Night March Across the Saar

This is the story of an infantry battalion's night march from the hills north of Forbach to the Saar River- a march so silent and well-conducted that over 600 men occupied a small German town for more than 12 hours before German forces in fortified positions on the same side of the river were aware of their presence.

It is also a saga of a march into the unknown. But let Maj. Charles A. Calloway, Co. 1st Bn. 276, open the story.

"The battalion moved out at 1930. No reconnaissance had been made of the area se we had to start out blind. We knew there were heavy fortification in front and German troops to our right. Six patrols on preceding days had been pretty badly shot up; the area was covered by MG's in all directions.

"So the route of march was laid entirely through the woods. Not far from the IP we had put the entire battalion down a cable in order to negotiate a sheer 20-foot drop. This was done hand over hand and was particularly hard on the heavy weapons men who had to drop their weapons over the cliff. We almost lost them at that point."

After sliding down the cable the battalion was in the outskirts of Petite-Roselle and started forward again. "I never heard a battalion of men move as silently," Capt. David H. Sokolow, operations officer, remarked. "It was as if they were a line of ghosts drifting forward. Not a sound was made that might arouse the Germans." The night was so dark it was all the men could do, marching at five yard intervals, to keep in five yard intervals.

After drifting around the outskirts of Petite Roselle and encountering no resistance the Bn. CO. mapped out the final route towards the main objective - an egg shaped circle marked 9 near the south bank of the Saar. "Charley company was still in the lead," Capt. Myron G. Grennell, acting exec., continued the tale, "and they encountered a big road block. We thought it might be mined but couldn't get around so the whole line of march just crawled over. This jammed us up considerably and we were all jittery because we could hear the artillery to the front and flanks. A few well-placed shells could've wiped out half the outfit."

"We did hit a minefield," Maj. Galloway pointed out, "but we managed to by-pass it. Used human markers as the only possible expedient. One man straddles the first big mine and guided the battalion around it."

The column snaked its way forward without any sign of the enemy but certain that Germans had been by-passed along the line of march. This was proven the following day when Easy Company moved in behind and encountered the enemy in a fire fight that lasted seven hours.

Area 9 was reached without further incident when orders were received to proceed to 11 at the other end of town. The unit marched silently the length of the main street, broke into a few houses and by 0345 local security had been posted and the men had settled down.

"Just before dawn my radio lost contact so my command group and I started back to see if we could find a point at which we could contact the rear," the major said. Heavy fog shrouded the movement of everybody and as the group hiked down the street they literally bumped into four figures.

"I don't know who was the most surprised," Capt. Sokolow remarked, "but we recovered the quickest and ordered the quartet to get their hands up - in German. Guns dropped all over the place, because there were three others we hadn't seen in addition to the four. Before we could get moving again, two other Krauts came up and surrendered.

In the morning when the civilians stirred they were amazed to find American soldiers guarding their doorways. The Yanks were somewhat surprised themselves after the fog lifted to see Germans occupying defensive positions along the river. "From the upper floor of houses we could see them moving around in their trenches, sunning themselves and completely unaware that we were in the same town.

"Yes," Maj. Galloway mused. "We even watched the Jerries across the river relieve the guard in a formal guard mount. We could see them all over the place...riding bicycles, going in and out of houses, walking down the streets and going about their business as though we were a mile away. Only two things gave us away into the afternoon: (1) a patrol from Baker Company was detected, and (2) one of our wire jeeps came down the main drag and was quickly spotted. Of course then all hell broke loose and the fight was on."