Battered Bastards of Bastogne

by George Koskimaki

  PFC. Harold R. Hansen was a veteran of all the campaigns and served with Captain Taze Huntley in “A” Company of the 401st. On this occasion, 1Lt. Howard Bowles was commanding the unit while Captain Huntley and half of the unit had missed out on the trip to Bastogne as they were in Paris. Though he doesn’t remember the exact battle site, it was west of Bastogne and southwest of Champs. This is his memory of the attack on Christmas morning when the enemy tanks came through the positions of his platoon:

  We had a close call in a wooded area when a flame thrower came in but luckily it didn’t flame but quite a few men got burned from the hot fuel oil.

  An enemy tank rode over our foxhole in which my buddy and I squatted down, hoping it would keep going. It did, but destroyed my M-1 and our bazooka. My buddy’s helmet got smashed. I think the tank was captured by ‘E’ Company.118

  Hidden by the military crest of the hill on which 2nd Platoon was dug in, the defenders hadn’t been seen yet by the forward elements of the enemy armor. Colonel Allen continued his story:

  One of my men on the far left flank began Firing a .50 caliber machine gun, but no one else did any Firing. This added to the deception. The German tanks thought they had just passed a weak outpost and kept on going. They didn’t know they had passed through a well-fortified front line position.119

  In the meantime, the tank destroyers which were attached to the 401st were concealed from view in the evergreen plantation. They, of course, couldn’t see the enemy tanks which were approaching the position at an angle. Allen added to his story:

  They (TD’s) were in the woods, 200 yards behind the CP and couldn’t see the German tanks until the tanks were right beside them. As the German tanks slowly rolled past them, one of the tank destroyer crews was cursed for ‘dallying’ by a German tank commander who thought they were part of his force in the darkness and the heavy fog. No one answered him, no one fired and he moved on. The German tanks slowly rumbled toward Company C. The tank crews thought they were well on their way to Bastogne. As soon as the tanks had moved past them, the two tank destroyers pulled out of the trees and joined the other two tank destroyers on the left flank of the area.

  No one told the men to do it, they just did it. It’s important to point out that no one was giving any orders at this time. You can’t tell someone what to do in a situation like this. The men were acting completely on their own.120

  The tree plantations around the Bastogne perimeter had received a heavy snowfall for Christmas Day. (Photo by Mike Musura, courtesy of John Gibson.)

  The only infantry troops accompanying the tanks were the ones riding on the backs of the white-washed tanks. Following five hundred yards to their rear came the white-capped infantry troops. Colonel Allen continues:

  They were still marching in formation in the field below the ridge. They were wearing white sheets, screaming and firing their rifles into the air. In the early pre-dawn light and the heavy fog, they looked like ghosts floating across the snow covered field. They didn’t know they were just minutes away from their doom. They were heading to our well-hidden, machine gun final protective line on the ridge and my men were becoming angry as they watched the hundreds of screaming German infantrymen coming toward them, but they stayed low, waiting for the Germans to get into range. Their plan was working. The German tanks were separated from the infantry and infantry still didn’t know where we were dug in. It was almost dawn and my men, four tank destroyers, our bazooka teams and Colonel Cooper’s 463rd Artillery team were all in position. Waiting—patiendy, quietly waiting.

  No one told them to wait They knew if they made a mistake they were done for. Then suddenly, the front line roared as my men began firing every gun they had and our machine gun final protective line went into full effect. The surprised German infantry was trapped in the flat, open field and were being cut to pieces by the cross fire from our machine guns.121

  The column of enemy tanks was headed in the direction of Colonel Allen’s battalion command post and the positions of the 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion pack howitzers. The four tank destroyers from the 705th TD Battalion followed along at the rear of the column. Colonel Allen describes how they attacked from the rear:

  The four tank destroyers had avoided a direct frontal fight with the tanks because of the thick armor plating on the front of the German tanks. When the first shot rang out, the tanks were still in a column moving toward my command post. Instantly, the four tank destroyers raced into position behind the tanks and opened fire. Five of the tanks exploded as their thin, unprotected backsides took direct hits.122

  With the arrival of the first dim light of morning, the artillerymen of the 463rd could now distinguish the first of the enemy tanks standing still, presumably waiting for their infantry to catch up, orders were given to commence firing. The same held true for the men of “C” Company, which had been in reserve near Battalion Headquarters. Colonel Allen added:

  ‘C’ Company was dug in and they were not going to budge one bit.

  Someone said they shot at anything and everything that could be German. Colonel Cooper’s 463rd Artillery was so close to the tanks that they had to level their muzzles and shoot almost straight across the ground to hit them. They fired point blank and said it was like ‘shooting fish in a barrel.’ Now the tank column was being bombarded by fire from every direction. The column was surely staggered. Then, to escape the furious fire that was pounding them, it split up. Some of the tanks started racing toward Champs, two miles north, and six of them sped toward my CP in Hemroulle, two miles west of Bastogne.

  My CP was beside the road leading from Champs to Hemroulle and on into Bastogne. It was about 7:15 a.m. now and Captain Preston Towns, the commander of Company C, called to warn me about the tanks speeding toward my CP. I asked him where they were and he said, ‘If you look out your back window now, you’ll be looking right down the muzzle of an 88.’123

  When Colonel Allen looked out the back window, he was spotted by the gunner in the tank who began firing armor piercing shells into the house, easily penetrating the brick walls and setting the building on fire. Allen and the remainder of his staff and enlisted personnel fled toward the woods. Several shells were sent after the fleeing commander but he managed to elude them and reached the safety of the woods.

  “C” Company and the 705th

  Darkness had settled in on Christmas Eve. 2nd Platoon of “C” Company of the 502nd Parachute Regiment was positioned at Hemroulle. The weather had turned colder and to provide his men more comfort, S/Sgt. Curtis DeWitt had sought out an old wood barn with a hayloft. Except for those on guard duty, the others bedded down in hay in their sleeping bags, covering themselves with loose hay which provided added warmth.

  There wasn’t much sleep for any of them. At 8 o’clock, the enemy bombed Bastogne. The old barn shook after each blast. Peering through the cracks in the end wall, the men could see the flares floating slowly to earth and the flames from the burning buildings were easily visible.

  After some fitful sleeping, the men were awakened at 0330 and ordered to get ready to move out. “A” Company was being attacked by a large enemy force.

  DeWitt’s 2nd Platoon moved onto the road that led north from Hemroulle at 0400, still in the dark as to where they would move. The move was made up the road with the troops now standing on the highway across from Colonel Ray Allen’s 401st Battalion command post. Here they stood about, waiting for what seemed like hours. With little or no movement, the body begins to feel the cold and dampness of the morning.

  In the 401st command post courtyard, a fire was lighted. Platoon members of “C” Company edged over there to capture some of its warmth and to heat a canteen cup of coffee.

  Squad sergeant Layton Black set up a machine gun facing to the west just in case an attack came out of the fog from that direction. It seemed odd to be standing around a fire in another battalion’s courtyard. Black wondered why they were being permitted to stand around. He soon learned the answer
. He wrote:

  Suddenly, the answer was there. Hell, this battalion CP was leaving. We didn’t start the fire. They did, to burn maps and papers! Talk about real action—that was the most action by a group of officers and their men I was ever to see. It was at this point that I saw the Colonel. He was leaving on foot for somewhere else!

  It was at this point that the cry, ‘German tanks!’ rang out loud and clear. All hell broke loose.

  Looking for the biggest gun he could find, Sgt. Black turned toward his I machine gun only to see it blown to smithereens. It was the first round fired by an enemy tank at “C” Company. As Sgt. Black related, “Eighteen German tanks had caught us standing flat-footed on that ‘cold road’ near Hemroulle, Belgium.”

  With eighteen enemy tanks looming out of the fog, 2nd Platoon was directed to head for the cover of the nearby woods. As one man, “C” Company raced for cover.

  The tanks began to fan out in different directions with some going in the direction of Hemroulle to the south, others headed toward Champs to catch “A” Company from the rear and seven of them headed for “C” Company which was, at that moment, gaining the cover of the wood lot.

  The 1st Battalion of the 502nd Regiment had its command post in Hemroulle as did the 401st troops and Colonel Cooper’s 463rd Parachute Artillery.

  Pvt. Memphis E. Nixon was a 1st Battalion Headquarters Company mortarman who happened to be in the path of the tank force which was moving toward the north in the direction of Champs and Rolle after breaching the lines in the 327th regimental sector. Nixon’s most memorable action occurred on the morning of Christmas Day. He wrote:

  About 0200 on Christmas Day, we were moved out toward Champs and halted at a crossroad. I went out on flank guard with Pvt. Arthur Hunt to the west of the Champs road.

  As dawn broke, we were sitting against a haystack facing north when we saw a lieutenant from the 327th crawling toward us down this road lined with hardwood trees. When he got close enough, he said there were enemy tanks right there, pointing behind the haystack. Sure enough, there were three tanks less than 100 yards away. Hunt and I started crawling with him—no hole—no cover. After about 10 to 15 yards of crawling, a tank fired its 88mm into the trees not more than 20 feet above us. Evidently the hedgerow was too low as he fired again and about ten yards further on. Both times, sticks and limbs fell over us, but miraculously none of us were hit. Those 88’s exploded so close to us that things didn’t register for a few seconds. Up to this point, the two 88 rounds aimed at us were the only fire.

  Then all hell broke loose as ‘C Company engaged them and diverted their attention from us. By now, we had crawled to the Hemroulle-Champs road. With no more cover, we jumped up and ran, expecting to be mowed down by machine guns on the tanks. It never came.

  Company “C” had been in reserve in Hemroulle on the morning of December 25th as related by Sgt. Layton Black. They had been prepared to move to the north to reinforce “A” Company when 2nd Platoon was caught in front of the 401st Battalion CP with the appearance of the enemy tank column moving up from the west. As a member of “C” Company, PFC. James W. Flanagan was about to lose his soft reserve duty. He wrote:

  Early Christmas morning, the Germans became very active at Champs and by 0400 we were alerted to get ready to move as ‘Able’ Company was under heavy attack. Company ‘B’ was sent up the road toward Champs with ‘Charlie’ Company to follow. We were on the road strung out in column of two’s at just about daybreak when the German tanks and infantry that had broken through the 327th came charging over the snow-covered hill. ‘C’ Company was broadside to this mess and we were ordered to fall back to the woods on the east side of the road. As we were being shot at by rifles, machine guns and cannon, we expedited the withdrawal to the woods much better than at Olympic time.

  I was passed by a trooper with an officer’s marking on the back of the helmet. Of course, he wasn’t loaded down as I was. He swerved to go around a large tree. I swerved to go around on the opposite side. An 88mm HE from a German tank passed between us blowing the tree off its trunk about three feet above the ground. I didn’t get a scratch but I don’t know if he did. I continued to run out from under the falling tree, dodging a couple of large bushes. All of a sudden, I was running in midair—my feet not touching the ground. I sailed out over a ditch and dropped. With snow on the ground, it’s difficult to tell your altitude. I hit bottom—right through the snow. A couple inches of ice with a foot or so of water. By the time I extricated myself, I was wet up to my gut and I could feel the water in my boots. I was in a bit of trouble to say the least. The Germans were behind me and I was wet to the waist in that damned cold weather. I worked my way up the bank to see what was going on. The Mark IV’s and SP’s were still out there. The infantry that was with them were taking a beating and about this time I noticed that the tanks were getting shot up by our TD’s and Shermans and, as my trusty M1 was frozen up due to my dunking, I couldn’t do much more than act as a cheerleader.

  During the surprise appearance of the enemy tanks with their riding infantry at the courtyard entrance, part of 2nd Platoon of “C” Company was trapped and captured. Those not captured, joined the rest of the company in the race to the tree line. Out of nowhere appeared the company commander, Captain Cody who put a halt to the rout Sgt. Black relates what happened:

  I remember we were half way up this long hillside, already out in the open past the tree line, when I looked up and there stood Captain Cody with his arms raised on high. He said, ‘Hold up right there! This is as far as we’re going to run. Turn around, we are going back to get the bastards!’ You know something? For a moment there, he looked a lot like Jesus Christ to me.

  Company “C” started back to the location from which they had fled. Sgt. Black noted that about half the men were missing from 2nd Platoon. The thought that the missing were either killed or captured spurred the company on its mission. Along the way, the company was joined by two 705th tank destroyers in the woods.

  When the lead elements got within two hundred yards of the vacated 401st command post, the lead scouts spotted enemy tanks parked near the entrance with enemy infantry milling about in the courtyard. Sgt. Black picks up the action:

  The time could have been about 0800 hours, but I knew no one who was looking at his watch. We were all engaged in a dead serious act now. Some of the Jerries were cooking their breakfasts and we caught them by surprise. They had made the mistake of not coming after us; and, at least they should have been ready for a counterattack.

  We all opened up at once. We poured all the rifle fire into that old farmhouse. Suddenly, all four tanks took off going straight north, down the road toward Champs, one behind the other. Now they were on the run, as if they were only saving the tanks.

  The German infantrymen ran out from the farmhouse in a rush to catch a ride on the tanks. Many of them were cut down by our rifle fire which now had become a cross-fire of 2nd, 1st and 3rd Platoons of ‘C’ Company.

  I was walking along near the edge of the clearing in line with a potato pile by now. Walking next to me, among the large hardwood trees, was S/Sgt. Don Williams. He was a platoon sergeant in ‘C’ Company of the 705th TD Battalion. Two of his TD’s were following along behind us at a slow pace. The platoon sergeant asked me to hold back my men, while he ‘taught the Germans a small lesson in tank warfare.’

  Sgt. Tony D’Angelo from Wellsville, Ohio, was the commander of the nearest TD and was walking in front leading his destroyer around the big trees. Tony stopped his driver right beside me. I heard him say to his gunner inside, ‘Take the last tank first and then one at a time right up the line. Fire when ready.’

  MAP 13—Attack Christmas Day 401-C/502

  He fired point blank into the side of each Mark IV tank. The last tank first, and so on up the line, was hit and caught fire. The TD next to me (D’Angelo) fired six shots. Two shots hit big trees, four shots hit tanks and four were knocked out. It was absolutely the best I have ever seen.
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  As for the German infantry, not a man got away. In the end though, there was a big surprise waiting for the men of 2nd Platoon.

  Some of our men were still pouring rifle fire into the farmhouse when, all of a sudden, a white flag began to wave back and forth at the front door. We stopped firing and out stepped Cpl. Milligan, from my squad. The fighting ended and all of our 2nd Platoon troopers who had been captured by the Jerries, came running out of that old farmhouse. They certainly were a happy bunch and the victory had come just in time. That old house was now on fire, blazing into the sky.

  We in ‘C’ Company captured 35 prisoners and killed 67 Germans for our part in the Christmas morning fight. The real glory to save the front lines and stop a major breakthrough belongs to our own ‘A’ Company of the 1st Battalion in their defense of Champs.

  Let it hit the fan!

  The actions at Bastogne were the first experiences of the 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion in working closely with the 101st Airborne Division in a combat situation. It’s commander, Lt. Colonel John T. Cooper, Jr., wrote about the activities of his battalion and how they prepared for the actions when they learned the Division was surrounded:

  The days prior to Christmas began to pass about like all the others we had been in for the past year. Each day presented its targets and we fired our missions. From these positions we fired 6,400 mills (around the total circle).

  As it began to snow and ammo decreased to critical conditions, we organized our battalion for the possibility of ‘stand and fight,’ for there were no other places to go. We posted, dug in out-post guards with telephone communications to Battalion HQ as well as to the battery they represented. Our guns were mutually supporting. Banking on the fact that a tank will attack a gun head on, we had another gun that would have a side shot at the tank.