Todd P. Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, August 5, 2004: Saving the Legacy tape no. 695

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TODDP. MITH '2004 division headquarters or wherever. Sometimes we were with division h adquart r but mostly we were just up at regimental headquarters. They would take the records back to Army headquarters, I presume. I never did see Army headquarters. BEC: So wherever you were bivouacked then, in the morning, you would get up. If there was a set place, you would just all go in and work at your typewriter. If there wasn't an organized place, you'd just sit there in the dirt and type up your report? TOD: Yes. We never knew where we were. We didn't know if we were near the front lines or behind it or sometimes, even ahead of it. I remember one time a captain came along. I'd never seen him before. He said, "What are you guys doing up here?" I said, "Beats me. I don't know." He said, "It's a bad place to be." Then he left. I thought, "Gee, that was good news" (laughs). We were at Bastogne. We were part of the relief force sent up by Third Army. It was the Screaming Eagles (lOlst Airborne Division) who did the most work there. Our Third Army did a back track and went around. About that time, the weather cleared up and we gave the Germans a lot of misery. [Editor 's note: During the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge, the 1 01st Airborne Division was rushed into the area to bolster the sagging Allied lines and became surrounded at Bastogne. Patton pulled elements of Third Army out of their eastward drive south of the Bulge and sent them north to relieve the 1 01s1 • These forces reached Bastogne and broke the German siege on the day after Christmas, 1944.] So we went along day after day after day. We never knew whether each day was going to be our last day or not. We wound up just not thinking about it. I saw a lot of people in different conditions. We finally became sort of numb to it. I guess that's probably how we got used to it was by becoming numb to it. We didn't let it sink 23