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Melting Snow - - and Mud - The first hint that spring might be somewhere around the corner came at Honville, Belgium, after a 10-mile move from Bastogne on January 27. Although the weather was cold and there was much snow when the move was made, a few days later it warmed, melting the deep snow, and the rains came -- also the mud. Work was heavy during the first week of the 15-day stay at Honville, but after the division's combat elements had driven the Germans back to the Siegfried Line and fighting slackened temporarily, so did the amount of work coming into the shop. Revealed by the thaw were the bodies of many soldiers, mostly German, in the woods, fields and ditches throughout the countryside and in the company area. Also littering roads and fields in the vicinity were many knocked-out and burned German vehicles, including armored ones. In connection with the thaw, T-5 Joseph Heim and Pvts. Wesley M. Simmons and Joseph M. Pirozzi "were hung" on a detail about which they were slightly less than enthusiastic. In charge of the trio was Lt. Thomas who shared their distaste for the work. Their job was to scour the countryside in the Honville area for dead soldiers, both American and German, whose bodies had been hidden until then by the snow. They recovered about 25 bodies, nearly all German, and turned them over to the Quartermaster Graves Registration. Shaky at first about their occupation, they soon became accustomed to it, and wound up with numerous souvenirs. Graves Registration was on the lookout for "business" at this time, and one day during, the first week of the Honville stay, a group of Medics thought for a moment they had found something for the above Quartermaster branch. But it was only Stoky, who was very tired, very dirty and possibly a little under the influence of his "home-cooked cough medicine" which he used occasionally to combat the cold and wet weather. He had been sent, with T-5's Clarence "Blackberry" Sherrin and William J. Townsend out into the country to make sufficient repairs on a tank to enable it to be driven back to the shop -- a muddy field on top of a hill back of the company kitchen. While working, Stoky felt an overpowering lassitude creep over him. Finding a spot comparatively free of snow and mud, he sprawled his lanky frame on the ground for a rest while Bill and Blackberry carried on with the tank repairs.  This was Honville Badly in need of a shave -- there was little time for such niceties in those days -- the Second Maintenance Chief looked like one of Cartoonist Bill Mauldin's heroes, one who had stopped a bullet, as he lay within sight of the highway. A passing peepload of Medics spotted him, stoped for a brief look, and continued, evidently of the opinion there was little they could do. Shortly thereafter, Sherrin and Townsend saw an ambulance arrive to take care of the prone Stokell. There were remarks about his "not being tagged" before a closer examination revealed to the Medics that his case was not one which required either their attention or that of Graves Registration. Awakening about 2 p.m., Stoky ate some rations, drank coffee which the other two had prepared for him, and soon the trio had the tank in shape to be driven back to the company. It was at Honville that Stoky's still made its first appearance -- and it could happen only in an ordnance company! Coming upon a copper cream separator, Stoky and his gang picked it up, and he, T-4 Arnold E. Rath and others fashioned, from the separator, some copper tubing and a blow torch, a still which worked. The liquor it produced was voted good by some, raw by others, but all agreed that the stuff was potent. Getting materials from which to cook up the whiskey was difficult, and many ingredients were tried. "But whatever we put into it," said one steady customer, "it always came out white!" That still was part of the load of the Second Maintenance Section from then on through Belgium, Luxembourg, across the Our river into Germany and back as far as Chateau Salins, France, where the division joined the Seventh Army for the drive to the Rhine. |
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Evacuation Antics - At Honville, two of the prime movers were sent back to Clervaux to evacuate two medium tanks. On roads covered with snow and ice, this was not play. Otto Neuman, driving the first mover tractor -- the trailers had been left behind -- stopped at the end of a 60-foot Bailey bridge spanning a deep gorge to align his mover with the bridge by backing and maneuvering. While be was thus engaged, Carl Petersen, driving the other mover, came around a curve and saw the situation -- Otto maneuvering to get onto the narrow bridge. Pete's brakes slowed him a little on the slick road -- but not enough. His mover came sliding down into the approach which hardly was wide enough for one of the 25-ton tractors. In an effort to avoid hitting Otto's vehicle, Carl pulled as far to the side of the road as he could, hitting a bank and then sliding into the mover driven by Otto. He also hit the edge of the heavy steel bridge, moving the entire span four inches, as was shown by marks made in the snow by the bridge uprights. In ten minutes, sufficient adjustments had been made to enable the bridge to be used, and after Otto's mover pulled across, Carl followed. When the two arrived at the location of the knocked-out tanks, they hauled both onto the road -- and it was a miserable job in the mud, snow and ice -- and started back with them toward Honville. Late at night, however, both tanks were left along the road and the movers rejoined the company. The next day, Otto and Carl were given a break, and One-Gear Regan was sent for one of the tanks with his mover. He brought it back as far as the foot of a steep bill approaching Honville where he left it for Wilczak who hauled it into the shop with his tank retriever. In the tank was the body of an American soldier. It had been there for several weeks. Then came the pay-off. After five days of the hardest kind of work on the part of Evacuation Section, "Master Brown" Wojcik decided he did not want the tanks after all, not even that which had been brought to the company shop. Another job which fell to Evacuation men while the company was at Honville was the hauling of medium tanks from Bastogne to Esch for modification. This modification was the application of extra front armor plate. More of the same work was being done at Marvie by welders of the battalion, including Rocky Frazure and 13 men from "B" Company, under Mr. Hebberd. While at an ordnance depot in Esch, the Evacuation men got something they had not seen for a long time -- ice cream. |
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"The Gentle Season" - After the promise of spring at Honville - a promise which pessimistic G. I.'s ignored because warm weather at that time was something too good to be true -- like the end of the war, it simply couldn't happen -- after that promise, the real thing came along at Eschweiler, Luxembourg. The company moved there February 11 and 12 in two sections on a 19-mile march from Honville, a march through rain over roads which were full of holes and covered with slippery mud and water. Lining the road along a great part of the route of march were numerous German vehicles, dead horses and German bodies. One of the worst scenes of destruction to be witnessed by the company was found along a hilly stretch of narrow road running through a woods. There, apparently, American planes caught and ruined one of Von Rundstedt's columns surging through Luxembourg into Belgium in the offensive which brought the bitter winter battle of the Bulge. Despite all doubts, Spring did arrive at Eschweiler. As men of the company slowly realized that they could enjoy being out of doors when they didn't have to, when they found themselves sitting out in the noonday sun before returning to work after dinner, instead of hugging stoves until the last possible moment as they had done all winter, then they knew. It was Spring, even though the calender [calendar] didn't say so. While there were very uncomfortable days and nights thereafter, nevertheless the backbone of the bitter winter was broken. It was at Eschweiler that the "gentle season" caught up with the frostbitten ordnancemen of Company "B". On one of the days in this last Belgian stopping place, T-4 Leroy Kegler and T-5 Raymond B. Hall, artillerymen, were sent up to the front line to repair guns for the 15th Tank Battalion. The tanks were dug in for direct fire at German positions only 2,000 yards away, and while Kegler and Hall were working on the gun of one of the tanks, the German gunners took their turn, throwing in a barrage. The two ordnancemen had to quit work until it was over, for, after other soldiers had climbed into the tank for protection from shrapnel, there was no room. The first group to move into Eschweiler, consisting of Parts Issue and the Armament platoon, reached the sprawling, dirty village about 2:30 p.m. on February 11. Hardly had the column come to a halt when a woman began to yell excitedly at Joe Heim. Joe, who understood German, got her talking in that language, and found the cause of her excitement. She said she had seen three paratroopers drop near a woods about two miles away. Looking over the indicated area with binoculars, men could see nothing, but it was decided that an investigation of the area had better be made.  They followed Von Rundstedt to Eschweiler Getting in a peep and an armored car, a group of 15 went to the spot where the woman said the paratroopers had dropped. They combed the woods until dark before reaching the conclusion that the woman "had been seeing things." The following day found all the company in Eschweiler except Mr. Hebberd and 13 welders who remained at Marvie to work on tank modifications. Th is [This] work was being done in shop tents in a muddy field. Red Lytle will never forget the morning he and Jim Lintz were sent by Tech. Sgt. Holliday to Marvie "to help take down a tent." When they arrived, they learned that their mission was to "bull" heavy acetylene and oxygen tanks from the edge of a road whe re [where] they had been dumped, through knee-deep mud over to a shop tent where the welders were working. |
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Injuries at Eschweiler - It was on February 22 while billeted at Eschweiler that Tony Baka left the company - with a Purple Heart. He and Arthur Baker were returning from the 231st Field Artillery Battalion with a GMC truck to be repaired in the shop. Just outside of Eschweiler, Baker stopped the wrecker at Tony's request for "one of those calls." Jumping down from the cab, Tony ran around to the rear of the vehicle, and Baker then heard a violent explosion. Leaping out of the cab, he dashed around the wrecker to find Tony lying unconscious beside the road. Placing him in the GMC truck he was towing, Baker hurried on into Eschweiler. Reaching "C Company of the 128th, he borrowed a peep and took Tony to the 76th Medics. Immediately hospitalized and evacuated, Tony sustained the loss of sight in his left eye and the loss of 75 percent of his hearing, according to letters received from him by members of the unit. Also injured the same day, but fortunately not seriously, was Lt. Foster whose peep figured in a sideswiping collision with the rear tandem of a GMC truck. Lt. Foster, driven by Jumbo Pastor, was rounding a narrow bend in a slippery cobblestoned square in Clervaux when the truck came around the curve in the opposite direction. Jumbo managed to miss the front of the oncoming vehicle, but the peep slid into its rear wheels. Lt. Foster sustained severe lacerations of the upper part of his face - cuts which required eight stitches and endangered his left eye - while Jumbo, behind the wheel, suffered only bruises. The lieutenant was treated by a unit of the 76th Medics which was located almost at the spot where the accident occurred, and was not hospitalized. |
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Germany! - "B" Company got its first look at Germany on February 27 when, after leaving Eschweiler, Belgium, the column crossed the Our river and moved into billets in the small town of Dahnen. Just beyond the river crossing where combat men of the division had forged a violent passage, was a big road sign reading, "You are now entering Germany through courtesy of the Sixth Armored Division." It looked good, and so did their first German town, Dasburg. The latter was flattened, apparently by artillery, air bombardment and everything else destructive that German-glorified war had brought right back home. At Dahnen also was destruction, but not so much as in Dasburg which lay just above the Our river. Dahnen was situated atop a high hill in the middle of one of the Siegfried Line's pillbox belts. Roads in that vicinity were torn up by combat and passing vehicles, and mines were planted all through that section of the Siegfried Line where the Sixth Armored Division - only division to pierce the vaunted line twice -- did it the first time. The shop at Dahnen was a big field on top of the highest hill in the vicinity, a hill which was lashed almost continually during the company's stay there by gale-driven rain and sleet. The only shelter to be found in that "shop" was that the men could obtain from the vehicles on which they worked. And work poured in from the combat elements of the division who were at, and across, the Prum river to the east. During the 12 days at Dahnen, the division was pulled out of the line, breaking contact with the enemy for the first time in 221 consecutive days. On March 5, T-5 Donald Trone, who had returned after being captured by the Germans near Brest, and Lt. Haught left for furloughs in the States, and Lt. Foster was transferred to Headquarters Company but attached to "B" Company as liaison officer. The following day, March 6, Lt. James H. Yohn was assigned to the company. At Dahnen, where the men were quartered in vacated civilian homes, T-4 Wilbur Pancake found the footpowered sewing machine with which he kept the company "striped" and "patched" from there on. That machine travelled everywhere Wilbur went, and was set up in all kinds of places, including the middle of an alfalfa patch where the company was in administrative bivouac after the end of the war.  The Dahnen 'home' of many men of the company During the last three days at Dahnen, Germany, "B" Company was the only organization in the whole battalion there, the others having moved out March 8 and 9. |
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Secret Stuff - Finally on March 11, the company left at 7:40 a.m. on a march back through Luxembourg into France, going into billets at Chateau Salins at 5 p.m. after covering 115 miles. The division was being sent down to the Seventh Army front, which had long been stagnant, to spearhead a push for the Rhine, and as always, Ordnance was on the heels of the combat troops. As the company moved south, mud disappeared and roads became dusty for a change. The change was a welcome one, for the men had their fill of mud throughout the fall and winter. In addition the weather was noticeably warmer, and it remained that way during the stay at Chateau Salins from March 11 to March 19. The trip back to France was made secretly. All divisonal [divisional] insignia on clothing and vehicles had to be removed or hidden, and no one was supposed to know the Super Sixth was on its way south to start something for the Seventh Army. This insignia "blackout" had its annoying features. One day there would be a notice on the company bulletin board that all shoulder patches must be removed. The following day the notice would read that shoulder patches could be worn but that they must be covered, and finally the men of the company would see posted an edict to the effect that all patches had to be worn but also had to be covered. Personnel were kept busy ripping off and sewing on patches until everyone cursed the day that the idea of shoulder patches was born.  Sample of Chateau Salins The same procedure applied to the company vehicles. Their divisional insignia first was covered. Then it was removed. Then it was repainted and covered. Then it was revealed. The whole division was assembled in the surrounding area, and during the stay there -- which was called a rest period -- maintenance work in the company was very heavy, much of it going on even through the night, since no one was concerned about blackout that far behind the lines. It was here that the division's nine new multiple rocket-firing devices were installed on medium tanks, each of the ordnance letter companies handling three of them. The city of Chateau Salins had been badly damaged by bomb and artillery in the two-month fight waged there as American forces drove stubborn Germans back in the push through that Northeastern part of France. While there, men were able to visit Quartermaster showers, and for once there was plenty of room in quarters allotted to the company for billets, so all in all, living conditions in Chateau Salins were quite comfortable. There even was plenty of good food for a change. Also, a few men were given one-day passes to their old stamping grounds, Nancy, which was only about 17 miles away. However, those few came back completely disgusted. The Seventh Army, which had taken over the city after the Third left, had completely stripped the place of amusement for soldiers. |