in front of the clubhouse and watch the companies march onto the golf course; to see the platoons simultaneously break out of the column as the company commander shouted "Company mass, left, march!" - and the band would play the "Viking March" or "Washington Post" - officers would march smartly to the front and center with company guidons following the commanders - and the band would change to a pepped-up version of "There Is No Place Like Nebraska" while out-of-state (Nebraska, that is) spectators would mutter a good-natured "Thank God," and Cornhusker sympathizers would cheer - and then the band would lead off the "march in review" with "El Captain," and would execute its tricky, unorthodox column left at each turn.
Loss of the Regimental Band by a revision of the tables of organization subsequently was a real blow to unit morale. In the 134th skilled musicians became company buglers, and eventually were reassembled in a "drum and bugle corps" to furnish music for special occasions.
Rotation of the battalions permitted a few weeks at each type of duty - beach patrol out of Ventura, anti-sabotage in Los Angeles area, and training in Ojai.  There was an interruption to the planned rotation, however, before it could complete one round. The Regiment had been called upon to furnish on battalion for a special mission - a mission to Alaska. There had been a high command decision to retake the islands of the Aleutian chain which the Japanese had occupied, and the first necessity was to acquire an advance base. For this task the commanding general of the Fourth Army was given the mission to organize a task force around an infantry battalion. The size was given as that of a battalion because it was considered that no larger force would be required, and because the shortage of shipping continued. When Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt, Fourth Army Commander, called upon Maj. Gen. Maxwell Murray, now commanding the 35th Division, to name a regiment to furnish such a battalion, General Murray named the 134th Infantry Regiment. Time was short, but choosing a battalion was not as difficult a decision as it might have been under different circumstances. The choice fell upon the 2nd Battalion because that unit had completed its period of training at Ojai. The prospect of losing a battalion, of impairing the regimental team, was a little disappointing. At the same time, however, there was a justified pride to be felt in having the 134th Infantry singled out to furnish the battalion. Moreover, the higher commanders had intimated that the battalion, once its mission were accomplished, would be returned to the Regiment.  Nearly all the junior officers and numbers of enlisted men were transferred from the 1st and 3rd Battalions to bring the 2nd up to full strength. In addition there were attached a cannon platoon, and anti-tank platoon, a mine squad, a chaplain and Service Company personnel. There was a rapid exchange of stations as the 1st Battalion, then at Ojai, moved on about four hours notice to relieve the 3rd along the coast, the 3rd moved to Los Angeles to relieve the 2nd, and the 2nd returned to Ojai to begin processing for its special expedition. Most of its supplying, its record checking, its inoculations were accomplished there before moving to the port at San Francisco. On August 13, the first of the units of the 134th Infantry to leave for an overseas station sailed through the Golden Gate.  Combat loaded in San Francisco, the task force arrived at Kodiak a week later, and, after five days of practice beach landings, set sail for Adak, a small island of the Andreanoff Group which was the objective. The 2nd Battalion hit the beaches of Adak at 0630 on August 30. There was all the tenseness and wonder that goes with uncertainty, and it was a great relief when the landings were completed without opposition. The job at hand then was the building of an Army post to support the bigger attacks to come. It required an organization, a discipline, a leadership of the highest order to make effective the difficult tasks involved in unloading the ships, constructing the airfield, erecting quarters, on that bleak, northern island. Its accomplishments brought a commendation from General DeWitt. Senator Harry S. Truman of Missouri obtained unanimous consent to have the correspondence concerning the commendation inserted in the Congressional Record. It contained the information:
That Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt, commanding general, Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, had informed (General Murray) that the operation participated in by the 2nd Battalion, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Infantry, in the north had been highly successful and was carried out in a most excellent manner and that the 2nd Battalion of the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Infantry was to be highly commended for it exemplary action in this operation.
Already a number of former soldiers of the 134th Infantry had been in action in various operations against the enemy, and several received individual commendations. Noteworthy among these were the anti-tank gun crews who were transferred from the Anti-tank Company for duty aboard armed transports. Second Lieutenant Donald C. Sherrets and each of the eleven enlisted men who had gone with him for service on U. S. Army Transport President Johnson received individual commendations for their attention to duty, their appreciation of the importance of their mission and their actions in hostile waters.
Late that autumn it became clear that the old 2nd Battalion was lost to the Regiment for the duration, and orders came to organize a new battalion to take its place. The replacements arrived at Ojai during Christmas week. It was a tremendous job to build a new battalion from scratch. Cadres from the old battalion, of course, were transferred to the new unit, but it took time for such a large group of replacements to be assimilated, for the new 2nd Battalion to feel its place in the tradition of the 134th Infantry. The difficult job of building the new unit proceeded under the command of Lt. Col. A. D. Sheppard, regimental executive officer. Later, Major Denver W. Wilson returned from the assignment as assistant division G-3 to take command of the new battalion.  In January, 1943, the 35th Division reverted to the direct control of the Army Ground Forces, and, less the 140th Infantry, left the Southern California Sector to re-assemble at Camp St. Luis Obispo. General Murray remained in control of the Southern California Sector, and Brig. Gen. Paul Baade, assistant division commander, succeeded to the command of the division.
At San Luis there had been the California winter rains and marches and range-firing of all weapons and field exercises for squads and platoons. The primary mission now had become training again rather than security. Emphasis on discipline always had to be maintained. In the course of one of his talks the regimental commander was quoted as saying words to the effect that Any member of the Regiment found dead in battle will be found properly dressed.
But there were more changes, and more training, coming. Shortly after trainloads of men had arrived from Fort Dix, New Jersey, and from Georgia to fill newly-activated regiment - the 320th - the whole division moved back to Camp Rucker, Alabama. (Previously the 134th's new battalion had become officially the 2nd Battalion when the 2nd Battalion, 134th Infantry was transferred from the Alaska command to Camp San Luis Obispo, "less personnel and equipment," and the old 2nd was redesigned the 2nd Battalion, 197th Infantry per letter AGO 320.2 [I-15-43] OB-I-GN-M.)
This move involved almost a transcontinental rail movement. As always with troop trains there were incidents on each which would become indelible in the memories of the soldiers: the train which, stopping for a period of exercise, pulled out before one of the platoons got back, and then had to back up a mile or so to pick up the lost platoon - Major Thompsen, energetic executive officer of the 1st Battalion, and one time Union Pacific employee, riding in the cab - the pathetic chase of the lovable little black dog which had been the mascot of Company C when the train pulled out after a rest stop before he could get back on, and then his running down the track after the train until it was out of sight.
Camp Rucker meant excessive heat and rigorous physical tests; it was intensive training all the way, from April to November 1943. In order to equalize the state of training of the three regiments of the division, the commanding general ordered a sweeping exchange of personnel between the old regiments, on one hand, and the newly-activated 320th on the other. Obviously such a move was necessary to make the division a well-balanced team.  But the order hit the 134th especially hard because of the very similar problem which it had in its own organization in building up the new 2nd Battalion. The regimental commander, in view of the difficulties, was able to save the original old members - the Nebraskans who had been with the 134th when it was called into Federal Service. Those men - those 2072 men (from the first four digits of their serial numbers) - were men who had volunteered for this particular regiment, and they, more than anyone else, carried its tradition. The need for this core around which to build up an esprit de corps was more urgent now than ever.
At first it was basic training all over again at Camp Rucker. It was necessary to stress the necessity of making full use of this training opportunity; to an assembled meeting of regimental officers, the commander could say, I can tell you frankly that I think this is the last time we will train a regiment before going overseas. There was training in scouting and patrolling, first aid, military courtesy and discipline, there were Saturday morning inspections, and reviews of weapons training. Ranger training and realistic combat training were the fashion, and that had meant many a weary mile over dusty roads in the extreme heat of the Alabama sun when each mile thinned the ranks of marching columns. There were obstacle courses . . . platoon proficiency tests . . . battalion proficiency tests . . .  regimental combat problems . . . the infiltration course . . . the combat reaction course . . .  the attack of a Nazi village . . . the attack of a fortified position . . . a week s exacting regimental combat team exercises in the Conecuh National Forest, south of Andalusia, on the Alabama-Florida state line. Men were able to find some relief from the exertions of training in week-end passes to Dothan and in occasional furloughs - or in going over to the hot, crowded PX to sit and drink beer (3.2) or soda pop, or to get paper cups filled with ice cream and then push their way out through the banging screen door while the juke box blared out Rosalita or Pistol Packin Mamma. One of the most severe tests was the required march of 25 miles in eight hours with full field equipment, a march which the battalion made at night in order to escape some of the punishing heat.  During a meeting of the entire Regiment in the Camp Rucker Bowl, it was suggested that the famous remarks of General Hale during the Philippine Insurrection - "There goes the First Nebraska, and all hell can't stop them!" - might furnish a battle cry for the present-day Regiment. Within a month there appeared the legend "All Hell Can't Stop Us" - white on blue - over the door of every orderly room in the regimental area.
All of those weeks at Camp Rucker had been leading up to the next phase of training: 
maneuvers in Tennessee. There, over battlefields made famous in engagements of the Civil War, modern troops participated in war games as nearly like the real thing as could be devised. Foxholes and pup tents afforded little comfort in that cold and wet winter from mid-November to mid-January. This had led to the authorization of small fires ("no higher than six inches") during combat problems; arrival of the ice cream and doughnut man would herald the end of a problem, and then the fires would grow to a height of nearer six feet (in any kind of weather) and then some men could get showers at some schoolhouse or in some improvised arrangement, and some could go on pass and help to swell the throngs in Nashville; and sometimes there would be a great vocal outburst when a cottontail rabbit happened to jump up form the brush and men would take up the chase as cries of "Get that rabbit" carried quickly down the line in the direction the animal was running.
Again there had been river crossings (it was the deep Cumberland this time) and night withdrawals and attacks. 
Throughout the maneuver period groups of replacements - both officers and enlisted men - were being received to maintain the Regiment at near its full authorized strength. Many of the replacements were of the highest caliber and soon made themselves highly valued assets of the 134th. There was for example, the group of "brand new" second lieutenants which reported on November 29 and 30, which proved to be a peculiarly significant group of officers: Michael Hanna, Company C; Constant J. Kjems, Company A; James B.  Curran, Company G; Clarence L. Evans, Company H; Chauncey M. Erickson, Company M; Halley K. Dickey, Jr., Company M; Clarence C. Bartsch, 1st Battalion (soon to Company A); John Campbell Jr., 1st Battalion (soon to Company L); Kenneth W. Bush, 2nd Battalion, and Charles N. Cummins, 3rd Battalion.
After maneuvers such as those in Tennessee, the prospect of clean barracks and camp routine - to say nothing of furloughs for everybody - loomed more attractive than ever for the soldiers of the 134th Infantry.

Chapter III - P. O. M.
THIS CERTIFIES THAT
I AM POM QUALIFIED
FIT TO FIGHT
AND READY TO GO
ALL HELL
CAN'T STOP US
134th Inf. P.O.M. Qualification Card.

The "final examination" Tennessee Maneuvers - passed, there was little question but that the 134th Infantry was ear-marked for movement overseas before many weeks. The time at Camp Butner, North Carolina, was the time to complete preparations for that movement.
After the mud and ice of Tennessee, however, it was clear that the catch-all of training schedules, "care and cleaning of equipment" would take on a real meaning during those first days back in garrison. Preparation, in fact, did not get very much beyond that for a while, for soon there was an interlude - maneuvers again, and this time more rigorous than ever.
The 134th Infantry and its combat team-mates (161st Field Artillery Battalion; Company A, 110th Medical Battalion, 1st Platoon, Company A, 60th Engineers, and a team from the 35th Signal Company) had had the fortune (good or ill, depending upon your point of view) to be one of the few regimental combat teams chosen for the specialized training of mountain maneuvers in West Virginia. (Probably for possible use in the contemplated invasion of Southern France.)
There, with the rucksacks made heavy with sleeping bags, rubberized mountain tents and aluminum pins, gasoline cooking stoves, and C, D, and K rations, the trainees marched over rough terrain, climbed rocks (with the aid of pitons and hammers and karabiners and nylon ropes) and participated in a series of tactical exercises. Dressed in herringbone mountain jackets, pants, and caps, and shoepacs (footgear with rubber feet and leather uppers), worn with heavy wool socks and felt insoles, the men were able to endure the sudden blizzards and deep snows without suffering from frostbite or exposure.  Once in Camp Butner again, there was little further distraction from the central objectives of completing preparations from movement overseas. This was a much more complex task than it had been back in December, 1941, when the Regiment had been scheduled for a Pacific voyage, and it was much more detailed than it had been back in July and August, 1941, when the 2nd Battalion moved to Alaska. Previous experience had shown too many deficiencies, and now every item - of training, of supply, of personal affairs - was being checked closely. In order to make this check effective, charts went up in the day room of each company, and every officer and man received a "P.O.M. Qualification Card." These cards listed 23 items, each of which was to be initialed by an appropriate authority as evidence that the individual had met the respective requirements. The items:
1.	Identification Tags O.K. 
Identification Card O.K. (officers) 
Immunization Register complete 
Has extra glasses (if applicable) 
Teeth O.K. 
Infiltration course 
Fired own weapon for record 
Familiarization firing 
Has proper clothing and equipment 
Pay Data Card or record O.K. 
Emergency address card O.K. 
Will, power of attorney 
Medical officers' certificate 
Insignia removed 
Clothing and equipment marked 
Baggage marked 
Section VIII, AR 380-5 (on safeguarding military information) 
Article of War 28 (on soldier's shirking hazardous duty guilty of desertion) 
Allotments, insurance 
Malaria control 
Furloughs and leaves 
Dependants allowance 
Military censorship

Chiefly responsible for close supervision of the charts, and so the check on P.O.M., was the regimental executive officer, Lt. Col. Albert D. Sheppard. A lieutenant with overseas service in World War I, Colonel Sheppard had risen in succeeding years to the executive officer in Missouri's 140th Infantry. Peace-time pursuits as journalist and as commander of the Missouri State Police had equipped the officer well for his military duties. He had come to the 134th Infantry in May, 1941, to take command of the 3rd Battalion, and in January, 1942, his assignment as regimental executive officer had become effective. As such, he was second-in-command of the 134th Infantry; his was the duty of co-ordinating the staff; his would be the duty of supervising activities at the command post in the absence of the regimental commander. An affable "son of the middle border," and a gentleman of the old south, Colonel Sheppard now could apply his congenial manner but seriousness of purpose to a highly detailed and urgent task.  Members of the regimental staff, then, were being kept busy, not only with the usual functions appertaining to their assignments, but with more frequent and more detailed - and more important - inspections, and with greater details surrounding final preparations.  The officer primarily concerned with matters of personnel and administration was young, dapper, Capt. Lysle I. Abbott of Omaha, adjutant and S-1. In the more specialized assignment of personnel officer - the one who supervised all company personnel records - was Captain Raymond J. Anderson of York, Nebraska. He was one of those officers who seemed to have been made to order for his job. Captain Anderson, a charter member of the Service Company, had held the same job for some length of time. Captain Abbott, on the other hand, got his start as an enlisted man in the old 2nd Battalion Headquarters Company, but more recently had served successively as regimental communications officer and then as 2nd Battalion adjutant before coming to regimental headquarters.  Concerned about security of military information and with the training of intelligence personnel, including members of the Regimental Intelligence and Reconnaissance Platoon and the intelligence sections of the battalions, was Major Dale M. Goodwin, regimental S-2, who had come up from Company D, North Platte.
All military, efficiency personified, Capt. (soon to be Major) Dan E. Craig, also of North Platte, as operations and training officer, had the headaches of getting 100 per cent qualification in training requirements. This meant repeated "clean-ups" of every kind in the tremendous tasks involved in keeping up with absences, replacements, furloughs, and passes in getting every man through every required training activity. Captain Craig's more recent previous assignments had been commanding officer of Company M, and then S-3 of the 2nd Battalion.
A recent change in supply officers after the physical incapacity of Major Edward C. Gatz of Omaha, brought Major Thomas S. Morton, of Nebraska City to the staff S-4. Formerly commander of Company A, then regimental adjutant, acting executive officer of the 1st Battalion, and finally 2nd Battalion executive officer, Judge Morton (or "Sim," depending upon the circumstances) brought an easy-going diplomacy, and a business-like effectiveness which made themselves indispensable in heading the regimental supply. The S-4 had a dry humor which could penetrate any situation; it was born of intellectual insight, and the slow-moving, fast-thinking major conveyed the impression of always having the situation in hand.
Directing the 2nd Battalion in its preparation for overseas movement - and for combat - was Major (soon to be Col.) - Alford C. Boatsman of Beatrice, Nebraska, who had replaced Lt. Col. Dean E. Cooney when the later was called for a special mission to China.  A deliberate, but decisive officer, Major Boatsman ("Jimmy" to his fellow-officers) had come up through Company C, and then commanded Company D; just prior to his joining the 1st Battalion as commander, he had been regimental S-3. Most of the Regiment's long training programs had been executed under his general supervision.  Commanding the 2nd Battalion still was Lt. Col. Denver W. Wilson who had taken command when the "new" 2nd Battalion was organized. Diminutive in stature, but a cool, thorough thinker in all situations, Colonel Wilson was another product of North Platte and Company D.
Lt. Col. Alfred Thomsen of Omaha had succeeded Lt. Col. William G. Utterback of Nebraska, as commander of the 3rd Battalion. An old 3rd Battalion officer, Colonel Thompsen had been regimental adjutant upon mobilization, but if there ever was a field soldier, this was he, and he had gone to the 1st Battalion as executive officer where he remained until his return to the 3rd. He had a personality which breathed vigor into anything which he undertook, and he had a tremendous physique to back up his thoroughness. He was jocular, but serious-minded; kind-hearted, but a stern disciplinarian; comprehensive in outlook, but thorough in details.
Staff, battalion commander, the warrant officers (God bless them), the company commanders, the 1st Sergeants, the junior officers, and all the rest, were working with a thoroughness characteristic of their Regiment in making themselves ready for the supreme test which even now could be felt to be drawing closer and closer.  Repeated training programs and cries of "wolf!" - that the Division was about to move overseas - had led to some impatience on the part of some men. It was not that any of them ever was really enthusiastic about finding himself in the midst of combat - they knew too well what it would be like; much of the romance surrounding World War I had failed to make a reappearance - but after so many months, many wished to get overseas and get on with the task at hand. "This outfit never is going to fight," they would say. It was time for another talk with the officers of the Regiment; they assembled one afternoon in the small building which served as an officers' club, "I know that some of you have been getting impatient to get over there and get into action; well, you'll get your bellies full of fighting soon enough - after the first day you'll wish to God you were back here going through basic training again. Now it looks like we'll be on our way within four to six weeks, and it looks like England. Now let's do everything we can possibly do to get these troops into perfect shape to get this job done."
Everyone knew that this was no cry of "wolf!" Already, April 3, 1944, a confidential letter had arrived alerting the unit for movement. An advanced detachment was to be ready for movement April 10, and the remainder of the Division was given a readiness date of May 1.
The pace quickened as April drew to a close. There was a division review, and Major General Paul W. Baade addressed his whole command, "You have a record through training and maneuvers of which to be proud . . . this is a good division . . . in the days to come I shall at times probably call upon you to do what seems humanly impossible . . . " Two days before departure from Camp Butner, the entire Regiment assembled in the Field House. There were preliminary remarks from staff officers, some on-the-spot entertainment, and then a hush fell over the 3,000 men as they gave to their regimental commander the attention which they always gave.
"We shall be moving overseas very soon now, and within a few weeks we shall be in the thick of combat. When we land over there, I intend for this to be the best regiment in the United States Army, and it will be the best - the best dressed, the best disciplined, the best fighting. I intend for as many to come back as possible. The only way that we can get the job done and bring back the maximum number is to have discipline that is superior. That is why you have heard me constantly harping on little things like shoe shines and haircuts and keeping helmet chin straps fastened and saluting and all the rest of it. I have heard you singing that song around the barracks, Old Soldiers Never Die; there is more truth in that than we can realize now. And let me tell you why 'old soldiers' get along in combat - it's because they have learned how to take care of themselves, to move forward out of artillery fire, to take advantage of cover and concealment, to work as a team, and to fight back."
There followed the final check-ups, the "dry runs" for boarding trains while carrying the heavy duffel bags and equipment . . . then the move by rail (May 1) to Camp Kilmer, and the rush through final clothing and equipment checks, orientation on what to expect overseas, issue of new type gas masks, more physical examinations, practice in the use of cargo nets for abandoning ship, more "dry runs" on entraining, and finally chalk-marking the steel helmets and marching off in roster order (the discipline of the Regiment was such that, in spite of passes to New York City, not a single A.W.O.L. was left behind) to the "canned" music of Stars and Stripes Forever to board the trains - it was the evening of May 11 - then the ferry across the Upper Bay to Staten Island . . . and there a band playing and Red Cross girls passing out coffee and doughnuts, and someone shouting, "There's the gang plank we have been looking for so long" . . . and the heavily-laden men marching aboard the naval transport, A. E .Anderson - a vessel of 26,000 tons which also carried Division Artillery Headquarters, the Division MP Platoon, the Band (fortunately for the Regiment's music entertainment), the 60th Engineer Battalion, and the 161st Field Artillery Battalion - and then the great convoy, guiding on the famed cruiser U.S.S.  Marblehead, with a baby flattop near, destroyer escorts zigzagging out in front, and a blimp hovering overhead . . . and the life aboard ship, those agonizing hours for the seasick, the almost endless chow lines for the two meals a day, the police and inspections, the hours at reading the Guide to the U. K., playing cards, at small talk . . . and then, the welcome sight of the Irish coast, the pause in the harbor at Belfast where the appearance of the Battleships Texas and Nevada suggested that something big was up, for the only good reason for a dreadnought in European waters was for support of an invasion . . . and then, the break-up of the convoy, and the movement down through the Irish Sea to Avonmouth at the Port of Bristol . . . and there a Home Guard band from a Bristol aircraft factory out in a light English rain to greet the Americans with such tunes as Over There, Yankee Doodle, and Ole Man River while the Mayor (complete with topper), and a British Army officer came aboard to make a welcoming speeches . . . then debarkation and loading into compartments of English trains as dusk fell for the all-night trip down to the western end on Cornwall. Men grasped at a rumor, "We are going to be held as counter-invasion troops along the coast until after the big show is well on the way." "Sure, we are old hands at beach defenses."
Units were distributed (troops were assigned to billets in houses, small hotels, and other buildings set aside for the purpose) according to the following station list:
1.	Hq. & Hq. Co.; Med. Det., less Bn. sections - Camborne 
1st Battalion - Penzance 
2nd Battalion (less Company H) - St. Ives 
Company H - Hayle 
3rd Battalion (less Company I, Company K, Company L, and I Platoon, Company 
M) - Prah Sands 
Company I, plus 1 Platoon, Company M - Lizard Point 
Company K - Marazion 
Company L. - Portleven 
Anti-tank Company - Lands' End 
Service Company - Clowance Estate 
Cannon Company - Redruth
The days in Cornwall - the "Riviera" or the "California" of Britain - where members of the Regiment made friends as they had done wherever they had been, where strands of barbed wire ran along the beaches to remind visitors of the very real threat of invasion of Britain itself only a few years earlier - those days again were days for more training and for more perpetration for eventual movement. The 35th Division had been assigned to the Third Army, and its commander was found to be none other than the redoubtable Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr., who had disappeared from the Mediterranean some months earlier with the explanation that he was going to "command another army." Soon directives and letters of instruction were coming from the colorful commander. 
Some excerpts from a letter of April 3, 1944, suggest some of his patterns of thought:
I. General 
1. You will not simply mimeograph this and call it a day. You are responsible that these usages become habitual in your command. 
II. Discipline  
1. There is only one sort of discipline - perfect discipline. Men cannot have a good battle discipline and poor administrative discipline.
* * * *
6. One of the primary purposes of discipline is to produce alertness. A man who is so lethargic that he fails to salute will fall an easy victim to any enemy.  7. Combat experience has proven that ceremonies, such as formal guard mounts, formal retreat formations, and regular and supervised reveille formations are a great help and, in some cases, essential to prepare men and officers for battle, to give them perfect discipline, that smartness of appearance, that alertness without which battles cannot be won.
* * * *
9. Officers are always on duty and their duty extends to every individual, junior to themselves, in the U. S. Army - not only to members of their own organization.
* * * * 
III. Tactical Usages 
1. a. (1) . . .  
(2) There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is: "To use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum time."
* * * * 
(8) The larger the force and the more violence you use in an attack, whether it be men, tanks, or ammunition, the smaller will be your proportional losses.  (10) Our mortars and our artillery are superb weapons when they are firing. When silent, they are junk - see that they fire!  b. (1) Use roads to march on, fields to fight on.
* * * * 
(6) The effect of mines is largely mental. Not over 10 per cent of our casualties come from them. When they are encountered they must be passed through or around. There are not enough mines in the world to cover the whole country. It is cheaper to make a detour than to search; however, the engineers should start clearing the straight road while the advance elements continue to detour. See that all types of troops have mine detectors and know how to use them. You must - repeat - must get through! 
(7) Never permit a unit to dig in until the final objective is reached, then dig, wire, and mine.
* * * * 
(10) In battle, small forces - platoons, companies, and even battalions, can do one of three things - go forward, halt, or run. If they halt or run, they will be an even easier target.  Therefore, they must go forward . . . 
2. Infantry a. Infantry must move in order to close with the enemy. It must shoot in order to move.  When physical targets are not visible, the fire of all infantry weapons must search the area probably occupied by the enemy. Us marching fire. It reduces the accuracy of his fire and increases our confidence. Shoot short. Ricochets make nastier sounds and wounds. To halt under fire is folly. To halt under fire and not fire back is suicide. Move forward out of fire. Officers must set the example.
The "marching fire" to which General Patton referred was a tactical concept of his which ran completely counter to traditional infantry doctrine. Now instead of movement from cover to cover by short rushes, and cover by fire from men in prone position, he proposed the movement forward of the entire platoon or company or battalion - moving forward steadily with every weapon blazing. The theory was the sound one that the flood of cracking bullets would tend to keep enemy heads down constantly, while the attacker could continue his advance without (relatively) too much difficulty.  There were special schools for selected officers and men of the Regiment, there were visitors to the unit for special instruction, there were special courses within the Regiment.  Lt. Eldephonse C. Reischel, 3rd Battalion motor officer, Chief Warrant Officer Harry Dahlgren, assistant regimental maintenance officer; T/5 Willard Gambill, and T/5 Otto Ribben, went to Bideford for a school on the waterproofing of vehicles. Lt. Thomas F.  Murray of the 1st Battalion, and Lt. Charles D. Hall of the 3rd Battalion went to Bristol for a week's bomb reconnaissance school. Major Godwin was ordered to a 10-day intelligence school in London, and Captain Elbert B. O"Keefe, assistant regimental S-2, and the battalion S-2's attended a longer combat intelligence course in the American School Center at Shrivenham. Captain Edward P. McGehee, of the Medical Detachment, a three weeks' field medical school. Lt. Col. Sheppard and the battalion executive officers attended a Transportation Quartermaster Conference and School. There were others - towed weapons waterproofing for cannon company and the anti-tankers, waterproofing of signal equipment for communication officer, a course in London on street fighting for two enlisted men.
Perhaps there was a sigh of relief on the part of men of the 134th when some of the suspense of awaiting impending developments was broken with the announcement of landings on the Normandy coast June 6. Perhaps there was some thanksgiving that they were yet in Cornwall, but at the same time there was the anticipation which sprang from the knowledge that soon the 134th Infantry surely would be called upon, and there was confidence in the conviction that training had been thorough, that esprit was real, that discipline was superior.
Instruction teams arrived from the 28th Division to conduct an amphibious school and an enemy weapons school. Captain Lumley of the 737th Tank Battalion conducted a conference with battalion commanders and S-3's and special units commanders and regimental staff on the organization of the medium tank battalion and of its employment with infantry.
Lt. Arthur Gertz, assistant personnel officer, conducted a school on morning report summaries and battle casualty reports for all company commanders, executive officers, first sergeants, next highest ranking N.C.O.'s, and assistant company clerks. There were further courses of instruction on amphibious operations, on firing German weapons; officers' schools on radio procedure and use of the slidex given by Captain Karlovich, communications officer; a class on civil affairs by Captain Martin of Third Army Headquarters, and Lt. Keltner, assistant regimental S-3; classes on mapping and the British grid system by Lieutenant Haugen; night scouting and patrolling exercises under the supervision of Major Godwin and Captain O'Keefe.
In addition to all of this - and more - specialized training, there were more of the normal training pursuits in the units - weapons firing, small unit tactical problems, marches. And still there was a time for a softball tournament, a volleyball tournament, Red Cross clubmobiles, movies, U.S.O shows, dances.
The Regiment found itself on the spot June 26 when General Eisenhower and General Patton elected to make a visit of inspection. But those distinguished officers found the 134th Infantry on its mettle. Captain Abbott took a guide party to meet the visitors, accompanied by the division commander and his staff, at Redruth in the late afternoon.  They went directly to Hayle Range where they watched members of Company L running squad problems in a manner very much to their satisfaction. Then they moved over to Penzance where they watched the 1st Battalion in a retreat parade, and again there was reason for a favorable impression. In a short address to the troops at Penzance after the ceremony, General Eisenhower welcomed them to England and the ETO, and he spoke of the high state of training which the Regiment had achieved; he recognized the important role of the infantry and he called for its vigorous actions in the use of marching fire.  Finally, he expressed his confidence in the ability of the Regiment to do whatever job might be assigned to it, and he looked to the future with the promise of a "party on the Rhine."
That the reaction of General Eisenhower and General Patton to what they had seen on their visit to the Regiment was a good one became clear in a conference in which the regimental commander talked with those two high officers and General Baade. It seems likely now that it was then that the thought to move the 35th Division up to an earlier sailing date for movement to France took root. In any case, a warning order came just five days later - 1 July - for movement to the marshalling area the next day. Moved up ahead of such divisions as the 28th and the 5th which had been overseas for some months, the 35th was to be the tenth infantry division to land in Normandy.  The earlier movement order did not, however, find the 134th Infantry and the 35th Division unprepared. In fact the "top secret" alert order had been received the evening before the original landings in Normandy. This was concerned primarily with security measures (i.e., denying the leak of any military information which might be useful to the enemy) and with directing the fulfilling of all instructions given in the "bible" covering such preparations: ETO - POM - SSV - (European Theater of Operations - Preparation for Overseas Movement - Short Sea Voyage).Subsequent administrative instructions (confidential) contained detailed instructions concerning the handling and carrying of all classes of supplies in moving to the marshalling areas and in embarking for the "short sea voyage" across the English Channel.
Movement orders were not issued to battalion and special unit commanders until shortly before midnight that same 1 July. A light rain was falling again as men of the 134th Infantry marched out early that Sunday morning (Lah We Lah His - "We Move on Sunday!") to the railway stations designated for the respective units. The Regiment was divided into two groups, one to go to Plymouth, the other to Falmouth. In one of the few mix-ups which members of the Transportation Corps made in all their dealings with the Regiment, Company M proceeded to Plymouth instead of Falmouth, but soon matters were set right.
Processing in the marshalling area was short; for the individuals, it consisted mainly of changing English pounds into French invasion francs.
The next day, 3 July, the troops moved by truck down to the hards, and then boarded ship.  Some went directly aboard the Liberty ship and the British transport, HMS Javelin, while others, boarding and LSI (landing ship, infantry) were shuttled from the hard to the anchorage in smaller craft. By regimental order, all troops were dressed in long underwear and oily, smelly, protective clothing (herringbone twill treated to protect the wearer against mustard); this had been ordered to insure warmth on the channel and to keep the woolens free of dirt and salt water so that they would be usable on the other side. That evening the men watched the vehicles hoisted aboard and secured in the hold, and then gathered in groups around boxes of 10 to 1 rations to make their meals - some resorted to the expedient of cooking strips of canned bacon by laying it on steam pipes of the ship.  Then they unrolled their blankets for an attempt at sleep on the decks, but they watched bomb reflections against the southern sky and streams of colored tracer bullets which made a beautiful, if disquieting, display during the night as though it were a planned prelude to the celebration of the Fourth of July.
When the vessels carrying the 134th Infantry pushed out through the choppy seas of the English Channel that Independence Day, they were found to be but a few of the scores of ships plying between the coasts of Britain and Normandy. Debarkation (by landing craft) at the beach - the beach called "Omaha," much to the satisfaction and nostalgic sentiments of the members of "Nebraska's Own" 134th - proceeded during 5 July (the 3rd Battalion had to wait till the next day to go ashore).
Omaha beach was a busy place. Ships were anchored everywhere, with lighters, and rafts, and landing craft, and DUKW's (2 1/2-ton amphibious trucks) carrying cargo to shore (an audible sigh swept over the Liberty ship when the men saw a mail pouch dropped into the water from a neighboring vessel as it was being unloaded). Silver barrage balloons floated over the beach and C-47 transport planes took off every few minutes from the air strip. All this activity was striking commentary on the relative impotence of the Luftwaffe.  The 134th Infantry, first element of the 35th Division, had landed in Normandy on D + 30.  As the soldiers of the Regiment marched up that familiar path, up the hill past the knocked-out German pill box, and later, as they passed a new American cemetery near Colleville-sur-Mer, everyone seemed to sense the deep debt which he owed to the men who had hit the beach to prepare the way. 
Chapter IV - Normandy
The battle for France was decided among the bloody orchards and hedgerows of Normandy.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
REPORT OF THE SUPREME COMMANDER . . .

Hour after hour, day after day - and now week after week - the grim, tired soldiers fight bloody close-in battles for 100 yards of shell-packed meadow. Each hedgerow conquered is a minor campaign won, each pasture and orchard a bitter epic of valor and death.  Someone once said that wars are won by the souls of men. Some day, when the full story of this phase of the French campaign can be written, some day when the Norman names of St. Lo and Pont Herbert and the forest of Mont Castre are inscribed in gold on the battle streamers and the plaques, due tribute can be paid to the men who struggled and died in the hedgerows and orchards and woods of western France.
Hanson W. Baldwin in The New York Times, 
July 19, 1944

Regimental Headquarters established its first command post in France - in Transit Area 3 - at 1545 on 5 July, but the C.P. moved to an area near Mercey that night, while other units of the Regiment continued to come ashore and make their way to the assigned assembly area. That night marching columns and motor convoys moved through the light of the near-full moon. Overhead an occasional Nazi plane would set off a tremendous - and beautiful - anti-aircraft barrage. The white moonlight lent a ghastly appearance to the crumbled stone and mortar houses of a destroyed village through which the columns moved. "It looks exactly like some of those old movies of the World War," someone observed.
First element of the Santa Fe Division to get to the front was the 134th Infantry's 2nd Battalion. Orders came at 0315 on 8 July for a battalion to move up to the sector near Deville to relieve a battalion of the 120th Infantry. Hardly more than two hours later Lt.  Col. Denver W. Wilson and his 2nd Battalion were on their way. It was a defensive mission, and the assignment was to be temporary, but men of the 134th went into it with all the enthusiasm of a major engagement. The 2nd Battalion arrived at its new area by 0800, and before 1300 it had completed the relief - by infiltration - and assumed responsibility for the sector. Within another hour, 81mm mortars of Captain Charles C. Hake's Company H opened fire, and Staff Sergeant Dale Steckel's mortar squad claimed the destruction of a German machine gun position.
Shortly after the departure of the 2nd Battalion for its special mission, the Regiment itself was alerted for movement. The 35th Division was about to be committed, but the 134th Infantry (less the 2nd Battalion) was being held out for the time being as corps reserve in Major General Charles H. Corlett's XIX Corps. The two sister regiments, the 137th, under Colonel Grant Layng, and the 320th, under Colonel Bernard A. Byrne, were to make a limited attack in a zone to the left (east) of the Vire River between La Meuffe and La Nicollerie. (The Division was going in between the 30th - "Old Hickory" - Division, on the right, and the 29th - "Blue and Grey" - on the left.) The 134th now was moving up to an assembly area where it would be available for action on short notice.  In the new assembly area (the C.P. was near Les Essarts) all companies immediately set themselves to preparation for the problems ahead. For some unexplained reason (it might be explained on the basis of security prior to 6 June, but certainly not after that date) there had been no instruction or suggestions during the period of training in England concerning the tactical implications of a terrain characterized by such a system as hedgerows as was to be found in Normandy. Although the Cornish countryside was broken into small fields by systems of hedgerows, thinking had not gone much beyond the stage of speculation.  But now the problem was real. It could be seen that the defender was going to have some advantages.
The hedgerows were similar - banks of dirt, sometimes with stones in them, as much as three to five feet thick at the base and tapering gradually to a thickness of two or three feet. This embankment usually was four to five feet high and surmounted by shrubs or trees. The sides were covered with grass and shrubs. The origin of hedgerows remains rather obscure, though it is likely that the scarcity of building materials (many of the houses are made with wooden beams and earth), and the rich soil and climate (which makes plants grow rapidly and thickens the hedges) contributed to their development.  There are said to be two kinds of hedges there, the quickset and the dry hedges; the first were by far the most important, and they, in turn, were divided into hedges of defense, shelter, orchard, and fodder. Built for the protection of property, the defense hedges usually were made up with thorny shrubs; shelter hedges also were defensive, but had the further purpose of serving as windbreaks, and their timber yielded wood for building or heating. If the trees were for producing fruit, then the hedgerows were "orchard," and the fodder hedges contained any number of varieties of shrubs and trees. The hedgerow system seems to have dated at least from the time of the Romans. Now the main purpose of the hedgerows, whatever their origin, came to be protection against shellfire and bullets. In any case those earth and plant fences enclosed fields - usually meadows or orchards - of irregular shapes and sizes which seemed to average toward a rectangle about 100 yards long and 50 yards wide. "An aerial photograph of a typical section of Normandy shows more than 3,900 hedged enclosures in an area of less than eight square miles."
By digging down a deep foxhole - a covered one - behind these hedgerows, the defender could make himself almost immune from all kinds of small arms or shellfire. But that was not his only, nor his greatest advantage. There was the observation which he had denied his attackers but enjoyed himself. He could have his guns zeroed in, put an observer up in a tree and wait. The attacker, on the other hand, usually could not see more than one hedgerow ahead, and could almost never see any enemy activity, and when he discovered the enemy's presence, by suddenly finding himself pinned down by enemy fire, he was too close to employ his artillery. At the same time, the enemy found that these hedgerows provided him with covered routes for supply and evacuation and withdrawal. There were numerous roads and lanes - always running between hedgerows - leading away in all directions. Frequently these would be considerably below the level of the adjacent fields, while the walls formed by the hedgerows would be just that much higher. Often the rows of trees would bend toward each other overhead and thus completely conceal the route from air observation.
Rifle platoons, during those last days of training, practiced at making attacks in which the squads used their Browning automatic rifles to "spray" the hedgerow running parallel to the front while a few men with grenades worked their way up the lateral hedgerows.  Sometimes a squad would remain at the base of fire while the other squads worked forward on either side of the hedgerow toward the front, or sometimes smaller groups would work forward, always with support of machine guns.
It was evident that tanks were going to have a difficult time moving across that kind of terrain - the hedgerows were too strong for an ordinary medium tank to force, and unquestionably all the roads would be mined and covered by anti-tank guns. Battalion ammunition and pioneer officers experimented to see what kind of a charge of TNT it would take to blast a hole for the "iron horses." They found that it could be done, though it took a big explosion and sometimes a second; but it seemed that this might be a solution.
Other final preparations included the disposal of excess baggage. All clothing and equipment that was not going to be used was put into duffel bags, and all these were collected and placed in the custody of Captain Albert B. Osborne of Service Company. All gas masks were collected and stored there. Whenever a piece of extra or superfluous equipment appeared, the supply officers would call out immediately, "Send it back to the duffel bag area!"
There was a twinkle in the eyes of some when they heard of the instructions which had come from First Army concerning helmet chin-straps; they were to be put up over the back of the helmet and never worn fastened under the chin. (In this Regiment it had been one of those unpardonable breeches of discipline to be seen with chinstraps not properly fastened). Theoretically this order had been originated in order to avoid broken necks resulting from the sudden upward jerk of helmets when the concussion of near bomb or shell hit it. Actually, no such case has ever been authenticated, and it is quite likely that more serious casualties resulted from loss of the helmet at a critical moment than would have from any such effects of the chinstrap.
More annoying to the officers and non-commissioned officers was the required identification markings - officers were to have a vertical white stripe on the back of the helmet, and non-coms a horizontal stripe. In addition, officers were instructed to wear their insignia on the front of their helmets. Nets dulled the shine of helmets and insignia considerably, but most leaders were afraid that they were asking for trouble from snipers.  Many complied by putting on a strip of adhesive tape for the stripe, and then taking care to smear it with mud; another bit of mud, or a leaf in the net, accomplished similar results for the bars. After hearing some of the stories which were drifting back on sniper activity, some of the officers took their bars off their collars and wore them underneath, and several of the non-coms tore off their chevrons. Some officers began looking around for different weapons, a Tommy gun, or an M-1 rifle. Actually the carbine was not such an unsatisfactory weapon for an officer. It was not intended that an officer should engage normally in a fire fight; his weapon was for personal protection, or other emergencies; if he were off firing at the enemy it frequently meant that his men were being neglected; his responsibility was to direct the fire of many weapons.
Men of the 134th knew that their days of grace were running short. Up to this time they had not heard any enemy fire in the area, but one morning before daylight they were awakened by a series of strange but not totally unfamiliar noises. The sound, part shrieking, part whining, part whistling, would be at a relatively high pitch as it broke the silence, and then as it descended to a lower tone it would stop altogether; after a momentary pause a fairly distant explosion would make itself heard, and then reverberate for added emphasis. And then would come another, and another; but they were falling too far away to cause any real concern. Then from the direction of the front came the sharp staccato of machine gun fire. Yes, it was a German machine gun all right, just as it had been described back in England; it was firing too rapidly to be an American weapon. (The German machine gun, M.G. 34, fired at a cycle rate of 900 rounds a minute, while the newer M.G. 42 fired at the terrific rate of 1,200 to 1,500 a minute.) It sounded as though someone might be having a counterattack; but the noises of battle died away with the coming of daylight.
"By God, Sir, I'm not sure how we are going to work our 81's and heavy machine guns through this hedgerow country." A heavy weapons commander was standing under an apple tree addressing his battalion commander. "I think we may have to throw away the machine gun tripods and just set the guns on top of the hedgerows," he continued, "I think we'll try to have a mortar observer run this light wire for our sound-powered phones right along the leading companies; I'm afraid to depend too much on our 300 radios; I'm not sure how good they will carry in this country, and there are lots of stories coming back from the 29th and 30th that the minute you start using them you draw artillery right in on you; they claim the Krauts have the best radio locator equipment there is." He turned to the intelligence officer and said, "Say, see how they are working that when you go up and visit the 30th this afternoon."
When the Division made its initial attack on 11 July, each of the battalions of the 134th was permitted to send a limited number of officers - limited so that they would not interfere with the operations of the units - to observe the action. It was that day that Major Warren C. Wood, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, remained overdue for several hours. "I hear that Major Wood may beat us all to Berlin," someone said, "They think that he may be a prisoner already." Major Wood, however, had been safe looking after Lt. John Mullin of Company C who had been injured by a near shell burst.
Now the next afternoon, parties from Regimental Headquarters and from the battalions - usually intelligence and operations officers - were going forward to visit units of the 29th and 30th Divisions. One group climbed into its assigned jeep and drove out of the meadow onto a gravel road, then took a broken, dusty asphalt road across the Vire River and through the nearly-destroyed village of Pont de St. Fromond. A turn down a narrow, muddy road - here the driver had to shift into four-wheel drive - brought them presently to the battalion C.P. of the 30th Division. Coming upon a non-commissioned officer at a mortar position, one of the officers asked where he might find the S-3.  "Sorry sir, but he was killed last night; shell got him in that foxhole right over there." The officer tried to swallow, but his throat was dry. He asked some questions about the mortar platoon, and then walked over to an adjoining field to see some machine gun positions. There in a corner of the hedgerows, he saw for the first time a group of dead Yanks. The bodies were covered with canvas, but their neatly laced leggings and shoes protruded. "Yeh," one of the soldiers said, "they got it last night; some get it every night." The officer talked to some of the other soldiers as they lay in their foxholes - found out for the heavy weapons commander that this battalion was using light machine gun tripods for its heavy machine guns - and was ready to go back. The chatter of machine gun fire over to the left did not make him regret this decision.
After four days in the assembly area, there still was no official word on how long the Regiment could be expected to remain. The 2nd Battalion had returned to the Regiment early on the 11th, but a two-hour visit of the regimental commander at Division headquarters the next night disclosed no further change in the situation.  The 13th went by much the same as its predecessors; much the same, that is, until 2030 that night. It was then that orders came relieving the 134th Infantry from corps reserve, and less than an hour later the regimental commander and his S-3 were on their way to the Division C.P. where an order awaited calling for the 134th Infantry to relieve elements of the 115th Infantry (29th Division) at once with one battalion, and to prepare to attack on the 15th!
The 3rd Battalion received the assignment to execute that nocturnal relief without benefit of daylight reconnaissance. The companies began breaking camp even while the company commanders were on their way up to receive orders.
Colonel Thomsen issued his order promptly, and then, leaving Major Foster H. Weyand, executive officer, to take charge of marching the troops down to the new area, he took his adjutant, S-2, S-3, and communications officer with him, and set out by jeep to contact the units to be relieved and to be prepared to guide his own battalion into position. "This is a hell of a time to be moving up," someone said, "it's the 13th." Minutes later four blacked-out jeeps were purring down the road - through the ruins of Moon-sur-Elle, and on down to a position east of a village called Villiers-Fossard. The colonel stopped first at the 115th regimental command post to check and get further directions, and then he went on down to the C.P. of the 2nd Battalion. (Inasmuch as the relief concerned parts of two battalions, Captain Ray Carroll, 3rd Battalion S-3, went over to the C.P. of the adjacent battalion on the left to co-ordinate the relief in that sector.) After some searching about, Colonel Thomsen found the C.P. in a deep, well-covered dugout at the edge of a field. He called down, and then his party followed him down some narrow dirt steps and crowded into the hole. The light from a gasoline lamp hanging in one corner had grown dim from want of air. This made even more dismal the heavy atmosphere. A pair of dark, tired eyes, set in a gaunt face which was covered with beard and dust, looked up to inquire the mission. The eyes belonged to a major who sat on the floor. He ran his hand through a head of dark hair which evidently had been clipped but now had grown out. He remained silent; his face did not change its blank, tired expression until Colonel Thomsen spoke.
"I understand we are to relieve you folks," the colonel said.  "Relieve us? Relieve us?" The major shook a captain who was sleeping beside him, "Did you hear that? They are going to relieve us!" It was not a very reassuring thing for the newcomers to hear this announcement greeted with such enthusiasm; it sounded too much like they were inheriting a difficult assignment. Later they learned that it was common practice not to notify a unit that it was going to be relieved until reconnaissance or advance parties from the relieving unit contacted it. This doubtless so that such a unit would not be tempted to let up its pressure while awaiting relief. This particular unit had been going, with almost no relief, since "D-Day." The battalion commander had become a casualty, and the major had taken over.
Lt. Floris M. Garner, battalion communications officer, asked someone if he could see the communications officer.
"Sorry, but he was killed; we can get the sergeant for you." It was getting to the point that one hesitated ever to ask for any particular individual, for it seemed that so frequently that one had been killed.
Men of the Third Battalion began moving into the position as soon as they arrived, but it was a slow, cautious process, and was not completed until about 1030 the next morning.  Shortly after dawn the battalion S-2 of the 115th came into the dugout to give what information he could. After questioning some prisoners which had just been brought it, the one intelligence officer took the other on a tour of the area. "Now keep your head down," he warned, "the Germans are behind the next hedgerow." With a stiff, stubby beard, and dust in his ears and eyebrows, he had the same "beaten-up" appearance at the others. He was too tired to be nervous or excited about anything. But he was a worker, and he did everything he could to help.
He continued talking. "We have made attacks on three separate days, and each time wound up in these same foxholes. It's a rough go, but with your fresh troops you may be able to do it. The men get so they freeze to their foxholes and you can't make them go.  The only way the platoon leader can make them get up and go is for him to jump over the hedgerow first and be scout and point and everything; then he gets himself knocked off and there you are."
They walked over to the right. The lieutenant pointed over to the right front. "You see those trees and hedgerows running toward the front? Well, that's the damned sunken road. A Heinie self-propelled 88 pulls up that road and just raises hell in here, and before we can do anything about it he pulls back again. We can't advance down the road because he's got it zeroed in, and that leaves our flank open."
They moved, crouching below hedgerows, back to the rear in order to find a covered approach over to the left part of the sector. The lieutenant described what a difficult time they had had in capturing Villiers-Fossard. In the corner of the field behind the C.P. they passed a pile of equipment that included practically everything GI in a battalion. It had come off casualties or had been damaged. There were packs and belts and canteens and mess kits and raincoats and clothing and helmets and weapons. There were some more dead Yanks there - "They got it in yesterday's shelling."
On return to the C.P., the lieutenant borrowed a canteen of water and poured some of it into his steel helmet. He tried to wash off some of the accumulated dirt and dust. As he pulled a dirty handkerchief from his pocket to dry his face, Lt. Col. Boatsman, commander of the 1st Battalion, and Lt. Col. Wilson, commander of the 2nd Battalion arrived. They had their operations officers and company commanders with them to make a reconnaissance of the ground over which they were to attack on the morrow. The lieutenant, tired as he was, at once went over to offer his services. Soon he was touring the front again, helping them orient their maps, pointing out terrain features and indicating probable enemy positions.  "Be careful of that damned sunken road," he always would say.  St. Lo was a key to the Normandy defenses. The town was not a very large one (peacetime population: about 12,000), but it was the most important road center in the area. It was the anchor of the German defenses in Normandy. Not only did the main defense line of the Cotentin Peninsula, along the St. Lo - Periers - Lessay highway hinge there, but so did the secondary line, along the St. Lo - Coutances highway as well. About 47 miles southeast of Cherbourg, it lay to the west of a horseshoe bend in the Vire River at the base of the Cotentin Peninsula. It was the capital of the French department of Manche (the name which the French applied to the English Channel).  American pushes toward St. Lo from both the north and the east had come practically to a standstill at distances of two and three miles from the city. The British were meeting the same kind of resistance in the Caen area - the Nazis were holding furiously all along the front. A Vichy radio broadcast on 12 July had announced that Von Kluge, German commander in Normandy, we expecting "an all-out American drive for St. Lo." Another German source added that a new panzer division had been thrown into battle in the St. Lo area. The German apprehensiveness was well-founded.
The only fresh troops remaining to influence the situation of the XIX Corps in its battle for St. Lo with the 134th Infantry Regiment, and now General Corlett had determined to commit this Regiment in an effort to break the stubborn German defenses. It was the feeling of the regimental commander that what had come to be a "normal" pattern of attack ought to be changed if the attack were to be effective. Therefore he proposed that the normal artillery preparation be omitted to avoid "telegraphing the punch," but that then a very heavy artillery concentration ought to accompany the jump-off itself, and then that a rolling barrage be laid down in front of the advancing troops. Such procedure was, of course, not new. Sometimes commanders in World War I, as in launching the great attack known as the Second Battle of Marne in 1918, had achieved initial surprise by abandoning the usual long and heavy artillery preparation; and the rolling barrage, while common in World War I, practically was unknown in World War II. The corps commander readily agreed to the desirability of the suggested procedure, and thus it was to be.  During the afternoon of 14 July (it seemed appropriate to be preparing to attack for the liberation of France on Bastille Day) all platoon sergeants of the 1st and 2nd Battalions were assemble for a meeting with the regimental commander. It was a "skull practice" in which the problems which would face the platoons during the next day's attack were discussed. The purpose was made clear in every man's mind exactly what he was to do, and the importance of the part which these key men were to play in making the coming action decisive was impressed upon them.
Final attack orders arrived from the Division at 1645, and at 1900 the battalion and special unit commanders gathered in the blacked-out tent and the operations and intelligence sections at the regimental C.P. near LaChiteliere. There to receive the order that evening were Lt. Col. Alford C. Boatsman, commander of the 1st Battalion, and his S-3, Capt.  Harlan B. Heffelfinger; Lt. Col. Denver W. Wilson and Capt. Frederick C. Roecker, Jr., of the 2nd Battalion; Lt. Col. Alford Thomsen and Capt. Merle R. Carroll of the 3rd Battalion; and there were the special units commanders, Capt. Thurston J. Palmer of Headquarters Company; Capt. Rodney D. Brown of Service Company; Capt. L. D. Asher of Cannon Company, Capt. J. E. Magruder of Anti-Tank Company; there were numbers of regimental staff - Lt. Col. Sheppard, Captain Abbott, Major Godwin, Major Craig, Major Morton, and Major Robert B. Townley, regimental surgeon; finally, there were the commanders of the units which had been attached to the Regiment for this operation - the 737th Tank Battalion; 1st Platoon, 654th Tank Destroyer Battalion; Company A, 60th Engineer Battalion; Company A, 110th Medical Battalion - and Lt. Col. Douglas Dwyer, commander of the supporting 161st Field Artillery Battalion, and the commander of the attached 4.2 mortar company of the 82nd Chemical Battalion. The assembled group listened intently as the regimental commander spoke; then they studied closely their overlays and maps and Field Order No. 18:
MAPS: 1/25,000, France, ST LO Sheet.
1. a. Enemy forces entrenched along (503663) (510658) (515658) (517660) (523661) (525657), occupies high ground N of ST LO (hill #122 - 504652). Elmts of the 14th Prcht Regt reported vic ST LO; elmts of 897th, 898, 899 Panzer Grenadier Regts (motorized Inf) have been identified in Div. Z.  b. XIX Corps continues atk to SW 150515 July 44; Div abreast 30th on right, 29th on left.  2. The 134th Inf (w/737th Tk Bn (less Co B); 1st Plat. Co A, 60th Engr Bn; one plat 654 TD Bn; Co A, 110th Med Bn attchd), supported by 161 FA Bn amd atched 4.2 Chemical mortar Co and supported by 35th Inf Div Arty, attacks in Z, 0515, 15 July 44. Obj - to destroy enemy forces in Z N of ST LO and to seize and occupy ST LO. Bndrys, LD, objectives, formation, direction of atk - see overlay.
3. a. 1st Bn. 134th Inf passes through 3rd Bn in Z. atks 0515, 15 July 44 to seize and occupy obj in Z.  b. 2nd Bn, 134th Inf (w/one squad AT Co Mine plat, one 57mm plat AT Co, 737th Tk Bn (-) atched) atks 0515, 15 July 44 to seize and occupy obj in Z.  c. 3rd Bn, 134th Inf when passed through reverts to Regtl res; to remain on present location prepared to assemble on order. (sic.)
1.	Cn Co, 134th Inf direct support 161 FA Bn.
2.	AT Co, 134th Inf (-) protect Regtl Flanks and rear; special attention to Regtl left 
flank.
3.	I & R plat responsible for contact w/115th Inf on left and 320th Inf on right.
4.	616 FA Bn (w/1 Co 82nd Chemical Bn be prepared support atk. Smoke enemy 
installations fr H Hr to H plus 15; prepare rolling barrage beg at H hr to cover adv of 1st Bn 134th Inf to be lifted on call.
5.	One plat, 764 TD, adv behind 737th 
6.	E.E.I.
7.	Are the prepared MG positions reported at 518672 occupied?
8.	What is the strength and extent of defensive preparations on the enemy M.L.I.
9.	What is the location of automatic wpn emplacements and AT guns in or near Z?
10.	What is the enemy strength and disposition
11.	a. Full K ration issued for 15 July 44.
12.	ASP #1901 - 527801 - 1/50,000 Isigny Sheet. K&B Train & Am DP 528740 - 
528740.
GRS 53066907
PW Coll Pt 531691.
Straggler Line 522677 - 531687 - 528708
5. a. Current SOI.
1.	Rad silence prior to 0515
2.	CP - see overlay
3.	Bns select & report
MILTONBURGER OFFICIAL:
Craig
S-3
Impressed with the weight of the support which was to b given in this delivery of the "Sunday punch," the tanks, the tank destroyers, the tremendous artillery rolling barrage - a concentration on this narrow front which would include not only the 105mm fire of the 161st Field Artillery Battalion and Cannon Company, but also the reinforcing fires of two medium battalions (a total of twenty-four 155mm howitzers), the 127th from Division Artillery, and the 963rd from corps, leaders departed the meeting with full confidence that the German defenses would break before their attack.
The noisy armor rumbled into forward assembly positions during the night, and, fortunately drew little artillery fire. The 1st and 2nd Battalion prepared to go.  At 0515 the artillery opened up and the troops started to move; the 115th Infantry, on the left, was jumping off at the same time to renew i