CHAPTER IV
January 7 we left this last defensive position and headed in deep secrecy for Luxembourg. The
94th Division took over our positions. In making this move we had been transferred to the 3rd Corps,
headed for the Ardennes Salient, in the vicinity of Lufange, Luxembourg, southeast of Bastogne. Our
long trip carried us through Koenigsmacher, across the Moselle, Luxembourg City, Longwy, Grosbous
and Eschdorf. The cold, bone chilling ride that covered part of the country we had previously fought
through. We passed positions where our guns had been and the ammo boxes and piles of dirt just as we
had left it. We crossed over the Moselle from Koenigsmacher to Cattenom, the bridge that had taken so
much backbreaking, heartbreaking effort. One man expressed the feeling of many when he observed:
“Hell this is a damned retreat.” But we knew that up toward Bastogne there was this scrap and we were
to be a part of it. So we moved through fine rain, snow and sleet, into the valleys and hills and the great
Forests of Luxembourg.
Luxembourg City was a site for our country sated eyes. Homes, stores, autos, movie houses
public conveyances, all added up to a welcome – if only momentary – change. The city had a Christmas
Garden appearance with its oddly shaped houses, sharply angled roofs, chimney pots and fenced lawns
and yards, now blanketed by snow.
Snow and high winds combined to make our days more uncomfortable than usual. A tremendous
amount of artillery was in this area and we were told our Corps mission was to eliminate the German
Salient southeast of Bastogne with the 26th Infantry smashing forward under terrible conditions; wind,
snow, steep hills, slippery ice coated roads, which all gave mute testimony to the tenacity and fighting
ability of the infantryman of our division. The 90th and the 35th were rapidly forming a pocket, and the
Germans were frantically trying to escape.
From Bavigne we moved to Tarchamps, one of the towns. We had been pounding for several
days we remained here four days firing, heavily, on a variety of targets, one a tremendous concentration
on the village of Niederwampach. Our fire direction massed fourteen battalions on this target and after
this bombing from the ground, the infantry moved in and took the town and the Jerries prisoner without
loss to themselves. The Germans, stunned and bewildered, never had a chance to defend, much less to
attack, our onrushing doughboys.
The 17th we march ordered to Bras, Belgium – this had been a town, but the Air Corps and
artillery had reduced it to a pile of rubble, and the few houses that did remain were mere skeletons that
mocked the efforts of those who tried to use them as shelters. Dead Germans, sprawled in twisted and
grotesque heaps, were well refrigerated by the intense cold and snow – "when the thaws and warmer
weather comes the stench will demoralize even the strongest stomach". While here the Germans
through counterattack after counterattack at our infantry who were in the town of Oberwampach. During
this period we fired a total of 7738 rounds at the tanks and infantry that tried to drive us from this hard-
won sector. This was the largest expenditure of ammo since Normandy. Our 100,000th round was fired
here.
After the bitter fighting of the past few days we advanced into battered towns which it cost much
to take and hold. At Chimpach we found 12 German 75's in position with their sights still mounted,
aiming stakes out, ammo laid neatly in rows ready to fire. Several of the guns had thermite grenades in
their breaches, but the others had been abandoned before they could be destroyed.
 |
 |
 |