These words may seem to have been written by an advance infantry unit or a combat brigade, carrying out an assault against entrenched enemy troops. Instead, this hair-raising narrative comes from the diary of "B" Company of the 1303rd Engineer General Service Regiment, a "non-combat" unit attached to Patton's Third Army during his epic pursuit of the retreating German forces across France during August, 1944.

Though the 1303rd (called "the thirteen-third" by its soldiers) was supposed to perform its duties outside the zone of armed conflict, these men found themselves acting as the...