Light machine gun squads moved to the outskirts of Meckel
to support the southern drive . . . . . .

Shifting troops, the press of campaign, -- but the men seldom go hungry. The mess sergeant tries to send forward two hot meals a day: cereal, hotcakes, coffee for breakfast; meat, potatoes, two vegetables, bread and butter or jam, dessert, more coffee for supper. The food is placed steaming hot in Marmite cans -- large tri-sectioned, thermos-type containers -- enough food in one can for fifty men. The sergeant, a couple of cooks, and if possible the mail orderly, go along with the mess truck. Mail to the front-line soldier is voted as vital as calories and ammunition. Each vehicle tries to get as near its own company as possible; an area behind a protecting hill is the ideal spot. Marmites are placed about ten yards apart and the doughboys infiltrate for their mess kits and chow, eating in as dispersed locations as possible lest they make a target for Jerry. After the meal the kits are returned to the kitchen, to be brought up clean on the next trip. Often the food is prepared on as little as ninety minutes notice. But there are no epicureans in combat, only toiling humans who have learned every trick of bodily privation short of extended thirst and hunger . . . . .

The morning of 2 March saw no letup in the 76th Division advance. The 304th Infantry, relieved by elements of Combat Team 385, moved north to defensive positions at Mohn and Welschbillig. The 417th Regiment sent the 1st Battalion to clear an arc north of Butzweiler after the 2d Battalion had captured the town, while the latter proceeded to smash a chain of thirteen pillboxes in the hills to the south. The 3d Battalion, having captured Welschbillig, Mohn and Newel, and now relieved by the 1st Battalion of the 80th Division's 318th Regiment, was free to move against Aach, which it took successfully early the same day. In the 385th regimental zone of action the 1st Battalion passed through the 2d and took Neuhaus by noon. In the afternoon the 2d and 3d Battalions had followed to take Trierweiler and Niederweiler in the order named. Earlier in the day the 2d Cavalry Group had crossed the Sauer in the vicinity of Steinheim and combed the east bank of the river to its junction with the Moselle; then swinging east, had cleared both Liersburg and Zewen-Oberkirch southwest of Trier. As the sun was setting, the 417th Regiment reported that Lorich, north of Trier, had been taken and the surrounding woods were being patrolled. Early the next morning, 3 March, the 385th Infantry, its 1st Battalion having cleared Sirzenich and the 3d Battalion having moved south after clearing Fusenich, made contact with the 10th Armored Division. Here was the 76th Division's fulfillment of Lt Gen Patton's assignment. The Moselle River had been reached. Contact with XX Corps had been made. The entire U-shaped pocket formed by the Sauer, Moselle and Kyll Rivers had been cleared.

The infantry rolls south towards the Moselle . . . . . . .
Tank destroyers cover the advance . . . . .

German civilians in Lorch
discuss developments . . . . .

Reaching the northwest bank of the Moselle completed the 76th Division's second breakthrough of the Siegfried Line. Bazookas, 90 MM TD guns, artillery and infantry aggressiveness thoroughly refuted Germany's arrogant faith in the concrete and steel of the West Wall. The methodical drive from the rear made many of the gun emplacements useless. The ease with which pillbox embrasures were neutralized by accurate small arms fire totally eliminated the need for fifty-two flame throwers held at-the-ready by the division. The favorite German ruse of permitting troops to advance to a certain area, then pinning them down with machine gun fire until their own mortar crews sent prepared barrages into the area, was met by more than equal strategy. Using marching fire, the troops refused to be pinned down, and instead advanced behind their own well-aimed mass fire, thus pinning down the enemy and putting the pinching shoe on the other foot. In fact, the technique -- which kept the enemy from returning fire -- resulted in fewer American casualties and quicker completion of missions.

In the drive to Trier the 76th captured a total of twenty-eight towns and well over 1600 prisoners. On 3 March the 13th Company, 1130th Regiment, of the 560th Division surrendered intact with four howitzers, four heavy mortars and forty-three horses. Probably the choice capture story of the war occurred near Trier while two Division Artillery air liaison officers were on a routine reconnaissance flight in their Piper Cub. 2 d Lt Billy Foust, pilot, and 1st Lt Ray Souply, observer, were floating through the air with the greatest of ease and minding everybody's business when they spotted a formation of soldiers. Lt Foust, recognizing them as Germans, swooped the plane down to 500 feet, and Lt Souply sent three hand grenades through the ozone into the midst of the scampering krauts. Fear plainly showing in their faces and cringing beneath the circling plane, the "master race" held their hands high in the air. One of the men frantically waved a white cloth. Hovering over the heads of the dumbfounded enemy group, Lt Souply leaned out of the plane and motioned for them to start toward the 76th Division lines. Three Jerries, hoping to escape, took off on the double, but changed their minds abruptly when two grenades landed directly in front of them. That settled the matter for all twenty-five nazis. The confused band, as if shackled to the plane, headed for the division sector, prisoners of a proudly humming Piper Cub which had never even landed to make the haul.