December 15th-16th 1944 Friday-Saturday Starting the Battle of the Bulge-Battalion History, Cliff Hope
Interactive timeline and maps I will be inserting this link for reference. It is an interactive timeline. scroll to the appropriate day to see a map and a brief synopsis of the state of the Battle of the Bulge at that point in time.
Lu, in Rae Hight's book:
The morning of December 16, when the Battle of the Bulge began, we were going out on a make-work program. It suddenly became a day to remember. None of us had been exposed to the kind of intense artillery fire we received that morning. We were not infantry troops and soon pulled out to move away from the front lines.
By late in the day we knew that a horrendous battle had begun, and the whole aspect of war came home to us. From here on out, things became pretty dicey and we never knew when we came around a corner if we would be facing a Tiger tank! Once we started squeezing the Bulge in, we felt a lot better about being able to put our sound bases in, knowing our backs were protected. As we worked closely with individual field atillery gun outfits, they were able to use our measurements, which saved them a lot of work. We felt a lot of satisfaction in being able to give them direct information so that their guns were registered all the time.
From the Battalion History:
Then on 15 December, a headquarters battery clerk wrote in the official battalion "log" that, "our sound outposts reported enemy armor massing along the Schnee Eifel ridge. Unusually heavy enemy patrol activity indicated that the Germans were preparing for a counteroffensive."
Even those of us with poor memories never will forget 16 December. It was the start of the Breakthrough, also known as "the Von Rundstedt business" when the Germans broke through in the Ardennes sector. (Gerd Von Rundstedt was a German Field Marshal who led the German offensive in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge. At the time there was no hindsight to name it as a bulge.-Marilu)
No matter what history says, no matter what we quote from the record, every man in the battalion will have his separate memory of the hectic days of December 1944 and January 1945, when it looked as if the 16th's luck had run out.
But to augment your memories, here are the high spots of the battalion's part in what turned out to be one of the most savage, decisive battles of the war in Europe. Battery reporters, whose accounts follow this section, tell of the "little guy" during this time.
An hour and a half of artillery preparation preceded a large-scale enemy offensive, and the Germans reached the town of AUW at 0900. the Landerfeld and Bransdscheld sound bases of A battery and the winterspelt Base of B Battery went out at 0615 when artillery fire out the lines.. B Battery's Heinerscheld base was pulled out at 1330 when enemy forces began threatening the area.
All units pulled out and began moving toward Behe, Belgium. At the end of the day, when the battalion bivouacked in the woods, nine men were missing from Able Flash.
The 106th Division was surrounded on the Schnee Eifel ridge and its position was critical. the enemy drove towards Bastogne and some corps artillery installations were overrun. Attempts to survey in new sound bases failed, and the battalion withdrew to Langlir Belgium.
Cliff Hope from his book: But first, a brief description of the situation in the VIII Corps area on the morning of 16 December. Allied intelligence had rated the Germans as having no capacity for a counteroffensive anywhere and most especially not in the Ardennes. The front of 88 miles was held by three green or tired infantry divisions, plus part of the inexperienced 9th armored division and the 14th Cavalry Group.
In the area of northern Luxembourg, the the 28th division, decimated by battles in the Huertgen Forest and needing 3,400 replacements, arrived on 19 November. To the south, the 4th division, also weakened in the Huertgen battles and needing as many or more replacements, arrived on 7 December.
To the north of the 28th was the green (inexperienced) 106th Division, which had gone into the line only five days before the Bulge began. It occupied the Schnee Eifel just inside Germany and a part of the West Wall (Siegfried Line). The Eifel area of Germany was an extension of the Ardennes in Belgium and Luxembourg, heavily forested, with many streams and ravines.
A (Able) Battery of the 16th (Lu was in the 16th) was headquartered in Auw, Germany, just west of the Schnee Eifel; it had observation posts on the Eifel. B (Baker) Battery was headquartered in Binsfeld, Luxembourg, to the south with observation posts to the east. Headquarters battery was stationed in the villages of Aldringen and Maldingen, Belgium, Southwest of St. Vith and west of the Schnee Eifel.
Altogether on that Saturday morning in 1944 the VIII Corps had 68,822 officers and men, including us, holding a front three times the length that American military doctrine prescribed for a force of this size.
On 15 December, the battalion after action report stated, "The military situation was unchanged. Our Sound Outposts reported enemy armor massing along the Schnee Eifel ridge. Unusually heavy enemy patrol activity indicated that the Germans were preparing for a counteroffensive." Few of us soldiers knew that on that day, however.
Saturday, 16 December
"The enemy opened a large scale counteroffensive along the Schnee Eifel ridge,
the after action report stated. "The attack was preceded by 1.5 hours of artillery preparation. The enemy reached the town of Auw by 0900.
Going out to survey that morning just west of Schonberg, I was rear rodman. The artillery fire was very heavy. German shells were landing just over the hill from us. Lieutenant Tyler came out shortly after noon to bring us in just as two buzz bombs, one very low, exploded near us. We were told to get all personal equipment ready and loaded into vehicles.
In the meantime, A Battery was ordered to evacuate its installations, and within a couple of hours the convoy began to move toward Maldingen. Colonel Lushene left for VIII Corps Artillery to speak to the general about withdrawing the battalion to a safer position. He returned late in the afternoon. By the end of the day, the after action report recorded, all men in A Battery were accounted for and safe, with the exception of nine men mission from two flash observation posts. (OPs) It was believed that the two crews had been surrounded and captured before they could escape. It was apparent that A Battery also lost a lot of equipment.
Amid reports and rumors, the day of confusion ended in complete bewilderment. The power as off and lights were out. The word had gone around that the 106th Division, nicknamed "the Hungry and Sick." and/or "General Alan Jones' three Ring Circus." had numerous lights on the night before and that the officer of the day (OD) had a flare sent up to inspect the guard. As night fell, our retreating tanks and 155 mm howitzers were massing at road junctions. There were many flashes and much heavy firing all through the night.
It is difficult to describe my feelings that evening. To say "shock and dismay" would be an understatement. I had seen training films on every conceivable subject, I thought, but never one on how to retreat. As noncombat troops, we were sorely unprepared. At least I was. I still had never fired a machine gun. I fired on round on a bazooka at Fort Bragg, and perhaps threw a hand grenade there once. I had not fired a shot at anything since qualifying on the Fort Bragg firing range on the Enfield rifle in 1943 and on the carbine that last spring in the U. S., which seemed so far away in time and space.
Marilu: Lu at least had experience in his younger years hunting with his father, so he might not have felt quite so unprepared for the prospect that faced him and his comrades at this point.
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