At 8 p.m. on the 7th, a blizzard started and continued until nearly daybreak—in all about 16 inches. Visibility was nil but every man was on guard about five hours in it. Trench foot was becoming prevalent because of the bad weather. During the blizzard the MG’s fired every 30 to 45 minutes to keep the belts from freezing up. Just at daybreak, Sgt. Zweibel came up and told about two-thirds of us to go down in town and cook our breakfasts and I started back. He fired the gun to check it and the third bullet hit a mine and it went off; I caught a piece of it in the wrist as I walked along. It knocked me to my knees but I started running for cover because I didn’t know what it was then and thought more might be coming.183
Goldmann walked back to the CP where he was treated and then evacuated toBattalion and then on to Regiment. His first hand reporting ended at this time. However, later actions were reported to him when he returned from hospitalization and recuperation. His letters written in June of 1945 are what have kept the memories of those actions alive.
CHAPTER 19
ON THE OFFENSIVE
January 9
The morning of January 9 found the 1st Army forces within seven miles of Houffalize in their drive south. On that day 3rd Army, of which the 101st was a member, broke the quiet in that sector with an attack past Recogne to seize Noville which had been a principle objective of the 101st since mid-December. The 6th Armored Division was on the right of the 101st while the 17th Airborne Division was on the left.
The 501st had the assignment of taking Recogne. The attack was made with “F” Company as the point unit. The center of the small farm community was reached by 1335. The accompanying TD’s chased two tanks out of town and these fled toward Noville. With the help of “E” Company, the town was cleared by 1700. Enemy casualties were heavy while the 2nd Battalion forces lost 25 enlisted men and 3 officers.
One of the major losses of the day was the wounding of Colonel Julian Ewell, regimental commander of the 501st who was then replaced by LTC. Robert Ballard who remained in that position throughout the remainder of the war.
The day was dull with snow falling thickly through most of the day. There was no air support. The tracked vehicles had difficulty in movement with much slipping and sliding.
The 506th Regiment, along with Team Cherry, attacked northeast through the Fazone Woods toward Noville.
3rd Battalion had been relieved and moved into a forward assembly area in woods south of Sonne Fontaine. The 2nd Battalion led the attack toward
Noville after the artillery battered the woods in front of them. Ten minutes later 3rd Battalion moved to the left flank position. This is when they were hit hard. The 3rd Battalion Headquarters Company took a heavy battering from enemy mortar and artillery shelling. Twenty of its members were wounded, among them the commanding officer, Captain James G. Morton.
Headquarters Company Battered
As commander of 3rd Battalion Headquarters Company, Captain James Morton was in the thick of the fighting on January 9. This would be his last day with the 101st Division in World War II. He wrote:
On January 9 we began a big attack to reduce the German bulge. We attacked all day. Headquarters 3rd was caught in a woods by a mortar barrage and my men dropped at every quarter. Webb went out of his mind. Beard, now a lieutenant, was shot in the arm. Lundquist was killed … Kopala, my runner, was hit at my side. A mortar shell hit the trees above us. Fragments wounded Kopala severely, but I was unscathed. I was blown off my feet twice, a most unpleasant experience …
That night, as we were digging in on the objective, Tiger tanks came through the snow and shelled the woods. I was hit by the first round. It nearly severed my ankle. I bled like a stuck hog. Gibson, the medic, raced to my assistance and got hit by the next round. I, too, was wounded again. Barney Ryan has written to me that 156 men were killed or wounded that terrible night. The next morning, says Ryan, there were fifteen dead bodies sprawled about the aid set-up. Blood trails, he said, marked in the snow where our wounded had dragged themselves in futile effort to find shelter or medical aid. Ryan writes: ‘Never have I lived through such a nightmare. All night long, shells screamed into the woods, direct fire from tanks. It was nearly impossible to evacuate the wounded. They were dying like flies. Through the whole night we heard the screams of the wounded and the moans of the dying.’184
Though he had undergone many harrowing experiences in Normandy and Holland as a surgeon for 3rd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Capt. Bernard J. Ryan found the situation near Foy and Noville to be far worse. He wrote:
The worst time of my Army career was the afternoon and night of January 9, 1945. During the afternoon and night as we attacked towards Cobru, we had 156 battle casualties in our battalion. They had to be evacuated several miles over a road broken through the woods by tanks and in about two feet of snow. There were artillery barrages all night and an enemy infantry attack during the night. Major Charlie Shettle was also wounded. He gave me his British tanker coveralls saying, ‘Doc, you’re going to need these more than I will.’
While pulling a wounded soldier out of his foxhole in the edge of the woods, looking toward Cobru, I said to Medic Harold Haycroft, who was helping me, ‘Listen to that German tank out there!’ He said, ‘Yes, look at it,’ I said horsecollar to myself but turned around to see a German Panther threshing up the snow and practically looking right down our throats. Just as we pulled the wounded man away, the Panther put a round in where we had just been, evidently having seen us.
On the morning of January 10, dead were piled everywhere.
In an action which occurred near Recogne, PFC. James H. Martin recalled the bravery of a medic who was looking after the needs of the men of his platoon. Martin wrote:
Our 2nd Platoon was dug in a couple hundred yards from a little village called Recogne. Regiment asked for information about guns and positions in front of our position. It was decided to send an ‘H’ Company patrol out through our position to draw fire. The first scout started out of our grove of trees onto the crusted snow. A machine gun opened up from Recogne and he was hit a glancing blow on the breast bone. His lieutenant sent him right back out and he was hit again. On being hit again, he went down and stayed down. After a short wait, the whole patrol went out in groups of two and three. About a hundred yards out to the right of Recogne they were fired upon again and several went down. The Mexican-American medic who was left behind with us started to take off his pack and I asked what he was doing. He said, ‘I’m the medic. It’s my job to go after them.’ I said, ‘Hell, you’ll get killed, you can’t help that way!’ He ignored me and went out to the farthest man, got him on his shoulder and started shuffling back. He went down several times but finally made it back. All this amid heavy small arms fire. He didn’t seem to think he’d done anything unusual though I felt that this was an incredibly brave thing to do.
Medic Gibson’s Ordeal
Medic John W. Gibson served his regiment as a medic from way back in the early days at Camp Toccoa in Georgia in 1942. He was about to experience his most trying day in a combat situation near the small town of Foy. He describes the events of that memorable day:
We left our positions near Foy, Belgium on January 9, 1945. We had been there three weeks but it was not exactly like leaving home. There were no buildings and a cold blizzard had hit. We were dug in well but a medic can’t stay in those safe foxholes. We had to be out where and when we were needed. We walked out of that area and trudged along in the snow in a sweeping movement toward Noville. Noville is a small town but certainly one to remember. We were to narrow the gap and push the German lines back.
Part of the time we walked in open areas but were protected from view by the overcast weather. We stopped along a small road through the edge of some pines. A jeep came slowly by in the snow and hit a mine with the left front tire. Parts of the engine and dash board hit the driver, PFC. Herbert A. Derwig, in the chest. I was forty feet away and went quickly to help. Derwig was dead within seconds
and his passenger was badly shaken. He was trembling and pale but seemingly uninjured.
We moved on and there was some shelling up ahead. In crossing an open field, I found a trooper with his leg off below the knee. He was in a sitting position holding both hands on his knee, which kept the stub of his leg from dragging in the snow. I got out a large compress bandage and some sulfanilomide powder and he refused treatment. He asked me to find his shoe. It was about 20 feet away. I put it at his side. His foot and part of his leg were in the shoe. He was pale and near shock. He requested a cigarette so I got one from his pocket and lit it. He again refused treatment. Several people came near and I noticed a couple medics in the group. I told them he needed immediate attention and that I had to move on to catch up. I walked a ways across the field and looked back. He was holding his leg and fighting with the medics.
As I moved on into the forest toward Noville, the shelling was more intense. The shrapnel was picking our men off. Three troopers lay face down in the snow. I turned their heads for identity. I knew a couple of them. When I caught up with the main force, I reported the loss. It came as a shock to one of the officers. It was hard for him to accept the loss. They must have been close friends from the same unit.
As darkness drew closer, we dug harder on our foxholes. It has been decided that we’d dig in there for the night. I dug hard and fast and worked up a sweat in spite of the cold weather. Shells roared in and I hit that foxhole. More shells hit and I heard calls for a medic. I made my way through the trees and found Capt. James Morton, Headquarters Company commander, injured rather severely in the ankle. He was face down. I straddled over him and cut his clothes so I could get to the wound. As I attempted to patch him up, the shells came closer. I couldn’t leave him, so I ignored them. One struck a few yards away and it killed T/5 Robert Y. Evans, one of our 3rd Battalion medics. Suddenly, an 88mm shell from a German tank hit in a tree above our heads and drilled me thoroughly in the back. A piece went through my right lung, diaphragm and lodged in my liver. I laid down on Morton and yelled for a medic. It was a while, but one came. It could have been John Eckmann who placed wide tape over the holes. Before being taped, I could hear the blood bubbles when I exhaled. I thought I might be a goner. It felt like my entire right lung was ripped open and exposed. I felt the blood run down my spine.
Pretty soon Morton and I were put on a jeep that had stretchers. Seems like there were at least four of us wounded put on that jeep. We slowly made our way out of the forest and eventually reached the Regimental aid station in Bastogne. Major Kent was there as was Medic Owen Miller. Several were there but I distinctly remember those two. I don’t know what they did with Morton, as I never saw him again.
Over in the 1st Battalion area, Major Robert Harwick, its commander, and his executive officer, Captain Knut Raudstein, were lost when a shell hit the command post Captain Charles Shettle assumed command of 1st Battalion but he, too, was wounded the following day and was replaced by Captain Clarence Hester from the regimental staff.
January 10
The day was cold and cloudy though air support did appear on call when the clouds broke up from time to time. For those waiting in the woods for the continuing attack, the temperature never rose above freezing and at night hovered near the zero mark.
The 326th Airborne Engineers cut logs to cover foxholes and, in some cases, used explosives to blast holes in the frozen ground.
The 101st mission for the day continued to be the seizure of Noville. Action began at 0230 when an enemy combat patrol of two platoons supported by heavy artillery hit the newly won positions at the edge of the Fazone Woods. The attack was turned back but the heavy artillery caused the 1st Battalion of the 506th Regiment, which was in reserve behind 2nd Battalion to pull back three- quarters of a mile. Casualties from that shelling were 126 men from the 506th Regiment. Those casualties occurred during the night of January 9 and early morning of the 10th.
As a member of “H” Company of the 3rd Battalion, PFC. Guy D. Jackson was in on the attack on the 10th. That was the night he lost his closest buddy during an extremely heavy shelling. Jackson wrote:
We were dug in that night on a reverse slope facing south. Evidently, the Germans knew we were there and had already zeroed in their guns. They started shelling us that night and every one of them was on target The thing happened here. You couldn’t dig in the ground—it was frozen and I just had a lil ole trench, more or less. That night, my best buddy was killed—PFC. Charles Kieffer—and one of my buddies didn’t have a hole at all and he came over and tried to jump over in front of me. It seemed like the shelling went on for at least 30 minutes. You can’t go by time in combat. Anyway, if the guys hadn’t had half of the holes dug there probably would have been a lot more casualties that night. The next day, we had to go through this big woods and the snow was on the ground about a foot deep. I guess my platoon, the 3rd, was on the point. There was a German tank, no more than 100 yards away and he opened up. He just missed me but the guy in front of me was wounded. The tank fired that one time and took off. Going through those woods—that was the only fire we got.
In on the same action that night was PFC. Ewell B. Martin of “G” Company who remembered the cold night and how men got tangled in their sleeping bags during inopportune moments when an enemy patrol was passing the line of foxholes.
Some of the heaviest shell fire I remember occurred one cold night in January. We were dug in at a point of woods. Jack Luce and I had the squad’s machine gun and were swapping two hour watches. Jack suddenly shook me awake after seeing a German patrol in snow suits get into the woods behind us. We took the machine gun and tried to catch up with them; however, as I heard later, one of the men down the line was zipped up in his sleeping bag—saw the patrol go by him—couldn’t get his ‘fart sack’ unzipped so he started firing his .45. The Kraut patrol got out in a hurry before we could spot them again. We exchanged machine gun fire with the Krauts who had begun firing from their point of woods opposite us. They did no damage and I doubt that we did, either.
During that same night, PFC. William N. Chivvis of “I” Company was on outpost duty, which he never seemed to mind. He recalled a situation when one of the new replacements died—probably because he couldn’t make up his mind whether he should fire while he had the drop on an approaching enemy soldier. Chivvis wrote:
We had a new guy named Pvt. Eugene A. Smith who must have been shipped to us after the fight started. He had been raised by his mother and was such a NICE guy that there was some doubt in his mind as to whether he could pull the trigger. I heard that he confronted the enemy and was shot down while still trying to decide.
3rd Battalion was withdrawn from its forward position on the night of January 10 with Battalion Headquarters moving all the way back to the small village of Savy. Medical captain Barnie Ryan remembered worrying about an impending attack. He wrote: “The following night, January 10, we retired from the position which it had cost us so dearly to take and spent January 11th in Savy.”
The coordinated moves of neighboring divisions never took place so the 101st was forced to withdraw from the positions they had gained over a period of a day and a half. The continuing fight to take Noville would involve battling to gain the lost ground.
January 11
During mortar and artillery barrages, the platoon medic is called on to go to the aid of his wounded comrades. Sometimes his move saves him from death or serious danger. T/5 Leon Jedziniak cites such an experience:
Eddie Kelley and I were in a pre-dug foxhole in the woods. The Germans started laying down a mortar barrage. The call ‘Medic’ came up. My kit was in a log and dirt covered bunker several yards from the foxhole. As I got to the top of the hole, a concussion knocked me down. I got to the dugout and got my kit.
After ministering to the men who had received wounds as the result of the mortar barrage and saw to their evacuation, he returned to the dugout to return his first aid kit. While there, he learned of the loss of his
foxhole mate. Jedziniak wrote: “I returned to the dugout and a trooper told me that Ed Kelley took a direct hit in the foxhole I was in a few minutes earlier.”
As executive officer for “A” Company of the 501st Regiment, 1Lt. Joseph B. Schweiker remembered that his commander, Captain Stanfield Stach had been evacuated with a painful ankle wound and his replacement, 1Lt Charles Seale, was killed in an accidental shooting and was replaced by 1Lt. Hugo Sims. Schweiker was very saddened with the loss of an enlisted man who had just shown him pictures of his family. The pictures had arrived with the latest mail call:
I can remember very clearly PFC. Edgar Kelley, one of our BAR men, had just received some mail and he was showing me pictures of his family. Shortly after, Kelley was killed by a direct hit on his foxhole.
January 12
The 12th of January was very cold and, fortunately, little offensive action was in the offing for this day. The only aggressive move in the direction of the enemy was conducted by troops of the 501st Regiment. These troops were to make a limited advance which would provide a better line of departure for the 327th Glider Infantry which would move through those positions on the 13th. The 501st made a limited attack at 1405 to take and stabilize along the Foy- Mageret road about 500 yards in front of the regimental MLR.
Nothing has appeared in the text about the men of “I” Company of the 501st since the fighting on December 19 at Wardin. In his narrative, D-Day to Bastogne, S/Sgt. Robert Houston provides a detailed story of the actions of his platoon in this action in the Bois Jacques bordering the Bastogne to Bourcy railroad line.185
It was a very cold morning—somebody at company HQ said the temperature was 6 degrees. We crawled out of our foxholes at daybreak and ate a hot breakfast that had been brought out from the battalion kitchen. Lt. Bill Morgan called the officers and platoon sergeants together to go over the plan of attack. My German map was the most detailed, so we all studied that. We were to attack through the woods about 500 yards to a small road that ran from Foy through Le Bois Jacques and across the railroad. The 502nd Regiment was now on the other side of the track and had an outpost line up to the road on that side.
Battered Bastards of Bastogne Page 55
