Into the end of March 1945, the 87th was rushing across Germany in an effort to cut off the retreat of the German forces. Somewhere along this route, the powers to be thought it would be great if our company could have a chance to move to an area where we could clean and sight in our weapons. As a result, we came upon a field where there was a mound about 100 feet long and 8 to 10 feet high. Squads were brought to the line 100 yards distant from the mound and told to place their markers on the mound, which would facilitate their zeroing in of their weapons.

Our platoon was the first to fire and we dutifully walked out to the mound and placed K-Ration boxes, C-ration tins, and other forms of targets on the mound. We walked back to the firing line and began to fire on our pre-placed targets. Dust and smoke arose from the mound as every GI tried to zero in his weapon. Among those weapons were, M-1s, Carbines, BARs, light 30 caliber machine guns, grease guns and a varied assortment of pistols both American and German.

About ten seconds into the firing, a German Jack Rabbit (they are the size of German Shepherds) appeared from a hole in the mound and began to run from east to west and back in a panic as every form of fire tried to hit it. Bars, light 30s, M-1s, pistols, and an occasional Bazooka fired at this German Jack Rabbit. The rest of the company, seeing what was happening ran up to the firing line and tried to kill this German national with whatever was at hand. I could swear that I saw one GI throw a rock at the rabbit.

Dust covered the mound from the impact of all that fire and occasionally, in small clear spaces, we could see the Jack Rabbit running for its life. With tears in his eyes, our senior officer screamed out a cease fire and we all stopped shooting at the rabbit. The dust began to settle and eventually disappeared and we looked for the riddled carcass of the poor rabbit only to find that it was nowhere to be seen. With eyes peering intensely at the mound, we were surprised to see the rabbit appear from the other side of the mound, stare at us for a brief moment, and then show us his tail as he departed away from us and away from our line of fire.