These pictures were taken by Donald Conkling (see page 15) as were the pictures on pages 15, 16, 18 and 19.
This is one of the squad pictures that Donald Conkling took of each of the five squads in our platoon, though he didn't take a picture of the Second Rifle squad (which had my friend Al Schaefer in it) or the 4th squad (my squad). I think this in a small town called Saint Mark. Two of the members of this squad, Gentry and Best, were with my squad for some reason at Herrlishiem and were wounded. The bicycle, without tires, appears in other pictures. The driver was Will Smith, lower right, and he was the only member not eventually killed or wounded. Joe Sokel is in the upper right. He was a flyer who ferried planes from Canada to England, but the Army learned he was a communist and he either volunteered to fight the Nazis or was demoted by the Army and sent into the Infantry. He was a book reader, smart, thoughtful and quiet. Nobody else I recall felt as certain for why he was in the army as he did, which was to fight the Nazis. He was wounded at Herrlishem and never retuned to the front and I never heard from him again. In the background is a 50 ca. machine gun. Each round was different colored, two high explosive, two armor piercing, and a tracer.
This is Palma (I can't recall his first name), posing with a found hat and jacket. I'm guessing that the date was January 5th, and he died on the 8th or 9th, or soon after, at Herrlisheim. He was a good friend of Conkling.
This is me and, Phil Colunga, and a driver from another squad, Jim Read. I have a story about Jim later. The rest of the squad were elsewhere for some reason. We were billeted in the building behind us. Later, Jim Read and I spent a freezing night in a foxhole in a field around January 15th together near German lines. We were put about 50 yards ahead of our lines and told to fire if we saw anything, and then the lines behind us would open with machine gun fire over the area. I remember snow, corn stalks rustling, and being scared all night, both of us. There were flares being shot up, and every time they went off I thought I saw something different out front. Jim was as scared as I was and peed in my helmet instead of his own, and it still had my helmet liner in it, and I was pretty mad. Now I'm not sure if it wasn't me.
This is Sergeant Ricketson on a bicycle without tires that he found. He was in the machine gun squad. It had just snowed. He was wounded at Herrlishiem.
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