On the bright morning of 13 Sept 1944, unit 129 left the charming city of Versailles, France and began the long trek to First Army, for 10 day TDY which was to last until the fall of Cologne. The unit then consisted of Lt Arnold Samuelson, Sgt LaVerne Woods, Tec 5 Carmen Corrado, Tec 5 William Shapiro, and Pvt Jack Perry. The unit spent a short educational session in Paris before proceeding to the 165th Photo Co at Huy. At Huy Pvt Duhl was assigned as a driver, and orders received to go to VII Corps. VII Corps assigned the unit to the 4th Cavalry Group which sent the unit to the 24th Cavalry Squadron. At the squadron the unit set up in an ex-SS General's home at Bullingen, and awaited the first action. The first day proved to be a very trying one indeed, Woods and Corrado patrolled with C Troop and Perry and Shapiro patrolled with B Troop. The team with C Troop ran into a nest of hornets and Corrado dropped his camera, picked up a 50 caliber machine gun, began blazing away and earned his name "Killer Corrado", while floods continued to shoot with his Eymo. Corrado's famous "Death Forest" photos resulted from this action. A few miles away Perry and Shapiro ran into the same trouble, all aimed at "Abie's" jeep. Describing a graceful swan dive, Shapiro hit the dirt using his graphic as a cushion, while Perry's jeep continued on unaware of what was happening to the rest of the team. On return to the CP the unit compared notes and decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

  The unit then moved into the front line town of Monschau where Finkels joined with the 20 inch lens. The trio of Woods, Finkels , and Perry shot the anti-aircraft and Konzon artillery stories, considered, incidentally, the best artillery story shot in the ETO. The unit settled down to the run of the mill stories that characterized the stale-rate of the Monschau front. The period was marked by routine patrols and lousy weather.

  Moving to the moth-eaten town of Membach, Belgium, the unit settled in a drafty one room annex to the North Pole. Woods and Shapiro left the unit for greener pastures; Woods to the hazardous duties as General Bradley's personal motion picture photographer, while "Abie" left for the pleasant atmosphere of the company headquarters. Tesser and Finkels were the replacements. The unit spent the next week casing hideouts in the Hurtgen Forest. During one of these jaunts Tesser received his baptism of fire. Charlie turned in an excellent performance as is evidenced by his pictures in Time and Life magazines.

  For awhile Tesser and Finkels were with the 3rd Armored Division, but later the unit-was together again at Shevenhutte, the town of a thousand pleasures, the jewel of the earthen Forest, complete with candle-light, C-rations, mud, cold, and rain, slit-trenches and artillery. The days were pleasantly spent dodging tree-bursts in the Hurtgen and relaxing at night by being slammed from wall to wall by the concussion of the outgoing 240's. But a week in Paris came along at last. The unit was back in the line again, in no way prepared for the bombing that proceeded the breakthrough, which announced itself by blowing the unit out of their beds and into a dawn tour of guarding against the invading parachutists, who dropped that night of 16 December 44. The next few days were spent vainly trying to remember various and sundry pass words, finally evolving a system of magic words that got us through the best road blocks, to wit: "It beats the SUGAR HOW ITEM TEAR out of me, bud.”

  The unit moved with the cavalry to the bulge, and the holiday season was spent at the beautiful Chateau de Janee, but it wasn't Christmas. It was just another day with fighting cavalrymen, living in damp halls, eating out in the zero weather with the tanks and half-tracks as tables. And the daily battles in the bulge gave the unit the frequent combat stories always wanted. There was the tank battle for Humaine when part of the unit rode on the top of the tanks while the krauts were flushed out of the woods. That was the day the unit brought in it's first prisoners, eight Nazi medics who asked for copies of the pictures taken, and the same day the unit Jeep was peppered with holes by 88's.

  After a short rest at Huy, Belgium, the unit moved back to Appagne from which it covered the retaking of Beffe, Marcouray, and the many other small towns at the tip of the pocket. At Beffe, Perry and Corrado Joined infantry and cavalry-men on a patrol to get snipers and earned bronze stars.

  It was during these serious days of fighting krauts and cold that the unit acquired another driver from the 165th Photo Co, violin and guitar-playing Larry Hoffman from Montana, who kept the unit amused with his cowboy songs and warm with his marvelously smokeless fires. And while living in the ruins of Marcourt, Finkels made a remarkable discovery while on a flashlight tour of our billets. Down in the basement, instead of a wine cellar, he found thirty women, children, and old men, living and sleeping on straw covered floor, still to terrified by our bombs that leveled their homes to venture out into the open again. It was at the same town that Lt Samuelson changed his gold bars for silver.

  Things happened fast after that. The unit recorded the meeting of the First and Third Armies at LaRoche, spent some interesting hours with Mickey Rooney at Villars Ste. Gertrud. Then, because of the Group plan to let all officers try the field, Lt Gordon Wallace left his chair-borne Job of assignment officer to replace Lt Samuelson on 1 Feb 45.

  The unit proceeded back to Aachen, where they billeted in an architectural monstrosity, a German air raid shelter. The next few days were spent sightseeing Aachen, until orders came through transferring the unit from First to Ninth Army.

  Unit 129 Joined the 8th Armored Division, better known as the “Pride of the Fleet” located at Simplevelt, Holland. The monotonous C-rations were supplemented by a charming Dutch family, who insisted on feeding the unit eggs for breakfast and pie with either beer, wine, or cognac at night. But the unit had to move on to Echt. While there, the initial combat campaign of the 8th Armored at Lynn, Holland, was photographed. It was a very trying day for the whole unit as the tankers were not accustomed to the funny gremlins running all about them with secret weapons in their hands. The tankers opened fire on the unit with the theory that “If you don't know what it is, shoot it”. Perry's dirty handkerchief was thrown up in time.

  The unit got in on the Roer crossing by the simple expedient of being where they shouldn't have been at the right time, but the 79th 84th and 102 divisions didn't mind further coverage and due to their excellent fighting, and a handy nearby ditch, Perry and Tesser lived to photograph another day.

  For a few days proceeding the Rhine crossing the unit lived at XVI Cords Headquarters under the roster-complexed Calvano and the easy-going but hard hitting Lt Daniel. Private and group talks followed, orientations galore, everybody got anxious, a little Scared, and as the time drew closer small moist beads oozed out on the faces of photogs who, for once, were serious. All turned in valuables, checked home addresses and were told that this was to be the biggest operation the world had ever seen, and that it would put D-Day to shame. Tesser and Finkels crossed the Rhine at H-hour in a Navy Alligator with the 30th Infantry Division. They stayed with them for three days until the breakthrough seemed imminent. Corrado and Perry had a cool assignment; one of those routine everyday jobs that is so boring. Some big boys called Eisenhower, Churchill, Simpson, Montgomery, were their subjected and the resulting photos, both still and movies, received big spreads all over.

  Using the handy expedient of an extra ¼ ton M-3 that had been picked up some time ago, the unit split up just east of the Rhine for a more complete coverage, photographic and otherwise. The best that can be remembered is meeting once again some 400 to 500 miles closer to Berlin near Braunschweig (that's where they had the guards on the Rollei factory) The unit operated in and around Braunschweig and Magdeburg for about a month, enjoyed every day of it, realizing that the heart of the Reich had finally been hit. During this time Teeser and Finkels were sweating out their Bronze stars, the recommendations for which must have gone astray.