Chapter 10 Endnotes
1 The 11th Panzer Division must have been reduced to a mere handful of tanks, for the First Army "collective tank strength" on 15 November totaled 5 Mark IV's, 18 Mark V's, 4 Mark VI's, and 26 assault guns. Army Group G KTB and Anlagen, 15 Nov 44. On 14 November the zith Panzer Division had an effective strength of only 800 men. OB WEST KTB, 14 Nov 44.
2 On 16 Nov Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS Max Simon assumed
command of the XIII SS Corps, relieving Priess, who had been selected for
an armored command in the forthcoming Ardennes counteroffensive. MS #B-412
(Einem).
3 XII Corps Operational Directive No. 38, 17 Nov 44. CCB, 4th Armored Division, was designated as the XII Corps reserve.
5 During the attack at Bourgaltroff four German tanks opened fire on E Company. Sgt. Albert E. McPhee left his already depleted platoon and advanced alone with a bazooka. He hit two of the tanks and forced all four to retire. Sergeant McPhee was awarded the DSC.
6 A subsequent investigation, cited in the 101st Infantry journal, reported eight dead on F Company's last position. Apparently the company had taken cover in some farm buildings, had been blasted out by direct artillery fire at very close range, and then had surrendered en masse.
7 Hist Div Combat Interviews; 101st Inf Jnl, 18 Nov 44.
8 Pfc. Augustine Silva, G Company, 101st Infantry, on this day killed the entire crew of a German tank with only hand grenades and his rifle. He received the DSC. Cpl. John L. Farrell, aid man with the last Infantry, also was awarded the DSC for the rescue, under fire, of a wounded officer. Corporal Farrell himself was wounded in reaching the officer.
9 Hist Div Combat Interviews; WDGO No. 109 (1945). In recognition of its performance in the fighting between 18 and 21 November the 3d Battalion of the 101st was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation.
10 26th Div AAR, 19 Nov 44; A Bn jnl, 19 Nov 44; 26th Div G-2 jnl; 2d Cav GP S-3 Rpt, 20 Nov 44; 328th Inf AAR, 20 Nov 44.
13 104th Inf Jnl, 21 Nov 44. The reports on this action are confused: the 26th Division After Action Report even cites "the well co-ordinated maneuver and heavy artillery concentration" as notable.
14 During this action a platoon from L Company, led by 2d Lt. Howard E. Myerle, was immobilized by heavy fire and could not evacuate its large number of wounded. Lieutenant Myerle, although painfully wounded himself, ran forward alone and killed a German machine gun crew that had brought the platoon under direct fire. He received the DSC.
15 The American pressure on Albestroff diverted the attention of the German defenders and allowed nearly all the members of the 1st Battalion to escape from the cellars where they had barricaded themselves and return to the 104th lines. During the day about 60 men from A and B Companies got out, followed by 17 men from C Company who had reached the eastern edge of Albestroff. The bulk of the battalion reached the American lines during the night and the following day. In one such withdrawal Sgt. Algy C. Shameklis led most of B Company, which he had taken over two days before when all the company officers had become casualties, out of the village--despite severe wounds suffered when a German tank blew in the walls of a house he and his men were defending. Sergeant Shameklis was awarded the DSC. For executing a successful withdrawal from the eastern edge of the village with his platoon 1st Lt. Michael V. Kravontka, C Company, 104th Infantry, also was awarded the DSC. He had earlier received three severe wounds.
16 For the Albestroff fight see the 104th Infantry journal. See also 26th Div AAR; Hist Div Combat Interviews; and Ltr, Col R. A. Palladino to Hist Div, 20 Sep 47.
17 The increased use of the wood-box mine made detection difficult; in addition the muddy roads allowed the enemy to plant mines in the tracks made by their own vehicles.
18 Operational Directive No. 41. This order apparently was more a statement of ultimate intentions than anything else. At noon on the 20th General Grow warned the corps commander that a "blitz" was out of the question, but added that the armor could keep going by making short envelopments, punching ahead, and using plenty of artillery. Ltr, Gen Grow to Hist Div, 23 Feb 49.
19 Orders for the 25th Cavalry Squadron were changed eight times during the day. 4th Armd Div AAR, 21 Nov 44.
20 Pvt. B. F. Brogdon, E Company, 328th Infantry, was awarded the DSC for bravery in this action. When his squad leader fell Brogdon took charge, although he had been hit in the leg by a shell fragment. He led the squad, all but himself replacements, in the entire fight for the village. Twenty‑eight hours later he was evacuated despite his protests.
21 Sgt Stanley A. Davis, C Company, 328th Infantry, led his
squad in knocking out three machine gun positions. At the third enemy position
he received a severe wound, but refused to be evacuated and died an hour
later--still in action. Sergeant Davis was awarded the DSC posthumously.
22 Hist Div Combat Interviews; 26th Div AAR, 24 and 25 Nov 44.
23 X11 Corps Opns Rpt, Nov 44.
25 4th Armd Div AAR, 23 Nov 44.
27 Hist Div Combat Interviews; 4th Armd CCB AAR, 23 Nov 44.
28 The operations of the Seventh Army will be discussed in detail by Major Hamilton in his forthcoming volume, Southern France and Alsace, of this series.
29 Army Group G KTB and Anlagen for this period. The detailed story of the Panzer Lehr attack is given in MS #D-322 by General Bayerlein.
30 The entire tank complement may not have been employed. An OB WEST situation map dated 25 November gives the Panzer Lehr strength as 33 Mark IV's and 20 Mark V's.
31 Army Group G believed that the XV Corps was so thinly spread that Panzer Lehr could knife through. Also it held that the Third Army and 6th Army Group had no "operational reserves."
32 The telephone journal attached to the Army Group G KTB gives an hourly recital of the difficulties encountered in this move.
33 XV Corps AAR, Annex No. 2, Nov 44.
35 53d Armd Inf JnI, and 8th Tk Bn Jnl, 24 and 25 Nov 44. See also Hist Div Combat Interviews.
36 XV Corps AAR, Annex No. 2, Nov 44.
37 Elements of the 25th Panzer Grenadier Division began to arrive in the Sarre-Union sector on 25 November. Finally, on the night Of 27 November, the balance of the 25th was in the line and Panzer Lehr was relieved. Army Group G KTB and OB WEST situation maps.
38 The 25th Cavalry (-) had completed its move northward between the river and the canal. On 29 November the assault gun troop and the 22d Armored Field Artillery Battalion opened fire on Sarre-Union from the west. Then D Troop essayed a sortic from Harskirchen into Sarre-Union but was repelled. 4th Armcl C-3 Jnl, 29 Nov 44.
40 The A Battalion, I 37th Infantry, subsequently received a Distinguished Unit Citation for this action.
41 Simon, the new XIII SS Corps commander, was worried about Muchlerl's ability to hold and requested that a new unit replace Muehlen's shattered command. The First Army commander agreed to use the 171h SS Panzer Grenadier Division for the relief, but this could not be accomplished before the night of 19 November. MS #B-487 (Simon).
42 6th Armd CCB AAR, 20 Nov 44.
43 2d Bn, 137th Inf, Jnl, 21 Nov 44.
45 Again the fight for observation had turned to the fight for cover. Any village whose houses still had roofs was regarded as a prize. Leyviller had been a German Army installation and offered real shelter. During the attack, Colonel Lagrew, whose combat team was back in the fight after a two-day rest, ordered: "Don't make holes in those beautiful barracks."
46 XII Corps Operational Directive No. 41, 22 Nov 44.
47 CCA had been trying to cross the Nied Allemande but had been held in check by difficulties with bridging, the flooded lowlands, and intense enemy artillery fire.
48 Hist Div Combat Interviews; 35th Div AAR, 23 Nov 44.
49 On 30 November a strong German patrol attacked an outpost of the 86th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 6th Armored Division. Cpl. Jesse V. Davis sent the three men under his command back to alert the main body and remained alone, engaging the enemy with his submachine gun and hand grenades. He continued his lone battle until his ammunition was gone and he was killed. Corporal Davis was awarded the DSC posthumously.
50 Certain units of the 35th Infantry Division, however, were still slogging away. On 27 November A Company of the 320th Infantry fought an action at the little village of Uberkinger which was so successful as to be the subject of special commendation in the After Action Report prepared by the regimental commander just before daylight Capt. Charles W. Bell, the company commander, led his men through a flooded stream that denied access to Uberkinger. As the company approached the village daybreak came, revealing the Americans to the Germans who were deployed outside Uberkinger. Bell's company rushed into the village and took cover in its buildings. Using bazookas, the only antitank weapons available, the American infantry immobilized a Tiger tank which had rolled into the streets and then set it afire with gasoline from a captured German jeep. Next the enemy drove into the village with five tanks and three infantry half-tracks. The American bazooka men went into the streets and onto the housetops and their fire, coupled with that from supporting artillery which was firing on call, drove off the German armored vehicles. In the course of the fight for Uberkinger A Company killed twenty of the enemy and captured fifteen without a single American casualty.
51 35th Div AAR, Nov 44. The 35th Division had a moderate number of trench foot cases as compared with the 26th Division and 80th Division. The X11 Corps Operations Report for November 1944 lists 436 such casualties.
53 MS #B-487 (Simon); MS #13-223 (Wellm).
54 Ltr, Maj Gen Horace McBride to Hist Div, 22 Oct 46. The Third Army orders had specified that the 8oth Division would contain Faulquemont. See also 80th Div FO No.15.
55 Elements of the 6th Armored reserve had remained in position between the 5th and 80th Divisions. "The 75‑mm. tank howitzers only chipped the concrete, but the armor‑piercing shells fired by the go‑mm. tank destroyers went straight through six feet of reinforced concrete. Hist Div Combat Interviews.
56 The 75-mm. tank howitzers only chipped the concrete, but the armor-piercing shells fired by the 90-mm. tank destroyers went straight through six feet of reinforced concrete. Hist Div Combat Interviews.
58 During this advance Sgt. Glen M. Stouder, E Company, 319th Infantry in a singlehanded and successful attack cleared the enemy from a house which offered the only cover for his men, who were deployed in the open under intense fire. The DSC was awarded to Sergeant Stouder.
59 The German withdrawal east of St. Avoid allowed CCA, 6th Armored Division, to drive forward on the right of the 8oth. As a result General Grow was able for the first time to align both combat commands of the 6th Armored Division facing eastward.
60 The Germans had planted time bombs in St. Avoid. About 1730 On 3 December one of the time bombs exploded in a building occupied by the staff of the 633d Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion. Four officers and eighteen men were killed; some thirty were injured. Within the next hour four other explosions occurred, but all troops had been ordered out into the streets and so escaped injury. Ironically enough, St. Avoid had been designated as a "rest area" for the 8oth Division.
61 Hist Div Combat interviews; 317th Inf jnl, 28 and 29 Nov 44; 80th Div C-3 jnl, 29 Nov 44.
62 Cpl. Thomas W. Pettengill, an aid man with 317th Infantry, was awarded the DSC for his courage in caring for the American casualties under very heavy fire, despite the fact that he was himself suffering from a painful wound.
64 First Army status report, 28 Nov 944, in OB WEST KTB.
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Last updated 12 October 2004 |