Guard duty - Just us - movies - Kenny P.
Marched to La Haye du Puits to board
train for Belgium - box car ride.
crowded - cursing at one another
c rations heated in chem. tablets - 10-1
saw cathedral of Notre Dame in distance
as well as Eiffel Tower - train moved
slow - threw cigarettes to workers
- great sport - scrambled for them
like pigeons for crumbs
arr. in Belgium - rainy night - Mechelen - trucks took
us to area - put up tent in darkenss
Brussels on "pass" - dance last evening
before leaving after guard duty - much
fun - crowded - reseted in  ?? ?? & ?? ?? English trucks took us
to front line - relieved British soldiers
in their fox holes. Artillery fired heavily
that night. Next day we prepared to
move into "battle" waited along dirt road
officers moved up - artillery - finally
we moved across road - first impression
dead horses - trees uprooted - several
dead Germans lying in ditches
firing up ahead Bob & I moved out
ahead in field - three farm yard
- crumbled buildings.  jumped
into Jerry fox holes 20 yds ahead of squad
which was digging in along ditches.
under artillery for at least 1 hr. didn't
know whether to stay in fox holes or not

Page 03 Notes from Bob Hall:

"When your Dad & I jumped into Jerry fox
holes, we got mortar fire & dirt was being
thrown in by explosions. I said maybe we should
run.  Your Dad said "Hell no!"  Probably saved
our lives right there. We were told never to
jump into Jerry holes as they were known to
booby trap them & also they had them zeroed in
so they could blast us out. Someone was watching
out for us right there."