Units: 276th: Accounts: Koller

276th Inf: Accounts: James Koller

Recollections of Wingen-sur-Moder
James Koller: S-2, 3rd Bn/276

This is an attempt to provide an overview of the re-capture of Wingen by elements of the 276th and 274th Infantry Regiments in January 1945. It is based on the reports of Sgt. Frank Lowry of Company A, 276th Infantry and the brief report of members of L Company on the 276th Infantry website, personal letters which I wrote after the action and my own hazy memory. The website of the 274th does not contain any additional information at this time. I was S-2, Third Battalion, 276th Infantry.

The first and third battalions of the 276th had arrived and occupied reserve positions in the Wingen area during the afternoon of January 3. Companies C, B, I and L were in the area north of the village, probably in that order from east to west. Company A was south of the village. The First Battalion CP was somewhere on the north side and Third Battalion CP was in Rosteig. In the early evening there was light enemy shelling west of Wingen, perhaps an early warning that we heeded only by removing the Third Battalion CP to Puberg. During the night I visited the CP of the 100th Division and was assured that our assembly areas were secure because that division and the 45th Division were in defensive positions several kilometers to the north.

My understanding of the attack by the two German SS battalions is very consistent with the report by Lowry. Companies B, C and I were over-run and suffered casualties with Company B being the hardest hit. Prisoners were taken including the acting CO of the first battalion, Major Robert Natzel.

After this attack Lt. Glenn Peebles of C Company "played dead" for an entire day so effectively that German troops from an outpost a few yards away removed his equipment including his wrist watch without discovering that he was still alive. He escaped after dark with only the cut on his wrist and was later killed by a mine near Oetingen.

While A Company was resisting further German advance to the southeast, L Company, probably with help from I and M Companies, counterattacked from the west on the afternoon of January fourth. To observe and coordinate this effort I established an advance OP/CP overlooking Wingen from the west. By January 5 the third battalion troops had penetrated the town and were advancing slowly, and Company A was attacking from the south. I am quite sure that Company C had made its way to the Company A area and become involved at some point. By late that day two companies of the Second Battalion, 274th Infantry, had also joined this effort. I don¹t know where the first battalion attack started from but the German position was strengthened by a high east-west railroad embankment which separated the two parts of the town, and the attack from the south stalled at the highway underpass through it. It was probably on the afternoon of the sixth, while the First Battalion maintained pressure there and L Company was continuing its slow advance in the village, that the two 274th Infantry companies executed a decisive flanking movement to the west and succeeded in crossing the railroad embankment. The German troops could not withstand this additional pressure and the first battalion attackers soon captured the underpass. What remained of the German resistance then evaporated quickly and they withdrew abandoning their American prisoners.

Casualties were extremely heavy on both sides. For example, in addition to many enlisted casualties in the unit, the L Company commander and one platoon leader were killed and two other platoon leaders in the same company suffered injuries. I returned to the area on a photographic mission in June, 1945, and was told by residents that of the two German battalions involved only twenty men were able to return to their parent organization. I don¹t recall whether or not we took any prisoners.

There is ample reason for the members of all the 70th Division units which were involved in this, our first major action, to take pride in our accomplishment at Wingen.