I had some time today to type up some of the pages. The following excerpts are from the first couple of pages of the 2nd diary. I'm not sure if the first diary explains what a "Cracker" is, but if anyone knows, please let me know. Apparently, a cracker is something they used to secure a bridge or road, but I don't know for sure. I skipped a couple of pages, but it mentions his friend Clifford Leslie Adams taking shrapnel to the leg.
Log: Florentino Pena
Saturday, March 11, 1944
Went to fill "crackers" and as soon as they
(Germans) saw us working by cutting
the trees to fill the holes, they started
shelling us; but we had to keep working by order
of Lt. Col. Dieblen.
Sunday, March 12, 1944
Went to lay wire entanglement on the front line
with 600 yards of wire, after we got working
it started raining really hard. We came in early
because we were all wet and had to walk to miles
back to the truck.
Monday, March 13, 1944
Went to put a little more dirt on top of matting
that we had laid on top of the crackers. We were
shelled again and Clifford Adams got hit by a piece
of shrapnel....it was not bad.
......
Thursday March 16, 1944
Went to finish bridge and 2 squads of third platoon worked close to us fixing drive way to bridge. The other squad was finishing putting wire where we had left that got ruined by Jerrys (Slang for Germans) small arm fire. East Co. got seven
men wounded and one killed fixing the crackers at night. I was on guard from 10pm to 2am