McKean County PA Archives News.....ROBERTS, Charles of Bradford among MAULDIN'S 45th BUDDIES AMONG FIRST INTO REICH December 15, 1944
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  Mike Poole mpoole262@yahoo.com February 6, 2010, 6:29 pm
  
  Stars And Stripes December 15, 1944
  MAULDIN'S 45th BUDDIES AMONG FIRST INTO REICH
  
  By ED CLARK 
  
  Stars and Stripes Staff Writer
  
  Germany, south of Kaiserslautern, December 15 - Company "K" Bill Mauldin's old 
  outfit, was among the leading elements of the 7th Army across the German 
  frontier shortly after noon today.
  
  The real winner of the closely contested race by Patch's doughfeet to the 
  enemy border probably will never be known. Reports of time of frontier 
  crossings by various units made the "first over" honors vary as crazily as 
  early returns from a tight election.
  
  Strongest bid for top honors was made by Company "I" of the 103rd Division's 
  411th Infantry.  This outfit commanded by 1st. Lt. William McCutcheon, St. 
  Joseph, Mo., reported crossing the frontier west of Wissembourg at 1305 hours. 
  Second place probably went to the same regiment's Company "L" which reported 
  pushing over the border under the command of Capt. Joseph F. Kasun, Bisbie, 
  Ariz., at 1320 hours.
  
  Bill Mauldin's outfit claimed winning at least a three-cornered race in the 
  Third Battalion of the 45th Division's 180th Infantry.  Company "K" led by 
  1st. Lt. Norman J. Young, Staten Island, N.Y.,  reported entering Germany west 
  of Wissembourg at 1345 hours. Official division credit was given, however, to 
  the 108th's Company "L" commanded by 1st. Lt. William O. Denham, whose time 
  across the frontier was fixed at 1350 hours.
  
  Also in the money was Company "F" of the 79th Division's 315th Infantry, which 
  reported crossing from France into Germany, west of Lauterbourg, at about 1400 
  hours.
  
  Although fighting through some of the roughest hills and wooded terrain on the 
  7th Army front, Bill Mauldin's old company wound over a straightline distance 
  of five kilometers in just over six hours in its push to the frontier.
  
  First of Company "K" past the 1826 vintage French customs marker was not 
  Mauldin's Willie or Joe but Pfc. Stephen S. Pilate, Northampton, Mass., handle 
  bar-moustached squad leader. He was the pointman for platoons commanded by 
  2nd Lts. Brewster F. Ellis, Lansing, Mich,, and CHARLES ROBERTS, Bradford, Pa.
  
  The company's fight to the border was tough but inexpensive. At a cost of no 
  casualties, Lt. Young's outfit took 15 prisoners, killed a half dozen Germans, 
  wounded three or four others and knocked out a bazooka. AT frontier was 
  Company "K's" last battle in France.
  
  Rolling over the border with the doughfeet was "Chick," a big Sherman from 
  Company "C" of a tank battalion.  Commanded by 1st. Lt. Philip Levy, South 
  Bend, Ind.,  "Chick" was ready to fire the first tank shell into the Siegfried 
  Line.  The crew included Cpl. Charles Williams, Old Hickory, Tenn., Pvt. John 
  J. McHugh, Shenandoah, Pa., Cpl Edward Paca, Delano, Calif., and Pfc. Ray E. 
  Kelly, Eldorado Springs, Mo.
  
  After entering Germany, tankmen and doughfeet, with 1st. Lt. Virgil Woodall, 
  Marion., Ky., executive officer of Company "K" since Sicily, returned to 
  scratch their names deep on the stone border marker.
  
  Back at the CP of the Third Battalion comaanded by Lt. Col. Everett Duvall, 
  Spokane, Wash., Sgt. Harmon "Gene" Colling, Hobbs, N. M., Mauldin's former 
  Company K communications sergeant, wanted to know when Willie and Joe were 
  going to find out about the Siegfried Line.
  
  
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