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Posted on 12/16/2002 5:38:35 AM PST by SAMWolf
While my hat is off to Battle of the Bulge vets, lets not forget that another battle was raging on the other side of the world. Sometime before Christmas, 1944, my father was listed as MIA on Leyte, P.I. His family got word of this when their Christmas package was returned with the news. Most of his company was annihilated be he and a few others were recovered alive. I have his V-mail letter explaining that he was hospitalized on 3 Jan 45. He was with the 32nd Infantry divison. Actually, this marks the 60th anniversary of that outfit's terrible campaign in Buna, New Guinea (Dec 42). My father joined the 32nd as a replacement in April 43.
Jim survived also and went on to a career as a long-haul trucker - St. Louis to Cincinnati to Indianapolis to St. Louis - for the next 30 years.
The third person I knew well was Eberhart Reimers. He was on "the other side". As a 15 year old auxiliary trooper in the German Infantry he found himself in a foxhole with another young man his age. An artillery burst turned his companion into a red mist. His view was that wherever the Germans had a rifle the Americans had an artillery piece. He later went on to get his college education and emigrated to Cleveland. At the age of 50 he completed a Doctorate at University of Tokyo. You could turn him 15 years old again by asking about the Bulge.
My uncles would become 25 years old when asked about the Bulge.
All of the men there saw more death than any human being should.
The 2nd Armored "Hell on Wheels" Division moved 100 miles south in one night under highest security (no lights on icy roads) and met the German spearhead (2nd Panzer Division) as it approached the Meuse. In the ensuing battle (it peaked on Christmas Day) the Panzer Division was destroyed.
"Trench foot, too, inflicted more than its share of casualties as the malady hit the 90th with epidemic force. Men limped into battle on senseless swollen feet. Some were carried to their weapons. P-47's of the XIX Tactical Air Force joined the fight, but not with guns or bombs. They came in low, swooped over the area at tree top level, and dropped their freight with heartening accuracy...medical supplies for the wounded and sick."
The above quote comes just days before the Battle of the Bulge, as the 90th fought to cross the Seigfried Line.
"December 15th, and the Division, fighting along the narrowest zone in its combat history, had made only minor penetrations into the Siegfried Line. Casualties due to wounds, sickness, exposure and trench foot, were wreaking havoc. Therefore, it was determined to storm into Dillingen itself, occupy the city as a stronghold, and then cross the Prims River, turning south to make contact with the 95th Division, still severely engaged in Saarlautern. The infantry, aided as usual by the effective support of armor and accurate artillery fire, pushed across the railroad tracks and reduced staunchly defended pillboxes which faced them in profusion.
In the fighting that followed, the 90th pushed resolutely into the city of Dillingen, clearing block after block of the enemy. The densest portions of the Siegfried Line had been successfully negotiated, and Dillingen was in process of falling to the 90th. House by house and room by room the 90th pushed through the city. In spite of the fact that no bridge had been built to span the Saar River, the Division had succeeded in crushing one by one the defenses that constituted the "invincible" Siegfried Line. The shadow of the 90th had fallen squarely on the heartland of Germany.
"And suddenly the picture changed. In the north, in Luxembourg and Belgium, General von Rundstedt hurled his best divisions into a final counteroffensive. Before the fury of the attack the American lines bent back. In the Moselle-Saar triangle another enemy assault was in preparation. The spearheads acrosss the Saar were exposed and vulnerable. In view of these rapidly altering developments, the 90th was ordered to disengage, to return its forces to the west bank of the Saar.
"Never before in the history of the Division had it disengaged, and its first experiene was fraught with difficulty and danger. Only one ferry, one footbridge and few assault boats were available for the maneuver that was to move the entire Division across the river under enemy observation.
"On December 19th the withdrawal began. As the troops retired they destroyed all equipment which might possibly be of aid to the enemy, mined the areas they abandoned and moved slowly westward. For three days the operation continued, while the enemy remained in complete ignorance of what was occurring. "Crews, working on the bridge and ferry sites, performed miracles in moving vehicles and armor across the Saar. roads on the eartern side became impassable, and each vehicle required winching through the mud and over the steep banks. Enemy artillery destroyed the ferry, and with only a few hours remaining in which to complete the withdrawal, 25 armored vehicles remained on the wrong side of the river. In the darkness and in the freezing waters, under continuous shelling the men at the river slaved through the night to salvage what they could. Only the wrechage of six vehicles remained as a prize for the Germans when the withdrawal was completed. "And so the crossing of the Saar was successfully accomplished, the Siegfried Line Cracked, and another triumph almost with the grasp of the 90th. But the fortunes of war had not entirely erased the Division's achievements at Dillingen. For now the men of the 90th knew that the Siegfried Line could be broken, and they knew also that if they had done it once they could do it again."
This is the first time I have seen the details of the massacre. Sad. --- Can you sent this to Senator Clinton, so she can learn some valuable history ?
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