Battalion History
The enemy offensive continued with increasing intensity on the 19th. The log reported, "the picture still was rather obscure, " and thus recorded another masterpiece of understatement.
The battalion moved, in the late afternoon, to Champlon, Belgium. When enemy armor was reported driving on the town and shooting up supply columns, road blocks were set up, and a perimeter defense was established. We had not only our own skins to worry about, but had the added headache of defending corps artillery headquarters which also was in Champlon.
"The morale of the personnel was very high and they were anxiously looking forward to a clash with the enemy. However, the battalion was ordered to withdraw early the following day before contact with hostile forces could be made." Well that's strictly what you call 'whistling in the dark' stuff. 'The little guy' was scared and didn't give a damn who knew it.
The battalion moved again to Bende, Belgium, then to Neuvillers, Belgium, and Matton, France. Units of the III Corps, Third Army, launched a counter offensive to reach the isolated units still holding at Bastogne. Solange, Belgium was reached by the battalion after a blackout drive, and the unit was attached to III Corps.
Cliff Hope from his book:
Tuesday, 19 December
We spent all day in the woods. The enemy offensive continued with increasing intensity but details were obscure. There was nothing we were sure about. After being on road guard for two hours, I left with the others at dark for Champlon. Champlon was a small village a short distance southeast of the woods where we spent the night. It was just east of the important road junction where the Bastogne-Marche and La Roche-St. Hubert highways intersected. We stopped at a nice house with a wonderful family and were just getting ready to drink chocolate and clean up when all of us in Party Two were called to form a road block east of town. Bruno, who was left behind on KP told us the family stayed up all night, and the woman cried at our leaving.
Enemy armor was reported to be driving on Champlon. In addition to the road blocks, the battalion set up a perimeter defense for security consisting of bazooka teams and machine guns placed at strategic intersections. The mission was to provide security for corps artillery headquarters, also located at Champlon. I took a bazooka position to the left of a side road, watching from 10 p.m. to midnight and 2 to 4 a.m., sleeping, after a fashion, in blankets on the ground nearby in shifts. It was chilly and damp. All through the night the enemy was reported to be drawing closer.
Unlike much of the area, the terrain on either side of our road block was open, bare field. There was no snow but the ground was frozen. We tried to dig slit trenches (foxholes) of sorts with picks and shovels. It was a futile effort, because several inches below the surface we hit a shale-like formation. The picks hitting the shale all across the field sounded a lot like the "Anvil Chorus," I thought.
During the preceding months our bazooka rockets, encased in cardboard cylinders lay on the floor of the weapons carrier. We stepped on the cases often as we jumped in or our the back end of the vehicle. As I sat there in the open field holding a bazooka, I wondered if the thing would misfire and blow up, taking me with it. That could have been spectacular -- I had hand grenades attached to my jacket. Rumor had it that we were awaiting the arrival of the 1st SS Panzer Division and perhaps the Kamfgruppe Peiper. Not a happy thought. Later we learned that those thugs were still to the northeast, west of Malmedy at the north edge of the Bulge. However, the 2nd SS Panzer Division, the Das Reich Division, was in our general area. It was as tough as the 1st.
Not everyone in our outfit was on duty that night. Word got around about an officer of our battalion who was found, bottle in hand, drunk in the bell tower of the church. It took four men to bring him down.
Comments
Post a Comment