Battered Bastards of Bastogne

by George Koskimaki

  The fighting that followed was the most vicious I ever knew. It was close in, immediate; once I was able to read the markings on an enemy tank and many times I could clearly make out the features of a dozen or so Nazi soldiers. At one point I met one of my men, draped in his sheet, standing at the corner of a house with his eyes fixed calmly on six Nazis approaching from the rear.

  ‘How do you suppose they got inside our circle?,’ I asked.

  ‘Beats me,’ he replied casually, ‘but they’ll have a hell of a time getting out.’ And so they did. That private had the stuff of which good soldiers are made.

  Our improvised camouflage was paying off everywhere. One bazooka team stationed at a crossroads watched a tank close in. The two men waited until the tank was within 50 feet of their position. Then, with one perfect shot, they knocked it out.

  Suddenly, almost as if on signal, the fighting ended; and eerie calm broken only by the crackling of burning tanks, came over the field. We had a bag of 50 prisoners and there were many enemy casualties. Our own losses were light.136

  In citing the actions of others who provided much assistance to the men of his unit, Captain Wallace Swanson singled out the artillery observers and the men of the 705th Tank Destroyer group. He wrote:

  During this Christmas Day encounter with the enemy, the field artillery observer, 1Lt. Jim Robinson and his radio operators gave me terrific support by calling in the needed artillery shelling on the advancing enemy. As daylight came to our area, men of ‘A’ Company were able to pick off a lot of enemy infantrymen who were moving towards our line.

  The other action that helped out was by the tank destroyers which were called on to help rout the enemy who had infiltrated into several homes and buildings. Sgt. Valletta took his tank destroyer forward and blasted into where our men knew the enemy had taken refuge. Sgt. Ted Beishline, our first sergeant, helped him move in the right area and showed where the enemy was holed up as stated by our men. We were able to stop further advances by the enemy during this encounter by using the tank destroyers direct firing into the enemy position even though close in contact with our men.

  The Maverick Tank

  It is still a mystery where the maverick tank had been hiding. The tank battle had ended about 0930 with the last ones being destroyed in the Rolle vicinity. But, as mentioned by Captain Jim Hatch in his story, the demolition charge which was to have blown the bridge and tank skyward, was a dud. In mid-afternoon, a lone tank suddenly made an appearance from the direction of Bastogne and headed in a northerly direction.

  In the “A” Company CP, Captain Wallace Swanson was being visited by S-3 commander Jim Hatch, Major John Hanlon and Captain Joe Pangerl when the officers were surprised by a commotion. Swanson wrote:

  As the day continued on with fighting in and around Champs, the regimental S-3 officer, Captain Jim Hatch came forward to my CP and while we were talking over the situation, he asked how we were holding up. We heard a loud rumbling noise outside the house we were using as the company CP. We wondered what was going on out there. We both went to the front door and, as we opened it, we saw this German tank go by from our rear toward our front lines. We realized we had no weapons that would do any good. We shut the door and Hatch said, ‘This is no place for a pistol!’ That tank went out through our position in Champs. As it was clearing our front line area, Pvt. John Ballard, using his bazooka, knocked out the tank. He did it with two hits. Other elements, anti-tank 57mm guns and others may have fired but it was the Ballard bazooka that knocked the tank out and destroyed the tank crew by small arms fire by our men.

  As the prisoner interrogation officer, Captain Joe Pangerl was on the “A” Company field phone in conversation at the time. In a V-Mail letter to his parents, Pangerl describes the tank incident:

  The first I knew about it was when I was telephoning with my back to the door, looking out of the window. About four men, including one of my majors, climbed over me to get out of the window. The last one said ‘Scram—there’s a German tank outside the door!’ In my imagination, I could see the 88mm gun pointing through the door ready to fire so, needless to say, I went out that window, telephone and all. Nothing, however, happened so I went around the front of the house and saw it disappearing up over the hill with men running after it shooting but of course not doing any damage. We finally got it with a bazooka.137

  It was now mid-afternoon. The men were busy cleaning weapons and looking for additional ammunition and the troops were hungry. Pvt. Ted Goldman describes the situation:

  Food and bragging and post mortem of the battle were the order of the day now. Cleaned weapons and hunted ammo. My rifle—I traded off for another at supply. It had stuck at a crucial time and my hand was raw from beating back the bolt so I could load and extract rounds by hand.

  MAP 15—Mavarick Tank

  Our chickens gone, the civilian houses all severely damaged more or less, we salvaged one loaf of bread and used some butter taken off the prisoners when we searched them and they were left with nothing but their uniforms, smelly German cigarettes and pictures.

  Johnny was in his hole cleaning his rifle; Fowler and Curry in theirs. Lenz, Williams and I were slicing bread with a bayonet. I had a slice fixed when Johnny yelled to ask me to fix him one, which I started doing. I never finished. Fowler yelled, ‘Here comes a German tank behind you!’ Sure enough, a light-medium tank was coming up behind us with its machine gun blazing away. We ducked behind what remained of the potato shack doorway (Lenz, Williams and myself). On the enclosed map, you can find the location in relation to the other one. At point #1, tank ran up against Pvt. John C. Ballard, Jr. Here he shot the one remaining Heinie hanging on the outside. #2 marks where he hit it with the first round high on the back of the motor, just under the turret. #3 is where he hit it with the second bazooka round solidly in the motor. It stopped dead and was burning furiously. The crew came piling out to be met by a volley of lead from all of us. No more tank and all the crew was killed except one who had a radio on his back that Sgt. Bud Zweibel wanted to get intact. He was lying wounded and our men picked him up, his pants shot off and the radio ruined.138

  At close hand to witness the final demise of the maverick tank was Cpl. Willis Fowler who was sharing a foxhole with Pvt. Harold Curry and verifies the action just described by Pvt. Ted Goldmann. Fowler wrote:

  In the middle of the afternoon, there came a tank out from the direction of Bastogne. It went past our position and cut off the road just after it got by us. Our bazookaman, Pvt. John Ballard, grabbed his bazooka, which was lying near him, and fired one round into the back of the tank and it stalled. He quickly reloaded and fired another round into the rear and it caught fire. The Germans began coming out; and were picked off as they ran for cover.

  The attack by the enemy soldiers advancing under cover of darkness on the “A” Company positions north and west of Champs had swept the outposts and forward observer position off the prominent hill where they had excellent observance of enemy activities in the distance. As the action areas in town had quieted with the capture of many of the enemy troops, the dominant hill position was still held by the enemy that afternoon.

  “Baker” Company of the 502nd had been called back from its move toward Longchamps and ordered to retake the high ground (tree patch) west of Champs. PFC. Amos Almeida was a member of the one platoon which had been placed in a blocking position in front of Rolle beside the regimental headquarters personnel. When that action had died down, Almeida’s platoon had joined the rest of “B” Company in the hill action. Almeida continued his story:

  From there we went to the top of the hill where the rest of the company was engaged in a battle with the enemy. We lost a few men there, among them Lt. Porter C. Little. We had set up a defensive line and were engaged with the enemy until dark.

  All efforts by “Baker” Company to drive the Germans from the heights which provided such excellent observation of enemy movements to the north and west had failed. Now it became the ta
sk of forward observer Lt. Jim Robinson of the 377th Artillery Battalion to move the enemy off that piece of real estate. 502nd troopers kept up a steady stream of small arms fire which was only an annoyance to Germans who had taken over the observation post as well as the infantry foxholes dug on the heights. Lt. Robinson called for the fire mission just before the maverick tank went roaring up the road in Champs. Both events were very successful in their outcomes. Robinson wrote:

  Obviously, now we could be sure that no friendly troops were nearby. Earlier in the week, we had taken great care in registering an artillery concentration 75 yards to their rear to defend the OP. So now, no preliminary firing was necessary and the 75-yard adjustment was made as ‘fire for effect’ was called for. Like giant thunder claps ‘Battalion—four rounds!’ of time fire enveloped the dugouts and foxholes of our old OP. Gone for the moment was the pent-up frustrations of days of counting our scant ammo supply as massed artillery converged on the target.

  As the barrages were ending, I heard a heavy rumbling to the rear followed by shots and blasts ringing out and I looked back to see one of our men with arms extended high in the air exulting in the sight of a burning tank with soldiers scrambling to get out of the hatch. Thinking it was our tank, I became momentarily alarmed that maybe he had become mad until I saw that the men crawling out were wearing German field uniforms.

  These two events happening at the very same time are remembered as the change of momentum in the battle for Champs on Christmas Day, even though the battle did rage on.139

  Senonchamps

  The 1st Battalion of the 327th, along with the members of a “Snafu” force were now positioned between Senonchamps and Ile-la-Hesse with outpost lines extending almost to Mande St. Etienne. Acting sergeant Donald Woodland was now in charge of a group of soldiers from various units which had fled as the German armor had scattered their groups. His position was now near the location which had served as his battalion assembly area on the first morning on arrival in the Bastogne area. He describes the developing situation:

  There were some stragglers in the group from some of the smashed outfits that had moved through Bastogne. I was wearing the overcoat with the 9th Armored Division shoulder patch so one of the enlisted men buddied up with me to share my foxhole. I took over a squad and deployed the men behind the MLR that was along the rim of a stone quarry. The ground was semi-frozen so that I had a difficult and painful time from the wrist wound.

  There were two haystacks near our position, so we went over and took several arms full of hay to the holes. Several of the stragglers talked about sleeping in the haystacks but I vetoed the idea. A light machine gun was placed on our right flank with a field of fire to the open space on the slope below. Our left flank was a bazooka manned by a gliderman from the 327th. Immediately to our rear and dug into the rear slope was an artillery unit with 155mm howitzers.

  Several hours before dawn, our sector of the front exploded with a heavy concentration of artillery fire and what sounded to me like nebelwerfer (smoke mortar) shells. None of the shells were impacting in our immediate area, but the noise was disturbing. It was still dark when our line came under machine gun fire. The German machine gun was located below us and at a distance of approximately 250 yards. I fired a clip of rifle ammunition at the machine gun, carefully spacing the shots to achieve a spread of several yards. Our machine gun also opened up. The fire was right on target, but the tracers were ricochetting off the target. Not being able to see the target, I called for a cease fire so as to conserve ammunition.

  With the first light of dawn, the intensity of the fire increased. From my vantage point on the rim of the quarry, it was possible to observe the action below. The glidermen of the 327th were moving into position in the open and placing machine guns and mortars into action. I could not see any of the German infantry, but the return fire was intense.

  From his position at Ile-la-Hesse, Captain Walter Miller had this comment about the two 9th Armored Division tank commanders he had spoken about earlier:

  I am sure these men also accounted for many German tanks on Christmas Day’s breakthrough toward Bastogne. They were on the flank and had direct fire into the sides of the German tanks as they passed by. When they ran out of ammunition I requested resupply and when Division realized I had tanks, they were taken from my command and I did not see them again.

  The left flank of “B” Company of the 327th Glider Regiment was adjacent to the positions of “A” Company of the 326th Engineer Battalion. In a major action for “B” Company, which occurred on Christmas Day on the southern perimeter, S/Sgt. Paul Slevey describes the enemy moving in on the “B” Company positions from the direction of Senonchamps and the woods to the south and west:

  On December 25, early in the morning, a group of Germans came across the tracks into our area. They were pushed back into the patch of woods they came from. Pvt. Thomas McNamara took a Walkie-Talkie radio to the high ground next to the tracks and called the range back to the gunners on the 60mm mortars set up on a fire break. We also had a light tank in the woods with us and it was firing also. Further back, Headquarters Company set up their 81mm mortars. Twenty-one prisoners were taken.

  A respite from front line duties had sent PFC. Harry Sherrard and Pvt. Eugene Walters to Bastogne on Christmas Eve. When the town was bombed twice during the night, the men were happy to be ordered back to their outpost duties on the road to Neufchateau. Sherrard added to his story:

  Our outpost position on the road to Neufchateau had been abandoned—too far out, I guess. We took over some positions to the west of the road to Assenois, maybe 120 yards north of the cement pill box or guard house. We had a machine gun which we felt at the time as being a terrific amount of fire power. There were three of us in the position and I was on the gun just after dark when some movement was noted about 100 yards east and below our position. I couldn’t see what it was and one of my ‘hole mates’ said it was two Krauts crawling along a fence line. He shot his M1 to show me their position. I fired with the machine gun but was too high. He fired a positioning shot again. The machine gun was too far back of the hill line so I moved it out as far as I could then started to dig up the dirt in front of our position with continuous fire until I could rout out the fence line where the two Germans were.

  Ray Stockstill was in a foxhole with a machine gun, just east of a hedgerow. After the second day of attacks, I found out that Ray was either picked off with a shot in the head by a sniper who was near the little cement pill box or from a lucky shot in the attack.

  To the left of the position of PFC. Harry Sherrard and his ‘A’ Company engineer buddies, PFC. Charles Kocourek was still on line with the troops of 2nd Battalion of the 327th. These troops were on a ridge northwest of Marvie. The action quickened pace once more. Kocourek related:

  On Christmas morning, I was with Major Galbraith when shooting started up and I got to my foxhole. One of the guys hollered, ‘The Krauts are dressed in white!’ Most of the shooting was on my left. I couldn’t see them. Us guys who were beside the road could not see them. Pretty soon the Germans gave up. There were 23 of them. One of our guys, Jimmy J. Gee, was in a foxhole and he saw the Germans coming up in the white uniforms. He opened up. If it hadn’t been for Jimmy, we’d have been hurting. With the 23 captured, another 7 were killed. The Germans had American gloves and American overshoes.

  There were some buildings right in front of us. When we looked in them we found a German officer with a P-39 in his hand. He was frozen but still barely alive. We took him into Bastogne but I doubt that he made it.

  Maps and Aerial Photos

  The map situation was critical at Bastogne from the time the 101st Division arrived on the 19th of December through most of the month. Artillerymen had difficulties pinpointing targets. Appeals went out by radio to higher headquarters requesting maps and aerial photos of the Bastogne area.

  The 10th Photo Group usually worked with General George Patton’s 3rd Army and with the 4th Armore
d Division closing in on Bastogne. Patton, as well as the beleaguered troops, needed the photo maps to pinpoint the locations of the latest enemy concentrations.

  Captain Rufus Woody of the 10th Photo Group drew the Christmas Day assignment to drop maps and aerial photos to the troops in Bastogne. He recalled ‘receiving the request for updated photo reconnaissance so the artillery would know where the targets were hidden from our guns.’

  Captain Woody describes the way the aerial photos and maps were to be delivered and what the conditions were like over the drop zone:

  The 9 x 9 inch aerial photos on a scale of 1 to 10,000 were packed in padded material and placed in a hinged, detachable gasoline tank like those used on long range missions and then jettisoned when empty. The day was overcast. I made one pass, looked for smoke and came down to 100 feet, dropping the container with the aerial photos.

  The vehicle of delivery was a P-38 Lightning twin-boom fighter plane. A second delivery was attempted the following day by Lt. Lanker and Capt. Woolcott as they were to drop updated aerial photos to the men at Bastogne in the same drop spot. However, both planes were shot down, never reaching the target area.140

  Pathfinder records provided by PFC. John Agnew indicate that a P-38 did drop aerial photos on the drop zone at 1225 on the afternoon of December 25 with smoke being used for guidance.

  General Mcauliffe’s Christmas Message

  The following message was distributed to the troops at Bastogne on Christmas Day by Division Headquarters over the signature of Brig/General A. C. McAuliffe:

  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

  What’s Merry about all this, you ask? We’re fighting—it’s cold—we aren’t home. All true but what had the proud Eagle Division accomplished with its worthy comrades of the 10th Armored Division, the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion and all the rest? Just this: We have stopped cold everything that has been thrown at us from the North, East, South and West. We have identifications from four German Panzer Divisions, two German Infantry Divisions and one German Parachute Division. These units, spearheading the last desperate German lunge, were headed straight west for key points when the Eagle Division was hurriedly ordered to stem the advance. How effectively this was done will be written in history; not alone in our Division’s glorious history but in World History. The Germans actually did surround us, their radios blared our doom. Their Commander demanded our surrender in the following impudent arrogance: