In more ways than the obvious one, this work can be - it is in every way but official, in that authors differ - a sequel to The Longest Day, the famous one about D-Day, which was made into a film as well.
The first two pages of chapter six describe next moves, after capture of Aachen, planned by Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Montgomery - with some objections by General Patton noted - and the differences they had; to anyone whos watched A Bridge Too Far, mentioned in this book before in previous chapters, what's coming is anticipated, and so such a reader expects more details of Operation Market Garden at that point. This is even more true about the Battle of the Bulge, which the 30th Division was involved in, so all in all there is much to look forward to as one begins, and more so later.
But - having built up the anticipation - Battle of the Bulge precedes Operation Market Garden. One point a reader here might begin to notice unless a professional historian, is that most accounts of the Battle of the Bulge are usually centred around Bastogne, which is well deserved, of course, but here one reads about other just as well deserved battles and encounters, and begins to know of other important points that the Battle of the Bulge was fought around - Stavelot, for example - and most of all, Baugnez and Malmédy. This part is hardly ever spoken about, perhaps as a matter of policy, because immediately after the war and even as Nuremberg trials were proceeding, cold war was on, and any public knowledge about the Malmédy massacre by the S.S., of eighty U.S. soldiers who had fought and surrendered, would turn the U.S. people into far more fiercely anti German than the horror evoked by the exposing of extermination camps.
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Foreword introduces the topic, and the Introduction takes it further:-
"The 30th Infantry Division, named “Old Hickory” and code-named “Custom,” was called by historian S. L. A. Marshall the “most outstanding infantry division in the European Theater of Operations (ETO)” during the entire war.
"The officers and men of Old Hickory were the product of a civilian army, well trained by competent officers into a cohesive fighting machine that outsmarted the best of the German Army’s elite divisions. Although a National Guard unit, it never received the credit to which it was due all through the war; it was always relegated to the bottom of the publicity lists of accomplishments that gave more credit than was due to the Regular Army divisions in the ETO.
"A majority of the officers and men of the 30th were from farms and small towns throughout the country, although at the beginning, they were predominantly from North and South Carolina and Tennessee. Consequently they brought with them considerable knowledge of tractors, trucks, and other farm-related vehicles, which gave them enhanced knowledge of military vehicles. Most had a basic knowledge of guns from their experiences in hunting deer, squirrels, and rabbits, making them excellent marksmen.
"It is only fitting and proper that these “Old Hickorymen” be given the honor of being the best soldiers to fight against the best that the enemy— the Germans—had to offer."
"The combat record of the 30th Infantry Division in the ETO led it to being named the “outstanding infantry division of the ETO” by Colonel S. L. A. Marshall, the official US Army historian for the theater. The citizen soldiers of the 30th Division saved the Normandy breakout by standing firm at Mortain; later, they again stopped Hitler’s vaunted SS panzer units in the Battle of the Bulge, halting the German advance and thus turning the tide of that pivotal engagement. They were so respected by their German opponents that Axis Sally referred to them as “Roosevelt’s SS.”"
"Soldiers who initially joined the 30th Infantry Division when it was activated in August 1917 at Camp Sevier, South Carolina, came from the National Guard units of North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia, the same area where Andrew Jackson grew up."
"Early in July 1918 they finally arrived at Le Havre, France, and immediately set about training with the British Army in Flanders and Picardy. On the 9th of July they were assigned to hold the line east of Poperinghe in the Dickebusch and Scherpenburg sector to become acquainted with the hell of Flanders fields. Later on they were called on to participate in the second Somme offensive that culminated in the breaking of the almost impenetrable Hindenburg Line. When the armistice arrived at the 11th hour of the 11th day in November 1918, the 30th Division had chalked up approximately half of the medals awarded by the British to US forces in WWI. There were also twelve Medals of Honor."
"The 30th Division arrived in Normandy on 10 June, four days after D-Day. Their initial objective was to replace the battered 29th Division that had been decimated at Omaha Beach. They were put into action almost immediately and were soon being unanimously referred to as the “Work Horse of the Western Front” due to their tenacity in battle against seasoned SS units. They quickly gained the attention of the German commanders who praised their efforts and said that they were operating with the same discipline, intensity, and rigor as the real SS, hence Roosevelt’s SS.
"By the end of WWII, the 30th Infantry Division had accumulated a remarkable list of battle honors. It spent 282 days in combat earning five battle stars in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhine land, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe campaigns. Ten Presidential Unit Citations were awarded to subordinate units within the division (including the 743rd Tank Battalion and 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, both attached to the 30th). Six Old Hickorymen earned Medals of Honor—three posthumously. More than eighty men earned Distinguished Service Crosses, the nation’s second highest award for valor. Approximately 20,000 Purple Hearts were awarded to soldiers wounded or killed in action in the ETO. In addition, the division took approximately 53,000 prisoners over the course of its campaigns."
"After the war, Colonel S. L. A. Marshall, the official US Army historian for the European Theater of Operations (ETO), reviewed combat records for all US Army infantry divisions serving in the theater and cited the 30th Division as, “. . . the outstanding infantry division in the ETO.” This was remarkable because the 30th was a National Guard outfit, not a Regular Army unit. Initially, the Division was a formation comprised of ordinary men. Once in combat, however, the citizen soldiers of the Fighting 30th morphed into warriors. They accomplished truly extraordinary feats, never failing in their missions, and they did so with great gallantry and a degree of efficiency that was unmatched."
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"HAROLD WILLIAMS, 105TH ENGINEER COMBAT BATTALION
"I was in the motor pool to start with. They put me in Water Purification at the beginning measuring streams, water supply, back flushing, and taking samples. There were three of these units in the 30th Division. One day, they wanted a volunteer to drive an amphibian. We were in Florida and we would practice bridge building. That kind of fascinated me. From then on I was assigned to a 2-1/2-ton truck. We traveled by train from Florida to Tennessee to Camp Forest. It was a tent city. Tullahoma was the name of the town. This was just prior to maneuvers. We had all kinds of training there. Eventually, we held maneuvers that went on for weeks. We were all over Tennessee and maybe even into parts of Kentucky. After finishing maneuvers the Division came out with high standards, really high. Then we were ordered to Indiana, to Camp Atterbury. It was fall and it was getting cold. We were placed in a two-story barracks. Every day we would get up at daybreak, have roll call, and then we would hike with combat bags and rifles. We would hike approximately four to five miles to a firing range. This went on all the time, rain or shine. Before we left we would take some bread, a piece of cheese, and an apple, and away we would go. We would get back from our hike in the evening before dark. This went on into January. We had to report to a set of buildings, where there were officers from Washington who interviewed us on our training and other things. Our ratings were pretty high so it was determined that we were ready to ship out. It leaked out that we were headed to the Pacific. I think it was a deliberate leak. We boarded the train and we started to travel east, so we knew damn well that we were not headed west. We ended up at Camp Myles Standish on the Cape near Boston. It was just a staging area. Some of us got new equipment and new rifles. I can remember going on KP duty and it went around the clock; that’s how enormous the camp was.
"We were in a state of high secrecy. Trucks took us to south Boston and we boarded ships that were waiting for us. I was on the USS John Ericsson and there were three ships, I believe, that transported the Division. From there we landed in Liverpool, another unit unloaded in Blackpool, and the third one, I believe, on the Clyde in Scotland. From there we moved by train east to London. The Division was broken up when we got there, meaning some were bivouacked in separate towns. We didn’t operate as a whole. We went into London and there was an air raid going on. The city was being bombed and we spent the night there in the yards. We waited until it was over, then we proceeded to the town of Winchester. We hadn’t had a shower in two weeks, since we had gotten on the boat. We were packed in like sardines and we needed showers pretty badly. We were quartered in Quonset huts. We got our showers in the morning and went down to the chow line. A whistle blew shortly after and they called all drivers to fall out. The drivers fell out in an area in the front near the curb and the motor pool officer came by with a jeep. As our name was called from the roster each one of us got into the jeep and drove it a foot or two. We backed it up and then got out. This qualified us for driving in the U.K.!"
"KING KENNY, RECONNAISSANCE PLATOON, 823RD TANK DESTROYER BATTALION
"We landed in Liverpool north of London and got on trains headed to a town named Hereford. We unloaded and formed one whole battalion at the station. I remember some little kids coming by in their beanies, short pants, and jackets and one kid said, “Hey look they’re Scots!” and another kid said, “They’re Aussies!” and finally one kid said, “They’re Yanks!” We stayed in civilian homes."
"WILLIAM GAST, COMPANY A, 743RD TANK BATTALION
"A tank weighs approximately 35 tons. That’s 70,000 lbs! Our first tanks had a cast hull with a 75mm main gun, a .30-caliber machine gun mounted beside it on the right, and another .30-caliber machine gun, known as a bow gun, which the assistant driver operated. There was also a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on top of the turret with a 360-degree traverse that the tank commander could use as direct fire or anti-aircraft. A little later we received a tank with a welded hull. It had more armor plate and a lower silhouette of the turret.
"The channel was very rough. It was cold, misty, and wet. We were getting nervous. Because the hours were dragging on, we threw a tarp under the tank to try to get some sleep. Too much tension!
"Through the night we became friendly with the LCT captain. We got to talking about getting the LCT in close enough to the beach so when the ramp was lowered, and we drove our tanks off, they would not be submerged. He promised he would get us close enough.
"Now it’s just around 0600 hours in the morning and as we looked out over the side of our LCT there were boats and crafts as far as you could see. “Mount up and get your engines started.” This is it! The Captain of the LCT did as he promised. The front ramp was lowered and the first tank drove off. Then I drove down the ramp and I could feel my tracks turning . . . then they took hold of the bottom of the channel and I was able to move forward. As I found out later, the water had all kinds of metal obstacles to prevent us from coming onto the beach. The beach was loaded with everything you could think of to keep us from advancing."
"By dusk we finally made it up to the wall. That’s as far as we could go. Up against the wall we were protected from direct fire, and started to get a little organ -ized. We learned that out of 15 tanks of A Company, five of us made it. I have some -thing that bothers me to this day. The beach was covered with dead and wounded soldiers. There is no way of telling if I ran over any of them with my tank.
"Pictures . . . video games . . . movies . . . words . . . they simply do not convey the feeling of fear . . . the shock . . . the stench . . . the noise, the horror and the tragedy . . . the injured . . . the suffering . . . the dying . . . the dead!
"Sometime during the night the engineers were able to blast enough of the wall away, enabling us to exit the beach the next morning and get on top of the bluff."
Even as the tanks were dealing with coming ashore,
"Within moments German coastal guns had elevated their firing angle and started to respond in earnest, the first salvos ripping into the surf at short range just off the beach. Other German gunners attempted to stem the first advance wave of combat engineers who were vainly attempting to tackle murderous underwater obstacles such as barbed wire; and anti-tank and antipersonnel mines. Sherman tanks, half-tracks, and trucks of the 743rd were the first armor to attempt that hellish strip of sand that would become known ad infinitum as Omaha Beach. This was just the beginning of a long and terrible fight for men of the 30th Division that would endure almost without pause until the end of the war in May 1945.
"The first actual 30th Division unit to arrive at Omaha Beach on D-Day +4 was the 230th Field Artillery Battalion. They had been sent to replace an artillery battalion of the 29th Division that had lost most of its pieces in the choppy English Channel off the coast of Grandcamp-les-Bains. Other units from the 30th Division arrived in France during the night of 13/14 June. The first casualties in the 30th Division were incurred when a Landing Ship Tank (LST) carrying members of the 113th Field Artillery Battalion struck a German mine just off the Normandy coast. The final toll for that unfortunate incident was two killed, eight wounded, and 20 missing. It wouldn’t be long, however, before the entire division was thrown into the fray."
"ED MIDDLETON, 730TH ORDNANCE COMPANY"
"We were also supposed to have extra weapons and supplies for the troops. We ran out very quickly, so we established battlefield recovery and I had all the frontline troops collect army ordnance—ours and the enemy’s—and they let us know where it was. We picked it up and took care of it. By the time we got to the Ardennes and the Battle of the Bulge, I had a 2-1/2-ton-truckload of M1 rifles which I distributed to the backup troops who were coming up to help us. Basically, it was a routine operation. We would be close to the front lines and I was far enough forward that I did not have to wear a tie, but I was far enough back not to get shot at every day. When we got to a town, some of the locals would come as a group and ask us to go to different locations to find Germans that were still around."
"FRANK DENIUS, BATTERY C, 230TH FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION"
"It was chaotic on the beach. I saw a lot of dead and wounded GIs. We were under artillery and mortar fire from the Germans. A few German aircraft came over but they weren’t the problem. The real issue was that German artillery was still coming in. It was harassment fire because they didn’t have observation on us. Scaling the cliff on Omaha Beach was one of those things I will always remember. We climbed the cliffs and joined the 29th, which had moved inland by what I think was the second day. We moved in and provided artillery support for them for the next six days. We didn’t know those guys so they had to get to know us and we had to get to know them under combat conditions. The 30th Division eventually started to land on the second and third days, and after the sixth day the 230th rejoined the 30th Division."
"FRANK DEEGAN, COMPANY D, 119TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"We were sitting somewhere in Normandy for a week or two, I never knew where I was. When we shoved off through another outfit’s lines, I don’t know who they were, I remember seeing a young soldier who was dead. We passed his body. I was 19 at the time and this guy looked like he was my kid brother; he was so young. That was my first impression we were in a war (other than a sniper who took a shot at us when we moved out from our defensive position). I felt sorry for him. He looked younger than my brother, about 13 or 14. I have always remembered his face because he looked like he was smiling."
"After successfully occupying Montmartin en Graignes, the 2nd Battalion got to work securing the position before nightfall. Earlier on, sometime around mid-afternoon, the newly-arrived 1st Battalion, 119th, had worked its way down through sporadic artillery fire and passed through the 2nd Battalion’s positions before pivoting southeast to force their way towards a small enclave of houses located close to the Vire River. Meanwhile, the 3rd Battalion of the 120th Infantry Regiment was having its own baptism of fire and discovering the bane of all the Allied divisions currently in Normandy, “Le Bocage!”This meant they were enduring the painstaking hedgerow to hedge -row fighting that came to epitomize the fighting in Normandy and was equally detrimental to all sides."
"The 30th Division was led by the 120th Infantry Regiment and during the following days the rest arrived in dribs and drabs until, by 17 June, the entire division was safely on land. One of the first German units they encountered was the SS-Panzer-Grenadier Regiment 38 of the 17th SS-Panzer -grenadier Division “Götz von Berlichingen.” This particular division had been formed in France from remnants of other divisions and consisted of mainly Rumanian and French volunteers. Collectively it was under the direct command of LXXX Corps, part of Generalfeldmarschall (general of the army) Gerd von Rundstedt’s Army Group D, and it was going to be seriously decimated in the ensuing Normandy battles. This would be in no small part thanks to the 30th Division who quickly discovered that fighting between the centuries-old tight hedgerows of the Normandy countryside, Le Bocage, was going to demand an almost complete revision of tactics."
"FRANK DENIUS, BATTERY C, 230TH FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION"
"We then found ourselves right out in the middle of hedgerow country. Those fields were 75–100 yards wide and square in shape. Apple trees, orchards, and cattle were in them. There were also dead cows everywhere from artillery fire. The Germans defended each hedgerow and each one made for a perfect defense. We would fight directly across the hedgerow from them and they would line up a machine gun and dig in a tank at the corners. You had to crawl over those hedge rows to advance. As you went over you faced crossfire from tanks, machine guns, and rifles."
"FRANK DENIUS, BATTERY C, 230TH FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION"
"It was chaotic on the beach. I saw a lot of dead and wounded GIs. We were under artillery and mortar fire from the Germans. A few German aircraft came over but they weren’t the problem. The real issue was that German artillery was still coming in. It was harassment fire because they didn’t have observation on us. Scaling the cliff on Omaha Beach was one of those things I will always remember. We climbed the cliffs and joined the 29th, which had moved inland by what I think was the second day. We moved in and provided artillery support for them for the next six days. We didn’t know those guys so they had to get to know us and we had to get to know them under combat conditions. The 30th Division eventually started to land on the second and third days, and after the sixth day the 230th rejoined the 30th Division."
"FRANK DEEGAN, COMPANY D, 119TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"We were sitting somewhere in Normandy for a week or two, I never knew where I was. When we shoved off through another outfit’s lines, I don’t know who they were, I remember seeing a young soldier who was dead. We passed his body. I was 19 at the time and this guy looked like he was my kid brother; he was so young. That was my first impression we were in a war (other than a sniper who took a shot at us when we moved out from our defensive position). I felt sorry for him. He looked younger than my brother, about 13 or 14. I have always remembered his face because he looked like he was smiling."
"After successfully occupying Montmartin en Graignes, the 2nd Battalion got to work securing the position before nightfall. Earlier on, sometime around mid-afternoon, the newly-arrived 1st Battalion, 119th, had worked its way down through sporadic artillery fire and passed through the 2nd Battalion’s positions before pivoting southeast to force their way towards a small enclave of houses located close to the Vire River. Meanwhile, the 3rd Battalion of the 120th Infantry Regiment was having its own baptism of fire and discovering the bane of all the Allied divisions currently in Normandy, “Le Bocage!”This meant they were enduring the painstaking hedgerow to hedge -row fighting that came to epitomize the fighting in Normandy and was equally detrimental to all sides."
"The 30th Division was led by the 120th Infantry Regiment and during the following days the rest arrived in dribs and drabs until, by 17 June, the entire division was safely on land. One of the first German units they encountered was the SS-Panzer-Grenadier Regiment 38 of the 17th SS-Panzer -grenadier Division “Götz von Berlichingen.” This particular division had been formed in France from remnants of other divisions and consisted of mainly Rumanian and French volunteers. Collectively it was under the direct command of LXXX Corps, part of Generalfeldmarschall (general of the army) Gerd von Rundstedt’s Army Group D, and it was going to be seriously decimated in the ensuing Normandy battles. This would be in no small part thanks to the 30th Division who quickly discovered that fighting between the centuries-old tight hedgerows of the Normandy countryside, Le Bocage, was going to demand an almost complete revision of tactics."
"FRANK DENIUS, BATTERY C, 230TH FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION"
"We then found ourselves right out in the middle of hedgerow country. Those fields were 75–100 yards wide and square in shape. Apple trees, orchards, and cattle were in them. There were also dead cows everywhere from artillery fire. The Germans defended each hedgerow and each one made for a perfect defense. We would fight directly across the hedgerow from them and they would line up a machine gun and dig in a tank at the corners. You had to crawl over those hedge rows to advance. As you went over you faced crossfire from tanks, machine guns, and rifles."
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"Intelligence and reconnaissance were equally important to the Allies and occasionally they managed to procure useful intelligence from unexpected sources. On one occasion two young students hiked all the way from the Sorbonne in Paris, and managed to find their way through the lines and pass on information regarding what they had observed en route. One audacious Frenchman from Graignes came surreptitiously by boat to inform the Allies that SS men were present in his town, and then he even went back to get more specific locations. For his efforts he insisted on, and was presented with, a certificate stating that he had personally helped in the task of liberating France."
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The book includes a report and some citations of medals, after a quote by Rudolf Ribbentrop about his part at Normandy, and an interesting detail is about two silver stars to two soldiers with identical name of Joseph Funk - the private first class from California and the Major from New Jersey. Wonder if this is where the thought about Hum Dono of Navketan sprung? Unlikely, of course.
"MARVIN SMITH, COMPANY K, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Once relieved, our company rested in a reserve position to the rear about one mile. We were in the middle of a beautiful French orchard. I found a nice “home” under an apple tree, dug in, and set up camp. Now off the front, we were to get hot meals brought up in a company jeep trailer. Apparently a German observer had seen the jeep come over the high ground to our rear, though, and they shelled the area just as the cooks got the pots set out. Never before under fire, the cooks ran in all directions. The rest of us “hardened and experienced” combat veterans doubled up with laughter to see the cooks in their clean white uniforms making tracks, although it was really no laughing matter."
"When we came upon an open gap about three or four feet wide, which would expose us, we paused. I was thinking, “Okay, each of us will run quickly across this opening one at a time.” Just then, Private Boker said to me, “Wait, I’ll cover you Captain,” meaning, he would cross the gap first and then aim his rifle across the canal to cover us while we crossed. Just as he was saying this, he jumped out into the gap and raised his M1 into position. In that instant, a shot rang out from across the canal. Boker screamed once and slumped to the ground. I knew it was a fatal shot just by the way he fell. We were stunned."
Evocative of one or rather two events depicted in Enemy At The Gates, but each with a different angle, from the one above and from one another.
"When the 4th of July came and everyone was told to fire one shot simultaneously, everything from 155mm artillery to the smallest caliber rifle, all together at precisely 0100 hours. We did! Wow, I wonder what the enemy thought."
"Medical aid men were following to assist. We progressed rapidly forward, being severely shelled by enemy artillery, or perhaps short American rounds, resulting in several of our fellows being wounded. I came upon them being attended by a German medic who wore a white sheet in front and back with a large red cross on it. By contrast, our medics wore only small Red Cross armbands which were soon covered with dirt and mud. Consequently, many medics must have been killed by the enemy, believing they were combat soldiers."
He doesn't seem to be aware that nazis had no intention of following any civilised convention, and had no problem firing on refugees fleeing, including women and children and babies. If allied medics were killed by Germans, it wasn't necessarily because their armbands were covered by mud.
The book includes a report and some citations of medals, after a quote by Rudolf Ribbentrop about his part at Normandy, and an interesting detail is about two silver stars to two soldiers with identical name of Joseph Funk - the private first class from California and the Major from New Jersey. Wonder if this is where the thought about Hum Dono of Navketan sprung? Unlikely, of course.
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"MARVIN SMITH, COMPANY K, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Once relieved, our company rested in a reserve position to the rear about one mile. We were in the middle of a beautiful French orchard. I found a nice “home” under an apple tree, dug in, and set up camp. Now off the front, we were to get hot meals brought up in a company jeep trailer. Apparently a German observer had seen the jeep come over the high ground to our rear, though, and they shelled the area just as the cooks got the pots set out. Never before under fire, the cooks ran in all directions. The rest of us “hardened and experienced” combat veterans doubled up with laughter to see the cooks in their clean white uniforms making tracks, although it was really no laughing matter."
"When we came upon an open gap about three or four feet wide, which would expose us, we paused. I was thinking, “Okay, each of us will run quickly across this opening one at a time.” Just then, Private Boker said to me, “Wait, I’ll cover you Captain,” meaning, he would cross the gap first and then aim his rifle across the canal to cover us while we crossed. Just as he was saying this, he jumped out into the gap and raised his M1 into position. In that instant, a shot rang out from across the canal. Boker screamed once and slumped to the ground. I knew it was a fatal shot just by the way he fell. We were stunned."
Evocative of one or rather two events depicted in Enemy At The Gates, but each with a different angle, from the one above and from one another.
"When the 4th of July came and everyone was told to fire one shot simultaneously, everything from 155mm artillery to the smallest caliber rifle, all together at precisely 0100 hours. We did! Wow, I wonder what the enemy thought."
"Medical aid men were following to assist. We progressed rapidly forward, being severely shelled by enemy artillery, or perhaps short American rounds, resulting in several of our fellows being wounded. I came upon them being attended by a German medic who wore a white sheet in front and back with a large red cross on it. By contrast, our medics wore only small Red Cross armbands which were soon covered with dirt and mud. Consequently, many medics must have been killed by the enemy, believing they were combat soldiers."
He doesn't seem to be aware that nazis had no intention of following any civilised convention, and had no problem firing on refugees fleeing, including women and children and babies. If allied medics were killed by Germans, it wasn't necessarily because their armbands were covered by mud.
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One begins to wonder why the allied forces did not simply use air bombardment to destroy the enemy instead of fighting Le Bocage country hedgerow by hedgerow, and being forced to fight it out for weeks. It wasn't because it was not quite cricket, or unsportsmanlike, to just bomb them. And Luftwaffe was mostly absent.
It could only be because allies were liberating France, and causing civilian desths and casualties wasn't kosher when avoidable. Bombing Berlin or other parts of Germany was another matter.
German forces had gone about bombing civilians routinely in their conquering blitzkrieg and not just cities, either, but refugees fleeing the advancing Germans, too. Memoirs by various survivors speak of seeing the face of the pilot diving down to aim at them as they were fleeing, women and children and babies, old and poor.
"MARK SCHWENDIMAN, COMPANY I, 119TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Putting finishing touches to combat training with the US First Army in England, the 30th launched its first attack in World War II in Normandy on 15 June 1944—D +9—after its first units had come ashore at Omaha Beach on D +4. In sniper-infested hedgerow country, the 30th’s baptism of fire came in the Isigny area where it drove a stubborn German enemy beyond the Vire River and Vire et Taute Canal. Then in dangerous nightly patrols, it probed German positions in preparation for the assault crossing of the Vire River where, on 7 July, it started the push south out of the Cherbourg peninsula. Crossings of the Vire at dawn and the Vire et Taute Canal at 1300 the same day were masterfully executed. The preparatory artillery barrage left the Germans stunned in their foxholes and made the initial advance possible. Panzer troops were brought in to plug the gap thus created, however, and in the succeeding days other elite panzer and parachute troops counterattacked with the mission of seizing Isigny. Old Hickory nevertheless ground their way steadily ahead."
One begins to wonder why the allied forces did not simply use air bombardment to destroy the enemy instead of fighting Le Bocage country hedgerow by hedgerow, and being forced to fight it out for weeks. It wasn't because it was not quite cricket, or unsportsmanlike, to just bomb them. And Luftwaffe was mostly absent.
It could only be because allies were liberating France, and causing civilian desths and casualties wasn't kosher when avoidable. Bombing Berlin or other parts of Germany was another matter.
German forces had gone about bombing civilians routinely in their conquering blitzkrieg and not just cities, either, but refugees fleeing the advancing Germans, too. Memoirs by various survivors speak of seeing the face of the pilot diving down to aim at them as they were fleeing, women and children and babies, old and poor.
................................................................................................
"MARK SCHWENDIMAN, COMPANY I, 119TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Putting finishing touches to combat training with the US First Army in England, the 30th launched its first attack in World War II in Normandy on 15 June 1944—D +9—after its first units had come ashore at Omaha Beach on D +4. In sniper-infested hedgerow country, the 30th’s baptism of fire came in the Isigny area where it drove a stubborn German enemy beyond the Vire River and Vire et Taute Canal. Then in dangerous nightly patrols, it probed German positions in preparation for the assault crossing of the Vire River where, on 7 July, it started the push south out of the Cherbourg peninsula. Crossings of the Vire at dawn and the Vire et Taute Canal at 1300 the same day were masterfully executed. The preparatory artillery barrage left the Germans stunned in their foxholes and made the initial advance possible. Panzer troops were brought in to plug the gap thus created, however, and in the succeeding days other elite panzer and parachute troops counterattacked with the mission of seizing Isigny. Old Hickory nevertheless ground their way steadily ahead."
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"The hedgerow fighting badly affected both Allies and Axis forces. By late July, it was estimated that the Germans had lost approximately 400 tanks, 2,500 other vehicles, and 160,000 men. This had undoubtedly put a great strain on the Germans offensive capabilities. One of the main problems was the lack of resources such as gasoline and other necessary supplies. Bearing in mind that a division on the move needs around 7,000 tons of supplies every day it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Germans to keep up with the demand. Moreover they no longer had the capacity to effectively replace destroyed and damaged armor in any significant numbers."
"Most of their divisions had sustained heavy losses but there were still one or two that were battle ready. The 2nd SS-Panzer Division had a particular reputation for being stringent and thorough in all their dealings. Just four days after the Allied invasion of Normandy, they had been held responsible for a heinous war crime at the small French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. Soldiers of the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, SS-Panzer-Grenadier Regiment 4 (motorized infantry) “Der Führer,” attached to the 2nd SS-Panzer Division, advanced to the village of Oradour-sur-Glane. Led by the commander of the 1st Battalion, SS-Major Adolf Diekmann, the Waffen-SS troops surrounded the village. Dozens of women and children were burned alive. In total 642 men, women, and children were killed at this site which is still maintained as a shrine to the victims."
"JOHN O’HARE, COMPANY E, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"During World War II, US Army regulations required that young men be at least 19 years of age before being sent into combat. I became 19 on 2 June 1944 and I landed on Omaha Beach that July."
"For the first time I heard the distinctive sound of the motor of a German reconnaissance plane. Such planes took infrared photos of American positions every night. We referred to them as “Bed-Check Charlie.”
"While awaiting assignment to a unit, I learned to dig my foxhole into a hedgerow and then down. The hedgerows had been there for centuries and were very stable. This technique created a safe place under many feet of soil, tree roots, and rocks. On one occasion, German planes came down over the hedgerow I was using and strafed with their machine guns. I do not know how many planes took part because I was in my cave-like shelter. One soldier said six planes were involved. No Americans were injured.
"On two of the days before my assignment to the 30th Division, I witnessed the sky full of US heavy bombers from horizon to horizon and in seemingly endless processions. They were on their way to carpet-bomb the German front line along part of the road west of St. Lô to Periers in preparation for the great breakout from the small enclave where the invasion had been bottled up for weeks. I joined the 30th Division at St. Lô immediately after the bombing and took part in the breakout known as Operation COBRA."
So the allies did use air support for the forces, but not at the beginning; that probably was because D-Day was to be kept as secret as possible, but later the French resistance informing civilians to expect bombings of German forces was more possible, and done.
................................................................................................
"MARVIN SMITH, COMPANY K, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"An American soldier was sprawled in the middle of a field, apparently dead. Upon examination, I found instead that he was sound asleep, exhausted."
"That same night a K Company guard saw a soldier approaching in front of a tank. Thinking they were friendly troops, he ran over and grabbed him and asked, “What outfit are you with?” The soldier responded, “Aach, Americans!” Both the enemy solder and the K Company soldier turned away from each other and walked into the darkness. Such is the confusion of combat."
"I was surprised to see about 20 enemy soldiers at Battalion Headquarters who had surrendered. They were smoking American cigarettes. They all looked about 15 or 16 years old."
"The attack by K Company and another rifle company proceeded on towards the enemy, making progress of about 200 yards. Heavy enemy artillery fire and small arms fire was concentrating on our lines."
"Several K Company men were around me. We waited for the enemy to come. The next thing I knew, I heard an extremely heavy concentration of artillery shells screaming down upon us, coming from our rear, from our own friendly sector. There must have been hundreds of shells crashing all around. The noise was terrible. It was devastating. I expected death. In five minutes, it was all over."
"Soon, K Company men began straggling back. They had simply fled the devastating shell fire. They looked very sheepish, but were ready to perform again whatever orders they received. They probably had saved their own lives, however. K Company was soon ordered into yet another field with orders to defend."
"The Quartermaster set up a “bath unit” on the banks of the Vire River near Condé, and Red Cross doughnut wagons arrived in the area accom -panied by movies and USO shows. The USO shows were a particular highlight for weary GIs who could expect to be entertained by the cream of the Hollywood community with such names as Bob Hope and Bing Crosby; Judy Garland; Bette Davis; Humphrey Bogart; Lauren Bacall; Frank Sinatra; Marlene Dietrich; the Marx Brothers; Carole Landis; Jack Benny; James Cagney; James Stewart; Fred Astaire; Betty Hutton; and Lucille Ball. Musicians and singers included the Andrews Sisters, Al Jolsen, Glenn Miller, and Dinah Shore, to name but a few."
"On 28 July, under the auspices of General Patton, the 4th Armored Division achieve an advance of twelve miles, which allowed them to capture the town of Coutances before pushing south to Pontaubault where they would be free temporarily of Normandy’s claustrophobic bocage. The town of Avranches was captured by the Third Army on 30 July, and on the following day, while Patton’s divisions were pushing across the Pontaubault Bridge into Brittany, the Third Army was officially activated. He then turned his divisions east, west, and south behind the German lines and stormed ahead in search of a good fight. Patton managed to perform the unprecedented feat of getting seven divisions through the Avranches-Pontaubault bottleneck in only 72 hours. This consummate grasp of logistics was going to be very useful during the coming months. The first week of August saw General Patton’s Third Army charging forcefully ahead into the recently established Avaranches breach that had now been expanded to a corridor approx imately 20 miles wide. This was wholly in keeping with the General’s characteristic “move fast, hit hard” strategy."
"The plan was that once the men of the 30th Division had established their positions at Mortain, they would then push east toward Barenton and Domfront. There was no indication at this time that a German counterattack would seriously disrupt these plans."
"MARK SCHWENDIMAN, COMPANY I, 1 19TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"The armor having driven through, the 30th continued south to Tessy sur Vire to secure the gateway, and then on 6 August, speeded by truck south to the Mortain– St. Barthelmy area. Taking over positions that had been manned by the reinforced 1st Infantry Division, the 30th found itself, without warning, engaged in a struggle for existence against four German panzer divisions. During three days and three nights of vicious fighting the 30th not only fought the German attack to a standstill, but beat it back after knocking out many of the German tanks and killing hundreds of attackers. The 30th’s losses were heavy, too. Commenting on the action immediately afterward, General Hobbs said, “ We won’t ever be in a tighter spot and survive as a division.” Division closed in to capture 172 German vehicles including 39 tanks, six of them Tigers; 70 half-tracks; 33 self-propelled guns; and 30 other vehicles. The German radio and captured German prisoners nicknamed the 30th “Roosevelt’s SS” troops, explaining the 30th is always thrown in where the going is the roughest."
"The hedgerow fighting badly affected both Allies and Axis forces. By late July, it was estimated that the Germans had lost approximately 400 tanks, 2,500 other vehicles, and 160,000 men. This had undoubtedly put a great strain on the Germans offensive capabilities. One of the main problems was the lack of resources such as gasoline and other necessary supplies. Bearing in mind that a division on the move needs around 7,000 tons of supplies every day it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Germans to keep up with the demand. Moreover they no longer had the capacity to effectively replace destroyed and damaged armor in any significant numbers."
"Most of their divisions had sustained heavy losses but there were still one or two that were battle ready. The 2nd SS-Panzer Division had a particular reputation for being stringent and thorough in all their dealings. Just four days after the Allied invasion of Normandy, they had been held responsible for a heinous war crime at the small French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. Soldiers of the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, SS-Panzer-Grenadier Regiment 4 (motorized infantry) “Der Führer,” attached to the 2nd SS-Panzer Division, advanced to the village of Oradour-sur-Glane. Led by the commander of the 1st Battalion, SS-Major Adolf Diekmann, the Waffen-SS troops surrounded the village. Dozens of women and children were burned alive. In total 642 men, women, and children were killed at this site which is still maintained as a shrine to the victims."
................................................................................................
"JOHN O’HARE, COMPANY E, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"During World War II, US Army regulations required that young men be at least 19 years of age before being sent into combat. I became 19 on 2 June 1944 and I landed on Omaha Beach that July."
"For the first time I heard the distinctive sound of the motor of a German reconnaissance plane. Such planes took infrared photos of American positions every night. We referred to them as “Bed-Check Charlie.”
"While awaiting assignment to a unit, I learned to dig my foxhole into a hedgerow and then down. The hedgerows had been there for centuries and were very stable. This technique created a safe place under many feet of soil, tree roots, and rocks. On one occasion, German planes came down over the hedgerow I was using and strafed with their machine guns. I do not know how many planes took part because I was in my cave-like shelter. One soldier said six planes were involved. No Americans were injured.
"On two of the days before my assignment to the 30th Division, I witnessed the sky full of US heavy bombers from horizon to horizon and in seemingly endless processions. They were on their way to carpet-bomb the German front line along part of the road west of St. Lô to Periers in preparation for the great breakout from the small enclave where the invasion had been bottled up for weeks. I joined the 30th Division at St. Lô immediately after the bombing and took part in the breakout known as Operation COBRA."
So the allies did use air support for the forces, but not at the beginning; that probably was because D-Day was to be kept as secret as possible, but later the French resistance informing civilians to expect bombings of German forces was more possible, and done.
................................................................................................
"MARVIN SMITH, COMPANY K, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"An American soldier was sprawled in the middle of a field, apparently dead. Upon examination, I found instead that he was sound asleep, exhausted."
"That same night a K Company guard saw a soldier approaching in front of a tank. Thinking they were friendly troops, he ran over and grabbed him and asked, “What outfit are you with?” The soldier responded, “Aach, Americans!” Both the enemy solder and the K Company soldier turned away from each other and walked into the darkness. Such is the confusion of combat."
"I was surprised to see about 20 enemy soldiers at Battalion Headquarters who had surrendered. They were smoking American cigarettes. They all looked about 15 or 16 years old."
"The attack by K Company and another rifle company proceeded on towards the enemy, making progress of about 200 yards. Heavy enemy artillery fire and small arms fire was concentrating on our lines."
"Several K Company men were around me. We waited for the enemy to come. The next thing I knew, I heard an extremely heavy concentration of artillery shells screaming down upon us, coming from our rear, from our own friendly sector. There must have been hundreds of shells crashing all around. The noise was terrible. It was devastating. I expected death. In five minutes, it was all over."
"Soon, K Company men began straggling back. They had simply fled the devastating shell fire. They looked very sheepish, but were ready to perform again whatever orders they received. They probably had saved their own lives, however. K Company was soon ordered into yet another field with orders to defend."
"The Quartermaster set up a “bath unit” on the banks of the Vire River near Condé, and Red Cross doughnut wagons arrived in the area accom -panied by movies and USO shows. The USO shows were a particular highlight for weary GIs who could expect to be entertained by the cream of the Hollywood community with such names as Bob Hope and Bing Crosby; Judy Garland; Bette Davis; Humphrey Bogart; Lauren Bacall; Frank Sinatra; Marlene Dietrich; the Marx Brothers; Carole Landis; Jack Benny; James Cagney; James Stewart; Fred Astaire; Betty Hutton; and Lucille Ball. Musicians and singers included the Andrews Sisters, Al Jolsen, Glenn Miller, and Dinah Shore, to name but a few."
................................................................................................
"On 28 July, under the auspices of General Patton, the 4th Armored Division achieve an advance of twelve miles, which allowed them to capture the town of Coutances before pushing south to Pontaubault where they would be free temporarily of Normandy’s claustrophobic bocage. The town of Avranches was captured by the Third Army on 30 July, and on the following day, while Patton’s divisions were pushing across the Pontaubault Bridge into Brittany, the Third Army was officially activated. He then turned his divisions east, west, and south behind the German lines and stormed ahead in search of a good fight. Patton managed to perform the unprecedented feat of getting seven divisions through the Avranches-Pontaubault bottleneck in only 72 hours. This consummate grasp of logistics was going to be very useful during the coming months. The first week of August saw General Patton’s Third Army charging forcefully ahead into the recently established Avaranches breach that had now been expanded to a corridor approx imately 20 miles wide. This was wholly in keeping with the General’s characteristic “move fast, hit hard” strategy."
"The plan was that once the men of the 30th Division had established their positions at Mortain, they would then push east toward Barenton and Domfront. There was no indication at this time that a German counterattack would seriously disrupt these plans."
"MARK SCHWENDIMAN, COMPANY I, 1 19TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"The armor having driven through, the 30th continued south to Tessy sur Vire to secure the gateway, and then on 6 August, speeded by truck south to the Mortain– St. Barthelmy area. Taking over positions that had been manned by the reinforced 1st Infantry Division, the 30th found itself, without warning, engaged in a struggle for existence against four German panzer divisions. During three days and three nights of vicious fighting the 30th not only fought the German attack to a standstill, but beat it back after knocking out many of the German tanks and killing hundreds of attackers. The 30th’s losses were heavy, too. Commenting on the action immediately afterward, General Hobbs said, “ We won’t ever be in a tighter spot and survive as a division.” Division closed in to capture 172 German vehicles including 39 tanks, six of them Tigers; 70 half-tracks; 33 self-propelled guns; and 30 other vehicles. The German radio and captured German prisoners nicknamed the 30th “Roosevelt’s SS” troops, explaining the 30th is always thrown in where the going is the roughest."
................................................................................................
"The front line had been stabilized less than 24 hours after Operation LÜTTICH had commenced and although the battle continued for several days with von Kluge committing additional forces, the Germans didn’t manage to make any further gains. For its heroic stand during the German counterattack, the 30th Division, who were already known as the “Work Horse of the Western Front” added another nickname to its list, “The Rock of Mortain.”"
"JOHN O’HARE, COMPANY E, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT
"A large part of our activity during the battle was not directed by anyone in authority. We acted freely and spontaneously to help the common cause."
"The front line had been stabilized less than 24 hours after Operation LÜTTICH had commenced and although the battle continued for several days with von Kluge committing additional forces, the Germans didn’t manage to make any further gains. For its heroic stand during the German counterattack, the 30th Division, who were already known as the “Work Horse of the Western Front” added another nickname to its list, “The Rock of Mortain.”"
................................................................................................
"JOHN O’HARE, COMPANY E, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT
"A large part of our activity during the battle was not directed by anyone in authority. We acted freely and spontaneously to help the common cause."
................................................................................................
"The battle at Mortain was a decisive tactical victory for the Allies. It culminated in the entrapment of significant portions of Germany’s two western field armies in what would later become known as the Falaise Gap. They had been attacked by seasoned veterans from some of Hitler’s crack SS divisions and proved that there was something significantly different about Old Hickory."
"Even with all the other elements combined, it nevertheless was undeniable that the 30th Division had tenaciously and courageously withstood a gargantuan test of their resilience and managed to survive. The US Army’s “Workhorse” realized during those fateful summer months that they could win battles and they were capable of executing their allocated tasks with an almost unparalleled level of zeal and commitment.
"There would be many more encounters to endure before the war was over, but those first few months in the bocage effectively determined the character and composition of this division. The indomitable resolution and fortitude that they had displayed under pressure in fierce combat inspired not only the other divisions they had fought alongside, but the whole Allied effort. Praise even extended as far as certain individuals at the German high command HQ who, out of earshot of Adolf Hitler, referred to them in no uncertain terms as Roosevelt’s SS."
"Paris was liberated on 25 August. While Third Army crossed the river Seine and entered the Marne area, on the morning of 27 August, the 117th and 119th Infantry Regiments crossed farther northeast toward to strategically significant ridge-lines that were held by the Germans. Two tough days of fighting ensued until the Germans were finally dislodged but at a heavy cost to the 743rd Tank Battalion’s Company B who lost four tanks due to enemy fire. After that action the chase was on and progress was swift and decisive. The Red Ball Express had a serious job on their hands to keep up with the rapid Allied advance. A division on the move needed 7,000 tons of supplies every day."
"HANK STAIRS, HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"We traveled down to Domfront, southeast of Mortain. We didn’t know it but we were part of a bigger plan to cut off the Germans. We were swinging up to close in on the Falaise Gap to cut them off. While in Domfront we were in reserve. A Red Cross donut wagon visited us and there was a jeep parked in the area with a radio. We were able to listen in on a conversation with an observation plane, one of those little Piper Cubs, that was directing artillery. He was giving a damn near blow-by-blow account of the hell that was coming down on this German column as they tried to escape. He was shouting, “Oh my God, we hit that lead truck there. They’re all backed up. They can’t go anyplace!” He gave us a firsthand account of what turned out to be a massacre!
"That pretty well finished up our combat in France after Mortain. We left the hedgerow country, which was a great relief. We went clear across France and nothing major happened. We reached the Seine, north of Paris, and the Germans destroyed many of the bridges behind them. There were still a couple of bridges foot soldiers could cross that weren’t totally disabled. We’re going east on Jerry’s tail and met sporadic resistance."
"The battle at Mortain was a decisive tactical victory for the Allies. It culminated in the entrapment of significant portions of Germany’s two western field armies in what would later become known as the Falaise Gap. They had been attacked by seasoned veterans from some of Hitler’s crack SS divisions and proved that there was something significantly different about Old Hickory."
"Even with all the other elements combined, it nevertheless was undeniable that the 30th Division had tenaciously and courageously withstood a gargantuan test of their resilience and managed to survive. The US Army’s “Workhorse” realized during those fateful summer months that they could win battles and they were capable of executing their allocated tasks with an almost unparalleled level of zeal and commitment.
"There would be many more encounters to endure before the war was over, but those first few months in the bocage effectively determined the character and composition of this division. The indomitable resolution and fortitude that they had displayed under pressure in fierce combat inspired not only the other divisions they had fought alongside, but the whole Allied effort. Praise even extended as far as certain individuals at the German high command HQ who, out of earshot of Adolf Hitler, referred to them in no uncertain terms as Roosevelt’s SS."
................................................................................................
"Paris was liberated on 25 August. While Third Army crossed the river Seine and entered the Marne area, on the morning of 27 August, the 117th and 119th Infantry Regiments crossed farther northeast toward to strategically significant ridge-lines that were held by the Germans. Two tough days of fighting ensued until the Germans were finally dislodged but at a heavy cost to the 743rd Tank Battalion’s Company B who lost four tanks due to enemy fire. After that action the chase was on and progress was swift and decisive. The Red Ball Express had a serious job on their hands to keep up with the rapid Allied advance. A division on the move needed 7,000 tons of supplies every day."
................................................................................................
"HANK STAIRS, HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"We traveled down to Domfront, southeast of Mortain. We didn’t know it but we were part of a bigger plan to cut off the Germans. We were swinging up to close in on the Falaise Gap to cut them off. While in Domfront we were in reserve. A Red Cross donut wagon visited us and there was a jeep parked in the area with a radio. We were able to listen in on a conversation with an observation plane, one of those little Piper Cubs, that was directing artillery. He was giving a damn near blow-by-blow account of the hell that was coming down on this German column as they tried to escape. He was shouting, “Oh my God, we hit that lead truck there. They’re all backed up. They can’t go anyplace!” He gave us a firsthand account of what turned out to be a massacre!
"That pretty well finished up our combat in France after Mortain. We left the hedgerow country, which was a great relief. We went clear across France and nothing major happened. We reached the Seine, north of Paris, and the Germans destroyed many of the bridges behind them. There were still a couple of bridges foot soldiers could cross that weren’t totally disabled. We’re going east on Jerry’s tail and met sporadic resistance."
................................................................................................
"FRANK DENIUS, BATTERY C, 230TH FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION"
"The 30th went on the attack toward the east of France, north of Paris. The first objectives were small towns, then we moved to protect Patton’s southwestern flank during the Battle of the Falaise Gap. After that, we moved 25 to 30 miles northwest of Paris on the Seine River. We were positioned there in late August when General de Gaulle and the French 1st Armored Division entered Paris. From there, we went through WWI territory all the way north of Paris to Belgium."
"FRANK DENIUS, BATTERY C, 230TH FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION"
"The 30th went on the attack toward the east of France, north of Paris. The first objectives were small towns, then we moved to protect Patton’s southwestern flank during the Battle of the Falaise Gap. After that, we moved 25 to 30 miles northwest of Paris on the Seine River. We were positioned there in late August when General de Gaulle and the French 1st Armored Division entered Paris. From there, we went through WWI territory all the way north of Paris to Belgium."
................................................................................................
"The initial air of triumphalism that had pervaded the Allies since the St. Lô-Falaise breakout had steadily begun to dissipate in the fresh autumnal scenery that now greeted Old Hickory’s advancing col -umns. While the British, Canadian, and Polish armies were hammering out a path up along the coast into the Dutch-speaking Flanders area of Belgium, the 30th Infantry Division spearheaded the route to Germany through the center of Belgium. Farther south, meanwhile, Patton’s Third Army had ground to a halt on 31 August just outside of Metz. This was due to the fact that his vehicles were consuming an average of 350,000 gallons of gasoline each day and the supply route was becoming overextended. The Red Ball Express was stretched to capacity in an effort to keep Patton’s men well supplied, but despite constant maligning from the general, they were struggling. On 28 August Third Army was forced to slow down when it was acknowledged that its fuel allocation was 100,000 gallons below target. There were sufficient supplies in Normandy but the Red Ball could not transport them in sufficient quantities to the Third Army’s forward units. Fuel shortages and other logistical problems were also beginning to affect the 30th Division."
They took Fort Eben-Emael easily enough, since the guns were all facing East.
"Just over the Dutch border in Maastricht the German authorities occupied themselves with rounding up strays and organizing the defense of this city. Their attempts to establish a line of defense just to the south of Maastricht with this ad hoc collection of soldiers and a few 30mm flak guns was a resounding failure; on 12 September at 1000 hours, the 117th Infantry crossed the Dutch-Belgian border. These were the first Allied troops to enter the Netherlands. After taking Maastricht on 13 September, they realized that they were getting precariously close to the German border in the east and it was generally accepted by all Allied commanders that the Germans were going to fight the hardest on their home ground."
"While the 117th Infantry Regiment entered Maastricht and veered north, severing all roads out of the city, the 119th Infantry Regiment occupied high ground overlooking the Geul River. As expected the Germans counterattacked, but could only muster battalion strength. One of the reasons that they counterattacked so ferociously was to recover important documents from the attaché case of a German general’s aide-de-camp. Unbeknown to the Germans these papers had already been discovered and requisitioned by Lieutenant Elwood G. Daddow; they were already providing some valuable intelligence regarding the dispositions of the German 7th Army.
"One particular map among these papers indicated the location of Nazi headquarters in Maastricht, along with the command post locations of two corps and twelve divisions. The papers also gave some important insights into the reorganization of German forces as they retreated toward their own border. Rigorous attempts by Gestapo officers in Maastricht to destroy other potentially useful paperwork were thwarted by Captain Melvin Handville of the division’s Counter Intelligence Corps who literally walked in on these Nazis while they were in the process of destroying the documents. These Gestapo officers were the last remaining Germans in the city; the rest had fled and headed north during the night, blowing almost every bridge over the Meuse River as they went. Just south of there is where the countries of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands converge.
"At the Dutch city of Valkenberg, situated in the Geul River valley, the 1st Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, met some of the stiffest resistance yet encountered. On 14 September, they initiated the attack by first sending a single platoon into the town center, but before long the whole battalion had been drawn into a bitter fight. Initially they discovered a somewhat deserted town because most of the civilians were hiding in nearby caves and most of the German troops had retreated, but there were still a handful of them at the Oda Hotel in the center of town. They had remained there to guard the only remaining intact bridge over the Geul River situated near the seventeenth-century Den Halder castle.
"The Germans had earmarked the line of the Geul River as a major obstacle to the Allied advance. Some soldiers from the 1st Battalion climbed the church tower to set up a machine-gun nest and obtain a good view of the bridge. From there they noticed that the view was slightly obscured by the walls of nearby Den Halder castle. Some audacious members of the Dutch resistance expertly guided two jeeps with machine guns along the small backstreets to get a better vantage point on the bridge. Snipers from 1st Battalion were brought up; they trained their rifles on the bridge to prevent the Germans from attempting to blow it up. These efforts were all in vain because within moments of the snipers lining up their sights the Germans had detonated charges, causing an almighty explosion that blew the bridge to smithereens. In the course of the afternoon the rest of 1st Battalion arrived and captured the whole town. From there they moved out to cut off the German line of retreat on the Maastricht-Aachen road. The Dutch people had suffered terribly under German occupation. They had been starved, subjugated, and repressed for four long years. Malnutrition was ubiquitous and the unshaven, war-battered, 30th Division GIs were warmly welcomed as redeeming angels. They were greeted in Holland as they had been greeted in France by grateful cheers, kisses, and waves, but this was the last friendly encounter that they would have with civilians for a long time."
"Within three days Old Hickory had moved east from the Netherlands and was inside Germany, establishing observation posts (OPs) on the hills just west of the Wurm River, a tributary of the Rur River (also spelled Roer in Dutch and French) from where they could look down at the imposing defenses of the Siegfried Line. The initial attack there began 16 September, with the 119th Infantry Regiment on the left and the 120th Infantry on the right. Once the Siegfried Line had been reached the 117th Infantry, which was already allocated to extend the Division zone northward, would follow on the heels of the 119th. While the 1st Battalion of the 120th had managed to clear Valkenburg of its Nazis, the 120th’s 3rd Battalion continued on its mission to reach Ubachsberg by nightfall. In contrast to the labored advance of the 119th, the 120th hardly made any contact with the German defenders because, unknown to the Allies, the Germans were beating a hasty retreat."
They took Fort Eben-Emael easily enough, since the guns were all facing East.
"Just over the Dutch border in Maastricht the German authorities occupied themselves with rounding up strays and organizing the defense of this city. Their attempts to establish a line of defense just to the south of Maastricht with this ad hoc collection of soldiers and a few 30mm flak guns was a resounding failure; on 12 September at 1000 hours, the 117th Infantry crossed the Dutch-Belgian border. These were the first Allied troops to enter the Netherlands. After taking Maastricht on 13 September, they realized that they were getting precariously close to the German border in the east and it was generally accepted by all Allied commanders that the Germans were going to fight the hardest on their home ground."
................................................................................................
"While the 117th Infantry Regiment entered Maastricht and veered north, severing all roads out of the city, the 119th Infantry Regiment occupied high ground overlooking the Geul River. As expected the Germans counterattacked, but could only muster battalion strength. One of the reasons that they counterattacked so ferociously was to recover important documents from the attaché case of a German general’s aide-de-camp. Unbeknown to the Germans these papers had already been discovered and requisitioned by Lieutenant Elwood G. Daddow; they were already providing some valuable intelligence regarding the dispositions of the German 7th Army.
"One particular map among these papers indicated the location of Nazi headquarters in Maastricht, along with the command post locations of two corps and twelve divisions. The papers also gave some important insights into the reorganization of German forces as they retreated toward their own border. Rigorous attempts by Gestapo officers in Maastricht to destroy other potentially useful paperwork were thwarted by Captain Melvin Handville of the division’s Counter Intelligence Corps who literally walked in on these Nazis while they were in the process of destroying the documents. These Gestapo officers were the last remaining Germans in the city; the rest had fled and headed north during the night, blowing almost every bridge over the Meuse River as they went. Just south of there is where the countries of Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands converge.
"At the Dutch city of Valkenberg, situated in the Geul River valley, the 1st Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, met some of the stiffest resistance yet encountered. On 14 September, they initiated the attack by first sending a single platoon into the town center, but before long the whole battalion had been drawn into a bitter fight. Initially they discovered a somewhat deserted town because most of the civilians were hiding in nearby caves and most of the German troops had retreated, but there were still a handful of them at the Oda Hotel in the center of town. They had remained there to guard the only remaining intact bridge over the Geul River situated near the seventeenth-century Den Halder castle.
"The Germans had earmarked the line of the Geul River as a major obstacle to the Allied advance. Some soldiers from the 1st Battalion climbed the church tower to set up a machine-gun nest and obtain a good view of the bridge. From there they noticed that the view was slightly obscured by the walls of nearby Den Halder castle. Some audacious members of the Dutch resistance expertly guided two jeeps with machine guns along the small backstreets to get a better vantage point on the bridge. Snipers from 1st Battalion were brought up; they trained their rifles on the bridge to prevent the Germans from attempting to blow it up. These efforts were all in vain because within moments of the snipers lining up their sights the Germans had detonated charges, causing an almighty explosion that blew the bridge to smithereens. In the course of the afternoon the rest of 1st Battalion arrived and captured the whole town. From there they moved out to cut off the German line of retreat on the Maastricht-Aachen road. The Dutch people had suffered terribly under German occupation. They had been starved, subjugated, and repressed for four long years. Malnutrition was ubiquitous and the unshaven, war-battered, 30th Division GIs were warmly welcomed as redeeming angels. They were greeted in Holland as they had been greeted in France by grateful cheers, kisses, and waves, but this was the last friendly encounter that they would have with civilians for a long time."
"Within three days Old Hickory had moved east from the Netherlands and was inside Germany, establishing observation posts (OPs) on the hills just west of the Wurm River, a tributary of the Rur River (also spelled Roer in Dutch and French) from where they could look down at the imposing defenses of the Siegfried Line. The initial attack there began 16 September, with the 119th Infantry Regiment on the left and the 120th Infantry on the right. Once the Siegfried Line had been reached the 117th Infantry, which was already allocated to extend the Division zone northward, would follow on the heels of the 119th. While the 1st Battalion of the 120th had managed to clear Valkenburg of its Nazis, the 120th’s 3rd Battalion continued on its mission to reach Ubachsberg by nightfall. In contrast to the labored advance of the 119th, the 120th hardly made any contact with the German defenders because, unknown to the Allies, the Germans were beating a hasty retreat."
................................................................................................
"In September 1944, the Germans claimed that the Siegfried Line was being defended by 25 divisions that collectively constituted around 230,000 men. This was propaganda to deter the Allies, however. In reality, many of these divisions were hastily assembled “Volkssturm” that had a reputation for fielding a high proportion of young, inexperienced boys and elderly men who were inadequately equipped, badly led, and poorly trained. Colonel Gerhard Wilck was not swayed by any altruistic considerations and was resolute in his intention to defend the old capital of the Roman Empire to the last street and to the last man."
"By the end of September, the 30th Division had successfully reached the Siegfried Line all along the entire length of its front. The bitter battle that ensued was fought in large part by the 30th Division and had commenced with an attack on the Siegfried Line south of Maastricht. It would culminate with the successful encirclement of Aachen, but there were many obstacles to overcome first. The division had a relatively short time to prepare for this new offensive.
"According to Allied intelligence, the German 7th Army was already defeated. The wrecked hulks of their tanks and trucks now littered the roadsides and dirt tracks heading east from the lowlands. The German 5th Army was retreating from the north of the Netherlands. In less than four months of fighting, most of France and Belgium had been liberated and now the Allies had reached the German border at Aachen! There were, however, ominous indications that the “honeymoon” period for the Allies would be over soon.
"Supply was still an omnipresent problem. The port of Antwerp had been captured relatively intact by the British on 4 September. It had been captured, but it wasn’t operational. The problem was that the Germans still held most of the Scheldt estuary, which controlled access to Antwerp; it was going to take another few months to clear them out so that supply convoys could physically reach the port. The advance remained overextended, however, and consequently, ammunition for artillery and mortars was becoming rationed. Allied intelligence had determined that the Germans were far from being on the verge of collapse or surrender, so there was still some hard fighting to be done. ... The US VII Corps had succeeded in penetrating one of the two lines of the Westwall that surrounded Aachen. Farther north in the Netherlands, from September 17 to the 24, two German SS divisions had thwarted Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s abortive attempt to outflank the Siegfried Line in the north and cross the Rhine at Arnhem. Operation MARKET-GARDEN had been an abject failure, despite Montgomery’s claim that it had been a 90 percent success."
"GEORGE SCHNEIDER, HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Villages were taken one at a time during November and the first part of December while we closed the Aachen gap. Aachen was the first major German city captured by the Americans. This city of approximately 300,000 inhabitants was known hundreds of years before as Aix-la-Chapelle, the name the French still use. This was the home of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) who was emperor of the west from 800AD to 814 AD. Most of Aachen was in ruins, but the large cathe-dral where Charlemagne is buried was not destroyed. An officer and I entered the cathedral, but didn’t consider it especially interesting. All of the statues and stained glass windows had been removed so the inside was drab. We stood on Charlemagne’s tomb without realizing where we were."
"In September 1944, the Germans claimed that the Siegfried Line was being defended by 25 divisions that collectively constituted around 230,000 men. This was propaganda to deter the Allies, however. In reality, many of these divisions were hastily assembled “Volkssturm” that had a reputation for fielding a high proportion of young, inexperienced boys and elderly men who were inadequately equipped, badly led, and poorly trained. Colonel Gerhard Wilck was not swayed by any altruistic considerations and was resolute in his intention to defend the old capital of the Roman Empire to the last street and to the last man."
"By the end of September, the 30th Division had successfully reached the Siegfried Line all along the entire length of its front. The bitter battle that ensued was fought in large part by the 30th Division and had commenced with an attack on the Siegfried Line south of Maastricht. It would culminate with the successful encirclement of Aachen, but there were many obstacles to overcome first. The division had a relatively short time to prepare for this new offensive.
"According to Allied intelligence, the German 7th Army was already defeated. The wrecked hulks of their tanks and trucks now littered the roadsides and dirt tracks heading east from the lowlands. The German 5th Army was retreating from the north of the Netherlands. In less than four months of fighting, most of France and Belgium had been liberated and now the Allies had reached the German border at Aachen! There were, however, ominous indications that the “honeymoon” period for the Allies would be over soon.
"Supply was still an omnipresent problem. The port of Antwerp had been captured relatively intact by the British on 4 September. It had been captured, but it wasn’t operational. The problem was that the Germans still held most of the Scheldt estuary, which controlled access to Antwerp; it was going to take another few months to clear them out so that supply convoys could physically reach the port. The advance remained overextended, however, and consequently, ammunition for artillery and mortars was becoming rationed. Allied intelligence had determined that the Germans were far from being on the verge of collapse or surrender, so there was still some hard fighting to be done. ... The US VII Corps had succeeded in penetrating one of the two lines of the Westwall that surrounded Aachen. Farther north in the Netherlands, from September 17 to the 24, two German SS divisions had thwarted Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery’s abortive attempt to outflank the Siegfried Line in the north and cross the Rhine at Arnhem. Operation MARKET-GARDEN had been an abject failure, despite Montgomery’s claim that it had been a 90 percent success."
................................................................................................
"GEORGE SCHNEIDER, HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Villages were taken one at a time during November and the first part of December while we closed the Aachen gap. Aachen was the first major German city captured by the Americans. This city of approximately 300,000 inhabitants was known hundreds of years before as Aix-la-Chapelle, the name the French still use. This was the home of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) who was emperor of the west from 800AD to 814 AD. Most of Aachen was in ruins, but the large cathe-dral where Charlemagne is buried was not destroyed. An officer and I entered the cathedral, but didn’t consider it especially interesting. All of the statues and stained glass windows had been removed so the inside was drab. We stood on Charlemagne’s tomb without realizing where we were."
................................................................................................
"In the city itself, meanwhile, the German soldiers were dealing with looters. Two 14-year-old boys were arrested and sentenced to be shot by firing squad in public."
Aachen fell on 21st October, 1944.
"After Aachen fell, VII Corps and the 1st Infantry Division formally thanked the 30th for its vital work in enabling the city to be taken, and the Division received widespread media recognition for its part in this vital battle. Sometime later, in the last week of October, Major General Clarence R. Huebner of the 1st Division appeared unannounced at a 119th regimental outpost and introduced himself to the surprised soldiers there. He said “I wish you’d get it around to your people that we never could have taken Aachen without your help.”"
"At 1205 hours on 21 October, it was all over. That evening before sunset, GIs swept through every corner of the city, rounding up 1,600 German POWs as they went. Colonel Wilck and his headquarters staff, defiant to the very end, were nevertheless taken prisoner."
"The 30th Division, since the start of the Aachen campaign on 2 October, had incurred almost 3,000 casualties and taken 6,000 prisoners, which was a testament to the ferocity of the fighting that they had endured up until that point. They claimed to have destroyed 20 German tanks: 12 destroyed by 105mm howitzers; five by supporting tanks and tank destroyers; and three by bazookas. The 1st Infantry Division’s casualties were heaviest in two of the battalions of the 26th Infantry Regiment and totaled 498. On occasion the battles in the 30th Division sector had assumed the character of an armored duel, although it had primarily involved infantry units. Both sides had tank support and few units, German or American, experienced much success unless supporting tanks were on hand. By their own count, the Germans lost 45 tanks."
"GEORGE SCHNEIDER, HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Even though Aachen, the first major city in Germany, had fallen, there was still serious work to do. The way ahead was not going to be easy for the Allies. After arriving in the Aachen sector in mid-October, General der Panzertrupppen Hasso Freiherr von Manteuffel and his 5th Panzer Army staff had organized a comprehensive digging program involving the troops, some men of Organization Todt, boys of the Hitler Youth, and the civilian population. Extensive minefields were laid, both in front of the main line and on approaches to second, third, and fourth lines of defense. Arrangements were made with the 7th Army about controlling the water level of the Roer River by utilizing the Roer River dams, most of which were still undamaged. During the three weeks in which the 5th Panzer Army commanded the Aachen sector, it organized an impressive battle position, complete with several lines of defense, coordinated artillery positions, barbed wire entanglements, minefields, and anti-tank obstacles. Now it was just a question of establishing when the Allies would strike."
"In the city itself, meanwhile, the German soldiers were dealing with looters. Two 14-year-old boys were arrested and sentenced to be shot by firing squad in public."
................................................................................................
Aachen fell on 21st October, 1944.
"After Aachen fell, VII Corps and the 1st Infantry Division formally thanked the 30th for its vital work in enabling the city to be taken, and the Division received widespread media recognition for its part in this vital battle. Sometime later, in the last week of October, Major General Clarence R. Huebner of the 1st Division appeared unannounced at a 119th regimental outpost and introduced himself to the surprised soldiers there. He said “I wish you’d get it around to your people that we never could have taken Aachen without your help.”"
"At 1205 hours on 21 October, it was all over. That evening before sunset, GIs swept through every corner of the city, rounding up 1,600 German POWs as they went. Colonel Wilck and his headquarters staff, defiant to the very end, were nevertheless taken prisoner."
"The 30th Division, since the start of the Aachen campaign on 2 October, had incurred almost 3,000 casualties and taken 6,000 prisoners, which was a testament to the ferocity of the fighting that they had endured up until that point. They claimed to have destroyed 20 German tanks: 12 destroyed by 105mm howitzers; five by supporting tanks and tank destroyers; and three by bazookas. The 1st Infantry Division’s casualties were heaviest in two of the battalions of the 26th Infantry Regiment and totaled 498. On occasion the battles in the 30th Division sector had assumed the character of an armored duel, although it had primarily involved infantry units. Both sides had tank support and few units, German or American, experienced much success unless supporting tanks were on hand. By their own count, the Germans lost 45 tanks."
"GEORGE SCHNEIDER, HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Even though Aachen, the first major city in Germany, had fallen, there was still serious work to do. The way ahead was not going to be easy for the Allies. After arriving in the Aachen sector in mid-October, General der Panzertrupppen Hasso Freiherr von Manteuffel and his 5th Panzer Army staff had organized a comprehensive digging program involving the troops, some men of Organization Todt, boys of the Hitler Youth, and the civilian population. Extensive minefields were laid, both in front of the main line and on approaches to second, third, and fourth lines of defense. Arrangements were made with the 7th Army about controlling the water level of the Roer River by utilizing the Roer River dams, most of which were still undamaged. During the three weeks in which the 5th Panzer Army commanded the Aachen sector, it organized an impressive battle position, complete with several lines of defense, coordinated artillery positions, barbed wire entanglements, minefields, and anti-tank obstacles. Now it was just a question of establishing when the Allies would strike."
................................................................................................
The first couple of pages of chapter six describe next moves planned by Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Montgomery - with some objections by General Patton noted - and the differences they had; to anyone whos watched A Bridge Too Far, mentioned in this book before, what's coming is anticipated, and so a reader expects more.
"Since 19 September, the 1st Infantry Division, along with the 3rd Armored Division, had been making forays into an area between the cities of Aachen, Düren, and Monschau known as the Hürtgen Forest. Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges had personally authorized and endorsed this action for the purpose of eliminating German resistance there. It wasn’t even debated at the time that entering those densely forested primordial woods of tall fir trees, deep gorges, high ridges, and narrow trails area would eradicate all tactical advantages that the US forces had employed since the battles in Normandy. The canopy of the forest was so thick that when the GIs ventured in, they were in almost pitch darkness after about 30 yards. This also meant that it was nearly impossible to operate at anything above squad strength. The situation was exacerbated by the strong German defenses located deep in the forest and protected by pillboxes from the Siegfried Line.
"American units were furnished with maps that didn’t accurately show the steep contours of this region, and when the attacks bogged down, no one above the rank of captain ever went to see what the problem was. For the unfortunate infantry the forest presented a hellish tableau full of booby traps, mines, tree bursts, and an enemy determined to thwart their every move."
"General Hodges delegated the job of clearing out the forest to Major General Leonard T. Gerow’s V Corps. Gerow, in turn, passed the mission on to Major General Norman D. Cota’s 28th Infantry Division. It cost the 28th Division, whose red keystone shoulder patch became known as the “Bloody Bucket,” almost 80 percent of its number and even then the task wasn’t successfully accomplished."
"While the 28th Infantry Division endured the stalemate in the Hürtgen Forest, US divisions in and around Aachen prepared for a drive to the Rhine River. ... When General Eisenhower met Field Marshal Montgomery and General Bradley in Brussels on 18 October to discuss future plans, he once again hammered home his idea of the “broad-front” strategy. Eisenhower had first proposed this idea after the St. Lô-Falaise breakout. Patton had disagreed vociferously with the suggestion. General Eisenhower and his advisers suggested that with winter fast approaching, the best policy might be to hold in place, then to launch a final victorious offensive in the early spring.
"The problem for many Allied commanders was Eisenhower’s credibility as a strategist. Although he was a respected and much admired leader, his emphasis was usually more inclined toward maintaining the equilibrium among his commanders rather than initiating bold military strategies. The problem for many Allied commanders was Eisenhower’s credibility as a strategist. The “wait until spring” idea was not received well and eventually three mitigating factors helped dissuade Eisenhower from this course of action. First, due to the attritional nature of the fighting, the German army was incurring casualties of up to 4,000 per day. Second, a winter sojourn would give the new German divisions time to train, prepare these troops for combat, and enable German industrial production to turn out more tanks and guns. Third, a sizeable pause in the fighting might enable the Germans to accelerate their jet production and discover the proximity fuse that would enable them to blast Allied bombers out of the skies.
"Although Bradley and Montgomery’s opinions on how to proceed were diametrically opposed, Montgomery still fervently supported the idea of his Allied spearhead in the north supported by US divisions. Bradley wasn’t particularly enamored with this idea. Supply was an omnipresent problem for the Allies so before he could begin any concerted thrust east, Montgomery had to clear German forces out of the Walcheren peninsula west of Antwerp, which would drastically shorten supply lines. Eisenhower knew that a push to the Ruhr River was an imperative. He had even made plans for this before the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Ruhr valley was the pumping heart of Germany’s industrial might; moreover, the Allies wanted an economic objective that, if achieved, would substantially hinder Germany’s means of continuing the war. If they could capture the Ruhr industrial area this would effectively deprive Germany of 65 percent of its production of crude steel and 56 percent of its coal.
"It was tentatively agreed that the British 21st Army Group would attack east of Eindhoven and head towards the Ruhr to establish bridgeheads over the Rhine and Ijssel Rivers. Hodges’s First Army would make the main thrust in the center for the 12th Army Group. He would be charged with the task of establishing a bridgehead across the Rhine south of Cologne. Lieutenant General William Hood Simpson’s Ninth Army would protect the First Army’s left flank between Sittard and Aachen until the Ruhr was crossed, and then they intended to veer northeastward toward Krefeld. Bradley had repositioned the Ninth between the First Army and the 21st Army Group on 22 October to avoid them from being requisitioned by Montgomery. According to Bradley the motivation for doing this had no tactical basis other than to prevent Montgomery from using the veteran First Army for his own purposes. After weeks of meticulous planning the attack was finally launched toward the Roer River.
"The 30th Division, meanwhile, was given the job of eliminating the German salient that jutted out west toward Aachen. Their flanks would be protected by the 29th Infantry Division in the north and the newly-arrived 104th Infantry Division (“Timberwolves”) in the south. While the 119th Infantry Regiment remained in Würselen, the 117th and 120th Infantry Regiments lined up between Alsdorf and Euchen. Patrols in that vicinity didn’t encounter any serious German opposition, so everything was set for the standard military advance. This reconnaissance established that the German line ran along the line of a railway embankment. The “Work Horse of the Western Front” was going to have to work for it again."
But - having built up the anticipation - Battle of the Bulge precedes Operation Market Garden. This after all is about the 30th, who were at the Battle of the Bulge, but not involved in Market Garden.
One point a reader here might begin to notice unless a professional historian, is that most accounts of the Battle of the Bulge are usually centred around Bastogne, which is well deserved, of course, but here one reads about other just as well deserved battles and encounters, and begins to know of other important points that the Battle of the Bulge was fought around - Stavelot, for example - and most of all, Baugnez and Malmédy. This part is hardly ever spoken about, perhaps as a matter of policy, because immediately after the war and even as Nuremberg trials were proceeding, cold war was on, and any public knowledge about the Malmédy massacre by the S.S., of eighty U.S. soldiers who had fought and surrendered, would turn the U.S. people into far more fiercely anti German than the horror evoked by the exposing of extermination camps.
................................................................................................
"On 21 November, the 30th Division moved out at night, charged with the task of clearing out Ninth Army’s inner wing near the original line of departure and during the initial assault they gained 3-1/2 miles. The 120th Infantry Regiment and its attached 743rd Tank Battalion quickly overran five villages. The 120th Infantry’s most advanced position ended just four miles from the Roer. They had encountered some sporadic resistance but there were no concerted German counterattacks to dissuade them from their trajectory.
" ... Rumors began to circulate that the Germans were massing forces just east of the Rhine, but there was no serious intelligence at the time to substantiate these claims. ... By 30 November, Old Hickory had accomplished its contribution in the historic drive to the Ruhr River and in the process they had incurred 160 men killed and 1,058 wounded."
"On the whole, the drive to the Ruhr had been a disappointing maneuver because although quite a bit of territory was claimed by the Allies, they hadn’t really been able to exploit these minor victories sufficiently. Hemmed in by a checkerboard of villages and towns, it had been a slogging match that hadn’t really enabled the US forces to break out into open ground. They had now set themselves up, moreover, with the daunting task of actually crossing the Ruhr River at a future point in time. Farther south in the Hürtgen Forest, torrential rain and mud had all but brought the advance there to a halt. The whole area was simply not conducive to the Allied way of fighting. To the right of the town of Schmidt in the Hürtgen Forest, the Schwammenauel Dam was still intact as were many of the dams that supplied the Ruhr industrial zone. Between 4 and 11 December, the RAF dropped approximately 2,000 tons of bombs on these dams, but hadn’t managed to breach any of them and had been largely ineffectual. Calling for air support in the Hürtgen was often counterproductive because of the dense canopy, so it was all left to the infantry to do the hard work."
................................................................................................
"General Patton had casually mentioned that the Germans were still capable of mounting a powerful offensive if they wanted to, but nobody at SHAEF suspected that a counterattack would occur in this sector. Patton had positioned his whole Third Army in the Alsace region in northern France because if the attack came he assumed that it would happen there. He based his assumptions on the fact that this area had indeed changed hands on a number of occasions during the previous hundred years. Alsace looked like any other southern German place with its half-timbered houses and cobbled streets. Many there still spoke German and referred to Alsace by its German name, Das Elsass. The Germans knew the terrain there all too well. They had targeted the area in 1940 but whether or not it would be suitable for a new offensive remained to be seen."
"A particular problem for the Allies at this time was the glaring lack of accurate and verifiable intelligence regarding the buildup of German forces in the west. Bletchley Park had intercepted communications that indicated that some German divisions were being moved west from the Russian front, but no one at SHAEF regarded this information as anything more than an indication that they were preparing to defend their homeland when the Allies went on the offensive again in February 1945. Even when two German prisoners were inadvertently captured by the 28th Infantry Division on the Luxembourg/Germany border, no one believed their claims that a massive German counteroffensive was imminent. Some days prior to the attack, the German armies had imposed radio silence on all their units; although some US division commanders suspected that something was afoot, there was still no definitive intelligence to corroborate this.
"At 0530 hours on 16 December, however, their suspicions proved right. Along an 89-mile front that stretched from Monschau on the southwestern edge of the Hürtgen Forest all the way down to Echternach in the south of Luxembourg, a tirade of German wrath was unleashed against unsuspecting GIs as barrages from at least 657 artillery pieces, along with 340 rocket launchers, thundered into the murky pre-dawn skies and crashed among the unsuspecting thin green line of US troops there.
"Over at First Army HQ in Spa, General Omar Bradley received the news with incredulity. He wasn’t the only one who didn’t consider this to be an all-out offensive, but as the day wore on it was evident that these were most definitely not simple probing attacks. As German 88s and Nebelwerfers reaped havoc among front-line US divisions, word reached the 30th that something serious was going on down in the Ardennes. Three German armies had attacked simultaneously along the whole line there. In the northern sector they were primarily SS units, some of which had been specially imported from the eastern front solely for this offensive. These battle-hardened veterans were not afraid of cold temperatures and were spoiling for a fight with the intrusive Americans."
"The 30th was also battle-hardened; most of them had taken on SS troops before and come out on top. ... In addition to being pitted against the SS, there would be an enemy with which they had already had some experience, but not to this extent. The weather would be more debilitating in the Ardennes than anything they had dealt with before. The November rains had caused cases of trench-foot and hypothermia throughout the ranks, but nothing could have prepared them for what was in store when they reached the Ardennes region of Belgium."
"The 30th Reconnaissance Troop and the 119th Infantry Regiment led the way, arriving in the vicinity of the Belgian town of Malmédy by 1630 hours on 17 December. They were closely followed by the 117th and 120th Infantry Regiments, the 120th having turned over their sector to the 29th Infantry Division moments before they hit the road. The long regimental columns interspersed with tanks and tank destroyers meandered south almost unopposed. A couple of stray German fighter planes dropped a few flares on the columns. It was about this time that the ominous tones of Axis Sally could be heard on frequent broadcasts informing the troops mockingly that, “The fanatical 30th Division, Roosevelt’s SS, was going to save First Army.”"
"The 1st SS-Panzer Division “Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler” led the advance into the Amblève River valley and collided with the 30th Division. LAH was part of General Josef “Sepp” Dietrich’s 6th Panzer Army. Dietrich was a committed Nazi, and while other German commanders secretly muttered their disapproval of Hitler’s plan, Dietrich supported it wholeheartedly. Such was his enthusiasm for the plan that the Germans called “WACHT AM RHEIN” (Guard on the Rhine) that Hitler gave him the task of leading the “spearhead” toward Antwerp. The unit on point was known as Kampfgruppe (battle group) Peiper. Its leader, Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) Joachim Peiper, was a handsome 29-year-old veteran with a fearsome reputation for being very thorough when in combat. He had served as an adjutant on Heinrich Himmler’s staff before commanding various panzer units attached to the 1st SS-Panzer Division. Peiper was Himmler’s “blue-eyed boy” and Himmler always maintained a fervent interest in Peiper’s military career.
"On the eastern front, his unit had been known as the “Blowtorch Battalion.” The “blowtorch” reference came from their overly enthusiastic use of flamethrowers. Their method of fighting had been brutal and merciless. They would capture a Russian village, burn everything to cinders, and kill everything with a pulse."
"The following day brought more problems for Kampfgruppe Peiper. Unable to take the route that he had intended, combined with the dogged resistance of the 99th and 2nd Infantry Divisions, his unit was effectively funneled into an area where he didn’t want to be, the Amblève valley. Peiper’s command was used to fighting in the vast open spaces of the Russian plains where it was possible to maneuver. His unit was not designed to be confined to the narrow and constricting roads; small villages and towns; hilly terrain; and the densely-wooded boreal forests of the Amblève valley. Peiper, moreover, harbored a festering dislike for Sepp Dietrich, the butcher’s son from Bavaria. By that stage in the war Dietrich was an alcoholic who rarely exhibited the necessary lucidity required to orchestrate a major offensive. He’d become no more than a Nazi sycophant who acquiesced willingly to his Führer.
"When the 30th Division arrived the following day to take on Kampf-gruppe Peiper in the Amblève area, they discovered that the task force from the 99th had already been involved in a fierce running battle with the SS. Brigadier General Harrison, the 30th’s assistant division commander, instructed the 117th Infantry Regiment to continue on and secure the towns of Malmédy and Stavelot. The 119th Infantry Regiment stopped at Hauset, just inside the Belgian border, and bedded down for the night. A task force from the 99th Infantry Division was also ordered to go to Malmédy. They arrived there at 2130 hours and found that 60 men from the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion had already set up some roadblocks and were laying mines south of Stavelot. Within two hours of arriving on the scene the task force became embroiled in a vicious firefight with leading elements of Kampf-gruppe Peiper.
"The 1st SS-Panzer Division and Kampfgruppe Peiper had been given the instruction by 6th Panzer Army commander, Josef “Sepp” Dietrich, to subjugate all opposition by whatever means. This was a thinly-veiled order to indulge in a killing spree and take no prisoners. Perhaps the most infamous example of these orders being followed to the letter occurred at the Baugnez crossroads on 17 December. On that fateful winter’s day in 1944, the spearhead of Peiper’s Kampfgruppe executed more than 80 American GIs in cold blood, while more than 40 escaped the slaughter. It is generally agreed that at approximately 1300 hours on 17 December 1944, the lead vehicles of Kampfgruppe Peiper’s 15-mile-long column approached the crossroad at Baugnez, a few miles north of the town of Malmédy. They ran into a small American convoy of 26 vehicles belonging to Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion (FAOB) that had been sent down from Germany to join the 7th Armored Division near St. Vith. A short but violent firefight ensued, and the men of the FAOB, lacking any heavy weapons to defend themselves and after taking casualties, decided to surrender. They didn’t have the option to retreat back down the road to Malmédy because engineers had felled trees behind them that toppled in a lattice pattern on the road, making it virtually impassable. As the exchange of fire subsided, the GIs were told to lay down their weapons, whereupon they were herded into a nearby field next to a structure known as the Café Bodarwe.
"According to eyewitnesses, half-tracks and tanks from Kampfgruppe Peiper pulled up opposite the field where the surrendered Americans were gathered. The SS were seen loading their weapons, then the SS troops suddenly opened up with pistols and machine guns on the US prisoners standing in what would become known as the “Massacre Field.” GIs crumpled to the ground while terrified US soldiers who were not hit in the initial fusillade suddenly began to run. There was more fire and additional prisoners fell screaming to the ground. Within a matter of a few minutes, pools of blood and writhing bodies littered the field. Then a small group of SS men began to walk among the injured and the dead, with their pistols out. Any bodies that showed signs of life were instantly dispatched by the SS; personal valuables such as watches were taken from the dead Americans. ... Despite what has been written by other historians, there is indisputable proof that many of the casualties at Baugnez suffered close-proximity head wounds, which concurs with reports by survivors that many of the wounded were shot point blank. Escapees who made their way back to the 291st Engineer positions in Malmédy would later tell their stories and those quickly made their way through the American ranks, steeling GI resolve to blunt the German assault, and fueling their abhorrence of the SS."
"General Bradley, meanwhile, had given orders to move First Army’s headquarters south to Luxembourg. Bradley now fully comprehended that this was no minor enemy incursion; it was an all-out counterattack by a determined enemy. Down in Luxembourg Bradley would be in closer proximity to Patton’s Third Army and he understood well that when push came to shove Patton would never evade a potential fight."
"HANK STAIRS, HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Sunday, 18 December 1944. Fast forward. Our battalion captured the town and controlled the Stavelot bridge, cutting off Peiper’s supply line. The Battle of the Bulge continued."
"Farther west, the 30th Division’s attack was gathering momentum, supported by IX and XXIX Tactical Air Commands, who had joined the fight and were proving their worth. Planes from the 365th Fighter Group, reinforced by the 390th Squadron (366th) and the 506th Squadron (404th), swooped down on German armor wherever they could find it. They even made it over to Stavelot where they tipped the balance in favor of the US forces there. This wasn’t entirely the old pattern of air superiority repeating itself like it had in Normandy because the ground troops still had to deal with the lion’s share of the fighting on the ground."
"By dawn 19 December, the 30th Division’s line extended over 17 miles and there was almost constant fighting along each mile of the front. The SS were as determined to reach the river Meuse as the 30th Division was to prevent them from doing precisely that. Due to the unfavorable terrain Kampf-gruppe Peiper was severely restricted in their ability to maneuver effectively enough to deploy their superior tanks. Those hills and trees were causing increasing claustrophobia for the SS column as 30th Division units and 82nd Airborne Division effectively occupied the high ground and lobbed mortar and bazooka shells onto the winding trails at the base of the valley."
"Horrendous freezing weather conditions didn’t help the situation for either side as temperatures plummeted and blizzards began to blow through the Ardennes, forming snow drifts deep enough to cover a man."
The first couple of pages of chapter six describe next moves planned by Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Montgomery - with some objections by General Patton noted - and the differences they had; to anyone whos watched A Bridge Too Far, mentioned in this book before, what's coming is anticipated, and so a reader expects more.
"Since 19 September, the 1st Infantry Division, along with the 3rd Armored Division, had been making forays into an area between the cities of Aachen, Düren, and Monschau known as the Hürtgen Forest. Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges had personally authorized and endorsed this action for the purpose of eliminating German resistance there. It wasn’t even debated at the time that entering those densely forested primordial woods of tall fir trees, deep gorges, high ridges, and narrow trails area would eradicate all tactical advantages that the US forces had employed since the battles in Normandy. The canopy of the forest was so thick that when the GIs ventured in, they were in almost pitch darkness after about 30 yards. This also meant that it was nearly impossible to operate at anything above squad strength. The situation was exacerbated by the strong German defenses located deep in the forest and protected by pillboxes from the Siegfried Line.
"American units were furnished with maps that didn’t accurately show the steep contours of this region, and when the attacks bogged down, no one above the rank of captain ever went to see what the problem was. For the unfortunate infantry the forest presented a hellish tableau full of booby traps, mines, tree bursts, and an enemy determined to thwart their every move."
"General Hodges delegated the job of clearing out the forest to Major General Leonard T. Gerow’s V Corps. Gerow, in turn, passed the mission on to Major General Norman D. Cota’s 28th Infantry Division. It cost the 28th Division, whose red keystone shoulder patch became known as the “Bloody Bucket,” almost 80 percent of its number and even then the task wasn’t successfully accomplished."
"While the 28th Infantry Division endured the stalemate in the Hürtgen Forest, US divisions in and around Aachen prepared for a drive to the Rhine River. ... When General Eisenhower met Field Marshal Montgomery and General Bradley in Brussels on 18 October to discuss future plans, he once again hammered home his idea of the “broad-front” strategy. Eisenhower had first proposed this idea after the St. Lô-Falaise breakout. Patton had disagreed vociferously with the suggestion. General Eisenhower and his advisers suggested that with winter fast approaching, the best policy might be to hold in place, then to launch a final victorious offensive in the early spring.
"The problem for many Allied commanders was Eisenhower’s credibility as a strategist. Although he was a respected and much admired leader, his emphasis was usually more inclined toward maintaining the equilibrium among his commanders rather than initiating bold military strategies. The problem for many Allied commanders was Eisenhower’s credibility as a strategist. The “wait until spring” idea was not received well and eventually three mitigating factors helped dissuade Eisenhower from this course of action. First, due to the attritional nature of the fighting, the German army was incurring casualties of up to 4,000 per day. Second, a winter sojourn would give the new German divisions time to train, prepare these troops for combat, and enable German industrial production to turn out more tanks and guns. Third, a sizeable pause in the fighting might enable the Germans to accelerate their jet production and discover the proximity fuse that would enable them to blast Allied bombers out of the skies.
"Although Bradley and Montgomery’s opinions on how to proceed were diametrically opposed, Montgomery still fervently supported the idea of his Allied spearhead in the north supported by US divisions. Bradley wasn’t particularly enamored with this idea. Supply was an omnipresent problem for the Allies so before he could begin any concerted thrust east, Montgomery had to clear German forces out of the Walcheren peninsula west of Antwerp, which would drastically shorten supply lines. Eisenhower knew that a push to the Ruhr River was an imperative. He had even made plans for this before the Allied invasion of Normandy. The Ruhr valley was the pumping heart of Germany’s industrial might; moreover, the Allies wanted an economic objective that, if achieved, would substantially hinder Germany’s means of continuing the war. If they could capture the Ruhr industrial area this would effectively deprive Germany of 65 percent of its production of crude steel and 56 percent of its coal.
"It was tentatively agreed that the British 21st Army Group would attack east of Eindhoven and head towards the Ruhr to establish bridgeheads over the Rhine and Ijssel Rivers. Hodges’s First Army would make the main thrust in the center for the 12th Army Group. He would be charged with the task of establishing a bridgehead across the Rhine south of Cologne. Lieutenant General William Hood Simpson’s Ninth Army would protect the First Army’s left flank between Sittard and Aachen until the Ruhr was crossed, and then they intended to veer northeastward toward Krefeld. Bradley had repositioned the Ninth between the First Army and the 21st Army Group on 22 October to avoid them from being requisitioned by Montgomery. According to Bradley the motivation for doing this had no tactical basis other than to prevent Montgomery from using the veteran First Army for his own purposes. After weeks of meticulous planning the attack was finally launched toward the Roer River.
"The 30th Division, meanwhile, was given the job of eliminating the German salient that jutted out west toward Aachen. Their flanks would be protected by the 29th Infantry Division in the north and the newly-arrived 104th Infantry Division (“Timberwolves”) in the south. While the 119th Infantry Regiment remained in Würselen, the 117th and 120th Infantry Regiments lined up between Alsdorf and Euchen. Patrols in that vicinity didn’t encounter any serious German opposition, so everything was set for the standard military advance. This reconnaissance established that the German line ran along the line of a railway embankment. The “Work Horse of the Western Front” was going to have to work for it again."
But - having built up the anticipation - Battle of the Bulge precedes Operation Market Garden. This after all is about the 30th, who were at the Battle of the Bulge, but not involved in Market Garden.
One point a reader here might begin to notice unless a professional historian, is that most accounts of the Battle of the Bulge are usually centred around Bastogne, which is well deserved, of course, but here one reads about other just as well deserved battles and encounters, and begins to know of other important points that the Battle of the Bulge was fought around - Stavelot, for example - and most of all, Baugnez and Malmédy. This part is hardly ever spoken about, perhaps as a matter of policy, because immediately after the war and even as Nuremberg trials were proceeding, cold war was on, and any public knowledge about the Malmédy massacre by the S.S., of eighty U.S. soldiers who had fought and surrendered, would turn the U.S. people into far more fiercely anti German than the horror evoked by the exposing of extermination camps.
................................................................................................
"On 21 November, the 30th Division moved out at night, charged with the task of clearing out Ninth Army’s inner wing near the original line of departure and during the initial assault they gained 3-1/2 miles. The 120th Infantry Regiment and its attached 743rd Tank Battalion quickly overran five villages. The 120th Infantry’s most advanced position ended just four miles from the Roer. They had encountered some sporadic resistance but there were no concerted German counterattacks to dissuade them from their trajectory.
" ... Rumors began to circulate that the Germans were massing forces just east of the Rhine, but there was no serious intelligence at the time to substantiate these claims. ... By 30 November, Old Hickory had accomplished its contribution in the historic drive to the Ruhr River and in the process they had incurred 160 men killed and 1,058 wounded."
"On the whole, the drive to the Ruhr had been a disappointing maneuver because although quite a bit of territory was claimed by the Allies, they hadn’t really been able to exploit these minor victories sufficiently. Hemmed in by a checkerboard of villages and towns, it had been a slogging match that hadn’t really enabled the US forces to break out into open ground. They had now set themselves up, moreover, with the daunting task of actually crossing the Ruhr River at a future point in time. Farther south in the Hürtgen Forest, torrential rain and mud had all but brought the advance there to a halt. The whole area was simply not conducive to the Allied way of fighting. To the right of the town of Schmidt in the Hürtgen Forest, the Schwammenauel Dam was still intact as were many of the dams that supplied the Ruhr industrial zone. Between 4 and 11 December, the RAF dropped approximately 2,000 tons of bombs on these dams, but hadn’t managed to breach any of them and had been largely ineffectual. Calling for air support in the Hürtgen was often counterproductive because of the dense canopy, so it was all left to the infantry to do the hard work."
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"General Patton had casually mentioned that the Germans were still capable of mounting a powerful offensive if they wanted to, but nobody at SHAEF suspected that a counterattack would occur in this sector. Patton had positioned his whole Third Army in the Alsace region in northern France because if the attack came he assumed that it would happen there. He based his assumptions on the fact that this area had indeed changed hands on a number of occasions during the previous hundred years. Alsace looked like any other southern German place with its half-timbered houses and cobbled streets. Many there still spoke German and referred to Alsace by its German name, Das Elsass. The Germans knew the terrain there all too well. They had targeted the area in 1940 but whether or not it would be suitable for a new offensive remained to be seen."
"A particular problem for the Allies at this time was the glaring lack of accurate and verifiable intelligence regarding the buildup of German forces in the west. Bletchley Park had intercepted communications that indicated that some German divisions were being moved west from the Russian front, but no one at SHAEF regarded this information as anything more than an indication that they were preparing to defend their homeland when the Allies went on the offensive again in February 1945. Even when two German prisoners were inadvertently captured by the 28th Infantry Division on the Luxembourg/Germany border, no one believed their claims that a massive German counteroffensive was imminent. Some days prior to the attack, the German armies had imposed radio silence on all their units; although some US division commanders suspected that something was afoot, there was still no definitive intelligence to corroborate this.
"At 0530 hours on 16 December, however, their suspicions proved right. Along an 89-mile front that stretched from Monschau on the southwestern edge of the Hürtgen Forest all the way down to Echternach in the south of Luxembourg, a tirade of German wrath was unleashed against unsuspecting GIs as barrages from at least 657 artillery pieces, along with 340 rocket launchers, thundered into the murky pre-dawn skies and crashed among the unsuspecting thin green line of US troops there.
"Over at First Army HQ in Spa, General Omar Bradley received the news with incredulity. He wasn’t the only one who didn’t consider this to be an all-out offensive, but as the day wore on it was evident that these were most definitely not simple probing attacks. As German 88s and Nebelwerfers reaped havoc among front-line US divisions, word reached the 30th that something serious was going on down in the Ardennes. Three German armies had attacked simultaneously along the whole line there. In the northern sector they were primarily SS units, some of which had been specially imported from the eastern front solely for this offensive. These battle-hardened veterans were not afraid of cold temperatures and were spoiling for a fight with the intrusive Americans."
"The 30th was also battle-hardened; most of them had taken on SS troops before and come out on top. ... In addition to being pitted against the SS, there would be an enemy with which they had already had some experience, but not to this extent. The weather would be more debilitating in the Ardennes than anything they had dealt with before. The November rains had caused cases of trench-foot and hypothermia throughout the ranks, but nothing could have prepared them for what was in store when they reached the Ardennes region of Belgium."
"The 30th Reconnaissance Troop and the 119th Infantry Regiment led the way, arriving in the vicinity of the Belgian town of Malmédy by 1630 hours on 17 December. They were closely followed by the 117th and 120th Infantry Regiments, the 120th having turned over their sector to the 29th Infantry Division moments before they hit the road. The long regimental columns interspersed with tanks and tank destroyers meandered south almost unopposed. A couple of stray German fighter planes dropped a few flares on the columns. It was about this time that the ominous tones of Axis Sally could be heard on frequent broadcasts informing the troops mockingly that, “The fanatical 30th Division, Roosevelt’s SS, was going to save First Army.”"
"The 1st SS-Panzer Division “Liebstandarte SS Adolf Hitler” led the advance into the Amblève River valley and collided with the 30th Division. LAH was part of General Josef “Sepp” Dietrich’s 6th Panzer Army. Dietrich was a committed Nazi, and while other German commanders secretly muttered their disapproval of Hitler’s plan, Dietrich supported it wholeheartedly. Such was his enthusiasm for the plan that the Germans called “WACHT AM RHEIN” (Guard on the Rhine) that Hitler gave him the task of leading the “spearhead” toward Antwerp. The unit on point was known as Kampfgruppe (battle group) Peiper. Its leader, Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) Joachim Peiper, was a handsome 29-year-old veteran with a fearsome reputation for being very thorough when in combat. He had served as an adjutant on Heinrich Himmler’s staff before commanding various panzer units attached to the 1st SS-Panzer Division. Peiper was Himmler’s “blue-eyed boy” and Himmler always maintained a fervent interest in Peiper’s military career.
"On the eastern front, his unit had been known as the “Blowtorch Battalion.” The “blowtorch” reference came from their overly enthusiastic use of flamethrowers. Their method of fighting had been brutal and merciless. They would capture a Russian village, burn everything to cinders, and kill everything with a pulse."
"The following day brought more problems for Kampfgruppe Peiper. Unable to take the route that he had intended, combined with the dogged resistance of the 99th and 2nd Infantry Divisions, his unit was effectively funneled into an area where he didn’t want to be, the Amblève valley. Peiper’s command was used to fighting in the vast open spaces of the Russian plains where it was possible to maneuver. His unit was not designed to be confined to the narrow and constricting roads; small villages and towns; hilly terrain; and the densely-wooded boreal forests of the Amblève valley. Peiper, moreover, harbored a festering dislike for Sepp Dietrich, the butcher’s son from Bavaria. By that stage in the war Dietrich was an alcoholic who rarely exhibited the necessary lucidity required to orchestrate a major offensive. He’d become no more than a Nazi sycophant who acquiesced willingly to his Führer.
"When the 30th Division arrived the following day to take on Kampf-gruppe Peiper in the Amblève area, they discovered that the task force from the 99th had already been involved in a fierce running battle with the SS. Brigadier General Harrison, the 30th’s assistant division commander, instructed the 117th Infantry Regiment to continue on and secure the towns of Malmédy and Stavelot. The 119th Infantry Regiment stopped at Hauset, just inside the Belgian border, and bedded down for the night. A task force from the 99th Infantry Division was also ordered to go to Malmédy. They arrived there at 2130 hours and found that 60 men from the 291st Engineer Combat Battalion had already set up some roadblocks and were laying mines south of Stavelot. Within two hours of arriving on the scene the task force became embroiled in a vicious firefight with leading elements of Kampf-gruppe Peiper.
"The 1st SS-Panzer Division and Kampfgruppe Peiper had been given the instruction by 6th Panzer Army commander, Josef “Sepp” Dietrich, to subjugate all opposition by whatever means. This was a thinly-veiled order to indulge in a killing spree and take no prisoners. Perhaps the most infamous example of these orders being followed to the letter occurred at the Baugnez crossroads on 17 December. On that fateful winter’s day in 1944, the spearhead of Peiper’s Kampfgruppe executed more than 80 American GIs in cold blood, while more than 40 escaped the slaughter. It is generally agreed that at approximately 1300 hours on 17 December 1944, the lead vehicles of Kampfgruppe Peiper’s 15-mile-long column approached the crossroad at Baugnez, a few miles north of the town of Malmédy. They ran into a small American convoy of 26 vehicles belonging to Battery B, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion (FAOB) that had been sent down from Germany to join the 7th Armored Division near St. Vith. A short but violent firefight ensued, and the men of the FAOB, lacking any heavy weapons to defend themselves and after taking casualties, decided to surrender. They didn’t have the option to retreat back down the road to Malmédy because engineers had felled trees behind them that toppled in a lattice pattern on the road, making it virtually impassable. As the exchange of fire subsided, the GIs were told to lay down their weapons, whereupon they were herded into a nearby field next to a structure known as the Café Bodarwe.
"According to eyewitnesses, half-tracks and tanks from Kampfgruppe Peiper pulled up opposite the field where the surrendered Americans were gathered. The SS were seen loading their weapons, then the SS troops suddenly opened up with pistols and machine guns on the US prisoners standing in what would become known as the “Massacre Field.” GIs crumpled to the ground while terrified US soldiers who were not hit in the initial fusillade suddenly began to run. There was more fire and additional prisoners fell screaming to the ground. Within a matter of a few minutes, pools of blood and writhing bodies littered the field. Then a small group of SS men began to walk among the injured and the dead, with their pistols out. Any bodies that showed signs of life were instantly dispatched by the SS; personal valuables such as watches were taken from the dead Americans. ... Despite what has been written by other historians, there is indisputable proof that many of the casualties at Baugnez suffered close-proximity head wounds, which concurs with reports by survivors that many of the wounded were shot point blank. Escapees who made their way back to the 291st Engineer positions in Malmédy would later tell their stories and those quickly made their way through the American ranks, steeling GI resolve to blunt the German assault, and fueling their abhorrence of the SS."
"General Bradley, meanwhile, had given orders to move First Army’s headquarters south to Luxembourg. Bradley now fully comprehended that this was no minor enemy incursion; it was an all-out counterattack by a determined enemy. Down in Luxembourg Bradley would be in closer proximity to Patton’s Third Army and he understood well that when push came to shove Patton would never evade a potential fight."
"HANK STAIRS, HEADQUARTERS COMPANY, 117TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Sunday, 18 December 1944. Fast forward. Our battalion captured the town and controlled the Stavelot bridge, cutting off Peiper’s supply line. The Battle of the Bulge continued."
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"Farther west, the 30th Division’s attack was gathering momentum, supported by IX and XXIX Tactical Air Commands, who had joined the fight and were proving their worth. Planes from the 365th Fighter Group, reinforced by the 390th Squadron (366th) and the 506th Squadron (404th), swooped down on German armor wherever they could find it. They even made it over to Stavelot where they tipped the balance in favor of the US forces there. This wasn’t entirely the old pattern of air superiority repeating itself like it had in Normandy because the ground troops still had to deal with the lion’s share of the fighting on the ground."
"By dawn 19 December, the 30th Division’s line extended over 17 miles and there was almost constant fighting along each mile of the front. The SS were as determined to reach the river Meuse as the 30th Division was to prevent them from doing precisely that. Due to the unfavorable terrain Kampf-gruppe Peiper was severely restricted in their ability to maneuver effectively enough to deploy their superior tanks. Those hills and trees were causing increasing claustrophobia for the SS column as 30th Division units and 82nd Airborne Division effectively occupied the high ground and lobbed mortar and bazooka shells onto the winding trails at the base of the valley."
"Horrendous freezing weather conditions didn’t help the situation for either side as temperatures plummeted and blizzards began to blow through the Ardennes, forming snow drifts deep enough to cover a man."
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"In addition to the miserable weather conditions, the GIs began to hear about another potential menace. Rumors abounded that there were German SS troops wearing American uniforms and, according to reports, they were all over the Ardennes. This was a major exaggeration, but there were indeed some German troops who were thus attired. They were known as members of the Panzer Brigade 150 (or Brandenburger Brigade) and had approximately 2000 men in the unit. It was claimed that 150 of these men could speak perfect English. Sometime after the war, Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny described their mission, called Operation GRIEFF (Griffon), as an unmitigated disaster. He added that most of this specially chosen 150 were incapable of putting three English words together in a sentence. Skorzeny simply hadn’t had the time to train them up to his high standard. They used captured Allied equipment (particularly tanks and jeeps), uniforms, identification papers, that had been hurriedly accumulated at the front and sent to Skorzeny’s headquarters. Although he was personally very dismissive of the effectiveness of these troops, the psychological effect on the Allies was quite profound. Skorzeny was known as “Hitler’s Assassin” and had indeed been quite successful in the past. He had rescued Mussolini from the Italians, conducted various clandestine operations, and when the Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós von Nagybánya Horthy began to show signs of questionable loyalty by declaring an end to the war, Skorzeny was dispatched to Budapest to kidnap Horthy’s son. As a direct result of this, Horthy was forced to revoke his declarations and abdicate."
" ... Disguised jeep parties did go into action with varying degrees of success on 16 December, but the Brandenburger Brigade would be engaged as a unit only in a single and abortive skirmish near Malmédy five days later. One particular bazooka man took the initiative on one occasion to fire a direct hit at a jeep carrying four GIs. It was a gamble that worked because all the jeeps occupants were indeed Germans wearing GI uniforms. The bazooka man had taken the shot purely on the premise that regulations restricted the number of passengers to two, and that jeep, driver included was carrying four which, in his opinion made it a justifiable target."
"Rumors abounded that the SS were massacring civilians as they pushed west. When American soldiers occupied the western perimeter of Stavelot and entered the villages of Ster, Renardmont and Parfondruy, they discovered gruesome confirmation that the German troops, who had occupied these places, had indiscriminately murdered innocent civilians. In the homes and outlying buildings of these localities, the GIs saw the irrefutable evidence of these atrocities with their own eyes. They counted the dead bodies of 117 men, women, and children, all killed by small arms fire."
And yet GÜNTER ADAM, 9TH SS-PANZER DIVISION “HOHENSTAUFEN”, who is quoted quite a bit in this book, when spat at by two young girls in Mortain vicinity, as they saw him captured by U.S. forces, describes them as spiteful for no reason.
"Two young girls of about 17 or 18 years old emerged from a farmhouse nearby. They stood and stared, then spat at us. This spiteful attitude only served to aggravate the already loaded atmosphere as the threatening situation developed into a dangerous one."
Never occurred to him that most of the world did not subscribe to the Nazi ideoĺgy he'd been indoctrinated with, convenient for him and his, which had taught them they could murder and loot and torture anyone for no reason other than the victims being of a different race or nation.
"In addition to the miserable weather conditions, the GIs began to hear about another potential menace. Rumors abounded that there were German SS troops wearing American uniforms and, according to reports, they were all over the Ardennes. This was a major exaggeration, but there were indeed some German troops who were thus attired. They were known as members of the Panzer Brigade 150 (or Brandenburger Brigade) and had approximately 2000 men in the unit. It was claimed that 150 of these men could speak perfect English. Sometime after the war, Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny described their mission, called Operation GRIEFF (Griffon), as an unmitigated disaster. He added that most of this specially chosen 150 were incapable of putting three English words together in a sentence. Skorzeny simply hadn’t had the time to train them up to his high standard. They used captured Allied equipment (particularly tanks and jeeps), uniforms, identification papers, that had been hurriedly accumulated at the front and sent to Skorzeny’s headquarters. Although he was personally very dismissive of the effectiveness of these troops, the psychological effect on the Allies was quite profound. Skorzeny was known as “Hitler’s Assassin” and had indeed been quite successful in the past. He had rescued Mussolini from the Italians, conducted various clandestine operations, and when the Hungarian Regent, Admiral Miklós von Nagybánya Horthy began to show signs of questionable loyalty by declaring an end to the war, Skorzeny was dispatched to Budapest to kidnap Horthy’s son. As a direct result of this, Horthy was forced to revoke his declarations and abdicate."
" ... Disguised jeep parties did go into action with varying degrees of success on 16 December, but the Brandenburger Brigade would be engaged as a unit only in a single and abortive skirmish near Malmédy five days later. One particular bazooka man took the initiative on one occasion to fire a direct hit at a jeep carrying four GIs. It was a gamble that worked because all the jeeps occupants were indeed Germans wearing GI uniforms. The bazooka man had taken the shot purely on the premise that regulations restricted the number of passengers to two, and that jeep, driver included was carrying four which, in his opinion made it a justifiable target."
................................................................................................
"Rumors abounded that the SS were massacring civilians as they pushed west. When American soldiers occupied the western perimeter of Stavelot and entered the villages of Ster, Renardmont and Parfondruy, they discovered gruesome confirmation that the German troops, who had occupied these places, had indiscriminately murdered innocent civilians. In the homes and outlying buildings of these localities, the GIs saw the irrefutable evidence of these atrocities with their own eyes. They counted the dead bodies of 117 men, women, and children, all killed by small arms fire."
And yet GÜNTER ADAM, 9TH SS-PANZER DIVISION “HOHENSTAUFEN”, who is quoted quite a bit in this book, when spat at by two young girls in Mortain vicinity, as they saw him captured by U.S. forces, describes them as spiteful for no reason.
"Two young girls of about 17 or 18 years old emerged from a farmhouse nearby. They stood and stared, then spat at us. This spiteful attitude only served to aggravate the already loaded atmosphere as the threatening situation developed into a dangerous one."
Never occurred to him that most of the world did not subscribe to the Nazi ideoĺgy he'd been indoctrinated with, convenient for him and his, which had taught them they could murder and loot and torture anyone for no reason other than the victims being of a different race or nation.
................................................................................................
"At 0300 hours on 24 December Kampfgruppe Peiper, now reduced to approximately 800 men led by Peiper himself, had surreptitiously slipped away from La Gleize under cover of darkness. Major McCowan (commander of a battalion in the 119th Infantry, captured on 21 December while assaulting Stoumont) was the only one of the 171 American prisoners in La Gleize to go with the column. The rest were simply left there in the basement beneath the former Town Hall. At the commencement of his great drive to the Meuse River, Kampfgruppe Peiper consisted of 5,800 men that were later augmented by an additional battalion from the SS-Panzer-Grenadier Regiment 2. Now, there were only 800 left to sneak back through the woods to their own lines. As he moved back east he was forced to abandon 80 wounded in the Château de Froid-Cour and just over 300 in La Gleize.
"The tally in abandoned and destroyed German armor totaled around 87 tanks; 70 half-tracks; at least 14 flak wagons; 25 75mm assault guns and 105mm and 150mm self-propelled howitzers; plus trucks and smaller vehicles."
"Peiper later disclosed to Major McCowan that seven of the prisoners there had been shot while attempting to escape."
"After the Battle of the Bulge, Joachim Peiper spent a while in a German hospital recuperating from this traumatic experience. Behind his unit in the Belgian Ardennes lay a trail of murder and destruction on a scale that had never been experienced in this previously sedate part of Belgium. He would eventually be brought to account for his transgressions, but first the Nazis had to be defeated. Roosevelt’s SS had once again checked the real SS, but their fight wasn’t over yet. They had spent the past few weeks on the defensive, but now they were gearing up to chase the Nazis right back to the German border and beyond."
"A massive pincer movement involving the First and Third Armies had finally squeezed the German forces into submission and forced them well back behind the Siegfried Line from where they started. The two US armies met at the town of Houffalize on 16 January, and by 28 January, the Germans had been pushed back to their original starting line beyond the Belgian and Luxembourg borders. It had been the largest land battle ever fought by US forces; by the time it was over more than 600,000 US troops had reached the Ardennes. Old Hickory’s fight in the Belgian Ardennes was over, but their war was destined to continue, and to a man, they were hoping it would all be over soon."
"The imposing bridge at Remagen had been taken intact by the 9th Armored Division between 7 and 8 March 1945, enabling US forces to establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine. Ninth Army now held the west bank of the Rhine, from the south of Düsseldorf to the mouth of the Lippe River at Wesel."
"Montgomery was a fastidious and meticulous planner who rarely considered any offensive unless the odds were decidedly in his favor, and this time they most definitely were.
"The Germans were now finding themselves the disagreeable target of a massive pincer movement with General Patton’s Third Army attacking from the south; Ninth Army attacking from the east; and British and Canadian Allies bearing down from the north. ... They were, moreover, insufficient to the task of defending the whole northern sector against the inevitable Allied tsunami now coming in from the west.
"The Old Hickorymen were again given a vital role in the planned assault that would cover an area approximately five miles wide, which was roughly the textbook standard for a division front in WWII. First, a massive artillery bombardment lit the skies in one of the most impressive and powerful barrages of WWII. Then zero hour arrived and the GIs quietly made their way down to the riverside with tracer bullets whizzing above their heads. Just to the north of the 30th Division’s position, under cover of darkness, British commandos removed the safety catches on their weapons and at 2200 hours they stealthily boarded the boats that would carry them to the west bank of the Rhine."
"FRANK DENIUS, BATTERY C, 230TH FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION"
"There were a lot of German soldiers moving west because they wanted to be captured by the Americans, not the Russians."
"At 0300 hours on 24 December Kampfgruppe Peiper, now reduced to approximately 800 men led by Peiper himself, had surreptitiously slipped away from La Gleize under cover of darkness. Major McCowan (commander of a battalion in the 119th Infantry, captured on 21 December while assaulting Stoumont) was the only one of the 171 American prisoners in La Gleize to go with the column. The rest were simply left there in the basement beneath the former Town Hall. At the commencement of his great drive to the Meuse River, Kampfgruppe Peiper consisted of 5,800 men that were later augmented by an additional battalion from the SS-Panzer-Grenadier Regiment 2. Now, there were only 800 left to sneak back through the woods to their own lines. As he moved back east he was forced to abandon 80 wounded in the Château de Froid-Cour and just over 300 in La Gleize.
"The tally in abandoned and destroyed German armor totaled around 87 tanks; 70 half-tracks; at least 14 flak wagons; 25 75mm assault guns and 105mm and 150mm self-propelled howitzers; plus trucks and smaller vehicles."
"Peiper later disclosed to Major McCowan that seven of the prisoners there had been shot while attempting to escape."
"After the Battle of the Bulge, Joachim Peiper spent a while in a German hospital recuperating from this traumatic experience. Behind his unit in the Belgian Ardennes lay a trail of murder and destruction on a scale that had never been experienced in this previously sedate part of Belgium. He would eventually be brought to account for his transgressions, but first the Nazis had to be defeated. Roosevelt’s SS had once again checked the real SS, but their fight wasn’t over yet. They had spent the past few weeks on the defensive, but now they were gearing up to chase the Nazis right back to the German border and beyond."
"A massive pincer movement involving the First and Third Armies had finally squeezed the German forces into submission and forced them well back behind the Siegfried Line from where they started. The two US armies met at the town of Houffalize on 16 January, and by 28 January, the Germans had been pushed back to their original starting line beyond the Belgian and Luxembourg borders. It had been the largest land battle ever fought by US forces; by the time it was over more than 600,000 US troops had reached the Ardennes. Old Hickory’s fight in the Belgian Ardennes was over, but their war was destined to continue, and to a man, they were hoping it would all be over soon."
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"The imposing bridge at Remagen had been taken intact by the 9th Armored Division between 7 and 8 March 1945, enabling US forces to establish a bridgehead on the eastern side of the Rhine. Ninth Army now held the west bank of the Rhine, from the south of Düsseldorf to the mouth of the Lippe River at Wesel."
"Montgomery was a fastidious and meticulous planner who rarely considered any offensive unless the odds were decidedly in his favor, and this time they most definitely were.
"The Germans were now finding themselves the disagreeable target of a massive pincer movement with General Patton’s Third Army attacking from the south; Ninth Army attacking from the east; and British and Canadian Allies bearing down from the north. ... They were, moreover, insufficient to the task of defending the whole northern sector against the inevitable Allied tsunami now coming in from the west.
"The Old Hickorymen were again given a vital role in the planned assault that would cover an area approximately five miles wide, which was roughly the textbook standard for a division front in WWII. First, a massive artillery bombardment lit the skies in one of the most impressive and powerful barrages of WWII. Then zero hour arrived and the GIs quietly made their way down to the riverside with tracer bullets whizzing above their heads. Just to the north of the 30th Division’s position, under cover of darkness, British commandos removed the safety catches on their weapons and at 2200 hours they stealthily boarded the boats that would carry them to the west bank of the Rhine."
"FRANK DENIUS, BATTERY C, 230TH FIELD ARTILLERY BATTALION"
"There were a lot of German soldiers moving west because they wanted to be captured by the Americans, not the Russians."
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"The Old Hickory habit of riding tanks into battle to get to the enemy faster was repeated for one final time, and by 1730 hours, the way ahead had been completely cleared of German troops. Within 24 hours of crossing the Rhine, the 30th Division had advanced over six miles. On top of that, their engineers had stunned division command again and completed a bridge across the Rhine in just nine hours."
"The German response to the Allied assault had been to commit the 116th Panzer Division that had faced the 30th Division on numerous occasions in the past months. ... The 116th had practically welcomed the final opportunity to pitch themselves against their old adversaries in the 30th Division. While other Allied divisions raced ahead, the 30th remained in place to take on the 116th Panzer Division and eradicate them once and for all. The reputation of the 116th with their own army wasn’t quite as illustrious as it was with the Allies. They were frequently accused by German generals of turning up unprepared to fight.
" ... But by 18 April 1945, there was a definite cessation of all resistance in the Ruhr Pocket, and the remnants of the 116th Division, along with their commanding officer, surrendered to the US Ninth Army."
"Despite difficulties encountered while facing off against the 116th Panzer Division and attempting to break out to the east, the ground and amphibious operations proved to be a resounding success and a veritable testament to the iron discipline and expertise of the 30th Division. Unfortunately, the airborne part of the attack, Operation VARSITY, hadn’t fared so well.
"A total of 1,111 Allied soldiers had been killed during the day’s fighting. In comparison, on D-Day, the 101st Airborne Division had lost 182 killed and the 82nd Airborne Division 158. Operation VARSITY, executed on 24 March 1945, was the single worst day for Allied airborne troops in WWII. Much of the damage inflicted on the airborne was due to the well-prepared German AA defenses that protected the Ruhr area. It was a staggering blow, nevertheless, to the final airborne assault of the war in the west."
"Now that the Rhine had been crossed, Field Marshal Montgomery gave new orders that would guide the Ninth Army across the north German plain toward the Elbe River, deep inside Germany. Four Allied armies had successfully negotiated the last great barrier and now they could begin thrusting into the German heartland. On 1 April, Adolf Hitler responded to the rapid Allied advance by issuing a proclamation calling on all Germans to become “Werewolves” to prey on Allied troops, Jews, and those Germans who cooperated with Allied forces. Despite the late date of this statement, Hitler was serious. Despite the collapsing German defense, 30th blood would continue to be spilled along the rapid advance into the German heartland."
"The Old Hickory habit of riding tanks into battle to get to the enemy faster was repeated for one final time, and by 1730 hours, the way ahead had been completely cleared of German troops. Within 24 hours of crossing the Rhine, the 30th Division had advanced over six miles. On top of that, their engineers had stunned division command again and completed a bridge across the Rhine in just nine hours."
"The German response to the Allied assault had been to commit the 116th Panzer Division that had faced the 30th Division on numerous occasions in the past months. ... The 116th had practically welcomed the final opportunity to pitch themselves against their old adversaries in the 30th Division. While other Allied divisions raced ahead, the 30th remained in place to take on the 116th Panzer Division and eradicate them once and for all. The reputation of the 116th with their own army wasn’t quite as illustrious as it was with the Allies. They were frequently accused by German generals of turning up unprepared to fight.
" ... But by 18 April 1945, there was a definite cessation of all resistance in the Ruhr Pocket, and the remnants of the 116th Division, along with their commanding officer, surrendered to the US Ninth Army."
"Despite difficulties encountered while facing off against the 116th Panzer Division and attempting to break out to the east, the ground and amphibious operations proved to be a resounding success and a veritable testament to the iron discipline and expertise of the 30th Division. Unfortunately, the airborne part of the attack, Operation VARSITY, hadn’t fared so well.
"A total of 1,111 Allied soldiers had been killed during the day’s fighting. In comparison, on D-Day, the 101st Airborne Division had lost 182 killed and the 82nd Airborne Division 158. Operation VARSITY, executed on 24 March 1945, was the single worst day for Allied airborne troops in WWII. Much of the damage inflicted on the airborne was due to the well-prepared German AA defenses that protected the Ruhr area. It was a staggering blow, nevertheless, to the final airborne assault of the war in the west."
................................................................................................
"Now that the Rhine had been crossed, Field Marshal Montgomery gave new orders that would guide the Ninth Army across the north German plain toward the Elbe River, deep inside Germany. Four Allied armies had successfully negotiated the last great barrier and now they could begin thrusting into the German heartland. On 1 April, Adolf Hitler responded to the rapid Allied advance by issuing a proclamation calling on all Germans to become “Werewolves” to prey on Allied troops, Jews, and those Germans who cooperated with Allied forces. Despite the late date of this statement, Hitler was serious. Despite the collapsing German defense, 30th blood would continue to be spilled along the rapid advance into the German heartland."
................................................................................................
"The next item on the agenda for the 30th Division was the attack and capture of the city of Magdeburg that occurred in April 1945. This was to be the final action of the 30th Division before they reached the Elbe River. On the morning of 16 April, the 120th Infantry Regiment was ordered to make preparations to attack the city. While those preparations were underway, an attempt was made to obtain an unconditional surrender from the German staff, but at this juncture they were still reluctant to sign. Initial plans to send one regiment to attack Magdeburg were discarded and replaced with new directives to involve two divisions whose assault would be preceded by a massive air strike. Artillery units encircled Magdeburg to provide close support for the attack. Just a few days prior to the attack a horrifying discovery had been made in the forest beside the small town of Farsleben."
"FRANK TOWERS, COMPANY M, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Upon entering and capturing the village, no German soldiers were found who may have been intent on setting up an ambush when we appeared. The lead elements of the 743rd Recon, however, discovered a long freight train on the railroad track, which had been guarded by several Nazi guards. The engine was standing ready with a full head of steam and awaiting orders. The guards and the train crew fled the area as soon as they realized that they were well outnumbered, although they were rounded up in a short time.
"While the train crew was awaiting orders where to go, many of the occupants of some of the passenger cars had dismounted and were relaxing on the ground near the train.
"This train which contained about 2,500 Jews, had a few days previously left the Bergen-Belsen death camp. Men, women, and children were all loaded into a few available railway cars, some passenger and some freight, but mostly the typical antiquated freight cars, termed as “40 & 8.” WWI terminology, this signified that these cars would accommodate 40 men or 8 horses.
"They were crammed into all available space and the freight cars were packed with about 60–70 of the Jewish Holocaust victims, with standing room only for most of them, so that they were packed in like sardines.
"Why those people had not been exterminated earlier we never did learn. The Nazis, however, were attempting to move them out of Bergen-Belsen so that the advancing Allied army would not see the condition of this mass of frail humanity, if it could be called that. They had been moved eastward from the camp to the Elbe River, where they were informed that it would not be advisable to proceed farther because of the rapidly advancing Russian army. The train then reversed direction and proceeded to Farsleben, where they were then told that they were heading into the advancing American army. The train halted at Farsleben and was awaiting further orders as to where to go next. The engineers had then received their orders: to drive the train onto the bridge over the Elbe River and either blow it up or just drive it off the end of the damaged bridge, with all of the cars of the train crashing into the river, and killing or drowning all of the occupants. The engineers were having some second thoughts about this action, as they would be hurtling themselves to death, too. This is the point at which they were discovered, just shortly after the leading elements of the 743rd Tank Battalion arrived on the scene.
"The men of the 743rd Tank Battalion and the 119th Regiment, who discovered this train, could not believe what they were seeing, nor what they had upon their hands at this moment. Upon speaking to some of those victims, a few of whom could speak a little English, they began to learn what they had uncovered.
"We had heard of the cruel treatment that the Nazis had been handing out to Jews and political opponents of the Nazi regime, whom they had enslaved, but we thought that it was propaganda and slightly exaggerated. As we went along, it became more apparent that this barbaric savagery was actually true. The stories of German inhumanity were being corroborated before our own eyes. The condition of these people had deteriorated to the lowest level imaginable.
"Of primary importance was getting food, water, and medical assistance to these victims. Our 105th Medical Battalion was called upon to survey the group and provide immediate attention to those most in need. The 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion commander, Lt. Col. Dettmer, immediately contacted the Burgomeister of Farsleben, and without any hesitation, ordered the Burgomeister to order his citizens to gather up all of the food, clothing, soap, and sanitary supplies, to help these victims. Second, they were ordered to offer them any housing facilities that were available, particularly for the elderly and those families with children.
"The German people caused these victims to be in the situation in which they were found, so it was felt that it was their responsibility to rectify what they had done to them over the past five years. At first they rebelled at these orders, but upon the threat of execution of the Burgomeister, and with a pistol held to his head, the citizens of Farsleben complied and went about the task that they had been ordered to do.
"At this time the Burgomeister began to cooperate, and told his citizens to take some of these Jews into their homes and give them some comfort, which they did, very grudgingly. This was the first taste of “Home” for many of them after some months or years of inhuman incarceration.
"After loading up these Jewish victims on our trucks and navigating the convoy over a circuitous route, we arrived at the designated site in Hillersleben, where their custody was turned over to the American Military Government for further processing."
"The next item on the agenda for the 30th Division was the attack and capture of the city of Magdeburg that occurred in April 1945. This was to be the final action of the 30th Division before they reached the Elbe River. On the morning of 16 April, the 120th Infantry Regiment was ordered to make preparations to attack the city. While those preparations were underway, an attempt was made to obtain an unconditional surrender from the German staff, but at this juncture they were still reluctant to sign. Initial plans to send one regiment to attack Magdeburg were discarded and replaced with new directives to involve two divisions whose assault would be preceded by a massive air strike. Artillery units encircled Magdeburg to provide close support for the attack. Just a few days prior to the attack a horrifying discovery had been made in the forest beside the small town of Farsleben."
................................................................................................
"FRANK TOWERS, COMPANY M, 120TH INFANTRY REGIMENT"
"Upon entering and capturing the village, no German soldiers were found who may have been intent on setting up an ambush when we appeared. The lead elements of the 743rd Recon, however, discovered a long freight train on the railroad track, which had been guarded by several Nazi guards. The engine was standing ready with a full head of steam and awaiting orders. The guards and the train crew fled the area as soon as they realized that they were well outnumbered, although they were rounded up in a short time.
"While the train crew was awaiting orders where to go, many of the occupants of some of the passenger cars had dismounted and were relaxing on the ground near the train.
"This train which contained about 2,500 Jews, had a few days previously left the Bergen-Belsen death camp. Men, women, and children were all loaded into a few available railway cars, some passenger and some freight, but mostly the typical antiquated freight cars, termed as “40 & 8.” WWI terminology, this signified that these cars would accommodate 40 men or 8 horses.
"They were crammed into all available space and the freight cars were packed with about 60–70 of the Jewish Holocaust victims, with standing room only for most of them, so that they were packed in like sardines.
"Why those people had not been exterminated earlier we never did learn. The Nazis, however, were attempting to move them out of Bergen-Belsen so that the advancing Allied army would not see the condition of this mass of frail humanity, if it could be called that. They had been moved eastward from the camp to the Elbe River, where they were informed that it would not be advisable to proceed farther because of the rapidly advancing Russian army. The train then reversed direction and proceeded to Farsleben, where they were then told that they were heading into the advancing American army. The train halted at Farsleben and was awaiting further orders as to where to go next. The engineers had then received their orders: to drive the train onto the bridge over the Elbe River and either blow it up or just drive it off the end of the damaged bridge, with all of the cars of the train crashing into the river, and killing or drowning all of the occupants. The engineers were having some second thoughts about this action, as they would be hurtling themselves to death, too. This is the point at which they were discovered, just shortly after the leading elements of the 743rd Tank Battalion arrived on the scene.
"The men of the 743rd Tank Battalion and the 119th Regiment, who discovered this train, could not believe what they were seeing, nor what they had upon their hands at this moment. Upon speaking to some of those victims, a few of whom could speak a little English, they began to learn what they had uncovered.
"We had heard of the cruel treatment that the Nazis had been handing out to Jews and political opponents of the Nazi regime, whom they had enslaved, but we thought that it was propaganda and slightly exaggerated. As we went along, it became more apparent that this barbaric savagery was actually true. The stories of German inhumanity were being corroborated before our own eyes. The condition of these people had deteriorated to the lowest level imaginable.
"Of primary importance was getting food, water, and medical assistance to these victims. Our 105th Medical Battalion was called upon to survey the group and provide immediate attention to those most in need. The 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion commander, Lt. Col. Dettmer, immediately contacted the Burgomeister of Farsleben, and without any hesitation, ordered the Burgomeister to order his citizens to gather up all of the food, clothing, soap, and sanitary supplies, to help these victims. Second, they were ordered to offer them any housing facilities that were available, particularly for the elderly and those families with children.
"The German people caused these victims to be in the situation in which they were found, so it was felt that it was their responsibility to rectify what they had done to them over the past five years. At first they rebelled at these orders, but upon the threat of execution of the Burgomeister, and with a pistol held to his head, the citizens of Farsleben complied and went about the task that they had been ordered to do.
"At this time the Burgomeister began to cooperate, and told his citizens to take some of these Jews into their homes and give them some comfort, which they did, very grudgingly. This was the first taste of “Home” for many of them after some months or years of inhuman incarceration.
"After loading up these Jewish victims on our trucks and navigating the convoy over a circuitous route, we arrived at the designated site in Hillersleben, where their custody was turned over to the American Military Government for further processing."
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Magdeburg was taken by 30th Division after two days of fight.
"On 18th April 1945, the war in Europe had witnessed it's last battle.
On 25th April the western allied forces met Russians in the vicinity of Torgau, and on 4th May while the two generals sat down together at dinner, word came that Germans had agreed to unconditional surrender.
Magdeburg was taken by 30th Division after two days of fight.
"On 18th April 1945, the war in Europe had witnessed it's last battle.
On 25th April the western allied forces met Russians in the vicinity of Torgau, and on 4th May while the two generals sat down together at dinner, word came that Germans had agreed to unconditional surrender.
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November 24, 2019 - January 5, 2020.
ISBN 978-1-61200-301-6
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-302-3
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November 24, 2019 - January 5, 2020.
ISBN 978-1-61200-301-6
Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-302-3
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