|
|
| On the Move Again - Headquarters' stay came to an end Armistice Day when the first of a series of short moves through the Saar Valley was made to Rouves. Ordnance battles during the folowing [following]two months were confined mostly to tactical operations against almost continuous rain, occasional snow and a scarcity of billets in small, crowded, badly battered farming villages complete with "fresh country odor." Charley Oliver and his Communications Section became accomplished electricians during this phase of the campaign, wiring every CP and caring for a variety of generators. The rest of Headquarters made similar progress, developing into first class stove men, window fitters and carpenters. Before moving out of Nancy, however, the battalion gave the first few days of the offensive support from the airport. Because of flood waters caused by incessant rain at the time of the November 8 "jump-off" and the otherwise limited bivouac areas allotted to the division, the battalion was unable to move forward initially with the combat elements of the division. So, to provide as much support as possible under those conditions, maintenance sections and other detachments were sent forward as they were needed. It was in October while the battalion was at Nancy that Lt. Rabon received his promotion to captain. He, like the rest of Division Trains, had been taking things easy and catching his breath after leaving Plouvien. When plans were drawn at Nancy for the attack on the Siegfried Line, he convinced G-4 that, to keep up with developments, Division Ordnance would need an entire truck company. Accordingly, the 642nd Quartermaster Trucking Company, composed entirely of Negro troops, was attached. With the splendid work of this company, Capt. Rabon was able to keep the division supplied with ammo at all times, and never were any units made to go back to the Ammunition Supply Points. |
| The Sixth Outsmarts the Fourth - At one time while trying to crack the Maginot Line, the division had, in addition to its three artillery battalions, two others attached, since flying weather was extremely poor, and artillery was being used in place of the usual bombs. This resulted in a heavy run on 105mm ammo, and Division Ordnance was drainning the dumps as fast as the 105 stuff would come in. One morning at about 2 o'clock after having spent most of the day and all of the night at the Ammunition Supply Point, trying to locate a place where he could get some ammo, he ran across a Red Ball convoy of 105 ammo which was lost. Being on his toes, as always, he told the truckers that, if they would follow him, he would relieve them of their load right away. The convoy went along and the division got its badly needed artillery ammunition. Results of his action caught up several months later with Capt. Rabon in a hospital when he was asked to reply by endorsement for highjacking a column of ammunition which was supposed to have gone to the Fourth Armored Division. |
| Thanksgiving - The next stop, following a November 16 departure from Rouves, was made at St. Epvre after a 21-mile trip. There, Headquarters took over billets of the 80th Infantry Division CP as the infantry division headquarters moved out. This billet turned out to be a three-story chateau near the town, complete with a battery of 155mm guns in a patch of woods behind the house and a fresh Kraut military graveyard in front. After remaining there long enough for Thanksgiving dinner, the convoy left on November 24 for Berig Vintrage, a village noted for having the most mud, the deepest mud and the largest manure piles of any stopping place. This barnyard was called "home" until December 5 when a short move was made to Lanning, a jaunt which was followed five days later by another to Barst Marienthal where Headquarters occupied a cafe as office quarters. |
| [Officers and Enlisted Men] [Web editor's note: When the hardbound book was published, images of Officers and Enlisted men for each unit were not separated out in the Table of Contents. They were located here in the book. I have separated these images in a separate page in each unit so that they will be easier to locate. The content in this section is as originally published in the book. M.D. -- 6/10/2024] |
| Ordnance Loses Officers - Between the Saar Valley offensive out of Nancy and the beginning of the Bulge battle, Division Ordnance lost two officers, Capt. Rabon and CWO James A. Ward. During the early days of December while Ordnance was at Freyhouse, Capt. Rabon me [met] with an accident which took him out of the battalion for the remainder of the war and almost cost him his life. At a Quartermaster depot where Coleman lanterns were repaired, the captain was trying to assist in the repairs of one of Ordnance's lanterns when it exploded in his face, inflicting severe burns of the face and forearms. Rushed first to an evacuation hospital, he was flown to Paris and then to England. On the Paris hop, he lost consciousness, and was almost given up when he reached the Paris hospital. However, his determination to live is credited with keeping him alive, and eventually he was fixed up good as new in England. This was quite a job, for his left ear was burned off entirely and had to be replaced, and new skin had to be grafted on his face and hands. After his recovery, however, it was impossible to detect results of his severe burns. A prolonged trip through the replacement depots brought him back to the battalion late in April, shortly before the end of the war. Capt. George Naas took the place of Capt. Rabon after the latter's misfortune. The other officer lost to Division Ordnance was CWO James A. Ward, chief in charge of getting the CP tent up or down as the situation demanded. Losing a battle to too much Christmas, he was last reported having his stomach treated back in the States. |
| Lixing Les St. Avold - Personnel Section celebrated its Thanksgiving back in Nancy with turkey and all the trimmings as snow began to fall, and the men looked to their galoshes and other "winterizing" equipment. On December 7, the Section, along with Administrative Center, moved to Lixing Les St. Avold where it occupied billets with part of the 76th Medical Battalion. These quarters were poor, with tons of dirty straw in all rooms. Windows had to be put in and roofs practically rebuilt. |
| Christmas at Metz - When the German army caused a general change of American plans with its winter attack in Belgium and Luxembourg, the result for Battalion Headquarters was a 34-mile move on December 23 to the vicinity of Metz, where comfortable billets were occupied for four days and Christmas celebrated under the most favorable possible conditions at the time. Division supply, repair and maintenance were continued during this Metz period without break. Sporadic air attacks at night caused no damage or loss to the battalion there. Coming to Metz on December 23 was the Personnel Section which ran smack into poor billeting conditions and snow. Triple-deck bunks, which through necessity had been built at Lixing, were carried to Metz where they were put to good use because of the cramped sleeping quarters. While at Metz, T-5 Ralph E. Lukehart replaced T-4 O-Brien as Headquarters Company clerk.  Fortress city of Metz Most memorable to the Personnel Section men about their Metz sojourn was the coming of winter with its White Christmas. A good Christmas meal was furnished the Personnel men, and as a New Year's present, the section moved out on January 1. Also on hand for the festivities of the holiday season was the Luftwaffe, strafing part of the Center without casualties. Stray bullets from the Luftwaffe over Metz that day, as well as shrapnel from flak thrown up into the sky by AA units, fell into the courtyard while the last elements of the Center were loading their trucks. This was the first time that enemy aircraft had been so annoying to Rear Echelon. At Nancy, there had been air activity, but none of it had come so close to the administrative boys as did this particular action. |
| Bitter Weather - January 1's move carried the Personnel Section near the fighting in the Bulge battle, and the Center established itself in an office building in the town of Longwy, France, where it stayed eight weeks. Once more the sleeping quarters were crowded, and the triple-deck bunks used to good advantage. The coal mining experience of Technicians Tresslar and De Christoforo came in handy here, as the Section had to shovel coal out of rooms to provide office space. Cold weather cost the Communications Section its halftrack for the next several weeks when Cpl. Arlington Applebach and some of the Second Echelon crew tried to heat a cold engine with a blowtorch and ended up with a blazing vehicle. The battalion staff underwent a change during this period when Captain Walter G. Pilcer, S-2 and S-3, was evacuated to the hospital. He was replaced by Captain William K. Hall, former "A" Company commander who had just returned from a three-month hospitalization in England. Steinsel, Luxembourg, into which the Headquarters column pulled on December 27, was the next stopping place. Here, the people were more than hospitable, coming through with very comfortable billets and meals in addition to treating the men like guests of their families. Enemy activity was limited to air attacks which again caused no damage or casualties. Steinsel was the only Headquarters stop in Luxembourg, the organization staying there three days before moving to Meix-Le-Tige, Belgium, and then to Houdemont, arriving at the last place January 1 for a 12-day stay. Operations here were conducted on a normal basis with no enemy air activity and only the difficulties presented by extreme cold and deep snow.  Winter weather during the Bulge fighting |
| A Pat on the Back - On January 3 while Battalion Headquarters was located in Houdemont, the battalion, by direction of the President and under provisions of War Department circulars, was awarded the Meritorious Service Unit Plaque in recognition of superior performance of duty and outstanding devotion to duty in the performance of exceptionally difficult tasks and in recognition of achievement and maintenance of a high standard of discipline for the period from September 3, 1944, to December 16, 1944. Later during the campaign, the battalion was again honored with a second award of the Meritorious Service Unit Plaque for a subsequent period. |
|
Toward the Fatherland - From Nancy on, nothing out of the ordinary characterized operations of Division Ordnance other than longer hours. During the Bulge Battle, however, large groups of battalion personnel under guidance of Lt. Meisinger were engaged in driving replacement vehicles from depots forward for delivery to line units. This activity called for long trips over the worst possible roads, including some very cold driving on the snow and ice with which the bitter winter glazed all highways. But weather and road conditions notwithstanding, the delivery of combat vehicles from depots to front went on throughout the war. During the winter months Hayward Odom and Major Wood, Ordnance supply chief, both dreamed of the warmth of the deep south while making their way through snow enroute to the rear for replacement vehicles and baths. Ammunition delivery too was no snap, running as it did on a 24-hour schedule. The division began to drive the Germans back toward the Fatherland, and more moves were in order for Battalion Headquarters, the first consisting of an 18-mile jump, made on January 13, from Houdemont, Belgium, to Witry, Belgium. But the continuing division offensive necessitated another move two days later when Headquarters shifted 12 miles to Bastogne, a pile of debris into which the column made its way on January 20. Intense cold and snow was still causing hardship at the time, and Battalion personnel found it necessary to reconstruct parts of shattered buildings to provide liveable quarters while in Bastogne. |
|
The Army Way - A striking example of the devious and at times, totally mysterious way in which the army operates was furnished during the Bulge battle in the vicinity of Bastogne, and the startled observer was Capt. George Naas who had replaced Capt. Rabon as Division Ordnance ammunition officer on December 8. At Fauches, Belgium, Capt. Naas had to travel back 20 miles to one ammunition supply point at the railhead to drawn ammo for an ammunition collecting point which he was operating a few miles west of Arlon. Northwest of Arlon, just a few miles from Capt. Naas' collecting point at Fauches, was another railhead ammunition supply point, operated by an army corps which was not supporting the Sixth Armored Division. Capt. Naas went to this closest ammo supply point, which was located very near the service batteries, to try to draw ammo there because it was near where the ammo was needed, and the need was urgent.  Bastogne's shattered buildings provided living quarters He was told, however, that he could not do it -- through channels -- so he went 35 miles down to the ammunition supply point serving the Sixth Armored, and drew all the ammunition there. Later, after the rush was over, the captain, in talking to someone from the nearer ammunition supply point where he had not been permitted to draw ammo when he needed it badly, remarked about the amount of ammo the Sixth had needed at the time. "Yes," answered the officer to whom Capt. Naas was speaking, "we know all about the demands of the Sixth Armored, for we had to ship ammo down to the supply point where you drew it." From Bastogne, Headquarters moved about three miles on January 23 to Marvie, Belgium, possibly the shortest shift of scenery to be made during the war by the organization. At Marvie, in addition to their regular dutries [duties], men found themselves busy policing the area of some 200 dead farm animals and several German soldiers uncovered by a sudden thaw which turned roads into mud runways. While the war moved on through France, into Belgium and Luxembourg to Germany's very border, changes occurred in the Medical Detachment.  Bastogne-Wiltz road near Bastogne |
|
Loss of Lt. Sharpe - Second Lt. Hansen Sharpe, who was killed in action, came to help Capt. Schmitt at Nancy when the latter sustained a broken arm. After staying with the Detachment a month and a half, he was assigned to the Ninth Infantry Battalion prior to the November offensive toward the Saar. Death came to Lt. Sharpe in the form of a splinter of steel which pierced his heart while he was assisting in the administration of blood plasma in a house in the vicinity of Gremecey on December 21. The piece of shrapnel, coming from an artillery shell, did not kill the lieutenant instantly, even though it did enter his heart. When asked if he was hurt after the shell had burst, he said he was hit somewhere, adding, "but I'm all right." Then, he started to walk across the room, but collapsed in the middle of the floor, dead. Wounded in action in February was First Lt. Hugh Gallagher who came to the Detachment on January 4, 1945. Others coming to Captain Schmitt's group were Pvt. Leo Shaw in November, T-5 George McAvoy in May, PFC John Allen Jr. in June and Sgt. Thomas Coleman in March. |
|
"End of a Dream" - A move on February 7 of 8.5 miles from Marvie to the vicinity of Brachtenbach, Luxembourg, and another five days later from Brachtenbach to Wiltz, Luxembourg, took Battalion Headquarters to a district where there was much knocked-out equipment, both German and American. Fighting had been fierce here in the Bulge campaign, and destroyed armor littered the approaches to the town of Wiltz and was also to be found on the streets of that municipality. But destruction was the theme of that region where von Rundstedt's abortive winter push had met head-on with savage American ground resistance, plus counter attacks delivered by combat elements of the reinforcing Sixth Armored Division. In this district also, the Germans had been subjected to an unmerciful "over-hauling" by American planes, and the story of the bitter fighting, the end of a Teutonic dream, was to be read in countless signs, left by retreating Germans in the mud and snow of the Luxembourg countryside.  Knocked out German tank near Wiltz  German "Tiger" with no fight left |
| Into Germany - Leaving Wiltz on February 27, Battalion Headquarters made a 26.4-mile march along winding, hilly roads through a rain up to the German border. There, where the Our River formed the boundary between Luxembourg and the Reich, was one of the most concentrated collections of German wreckage to be seen by the battalion in all its ETO travels. German tanks of all sizes, artillery pieces and self-propelled guns were strewn along the valley of the Our, on both sides of the river, all smashed by attacking Sixth Armored Division fighting men and some of them shoved aside, apparently by following bulldozers to roll down the hill into the river. This river, spanned by a Bailey bridge, had been crossed in fire and blood by the Super Sixth to make the division's first penetration of Germany, and this entry was marked by a sign on the side of a hill leading up from the river to Dasburg, the first German town to be seen by the personnel of Battalion Headquarters. Moving on through the remains of this German community, the battalion column continued a few more miles to another small town, Dahnen, for its first bivouac on German soil. During this first German bivouac, Capt. Pilcer added another impromptu function to his S-2 and. S-3 duties when he swore in the Dahnen burgomeister and supervised civilian personnel of the locality for the Military Government.  Bailey bridge, German wreckage, at the Our river |
|
Changes - Also marking the Dahnen stop was a change of battalion commanders which occurred after Col. Graeves contracted a case of Yellow Jaundice. When the colonel was evacuated, his place was taken at the battalion helm by Major Chester Stiteler. Andy Reurink, the colonel's driver, got a little relief while the "boss" was gone, for the colonel had been making Andy a bit nervous by running around the countryside searching for lost and disabled tanks. At this time also, Lt. Frank Haught was sent home under the rotation plan as a reward for his good work with the battalion as liaison officer, and his place was taken by Second Lt. Robert H. Foster. As time and the war went on, changes were taking place in Personnel Section as well as throughout the rest of the Battalion Headquarters organization. On February 8, T-5 James S. Tresslar was. commissioned a second lieutenant and made battalion adjutant and personnel officer, relieving Lt. Holmes who was returned to Headquarters Company, and T-4 Scott took over additional clerical duties. But one thing in the lives of Personnel Section men was not shared by most of the other battalion men - ice cream.  The Super Sixth opened the door The city of Luxembourg was only 15 miles from Longwy where the Administrative Center and the Personnel Section were located, so, during the last month there, ice cream was on the menu several times. On these happy occasions, Sgt. Eschenbacher was in his glory. A move on February 25 took the Administrative Center and Personnel Section into the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg where quarters and offices were set up in the town of Clervaux, formerly a resort spot near the German-Luxembourg border. There, the Section occupied the fourth floor of a hotel. It meant comparative luxury, but it also entailed a lot of work moving equipment up and down.  Street scene at Dahnen, Germany |