54 Hours

In the afternoon of Jan. 3, 1945, Company A of the 276th was assigned to the outskirts of the town of Wingen, France. The 3rd squad of the 2nd Platoon was told to dig foxholes on the downward slope of an open hill facing the town. I was the assistant squad leader and S/Sgt Red Shelander was the squad leader. We had the squad to dig about 20 yards apart.

It was a very cold day and overcast. To dig into the ground was almost impossible because the top 6 to 8 inches of ground was frozen solid. We broke through the solid frozen level and dug underneath. The ground underneath was sand, so once we removed the frozen top it was clear sailing. Red and I kept taking turns digging our foxhole-about 3 feet wide, 4 feet long and about 4 1/2 feet deep. As it was becoming dusk, we were ordered to retire back into the wood with the rest of the company. As we got back to the company, I told Red that the holes we had dug were to exposed. For one thing, we were out in the open and the houses in front of us would allow the enemy to look down into our position from the second story of the houses. Red agreed, "We shouldn't have any problems, we're Corps Reserve and the front lines are five miles on the other side of Wingen."

That night we went to sleep on the heavily wooded hillside without digging any foxholes. Early the next morning all hell broke loose. I zipped open my sleeping bag and saw tracer bullets going overhead. Our company was completely in the dark as to what was happening. We started to fire randomly into the town. As the day dragged on, a couple of Sherman tanks came into our area and started to fire into Wingen. Red Shelander received orders: We would have to take up positions in the foxholes we had dug the previous day and hold the position at all costs.

About four o'clock the squad gathered at the edge of the woods and started down to our foxholes. We infiltrated down a line of trees and underbrush and when we got close to our foxholes, I gave the arm signal to double-time across the open field. I was the first one to jump into his foxhole. However, when I looked around, I found out that the rest of the squad was still in the underbrush; the man next to me had missed my arm signal. I gave the signal again and the whole squad made it to
their holes.

It was dark by now and only occasional firing was going on in the town. Shelander instructed the squad to take turns standing guard. Red and I spent the night taking turns. As dawn arrived, the firing in town increased. We cautiously stuck our heads out of the hole and tried to see what was happening. We heard rifle shots coming from our immediate front and I just fired my rifle randomly at the spot it was coming from. The next thing, sniper fire came into our position. I told Red we were lucky to have dug our hole so deep. Every time we tried to observe, rifle firing came our way. Bullets were hitting all around our foxhole. The Germans were using the high ground, second-story windows of houses, to keep us pinned down.

After the sniper fire, we started coming under machine gun fire coming from right flank from the cemetery. This lasted all day and as night approached we had decided to get back to our company. Just as we started to get out of our hole, our platoon Sgt. Galloway crawled up to us. HE brought us K-rations and ammo and told us that half of our squad was dead or wound. He told us what had happened in Wingen and we would have to hold our position for another day, that the 274th Regiment was attacking and everything would be under control.

The next morning, firing started all over Wingen. Our position was again under heavy fire and we were pinned down. As dusk approached I told Red that definitely we were going to get out of our foxhole and rejoin our company. By this time we had spent 48 hours in the ground. Our legs and bodies were stiff and we had eaten only one K-ration meal. Our water was frozen in our canteens, and our M-1 rifles would not work because of the extreme cold. We had been eating snow to quench our thirst.

Both of us fell asleep because of extreme exhaustion and when we awoke it was midnight. It was extremely quiet as we got out of our foxhole and started back up the hill toward the woods. Red and I were walking like a couple of zombies after spending 54 hours in our foxhole. As we were walking, I said to Red jokingly, "How about heading to Switzerland if our company is gone. It must only be about fifty miles away." At that moment we heard, "Halt! Who goes there?" It was a guard from our company. We were as happy to see Company A as they were to see us. Everyone had given us up for dead because the rest of our squad of 10 men had been killed or wounded. Company A lost over 50 men during this short action, over 30% of our men.

Related Items

Awards || Documents