At Anzio, I got to know Ted Bachenheimer much better as the beachhead was stationary. For over the four months that we were there, Ted seemed to find his niche in Recon. Ted just loved to go out on patrols behind enemy lines--most of the time by himself and he would bring back prisoners. I, as corporal at that time along with fourteen others, went out on a patrol with Ted leading the way. We slowly made our way through a German minefield. I remembered one newcomer to the front saying, "Look we are going through a German cemetery, look at the crosses down there". I told him, "cemetery hell”. Those crosses had "Achtung Minen" written on them. Somehow we got through that minefield unscathed. Soon we were in German territory and were walking quietly when we heard some 'guttural' voices and we all laid down flat. About 20 yards away we could faintly see about a platoon of German soldiers. They were evidently relieving their outposts with fresh troops. After they passed on, Ted told us to stay put and he walked up to the outpost and asked the two Germans inside the foxhole for a light for his cigarette. When they went to do so, Ted calmly told them they were surrounded and he took them prisoner. We headed back to our own lines and Ted got ahead of us with the two prisoners and we lost sight of him. Meanwhile, someone did not tell our own artillery that we were out there and we started to get artillery shells coming down around us. If that was not bad enough, every 3rd or 4th one was a phosphorus shell. Now we had been under German artillery before but when it comes to firing for effect it is hard to beat the American artillery. Those shells were dropping all around us, but the worst thing that happened was some of the guys got their jumpsuits scorched.
On the way back, we came to a ditch along the side of a road and laid down, as we had to wait for two stragglers. As we lay there waiting for them to catch up with us, we heard German boots marching down the road. Probably a noncom checking on his men. We had every intention of letting him walk past, but one of the men took the safety off his M1 Rifle, making a sound of 'click'. The German soldier looked over at the ditch and said 'was ist los'. Well, every man in the ditch let loose with everything they had. Our stragglers, by now on the other side of the ditch, later told us they saw rifle fire was coming out of the Germans’ back. Soon it seemed that every outpost in the vicinity was firing his weapon in our direction. Luckily we were lying down in the ditch. After a while we slowly made our way back to our own lines.
On the Mussolini canal. One guy (Snead) was on outpost with his bar. A German snuck up on him at night and he hightailed it to the rear. When he went back to his position, the bar was missing. They charged Snead for it. I don't know if he ever paid for it or not.