![]() ![]() All we could do is stay there and wait for something to happen. It was possible they would have been so startled by our pluck or stupidity that they would have backed off, thinking it was a trap of some kind. Any enemy tank coming down the road would see us immediately, on turning the upper switch back 300 yards away. There were no ditches or structures within 150 yards. The hillside was totally bare, not even a small bush. The position was in the open, with no possibility of any cover. Davies and I had orders: if attacked, let the first two tanks go by, and pull the mines in front of the third tank. I think the rest of the platoon was still in the barn, with a single guard posted. Our roadblock was only a short distance from the comfortable barn hayloft billet where we spent the previous night. However, someone in Battalion or Regiment must have know something, as Davies and I were suddenly put on the defensive position. I have no way of knowing what knowledge the squad leader had of the Verdenne attack. ![]() More mines and a deployment of our antitank guns would have been appropriate. A correct response would have been a more extensive defense involving the entire platoon. It should have been known by our Platoon leader that, at that time, the Germans of the 116 Panzer Division had breached our front line, taken Verdenne, and occupied some of the area around the village. Later, I found the forest up the hill was between villages of Bourdon, Verdenne, and Marenne was the location of the 116 Panzer infiltration on the east side of Verdenne. The rather small dirt road angled up to a switchback that further angled up to a woods. The hillside was too steep a road to go straight up. Our squad leader led us to a position, before the first switchback on the road leading up a hill toward woods to the northeast, to the forest and the villages of Verdenne and Marenne. We used eight mines from the stock carried on our Dodge 6 x 6 truck and a commandeered Belgian rope. The afternoon of December 24th, Bob Davies and I were ordered to make up a daisy chain. Douglas Harvey, 84 INFD 334 REG 1 BN HQ COīy Douglas Harvey, 84 INFD 334 REG 1 BN HQ CO ![]()
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