Tom refers to the
C/275 history account by
the unknown author. You may want to print that out before reading
this story.
A bunch of us who couldn't get passes to
Marseille from CP2 "snuck" off one afternoon and after a bus rids
arrived in AIX. There must have been 7 or 8 of us. I know Crawford
and Killion were there. In AIX we traded cigarettes for a swim in a
heated indoor pool which was in the wing of a convalescent hospital
for American officers. After that we went out on the town. We tried
to get a truck ride back to CP 2 late that night but we noticed that
MPs were checking all passes before boarding trucks so we
"sauntered" away
and hiked back to CP2. It seemed like it took all night to get
back. We arrived early in the AM.
Christmas Eve in the box car was very vivid and that bottle of
wine (or two) were passed into our "club" car courtesy of Lt. Harry
Durkee. It was his liquor ration and since he neither drank nor
smoked, he wished us a Merry Christmas and handed us the wine.
I didn't remember that the name of the town was Geudertheim,
(before Co C moved to the Rhein. tsh) but I do remember the dance
hall and the beer. There were some left over paper swastikas, small
flags in the dance hall. The detail by the 3rd Platoon to guard a
Service Company ration dump is very vivid also. (Crawford was also
there). The house with the two little girls was where I stayed.
Specifically, I and a few others slept in the adjoining barn and the
rest of the men stayed in the house. During our stay there a squad
of Free French fighters also stayed for a couple of days. There were
some black French Moroccans among them and they were led by a young
man by the name of Baxter. He spoke English and told us that his
mother was French and his father was British, Baxter was also
accompanied by a woman. I remmber they laughed
when they saw us cleaning our rifles. They said they cleared theirs
by firing a round up in the air.
Of course who could forget the wire factory
which I believe was an overnight and then to the foundry in
Niederbronn. (The wire factory was in Reichshoffen, a few miles
south of Niederbronn and Co C., spent New Year's Eve there then
stayed one night only in the Deitrich Foundry in Niederbronn New
Years Day. They, less the second platoon moved on to Philippsbourg 2
January 45. tsh-) After the half-track ride to the outskirts of
Philippsbourg the drivers refused to go any further and we walked in
the rest of the way. The 3rd squad was assigned to the existing
dugouts and foxholes on the crest of a hill at the south end. (The
famous "deadly right ridge"- tsh) As the author writes, "It was a
circus." At the beginning of the day we were all spread out.
I and Dave Vigoren had a huge figure 8 dugout
all to ourselves. A sniper sent a couple of rounds our way- couldn't
mistake the "zing". I even walked back to town to get some news.
That is when I looked over that "Kraut truck" that the author says
was captured by Lt. Nelson. It was loaded with all types of snow and
ski equipment.
During the late afternoon of that day, 2
January 45, our position began to consolidate and we had quite a
number of men in our dugout on the hill-side although people kept
coming and going until the numbers stabilized by night fall, As I
said before, this was a pretty good size position or dugout in the
shape of an "8" and could accomodate at least a dozen men, Bob
McDaniel was there, George Kwant, Sid Roberts with his BAR (Al Mejla
also had a BAR and I thought he was in our squad but it was
confusing time). James Jensen, Killian, Crawford, Vigoren and myself
and I don't remember who else was in that hole.
January 3, 1945 - Early in the morning, at
least it was still dark, those of us in that hole got word to move
out. I went down the hill to a nearby stream to fill a bunch of
clanging canteens that I was carrying. Others up in the hole were
flapping out blankets, making up packs and generally being noisy.
I remember everyone was up because we were
glad to get out of there. Then in the ground fog and darkness a shot
rang out. I broke the sprint record in running up that hill and into
the hole and I don't recall whether I filled the canteens or not! I
was one of the last to get into that hole so I ended up with one of
the "choice" positions on the firing line. As we peered through the
fog we began to hear voices and noises below us. We assumed that we
were all either in the bunker or under cover in some of the holes
close by.
James Jenson was on my flank and after a quick
vote he let go with a hand grenade in the direction of the voicos
below us. Another grenade followed and the voices stopped. The fog
was just thin enough so we noticed Kraut soldiers coming from the
back of the farm house and lining up along the low stone wall by the
road.
The small arms fire now began in earnest.
Jensen on my left, myself and Sid Roberts on my right and someone
who most have been our mystery "author" on Robert's right.
As the author correctly narrated, Roberts
slumped after turning around to pick up another full magazine which
were on the edge of the hole directly in back of him. We didn't know
where he was hit until we started to move him under cover of the
logs. One of us felt a wet sticky spot between his shoulder blades.
A new crew took up our positions but I think Jensen continued using
Sid Roberts BAR.
We didn't have a lot of ammunition to begin
with and we were getting low. S/Sgt McDaniels suggesting rushing
down the hill with bayonets and we all talked him out of that idea.
I have no idea how far into the morning this occurred but eventually
a couple of tanks came down the road from our left. After the tanks
opened up on the stone wall with machine guns and started leveling
their big gun, the krauts behind the wall got up and surrendered but
some of them snuck back behind the farmhouse the same way they came
in. (According to the 7th Army history, by December 1944, ammunition
of all kinds were short demand in the entire Seventh Army.)
Some two or three of the men in our hole now
went down to help escort the prisoners to the CP down the road.
To get back to author "X" he must have been
the man who was on the right of Roberts when Sid was hit because
that is the way he knew Sid was hit, because, #1, he knew Sid was
hit in the back because that is the way Sid turned and the author
"X" was facing Sid's back when he slumped to the ground. An so our
baptism of fire was done. The tanks trundled down the road with the
prisoners and with some of our troops as escorts. There was a brief
lull like there is before a storm and the storm did come - Kraut
artillery - fortunately the Germans built darn good bunkers. Three
quarters or more of the top of our hole was covered with large logs
with a good thickness of earth over that. We had straw on the floor
and together with Sid's body, the rest of us laid out like spoons,
lay there in the semi darkness of our shelter with our thoughts and
prayers while crashing vibrations went on around us. Nothing to do
but stay in place and hope the logs and earth above will hold up. We
lost any communications we had, the shelling severed all wires; we
had no significant amount of ammo left (there wasn't anything or
anybody crawling around out there to shoot at anyway). It seemed
like the barrage lasted all afternoon. It really seemed like an
eternity. When it was over and early evening, the house across from
our hill was burning, somewhere in the same vicinity cows were
practically screaming and burning trucks on the road were exploding.
We finally got the word to move out and we proceeded on the road to
town, took a right, passed the Co CP and fell in behind the rest of
C heading to Angelsburg. (This occurred late evening, 5 January 1945,
after the village [unreadable].
I happened to be the last man in the
column. Anyway, just as the end of the column was at the edge of
town, some shots were heard where the forward troops were entering
the woods. Found out later that somebody was edgy (who wouldn't
after P-burg) and it was a false alarm. However, the column stopped
when the shots were heard and I took advantage of the hold up by
sitting down in a ditch and easing my pack straps. It was a
comfortable position in the snow bank, somewhat like a
recliner. I felt warm and tingley and I went into a deep sleep. The
next thing I knew I felt someone kicking me awake. Fortunately, the
straggler recognized this dark lump in the snow as a possible
living body and booted me up. Together, we had some running to do
to catch up with the column. Thank you, whoever you were.
Angelsburg, (Hill 364 - is error - tsh)(We, Co. C,
remained at Angelsburg from AM 6 January until afternoon of 10
January 45. Our Angelsburg Co. C objective was Hill 471. We arrived
at Hill 364, west of Philippsbourg, Niederbronn and south of
Baerenthal, late afternoon of 12 January 1945. tsh) (Tom's
description is accurate of Hill 364)
It was a blur of snow, digging slit trenches and coming up
with rocks, and roots. Wounded men crying out in the darkness, other
wounded being carried down the hill in blankets made into litters.
(Although the 275th Medical
History indicates we had medics, we did not and Tom correctly
describes how the wounded were handled. tsh) Also a memory of being
very sick with a head cold and chest cold, I was one miserable dog
face. When we came off the hill I reported to the Bn Aid station and
my temperature was high enough to be admitted overnight. I slept all
afternoon and all night with sulfa pills and water breaks every few
hours. The next day I felt great - a little shaky but with a clear
head, hipped a jeep back to Co. C and on to those Maginot Line
pillboxes our "author" mentions on page 5 of your newsletter.
(refers to C/275 newsletter published by Tom Higley. Webmaster.)
