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Our troops had now moved ahead and we followed. A break had been made in the German line and Capt. Christy told me to take one of the runners with me and return to the rest of our company still at the farmhouse and guide them through the opening. Storm volunteered as well as Ken Bedford who was standing nearby. After a short discussion it was decided that Storm would accompany me. Before we could leave Capt. Christy decided to come along. He sat in the front seat and Storm sat in back over the right wheel. The pontoon bridge was now completed and tanks were rolling across in large numbers. We had already radioed for tanks to assist us in advancing through the break in the German line. As we traveled down a gently slopping gravel road we could see the dust from approaching tanks. As we approached the first tank Storm said his last words, “Beaucoup dust.” The second tank was approaching us and, when it was about 10 feet from us it struck a mine with the outside edge of its left track. Most of the German mines were teller mines and were shaped like a large two-layer cake. These were their most destructive mine, and being made of metal and packed with powerful explosives, they were lethal. These could be detected with mine detectors and the road had been swept by our antitank group and declared clear of mines. The one detonated by the approaching tank was made of plastic and could not be detected with a mine detector. It was an elongated box packed with 10 pounds of explosives and often contained a timer so that several vehicles could pass over it without detonating it then later on it would explode and create disruption perhaps in a rear column. We had traveled this road on our way to the front and had avoided tripping any mine so these obviously had timers on them or else all vehicles had miraculously avoided them.

The tank struck the mine on its far left end and most of the explosion was expended on the roadway. The tank suffered no damage and never slowed down. Antitank mines were not necessarily designed to destroy tanks. To disable a tank by blowing off or damaging one of its tracks was the purpose of a mine. By thus disabling movement of the tank it became a sitting duck for an antitank gun to finish it off. My first reaction from the explosion 10 feet away was to stop but before I could react I had progressed to a line in the road where a string of mines had been laid. I hit one with the right rear wheel and was blown over the steering wheel and to the left front. Capt. Christy was blown straight forward and landed about 75 feet away. He was killed outright. Storm landed half way between Capt. Christy and the wreckage and had one leg completely blown off. He had been sitting directly over the blast. I saw him sitting in the road holding his stubby thigh while still conscious. Our medics had set up our aid station in a farmhouse only a few yards away. They looked up at the sound of the first explosion just in time to see us detonate the second mine. They later told me that they saw me take off over the steering wheel and into the air like a toy balloon. They reached Storm in a fraction of a minute but were unable to save him. An ambulance at the aid station rushed him to a field hospital but he died before reaching the hospital. The medics carried me to the aid station and gave me a bottle of wine while they patched me up and waited for another ambulance. Other than having my back badly bruised I survived in pretty good shape. I had cuts and scratches on my arms and head and my face was peppered with sand grains and gravel from the road. The concussion had blown off my helmet and my hair had taken a sand shampoo and was standing on end. My watch was stopped at 1:41 PM and the day was Palm Sunday. I’m sure that my mother was praying for me about the same time back in Ohio.