Photo Unit 123 was born in rumor, as is most everything in the Army. The rumors came with the New Year, 1945, but it wasn't until late March that they got out of the rumor stage and on paper. The paper says a photo unit is one officer and four enlisted men and so the commanding officer, Lt Chamberlin, mixed up a new photo unit. It was his first unit as commanding officer, he must have made it right because it was a Good unit. Lt Arnold Samuelson, who had already won fame and honor with the 4th Cavalry Group, was the officer. From Tacoma Washington, in his spare time he gave lectures on the wonders of the city. It was interesting and sometimes the cameramen could use phrases of it in their captions.

  Tec 4 Walter MacDonald, Los Angeles California, was unit Non-Com. Ye had already worn out a couple of divisions, the 11th Armored, and then the 5th Armored with his scoop pictures, but he felt he could do even better next try.

  The famous team of Urban and O'Brien, from the bulge and battle of-Bastogne, handled the movie cameras, and ground off miles of good unused film into much better used film. O'Brien missed his UpperDarby newspaper, and Eddie Urban rewired every house for electricity that we moved into.

  From the Storage cellar came the "Sheepherder from Utah', Heslop, who had been at headquarters with his speed graphic waiting for spring and a nice long assignment.

  The unit said good-by on 19 March 45 and zoomed off to First Army to record news and history, and make a little of both.

  Heslop tells the story, "We drove like mad to make Spa, Belgium the first night. It was the roads that offered the only obstacle, but we made it and that night we divided the 50 Belgium Francs we had and went celebrating, and it wasn't until noon the next day that we realized that we had driven far into Germany. That afternoon we were assigned to the 9th Armored Division, V Corps. That night we stayed with our old buddies from Ft Sam, the 165th Signal Photo Co. Sgt Smoody took care of us; we slept in the pigeon loft of an old castle. The sound of the battle could be heard and we talked over the things we would like to do and the pictures we would like to take.

  The 9th Armored was a Swell outfit. We were good to them and they were good to us, so we got along as one big happy family. We joined them west of the Rhine River at Bad Nonhour while the initial crossing at Remagen was still in its infancy. The division crossed and started the great drive into the heart of Germany. We joined the leading elements at Leutesdorf and turned in many of the first pictures of the advance east of the Rhine. Some days as many as 90 Stills and 1200 feet of movie film was exposed. In two days we were in Neuwied. The streets were dirty, littered with rubble, full of nails, we had six flats one day, buildings burned, tanks rolled through and white flags appeared in all the windows. We moved rapidly from place to place in the city and got pictures of the battle, Prisoners and other thinks of interest. At one time we discovered a wounded Yank who had been hit by a sniper's bullet. Immediately we took him to a hospital in the town which we discovered as we drove up was still in German hands. Aid men dressed in German uniforms rushed to help. It was quite a surprise to us but the German doctors operated and cared for the wounded soldier. MacDonald's first words were, ‘Er, have you been captured yet?', they hadn't, but were aware of the fact that the Americans were in the town. Heslop shot a couple of pictures and the film was rushed back.

  Still the drive pushed on, we followed and got pictures of the battle in Engers, Baderf, and on to Vallandar. The drive turned east; the Reichautobahn spread on before the armor and the division really rolled. That is it rolled until it was delayed or detoured by blown bridges, which the retreating Nazi had completely destroyed. So the unit pulled up to photograph a damaged bridge near Monta Baur, and behold the place was loaded with Germans, which we captured. We got a total of 19 with pictures to prove it. Yank even used it. Again we rushed back with the film, bucking a giant convoy of tanks and trucks that were pressing forward. We got the film into channels and spent the night on the Rhine in a river tanker that was tied up. We moved right into the captain's cabin and set up house. Next town was Limbers, the prisoner of war town. Heslop and Urban went out with a Psychological Warfare speaker and with the assistance of the two PW boys captured a whole town of prisoners.

  We can't stop too long in one place so next day we were headed in the direction of Wetzlar, where the Leica factory stands. But somehow we got our directions mixed and couldn't find the factory. The drive was turning into a tour, through Gieben, Marburg and right on to Fritzlar. We stopped at the airport there, parked the jeeps in a field, but soon we were on our stomachs in an old barn while a couple Jerry snipers shot at it for practice. We got out of there as soon as we could.

  The tanks had gone on towards Warburg and Kassel. We stayed in Warburg a few days, it rained every day so we had a little time to mail packages, get mail and pay.

  Prison camps were becoming important, so we photographed a Polish Officers camp. On 10 April we left for Naumberg, and the drive for Liepzig was on. Radio Liepzig was captured intact. It looked to us like the war was going well. Everyone in the unit had learned to cook by this time, we had been living on 10-in-1's for a long time. We found 'Raus from der haus' was the best method to get a stove, pots, pans, dishes, and five good beds. We picked up a small generator and Lt Samuelson and Urban became adept at altering any electrical system so we would have lights.

  Leipzig fell and we were in town 20 April for pictures. MacDonald and Urban covered it from the air. There was no burgomeister left for he and half the city hall had committed suicide at a drinking party the night before.

  At last we could stop. We were waiting to meet the Russians who were hot on the way to meet the line on the Elbe River. But Unit 123 had to miss out on the big story for orders were received transferring us to Third Army.