All day long we travelled on snow and iced roads, trails and hills stopping from time to time than continuing the tiring exercise until on one rest stop our squad leader was called back to conference call and when he came back gave us the saddle-up and move on command, this time heading up a steep hill and stopping close to the top with another command to dig in, addressing us as the "BAR" pointing to a spot overlooking the trail we just came from so as we dug our hole I noticed that there was a thick frozen crust on the snow covered earth we had to break through before we could start digging, it was tiring. After we got the hole satisfactorily deep enough the BAR man tells me he's going to take a nap, "keep alert, they suspect the enemy is close or they wouldn't have had us stop". I felt a weird feeling coming over me as I went over in my head as much as I could a check list of preparedness like, making sure my rifle muzzle was clean and clear and ammo laid out close within arms length. My partner the BAR man was fast asleep so I also checked to make sure his gun was clean and also clear.
After exchanging sleep periods several times it was my turn again and around 2AM when I heard a number of popping sounds and the night lite up with flares popping in the sky, lighting up like day lite and then there they were men dressed in heavy tan uniforms with brown belts pouring in from the trail we had previously came up the hill from and they were firing automatic guns at us, I froze at first and the BAR man grabbed his BAR Rifle and exited the hole position heading up the hill towards another position above ours saying, "We're down here by ourselves and can't hold, follow me." and left, I reached for my rifle planning to follow him but wanted to release the Safety first, but in the excitement forgot how and released the wrong lever that dismantled the Rifle the front muzzle falling off unto the snow covered bottom of the hole. In panic I reached down desperately searching the snow for the piece and when I found it quickly joining it back with the Butt piece I was holding and finally had a a functioning rifle again, by this time the enemy group was already on us and a top my position so I blindly without thinking started to fire. I fired from side to side mostly with my eyes closed expecting to get hit and die at any minute. I kept this up until I emptied my bandoleer and was without ammo and when my last empty magazine flipped out of my gun it was now dark and an enemy soldier jumps in or fell in the hole with me and for a brief moment holding his gun just stood there until again a flare went off and I saw his face and he saw mine, He jumped back out and ran off as I heard a bugle sounding in the distance and I fell back against the back of the hole thinking I must be dead.
It was over, they had left as quickly as they had come, I don't know how long I just lay there in a daze not knowing if they were coming back to finish me off but just feeling a weird feeling like I didn't care, I was not afraid anymore and would face whatever happened with an empty rifle I could use as a club when they would come back, I had no bayonet and a Belt loaded with BAR ammo and no BAR. 
As dawn approached I was greeted by my Platoon Sgt. as he approached and said, "Wow, why didn't you follow orders and moved out with Jones?." and I replied, " I thought we were supposed to stay and cover this position". and He again looking around the number of dead saying, "Yep that's right, You're my BAR man now, go get the gun from Jones" and after telling Jones and taking the gun away from him I was now the 2nd Squad BAR Man.