Battered Bastards of Bastogne

by George Koskimaki

  After being treated for his wounds, Donald Woodland returned to his machine gun position near the western edge of Senonchamps where he had an opportunity to view the “quad-fifty” in action at close hand. The multipurpose gun moved forward to take care of the enemy machine gunner who was harassing the troops. Woodland added:

  A short time later, an M16 multi-gun motor carriage (probably from ‘B’ Battery, 796 AAA AW Bn of CCB 10th Armored Division) moved down the road to the roadblock position.

  There was a short conference with the patrol leader and then the guns were loaded. Next, the motor carriage was backed down the road an estimated 125 yards. The guns were pointed in the direction of the machine gun in the woods and then fired.

  It was a spectacular event with the tracers converging on the German machine gun position. The fusilade of .50 caliber bullets impacted in the forest. I could hear trees being felled, chopped down by the fire. Once the ammunition was expended, the motor carriage returned to the roadblock position, reloaded and repeated the action.

  Then it went deadly silent. After a short time, the German gunner fired a short burst from his gun to let us know he was still alive. Our position then came under intermittent artillery fire for the remainder of the night. I believe the fire was from tanks in the woods.

  PFC. George M. Kempf of “C” Company remembers the vehicle as being a tank, little realizing it had been moved from elsewhere with the Sherman being immobilized with a frozen turret. He was directing some of the men from the Snafu group which had been made up from the retreating forces.

  Behind us was a Sherman tank hidden in front of the house, but all it had was .30 caliber ammo for a machine gun.

  On December 23rd, the tank was moved forward between the house and my men who were mostly non-coms, about 25 or 30 from all groups. Why we weren’t warned that they were going to move the tank and fire the .30 cal. machine gun up at a point in the woods above us I don’t know. If we had known, we could have moved from the down slope to the back of the hill ahead of us but we didn’t. They pulled the tank back to where it had been. Then we caught hell from the German artillery.

  The memories of Pvt. Duane Harvey sum up many of the actions that took place over the first few days at Senonchamps. He remembered much of what the others had recalled in bits and pieces. Harvey wrote:

  A little after daylight, we once again received artillery fire on the house. The first salvo killed a tanker sergeant. I left the house for the security of a foxhole across the road. The shelling was heavy and during one lull an AAA-AW half-track backed down the road and emptied its ammo drums into the woods and then pulled back. I think the Germans were in the woods, preparing for an attack. As the result of the half-track firing, we came under heavy artillery fire again. Things then quieted down for the rest of the afternoon and that evening we pulled out of Senonchamps and set up on a small ridge just outside of the village.

  Enemy activity increased in the Senonchamps area and, as had been stated by Brig. Gen. S.L.A. Marshall, troops which had defended Sibret and Morhet, had barely reached the shelter of the woods and houses at Senon-champs ahead of the hard-driving German forces. Captain Walter L. Miller describes some of the actions which eventually led to the pull-out from the village:

  The Germans continued their activities in the woods to our front, gradually working to the one on the left and finally, about the 22nd or 23rd, forced themselves upon the 10th Armored and I was informed they were withdrawing to the perimeter inside Bastogne. We stayed and covered the withdrawal, finally returning to the line and crest above Countess Rene Greindl’s chateau. We could not defend this line from the crest as it was covered by heavy enemy fire and we conducted a reverse slope defense with listening posts on the crest so we could determine enemy activity. The company CP was located in the barn of Countess Greindl’s chateau. It was in defilade so shells passing overhead crashed to the rear. There was an artillery outfit without ammunition located there and I remember them streaming into the basement of the chateau when the incoming fire was received and then returning outside when the fire had lifted. About this time, two tanks from the 9th Armored Division, CCR, trundled into our lines. These two tanks were commanded by two lieutenants, Pulsifer and Terrell. They were two brave men. They would load up their tanks and charge down the hill into Senonchamps, spraying the Germans with machine gun and cannon fire and undoubtedly disrupted any attack from that direction.

  In one of his experiences on the line at Senonchamps, Pvt. Duane Harvey may very well be relating an action which involved those two tankers. He wrote:

  I remember two Sherman tanks entering our lines from the direction of the village. We were in our foxholes. The tanks stopped and one lowered its cannon and the turret turned, like they were getting ready to fire into our positions. I think they realized we were not the Germans and drove on toward the rear.

  When the withdrawal to shorten the lines was made in the Senonchamps area on the evening of the 23rd, Donald Woodland and his buddy Blackie had just begun to enjoy the comforts of a house where they had found a ham and were in the process of cooking it. Woodland describes what happened when the order came to pull back:

  The pullback of the 327th Glider Infantry Companies was made in good order. Two medium tanks leapfrogged each other to cover our road march. Machine gun squads took up positions on both sides of the columns and stayed in position until the last man had cleared the location. Then we heard the sound of aircraft engines. Bombs were dropping on Bastogne. The ground shook where we were. It must have been hell in town.

  The other company of the 327th that was pulling back, and was on the right flank, came under heavy enemy fire which seemed to be coming from the woods. A sharp fire fight developed and I had the feeling that we would have to be committed, but that did not happen.

  Captain Walter Miller continued his story, praising the engineers who were in position on his flank and added a humorous story at the same time:

  My right flank was tied in with the 326th Engineers who fought both as infantrymen and as engineers and did a terrific job of blocking the enemy from coming down the main road.

  An amusing incident I remember at the Chateau Ile-le-Hesse was when several of the men, to avoid the cold, cut arm and leg holes in their sleeping bags and ran around looking like giant green beans.

  The Pathfinders

  As he left the battle zone in Holland, 1Lt. Shrable D. Williams, along with several other 506th Parachute Regiment troopers, was placed on TDY to the 9th Troop Carrier Command Pathfinder Group and flown to England.

  Another officer who continued his assignment with the pathfinders was 1Lt. Gordon DeRamus, who had led his stick into Holland on September 17, 1944. He remembered:

  We stayed at base camp until right before the Ardennes when pathfinders were sent back to school at North Witham, near Notting-ham—I suppose this was the long range planning on proposed jumps across the Rhine in the spring of 1945.

  Not all of the 101st Airborne Division pathfinders were assigned to a particular mission as an entire group. Also, they were not a permanent part of the 9th Troop Carrier Common Pathfinder Group. From a report to the commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps, the following information was extracted:91

  Airborne pathfinders participating in this operation are not permanently assigned to IX TCC Pathfinder Group but were on temporary duty while attending school for a period of two weeks. It was merely a coincidence that sufficient airborne pathfinders to accomplish the mission were available at this base at the time the mission was received.

  For those pathfinders not assigned to the mission to drop near Bastogne, teams were sent to the continent to be ready if needed. 1Lt. Gordon De Ramus added to his story:

  Just as we got to Pathfinder Camp, the Bulge came up and four sticks of us were sent to a French airfield camp in Chateaudon—stayed on 30 minute alert for several days to drop around Bastogne for resupply missions but were not called.

  When a request had come f
rom the 101st Airborne Division for resupplies after the roads to the city had been cut from all directions, a hurried plan was developed to use pathfinder teams to direct an aerial resupply as quickly as possible. The Troop Carrier report to the Commanding General of XVIII Airborne Corps continues:92

  The first decision was to commit one stick (one officer and nine enlisted men) to mark the DZ. Due to the fact that the DZ was known to be surrounded by the enemy and considering the effect of small arms fire on C-47 type aircraft at jump altitude (400-600 feet) the Exec-Officer, IX TCC Pathfinder Gp and XVIII Corps (Airborne) Pathfinder Officer felt that two identical teams should be committed. A telephone (scrambler) request to commit two teams was approved by IX Troop Carrier Command.

  The orders for the mission arrived on such short notice that it was impossible to develop the plan for the mission in time for a December 22nd drop in which the aerial resupply would have occurred during night-time hours. The pathfinder report to the commanding general of XVIII Airborne Corps continues:

  Airborne Pathfinder Teams were equipped with weapons and combat equipment by the Group S-4, Smoke and panels had been predrawn and were available in the XVIII Corps supply room. Radar equipment was set up and checked. Due to limited time all enlisted men belonging to the Airborne Pathfinder teams were dispatched to the DispersalAreas to load at 1330. Officer jumpmasters reported to Group Operations for Pilot-Jumpmaster briefings at this time.93

  One of the jumpmasters, 1Lt. Shrable “Willie” Williams remembered the briefing and dry run on December 22nd. He wrote:

  We were told that the 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne was surrounded and didn’t know if they had been overrun by Germans. We were to parachute in and set up our equipment if we landed in friendly territory and prepare to guide resupply missions into Bastogne.

  We were loaded into the aircraft and were ready to take off with the motors running when the mission was cancelled. We went to the briefing rooms and they said they had reports that the 101st Airborne was overrun by Germans but we were to be ready to leave the next morning if the situation changed. Intelligence reports were not too good at this time.

  Information continued to trickle in from Bastogne during the night and additional maps (1:50,000) were found and distributed to the pathfinder teams. Further briefings were held and the flight was scheduled for 0645 on the morning of the 23rd. Because last minute intelligence reports were not available for the Bastogne area, it was decided to drop one stick and wait for a predetermined signal (orange smoke grenade) before dropping the second stick in case the first group fell into enemy hands upon landing.

  Jumpmaster Shrable Williams couldn’t recall why his stick was picked to lead the two-plane mission. He describes the trip:

  We were called early the next morning and told the mission was on again. I do not remember why my pathfinder team was picked to fly in the lead aircraft. I think we cut cards to see which team would jump first, mine—or 1Lt. Gordon Rothwells’.

  One plane, the leader, was to fly over Bastogne and drop the 101st Airborne pathfinders and, if they landed in friendly territory, they would throw out a smoke grenade. The other plane would circle and wait for the proper signal before it dropped the other pathfinders. If the first plane dropped in enemy-held territory the other plane was to continue looking for members of the 101st Airborne Division before they made their jump. We picked up fighter support over France and they stayed with us.

  One of the team members of 1Lt. Shrable Williams’ stick was PFC. John Agnew who described his experiences in the newsletter of the IX Troop Carrier Pathfinder Command Association:

  Take-off time was 0645, 23 December 1944. I was in the lead aircraft (#993) piloted by LTC. Joel Crouch. We were followed by a second aircraft (#681) piloted by 1Lt. Lionel Wood. The flight from Chal-grove to Bastogne was uneventful but as we approached the ‘DZ’ and the red light came on for ‘hook up!’ tension mounted and you got a lot of funny feelings. Suddenly, there was a burst of ground fire and you could see the tracers go by. It came from a German gun emplacement directly in front of our flight path. Quickly, Col. Crouch dove the aircraft directly at the Germans (we were looking down the barrels of their guns), who, thinking they had shot us down and we were going to crash on top of them, jumped out of their gun emplacement and ran for safety. The colonel then pulled the aircraft back up to jump altitude. However, since we were all standing (loaded with heavy pathfinder equipment), the suddenness of the maneuver caught us by surprise and most of us sank to our knees due to the ‘G’ force exerted. Luckily, we all recovered our balance just as the green light came on and out the door we went. Upon landing, George Blain signalled the second aircraft to commence their drop.

  After the shock of my chute opening, I looked around to orient myself and saw what I thought to be a German tank. I started loosening my ‘Tommy’ gun in anticipation of a fight. Suddenly, I hit the ground in what I think was the hardest landing of my career as a paratrooper. My tommy gun slammed into my face and I became a bloody mess. A medic quickly patched me up and, after assembly, we sought shelter in an old metal building which the Germans quickly blasted to get us out. Next, we tried the basement of a damaged building but the Germans zeroed in on us again. We lost some of our equipment this time and some of our people were trapped in the basement for a while but John Dewey and I managed to get them out.

  As jumpmasters of the two teams, Lieutenants Shrable Williams and Gordon Rothwell had to determine where the 101st Division wanted the resupply drop to take place. Lt. Williams wrote:

  The drop was successful. Both teams landed OK. Upon landing, Lt. Rothwell and I went straight to 101st Division Headquarters to see where they wanted the resupplies dropped. We went to the designated DZ and LZ in a low place almost in town. We set up our electronic equipment and in less than an hour later the planes were contacted and were homing in on our signal and the resupply mission was history. We were located on the highest ground in and around Bastogne so we had a front row seat.

  When the pathfinder officers returned and ordered their teams to the proper location, the equipment was readied in anticipation of the arrival of the resupply planes. The homing devices did attract unwanted attention. PFC. John Agnew concludes his story:

  A pathfinder team member monitors a homing beacon on brick pile near Bastogne on December 23 as resupply planes approach to drop bundles. Team members stand in shelter provided by the bricks.

  Finally, we took shelter in Mrs. Massen’s house and across from her place, on high ground, was a big brick pile. We set up our equipment (CRN’s) there and waited for the first sound of incoming aircraft. We didn’t dare turn on the sets until the last minute because the Germans would have ‘homed in’ on us and blasted us to bits. Shortly, the sound of approaching aircraft grew louder and louder so we turned on the CRN-4’s. Even though the Germans started firing at us, the sight of the aerial armada distracted them and we suffered no casualties. The air drop was a great success and a Christmas present that the beleaguered troops at Bastogne wouldn’t forget for a long time.94

  The first forty aircraft arriving with supplies were from the IX Troop Carrier Command and all were carrying maximum loads of supplies to be dropped to the hard-pressed troops.

  In short order, four of the planes were shot down and 35 of the surviving 36 aircraft received battle damage. Six of the aircraft were so severely damaged that they had to make emergency landings at bases other than Chal-grove, England, their home base.95

  Records indicate that 234 planes from Troop Carrier Command took part in the December 23rd resupply operation. Three planes turned back and did not drop their supplies. Another group of three dropped their loads three to four miles off the DZ while another group of three missed the DZ by a mile and a half. These bundles were recovered. The rest landed on the drop zone and were quickly recovered by troops on the ground.

  Manna From Heaven

  Following closely behind the pathfinder planes was Lt. Colonel William H. Parkhill
and planes from his 441st Troop Carrier Group. He describes how they became aware of the resupply mission and the route they would follow:

  On December 22, 1944, a fighter pilot was sent to our base to describe what he had seen around Bastogne the previous day. We received orders to load up 21 C-47’s with 66,800 lbs. of ammunition, 15,600 lbs. of rations and 800 lbs. of medical supplies. We also received a route map and pathfinder signals data. The route took us from Dreux (SW of Paris) direct to the Initial Point about 60 to 80 miles due west of Bastogne. The weather couldn’t have been worse. A great frontal storm was moving slowly westward over all of northern Europe. The next morning when we took off, the clouds were right down to the ground. We flew in a column of 3-ship V’s right through the tree tops. We managed to stay together and turned at the IP heading due east to Bastogne. About 40 miles from target the weather broke and we were out of the weather front. You could see for a hundred miles in all directions. There were no other aircraft around. We stayed on the deck but had to cross a series of low hills running north and south. In the valleys, there were roads loaded with German armor and other vehicles bumper to bumper moving north. When they heard us coming, but couldn’t see us because of the low hills, they ran away from their vehicles. When they saw what we were, they ran back and started shooting. They knocked down our last three aircraft We went on to the target, got all the right signals, dropped our loads and climbed out right over Bastogne. As we climbed and turned, we could see over the weather front to the west and saw hundreds of bombers and fighters climbing out of England making contrails on their way to the battle areas.