WINGEN-sur-MODER: 45 Years Ago January 6th 1945

January 6th 1990: There are events you will hardly forget, not in 45 years, never in your life. . .Such as the night and early morning of January 6, 1945. Dead tired after another day of defending Wingen, we were trying to get some sleep in the vaulted cellar of the three-storied building that until recently used to be the "Hotel de la Gare" next to the railroad station, two days ago elected as the command post of the 3rd Battalion. We had moved into the cellar after most of the windows had been shot out, the walls of the "Hotel" damaged by direct hits from tanks firing from the Kirchberg, which borders the Moder valley south of the town. We: that is the battalion commander Kreuzinger, a few messenger-runners maintaining the communication to our companies, a man from our signal platoon trying in vain to establish a radio link to whatever radioman may hear him behind the German lines seemingly so far away; he tries that for the third day now, his battery power is running dangerously low: no success. And myself, the battalion adjutant and CO of the headquarters company. In addition three aged villagers, two women and one man who share the cellar with us since yesterday: their house had been so badly damaged by enemy artillery that they took refuge in "our" cellar.

This photo was taken at the 1990 70th Infantry Division Reunion at Las Vegas, Nevada.  These men were at Wingen 4-7 Jan 1945, but were not formally introduced at that time.  L to R - Frank Lowry A/276, Willie Grottenstroeter 6th Mt., Arthur Slover A/276, and Wolf Zoepf 6th Mt.  Wolf Zoepf is the author of "Seven Days In January". The book deals with the fighting at Wingen from the point of view of the soldiers who fought on the other side.

But not only our food is getting scarce, also our ammunition. Some idiots higher up had decided to change our machine guns from the familiar MG34 to the ultra-fast MG42 during our few days in Denmark. The result: we are using three times more rounds per unit of time, our gunners are running out of ammo and already had to be ordered to shoot only when targets can be clearly identified. Everybody knows that there will be no re-supply, unless through reinforcements from the outside. We still hope that some energetic unit will succeed in breaking the ring that cuts us off from the outside, succeed in establishing a corridor to the German MLR in the North that could be used to resupply our two battalions and -even more urgent - to evacuate speedily our wounded. When receiving our attack orders for Wingen we were promised a battalion of self-propelled assault guns as soon as Wingen is in our hands. With those assault guns and further reinforcements we were to carry our push further to the Saverne Gap...

I must have dozed off, but am wide awake in a moment: There is a commotion at the entrance where we have a guard. Enters Oldenburg, our regimental signal officer. He is the first (accompanied by two noncoms) who found a gap in the American lines encircling Wingen. What news is he carrying from higher headquarters, where is our reinforcements, where are those assault guns? Instead, the orders from General Philippi (CG, 361st Volks Grenadier Division) for our two battalions are to withdraw from Wingen, move north and occupy lines somewhere in the Rotbach Valley...We are dumbfounded and seriously shocked! Shall all our sacrifices be in vain? What will happen with our wounded?

Also in our command post is now the CO of the 1st Battalion, Burgstaller and his adjutant Carlau. It is past 0600 hrs already and there will be daylight soon; any thought of withdrawal now is out of question. We will have to hold Wingen for another day, putting up a delaying defense, save as many lives as possible. We will have to wait for the mercy of darkness, for the coming night to have even a bit of a chance to withdraw unrecognized by the enemy from here...We will have to take care that no exposed elements are being cut off during the American attacks which we anticipate will start again shortly. To this effect Burgstaller and Carlau with their little staff move into our command post, so as to avoid communication problems between our two battalions.

Shortly after 1300 hrs the American attack is gaining momentum, it is coming dangerously nearer. It is high time for us to leave the cellar if we want to avoid getting smoked out. Carlau and I rally all available men not already wounded, but find only a I I bare handful, perhaps a dozen. We move out of the cellar, move directly right around the comer, running up the road to the railroad station. It is getting dark, the only occasional light comes from burning houses. Now the battle noise is directly below us, between the houses facing the Rue de la Gare. If we cannot fend off the enemy now, he will succeed in cutting off the companies of the 1st Battalion, and - if allowed to reach the church - liberate the prisoners-of-war we keep there.

We are getting a bit of reinforcement from elements of our 15th company now withdrawing from their exposed emplacements on the wooded high ground north of the railroad, Together we start a counterattack, yelling and shooting with all we can muster, mindless of our ammo shortage. We just run down from the railroad station, jumping fences, blind to the angry response of the American machine guns. It is as if we have caught the enemy by surprise, at least he did not seem to have expected us from this direction. We seemed to have stopped his advance (we only now know that at the time we had Casey' and his braves of G/274 in front of us). We feel utterly exhausted, the same seems to be true for the enemy . The noise has abruptly quieted down except for some occasional small arms fire. It is pitch dark but for the flickering light from the burning houses. It is as if the battle of the day is over...

Carlau and I return to our unified command post in the cellar. It is high time for planning the withdrawal out of our present emplacements, the darkness we have waited for is here. We have no connections, no news from the 3rd company (1st Bn), last at the road fork in the "Blue House"; they must have been overwhelmed by today's attack. From other companies at least remnants are left. A problem by itself are our wounded: we will have to leave not only our severe wounded in Wingen at the mercy of the enemy, but also all lighter wounded that will not be able to walk and climb the wooded mountains on our retreat route. It is a bit of comfort to know that they will be cared for by Dr. Lautenschlager, the medical officer of the 1st Bn, in charge of the make-shift medical station in Wingen, assisted by our own and American medics; they volunteered to. stay behind with the wounded of both sides.

We decide against taking the American prisoners-of-war (256 is their last count) from the Catholic church with us: we would not have enough men to guard them, they will only impede our quiet retreat. But we will take the eight American officers with us (they are permitted to escape next morning when we have the encounter with the 180th Inf/45th Division).

"When detaching from the enemy now it is of utmost importance that our movement is not detected! The companies exposed farthest have to quietly disengage themselves first, passing through the lines of the companies further back, and then sneak through the rest of the town towards the eastern RR underpass. We will assemble beyond this underpass on the NE outskirts of the town.

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