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(View the map) The 3rd and 4th of February were characterized by vicious counter-attacks of the enemy, all of which were repulsed, and on February 4, the regiment was relieved. If the problems of supply and movement had been tough heretofore, they became even more so in this assault against the Siegfried defenses. For two days it was necessary to haul supplies for five miles across streams, over precipitous, ice-glazed hills and through trailless forests by means of carrying parties. Even the uniquitous "Weasel" was immobilized until the last day when 307th Airborne Engineers charted and plowed a trail up as far as the Wilsam River. After several uncomfortable days spent in the shell-racked, almost uninhabitable village of Grand Halleux, taken by the 504 in the previous month, the regiment moved by truck across the German border to Schmithof, a railroad stop In the first belt of Siegfried defenses. Here, at rest for the first time on the wrong side of the International Boundary, troops were exposed to the evils of fraternization. However, if the germ existed at all, it was promptly rendered impotent by an explosive "non-fraternization" movie and a set of iron-clad rules backed up by a "We aren't kidding" monetary fine. There were no obvious violations of the non-fraternization code. On February 13, the regiment was moved to the west bank of the Roer River, where they were to remain and prepare for a crossing of the raging stream. After daily postponing this river crossing, attendant upon a lower water level, the 504 was relieved, spiritually as well as physically, on the 19th of February. With an overnight stop-over at Schmithof, the regiment proceeded to Aachen, where they entrained in "40 and 8's" for a trip back to the base at Sissone, France. The former camp, however, had been transformed into two General Hospitals in the regiment's absence, and the 504 was once again moved-this time to Laon, 17 miles from Sissone. Life, molded and compressed to the limitations of a garrison existence, had once again, in the words of one battle-worn paratrooper, "become GI as hell."
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