Battered Bastards of Bastogne

by George Koskimaki

  Company ‘C’ had two officers left besides Capt. Towns. 1Lt. Robert Wagner led the 1st Platoon. He had come after Normandy to replace 2Lt. John Aspinwall who had been killed in action. 1Lt. Martinson was also a replacement after Normandy, taking over for Lt. Armstrong who was seriously wounded in Holland. He became the executive officer and his platoon went to T/Sgt. Larry Donahue, an excellent non-com. However, Donahue had died in action on October 7th and his place was taken by S/Sgt. Grayson Davis.

  The two remaining platoons of the company were led by noncoms. As a staff sergeant, I had led the 3rd Platoon since October 8 when 1Lt. Howard Kohl had been killed. T/Sgt. Claude Breeding had led the Weapons Platoon through most of Holland.

  All through the Division the hurried wake-up call was being heard and PFC. Harry A. Sherrard, of the 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion, was one of the first to realize something was up at Mourmelon. He wrote:

  I was on guard duty the night of December 17th in our area. Through the night there was a lot more ‘officer work’ in the company and battalion offices than usual. Word filtered down and around that there had been a breakthrough of the American lines in the north around Luxembourg and our people were busy making map overlays of the area.

  As a squad sergeant for his rifle company, Sgt. Donald R. Castona had this recollection of what it was like for his men when the alert came to the 101st to get ready for another mission:

  I was in charge of quarters on December 18 when we got the news that there had been a German breakthrough some place and we were being sent up to help stop the attack. The officer of the day, 1Lt. Kenneth Holmes, told me to go around and get the guys ready to go. A lot of our guys had been on pass to Paris and got back to Mourmelon a lot the worse for wear. We had to pour some of them on the trucks when we left.

  Assigned as a medic to “E” Company of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, Pvt. Anaclete “Cleto” Leone remembered his role in the awakening of the men in the barracks:

  I was CQ (charge of quarters) when I received a phone call to get everybody up and ready to move out and the officer repeated the order. I said ‘Yes sir!’ and ran into the quarters shouting, ‘Everybody up! ‘Everybody up! We’re moving out!’

  I was deluged with a barrage of boots—mess kits—everything imaginable. I was lucky to get out of there alive.

  1Lt. Bernard A. Jordan had recently been assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. His assignment early on the 18th was the distasteful job of handling the regimental guardhouse. He recalled:

  I was officer of the guard the night the alert notice came for the move to the Ardennes. The phone rang and the captain told me to release all prisoners and have them report to their units.

  A warm-up football game had taken precedence over a 48-hour pass to Paris for 1Lt. Bernard J. McKearney of “E” Company of the 502nd Regiment. The game had been called off at halftime so the squad had hurried back wondering what emergency would have caused the game to end so abruptly.

  McKearney knew something was seriously wrong when he came upon one of the inhabitants of the regimental guardhouse on the loose. He wrote:

  When we got back to the company area I knew something was wrong when I talked to a trooper who had been let out of the stockade. He had beat up an MP. I asked what was going on—he said he didn’t know—just to report to his company.

  Over in the 506th regimental area, Pvt. Charles Cram was aware that the same thing happened at their stockade. He wrote:

  All the bad boys in the regimental stockade, along with the officer’s dog robbers, were returned to their units to spend the rest of the night in preparation for moving out.

  PFC. Charles Kocourek had just come off a special MP detail at the officer’s club in Rheims at 0100. He had just gone to bed when he got a rude awakening:

  With only an hour of sleep under my belt, I was awakened by Sgt. Rusin. He told me the company had been alerted to move to the Bulge. I looked out of the window and noted heavy fog. I told the boys, ‘We won’t be flying anywhere in this weather!’ At that time we were told the movement would be by truck.

  Many of the soldiers who had been wounded or injured in the Holland fighting had suffered relapses or been reinjured at Mourmelon and were confined in the hospital at Rheims when the alert was sounded.

  PFC. Charles W. Hogan of “B” Battery of the 907th Glider Field Artillery Battalion had been injured when an enemy shell hit near a truck load of men returning from Nijmegen, Holland, where they had their first opportunity to clean up in two months. After a two-month stay in a British military hospital he was flown to France to rejoin his buddies at their camp in Mourmelon. The injured leg had not healed completely when it was aggravated by a fall as he raced to get to the head of the chow line. He was sent to the hospital in Rheims because he had difficulty walking. The hospital situation was nice and restful. In a tape which he provided of his experiences he said:

  While in bed and reflecting on my situation, I realized what a good deal this hospital was compared to the others I had been at previously—there I was overlooked most of the time because my condition wasn’t life threatening. There in Rheims they really took care of us. Every little while they’d come around with juice and they’d check you every little while.

  One morning, about 0400, the ward boy came in and turned the lights on. He woke everybody up. Then this 101st officer and a doctor came in. The officer made a little speech. He told us the Division was moving out for combat and everyone who was able was to get back to the unit. There was a truck waiting outside that would take us back. He said, ‘I have a doctor here and he will go down the line and check each one over and if you are physically fit we’ll send you back to your outfit.’ The doctor started checking the guys over. As he started down the line, the fellow next to me and I decided there was no need to wait until the doctor got up to us so we got up and dressed. I had a terrible time getting my boots on as one ankle was still badly swollen. I finally made it. When the truck pulled into the Division area the 907th was almost ready to move out.

  Communications sergeant Lloyd E. Jones of “A” Company of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment had suffered a setback from the injuries he had received in Holland. After recuperation he, too, had been sent to Mourmelon from England where he had been busy getting his communications equipment in order. The relapse had occurred in the midst of this preparation and he was sent to the hospital in Rheims. In the tape of his experiences he related:

  In a few days I was ‘chompin at the bit’ but they wouldn’t release me. We heard that the 82nd had already moved out and the 101st was getting ready to go. All the paratroopers in the hospital were frustrated to be there. I walked out into the ward and happened to run into two airborne officers and two other airborne men were standing there talking to them. One officer said he had gotten some transportation and they were going to go back to their companies. I said, ‘Give me five minutes to get ready’, and as I was dressing a doctor came in and asked what I was doing. I told him I was going back, that the ‘ole man’ had no one to run the radios. I was told they couldn’t release me. I said, ‘the hell, I’m going with or without a release’ and I walked out of the room, went downstairs and got in the back of the truck that was there with a bunch of guys and we were on our way.

  After returning from the Holland campaign on November 27, Capt. Bernard J. Ryan, surgeon for 3rd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Regiment, was sent to the 99th General Hospital in Rheims on detached service. He recalled a rude awakening:

  I was awakened and routed out of bed by the regimental surgeon of the 502nd Regiment, Major Douglas Davidson, at 2 o’clock in the morning. We left Mourmelon that evening for Bastogne.7

  Still bothered by pain in his back from a poor parachute landing in the Holland campaign, T/5 Richard J. Kazinski was hospitalized for his back problems only a few days after arriving at Mourmelon. There he was told he had some torn ligaments in his back, yet, he was discharged when “word was out that all airborne troops wer
e to receive early release and return to their units.”

  Alert in Paris

  A hasty call went out through Army channels for the Military Police in Paris to round up all the 101st Airborne Division personnel who were in Paris on 48-hour pass and to send them to Mourmelon immediately.

  Recalling the highlight of his stay in the Mourmelon area and the abrupt cancellation of his leave in Paris, PFC. Amos Almeida wrote:

  We were given a very much needed rest. We went to Paris and had a ball. While in Paris, the MP’s came and called out everyone who was wearing a Screaming Eagle patch, telling us there was an emergency and we were to return to our base at once. At that time I was having dinner and I didn’t even touch it. They put us on a truck and took us back to Mourmelon. Our rest did not last long.

  Pvt. Charles E. Brown was in Paris celebrating with his new-found friends after having recently been assigned to the 101st Division. He wrote:

  The night of December 17th, my buddies and I were just starting to enjoy a few drinks, prepaid, at a Paris bar called the Ore. The MP’s there told us our division was on alert. They were to drive us back to Mourmelon. Reluctantly, with no refund on our drinks or whatever, we returned to Mourmelon.

  For Major Cecil L. Simmons, being assigned as billeting officer to look after the 101st troops in Paris sounded like a cushy assignment. It did not turn out that way when the alert came. Simmons related:

  I was sent to Paris as the billeting officer for the Division and had an office set up at the American Express. After I found there were no more trucks for me to send the troops back to Mourmelon and a phone call informed me there were no more troops coming the next day, I asked, ‘How come?’

  They said they couldn’t let me know over the telephone just what was happening.

  I asked, ‘Are you moving out.’

  The officer said, ‘I can’t say.’

  ‘How do I get relief?’ I asked.

  He said, ‘You’ll have to go to 7th Army to get relief.’

  I called 7th Army and asked for relief. They asked, ‘Are you an essential part of the Division?’

  ‘Yes, I’m exec officer for the 3rd Battalion of the 502nd,’ I responded.

  They said, ‘OK, we’ll send a man down and you meet him at 3 o’ clock in front of the American Express.’

  I met him and said, ‘OK, am I relieved now?’

  He said, ‘Oh no you don’t! Not with all these parachutists in town. They won’t pay any attention to me.’

  I said, ‘You’re a major aren’t you?’

  He responded, ‘Yeh, but I don’t have a pair of wings on my chest or boots like you’re wearing either.’

  ‘All right, but I won’t be able to get out of here until tomorrow morning then huh?’ I asked.

  He questioned, ‘How are you gonna get these guys out of here without trucks?’

  I said, ‘We’ll find a way somehow.’

  When we had all the people assembled on the spot where they were to wait—there were some of them who were pretty well in their cups and some had women hanging around them. I got some of the people out of the double-decker buses and got the men in and took them over to the railroad station and locked them behind the iron-barred gates and hiked back to the train-master and told him I had to have a train go back to Camp Mourmelon-le-Grand.

  He said, ‘No you don’t—not today!’

  I said, ‘We’re gonna take the train. We’ve got the men who can run it. Either you’re gonna run it or we’re gonna run it!’

  He said, ‘Well, if you put it that way, we’ll run the train for you.’

  I understand they (the troops) burned up two of the 40 et 8 cars before they finally got to Mourmelon. After that I turned to the major and he said ‘OK, you’re relieved,’ so I got in my jeep and headed for Mourmelon.

  PFC. Robert Dunning was one of the more fortunate ones to receive three-day passes to Paris. He was one of the individuals rushed back to camp by the train which had been requisitioned by Major Cecil Simmons. He wrote:

  We had not been in Paris more than a couple of days when the MP’s alerted us—all airbornes to return to their respective units immediately. After a long, cold train ride, we returned to Mourmelon.

  Feverish Preparations

  Companies and batteries were called our for reveille at which time unit commanders and 1st sergeants provided last minute instructions, read the appropriate Article of War and then sent the men scurrying to unit supply buildings. Pvt. Charles Cram relates what happened in his unit:

  On the Monday morning of December 18, we were told by our company commander that we were pulling out of Mourmelon and heading north to be put in Corps reserve for a few days, after which we would return to Mourmelon. Shortly after that the company was called to a formation whose purpose was to have our 1st sergeant, Paul Vacho, read aloud to the assembled troops the most appropriate Article of War at the moment which dealt with cowardice or desertion in the face of the enemy, the punishment for which was death, or worse, or such other punishment as the court martial may direct. It became immediately apparent to me that the 506th was just not screwing around and was getting fairly serious.

  When the company supply sergeant was admitted to a hospital for the treatment of ulcers brought on by domestic turmoil at home, PFC. Leonard F. Hicks was assigned the job without the rank. When orders came to get the men ready for another mission, Hicks did what he could to see that his unit had enough battle gear. He wrote:

  I tried to re-equip ‘F’ Company with clothing, boots and weapons without any luck. The day we left Mourmelon, I went to supply and the things I had turned in for replacement were still there on the loading dock. I picked up all of this and possibly a few extra items. Even with this, two of our men did not have shoes or boots.

  T/3 Charles D. Chapman remembered getting resupplied from the used equipment the men had turned in after Holland. He said, “There was supply sergeant Carl Schwab, sitting on his desk, swinging his feet, and saying “Help yourselves!”

  Having just arrived from the hospital in Rheims where the 101st men had left as a group to be with their buddies for the coming trip to the combat zone, PFC. Charles W. Hogan relates what happened to the men of the 907th who had been hospital patients:

  We were told to go down to the supply room and pick up our equipment. I had lost all my gear in Holland and was short on a lot of items. The supply room was a mess. The sergeant had already closed it out and all I could find was discarded equipment, but I checked around and got pretty well fixed up. I remember I didn’t have an overcoat and didn’t find one. I was short on a lot, but I did find enough to get by. What I was really looking for was overshoes. I did not find any. I went out and joined the rest of the battery.

  As a medical technician, T/5 Owen E. Miller was usually looking after the needs of others during combat as well as in garrison. This morning he was assisting the battalion surgeon with the daily sick call when it came time for him to get his gear and load up. Miller wrote:

  Captain Joseph Warren and I were on sick call December 18th when somebody told us that we were moving out and to get our equipment and load onto trucks. It was late in the afternoon when I went into the barracks and they were empty. I grabbed my equipment—no overcoat—someone else needed it.

  Platoon sergeant John H. Taylor had been busy washing his OD’s with gasoline as a substitute for dry-cleaning fluid when the alert came. He remembered the sorry state of weapons and ammo.

  We were not in good shape here. We had new men. A lot of our weapons had been sent to ordnance. We were short on just about everything. We had so little in the way of 60mm mortars—hardly any .45 caliber ammo.

  Platoon leader 1Lt. A1 Hassenzahl had apparently not turned in all his weapons which was very fortunate for his buddy, 2Lt. Joe Reed. Hassenzahl recalled:

  We were very limited in weapons and ammunition. I recall digging out a Thompson submachine gun from my bedroll and giving it to Joe Reed as he had no weapon. Joe had been our 1s
t sergeant and had been awarded a battlefield commission. He was now one of our platoon leaders.

  PFC. William A. Kummerer knew things were critical when he didn’t have to sign for an automatic weapon. He wrote: “Bastogne—the only time that I can recall going into a weapon supply and being given a .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun without signing for it.”

  Platoon sergeant Vincent Occhipinti recalled that the men had turned in their entrenching tools along with all weapons and ammo. He remembered how critical the shortage was in weaponry and ammunition as the men waited to board the trucks. He wrote:

  We had no ammo, having turned it in as soon as we arrived in Mourmelon. I remembered that while we were waiting to load onto the trucks (hurry up and wait!), other buddies came by passing out M1 ammo and grenades and food rations. I had been issued a Thompson sub and they didn’t have ammo available for that gadget. I had the good fortune of having seen the old ammo stored in the supply room at one of the barracks and ran in and got myself a half dozen of the long clips of caliber .45 submachine gun ammo and passed the word along to the waiting troops who also ran in and got some of the sub ammo if that is what they needed along with other booty like magnesium grenades.

  CHAPTER 3

  THE TRIP TO BASTOGNE

  Departure time was fast approaching. As the two chaplains of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment were completing the final stages of packing their personal gear, they were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a group of angry troopers. Fr. Francis Sampson wrote:8