Accounts from Edwin N. Blasingim, First Sgt., Company B, 160 Engineer Combat Battalion as told to his son.
The 160th traveled quickly in their first convoys across France. When they got to where the Germans were, convoys were a lot different. The 160th was much more cautious. They traveled slower, convoyed shorter distances and often traveled at night. Dad remembers that late one evening after traveling several hours with black out lights the convoy pulled into a camping area for the night. As the trucks rolled in and started parking and posting guards they realized that some Germans were already in the place. There was much confusion and scrambling on both sides and the trucks and jeeps kept rolling in. It was tense for a while for those who were aware of the Germans. When things settled down the Germans were gone and no shots had been fired.
Dad was a back-up driver for a 6x6 and one night when he was behind the wheel the convoy went through a dark intersection in a small deserted French town. Usually there were guards posted to ensure that the convoy stayed on route, but this intersection did not have a guard posted. Dad had let a little too much distance get between him and the truck whose blackout lights he was following. So in the dark he remembers turning left. After a few tense moments he was able to pick out the glow of the light on the truck he had been following. He had no idea how many trucks were following him.
When the 160th pulled into a camp it was standard ops to post guards immediately. Usually there would be 3 or 4 trucks that would take up positions on the perimeter of the camping area, the men in each truck would spread out but stay close to their truck. Once, after a hard day and then a long night of convoying the 160th set up a camp and everybody was exhausted so they bedded down. When they woke the next morning they discovered that no guard had been posted. Guards went out immediately and everybody took cover and was armed and on alert until they were sure that the area was secure. Dad said that that never happened again.
Dad said that the 160th made some mistakes but fortunately they weren't costly ones. When the 160th was convoying into Verdun for the first time they got off route and bypassed the town. Most of the drivers did not know the route or destination, they just followed the vehicle in front of them. They learned later that the route they took that day was not the proposed one. Their leaders got directions on the far side of Verdun and came back bypassing the town on the other side and continued out of town about 10 miles where they set up camp. Verdun had just been bombed by the Germans who had been pushed out the day before. When the 160th came back into town there was a large German bomb that had hit in the middle of one of the main streets. It was buried and unexploded. Digging it out and disarming it was going to be a job for B company. Before they started, the job was assigned to another outfit. Dad remembers how relieved he felt.
You never knew how close the Germans were. So everyone stayed on their toes. Dad was not a big drinker but some of the engineers in the 160th were. In France that meant wine. The 160th was low on gasoline, like the rest of the 3rd Army so they were stuck where they were at for a while. Somewhere east of Verdun there was a wine bar with a big selection of wines, Dad said it was a very nice place.Some times the bar was filled with American G.I.s, drinking and socializing with their buddies from other outfits. But at other times the Germans owned the place. Somehow the Americans and the Germans managed to keep from encountering each other and there was never any conflict that Dad knew about. The bartender had some nervous afternoons though.
black out light on drivers side of 6x6
close-up of blackout light