Paths of Armor

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Foreword

The Fifth Armored Division's record of achievement is unsurpassed by that of any other division. And the ratio of its casualties to such achievement is the lowest in the entire United States Army.

It was the Fifth Armored which devised the married formation of tanks and infantry; it led the Normandy break through; it sprang the Falaise trap which meant the death of the Seventh German Army and the Field Marshal who commanded it. The Fifth Armored was the first division to reach the Eure River, the Seine, and the Our; it cut off near Mons thousands of Germans, later taken by the 1st Infantry Division. In one incredible day, it crossed the stubborn battlefields of World War I and outraced fleeing Germans from Nyon to the Belgian frontier. Throughout that day the route of its advance was a roll call of past battles:

Cambrai, Le Cateau, St. Quentin, Vimy Ridge, Valenciennes.

The Victory Division was the first to enter Germany. It breached the Siegfried Line early in September, while other parts of our armies were still demonstrating before it, or skirmishing within it. The Fifth Armored cleared the Hurtgen Forest, after the job had been begun by five infantry divisions. In four days it overran its given area of the Rhineland. Three weeks later, within a few hours after crossing the Rhine, its engineers were maintaining bridges at Hamelin where:

The River Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its wall on
The southern side;

A few days later the division was on the Elbe, with bridge sites chosen and reconnaissance parties in boats--nearer to Berlin than any combat group in the American Army. While the Fifth Armored was accomplishing these feats, the American public heard little about the division because of the tight censorship under which it operated and because it did not possess an elaborate public relations staff. This history is now published to cast some light on these outstanding achievements. It tells how they were accomplished. It is also published as a tribute to the division's Commanding General, Major-General Lunsford E. Oliver (now retired). The record of the division, we all agree, merely reflects his wise, patient, intelligent and always aggressive leadership. It is only borrowing a phrase from the greatest of Books to say that General Oliver created the division in his own image.

No foreword would be complete without a word of appreciation; first and foremost to Vic Hillery and Major Emerson F. Hurley, without whose efforts, over 30 months' time, this history could not have been written at all. Lon MacFarland, Dave Batey, Bill Daniel all spent a great deal of time getting it published. Lt. Col. Fred E. Ressegieu and Harry Entrekin helped very much and Erling Foss took many of the photographs used. And probably most harassed of all was Lou Filas, our Association Secretary, who had to type, retype, edit, and re-edit the script, to decipher strange hands, and never once lost his good humor in doing so.

In the name of and on behalf of the Fifth Armored Division Association we thank them all; and we thank all of you who contributed source material in the form of letters, stories and whose actions we have been writing about.

We hope you like the book.

Martin Philipsborn, Jr,
(President, 5th Armored Division Association (1948-1949)

Contents:

Foreword

A Message From General Oliver

I. A Star Is Born .................1
II. What's In A Name ...................3
III. Between The Flower Beds And The Sea ......6
IV. Wind, Sand And Sun ................9
V. The Man From North Africa ..............13
VI. Preview In Tennessee ..............25
VII. Pine Needles, Snow And Apples ........28
VIII. Would You Still Be My Darling .......33
IX. Over There .....................37
X. A Military Wedding .................43
XI. Vive La France ................45
XII. The Sickle ...................56
XIII. In The Distance The Eiffel Tower ....68
XIV. All Is Kaput .................99
XV. Corridor Through The Siegfried Line .......114
XVI. Wet Autumn ..................152
XVII. The Days Before Christmas ..........156
XVIII. Snow Battle ...............219
XIX. Through The Cabbage Fields ..........223
XX. Across The Heart Land ............253
XXI. The Last Fight ..............311

Division Staff And Unit Commanders ...........327

Citations .....................348

Photographic Sections

Tennessee And Desert Maneuvers ..............17
Normandy to the Seine ......................81
Northern France And Luxembourg ................129
Hurtgen Forest And The Bulge ..................193
Roer To The Rhine ..........................241
Rhine To The Elbe ..........................281

A Message from General Oliver

This is the story of the Fifth Armored Division; the division which led in the drive that created the Falaise pocket, which was the first of all the Allied units to set foot on German soil and to pierce the Siegfried Line, which in the closing days of the war went out a hundred miles in front of the supporting infantry and fought its way to the Elbe River, closer to Berlin than any other Allied unit, and which was stopped there, not by the Germans, but by order from Ninth Army. Necessarily there can be mentioned in this story only a few of the many acts of heroism which made this record possible. The long months of training for the task ahead, the drudgery, the endurance of cold and wet and fatigue, that contributed to this record could not possibly be adequately portrayed. To have participated with you, men of the Fifth Armored Division, in all these things has been the greatest privilege of my life.

It is my hope that in the years to come the same spirit which drove you onward to your achievements in this war will cause you to take the lead in your communities in doing everything possible to make our country a better place in which to live, and to improve our international relations and prevent future wars, so that our heroic dead shall not have died in vain.

Lusford E. Oliver
Major General, Commanding

Maj. General Oliver

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Chapter I
A Star Is Born
It Was 1 October 1941.

On Europe's Eastern Front Wehrmacht forces under Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt broke through the Red Army's primary defenses as the Germans concluded the first week of their offensive against the Crimea. North and east of Dniepropetrovsk, on the line toward the industrial Donets River basin, German armored divisions captured several Russian batteries, destroyed 45 of their tanks and encircled four Soviet infantry divisions.

In England inhabitants of Newcastle dug the dead and wounded from the rubble of the still smoldering buildings that has been crushed and burned by a devastating Luftwaffe attack during the previous night.

On the red clay wasteland of Kentucky's Fort Knox, far from all this clash and smoke of battle, a group of soldiers lined up and came to attention. Some were regular U. S. Army men, others 12-month selectees, others active-duty reserve officers. They had been gathering here in tent city all during the previous month of September. Now their numbers were sufficiently great officially to form the nucleus of an army division.

This was activation day of the Fifth Armored Division. Appointed to command the new group was an officer from the Armored Force Replacement Center. He was Brig. Gen. Jack W. Heard (later promoted to Major General).

In his address to these assembled soldiers General Heard declared that this division would have a brilliant future. It seemed a rather rash and optimistic prediction. For if this division ever did come to grips with the enemy its battle opponents would be these Wehrmacht units which even then were already battle-seasoned and were winning brilliant engagements on the Eastern Front. Certainly it would be an exceptional accomplishment if this Fifth Armored Division even succeeded in holding its ground in any future encounter with any one of these German units.

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But the Fifth Armored Division was destined to have a brilliant future. It was destined to meet these crack German panzer divisions in battle, and it would smash them. It was destined to carve out, on Europe's battlefields, one of the most brilliant combat records of any U. S. division in World War II. These are some of the battle laurels which the Fifth Armored wears:

It lead the encircling movement in France which swung in back of the German Seventh Army and snapped shut the trap on this enemy force at the Falaise Gap;

It was the first division to reach the Seine River;
It was one of the first divisions to enter Belgium;
It was the first division to reach Luxembourg;
It was the first division to fight on German soil;
It was the first division to plunge through the Siegfried Line;
It was the American division, which, after the thrust across the German heartland, lay closest to Berlin; it was halted on the west bank of the Elbe River, 45 miles from the enemy capital, not by the Germans but by orders from SHAEF.

And although it amassed this impressive record of combat accomplishments, the Fifth Armored came through the war with a casualty rate that was among the lowest of all U. S. battle-scarred divisions. This attests to the speed and efficiency with which it executed its assigned missions; the excellence of its staff work and the hardiness of its soldiers. It also attests the genius of its leader, Major General Lunsford E. Oliver, who, two years after the close of hostilities, was to be told by his officers and men that "no division had a more beloved leader."

But it also has been the fate of the Fifth Armored to have its deeds little known. Because it was always in the vanguard, the division's identity was kept well concealed under such anonymous tags as: "Patton's ghost troops," or "First Army armored wedge," or "Ninth Army spearhead." And when much later the layers of censorship were finally rolled back and announcement was made of the division's 'accomplishments, the headlines were busy with much more immediate events. Therefore, this story is told so that others may know and Fifth Armored veterans may not soon forget.

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Chapter II
What's In A Name
Fort Knox
1 October 1941--10 February 1942

Just as Wellington traced the successes of British troops to the playing fields of Eton, the Fifth Armored's victories in Europe had their roots in the sands of the Mojave, the mud of Tennessee and the snows of upstate New York. It was a difficult and torturous path which the division had to follow before it reached the field of battle. It spent 34 months and traveled thousands of miles preparing to meet the enemy.

The first four months of the division's life were spent at its birthplace, Ft. Knox. Here, too, it was given its name even before it was formally activated. On 10 September 1941 it was decided to call the Fifth Armored the "Victory Division." It was a name which proved to be exceptionally appropriate, for three years and one day after it was adopted, the division led the victorious Allied ground forces into Germany.

The name was suggested by Pvt. Sidney Huttner, Battery B, 58^th Field Artillery Bn. (armd). In an explanatory piece which he submitted with the suggested name, Pvt. Huttner pointed out that the Roman numeral equivalent for the Fifth Armored was V and that this symbol was then being used by the peoples of Europe's Nazi-occupied countries to express their faith in the ultimate victory over the enemy. Pvt. Huttner wrote this piece on 7 September 1941 while en route to Ft. Knox. For his effort he was rewarded with a furlough.

Members of the fledgling division began knuckling down to the grim and monotonous and sometimes interesting business of learning how to fight a war. There were hundreds of individual jobs that had to be learned, everything from cooking to taking apart tank motors. There was the ever-present close order drill with its annoying insistence on complete uniformity of dress. And there

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were dirty jobs to be done: washing dishes, cleaning latrines, loading trucks, firing stoves, hauling ashes.

On 10 October 1941 the division received its first medium tanks when five N-3's were driven into the 81st motor park.

On 27 October it was assigned its first mission: to guard the gold bullion deposited in vaults at Ft. Knox by the U. S. government. The initial alert platoon given the job came from the 85th Reconnaissance Battalion and was commanded by 1st Lt. John P. Gerald, later, as a Major, killed in action near the German border.

On 11 November the division made its first public appearance when artillery, infantry and engineer units paraded with other Ft. Knox units through the streets of Louisville in an Armistice Day celebration .

When the declaration of war on Germany came 11 December 1941 the training pace was quickened. And plans were rushed to move the division to its new station, Camp Cooke, California.

Originally the Fifth Armored had been activated as a heavy armored division. It consisted of three tank regiments, a brigade headquarters, an artillery regiment, an artillery battalion, an infantry regiment, a reconnaissance battalion and an engineer battalion.

But on 1 January 1942 the division's organization was completely revamped. Of the original three tank regiments, 81st (medium tanks), 34th (light tanks), and 31st (light tanks), it was decided to inactivate the 31st; the other two regiments dropped their light and medium designations and instead each was given one light tank battalion, and two "medium" battalions. No "heavy" tanks were seen throughout the war.

The 46th Armored Infantry Regiment, which originally had two battalions, was assigned another. The division's brigade headquarters gave way to two combat command headquarters.

Other units inactivated were the 21st Ordnance and 19^th Quartermaster Battalion. In their place appeared the Maintenance Battalion, Supply Battalion and Train Headquarters and Headquarters Co.

The 65th Field Artillery Regiment was changed to a battalion and the 95th Artillery Battalion was formed. The 58th Artillery

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Battalion remained unchanged. The 85th Reconnaissance and 22nd Engineer Battalions also remained unchanged.

After the reshuffling had been completed, the division settled down for another cold month of training. Then in the second week of February orders went out for the Fifth Armored members to pack up their equipment. With their horseshoe rolls on their backs they marched off to the railroad station. But not everyone went west. Just as the Fifth had been formed from cadres supplied by the Third and Fourth Armored Divisions, it left behind a cadre for the Eighth Armored Division.

As the California-bound train pulled away from the red clay wasteland there were few regrets among the Fifth Armored men. Behind them they left some medium and old "Mae West" light tanks, the mud, the tents, the stoves, and the fire shovels.

The Fifth Armored's first Chief of Staff at Ft. Knox was Col. John B. Wogan; he later became a major general and commanded the 13th Armored Division.

Brigade Commander at Ft. Knox was Brig. Gen. John S. Wood, who joined the division on 1 December 1941.

First commanders of the 81st and 34th were Col. Vernon Evans and Col. Robert W. Grow, respectively; both became major generals later in the war.

First commander of the 31st were first Col. Guy W. Chipman and Col. Sereno E. Brett.

First commander of the 46th was Lt. Col. John H. Ringe; Col. Floyd W. Waltz arrived late in January and took the regiment to Camp Cooke.

First commander of the 65th was Lt. Col. J. J. B. Williams; Lt. Col. Harold W. Blakely assumed command on 18 October.

First commander of the 58th was Major John G. Howard; Lt. Col. Samuel V. Krauthoff was first commander of the 95th.

First commanders of the 85th and 22nd were Lt. Col. Frank A. Alien, Jr., and Major Reginald L. Dean, respectively.

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Chapter III
Between The Flower Beds And The Sea
Camp Cooke, California
15 February 1942--1 August 1942

CAMP COOKE, CALIFORNIA, is literally a garden spot. It borders the multicolored Lompoc and Santa Maria Valleys, which are the greatest flower seed-growing areas in the United States. But actually the camp is no bed of roses.

Located high above these valleys on a mesa that juts out into the Pacific, the military reservation is swept by high winds and frequently is engulfed in blankets of dripping fog. While its colorful neighboring valleys glow with rows of sweet peas, larkspur, nasturtiums, zinnias and other blooms, the camp's uncleared areas are covered with sage brush. Where this brush has been cut away the surface is either sand or cream-colored diatomaceous earth. There are also rows of tall stately eucalyptus trees, which were planted when the reservation was still a ranch to shield it from some of the winds off the sea.

The camp's military structures are set back about a mile from the reservation's eight-mile coast line. These buildings were all new when the Fifth Armored made its home here in February. The veterans of Ft. Knox's Tent City were happy to find oil-heated barracks, modern kitchens and elaborate motor parks.

Even before it was out of its steel diapers the Victory Division began to feel the war's hot breath. Before the California-bound soldiers had left Ft. Knox they had been issued several .50 caliber machine guns. Anti-aircraft Plan A had been ready to go into effect during the trip if the Jap should strafe the train. Gun crews had been prepared to rush these ground mount fifties out of the cars and start blazing away at the enemy planes. During the five-day trip "old timers" taught the rest of the soldiers how to field strip these machine guns.

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On 24 February, just nine days after the division arrived at its new home by the sea, a Japanese submarine surfaced about 10 miles north of Santa Barbara and started lobbing shells into the Elwood oil fields. At Camp Cooke, about 55 miles north of this spot, the 22nd Engineers (which was the "Alert Battalion" that night) sent patrols to the beaches. The remainder of the division stood by for action, But that night there was no further enemy activity. The following night word was received that unidentified planes had been fired on by coastal anti-aircraft batteries at Long Beach and the camp had its first blackout.

During March olive drab was painted over the bright yellow exteriors of all the camp's buildings. And the glass in all the windows facing the sea was painted over.

Many "vacate camp alerts" were issued by the Western Defense Command during the division's early months at Camp Cooke. Frequently they came in the middle of the night. Fifth Armored men had to haul their equipment to the motor parks, load up the tanks and halftracks and head out on a 15 or 20 mile motor march.

While the Japanese fleet was maneuvering in the North Pacific during the last week in May, the Fifth Armored was on special alert status. The division, less Combat Command A, occupied the reservation's coastline and made plans to counterattack any enemy landings. CC A, under the command of General Wood, moved to Alondra Park on the southern edge of Los Angeles. It's mission here was to repulse any enemy paratroop landings near the plane factories and the Airports. When the Battle of Midway started the alert was ended.

Despite these numerous alerts the division continued its basic training according to the original schedule mapped out by the War Department Mobilization Program. In March over 9,000 men had arrived at Camp Cooke to fill out the armored skeleton which had been formed at Ft. Knox. These men had come straight from induction centers, mostly midwest centers, such as Camp Grant and Ft. Sheridan, Ill., and Ft. Snelling, Minn. But there had also been big contingents from other states, such as Ft. Dix, N.J., and Ft. Bliss, Texas. These men were given the regular 13 weeks of basic training and then six weeks of specialized training.

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In the individual alerts and exercises that required participation of the entire division, flexibility in the attacking formation was becoming popular. The division commander combined his tactical units in whatever type of striking force he thought could best meet the individual "enemy" situations. He massed his tanks in a simple powerful steamroller force, or employed all the infantry units in the traditional type of attack force, or formed combination tank-infantry battalion teams. This last formation was a forerunner of the even greater tank-infantry integration which the division would achieve by the time it reached actual combat. Then it would have "married" tank-infantry companies that proved so devastating to enemy forces.

While still at Camp Cooke the division also started developing the combat command type of tactical headquarters. CC A was first commanded by Brig. Gen. Wood and later, by Brig. Gen. Harold W. Blakely, CC B's first commander was Brig. Gen. Serene E. Brett. CC A's tactical units included: the 34th Armored Regiment, 71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and the 1st Battalion of the 46th Armored Infantry Regiment. CC B's organization consisted of: the 81st Armored Regiment, 47^th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, and the 2nd Battalion of the 46th. The remainder of the units formed what was known as the Division Reserve.

By mid-summer the Fifth Armored was beginning to shape up as a fighting force. On 1 August 1942 its strength was 15,000 men.

But America's armies were continuing to expand and the division was again called upon to contribute some of its strength to the formation of still another armored division. In August many of the soldiers who had started with the division at Ft. Knox packed up and departed for Camp Beal, California, as a cadre for the 13th Armored Division.

Orders went out for the rest of the division to pack up, too. During the first week of August it rolled its tanks and halftracks onto railway flat cars and blocked them in place. Then while part of the personnel mounted the trains, the rest climbed into wheel vehicles and started on a 250-mile overland journey. Their destination was a hot spot on God's scorched acres bounded by Needles, Blythe, and Desert Center in California's Mojave Desert.

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Chapter IV
Wind, Sand And Sun

The Mojave Desert
August to December 1942

In the Mojave Desert the Fifth Armored received nature's Baptism of Fire. Here in this hot dry basin at the height of summer the sun's uninterrupted rays beat down with an intensity that drove the temperature as high as 130 degrees. Men had to swallow several salt tablets each day to keep from losing consciousness. They had to keep their heads covered or quickly become victims of sun stroke.

During the first three weeks in this inferno no heavy work was permitted from ten to two each day. Men lay panting under their shelter halfs hoping the evening would come quickly. And then when darkness with its cooling relief did come, they lay behind their netting wondering about the rattlesnakes, tarantulas and scorpions which holed up during the heat of the day and crawled around at night.

Usually a death-like stillness prevailed in these vast open expanses with only the heat waves rising from the hot sand. But often this stillness was broken by the violence of an electrically charged wind storm which would rage across the desert floor churning the sand into choking clouds and ripping the shelter halfs and other canvases from their moorings.

By the end of August the heat had abated slightly and men had become somewhat acclimated to the hot dry atmosphere. Then the actual maneuvers began. And as the huge fleets of tanks, halftracks and trucks moved out over the open wastes they stirred up billows of dust which became a serious problem for both men and machines. The men clapped dust respirators or handkerchiefs over their mouths and nostrils. Over their eyes they wore goggles. In the diesel tanks the dust packed between the clutch plates so that shifting became almost impossible. Oil in air cleaners had

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to be changed daily, otherwise the dust got into the motors and would scar the piston walls.

While members of the Fifth Armored battled the heat, dust and the "enemy", their thoughts often strayed to another desert. In the North African desert one of the war's crucial campaigns was being fought. There the British 8th Army was starting its long drive to push Rommel's panzer forces back from the gates of Egypt. Victory Division men wondered if they were being trained to fight eventually on this North African desert. Their interest was heightened in this engagement on the other side of the world when five soldiers who had just returned from a nine-week stay in the North African theater joined the Fifth Armored on 20 September.

These tankers had been sent to Egypt from the Ft. Knox Armored Force Replacement Center. Attached to the British forces, they had manned American tanks which were under enemy fire for eight days. They had participated in a three-day engagement with German tanks and had been bombed by enemy planes. These soldiers and the Fifth Armored units which they joined were: Cpl. William E. Grove, 85th; T/5 Benjamin F. Folsom, Hq. CC B; T/5 William E. Malpede, Hq. CC A; Pfc. John Aspesi, 34th; and Pvt. John Sullivan, 81st.

As thick as the dust clouds throughout the maneuvers were, the rumors that the division at any moment would be shipped to that other desert. For some members of the Fifth Armored these rumors proved to be true. In September two artillery battalions, the 58th and 65th, quietly withdrew from the maneuvers and from the division. The 58th arrived at Casablanca 11 November 1942 and fought in North Africa and Sicily. At the time it left the Mojave this battalion was commanded by Lt. Col. Bernard W. McQuade, who later was killed on "D" Day during the invasion of Normandy. After the 65th, under the command of Capt. Edward A. Bailey, left the division it did not go immediately overseas. It remained in the desert for several weeks and arrived in Casablanca 26 January 1943. It, too, fought in North Africa and Sicily.

The withdrawal of these battalions from the Fifth Armored did not leave the division short of artillery units for the remainder

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of the maneuvers. On 10 Septembers two more artillery battalions arrived from Ft. Sill. They were: the 71st, commanded by Lt, Col. I. B. Washburn, and the 47th, commanded by Lt. Col. Harvey K. Palmer. They had been Artillery school troops and were already familiar with marking base points and firing for effect.

The Fifth Armored's actual tactical maneuvers in the Mojave consisted of eight field problems. Each was from four to six days long, followed by a rest and maintenance period. The enemy, always far superior, was represented sometimes by other troops. On the broad expanses between the jagged ridges General Heard, the cavalryman, had an opportunity to employ all the trickery and deception of an armored division in corps operation. During one problem the 85th was sent off 20 miles to one flank to stir up a large column of dust. This drew the enemy reserves out of position. And then the 81st and 34th concentrated on a narrow front to crash through and "destroy" the enemy.

During the final problem the "red" enemy forces consisted of the battle-ready 3rd Armored Division. And it fell victim to the Fifth Armored's chicanery. A Fifth Armored Company commander called over the "enemy" radio channel to come over to the corral near the highway for gasoline. The "red" tank battalion innocently assembled in the face of the Fifth Armored's massed tanks and anti-tank guns to be "destroyed."

Later in the same problem, however, the Third Armored retaliated for this ruse. An "enemy" liaison group managed to capture a Fifth Armored task force commander by boldly walking up to a headquarters sentry and asking him, "Which way to Colonel Boyer's Command Post?" The "enemy" party was escorted right into the blackout C P tent.

The tactical details of the desert warfare, as portrayed by the long arrows and the pincer operations on the acetate-covered maps never quite filtered down to the average soldier to permit him to visualize the "routed enemy's burning columns and his overrun positions." But the training nevertheless was valuable to all members of the division. By November all crew members were qualified drivers. Tank maintenance crews thoroughly learned their jobs by keeping vehicles rolling through the knee-deep dust

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and the endless miles of sand. The driving experience enabled the division's motor columns to move like clockwork. And each man had become an experienced individual cook and could live alone in the field.

Over 100 newly-commissioned officers from the Armored Force School and the Infantry School joined the Fifth Armored during the maneuvers. These lieutenants later became the company commanders and unit staff officers when the division made history in Europe.

At the conclusion of the maneuvers the division assembled near the little city of Needles. This community on the Colorado River is the oldest city on the desert. Here the division spent a month waiting for transportation back to Camp Cooke and repairing the damages done to the vehicles during the three-month grind through the sand.

Then, during the final week of November, the division left this scene of its play war, where there had been also a few real casualties.

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Chapter V
The Man From North Africa
Camp Cooke, California
December, 1942--March, 1943

When the Fifth Armored came out of the hot crucible of the sun and journeyed back up the California coast, the tanned soldiers viewed Camp Cooke in a new light. They had a new appreciation for its plumbing, mattresses and mess halls. They decided it was not such a bad place after all.

After shaking the sand from their clothes and equipment, they settled down to more rehearsing for battle. They concentrated on combat firing and platoon and company problems. The artillery battalions received new M7's and used the range south of the Santa Ynez River. Tank and infantry battalions fired into the ocean from the sandy hills of Tangair Range, which extended from Port Petrol south to the river. Bushes on the range became enemy machine guns and were blasted with tank shells and hand grenades.

Training was as realistic as possible. Tank battalions buttoned up and fired at each other with .30 caliber ammunition. Infantry dug in and listened to artillery shells whistle overhead and explode 600 yards to the front. The 85th reconnoitered half the state of California. And the 22nd threw bridges across the Santa Ynez River and laid mine fields all over the reservation.

During January and February all platoons of the division were tested for combat efficiency. General Blakely examined the tank platoons while testing of the infantry platoons was conducted by Brig. Gen. Eugene A. Regnier, who had joined the Fifth in December, and had succeeded General Brett as the commander of CC B.

During this post-desert period members of the division were also enjoying their first furloughs. These first trips as soldiers back to the homes they had left as civilians were strange and memorable experiences.

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Then one day in early March everyone put on his o.d.'s and field jacket, lined up and marched down to the field house. Here a tall, lean-cheeked, gray-haired soldier was introduced as the Fifth Armored's new commander. He was Major General Lunsford E. Oliver. There was a tan on his face but it had not been acquired in the Mojave sun. He had just returned from North Africa where he had led the First Armored's Combat Command B in the American forces invasion of that continent. General Oliver described the fighting on North African battlefields where American units had, for the first time in this war, encountered the German Wehrmacht. And as the assembled soldiers listened intently to his grim words they realized that the war was far from won, that much difficult and bloody fighting lay ahead, and that the Fifth Armored would play an important role in this tremendous military effort.

Many changes in commanders were made during the 13 months on the west coast. Gen. Wood left the division in June to command the Fourth Armored Division and Gen. Blakely became the new CC A commander. Col. Roy L. Dalferes joined in November to become the Division Artillery Officer. Gen. Regnier arrived in December to succeed Gen. Brett as commander of CC B.

Col. John T. Cole arrived in September to command the 81st Armored Regiment. Among the battalion commanders were: 1st Bn., Lt. Col. Littleton A. Roberts, Maj. William R. Kirchner, Lt. Col. Joel B. Stratton, and Lt. Col. Moderwell K. Salem; 2nd Bn., Maj. Jesse M. Hawkins, Jr., Maj. LeRoy H. Anderson; 3rd Bn., Maj. Robert P. Smith, Jr., Maj. Richard W. Ripple.

The 34th Armored Regiment commanders were: Col. Frank A. Allen, Jr., Lt. Col. Thomas W. Roane, and Col. Emerick Kutschko. Among Battalion commanders were: 1st Bn., Lt, Col, Horace W, Forester, Lt. Col. Halbert H, Neilson, Lt. Col. Charles E, Morrison and Maj. Luther L. Willard; 2nd Bn., Maj. Clyde A. Burcham, Lt. Col. Gustavus W. West, and Lt. Col. Richard H. Jones; 3rd Bn., Lt. Col. Paul C. Febiger, Maj. Joseph J. Baker, Maj. Thomas H. Dowd, and Maj. William A. Hamberg.

During desert maneuvers Col. Harry L. Reeder succeeded Col. Waltz as commander of the 46th Armored Infantry Regiment before Col. Glen H. Anderson arrived to become the permanent commander. Battalion commanders included: 1st Bn., Lt. Col. Howard E. Boyer; 2nd Bn., Lt. Col. Earl S. Gibson; 3rd Bn., Capt. William H. Burton, and Lt. Col. Edgar A. Gans.

The 95th Field Artillery Battalion was commanded by Maj. Malcolm K. Benadum, Maj. LeCount H. Slocum, and Maj. Daniel H. Heyne. In December, Lt. Col. James W. McNeer joined the battalion and remained as the commander throughout the war.

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Successive commanders of the 85th Reconnaissance Battalion were: Lt. Col. Thomas G. Dobyns, Maj. Wayne J. Dunn, Lt. Col. Gustavus W. West, and Maj. Kent Fay.

As chief of staff Col. Wogan was succeeded by Col. Cornelius M. Daly. At the end of maneuvers Col. Lee. G. Clarke was assigned the job.

Two members of the war-time division staff started their duties at this early date. Maj. Lonsdale P. MacFarland took over the G-2 position from Lt. Col. Rufus L. Land and Lt. Col. Charles E. Morrison was succeeded as G-4 by Maj. Harrison R. Entrekin, who had served as Asst. G-l since the activation of the division. Lt. Col. Edward G. Farrand was G-3 and Lt. Col. Weeden B. Nichols became G-l.

THE FIFTH ARMORED'S NEW COMMANDER

Maj. Gen. Lunsford E. Oliver graduated from West Point in 1913 with a commission of Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.

During World War I he organized and trained several railway engineer battalions and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel. After the war the most important of the many engineering jobs he undertook was the Mississippi River Flood Control Project.

General Oliver graduated from the Engineer School at Ft. Belvoir in 1916, the Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth in 1928, and the Army War College in 1938.

In 1940 he was assigned to the Armored Force at Ft. Knox as the Armored Force Engineer. During these early days of armor, General Oliver directed the experimental work which resulted in the development of the steel treadway bridge that later carried American tanks across all the rivers in Western Europe.

Assigned to the First Armored Division in January 1942, he commanded Combat Command B. He was promoted to Brigadier General on 16 February 1942. Going overseas with the division 6 May 1942, General Oliver's command trained in Northern Ireland during the summer and autumn. In September he was called to London to assist in planning the invasion of North Africa.

When the Allies invaded Algeria General Oliver's command landed at Oran. Two weeks later his command moved east into Tunisia and fought its first major engagement at Medjez-el-bab from the 6th to the 10th December 1942.

General Oliver was promoted to Major General on 20 November 1942,

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When the remainder of the First Armored Division arrived in Africa General Oliver returned to the United States to command the Fifth Armored Division, bringing, as aides, two veterans of the early fighting in North Africa: Captain Ray Cannon and Lt. Frank Poole, whose experience and reports helped members of the Fifth. Armored Division to realize the realities of combat.

Photos of Tennessee and Desert Maneuvers
[p.17=24-photos]
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Chapter VI
Preview In Tennessee
24 March-1 July 1943

General Heard had forged the Fifth Armored Division into a mighty lance. Now it remained for General Oliver to temper it, bring to it razor-sharpness and to drive it into the heart of the Wehrmacht. But the first task which befell the new division commander was to lead his troops against one of the most unpleasant foes of all ground forces: Mud.

Soon after General Oliver's arrival the Victory Division men turned their vehicles over to the Sixth Armored Division, stuffed their belongings into barracks bags and climbed aboard eastbound trains. Their destination, they were told, was Tennessee, where they would participate in more maneuvers. Many believed, however, that the division was actually headed for an Atlantic Coast port of embarkation.

But the trains went no further east than Tennessee. There the soldiers were taken in trucks from the railhead and hauled to open fields near Manchester and McMinnville. These fields were soft and damp. As soon as the men and vehicles started moving about in them, they turned quickly into sticky quagmires. During the first three weeks in Tennessee it rained frequently, snowed once and was bitter cold every night. This was an abrupt change from the heated barracks and conveniences of Camp Cooke. But the ingenious use of logs, clapboard, straw and sawdust made homes of the shelterhalf in the fields and woods. With the numerous small log cabins that were erected many areas took on the appearance of early American frontier settlements.

Fifth Armored men spent the initial week in the field getting reacquainted with pup tent life and learning how to conquer the mud. They were also put through a vigorous physical conditioning program which consisted chiefly of long hikes. During this period, too, units began receiving their quotas of tanks, halftracks,

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peeps and trucks. New gasoline-driven tanks with the automatic transmissions were assigned to the tank platoons. It was the first time the crews had seen the V-type engines and enthusiasm for them was high. Mechanics started arriving back from Ft. Knox where they had been attending special schools. They had been taught how to keep these tank engines running and they now spouted such terms as "insoluble long-fiber grease," "concentric and excentric carburetors," and "dead track blocks."

By the time the maneuver exercises or mock battles got under way during the last week in April, chill winds and dampness of the winter's end had disappeared and spring was coming in. The weather grew milder; the forests started turning green; plowed furrows appeared in the fields; and the streams became warm enough to make baths a pleasure. The vehicles still kept mostly to the roads, except, of course, when they pulled into bivouac or detoured around wooden bridges that could not support the heavy tanks. Many of the roads that wound precariously through the hills were very narrow and more than one vehicle toppled down an embankment.

Many of the four-day tactical problems included a crossing of the Cumberland River. The initial jump to the "enemy" tank was always made by infantry in assault boats. After the bridgehead had been secured the 22nd Engineer Battalion would construct a treadway bridge. Then the tank regiments would pour across this bridge, break out of the bridgehead and "destroy the enemy."

After the treadway bridge had been constructed during the first river-crossing maneuver, a telegram was received from Washington forbidding treadway bridges to be used by 30 ton medium tanks. To demonstrate that the bridge was capable of supporting these tanks General Oliver climbed into one and took it across the river. In subsequent river crossings all the division's vehicles used the bridge.

Through the spring days and nights as the tanks and halftracks rumbled over the slippery unreconnoitered roads and through the narrow passes and forests, many Victory Division men believed this experience was a waste of time. They thought such movements would never be made in actual combat because the field

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manuals stated that tanks should avoid areas where freedom of maneuver would be hampered. Contrary to this belief, however, the maneuvers in Tennessee were in many ways a preview of the conditions of the Fifth Armored would encounter later in Europe. Many of the long night marches across Tennessee were identical to those made later in France-except that the distant figures slinking in the shadows were 79th Division doughs and not German soldiers. And the mud which the F Fifth came to know during its early weeks in Tennessee would be met again along the Siegfried Line and in the Huertgen Forest. As the muddy roads turned to dust under the hot June sun and the swarms of flies and chiggers descended on the bivouac areas, the Division completed its tactical exercises and rolled its vehicles onto railway flat cars. It was on the move again. This time to northern New York state.

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Chapter VII
Pine Needles, Snow And Apples
Pine Camp, N. Y.
5 July-10 December 1943

The GI looked at every camp with a jaundiced eye. He had his own particular terse and derisive comment for each new military post to which he was sent. His descriptive tag for Pine Camp was "a place where there are two seasons - winter and the Fourth of July."

the Fifth Armored GI would add grudgingly, however, that he was happy to arrive at this northern New York state camp in the summer of 1943 and leave behind him Tennessee's humid June heat. Despite the GI's exaggeration, the camp enjoys the normal four seasons, although nature does seem to place its emphasis on the winter months. Even in summer the pine-scented air is usually cool and brisk. The reservation is not far from the St. Lawrence River and some of its firing ranges are on the shores of Lake Ontario, which is about 37 miles from the camp.

Hopes of the Fifth Armored men that they would be able to relax in the pleasant atmosphere of this new camp after the rigors of the maneuvers soon were shattered. Shortly after their arrival it was announced that the division would begin an intensive training program. It was basic training all over again with a few new embellishments. The morning drill and calisthenics period was lengthened and there were long marches and other physical conditioning exercises. All the division's members were later put through the XIII Corps' stringent physical fitness tests which included running, crawling and carrying tests and a long speed march.

As psychological training, division members also had to go through obstacle courses. In one of these they had to crawl through barbed wire entanglements while explosive charges were set off near them and streams of machine gun bullets were fired a few

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feet above their bodies. Another obstacle course was designed to quicken men's mental alertness. It included booby traps, trip wires, snipers, partly-concealed enemy equipment and electrified fences.

Greatest emphasis during this tuning-up period, however, was on weapons proficiency. Long hours were spent field stripping and reassembling the different guns and learning to identify their individual parts. Each man wrote a field message each day to satisfy G-2. Units took turns spending several days at Stoney Point on Lake Ontario where they practiced firing on the rifle ranges from dawn until dusk and pulled targets in the pits until their arms and backs ached. In the tank gunnery training, crews tried to hit the target with the first round and were expected to bracket with at least the first two rounds.

Answering a distress call in September from the fruit growers of central New York state who could not obtain sufficient help to harvest their apple crop, the division asked for volunteers from among its members to do the job. About 1,000 men readily put away their rifles and went off for a month to pick apples. Later in their army careers they would once again come to know apple orchards familiarly - in Normandy.

Pine Camp is remembered by most Victory Division men chiefly as the place where the War Department's scalpel cut away some of its bulk. Combat experience and the observations of maneuvers in the U. S. had convinced some of the army's high architects that armored divisions could operate more efficiently and effectively if they were reorganized and reduced in size.

In the streamlining process the Fifth Armored's two tank regiments were broken up into five separate battalions, two of which were transferred out of the division. The infantry regiment was changed to three separate battalions, with no regimental headquarters. Two companies of the engineer battalion were taken out of the division and two troops were added to the 85th, which was redesignated as a Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized.

Generally, the effect of the reorganization, which took place officially on 20 September, was to reduce the number of units, eliminate the regimental headquarters and divide the division into

[POA p.30]

three fairly set combat teams: Combat Commands, A, B, and R. Each team had a tank battalion, an infantry battalion, an artillery battalion and separate companies of reconnaissance, medical and engineer troops. The reshuffle also strengthened combat command headquarters, giving each of them a headquarters company of its own. And it created a new combat command, CC Reserve.

Appointed to command the new combat commands were: General Regnier, Combat Command A; Colonel Cole, Combat Command B; and Colonel Anderson, Combat Command R. Earlier Lt., Col. Farrand had been made Chief of Staff.

It was not long after their arrival at Pine Camp before the Victory Division men had heard numerous impressive accounts of the low temperatures and deep snows which visited the section during the winter months. And when in October they began receiving issues of cold weather clothing and orders went out to winterize all vehicles, these veterans of the Mojave feared that their destiny's pendulum was now swinging them into the other extreme of nature. Swiftly word swept through the barracks and day rooms that the division would participate in winter maneuvers.

Not too happily did the Fifth Armored members watch the brilliant colors of northern New York's fall fade and the first snows arrive with November. Unit training continued and a few nights were spent sleeping out in the snow trying out the new winter sleeping bags.

But during this activity an undercurrent of new rumors began to stir. It was said that the maneuvers had been called off and that the division was going to move again, perhaps toward a port of embarkation. Supporting these rumors were unusual occurrences such as the visit of Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson to witness a combat firing demonstration.

One of the last exercises held at Pine Camp was a demonstration of air power and ground anti-aircraft defense. Participating units were 1st Lt. Richard A. Biederman's A/34th and Capt. Arthur J. Elmore's B/15th.

Then on 25 November came the order for the Fifth Armored to pull up stakes in northern New York State and move to the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in Pennsylvania. Winterizing

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vehicles was immediately halted and supply sergeants called in all the new winter clothing. General Regnier was in charge of the advance party which left on 30 November for the division's new home, while the remainder of the division followed ten days later. The tanks and halftracks were taken by rail. But the wheel vehicles were driven in a cold overland trip; water froze in the canteens of men riding in the backs of the trucks.

The division had missed taking part in full-scale winter maneuvers. Later, however, it would fight actual battles in the snow.

In the reorganization of the Fifth Armored the following major changes were made:

		UNIT 						REDESIGNATED AS 



34th Armored Regiment 						34th Tank Battalion 
	(Less 1st and 3rd Battalions, Band,
 	Maint., and Rcn. Cos.) 

81st Armored Regiment 						81st Tank Battalion 
	(Less 3rd Battalion, Band, 
	Maint., Service, and Rcn. Cos.) 

3rd Battalion, 34th Armored Reg. 				10th Tank Battalion 

46th Armored Infantry Regiment 					46th Armored Infantry Battalion
	(Less 1^st and 2nd Battalions) 

1st Battalion, 46th Armored Inf. 				47th Armored Infantry Battalion

2nd Battalion, 46th Armored Inf. 				15th Armored Infantry Battalion
								85th Cav. Rcn. Squadron, Mecz.
								(Less Trs. D and E)

Rcn. Co., 34th Armored Regiment 				Tr. D, 85th Cav. Rcn. Sq., Mecz.

Rcn. Co., 81st Armored Regiment 				Tr. E, 8,5th Cav. Rcn. Sq., Mecz.

Maint. Battalion, 5th Armored Div. 				127th Ord. Maint. Battalion


TRANSFERRED FROM THE DIVISION

1st Battalion, 34th Armored Reg. 				772nd Tank Battalion 
3rd Battalion, 81st Armored Reg. 				707th Tank Battalion
Co. E, 22nd Armored Engineer Bn. 				989th Treadway Bridge Co.
Co. D, 22nd Armored Engineer Bn.
Supply Battalion

General Blakely was transferred from the division on 28 August; he went overseas with the 4th Infantry Division and at the war's end was Major General and the division commander.

In July Lt. Col. John B. Rosenzweig was made commander of the 47^th Armored Field Artillery Battalion and Maj. F. Boynton Butler, Jr. became G-3.

Lt. Col. Richard H. Jones was made commander of the 772nd Tank Battalion with the original light tank unit being augmented with personnel from the Maintenance and Headquarters Companies of the two tank regiments.

[p.32]

Lt, Col, Richard W. Ripple was given command of the 707th Tank Battalion;

The 989th Treadway Bridge Command and Company D, 22nd, were transferred to XIII Corps with no changes in personnel.

Lt. Col. Earl S. Gibson was given command of the 46th and Maj. John S. Wintermute was made commander of the 15th Armored Infantry Battalion.

[p.33]

Chapter VIII
Would You Still Be My Darling
Indiantown Gap, Pa.
10 December 1943--4 February 1944

Indiantown Gap is about 140 miles from the sea but during the war it was considered part of a Port of Embarkation. Here was the start of the long and tedious processing which ended many weeks later at the gangplank. By the time a soldier reached the end of this line, he had, among other things, been inoculated with malaria, typhoid and booster tetanus shots; his slightly worn shoelaces had been replaced with a new pair; his unit had completed the Army Ground Force Battalion tests; and he had said his good-bye.

The assembly-line pre-shipment preparations were carefully sign-posted by voluminous POE instructions. Company commanders and unit staffs dug through these directions, mapped out their programs and then recorded each man's individual progress. The overseas-bound GI had to complete his marksmanship firing, go through the infiltration course, take a furlough, observe the attack of a fortified position, see the required training films, get a new set of dog tags along with other new clothing and equipment, pass through two grenades. It seemed a soldier just couldn't get on a boat until he had thrown two hand grenades; to meet this requirement some men had to be taken out after dark to the ranges where they threw their grenades by the light from truck headlamps. In the evenings after chow troops were assembled in the mess halls so that personnel officers could personally interview each man and verify the entries in his service record.

Even medical officers had become militarized in their thinking. "Soldiers are returning from furloughs with civilian diseases," declared Lt. Col. Joseph O. Boydstone, Division Surgeon, at a meeting of unit commanders. Efforts were redoubled to prevent the

[p.34]

spread of these colds and influenza infections, brought back from the "civilian" world,

The tank, artillery and infantry battalions and the 85th completed the Ground Force tests in January. A team from XIII Corps conducted the exercises in the frozen, windswept valley beyond Blue Mountain ridge west of the camp. High scorers in each group were: the 34th Tank, 95^th Artillery and the 15th Infantry.

Lights burned long and POE instructions became dog-eared as the furious bee-hive activity continued. Soldiers in supply rooms and motor parks shook their heads and muttered, "Madhouse." But each platoon leader and company commander knew in great detail the status and rate of progress of the men in his own little orbit of training. Gradually the division worked its way toward the gangplank.

To bring the infantry battalions up to strength approximately 250 non-commissioned officers from the inactivated 181st Infantry Regiment were added to the division. These well-trained soldiers from New England were quickly converted into armored infantrymen. The fact that each company had two 1st sergeants was no problem for 1st Sgt. Garvice R. Duckworth. He wrote the words "Tactical" and "Administrative" before the names on the overseas rosters.

During this period Maj. Francis W. Marks (later Lt. Col.) became G-l to complete the division staff for the duration of the war and Maj. Roland S. Biersach (later Lt. Col.) was assigned command of the 127th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion.

All the division's tanks, halftracks and other vehicles were turned in to the post during the last few days of January. Then on 4 February the Fifth Armored was en route to Camp Kilmer, N. J. This was the last stop before boarding the trans-Atlantic transports. During the four days here activity reached a feverish pitch as the last minute shortages were filled, final rosters prepared, numerous showdown inspections conducted and instructions given on how to abandon ship and load life boats in the event of a torpedoing.

Finally on 9 February the Fifth Armored members hoisted their

[p.35]

packs and horseshoe blanket rolls to their backs and marched down to Camp Kilmer's loading platforms. From here the trains took them to ferry boat slips in Jersey City. As they went from the trains to the ferry boats each man also shouldered his duffle bag in addition to his pack and gun and other equipment. The ferry boats glided down past the skyscraper-crowded tip of Manhattan Island, gleaming in the sunlight, to Staten Island where the vessels which would carry the Fifth Armored to England were docked. Many men gazed for the first time on the Statue of Liberty towering above New York's harbor. Many, too, looked upon it for the last time.

The Victory Division sailed from the Port of New York before dawn on 10 February 1944 in two ships. General Oliver was on the army transport Edmund B. Alexander and General Regnier was in charge of the troops on the British ship Athlone Castle.

At this point in the war the submarine menace had been brought largely under control. Ships were now crossing to Europe in gigantic spread-eagle convoys, hauling the thousands of tons of supplies that were turning the tide of the struggle. The Fifth Armored sailed in one of the largest of these Atlantic convoys. On bright days ships could be seen as far as the horizon in almost every direction. The aircraft carriers, with their decks loaded with strapped-down planes, rolled and dipped in the swells and the watchdog destroyers knifed in and out among the transports ready to go into action at the first sign of a U-boat.

This wartime voyage to Europe was no rest cure. Troops slept on canvas bunks four tiers high that were packed together below decks in stifling atmospheres. Because of the enormous number of men who had to be fed only two meals were served each day. For the first of these meals men began lining up early in the morning. Chow lines with clanking mess kits continued to stream through the mess halls almost all day long and soldiers were still being fed late in the evening.

On the boat deck of the Edmund B. Alexander General Oliver could be seen nervously pacing back and forth. This was his second crossing of the Atlantic in World War II. Behind him lay the battles in North Africa. Ahead was the difficult role his Fifth Armored Division was to play in Europe.

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On other parts of the ship, between inspections, exercise and KP, men were playing a new card game called Up-the-Duck-and-Down-the-Cumberland, along with the old stand-bys, Hi-Lo Seven, and Baseball. And many men inappropriately were whistling and humming the popular tune, "If I came Home Tonight, Would You Still Be My Darling. ..."

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Chapter IX
Over There
England
24 February 1944--July, 1944

Great Britain had been at war almost four and a half years when the Fifth Armored arrived there on 24 February 1944. During those many grim months of conflict this island people had felt the enemy's wrath at first hand. Whole blocks of their cities had been crumbled by the Luftwaffe's raiders. They knew well the terrifying screech of the bomb, the violence of the concussion, and the cries of the wounded. The air raid shelter, the blackout, and the nightly drone overhead of enemy planes had become an integral part of their lives. This was a theater of war and the ever-present threat of a death-dealing enemy pervaded the atmosphere and shaped all life there.

Signs of the enemy's handiwork were immediately visible to the Victory Division members as their transports nosed into the mouth of the muddy Mersey River. In the stream were the partly sub-merged wrecks of bomb-battered vessels.

It was late afternoon when the Edmund B. Alexander and the Athlone Castle tied up at the Mersey Docks in Liverpool. Over the city lay one of the famous English fogs. In a single line with their duffle bags on their shoulders and their packs, guns, gas masks and other gear hanging on them, the Fifth Armored men filed off the ships and down the docks to the waiting trains.

There was no flourish of trumpets or other fanfare to welcome the division after its safe 13-day crossing of the Atlantic. No time was available for such things now. Troops were arriving almost every day from the U. S., crowding on to this island in preparation for the coming assault against the continent. Waiting in the bomb-scarred station, however, were British Red Cross girls who served coffee and doughnuts to the troops before they boarded the small English railway cars.

[p.38]

As the trains pulled away from the docks in the fading light, the soldiers stared out at the rows of British homes with the little air raid shelters in their backyards. Soon the blackout blinds were drawn and the trains rolled along in the darkness. Men dozed and awoke intermittently to hear the engine's high-pitched whistle crying shrilly in the night. Before daylight troops had unloaded from the first trains at the city of Swindon and at two nearby camps, 175 miles to the south of Liverpool.

Most of the division was assigned to Quonset huts and British barracks in the Chisledon and Ogbourne St. George Camps, while the 15th Armored Infantry was billeted in Swindon. The three artillery battalions and the 85th Cavalry Squadron moved directly to Perham Down Camp in the Salisbury area. All these billeting arrangements had been made by an advance party, commanded by Col. Cole, which had crossed earlier in the Queen Mary. Personnel from the Third Armored Division had drawn the equipment for the individual kitchens and had a hot meal waiting for the Fifth Armored members when they arrived that cold morning after the all night trip from Liverpool.

The Fifth Armored's first cold damp six weeks in England were spent in drawing equipment and small unit training. It was also a period for getting acquainted with this foreign country and learning the countless regulation of the ETO (European Theater of Operations). Food was in short supply at the time and efforts were made to conserve it; soldiers were warned to take no more than they could eat and some first sergeants stood by garbage cans to make certain no edible food was discarded. Fuel was also short and fires were permitted in the little stoves that heated the Quonset huts only during the early evening hours. There were visits from old friends in the 58th and 65th artillery battalions, former division units, and from other battle-wise veterans of the North African campaigns.

Almost daily the huge mass formations of Allied planes roared overhead going and coming from their forays on the enemy's continental installations. This was the period when the Luftwaffe was being dealt the crucial blows from which it would never recover. At night German aircraft were often in the skies above the division areas and from the English people Fifth Armored men

[p.39]

were learning to identify these enemy planes by their sounds. From the English people, too, division men were being taught how to observe security regulation; lifelong residents of English towns claimed, when asked, not to know the directions to neighboring communities only a few miles away.

On weekends many men visited the cities of Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Oxford and London (where they saw inhabitants of the city sleeping nights on the station platforms of the Underground or subway). For their social assault on this new land many men had come prepared with gifts of such scarce and coveted items as nylons, lipstick and gum.

Early in April preparations were being made for the division to start field maneuvers and training in combat firing. But these plans were abruptly halted when an order came down from higher headquarters with the swiftness and disruptiveness of a V-bomb. It instructed the division to "proceed to southern England and operate the camps in the marshalling areas there for amphibious exercises and the invasion of Europe."

"This is a slug in the jaw to our combat training," General Oliver told the men in each battalion as he explained this new assignment. But he added that it was a necessary job and that the Fifth Armored would do it well.

On 10 April the division moved by train and motor convoy to the southwest tip of England where it took possession of the seaside camps and hotels in the Truro, Plymouth and Torquay marshalling areas. These hotels and camps (pyramidal tent communities strung out along the edge of fields and partly concealed from air observation by camouflage nets and called "sausages") served the important leading ports of Falmouth, Plymouth, Dartmouth and Torquay. General Regnier remained at Ogbourne St. George with the rear echelon of division headquarters 127th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion and the 145th Signal Company. Extensive alterations and maintenance were continued on the combat vehicles by the 127th while the 145th conducted a radio operators school.

The marshalling area camps were set up to accommodate the assault troops which would conduct practice invasions on English beaches and finally sail across the channel for the invasion of the

[p.40]

continent. The troops' stay in the camps varied from a few hours to three days, depending upon the arrival of their invasion craft and the rate at which these ships were loaded. They came without kitchen and supply troop, knowing that the camp personnel would cook their food and fill out their last minute equipment shortages. When the ships were loaded they moved out into the channel, turned and "attacked" a section of the English coast. The engineers would precede the amphibious tanks, LST's and infantry craft. After a practice assault, the troops would move inland and again assemble in the marshalling camps to await transportation back to their permanent stations.

To perform the cooking and housekeeping duties at the marshalling camps the Fifth Armored was completely revamped for the two-month period. All the infantry battalions plus CC Reserve headquarters were placed under the command of Col. Anderson and assigned the camps in the Torquay area. The tank battalions plus CC B headquarters and the 22nd Engineers under Col. Cole, were assigned the camps in the Truro area. The artillery battalions plus division artillery headquarters operated camps in the area west of Plymouth, under Col. Dalferes. And the camps east of Plymouth were run by Division Trains, the 85th Rcn. Squadron and 75^th Medical Battalion under Col. Nelson. The forward echelon of Division Headquarters was located at Tavistock, north of Plymouth.

Many Fifth Armored men called the operation of these camps "K.P. in England" as each company had to run four to six messes or hotels. To do this a call for volunteers was sent out to the tank crews, artillery sections, and infantry squads. The results were surprising. In one battalion 72 men qualified as 1st cooks. Later in combat when men had to prepare their own meals these soldiers with culinary talents became very popular members of their tank crews and infantry squads.

Inspections of the camps in the marshalling areas became so frequent that battalion operations officers wrote training memorandums on "How to Conduct Inspecting Officers Through Kitchens,"

Toward the end of May assault troops again started to move into the Fifth Armored's marshalling camps as they had done

[p.41]

several times before. At this time of the year with summer fast approaching and British double summer time in effect, the sun did not set until late each evening and out-of-doors it remained light until almost 11 o'clock. So on Sunday, 28 May, it was very near midnight when most men retired that night.

But they had not been in their bunks long before aircraft motors could be heard in the skies over some of the division's areas. Soon the long bluish beams of the anti-aircraft lights were searching the sky. And then while most men were still in their bunks, the planes began to dive and send their bombs shrieking to the earth.

In Torquay a pair of bombs bracketed Col. Anderson's command post at the Livermead Hotel; others hit several homes and a civilian-occupied hotel in the town. Some oil tanks were set on fire in the Truro area. During the raid Staff Sgt. Alfred J. Libby, of the 15th Inf., carried four civilians out of Torquay's Bay Court Hotel after it was hit. For this action he later received the first award for heroism made in the division. The morning after the bombing the German radio announced, characteristically, that Torquay had been left in flames.

The assault troops continued to pour into the camps all during the first week in June. And then toward the end of the week they began boarding the ships. From the vast number of troops that had come to the camps this time, the thoroughness of their preparations and the strict secrecy, many Fifth Armored men suspected that this would be no practice invasion. But they did not know for certain until the morning of 6 June when a heavy rumble rolled across the channel from France, violently shaking the window panes in their frames, and the German radio announced that Allied troops had landed on the beaches of Normandy.

The Fifth Armored's housekeeping duties in the southwest of England were completed. Now came an eleventh-hour period of intense training before the division moved on to the battle field.

On 10 June Col. Anderson moved the three infantry battalions and the 22nd Engineers by train from Torquay to the Barnsly-Wold range near Cirencester and about 20 miles north of the Ogbourne St. George camp. Truck drivers had preceded the train to Ogbourne St. George and were waiting at the station with the

[p.42]

vehicles so that the troops could be taken directly to the range.

During the three weeks here the training day was 15 hours long. Every man fired a qualification course with his individual weapon, including assault and transition firing. Machine gun crews fired both ground and vehicular courses. The 22nd Engineers also completed training in the use of flame throwers.

Between 10 and 15 June the remainder of the division assembled at the West Down Camp. Here Col. Cole directed the tactical training of the tank battalions. He worked them from dawn until dark on the ideal rolling terrain.

Gen. Regnier was in charge of the tank firing at Minehead, on the Bristol Channel, during this period. One tank company at a time moved to this range and participated in intensive combat practice firing. Crews fired at moving targets and from moving tanks.

The artillery battalions resumed training on the Imber range at the West Down Camp. In charge of them was a new Division Artillery Commander, Col. Douglas J. Page, who had been executive officer of the 9th Infantry Division Artillery in North Africa. Another North African veteran, Col. Hugh J. Fitzgerald, was assigned to CC B as deputy commander.

Late in June the Reserve Command, under Col. Anderson, was assigned as a fighting combat command by Gen. Oliver and was called Combat Command R.

On the last day in June all the division troops assembled in the Tilshead Camp for the last few weeks of training.

The rehearsals were almost over.

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Chapter X
A Military Wedding

Chapter XI
Vive La France
Utah Beach to Le Mans
26 July--8 August

To the peering eyes of the men on the decks of the LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) and the LCIs (Landing Craft, Infantry), France lay like a long thin line on the horizon, slightly greener than the sea. And beyond was the unseen thick green line of the massed German Seventh Army. These men were approaching another continent and also another world--combat. Their passports to this new world were the live rounds of ammunition they carried in their belt pouches and in their tank racks. Behind them were many thousands of difficult hours of drilling, maneuvering and learning how to fight in a modern war. Now they had finished firing at paper targets. Now they faced the Germans, who also carried live ammunition in their leather pouches.

The Fifth Armored had boarded the vessels at battered Southampton on England's south coast and made a smooth crossing of the channel during the night. On 26 July it was nearing Utah Beach, where other GIs and D Day had smashed a bloody entrance into Normandy. In the sea some distance from the land could be seen the superstructures of a wall of submerged ships; they had been sunk there as a breakwater to protect the beach from the waves. At high tide each LST, carrying Sherman tanks, halftracks and other vehicles, rammed its bow onto the beach. Then, after the tide had receded and the big bow doors had been swung open, bulldozers quickly built a ramp up to the exit; and the vehicles rolled out of the ship, onto the shore.

It was dark before all the unloading was completed. And with the night came the enemy planes which were kept out of the beachhead skies during the day by the ubiquitous Allied aircraft. But in the darkness they came to dump their bomb loads; and up from the ground to meet them went long streams of red-blinking

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tracer bullets and bursting ack-ack shells. Assembled on the beachhead was the war's greatest concentration of anti-aircraft batteries. Some of the Luftwaffe's bombs exploded near an LCI, loaded with Fifth Armored men. Other division members already ashore huddled beneath their vehicles to shield themselves from the ack-ack fragments which came down like hail from the skies.

While the Fifth Armored was disembarking in France on 26 July, endless columns of bomb-heavy allied planes, marking the skies with their long white streaks of vapor trails, mercilessly were blasting near St. Lo a breach in the tight semicircle which enemy forces held around the Normandy beachhead. Through this gap in the German defenses, strewn with dead soldiers and burned-out vehicles, poured First Army tanks and infantry to exploit and widen the breakthrough.

After it landed at Utah Beach the division moved from the shell and bomb-churned seaside area and assembled in forests and fields near St. Sauveur Le Vicomte. Here under pleasant mid-summer French skies Fifth Armored men carefully inspected the scattered equipment and personal belongings (mess gear, clothing, weapons, ammunition, photographs, letters, helmets and food) left behind by the hastily departing Germans. These traces of a retreating army were to become a familiar sight to Fifth Armored men along the road to Germany during the weeks and months to come.

The Fifth Armored was placed on the secret list of General George Patton's Third Army and attached to the XV Corps. To the world it would be known as part of "General Patton's Ghost Troops." From a mobile corps reserve division its status was quickly changed to an armored division to be used for exploitation behind enemy lines. And it was to be the first American armored division to be assigned such a mission.

On the first day of August it moved to a new area just north of the Periers-Lessay road. This was its initial night move behind friendly lines. Along the route was the litter of smashed enemy equipment and the bodies of German soldiers and animals with their sweet sickening smell. The last vehicles pulled into the new area by 10 the following morning. Then an hour later came the division's first order for action against the enemy, It was instructed "to proceed south without stopping, cross the See and Selune

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Rivers, assemble south of the Selune, seize the town of Fougeres, and reconnoiter vicinity of St. James, St. Martin, and St. George for further action."

This was a big order for an untried division. But the Fifth Armored for a long time had been preparing for the role it was now about to play on this European battlefield. The tankers and infantrymen rolled up their bedrolls and tied them on their vehicles; they slid shells into the chambers of the big tank guns and also made certain that their machine guns and other smaller caliber weapons were loaded. Then they started the engines of the Sherman tanks and haIftracks and rolled onto the roads. They were ready to go.

Preceding the division, the long probing fingers of Lt. Col. Kent Fays 85th Cavalry Sq, pulled out at 1430 hours and began to reconnoiter the bridges and roads along this southward route by which the division was slipping out of the Normandy beachhead and thrusting deep into enemy territory.

In this rush down the Normandy Peninsula toward Avranches, CC A and CC B moved abreast in two columns. But soon they found themselves entangled with troops of the VII Corps, which were moving east into the First Army zone. Serious traffic tie-ups developed which delayed the tails of columns for such long periods that Division Headquarters lost radio contact with the Combat Commands. The congestion became so acute at the St. Denis bottleneck, where the route crossed the Avranches-Brecey road, that General Patton ordered the division to halt its march and pull off the roads.

This order, however, failed to reach CC A and CC B, and they continued rolling south,

Late that afternoon, when the traffic snarl was its worst, General Patton called a meeting of those divisional commanders who could be assembled quickly.

The tension was extremely high. Everyone knew that if enemy bombers discovered this knot of men and vehicles jammed up around St. Denis, a severe blow could be struck against the advance. General Oliver and the other divisional commanders wondered if their heads might not roll because of this tie-up.

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General Patton strode into the anxious gathering and opened the meeting.

"Gentlemen," he said, "we are in a hell of a mess, and it's all my fault."

Then he explained that in his haste to send the units south he had given orders directly to the division commanders without informing his staff. "Now we shall just sit here until my staff can work out schedules and routes," he declared. "Then we shall continue." That night CC R assembled at Le Mesnil Villeman but CC A and CC B did not halt, never having received the order to do so. Through the moonless night they continued, clanking to the south over the strange roads. Their route was often obstructed by the French civilians who were either fleeing from or returning to their homes; they rode in big blue two-wheeled horse-drawn carts which were stacked high with bedding and other possessions. The night was also filled with the rushing roar of artillery shells belched out by both the German and American batteries. Enemy bombers, hovering over part of the route, dropped flares and then followed these with bombs. When a segment of a column became separated from its lead elements, tank and halftrack commanders were able to decide in which direction to go at each fork or cross- roads only by getting down on their hands and knees in the road and with their flashlights seeing which way the tracks led.

But despite the congestion and confusion and the fact that this was their first night of real combat, CC A and CC B had arrived by dawn at their originally designated areas near St. George and St. Hilaire du Harcouet, south of the Selune River.

Later that day CC R pulled up stakes at Le Mesnil Villeman and reached Marcilly to the south by 8 in the evening. As the combat command's vehicles were leaving the road and going into its assembly area here, 13 Luftwaffe fighter planes dived out of the skies and strafed the columns. The enemy craft were pursued, however, by four P-51s which shot down three of the enemy raiders. About this time, too, the 85th Cavalry Sq. made its first contact with enemy units near the line St.Ellier-Fougeres.

It was during these moves that men of the Fifth Armored first witnessed the jubilation of the liberated French people; they

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expressed their joy and gratitude by strewing flowers on the tanks and other vehicles, by handing up cider and calvados to the troops and by kissing and hugging the dusty soldiers. Similar roadside demonstrations would be encountered all the way across France and Belgium. The troops also were meeting for the first time the bands of Free French, the underground French fighters, who now appeared with their odd assortments of knives and guns and with their Cross of Lorraine arm bands. They immediately went to work rounding up French collaborators and any "Boches" who were still in the area.

From 3 to 5 August the division was in XV corps reserve south of the Selune River just behind the 79th and 90th Infantry Divisions. Roadblocks were set up to the south by CC A and CC R, and preparations to launch possible counterattacks were made by CC A and CC B. It was expected that the Germans would launch a large scale attack to retake Avranches and thus cut off the U. S. divisions that were south of the town. But the anticipated enemy attack was not made. The Germans continued their night bombings but caused no extensive damage. Meanwhile enemy stragglers moving at night were often picked up.

Plans were made for the capture of the city of Fougeres, which lay further to the south. It was decided that CC A and CC B would attack simultaneously with the 79th Division. But the Germans did not defend the city and the 79th Division occupied it late on 3 August.

The next day the Fifth Armored was directed immediately to furnish 100 trucks to transport doughfoots of the 79th and 90th Infantry Divisions. These trucks were supplied from unit trains and it was necessary temporarily to dump their loads of fuel and lubricants in order for them to complete the mission.

During the halt in the St. James-Ducey-St. Hilaire area, small retreating enemy groups were continually washed up against Fifth Armored roadblocks. Civilians reported that German tanks and artillery were in many nearby areas. Among the more than 100 prisoners taken were men from these enemy divisions: 5th Parachute, 2nd SS Panzer, 266th Infantry, 17th SS Panzer Grenadier, 91st Infantry and service units.

But there was no letup in the pressure being applied to the

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Germans now that they were disorganized and on the run. The Fifth Armored's role in this effort was to advance on the right flank of the corps, remaining in readiness to support the attack of the 79th and 90th divisions, and to extend the front to Chateau-Gontier, and possibly as far south as Angers. It was also to be prepared to execute a quick envelopment around any stubborn knot of enemy resistance that might block the advance of the infantry.

The division was scheduled to hit the road again on 6 August. Its 100 fuel trucks had not yet returned from their detail with the two infantry divisions, so the 3912 Q.M. Truck Company was attached to the division; it was ordered immediately to secure gasoline at the Army Truckhead and to join the column at St. James the next morning. But the fuel was not available when the trucks arrived and the quartermaster trucks, therefore, did not return before the time of departure. The Fifth Armored pulled out without refueling and headed south from St. James to Fougeres and then to Vitre.

After CC A and CC B were south of Vitre and advancing on the Mayenne River, the division received orders, about 1430 hours to "push rapidly forward to seize and hold Le Mans."

Plans for a lightning pincers attack were hastily devised. CC A and CC B were ordered to advance in parallel position on the city. CC A would cross the Mayenne River near Chateau-Gontier and, proceeding east through Grez En Boufre, Bouessy, and Chantenay, would block all enemy movement south and east out of Le Mans. CC B, crossing the river at Houssay and plunging through Villier, Meslay, Cheville, Love, Chassile, Coulans and La Milesse, would seal off all enemy movement west and north out of the city. CC R, in reserve, would follow CC A to protect the right flank, while Division Headquarters and the Trains would follow CCB.

The attacking units trundled along swiftly and by midnight of 6 August, the very day the attack order had been received, CC B was across the Mayenne at Houssay and CC A was mopping up in Chateau-Gontier. The Division Command Post was at Houssay on the west bank of the river, In the early hours of the morning of 7 August the quartermaster truck company arrived with the

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gasoline and the empty tanks of the Shermans and the halftracks were refilled in the darkness.

Before dawn the armored spearheads were again on the roads grinding east to encircle Le Mans, But CC B's Task Force Wintermute, while passing across the front of the 79th and 90th divisions, found the Laval-Le Mans highway being used by the l06th Cavalry (XV Corps) they were preceding the advance of the shuttling 79th division. To avoid this congestion CC B was given a new route south of the Laval-Le Mans highway and CC A was shifted further south. CC A was instructed to swing in a wide are south of the city and block all roads to the north and northeast; CC B would block those to the east, while CC R would choke off those to the south.

CC A had left Vitre at 0730 hours the morning of 6 August and by 1610 hours its married B Companies, which were leading the single attack column, had pushed through light scattered resistance and had reached the outskirts of Craon. Just before the head of the column reached the bridge in Craon it was blown up by the Germans who continued to defend the opposite bank with small arms fire. By fanning out to the north and south of the second platoon discovered a bridge north of the town and the column was rerouted over this crossing with little delay.

The first heavy resistance was met at Chateau-Gontier. Here the bridge across the Mayenne River had been partially destroyed and it was defended on the far side by antitank guns. These guns disabled one tank of B Co., 34th Tank Bn., and also hit General Regnier's tank.

Dismounting from their halftracks, the infantry crossed the river, and, fighting throughout the night, drove the German soldiers from the town. The enemy force was estimated to be one infantry company supported by antitank guns and mortars. A Co., 22nd Engineer Bn. immediately went to work on the bridge and traffic was moving across it by 7 the next morning.

The CC A column poured through the town and continued its advance until 1510 hours when it was halted by a stubborn force at Poille-Sur-Vegre. This force was attempting to keep open the Prulon-Le Mans escape route.

Some P-47 fighter bombers arrived over the column just in time

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to join the fight. Diving on the enemy positions, they dumped their bomb loads and all resistance here was completely neutralized by 1700 hours. While this fight was in progress orders changing the attacks routes on Le Mans were received.

When the head of the column reached Fille it took the road to Spay by mistake. The remainder of the column, with A Companies leading, crossed the Sarthe at Fille and continued on the assigned route. B Companies crossed at Spay and continued on a parallel road until it was possible to get back on the main route. A German bivouac area was caught between these two parallel columns and 30 Wehrmacht vehicles were destroyed. An infantry company and an engineer company were captured. During the scrap Lt. Marvin Orgill, B Co., 34th Tank Bn., changed tanks three times; he abandoned a tank each time it ran out of ammunition.

At daylight 8 August, the column stopped to refuel in the southeastern suburbs of Le Mans. The gasoline trucks pulled up alongside the parked tanks and halftracks and the five gallon cans of fuel were handed up to the crews.

In the village of Yvre the head of the column caught up with some retreating tanks. Lt. Thomas Burke, B Co., 34th Tank Bn., saw two German tanks moving toward the main intersection of the town. Rushing his platoon into the village, he sent his tanks down different streets. The Sherman commanded by Sgt. Shiverski met a German tank head-on and in rapid fire pumped six rounds of armor-piercing shells into it. Lt. Burke then knocked out the other enemy tank as it tried to get away down the street. Outside the town enemy infantry had ironically dug ground defenses in a graveyard. The 46th Bn. infantrymen dismounted from their halftracks and, attacking with artillery and tank support, rooted them out or made their choice appropriate.

As the lead tank crossed the Paris-Le Mans highway about 20 enemy ammunition trucks were leaving a bivouac area in an attempt to escape toward Paris. The gunner of the lead tank, Cpl. Joe Perry, fired as rapidly as his gun could be reloaded and he destroyed every truck in the group. His rhythmic handling of the 30 cal. and 75 mm. floor firing buttons reminded his friends of his pre-war days as a drummer in a Montana band. During

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the long day of 8 August "Drummer Perry" fired 87 rounds of 75 mm. And 16,000 rounds of 30 cal. ammunition.

CC A's advance continued until 2100 hours. By that time it had closed off the last escape route north of Le Mans.

Meanwhile, CC B had begun rolling south from the fields near Vitre at 1000 hours 6 August, The combat command attacked in two columns, Task Force Wintermute and Task Force Anderson, with the bridge of the Mayenne River at Houssay as their objective. At Crosse-le-Vivien, Task Force Wintermute enveloped the east flank of the resistance via Astille and Origne. Task Force Anderson continued on the main highway through Quelaines to the objective. At Astille the column was halted briefly when it encountered machine gun and bazooka fire from about a dozen Germans who were in a house on the edge of town. The tanks of Lt. Larry Hitchcock's platoon fired point-blank into the house and killed all of the enemy defenders. The absence of civilians on the streets indicated that more enemy soldiers were in the village, so the column by-passed it to the north.

Just before dark the bridge at Houssay was captured by Task Force Anderson which then pushed on to Meslay-du-Maine for the night. Two German cars loaded with demolitions were destroyed near Houssay by Lt. Leonard Keene's leading tank. A roadblock near the crossroads east of Houssay in charge of Lt. Merle Powers captured one of the dreaded 88 mm. guns as it was being towed south from Laval.

As Lt. John G. Jonasch was organizing the roadblock on the Laval road at Meslay, four Mark IV tanks attempted to smash through it. The Shermans commanded by Sgts. Gene Krafka and William Minturn opened fire at almost point-blank range. One Mark IV withstood all the shells hurled at it and continued through Meslay. It was escaping toward Le Mans when Lt. Robert McNab, aiming at the red flame of its exhaust, pumped a shell into its rear and crippled it. An inventory at daylight of the night's handiwork revealed that in the melee the Germans had lost four Mark IVs, two sedans and a motorcycle.

After refueling from the 3912 Q.M. Truck Company during the night, both columns rolled on toward Le Mans. Resistance was light and many confused and disorganized Wehrmacht soldiers

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were taken. A French commercial bus loaded with German soldiers turned into the married B Column of the 81st Tank Bn. and the 15th Infantry Bn. It was sprayed with rifle and machine gun bullets; then it caught fire and rammed into a 57 mm. antitank gun. In the village of Maigne the sniping was very persistent, so the armored column spewed out machine gun and rifle fire in every direction to make the Germans keep their heads down. The tracer bullets, however, set fire to the harvested wheat shocks that had been stored in and near the barns and soon much of the town was in flames. Twenty Germans, attempting to flee on bicycles, were killed.

CC B reached Spay at dark and found units of CC A crossing the bridge over the Sarthe River. The next day, 8 August, the advance continued and the armored column made a wide swing through the checkerboard pattern of streets around the southeast side of Le Mans. By 1800 hours CC B had blocked all roads to the east, and patrols of Task Force Anderson had entered the city.

During this advance, spearheaded by CC A and CC B, Col. Anderson's CC R was in reserve and followed the general route of CC A. It protected the right flank of the division in this sudden drive on Le Mans. In the evening of 7 August a married platoon from Task Force Hamberg's A Companies, supported by the 10th Tank Bn's. Assault Gun Platoon, engaged a force of Germans who were aided by tanks at Chemire-sur-Sarthe. The enemy withdrew after a Mark V was destroyed. They left a warehouse full of supplies.

Snipers remained in many of the captured towns and continued to harass CC R's columns as they pushed on toward their objectives. Late in the afternoon of 8 August CC R moved into the area near St. Gervais and blocked all roads leading south from Le Mans.

The division trains, hauling records and supplies, were commanded by Lt. Col. Glenn G. Dickenson. They followed right on the heels of the Combat Commands in this armored rush into enemy-held territory. Lt. Michael Moran was the first Train casualty; he was killed 6 August near Crosse-Le-Vivien while he was with a billeting party.

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Thus, by the night of 8 August the Fifth Armored's tanks and halftracks lay in a tight ring around a city of 75,000 people, which would soon surrender. In the seven furious days and nights this untried division had pushed 180 miles into the interior of France, it had crossed two rivers; and now it faced threats of counterattacks on both flanks--from forces on the north, on the one hand, which might attempt to squeeze close the breakthrough route and, on the other, from the troops in the Brittany Peninsula which might attack from the south. In this intense rapid-paced armored warfare men of the Victory Division had over night become seasoned oldiers.

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Chapter XII
The Sickle
Le Mans to Argentan
9 August-14 August

Now the momentum was high. The French campaign had reached its crucial point. The Wehrmacht's defenses in Western France were crumbling and Allied commanders were determined that the enemy should be given no time to catch his breath, no opportunity to reorganize and to build up a secondary defense line. Pressure was to be applied relentlessly at all points. While fighter-bombers continued to harass the Germans from the air, the armored spearheads plunged into the weak spots and systematically sliced up the enemy's several defense positions. [Every German account of this period of the war tells of the dread in which Germans of all ranks held the hated "Jabo".] Then the infantry divisions pressed forward on a wide front and quickly mopped up the cut-off and disorganized German soldiers, most of whom surrendered without a fight.

Applying this pressure to the fleeing Germans, however, was no easy task. It was as exhausting for the pursuers as it was for the quarry. Fifth Armored soldiers got little sleep during the drive south from their first assembly area in Normandy. During practically all the days and many of the nights they were on the road. When they pulled off into a field to bivouac or set up a roadblock they had to dig in to be ready to fight in place.

Men prepared meals individually. Little cans of pork and beans or hash or vegetable stew or the better selection in the 10 in 1 rations were heated on the one-burner Coleman gasoline stoves. They could also be heated on the motor of a vehicle or at the end of the exhaust pipe. When time was short a K ration was broken open and eaten cold. Sometimes fresh eggs and potatoes were obtained from the French civilians by trading candy, soap and gum. And in the apple orchards, which were frequently used as

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bivouac areas, swarms of yellow jackets had to be shooed away from the food. The steel helmets with their liners removed were used as wash basins. Men slept in their clothes; they stretched out on their bedding rolls, spread on the ground, with their small arms always within reach.

On 7 August the Germans finally launched the counterattack to close the breakthrough route at Avranches; the Fifth Armored had expected and had been ready for this attack when it had bivouacked in the St. Hilaire-St. James area from 3 to 5 August. Into this effort against the First Army front in the vicinity of Mortain, the enemy threw the 1st SS, 2nd SS, 2nd and 116th Panzer Divisions. The attack continued for three days and finally was abandoned on 10 August.

Having completed the encirclement of Le Mans before dark on 8 August, the next morning the Fifth Armored was alerted for movement to the North. Immediately the 85th Cavalry Sq. hit the road. Its mission was to determine the status of the bridges over the Orne River, 20 miles to the north, and to find out what enemy troops were in that area.

At 1740 hours the detailed order for the attack reached the division from XV Corps Headquarters. It instructed the Fifth Armored to seize crossings over the Orne River for the passage of its own troops and also for those of the 2nd French Armored Division. After they had passed this water barrier, both divisions were to proceed north, abreast of each other, the French on the left and the Fifth Armored on the right, to the Carrouge-Sees line. The 90th Infantry Division would follow the French Armor, while the 79th Infantry Division would follow the Fifth. The French 2nd Armored was assembled near Vitre.

It now became clear what the Allied Armies in France were attempting to do. Like a huge sickle, the U. S. Third Army had cut down and around the German Seventh Army and was now attempting to slice up behind this enemy force. At the point of this sickle was the Fifth Armored Division.

The division's combat commands advanced on their objectives the same evening on which the attack order was received. CC A and CC R rolled forward in parallel positions, with CC R on the right; CC B was in reserve and followed CC R.

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Having pulled out of the Le Mans area at 8 that night, CC A three hours later was fighting to hold five bridges over the Orne on a six and a half mile front in the vicinity of Ballon. Two-thirds of the combat command was committed in this night action. For the first time it was encountering concentrated enemy artillery fire. German antitank guns to the north of the river knocked out two M7s of the 47th Armored Field Artillery Bn, and two light tanks and a halftrack of CC A Headquarters. With the support of the 47th batteries and the mortar platoons the bridgeheads were held during the summer night and by daylight the enemy fire had slackened.

That night CC R also seized five river crossings south of Marolles, Two of the bridges were taken by Task Force Hamberg, which pushed well beyond the river to dig in for the night. The Married A Companies, of the 10th Tank Bn. and the 47th Infantry Bn bivouacked at Peray while the married C Companies stopped south of Marolles.

Throughout the night these companies could hear, just north of their positions, the rumbling of enemy vehicles. It was assumed that these German troops were withdrawing further north. But at dawn on 10 August unexpected hell broke loose in the assembly area of the married C Companies as enemy tank and artillery shells began to thunder down. Instead of withdrawing during the night, the German tanks had jockeyed to a new position on high ground which overlooked the C Companies area. During the first few moments of this sudden morning shelling the commander of the infantry company, Capt. John M. Crafts, was killed; command of the company was then assumed by Lt. Leo Marcikowski. The commander of the C Company tanks, Capt. Francis J. Baum, returned the fire with all the weapons at his disposal. Since the river at their backs restricted maneuver, they fought in place until the A Companies rushed in from the northeast to relieve the pressure.

When the furious fight was over, it was discovered that two enemy Mark IV tanks had been destroyed. Losses of the married C Companies included: four tanks, three halftracks, and 27 casualties.

CC B had left the Le Mans area about midnight 9 August and

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had assembled at daylight near Bonnetable, just east of CC R's area. As the 15th Infantry Battalion's commander, Lt. Col. Wintermute, and its S-3, Major Hurley, attempted to drive back to CC B's Headquarters, their peep was struck by a projectile from an enemy self-propelled gun and they were both wounded. The German gunners placed the officers on the enemy vehicle and took them into Bonnetable to a house the Germans were using as a medical aid station. As the rumble of CC B's tanks grew louder the Germans withdrew from Bonnetable and the officers were recaptured. Major Toney Giorlando assumed command of the 15th Infantry Bn. and Capt. Donald Crafts became the Battalion S-3.

The commander of the 81st Tank Battalion, Lt. Col. Anderson, also encountered enemy fire when he attempted to get back to CC B's Headquarters. His peep was ripped by machine gun fire. He and his driver then walked back across the field to the battalion area to get a tank platoon for an escort.

At 8 that morning Division Headquarters issued orders that the advance to the Garrouge-Sees line be resumed. CC A turned over its job of guarding the Orne crossing to the 2nd French Armored Division, which also continued to advance on CC A's left.

In this area north of the Orne, into which the Fifth Armored was plunging, about 50 enemy tanks were active. Enemy soldiers here were members of the 9th Panzer, 709th Infantry and 130th Panzer Lehr Divisions. As the Victory Division clanked northward it encountered German antitank guns at all the main road junctions. By nightfall CC A had run up against strong tank forces at Marolles and CC R was trading blows with enemy forces on the outskirts of Mamers.

But the Wehrmacht soldiers now began to realize that these huge pincers were slowly squeezing shut and were threatening to trap the entire German Seventh Army. So the enemy's counterattack to retake Avranches was given up on 10 August and the Germans decided to withdraw their forces as quickly as possible from France. Every effort, they knew, must be made to keep the lips of these pincers open until the retreating Seventh Army could be evacuated through this gap. The Fifth Armored, therefore, began to pound against extremely bitter and determined resistance.

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It found almost all dominant terrain in this northward path being utilized as defense positions.

Therefore, the division's advance on 11 August was much slower than it had been the previous day. Combat Commands A and R were instructed to by-pass the cities of Marolles and Mamers and to continue in the direction of Sees. On the flanks the 85th Cavalry Sq. remained ready to repulse any sneak attacks. Enemy 105 mm. and 150 mm. artillery guns shelled the division's forward elements.

When CC A came upon the approaches to St. Remy, French civilians reported that the German armor in the town consisted of 23 tanks and one 88 mm. gun. Task Force Burton deployed to develop the situation and received tank fire at ranges greater than 2,000 yards. The 47th and 400th Artillery Battalions went into action hurriedly and pounded the enemy defenses. They were joined by the tank destroyers of A Co., 628^th Bn. Then, after the fighter-bombers gave the town a working over, infantrymen of C Company, 46th Infantry Bn., entered. They found that one Mark V had been destroyed and that the other tanks had withdrawn to the northwest.

Higher headquarters informed the division that the large Foret de Perseigne contained two enemy divisions and elaborate supply installations, General Oliver decided that the lack of roads and the defenses of the trees in this woods made it a tank trap. He, therefore, directed CC A to by-pass it to the right.

Formidable enemy resistance loomed in front of CC R's Task Force Boyer when it reached the outskirts of Essay. Here the Column's lead tank was hit by a projectile which passed between the driver and assistant driver without injuring either of them.

Capt. Pool, B Co., 10th Tank Bn., observed five Tiger tanks in the town. This enemy armor was subjected to fire from the 81 mm. mortars and from the guns of the 95th Artillery Bn. Then air support was called for and the fighter-bombers, peeling off and roaring down on the town, bombed and strafed the enemy positions, Columns of black smoke which spiralled up into the sky indicated several hits. Dismounting from their halftracks, the foot troops of C Co., 47th Infantry Bn., closed in and cleared out the buildings as the armored column moved through the town. The Task Force assembled for the night on the high ground just

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north of Essay. But its action for the day was not yet finished. In the darkness a Tiger tank came creeping back toward the town and was destroyed.

When the leading elements of the Fifth Armored stopped for the night of 11 August CC R was fighting on the edge of Sees and CC A had crossed the Sarthe River, north of the Foret de Perseigne. At 1945 hours the division received orders to "continue on to Argentan, and cut all communications to the north." As the Fifth Armored men slept uneasily that night, the darkness in almost every direction was dotted with the red glow of fires that marked the trail of the day's battles.

At dawn of 12 August both CC A and CC R were on the road pushing forward to take Sees.

CC A with Task Force Burton in the lead, had veered to the right to assist CC R in the attack on the city. Under the pressure of both Combat Commands, Sees fell at 1000 hours. An entire battalion of enemy troops was captured on the road. A column of the 2nd French Armored Division followed CC A's Task Force into the town and the resulting traffic congestion caused several hours delay in refueling the combat command's tanks and halftracks. Col. Farrand went to the headquarters of the 2^nd French Armored Division and asked that their troops be moved out of the city so that CC A could get through Sees and push on toward Argentan.

After CC A got through Sees it was jabbed by the point of a 116th Panzer Division column which was coming from the southwest into the city. The presence of this German division, as well as elements of the 1st and 2^nd SS Panzer divisions in this area, indicated that the enemy was making a frantic effort to get its armor out of the closing trap; only two days before these enemy divisions had been in the Mortain area taking part in the unsuccessful counterattack toward Avranches.

A self-propelled 75 mm. gun in the column of the 116th Panzer Division fired on the CC A Task Force and broke a track on each of the two leading tanks of C Co., 34th Tank Bn. The remaining C Company tanks then blasted the enemy force and also enlisted the aid of the 47th Artillery Bn. This forced the German armor to flee toward Mortree. Before it reached the town three of its

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small caliber antitank guns were destroyed. Pursuing the enemy into Mortree, Task Force Burton knocked out a Mark VI at a range of 20 yards. A Mark V backed into a building which collapsed on it. Under a covering fire from the tanks, infantry of C Co., 46th Infantry Bn., dismounted and flushed the enemy soldiers from the town.

In this operation two more C Company tanks were disabled by enemy antitank shells. Lt. Richard J. Monihan, C Co., 46th Infantry Bn., climbed up on one of these burning tanks to rescue a wounded tanker. While he was still on top of the tank another shell smashed into it and knocked both him and the tanker to the ground. But Lt. Monihan picked up the wounded man, carried him to safety through machine gun fire; and killed two Germans. Lt. Monihan was the first Fifth Armored soldier to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Task Force Bartel passed through Task Force Burton in Mortree, but was halted by a mined roadblock. This obstacle, however, was removed and at 1400 hours the drive on Argentan was resumed. Company A's tanks were spread out on a wide front as the task force advanced over the rolling wheat fields south of the town. By 1900 hours they were on the edge of Argentan south of the Orne River. Two of the attacking tanks had been knocked out by mines and one had been destroyed by antitank fire.

Not wishing to tangle with the enemy so late in the day, CC A withdrew southwest to the high ground overlooking the town. Patrols sent into the town during the night reported that there was intense activity of tanks and infantry. Throughout the night, the 47th and 400th Armored Artillery Battalions turned their big guns on Argentan and blasted the town and its approaches.

Argentan lay only about 15 miles south of Falaise, toward which the Canadian Forces were pressing from the north. The Germans, therefore, were in a panic. They were trying frantically to squeeze their whole seventh Army through this narrow gap and at the same time struggling desperately to prevent the giant pincers from clamping completely shut.

To the right of CC A the armored column of CC R, after leaving Sees that day headed toward the northeast. With Task Force Boyer leading, it proceeded forward against moderate resistance.

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By 1600 hours the married B Companies of the 10th Tank Bn. and the 47^th Infantry Bn. were in Nonant-le-Pin. Prisoners captured here said that their outfit, the 12th Panzer Division, was located in the vicinity of Gace, and that the town was well fortified with tanks, antitank guns, and mines.

From Nonant-le-Pin Task Force Hamberg pushed on toward the reportedly well-fortified Gace, while Task Force Boyer turned northwest in the direction of the main road junction halfway between Gace and Argentan. At La Corbette the married A Companies of Task Force Hamberg became ensnared in their first mine field. Coming forward quickly from their place in the column, engineers of C Co., 22nd Engineer Bn., hurriedly uprooted these mines. By 2100 hours the column had established a roadblock at the junction of the main roads, five miles south of Gace. From the town the task force was receiving artillery and antitank fire.

Just after darkness had descended Task Force Boyer pulled into a position south of Exmes and dug in for the night. A column of German vehicles, led by a Tiger tank, stumbled into this road- block and all the vehicles soon were burning in the night.

During the day CC B had been ordered to remain in reserve in the Sees-Nonant-le-Pin area.

In the darkness the Fifth Armored soldiers could hear the mass movement of the German vehicles grinding along every passable road in the confusion-filled escape corridor. Many of these clanking enemy columns crashed into the Fifth Armored roadblocks and were destroyed or captured. The artillery pieces poured their whining shells into the gap all through the night. Meanwhile, at their command posts, Victory Division staff officers assessed the results of this active day and prepared attacks to be launched the following day. Enemy losses inflicted by the Fifth Armored on 12 August were officially tabulated as: 301 enemy soldiers killed and 362 captured; 70 tanks, 2 armored cars, 7 artillery pieces and 88 miscellaneous enemy vehicles were destroyed.

Wearily Fifth Armored soldiers watched another dawn break on this French battlefield; and as they waited, Poised on the edge of this churning hell, they knew another day of hot and bloody fighting lay ahead of them. This 13 of August was also to be a

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day of indecision. At the offset the division's mission remained the same; it was to "continue to Argentan, cut communications to the north." But later in the day these orders from higher headquarters would be changed and then changed again. Under the protective cover of a ground haze, CC A's Task Force Bartel started at 7 that morning to move into position southwest of Argentan for the attack. Plans called for Capt. James McDonough's A Co., 46^th Infantry Bn. to enter the town with the close support of fire from the A Co., 34th Tank Bn. Task Force Burton was to make a coordinated attack enveloping the east flank.

But when the echelon of 34th Bn. tanks had nearly reached their jump-off positions, the haze suddenly lifted and left them in full view of the enemy gunners. From the edge of the town came an intense shower of antitank shells which pummeled the A Co. vehicles. Seven tanks and the G-3 halftrack were knocked out. And Lt. Col. Barrel was seriously wounded.

After recovering from the shock of this surprising blow, the task force quickly reorganized under Major Glen L. Foote, now in command. It then tried to smash its way into the town from the south but could not penetrate the barrier of massed Panzer tanks on the outskirts of the city. The supporting fire from the artillery and fighter-bombers did not help greatly in whittling down these defenses because the tanks were well concealed in and among the buildings near the railroad marshalling yards.

The combat command's reserve was then sent around the right flank to cut the road to Gace. But the enemy, using at least 35 Mark V tanks, continued successfully to resist all efforts to push north of Argentan. At noon the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion was attached to CC A. As the combat command staff made plans for another attack that afternoon, the reconnaissance platoon of the 34th Tank Bn., kept a watchful eye on the town. It observed the Germans install a hasty mine field on the edge of Argentan. But before another attack got underway orders were received stating that the 2nd French Armored Division would relieve CC A at 2000 hours.

Early that morning CC R's Task Force Boyer had rolled north four miles to the main road junction between Gace and Argentan. The Task force anchored extensive roadblocks at this important

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highway intersection and men encountered here, for the first time, the screaming Nebelwerfer fire.

From its position five miles south of Gace, CC R's Task Force Hamberg had kicked off early in the day in an attack to seize the main crossroads and bridge just south of the town. To reach its attack positions, the task force had to overcome a sizable German force. This had alerted the enemy troops in the town who now were ready to counterattack. As the married A Companies of the 10th Tank Bn. and 47^th Infantry Bn. approached the crossroads they ran into a wave of attacking German infantrymen, supported by heavy artillery concentrations. The enemy soldiers were repeatedly thrown back, but the artillery fire became so heavy that Lt. Col. Hamberg went to Col. Anderson's CC R Headquarters to explain the situation.

The CC R commander had just returned from Division Headquarters with new instructions. He told Lt. Col. Hamberg that CC B's 15th Armored Infantry had been temporarily attached to CC R to assist in blocking the area south and east of Gace. Co. B was placed in Croiselles and the remainder of the battalion in the vicinity of Exmes. Later in the day the task force withdrew to the road junction at La Catelle where the force had stayed the previous night. Here a defense was prepared against an armored threat from Le Merlerault.

Before the CC B's 15th Infantry Bn. was attached to CC R, CC B had earlier that day been ordered to pass to the right of CC A at Argentan and then out across the German's narrow escape corridor in an attempt to take Falaise. This order was rescinded about noon when General Oliver conferred with General Haislip. The Corps Commander told General Oliver that under no conditions should the Fifth Armored advance beyond the line Argentan-Gace because a large scale bombing mission was being planned to blast the area to the north of this line.

It was General Patton who had orally issued the orders for an attempt to be made to close the gap when he had visited the headquarters of XV Corps on the afternoon of 12 August. But at the same time, his Third Army Headquarters was receiving instructions from Army Group ordering the ground troops not to attempt to proceed across the escape corridor. A complicating

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factor was the fact that the international boundary line between the British and American zones extended northwest through the center of Argentan-Gace.

Describing these conflicting orders the After Action Report of XV Corps for 13 August states:

"The Commanding General, Third U. S. Army, directed the XV Corps to push slowly in the direction Falaise and made contact with Allied forces advancing from the north. As this action was being initiated orders were received rescinding it and directing the Corps to halt on the Orne River. The Fifth Armored Division to be charged with preventing German use of the roads leading east from Argentan without becoming involved in a serious fight for the town, and with cutting roads leading out of Gace to the east."

During the day the fighter-bombers and artillery continued hammering the targets in the vicinity of Argentan. One severely mauled enemy column, which decided to abandon its attempt to run this gauntlet out of the slowly closing trap, signaled its desire to surrender to the planes by waving white flags. An order was dropped by the airmen to the commander of the column, which directed him to march his troops to Rodeau. This column grew to 17,000 Wehrmacht soldiers and surrendered to the 90^th Infantry Division two days later.

Fifth Armored patrols, which had been probing the Germans defenses in Argentan during the night, were at daylight of 14 August withdrawn from the city. Then at 0630 hours a shattering artillery barrage was put down on the city as the enemy troops and vehicles continued their frenzied rush to get through the city and out of the pocket. They were harassed, too, by the fighter-bombers which began another day of bombing and strafing the terror-ridden corridor. Confusion now became general among the German forces in this area. Enemy columns of from five to fifty vehicles, all trying desperately to find their way out of the encirclement, were reported in all sections of the division zone. Ten enemy tanks were repulsed when they attempted to charge through CC B's positions just north of Sees. And at 10:30 in the morning a column of enemy foot troops and tanks were bombed between the command posts of the Fifth Armored

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and 79th Infantry Divisions. During the day the German casualties inflicted by the Fifth Armored numbered: 215 killed and 410 taken prisoner. Then at 10 that evening orders came down from higher headquarters to the division. Its mission at the Falaise Gap was finished. It had set the trap which would enable other units to bag the game. It was now instructed to be ready to drive east to cross the Eure River and continue on to the Seine, west of Paris.

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Chapter XIII
In The Distance The Eiffel Tower
Argentan to the Seine
15 August-29 August

Life ebbed from the German Seventh Army as the iron grip of the Allied Forces began to tighten around the Argentan-Falaise escape corridor. Closing off the final few miles of this gap was a slow sledgehammer operation that would be completed on 20 August. The Fifth Armored was capable of waging such an offensive, as it would ably demonstrate later in the Hurtgen Forest, but this type of fighting was not its specialty. The division was a rapier rather than a saber. It did its best work with quick piercing strokes that cut to the heart of the enemy's defenses.

It was just such a swift paralyzing thrust that the Fifth Armored again was called upon to perform. The Germans who had managed to squeeze out of the Normandy trap were falling back hurriedly to the Eure River, about 80 miles to the east of Argentan. At this water barrier they intended to establish a new defense line with strong points at Dreux and Chartres. If they were successful, to dislodge them would take a major assault, with great losses in men and equipment. The Fifth Armored, therefore, was instructed to race to Dreux and wrest the town and its river crossings from the Germans before they could solidly entrench themselves. It was also ordered to continue beyond Dreux to the Seine and seize crossings over the river between Meulan and Vernon.

Fifth Armored men were still exhausted from the 58-mile dash up from Le Mans and the skirmishes along the Argentan-Gace Line. But on 15 August the division turned over its positions along the southern edge of the escape corridor to the 90th Infantry Division and by four that afternoon its tanks and halftracks were on the road grinding east toward the Eure.It was

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reported that elements of the 1st and 2nd SS Panzer Divisions were in the vicinity of Dreux and that the 17th GAF [German Air Force] Division having just come down from Holland, was moving across the Seine into the Eure area.

As the division sped through the August night, it was led by CC R on the left and CC B on the right. In reserve was CC A following CC R, while the remainder of the division was behind CC B's column.

CC R's route to Dreux passed through Courtomer, St. Martin, Armentieres and Brezolles. It advanced in two parallel columns with Task Force Hamberg, the 95th Artillery Bn. and C Co., 628th Tank Destroyer Bn. (minus one platoon) on the north and Task Force Boyer, Headquarters CC R, the 47th Artillery Bn. and a platoon of C Co., 628th T. D. Bn., on the south.

After stopping about 3 in the morning to refuel at St. Martin, Task Force Boyer was edging up to the western outskirts of Dreux by noon of the following day, 16 August. But then its advance guard was stopped here by fire from four 88s. The powerful enemy shells destroyed one light tank and killed the platoon leader, Lt. James J. O'Connor. Also the German artillery observers, with the advantage of their position on the Dreux Heights, were able to put down accurate fire on the mobile artillery pieces of the 47th Artillery Bn., forcing Lt. Col. Rosenzweig to move his battalion to a new location.

Racing along on the exposed northern flank, Task Force Hamberg ran into enemy resistance near Crulai. The left flank of the 95th Artillery Bn.'s column was attacked by a platoon of Mark IV tanks that were backed up by infantry and mortars. The artillerymen lost one of their M7s, one halftrack and two other vehicles. Then they leveled their big guns at the advancing Germans and, firing over open sights, smashed three of the attacking tanks and forced the others to retire. Because of this engagement Task Force Hamberg did not come within sight of Dreux until four o'clock on the afternoon of the 16th. By this time CC B had already started to attack the city, so CC R was ordered to block any enemy reinforcements from moving toward

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the city from the north and to secure crossings over the Eure from Dreux to Tury.

After their all-night rapid movement from Sees, along the poplar lined highway, CC B's two task forces and the 71st Artillery Bn. arrived in the vicinity of Dreux the morning of 16 August. While Task Force Giorlando, which had led CC B's column in its drive east, assembled just north of Fonville, Task Force Anderson went directly to the river and before noon had captured the bridge across the Eure at Villemeux, south of Dreux. The enemy, completely surprised to find American troops this far east, stumbled about in confusion. To take advantage of this disorganization, General Oliver ordered CC B to attack Dreux without delay.

The Mission fell to Task Force Giorlando. The plan called for the offensive to bear down on the town from the wooded approaches to the south; it would straddle the main highway, with the 15th Infantry Bn.'s A Co. on the right and C Co. on the left. Each company would be supported by a light tank platoon from D Co., 81st Tank Bn. (C Company and the two light tank platoons had been added to the task force's married A Companies to aid in this mission). The attacking companies would also be supported by fire from the field pieces of the 71^st Artillery Bn. and by the Assault Gun Platoon advancing along the highway.

Defending the town was a battalion of German infantrymen. They were well concealed along the edge of the woods on the south side of the town. They also had two antitank guns in position with the barrels pointed straight down the main highway.

These Wehrmacht soldiers lay quietly and made no move as the line of A and C Company doughs trudged slowly and cautiously toward the town. Then when the attack wave had approached to within a few hundred yards of the trees the forest suddenly erupted in an outpouring of marching gun, rifle and antitank fire. Stunned by this surprise blow, the dazed GI's were thrown back and two halftracks of the Assault Gun Platoon were destroyed.

Lieutenants Polim and Isaacs quickly reorganized their platoons and then with supporting fire from the tanks, artillery, and assault guns, both companies again rushed the woods. This time

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they rolled over the enemy's defenses. With direct fire Lt. Melvin Abbott's Assault Gun Platoon knocked out the two antitank guns. As the attack pushed through the woods and continued on toward the town, a German soldier, who was a member of the medical corps, came forward and offered to surrender 500 Germans in the town. Colonel Cole told the man he would be given a half hour to bring the garrison out of Dreux. Then the task force held its fire and waited, but after the half hour ticked away and no Germans emerged from the town, the attack was resumed. When the GI's reached the built-up sections of Dreux they found that the cagey Germans had withdrawn to a cemetery and were shelling the houses with mortars and artillery. But this final opposition was soon overcome and by 5:15 p.m. the town was in the hands of the Task Force. The happy inhabitants of Dreux then came out of their basements and other places of shelter and gave the Fifth Armored troops a loud and joyous welcome.

This quick capture of Dreux and the Eure crossings on 16 August made it unnecessary for the Allies to launch a large-scale airborne operation to take bridgeheads on the east bank of the river between Dreux and Chartres. It had been scheduled to begin on 18 August.

The morning after Dreux fell CC A arrived about 8 at Blainville, which completed the assembly of the entire division in the Dreux area. At Marville, where Division Headquarters were bivouacked, a lone enemy plane was shot down when it attempted to strafe the Command Post. Meanwhile CC R's Task Force Boyer had moved out early that morning was pushing north of Dreux toward the Avre River, which flowed in from the west and joined the Eure. The task force's right flank was protected by the Eure but the high ground across the river gave the enemy excellent observation of the moving column. By 9 A.M. the lead elements were receiving rifle, machine gun and mortar fire near Muzy. Some prisoners picked up by Task Force Boyer said they were members of the 17th GAF Division and that they had just come down from Holland to stop the Allied drive to the Seine.

Task Force Hamberg, which has been moving forward

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parallel and to the left of Task Force Boyer, reached the Avre and secured river crossings west of Muzy.

About 5 that afternoon Task Force Boyer attempted to enter Muzy and Motel but the column was repulsed by heavy artillery and anti-tank fire. Later it was learned that these two towns were occupied by the Antitank Battalion of the 17th GAF Division. At the end of the days operation CC R was firmly in control of all the territory north of Dreux to the Avre and west from the Eure to the railroad.

The Fifth Armored now became concerned with a very important triangle which was known as the Eure-Seine pocket. The base of this triangle was a line that extended from Dreux at the left and to Paris, about 44 miles almost directly east, at the right end. The Triangle's right sloping side was formed by the Seine River which flowed northwest from Paris, while the left side of the triangle was formed by the Eure River which flowed almost directly north from Dreux and joined the Seine a few miles south of Rouen.

This triangle, particularly its upper half, jutted deep into the wide escape path which the enemy soldiers, who had eluded the Falaise encirclement, were using to fall back toward Germany. The area, therefore, was filled with these Wehrmacht troops who were determined not only to get across the Seine themselves but also to keep its bridges open so that those behind them might also get across.

On the morning of 18 August detailed orders came down from higher headquarters which outlined the course the division was to follow in plunging into the Eure-Seine pocket. It was not instructed to proceed along the base of the triangle directly east to Paris, as every man had hoped and would have preferred. Instead, the division was ordered to bisect the triangle, to push from Dreux across the middle of the pocket and hit the Seine River near Mantes, about 31 miles northwest of Paris. It was to occupy the area west of Mantes-Gaissiccourt, blocking all roads and protecting the XV Corps' left flank.

This mission was accomplished with lightning speed. While CC R remained in Dreux to protect the bridgehead area, CC A and CC B pulled out of the town by noon on the same day the

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order was received. Ten hours later both combat commands had arrived at the west bank of the Seine south of Bonnieres. In this race across the triangle they overran several groups of enemy infantry and destroyed one 150 mm. howitzer, two halftracks and numerous trucks.

That night an unusual scrap occurred at one of the road blocks which had been hastily set up. A Mark V tank, rumbling through the darkness, rammed head on into a tank from C Co., 81st Tank Bn. The Sherman's 75 mm. gun immediately belched out a round of armor-piercing ammunition which struck the gun mantle on the Mark V and was deflected down through the hatch, killing the German crew members. At Gilles the same night the 993rd Engineer Treadway Bridge Co. lost two air compressors and five 2 1/2 ton trucks.

Many prisoners were taken by the roadblocks the next day as several scattered and disorganized enemy groups decided to give up the fight. Without losing a single man, Troop B, 85th Cavalry Sq., captured 142 members of the 116th Panzer Division. But enemy tanks were still active in the upper part of the triangle. To prevent the Germans from floating barges loaded with oil and other supplies down the Seine, Capt. Rolf E. Michelson's B. Co., 22nd Engineer Bn., damaged the locks near Port Villez. Also during the day's operations, Fifth Armored men discovered that SS troops were trying to make their escape in ambulances.

On the Breuilpont-Bonnieres highway the division's tanks were met by an overjoyed American pilot; he had been shot down the previous March and since that time had lived in disguise as a French civilian. To the airman's thrill at being liberated was soon added the happy surprise of a reunion with his brother, Lt. Harry G. Eberhardt of the 46th Infantry Bn.

After it was reported late in the afternoon by reconnaissance observers that enemy activity was increasing in the vicinity of Pacy sur Eure, the 47th Artillery Bn. put down on the town a barrage which destroyed some Wehrmacht vehicles. Then early in the evening a force of about 18 or 20 enemy tanks came charging down from the north into CC A and CC B's positions. The attacking armor, however, ran up against a bristling wall of tank, artillery, and aircraft fire, and six of the Panthers were

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demolished. When a platoon of Mark Vs tried to move into an assembly area with B Co., 81st Tank Bn., one tank was knocked out and the others fled to the northwest.

After turning the Dreux bridgehead area over to the Seventh Armored Division on the same day, CC R had started moving north along the east bank of the Eure to protect the Corp's left flank. Enemy planes soared in over the column and one was shot down by an antiaircraft unit. In the path of the combat command's advance lay Anet, which was about 12 miles northeast of Dreux. Prisoners, captured along the route, said the town was occupied by the German 47th Infantry Regiment. The combat command's long reconnaissance arms, which reached out like antennae from CC R's main body, contacted the enemy troops in Anet by 4 in the afternoon and discovered one Mark IV tank and 12 other vehicles in the town. The patrols found, too, that 13 supply trucks from the U. S. 79th Infantry Division were trapped in the woods west of Anet.

CC R rescued the supply trucks and then moved to high ground which dominated the town and its surrounding area. The Germans, realizing they had been put in an exposed position by this American maneuver, launched an artillery-supported infantry attack to dislodge CC R from the commanding heights. The green-clad Wehrmacht soldiers came across the Eure between Anet and Ivry. But CC R poured down heavy fire on the attackers and thinned their ranks before the assault could gain any momentum. Then in quick retaliation Task Force Boyer charged down on Ivry.

Before darkness settled over the battlefield that summer evening the superstructure of the Eiffel Tower was visible in the distance to the Victory Division troops occupying the high ground near the Seine. As they looked upon this old landmark, which heralded the presence of the famous beautiful city reclining at its base, these tired soldiers wished they would now be ordered to move southeast along the Seine to liberate Paris. They wanted the coveted privilege of driving the enemy from this prize city, the recapture of which would be celebrated around the world. And they knew that Parisians, overjoyed at being relieved of the German oppression, would receive their liberators tumultuously.

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But such fruits were not for the Fifth Armored. Another, more difficult, but not so glamorous task was to be its lot. That night the division was ordered to drive northwest along the Seine, away from instead of toward Paris (which would fall five days later on 25 August). Its mission was to clear the remaining Germans from the upper part of the Eure-Seine triangle and to seize all of the Seine crossings which the enemy had been using in the area.

Thus, on 20 August, the day the Argentan-Falaise Gap was finally closed, the Fifth Armored, more than 115 miles (road distance) to the east of Argentan, began a new pincers movement to envelope those Wehrmacht soldiers who had evaded the Normandy trap but had not yet crossed the Seine. It was not an easy operation; for the division was driving a wedge into an extremely sensitive enemy flank and the Germans fought savagely to prevent any narrowing of their escape route. It meant seizing the important crossings at Vernon and Les Andelys on the Seine and Louviers on the Eure; it meant taking from the Germans their pontoon bridges which they cleverly had concealed along the river banks during the day and then stretched across the water at night. In this manner the Germans shuttled 27,000 troops across the river during the last three nights before the bridges were captured. It also meant battling through numerous heavily wooded ravines where the fanatical defenders fought to the last man.

The attack jumped off at 9:30 a.m. with CC A on the left and CC B in a parallel position on the right. Their objective was the high ground at Heudebouville, 25 miles to the north.

CC A's advance guard consisted of the married A Companies of the 34^th Tank Bn. and the 46th Infantry Bn. This vanguard tangled with its first resistance at Douains where two of its tanks were knocked out by enemy antitank guns. Assistance was sought from the 47th and 400th Artillery Battalions which smashed the enemy position with their heavy fire and enabled the column to push on two more miles to the edge of La Heuniere. Here the Germans had 12 to 15 tanks ready to trade blows with anything that challenged them. This tough armor was entrenched in excellent defense positions and fire from their guns swept all

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approaches to the south of the town. For three hours during the afternoon the fighter-bombers, artillery pieces and tank destroyers brought down on the German tanks all of the thunderous and deadly wrath of which they were capable. But only a few of the Panthers yielded any ground.

During the entire day, however, the enemy lost 12 tanks, destroyed by both ground and air action. CC A's losses included three tanks and three tank destroyers. Also, Lt. Col. Hernandez of the 628th Tank Destroyer Bn. was killed while directing fire in front of his own guns.

Early in the evening Capt. James W. Ray, commander of the advance guard, took the married A Companies around the western side of La Heuniere through a defiladed route to the north of the town, where he assembled near St. Vincent des Bois. Thus the night was spent with the enemy sandwiched between the advanced guard and the main body of CC A.

Patrols which had crept up to the edge of La Heuniere in the darkness reported that the Germans had withdrawn from the town. Major Burton was then ordered to send a platoon of infantry from his task force at daylight through the town to make contact with the advance guard on its north side. But as this force drew near to the village, it was fired upon by from 200 to 300 enemy soldiers who were discovered to be occupying the buildings and well dug-in position in an adjacent field. During the first few minutes of this early morning encounter Major Burton was wounded.

Lt. Col. Case, executive officer of CC A, immediately was assigned to replace the wounded commander and ordered to continue the attack. Instructions also went to the advance guard to wheel around and descend on the town from the north. With this combined assault pressing in upon La Heuniere like a vise from both the north and the south, its defenders were soon killed or routed. Those who fled ran to the east across the front of the machine gun and assault gun platoons of Headquarters Co., 46th Infantry Bn.

After snuffing out this last resistance at La Heuniere, the task force continued on through a nearby wooded area and by late afternoon it was on the outskirts of Mercey. Here Lt. Col. Case

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called for his supporting artillery batteries to soften up the target before his infantry attacked. But unfortunately he did not wait for the preparatory fire and was wounded as he moved his force against the town. Major Jack Day then assumed command of the task force and before midnight his troops, after winding through a dangerous defile, were within sight of Champenard. During the night Lt. Col. Kenneth Gilson arrived to take over command of the task force.

On CC B's front, the Combat Command had been methodically working its way forward through scattered resistance. Each woods in its path was combed out by the infantrymen who trudged through on foot. Late in the afternoon of 21 August CC B had attacked the Forest of Bizy and had completely cleared it by 8:30 that evening. Then it began advancing on Vernon.

Throughout the day CC R had been in division reserve at an assembly area just south of Cravent. The previous day, 20 August, it had finished mopping up the last enemy hold-outs in the Anet-Ivry area by noon and four hours later had turned over its positions there to the Seventh Armored Division.

At dawn on 22 August Lt. Col. Gilson took his new command into Champenard without opposition. But the flat open ground to the north of the village was within the field of fire of five Mark Vs and one towed 88 which were camouflaged in a woods about 1200 yards to the northeast. As Task Force Gilson tried to leave the village these concealed enemy guns destroyed two of its tanks and three of its halftracks. And CC A Headquarters lost three of its light tanks when its tank platoon tried to move to the right to reconnoiter the route used the previous night.

To clear the wooded fringes around this open area on the north of Champenard Capt. Bland's B Co., 46th Infantry Bn., dismounted from their halftracks and took their bazookas into the woods with them. This pressure applied by the rocket-firing infantrymen forced the enemy tanks to withdraw from the woods. But as they tried to escape to the north they came within view of CC A's tanks which immediately loosed a torrent of shells on them. Four of the Mark Vs were demolished and the fifth was abandoned.

After capturing Vernon, CC B trundled on toward the north.

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As Task Force Anderson was grinding forward northwest of Gaillon its married B Companies of the 81st Tank Bn. and 15th Infantry Bn. Received machine gun fire from a harvested field. When the married C Companies started past the field, it was discovered that this peaceful-looking pastoral scene was a formidable enemy stronghold; under each wheat shock was a large fox hole in which SS troops lay waiting. As the married C Companies started to spread out in preparation for an attack on this fortified position, enemy antitank shells crashed into two Shermans and two light tanks. This fire came forth from a woods on the far side of the field.

The air and artillery liaison officers radioed for assistance and soon the big shells were whining overhead and the fighter-bombers were diving on the enemy gun positions. At the same time the married C Companies turned their tank, assault and machine guns on these woods. A tracer bullet from one of the weapons ignited a drum of gasoline on one of the Mark V tanks. This blazing marker enabled the Airplane pilots easily to pick out and quickly destroy the other two Panther tanks.

After the enemy's heavy guns on the far side of the field had been eliminated the tank guns shot up the wheat shocks and the unyielding SS troops who were concealed in the fox holes beneath them. Then the infantry moved in and with their grenades and rifles finished off those Germans who still resisted. During the fight not a single SS man offered to surrender. When the Graves Registration personnel gathered up the crop of dead on this wheat field the next day, they counted the bodies of 200 German soldiers.

While Task Force Anderson had been overcoming this enemy strong point, CC B's Task Force Giorlando had continued north along the Seine and by nightfall had reached St. Etienne.

Early in the day CC R had been alerted for the mission of clearing the Forest of Pacy. The attack had begun west of La Heuniere at 4 in the afternoon but it was soon discovered that the enemy had withdrawn from the woods. The combat command had then been given the task of protecting the division's rear from any enemy tanks and artillery pieces heading for the Seine as CC A and CC B advanced northwest in the Eure-Seine pocket.

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The following day, 23 August, the division's armored wave continued to tumble forward crushing all the enemy's defenses on which it fell. While B and C Companies of the 46th Infantry Bn. cleared the woods from Champenard to the Gaillon highway, the remainder of CC A swept across the open terrain north of the town. The artillery batteries and fighter-bombers were kept busy smashing up two Seine-bound German columns which they caught on the road; one was an armored force heading east toward Gaillon, while the other was a horse-drawn artillery column moving east from Heudebouville. In these attacks from the air the Germans found that they were practically defenseless, even when they attempted to hide. The pilots had learned to spot enemy tank tracks and to follow them until they disappeared in hay stacks, buildings and clumps of trees; these innocently looking objects would then be hit by the airmen with their devastating bombs and rockets.

After subduing scattered resistance during the day, CC A's main body reached the line Les Quaizes-Ailly-Gournay by 5 that afternoon. Task Force Bland, a special team consisting of the married B Companies of the 46th Infantry Bn, and 34th Tank Bn. plus one platoon from A Co., 22^nd Engineer Bn., passed through Gournay and attacked Fontaine-Bellinger at 6 p.m. Here more fanatical Germans were found to be dug-in under wheat shocks and also in an orchard. These tanks led the assault and blasted the area. Then the infantry, following along in their halftracks, dropped grenades down into the fox holes and killed all the Germans who had managed to escape the fire from the tank guns. Probing further north beyond this strong point the task force was hit by 40 mm. antiaircraft and antitank fire from the area east of Heudebouville. Two of its tanks and one halftrack were lost before darkness ended the fight. Throughout the night the artillery pounded the enemy positions in preparation for the attack that was to come the next morning.

CC B's Task Force Giorlando had cleared the woods beyond the main highway southwest of Gaillon during the day. Then at 3:15 in the afternoon it had been placed under the control of CC A for the assault on Heudebouville.

Rain fell on 24 August bringing its ominous warning that the

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fine warm summer weather with its dry roads and solid ground, which had enabled the Fifth Armored to advance so rapidly, was coming to an end. Now there would be another enemy besides the Germans: mud. But despite the rain the division was determined to make quick work of seizing its final objective in the northern point of the Eure-Seine pocket. To take the town a double envelopment was planned: Task Force Giorlando, on the left, would attack through Gruchet and Ingremare (this left wing punch would also have the support of a force of medium tanks under the command of Major Boxley that would attack from the area north of Ailly); on the right. Task Force Bland would drive in through Gournay and Fontaine-Bellinger; and in the center would be a holding force commanded by Lt. Col. Gilson.

The rain and soft mud seriously hampered the advance. By 1:30 that afternoon Task Force Bland had captured Fontaine-Bellinger and twenty minutes later Gruchet fell to Task Force Giorlando. The road through Heudebouville was cut at 2 p.m. and by 5 that afternoon Ingremare had been taken. Then at 6:30 p.m. Task Force Bland moved into Heudebouville. And the fall of this town ended all enemy resistance in the northern tip of the Eure-Seine triangle.

That night welcome news came down from higher headquarters to the damp and tired men of CC A and CC B. They were ordered to "assemble in vicinity to Mantes-Gassicourt, repair and service vehicles and weapons."

But CC R's tasks in the Eure-Seine pocket were not yet finished. The combat command had been ordered that day to move to an assembly area southeast of Mantes-Gassicourt. It had been intended that CC R would remain here as a mobile reserve, under Corps' control, to back up the 106th Cavalry Group. But while the column was enroute to the Mantes area Corps had sent new orders to Colonel Anderson which instructed him to cross the Mauldre River, attack to the north and clear all the Germans from the pocket south of the Seine, west of Poissy. This change in plans had been radioed to the two task forces and by 10 that night the combat command had assembled west of Beynnes.

Photos From Normandy to the Seine
[p.81=96-photos]

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It was not a restful night that CC R spent in this area. The German artillery observers, perched on the high ground east of the Mauldre from which the countryside west of the river is visible for ten miles, evidently had spotted the arrival of the combat command near Beynnes. For at about midnight German artillery shells with their blood-chilling shrieks began crashing in CC R's assembly area. During the night more than 100 rounds of these 88 mm. armor-piercing shells were hurled at the combat command but no men or vehicles were hit.

After waiting through this anxious night, the combat command lunged forward into the enemy's positions the following day. Task Force Boyer, led by the married B Company of the 10th Tank Bn. and the 47th Infantry Bn., swept through the woods north of Crespleres. The tankers and infantrymen ferreted out a Storm battalion, which only recently had been organized in Paris. More than 100 Germans were killed or wounded and the rest surrendered.

All resistance in the area had ceased by 5 that afternoon; the enemy equipment which the combat command captured here included four 88s, four 105 mm. artillery pieces, numerous bicycles and one transport plane.

This completed the division's work of clearing the Eure-Seine pocket and also of annihilating the enemy Combat Team (or Task Force) Wahl-Franke. This had been a provisional unit and had consisted of elements of the 1st and 12th Panzer Divisions, 17th, 2nd and 4th Panzer Grenadier Divisions, 711th Infantry and 7th SS Mountain Divisions. It received new trucks in Paris on 16 August and had been sent to hold Dreux, but the town had been captured before it had reached there. The task force had then been cut up while it fought ferociously to prevent the Fifth Armored from flooding through the Eure-Seine pocket.

On 26 August CC R was instructed to move up to the west bank of the Seine River and outpost the area Les Mureaux-Poisay. Task Force Boyer was strung out from Les Mureaux to Vernonouillet, while Task Force Hamberg occupied the area from Vernonouillet to Poissy. Their job here until 29 August was to harass with mortar and tank fire all enemy movements in the opposite shore. The division's artillery battalions also continued

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to remain in action, south of the Seine until 29 August. They were given the mission of supporting with artillery fire the 79th and 30^th Infantry Divisions which were establishing a bridgehead across the river.

The other two combat commands and the remainder of the division however, moved to the Mantes-Gassicourt area, where they remained until 29 August. It was their first respite from fighting since they had first gone into action on 2 August. Their stay here was devoted to badly-needed maintenance work on their equipment, such as tank and halftack motors, tank tracks, radios and weapons. While here they also received replacement vehicles for those which had been lost in battle.

During this period, too, men were able to bathe and clean up. For many it was the first time they were able to reserve their clothes since they had left England.

The Fifth Armored's initial, almost-month-long period in combat was of record length. In this long session of continuous fighting from Normandy to the Seine, the division left in its wake a clutter of broken enemy units and destroyed equipment. The division killed 2,811 German soldiers and captured 2,900. It destroyed: 203 tanks, 8 armored cars, 384 motor vehicles, 3 ambulances, 20 self-propelled guns, 87 artillery pieces, and 89 infantry weapons. And it captured: 36 tanks, 8 airplanes and 18 artillery pieces.

In its campaign from Normandy to the Seine the Fifth Armored traveled 405 miles (this figure is the shortest road distance, but many individual maneuvering vehicles piled up more than 600 miles, The drive included: move from St. Sauveur le Vicomte to south of the Selune River, 85 miles; advance to Le Mans, 95 miles; advance north to Argentan, 58 miles; advance to Dreux, 80 miles; advance to the Seine, 35 miles; advance to northwest point of Eure-Seine pocket and back again (26 miles each way), 52 miles,

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Chapter XIV
All Is Kaput
The Seine to Luxembourg
30 August--10 September

Overwhelming optimism swept through the Allied Forces in Western Europe toward the end of the summer of 1944. And the fountainhead from which these joyous waves expanded was Paris. As the French capital glowed with exaltation in its newly won freedom and as the remnants of the broken German armies fled through Northern France and Belgium toward their homeland, GIs and generals alike seemed convinced that the war could not last much longer. Except among the Fifth Armored Division Intelligence officers, the air was filled with wild predictions that hostilities would be over in three weeks, two weeks, or even a few days.

But despite their confidence in an early victory the Allies did not relax their crushing pressure on the retreating Wehrmacht. Before they plunged across the Seine to continue the chase, however, some of the U. S. divisions were reassigned to different armies and corps. In this reshuffle the Fifth Armored was transferred from General Patton's Third Army to General Courtney H. Hodge's First Army (26 August). It was also placed in General Leonard T. Gerow's Fifth Corps (29 August). Its team mates in this corps were the 4th and 28th Infantry Divisions. The First Army's other two corps consisted of (VII Corps) 3rd Armored, 1st and 9^th Infantry Divisions; (XIX Corps) 2nd Armored, 79th and 30th Infantry Divisions.

As this new advance got under way the First Army's three corps jumped off in staggered formation. The VII Corps' 3rd Armored crossed the Seine east of Paris on 26 August, the XIX Corps' 2nd Armored began crossing in the Mantes-Gassicourt area on 28 August; and the V Corps Fifth Armored passed over the river in Paris on 30 August.

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Although Paris had been liberated from the German yoke for five days when the Fifth Armored finally entered the city, the atmosphere was still charged with a spirit of rejoicing. From windows along the broad avenues hung the long-hidden tri-colored flags, gently stirring in the summer breezes. Happy, colorful crowds, jamming the sidewalks, cheered and waved as the division's tanks and halftracks rumbled by. And whenever the columns halted briefly these exuberant Parisians pressed forward around the vehicles to greet personally the Victory Division men.

It was an exciting, memorable experience for the GIs as they received the plaudits of this grateful city. But their stay amidst these exhilarating surroundings was brief. By noon CC A and CC B were already beyond the city. They were speeding north in order to pass through the 4th and 28th Infantry Divisions. Their mission was to secure crossings over the Oise and Aisne Rivers between Compiegne and Soissons, about 50 miles northeast of Paris.

By late that evening CC B, on the left, was about 25 miles north of the French Capital; both its task forces had met and overcome enemy rear guard troops: Task Force Anderson at Lamorlaye and Task Force Gilson at Senlis. (The 15th Infantry Bn. was now under the command of Lt. Col. Gilson; he had been transferred from the 46th Infantry Bn. when Major Burton had returned from the hospital on 27 August to resume command of that battalion.) The 629th Tank Destroyer Bn. had joined CC A at Claye Souilly during the afternoon and before dark the combat command had reached Nantouillet. Division Headquarters spent the night just south of Ducy after the head of the column had come up against some German infantry troops and antitank guns. Lt. Col. Fay was killed in this action, and command of the 85th Cavalry Sq. had been assumed by Maj. John P. Gerald. The next morning, 31 August, the division lunged forward in a three-pronged offensive. CC R's column was in the center with CC B on the left and CC A on the right. By about 11 that morning CC B's Task Force Gilson had pushed approximately 12 miles north of Senlis to Verberie, where the enemy had blown the highway bridge. Despite this obstacle, the task force con-

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tinued its advance and about mid-afternoon overran and shot up a German horse-drawn column. Further to the left, Task Force Anderson reached Creil at 3 p.m. and found that the important bridge here over the Oise also had been destroyed. Before midnight Task Force Gilson was on the outskirts of Compiegne and was encountering fierce resistance from the Germans in the darkness.

After passing through the doughs of the 4th Infantry Division just before noon, CC A had met opposition from enemy infantry and antitank guns at Morienval three hours later. But a little after 6 that evening the combat command's Task Force Burton had been able to cross the Aisne unopposed at Pommiers; it then assembled for the night five miles north of the river.

In its race to nip at the heels of the fleeing German forces, CC R overran seven enemy artillery pieces south of Bethisy. Next, its two task forces had plunged into the historic Compiegne Forest at Orrouy and Gilcourt. By 8 in the evening they were running into heavy resistance.

As the division continued its rush northward, the trains (supply and administrative vehicles) of each of the combat commands were being protected by the 85th Cavalry Sq. Troops A, B and C were attached to Combat Commands A, B and R respectively.

CC A, now beyond the Fifth Armored's immediate objective - the Compiegne-Soissons line--was attached to the 4th Infantry Division in the early morning hours of 1 September. The new job assigned to its two task forces, which were supported by the 47th and 400th Artillery Battalions was to spearhead this infantry division's advance in the V Corps' eastern sector.

After the 28th Division's 112th Regiment had secured a bridge-head on the north bank of the Oise at Compiegne during the night, B Co., 22^nd Engineer Bn., started constructing a 240 foot treadway bridge across the river. It was completed by 6 the following evening and CC B's Task Force Gilson began rolling its tanks and halftracks over the stream. Meanwhile, further down the river at Pont St. Maxence, Task Force Anderson had crossed two hours earlier. During this time, CC R with the assistance of the 28th Division's Combat Team 109 had completed the task of clearing the Compiegne Forest against moderate re-

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sistance. But when the combat command had reached Choissy on the river at 2 in the afternoon, it found another destroyed bridge. CC R, therefore, had been ordered to cross over the new treadway bridge at Compiegne.

During the day the division had received new instructions from General Gerow. It was ordered to proceed northward as swiftly as possible to the V Corps' objective, the Belgian border at Conde. CC B, which was now on the north side of the river, was urged, therefore, to continue its advance into the night. Its armored columns rolled on in the darkness, but as Task Force Gilson approached Noyon, about 13 miles north of Compiegne its three lead tanks were knocked out by German antitank guns. Further to the left, a fusillade of 88 mm. shells and bazooka projectiles smashed into three halftracks of the 15th Infantry Bn.'s Co., which was at the head of Task Force Anderson's column. The combat command had run up against the Wehrmacht's 348th Infantry Division, the bulk of which was deployed in this Noyon-Remy area; it had been placed here to stall the Fifth Armored's advance and thus gain time for its own motorized forces to get across the Somme River. CC B was unable to push any further north that night.

But the next day, 2 September, the combat command broke loose and hurtled forward in a spectacular 85-mile dash; it was the deepest drive into enemy territory made thus far in a single day by any outfit on the Western Front. At daylight CC B found that most of the enemy forces which had presented the stonewall resistance the previous night had withdrawn. From its positions south of Noyon it then rolled its halftracks and tanks onto the roads at 6:30 a.m. and pointed them toward the Belgian border.

After grinding through Noyon, it pushed on to Ham, where the bridge over the Somme-Oise Canal had been wrecked with demolitions. Engineers of B Co., 22nd Engineer Bn., were called forward to the site and they quickly threw a 30-foot treadway bridge across the barrier. Crossing the canal and driving beyond Ham, the column then began to pick up speed. It by-passed St. Quentin to the west and, later, Cambrai to the east. Then it shot into Valenciennes and by 10:15 that night was across the Belgian border two miles north of Conde. The first Fifth Ar-

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mored member to enter Belgium was Lt. Robert A. Lewis, company commander of A Co., 15th Infantry Bn.; he was carried across the border by a jubilant crowd of Belgian citizens.

Fifteen minutes after the division rolled into Belgium an order arrived from the V Corps; it instructed the Fifth Armored to halt its northward drive on the Cambrai-le Cateau line, but the division was already 25 miles beyond this line. When the liaison officer to corps, Lt. Stephen Frankl, drove south to report the division's disposition, he had to travel 120 miles to reach Corps Headquarters.

During its dash north the column was led most of the way by General Oliver, who rode in his peep. Once he spotted an enemy antitank gun which was poised to fire on the column as soon as it started crossing a canal bridge. The division commander moved behind a house at the side of the road and then directed the fire of the column's lead tank, which destroyed the enemy's gun.

At the same time that the Fifth Armored was deftly knifing its way north to Conde, on its left a vast German force was also moving toward Belgium, but more slowly. Consisting of about 50,000 soldiers, it was hastening to get back to Germany. The immediate objective on its escape route was Mons in Belgium. But the arrival of the Fifth Armored at Conde, which lay about 16 miles directly west of Mons, blocked this return path and thus sealed the doom of the German force.

The positions of this huge mass of retreating enemy troops were reported by a Wehrmacht officer, who was picked up by the Fifth Armored along the route to Belgium. Division Headquarters relayed the information to a group of P-47s that were in the neighboring skies. These airmen with their shattering bombs and devastating strafing then spent the entire afternoon ripping into the concentration of men and equipment, especially those jammed up near Beauvais. As the Fifth Armored was quickly called to a new mission and relieved of its blocking positions astride the Germans'retreat path, it did not remain here long enough to gather up any sizable crop of prisoners from this cut off body. But after the division had departed, the 1st Infantry Division

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and the 3rd Armored Division captured 45,000 of these German soldiers; many of them were taken near Mons. It was ironical that this immense German horde should meet its defeat here in the borderland area between France and Belgium; for it was here that von Rundstedt's armored columns, after smashing through the front at Sedan, had broken the backs of the French and British armies in the spring of 1940, and the point from which the British "Old Contemptible" started their historic withdrawal in 1914. CC A, which had been spearheading the advance of the 4th Infantry Division during the first two days of September, had reached the line le-Cateau-Landrecies. Here, reverting to division control, it assembled in the vicinity of Esnes. Division headquarters was located at Maing, just below Valenciennes, while CC R was a few miles further south. The Fifth Armored spent 3 September setting up roadblocks and picking up German soldiers who were astonished to find U. S. troops blocking the roads to Germany. About 50 vehicles which came up against these blocks were destroyed. Also during the day, British troops passed to the northwest of the division's positions and closed on the Belgian border. Counting up the destruction it had wrought on the German Army in its 130-mile Paris-Conde thrust, the division found it had killed 400 enemy soldiers and taken 600 prisoners. It had also destroyed hundreds of vehicles, machine guns and other weapons. North of Valenciennes it had captured 69 two-horse teams and several saddle horses and had been directly responsible for the capture of 45,000 German troops in the Mons area.

On 4 September the V Corps' three divisions began executing a swift and intricate maneuver. They were to pull back from their positions along the Belgian border, swing around to the southeast, and pass behind the troops of the VII Corps in an advance toward Luxembourg. In this 100-mile eastward move the Fifth Armored was led on the left by CC R, which was headed for Charleville-Mezieres north of Sedan, and on the right by CC A, which was driving toward a point south of Sedan. CC B followed along behind CC R; at Brunehamed, however, it would branch

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off to the south between the other two combat commands and approach Sedan from the west.

Departing at 7:30 that morning from Le Cateau, CC R was off on a record-breaking dash. It shot through Guise, Hirson, Maubert, Fontaine and by 3:40 that afternoon its lead elements were in Charleville on the Meuse River. This was a motor march of 96 miles in eight hours and ten minutes. Because of the extended supply lines, gasoline was extremely scarce and several vehicles with dry fuel tanks had to drop out along the route. After gas had been brought up to them, however, they raced forward to rejoin their units. The fuel shortage also prevented the 95th Artillery Bn. from accompanying CC R on its run to Charleville, but a truck-drawn artillery battalion, the 196th, was able to go along with the command.

At Mezieres CC R learned from troops of the 24th Cavalry (also of the V Corps) that the enemy had blown all six of the Meuse River bridges in this area. After reconnoitering for a suitable site at which to erect an emergency crossing the combat command decided to start building the bridge at Warcq. But infantrymen, conducting further reconnaissance on the opposite shore, discovered that there were two canals east of Charleville-Mezieres instead of only one shown on the maps. The bridge over the first canal was still standing but the span over the second was down. Work, therefore, was halted at Warcq and a new site, where the stream could be bridged with only one structure, was sought.

Captain Pasqualino of B Co., 47th Infantry Bn., ordered his company to dismount from their halftracks; then he sent small reconnaissance parties to search along the edges of the river and canals. One of these groups found a dam which, although partially destroyed, could still be used as a crossing for foot troops. Here the entire company made their way over the river and they were followed by members of C Co., 47^th Infantry Bn. At nine that evening both these companies charged the high ground east of the second canal which was held by a training garrison of fanatical young Germans. The infantrymen were supported in their assault by direct fire from B Co., 10th Tank Bn., by artillery fire from the 198th Artillery Bn., and by fire from the Assault Gun and Machine Gun platoons of Headquarters Co., 47th In-

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fantry Bn. The enemy defenders had a tremendous advantage. They were entrenched in the rear installations of the Maginot Line. Their positions were high up a 50-foot cliff and were connected by underground concrete tunnels. From their elevated defenses they were able to drop grenades on the attacking infantrymen.

The fighting continued bitterly into the night with the bullets ricocheting off the rocky surfaces. Meanwhile, construction work was begun by C Co., 22nd Engineer Bn. on another treadway bridge south of the cliff. But the Germans had brought up self-propelled 20 mm. antiaircraft guns and poured shells down on the bridge site. A bulldozer was destroyed and the engineers suffered several casualties.

At daylight the next morning, 5 September, the doughs moved against the cliff fortress again and by noon they had rooted out the last of the defenders from the corridors of this Maginot Line installation. Mud and rain hampered the engineers in their construction work but by 5 in the afternoon they had finished their 192-foot treadway bridge. It was the first bridge to be built across the Meuse by Allied forces. One hour later both of CC R's Task Forces were across the Meuse and awaiting further orders from Division Headquarters.

CC A was hard hit by the gasoline shortage. After returning from its mission with the 4th Division, the combat command had filled its vehicles' fuel tanks in preparation for the long drive to the east. But on the extended motor march to the Meuse no gas was immediately available to refuel the tanks and halftracks because the supply trucks had to go all the way back to truckheads south of the Seine River to pick up more gasoline. The lead elements of CC A, therefore, did not arrive at the Meuse until 5:45 in the afternoon of 5 September.

Members of A Co., 46th Infantry Bn., immediately started to ferry across the river at Pont Maugis in a single outboard motor boat that was supplied by A Co., 22nd Engineer Bn. By 9 in the evening the company was holding a small east-bank bridgehead on the flat plain west of Bazeilles and the engineers had begun constructing a treadway bridge. Three hours after midnight, however, enemy infantry launched an attack with machine gun

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and mortar fire. They forced the bridgehead troops to fall back and the engineers to cease work on the bridge.

During the night a column of supply trucks loaded with 11,000 gallons of gasoline rolled in from the west. This permitted the 47th Artillery Bn. to join the 400th Artillery Bn. and add its support to the bridgehead operation.

Early the next morning members of C Co., 46th Infantry Bn., crossed the river and joined the harassed doughs of A Co. After occupying Balan these two companies then attacked Bazeilles from the north. The enemy soldiers, dug-in southeast of the village, clung tenaciously to their positions. While these infantrymen of A and C Companies fought to enlarge the bridgehead the engineers started work again on their bridge. By 12:20 p.m. they had completed it. And as soon as it was finished a platoon of light tanks rumbled across the structure and went to the aid of the De Federico's mortar platoon, the attack wave pushed beyond two infantry companies. One of the tanks was put out of action by antitank fire.

With the supporting fire from artillery batteries and Lt. Joseph the village. But here the mortar fire from the German positions on the high wooded ground overlooking Bazeilles became so heavy that C Company was forced to fall back to the houses in the village for cover. B Company then passed through C Company in order to outflank the mortar positions from the northeast. Preceded by a crippling barrage from the big artillery guns, B Company filtered into the woods and ferreted out the Germans who were still alive. Among those captured were three officers; one had a map which depicted the enemy's delaying positions between the Meuse and the Luxembourg border, of which G-2 made good use.

After the engagement had been concluded, Task Force Burton came across the bridge and passed through the companies, By midnight it was nearing Douzy.

The job of liberating historic Sedan, a contested city in other wars, fell to CC R's Task Force Boyer. To assist it in this undertaking it ws assigned the 15th Infantry Bn. Pushing off early from Mezieres on 6 September, the task force started winding through the narrow, mountainous roads. It had to batter its way

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through several roadblocks and remove trees which the Germans had felled across the route with explosives. It also encountered in the streets of the villages piles of old wagons and other junk behind which the German soldiers had set up their sputtering machine guns.

At Illy the lead observers spotted a column of 15 enemy vehicles further ahead on the road. This information was relayed to the air support. Then the task force and a group of P-47s attacked the vehicles simultaneously. The slanted streams of tracer bullets from the strafing planes tore into the German column only a few hundred yards from Task Force Boyer's lead tanks. All of the enemy vehicles were demolished and most of their occupants were killed.

Appoaching Sedan from the north, the task force decided to circle around and sweep in on the city from the east. When the advance guard reached Givonne, a few miles north of Sedan, it was informed by French civilians that only a few minutes before its arrival a German column headed northeast had passed through the town. The assistance call was again flashed to the fighter-bombers. It was not long before the pilots had located the unfortunate string of vehicles creeping back toward Germany. Swooping down from the skies, they strafed the column from one end to the other and shattered 15 of its 17 vehicles. Later it was learned that this group was the Wehrmacht's 80th Corps Headquarters Column, which had been at Sedan regrouping elements of the German Army.

After the entire task force had gathered on the east side of Sedan, it prepared for the assault on the city. The huge M7 field pieces of the 95th Artillery Bn. started moving into position off the road so they would be able to put down a softening-up barrage on the target. The tank destroyers of C Co., 628th T. D. Bn., going into formation, were ready to blast the enemy armor. The tanks and dismounted infantrymen awaited the order closing in on the city.

Then over the radios in the halftracks and peeps came a faint call. It was from CWO Charles Engdahl of Service Co., 15th Infantry Bn. He was trying to contact his company commander, Capt. Clarence Anderson.

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"Hello, Sugar Six," he called, his voice coming in weakly, "I have the gasoline supplies."

"What is your location?" Captain Anderson replied.

"I am in Sedan," said CWO Engdahl.

"Oh, no, you can't be in Sedan," Captain Anderson said. "We are ready to attack that city now."

But CWO Engdahl was in Sedan, Returning from a breakneck run to the gasoline dumps at Ermonville, more than 115 miles to the west, he knew that his battalion was supposed to be in the general vicinity of Sedan and he had taken his column of fuel trucks directly to the city. After radio contact was made with the task force, he reported that the Germans had evacuated the city, except for a few Wehrmacht soldiers who were being rounded up by the Free French forces.

CWO Engdahl soon discovered that a blown bridge prevented him from taking the fuel trucks to the task force's position. But he also found that individuals could make their way across the jack-knifed structure. He then appealed to the Free French for help. One of them sounded a bugle and a group of Free French fighters assembled at the bridge site. Forming a human chain across the collapsed structure, they passed the five-gallon cans of gasoline across the river to the task force on the opposite bank.

Now the checkreins of the extended supply lines began to make themselves felt on the Fifth Armored's advance. With the important Meuse crossings at Sedan and Charleville secure, the division planned to start thrusting its spearheads further to the east, But at noon on 7 September the V Corps ordered the division to halt its advance "due to the limited supply of gasoline." Late that same day the 28th Infantry passed through CC A and CC R and continued toward Luxembourg. To get its fuel the division had to send its trucks on the 200-mile round trip to the First Army supply truckhead, which had now been moved forward to Soissons. And at this gasoline dump the truck's had long waits before they received any fuel and often drew only partial allocations. During its forced two-day wait on the east bank of the Meuse the division furnished 50 trucks to help haul gasoline from Soissons to the First Army's new advanced distribution point at Mezieres.

On 9 September, however, the Fifth Armored got the green

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light to resume its offensive. But its operations were to continue on a day-to-day basis, depending on the supply of gasoline. Its advance, led by CC A and CC R, was to cut across the lower corner of Belgium and strike into the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. CC A, on the right and followed by Division Headquarters and CC B, would drive through Virton and Aubange to Luxembourg City. CC R, on the left, would advance in the direction of Izel, St. Marie, Arlon and Guirsch to Mersch.

As the German soldiers felt this armor pressing closer toward their homeland, their opposition stiffened. They fought with greater fury and filled the paths of the advancing tanks and half- tracks with numerous roadblocks, craters and blown bridges.

Pressing rapidly through Combat Team 110 of the 28th Division, CC A trundled through Aubange, crossed the Luxembourg border and started up the main highway leading to the capital city. At Athus it smashed into an enemy column and destroyed 29 trucks and horse-drawn vehicles, three antitank guns and a large body of bicycle troops. This was accomplished without losing a single man or vehicle. About midafternoon 30 enemy vehicles and two tanks were discovered on the north flank approaching the city of Luxembourg. Pummeled by fire from the artillery pieces and fighter-bombers, all of them were demolished.

When Lt. William Blakely's C Co., 34th Tank Bn., spilled out onto the open terrain west of the city, its lead tank was knocked out by fire from two Mark V tanks, which were on the north. The column pushed forward about 200 yards and destroyed a German tank with a hit in its rear. But then additional enemy tanks in well-protected positions on the south flank opened up and C Co. lost another tank. Lt. Blakely then pulled his tanks back to the cover of a defiladed position and called for air support.

Eight P-47s strafed and bombed the enemy tanks but did not damage them. Then the tank destroyers of A Co., 628th T. D. Bn., fired at them but the shells glanced off the thick front plates of the Panthers without harming them. Finally, a big M7 of the 400th Artillery Bn. was brought forward and with its 155 gun firing direct it smashed one of the German tanks. The others immediately fell back. But at 8 that evening A Co., 628th T. D. Bn., succeeded in outflanking three Mark Vs and destroyed them. At

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dark the combat command assembled four miles west of Luxembourg City and prepared to enter it the next morning.

Shortly before 10 the following morning, 10 September, CC A's advance guard under the command of Major Foote was grinding toward the highway bridge on the western edge of the city. When they reached the crossing, Capt. Warren Harvey's light tanks found that the Germans were defending the structure with only machine guns. There were also mines lying on the roadway. After Lt. Leonard Hamer of the 22nd Engineer Bn. and Lt. Thomas Crose removed these mines and the machine guns were silenced, the column proceeded into the city.

Behind the leading wave of tanks General Oliver escorted Prince Felix of Luxembourg, who had been in exile for four years, back to his capital. The citizens, doubly pleased to find that their city had been liberated and that their Prince had returned, thronged the streets in a festive mood. But the Fifth Armored did not take time out to join in the celebrating.

While Task Force Burton remained in Luxembourg City as a security guard, the rest of the combat command continued on through the city. During the afternoon the members of B Co., 46th Infantry Bn., dismounted from their halftracks and with the assistance of fire from the 47th Artillery Bn., flushed out a wooded defile east of the city. Then the column pushed on to the Neudorf Airport. But here enemy Panzers and infantry ambushed the advance guard and three tanks of A Co., 34th Tank Bn., were lost. Also in this melee, General Regnier, Major Foote, Lt. Grose, and Lt. Donald H. Coulter with two infantry squads were cut off from the main body of the task force. They took shelter in nearby houses while the artillery and P-47s hammered at the enemy troops and tanks in the area. Then a bazooka team, composed of Lt. Coulter, Sgt. Alfred H. Maffei and Pvt. Arthur H. Gibble, crept through the heavy woods to attack the Panzers. Although the rockets they fired missed their targets, the enemy tankers became frightened and withdrew from these positions. While 120 mm. mortar shells crunched in the landing field area, Lt. Mayo Elliot with a platoon from A Co., 46th Infantry Bn., cleared the buildings around the hangars.

Task Force Burton stayed in the city that night and the re-

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mainder of the combat command assembled at the airport.

By its quick entry into Luxembourg City and its environs the Fifth Armored also managed to wrest from enemy hands the undamaged transmitting facilities of Radio Luxembourg. The capture was made by a fast task force commanded by Maj. Jack Day and consisting of a platoon of light tanks from D Co., 34th Tank Bn., and a platoon of infantry from C Co., 46th Infantry Bn. It raced out to Junglinster on the night of 11 September and found the five-towered transmitter undefended. The first soldier to enter the station was T/Sgt. Mitchell Janowicz of C Company.

This station later proved of inestimable value to the Allies in their propaganda broadcasts to the German people. Describing its importance, a Shaef Psychological Warfare representative said, "The greatest single stroke of luck in the whole war was the capture intact of the powerful Radio Luxembourg, second only to Moscow in Europe, and its ready-made audience."

After leaving Florenville, about 15 miles directly east from Sedan, CC R on 9 September had begun passing through the 28th Infantry Division's Combat Team 110. Enemy troops were hastily falling back as this offensive surged toward them. Before darkness settled that night a call was sent back through CC R's liaison officer with Combat Team 110, to the air support. The planes fell upon the retreating Germans and with their guns roaring kept ripping into the columns as long as shooting light lasted. The road, however, was well lighted that night by the glow from the flaming vehicles. When the artillery's reconnaissance plane surveyed the scene of devastation the next morning, it reported the route west from Vance was so cluttered with burned-out vehicles and horse-drawn equipment that engineers would have to clear the highway before it could be used. CC R, therefore, switched its advance path and decided to go by way of Habay la Neuve, Lottert, Meuert, Oberpallen and Useldange. This route passed north of the city of Arlon, near the Luxembourg border, which was reported by French agents to be extensively sowed with mines.

At Habay la Neuve Capt. Arthur Whitley's A Co., 10th Tank Bn., tangled with a German force which tried unsuccessfully to halt CC R's advance. In the exchange of shell fire one of the

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Shermans was penetrated by hits on three sides, but fortunately none of the crew was injured and the tank was not destroyed.

By 1:30 that afternoon the combat command was at Mersch, about halfway across Luxembourg. Here C Co., 22nd Engineer Bn., assisted by the Pioneer Platoon of 628th Tank Destroyer Bn., prepared the railway bridge over the Alzette River so that the tanks and halftracks could cross on it. The Germans had wired it for demolition and were covering it with machine guns. Task Force Boyer's tanks, however, quickly shot up the machine gun nests and drove the Germans back before they could blow up the bridge. Then the engineers removed two tons of explosives from under the span's supports. Meanwhile, Task Force Hamberg had found a ford on the river at Moesdorf, three miles north of Mersch, and got across there.

After both its task forces had crossed the Alzette River, the combat command switched the direction of its advance from the east to the north toward Diekirch. Its route ran parallel to the river. As it thrust forward in this direction it jabbed into the flank of an enemy force. Here the fighter-bombers lent their assistance again and they smashed up 70 of the enemy's vehicles. Also during this Dierkirch drive, Task Force Hamberg overran 32 German artillery pieces. When night fell, CC R assembled at Schrondweiler.

CC B, on 10 September, had pushed forward from Petange between the other two combat commands in the direction of Ermsdorf. When it found that the bridges at Stiensel and Lapstal over the Alzette had been blown, it forded the stream. Its route was over narrow roads and wound through the mountains; also, it was filled with craters and felled trees. But the combat command continued grinding forward and behind it left a trail of destroyed enemy equipment. Time and again the combat command found German rear guards commanded by a German Lt. Appel, who became a well-known figure in CC B headquarters. At the last block, before settling for the night, Lt. Appel was killed while riding a motorcycle toward the attacking elements of CC B. This being done, that night CC B coiled at Blaschette high in the mountains, which were swept by winds from Germany.

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Chapter XV
Corridor Through The Siegfried Line
11 September-22 September

In 41 days of combat the Fifth Armored had come a long way. It was more than 700 miles away from the hedgerows and apple orchards of Normandy. It had fought through three countries. And now it was ready to lead the Allied Armies onto the soil of the nation that had unleashed this war on the world.

But to strike this blow against Germany, the Fifth Armored would have to storm the famed Siegfried Line, the crescent of steel and concrete fortifications which supposedly made the Reich impregnable, The division, however, was not deterred by these looming pillboxes. Its confidence was still running high. It was eager to plunge across the border immediately, even though its supply lines were stretched trickle thin, its strength was spread over a wide area, and the bulk of its supporting infantry divisions were miles behind.

On 11 September the division started to fan out along Luxembourg's eastern river boundary. It set up observation posts in this mountainous territory along approximately 33 miles of the German border, extending from Rodershausen on the Our River in the north to Grevenmacher on the Moselle River in the south.

All three combat commands went into the line facing east: CC A was on the south, CC R in the center, and CC B on the north. Leaving the Luxembourg City area, CC A continued east and assembled at Hemstal about 13 miles northeast of Luxembourg City, Its Task Force Burton occupied Biwer (three miles south of Hemstal) after it had turned its positions in the Luxembourg capital over to the 85th Cavalry Sq, (less troops A, B and C), These 85th reconnaissance troops also began patrolling south to the Moselle River on the division's right flank. CC R pushed a few miles further east and assembled at Bruckenhof; its Task Force Boyer occupied Ermsdorf about four and one half miles

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southwest of the German bordertown of Wallendorf. Moving across CC R's center zone, CC B took over the sector north of Diekirch; its headquarters was set up at Schindler, while Task Force Anderson assembled at Michelau and Task Force Gilson at Hoschied.

While the division was moving its units up to the border on 11 September, an order was sent out to the reconnaissance troops. It instructed them to cross into Germany as soon as possible and find out whether or not Wehrmacht soldiers were manning the pillboxes. In CC B's zone, Capt. Kenneth M. Hayes, commander of Troop B, 85th Cavalry Sq., assigned areas to his reconnaissance platoons to carry out this order. A few members of the 2nd Platoon. a patrol in charge of Sgt. Warner W. Holzinger, were the first Allied soldiers to enter Germany in World War II. It was 4:30 in the afternoon of 11 September when they crossed into the Reich at Stolzembourg. In addition to Sgt. Holzinger, this patrol consisted of: Cpl. Ralph E. Diven, T/5 Coy T. Locke, Pfc. William McColligan, Pfc. George F. McNeal, Pfc. Jesse Stevens. Also, it was accompanied, appropriately enough, by a member of the French Army, Lt. Lionel A. DeLille, an interpreter. Describing this historic event, Sgt. Holzinger said, "When we started out on our mission, we took my radio peep with us to keep in touch with the 2nd Platoon and with headquarters. We worked our way down to Stolzembourg. From the citizens we learned there were no enemy soldiers in the vicinity. I have been thankful many times I could speak German.

"The enemy had blown to some degree the small bridge that spanned the Our River. Even at that we were able to cross on it. We could have waded the river, too. On the German side of the river there was a pillbox camouflaged as a barn. It's a good thing it wasn't manned.

"Lt. DeLille and I talked with a German farmer. He told us that the last time he had seen any German troops was the day before. He also told us that if we followed the road up the small mountain behind his farm we would be able to see the first line of pillboxes. So Lt. DeLille, Pfc. McColligan, the German farmer and I went into Germany about 1 1/2 miles where we could get

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a good view. We studied the pillbox area with our field glasses. None of them was manned. We returned to Stolzembourg where we reported the information to Lt. Loren L. Vipond." Lt. Vipond then radioed the information to CC B's headquarters, which flashed the news to the world that the Allies had entered Germany. But because the division was still operating under a security blackout it was not publicly announced then that it was Fifth Armored troops which had made this historic frontier crossing.

MESSAGE

Date 11 Sept 1944
To G-2 5th A.D.

Dismounted Patrols crossed into Germany
at 875530 at 1815 hrs

Official Designation of Sender: Phillipsborn

Time Signed 1833

This is a reproduction of the message announcing the entry of the Fifth Armored Division into Germany. The Fifth Armored is officially recognized by the U. S. Army as being the first of our ground forces to enter the Reich.

Additional patrols from CC B and CC R started probing into the Siegfried Line the following day. One of these paid another visit to Stolzembourg. It was made up of Lt. Vipond's reconnaissance platoon plus a platoon of 81st Tank Bn. light tanks commanded by Capt. Harold D. Schiering. Because of the extremely steep terrain behind the town the tank platoon, led by

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Lt. Henry Plass, remained in Stalzembourg. Meanwhile Lt. Vipond's platoon, including Sgt. Holzinger, climbed the mountain in order to make a detailed study of the bunker area. Proceeding about a mile further into Germany than the patrol had gone on the previous day sketches were made of the pillbox locations. While the reconnaissance platoon was making this inspection, Capt. Schiering with Sgts. Robert C. Moore and Warren S. Nitschke of D Co., 81st Tank Bn., remained on the high ground just beyond Stolzembourg; here they examined the defenses and interrogated the civilian occupants of a house on the ridge.

After Lt. Vipond's platoon had returned, they started to tell Capt. Schiering's group what they had found. Then as they stood there on the high ground, they saw a column of German soldiers come into view in the distance. The enemy troops had marched down from the north and they continued walking down a second ridge toward the town of Bauler.

"There were about 60 of them," Lt. Vipond said. "They were carrying bundles and machine guns, and they dropped off about six to ten men at each pillbox as they went by."

Capt. Schiering added: "The last pillbox examined by Lt. Vipond's men was occupied by the Germans just a few moments after they had left. The enemy soldiers moved about in a leisurely manner, completely unaware of our presence."

This reconnaissance party, still unobserved by the Germans, returned to Luxembourg and reported that the occupation of the Siegfried Line had begun. The next day V Corps ordered a show of strength to be made against the enemy's border defenses. At 3 in the afternoon all of the division's big guns, including the artillery pieces, tank and tank destroyer cannons poured out a thunderous barrage of steel that rocked the Siegfried fortifications. From Germany came no response, Then at 7:25 that evening Corps ordered the division to plunge into Germany and capture the high ground south of Mettendorf, which was about five and one half miles beyond the border. As CC A was still engaged with the enemy along Luxembourg's southern border and as CC B was under Corps' direct control on a two-hour alert call, the mission fell to CC R.

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During the remainder of that night CC R's staff drew up its plans for the attack it would launch the following morning. Its preparations had to be careful and thorough because it was embarking on a very precarious operation. With a relatively small force, one combat command plus three attached battalions (1st Bn, of the 28th Division's 112th Regiment, 400th Artillery Bn., and one battery of 987th Artillery Bn.), it would attempt to slice through several miles of territory defended by huge concrete block houses. Its supplies were dangerously low; on 11 and 12 September First Army had to issue 125,000 captured rations. Furthermore, it was invading an area composed of ideal defense terrain; the land was a series of high ridges, deep narrow valleys and forests. This was the plan of attack which CC R's staff worked out: The 47th Infantry Bn.'s three rifle companies would jump off from Luxembourg a little to the north of the German bordertown of Wallendorf; they would wade the Our River (which separated Luxembourg from Germany), scale the steep pillbox-dotted mountainside and seize the first high ridge on the opposite shore. Supporting these infantrymen would be direct fire from the 10th Tank Bn. A few hundred yards south of this operation the 112^th Regiment's 1st Bn. would also cross the Our River at Wallendorf; after clearing the houses of the town it would then pass over the southern tip of the same high ridge which the 47th was attacking a little further north; next, it would cross the narrow valley on the other side of the ridge and attack the town of Biesdorf, which was on the next rise about 2,000 yards northeast of Wallendorf. Both battalions would have the support of the big guns of the 95th and 400th Artillery Battalions and also of the 155 mm. "Long Toms" of the 987th Field Artillery Bn. A bridge was to be built at Wallendorf by C Co., 22nd Engineer Bn., while A Co., of the 22nd would go along with the infantry to use flame throwers and pole charges (dynamite charges on the ends of poles) against the concrete blockhouses, The flanks would be protected by C Co., 628th Tank Destroyer Bn.

At 11 the next morning, 14 September, the first wave of the 47^th Infantry Bn., began moving toward the river. They were met, however, by overpowering machine gun fire from the pillboxes on the opposite bank. Prevented from crossing here, [p.119]

they moved further downstream and forded the river at Wallendorf with the tanks of the 10th Tank Bn. As the column pulled up out of the stream and into the town it raked the buildings with all its guns in action. Some of the structures immediately caught fire. Many of the houses, however, were of concrete which deflected the shells, When the German soldiers continued to resist behind these solid protections, the engineers then put their searing flame throwers into use.

After the last resistance in Wallendorf had been snuffed out, the B Co. tanks started up the narrow winding road, directly behind the town, which clung to the precipitous slope like a snake on a rock wall. Lt. Lewis R. Rollin's tank platoon, which led the ascent, sprayed the edges of the road with machine gun fire as they ground up the mountainside. At the top of the rise a German soldier waited with a rocket launcher in his hands; he hoped to knock out the lead tank and thus block the advance of the entire column on the narrow road. His rocket weapon, however, was exploded before he had an opportunity to fire it.

The 47th Infantry Bn's three rifle companies followed the tanks up the steep route. At the summit they spread out over the ridge and with the tanks' help began subduing the individual pillboxes. Prisoners captured in these forward line fortifications said they had moved into them only three days before; the enemy soldiers were members of a home-guard battalion. They also reported that German civilians had been busy for more than a week pumping water out of the concrete block houses. While this battle atop the ridge was in progress, the tanks of A Co., 10^th Tank Bn., and the tank destroyers of C Co., 628th T. D. Bn., came across the river to support the attack and C Co., 22nd Engineer Bn., started bridging the stream. The 112th Regiment's 1st Bn., after clearing the houses of Wallendorf, swarmed over the southern end of the ridge and down into the Niedersgegen Valley; they then, according to plan, began probing toward Biesdorf, Toward the end of the day a murky fog began slowly to shroud this battle area.

The Niedersgegen Valley, the lower end of which was separated from Wallendorf by the high narrow ridge, extended northwest along the Gay Creek for about two and one half miles to Niedersgegen.

[p. 120] Here it formed a fork; its left arm continued northwest for about another two miles to Obersgegen (also cradled in this section of the valley were the two little villages of Seimerich and Koperich); its right arm fanned out toward the northwest to Kewenig (almost a mile from Niedersgegen) and toward the east to Hommerdingen (about two miles from Niedersgegen).

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It was found that the tanks could not descend into the lower part of the Niedersgegen Valley from the section of the ridge directly behind Wallendorf because of the abrupt drop. Reconnaissance, therefore, was conducted that night along the northern half of the ridge to locate a road by which the tanks could get down into and across the valley. It was finally discovered that the only passable route was a road that led through Niedersgegen.

While the CC R force of infantrymen and tankers were atop the fog-engulfed ridge that night, three enemy trucks and a staff car, coming south from Niedersgegen, drove into their assembly area. The Germans, unaware that the fortifications on the ridge had been captured, were hauling food to the pillboxes' former occupants. These vehicles were quickly destroyed.

The wet fog still lay upon the area the following morning. It restricted visibility to 150 yards. But, after CC R's tank and infantry companies reformed into their normal attack task forces, the thrust into the Siegfried Line was resumed. Task Force Boyer took the lead, It traveled north along the road which sloped down into the valley and then turned east to cross the Gay Creek at Niedersgegen. As the column neared this crossing, it observed in the upper right arm of the valley several enemy tanks and other armored vehicles advancing from the east. The valley then resounded with the roar of the booming tank guns as a quick fierce fight flared up between the converging forces, After the Germans lost two Mark IV tanks, a halftrack and an antitank gun, the remaining eight Panzer tanks fell back toward Hommerdingen, about two miles directly east of Niedersgegen. B Co., 10th Tank Bn., had one tank knocked out in the scrap; a shell damaged its track suspension,

As Task Force Boyer started across the Gay Creek, the second tank in the column fell through the bridge. The rest of the task force then forded the stream. It continued up the right arm of the Niedersgegen Valley and passed Hommerdingen.

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Next, it turned north and spread out on Hill 407 just south of Mettendorf. In this push the column did not encounter serious opposition. It did, however, destroy a large enemy halftrack ammunition carrier and a 76 mm. gun with its prime mover.

Task Force Hamberg also used the ford at Niedersgegen. It followed Task Force Boyer across the creek and then attacked directly east. It cleared Hommerdingen and also Cruchten, which was a little less than a mile southwest of Hommerdingen. By nightfall it had advanced about five and a half miles east of Niedersgegen; it was beyond Nusbaum and Stockem and was holding the high ground south of Bettingen, overlooking the Prum River. It was reinforced that night by the 112th Regiment's 1st Bn. which came north from Biesdorf to join the task force.

Late in the afternoon that same day the 95th Artillery Bn. had moved across the Sauer River and had climbed the high ridge behind Wallendorf. But as this column of mobile cannons neared Niedersgegen it found that the Germans had filtered down from the north and had recaptured the Gay Creek ford. They were defending it with machine gun and mortar fire.

Thus, as CC R bedded down to spend its second night in Germany, it was completely through the Siegfried Line's belt of scattered pillboxes and was sitting on the division's objectives. And neither of its task forces faced any formidable concentrations of enemy troops. It did not, however, feel completely secure in these new positions. A slight anxiety had been aroused in the combat command by the report that the Germans had regained possession of the Gay Creek ford. This uneasiness was intensified later when it was learned that enemy patrols had worked their way back into Wallendorf about midnight.

CC B was relieved that night from V Corps control, so the next morning, 16 September, it was ordered to lend its support to the assault on the Siegfried Line. Its mission was to widen the base of the bridgehead and clean out the enemy troops that were threatening to cut off CC R from the rear. About four in the afternoon Task Force Anderson and CC B Headquarters crossed into Germany. The tanks and halftracks then moved north through Biesdorf and Cruchten to an area just east of Hommer-

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dingen; here the assault guns of the 81st Tank Bn. went into position and poured fire into the enemy-held woods behind Niedersgegen and Kewenig (which was less than a mile from the Gay Creek ford in the upper right arm of the Niedersgegen Valley).

At six that evening Task Force Gilson passed across the Our River at Wallendorf and then assembled south of Niedersgegen in the narrow valley in order to keep the Gay Creek ford out of enemy hands. To prevent the Germans from infiltrating down from the north and retaking this crossing, the married A Companies of the 81st Tank Bn. and the 15th Infantry Bn. blocked both of the valley's upper arms.

During the afternoon the 112th Regiment's 1st Bn. had jumped off from its positions near Stockem to cross the Prum River at Wettlingen. Reaching the opposite bank and capturing the town, it had pushed further east to the high ground known as Hill 298. In this operation it had been assisted by C Co., 47th Infantry Bn. and C Co., 10th Tank Bn.

Describing the attack, Capt. Leo Marcikowski, commander of the armored infantry company, said: "As we approached Wettlingen an enemy antitank gun opened up from a clump of woods on the western edge of the town. Its shell seemed to whisper 'Hiya Murphy' as it breezed by. Sgt Gordon's crew spotted the gun instantly and his tank wasted only one round in knocking it out."

When the infantrymen began climbing the southwest slopes of Hill 298 their ranks were swept on both flanks by enemy machine gun fire. C Co., 10th Tank Bn., and B Co.'s 2nd Platoon, 628th Tank Destroyer Bn., immediately retaliated; with direct smothering fire they blasted the German gun positions, which were located in stone houses. As daylight faded the infantrymen consolidated their positions on the embattled slopes. But at nine that evening a counterattack of enemy foot troops and tanks rolled down on them from the crest of the hill. The charging Panzers turned on their spotlights in order to direct their tank and machine gun fire against the individual positions of the GIs. This enemy onrush forced the infantry battalion to fall back to

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the eastern edge of Wettlingen where it prepared to launch another attack the next day.

In the Task Force Boyer area large caliber artillery shells had begun crunching on Hill 407 about mid-afternoon, Then in the early evening machine gun fire was received from the edge of the woods several hundred yards west of the hill; A platoon of tanks and infantrymen from the married B Companies was sent to clear the area. It had to repeat this task twice again before dark.

The Germans were active at other points along the bridgehead's northern flank that night. Enemy patrols and mortar fire harassed Task Force Gilson, which was blocking the two upper branches of the Niedersgegen Valley. Wehrmacht infantrymen threatened CC B's rear by moving into Ammeldingen, a town on the Our River about a mile and a half above Wallendorf. And throughout the night the shrill scream of approaching artillery shells was heard in all sectors of both combat commands.

A crashing hour-long artillery barrage rained down on Task Force Hamberg's D Co., 10th Tank Bn., which was located at Stockem, at daylight the next morning, 17 September. This preparation was followed by an attack of Panther tanks, which descended from Olsdorf north of Bettingen. In the clash two of D Co's light tanks were knocked out by long-range armor-piercing shells. Striking back at the enemy assault, C Co., 10th Tank Bn., moved in from Halsdorf and jabbed into the right flank of the enemy force; it destroyed four Mark IVs and lost one of its own tanks. A second counter-thrust on the same flank was made by A Co., 10th Tank Bn. which was in the draw east of Hill 407. Driving toward Bettingen, it smashed up five more enemy tanks and a 20 mm. self-propelled gun. The remainder of the Panzer force then fell back to Rettingen.

Before the 112th Regiment's 1st Bn. at Wettlingen could carry out its planned attack that morning, it was hit by an unexpected assault of German tanks and infantrymen. Under the weight of this enemy thrust it was forced to abandon its positions in Wettlingen and fall back to the buildings in Stockem. The battalion's withdrawal was covered by the 2nd Platoon of B Co., 628th Tank Destroyer Bn., which exhausted all of its ammunition and lost three of its tank destroyers in this action.

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During the morning General Oliver came forward in person to confer with Colonel Cole and Colonel Anderson at their exposed command posts. In view of the fact that supporting infantry divisions were not available to fill in behind the Fifth Armored and protect its rear in the path it was hacking into Germany, he told them to cancel plans for the attack on Bitburg, which was about six miles northeast of Wettlingen. They were instructed to hold their present position, except that all troops could be pulled back out of Wettlingen.

In the woods north and west of Niedersgegen the fighting was hot and bitter that day. Here CC B's Task Force Gilson suffered many casualties from the enemy mortar and artillery fire. When its tank-infantry teams charged a machine gun position on the edge of the woods, the Germans would withdraw deeper into the forest and then reappear later at another point.

CC B Headquarters and Task Force Anderson moved to the reverse slope of Hill 375 just north of Ammeldingen. Only one platoon of the married B Companies of the 81st Tank Bn. and the 15th Infantry Bn., however, accompanied the task force; the others remained behind at Hommerdingen to help protect the artillery batteries there. After completing the move, the married C Companies and the single platoon of the married B Companies started clearing and destroying the pillboxes which were scattered along the high ridge extending from Wallendorf to Gentingen northwest of Ammeldingen.

Although all enemy ground resistance in front of CC R had completely subsided by evening, observers reported that the Germans were building up considerable strength northwest of Niedersgegen. This increased activity here had become evident late in the afternoon when Wehrmacht infantrymen had captured the Our River ford south of Ammeldingen; they had to be driven off by a married tank-infantry platoon. The heavy fog which had hung over the area all day turned to a light rain before nightfall; this made it more difficult for the tanks to operate effectively. Enemy patrols continued to infiltrate through CC B's sector all during the night. They became so annoying that a special force, consisting of a platoon of light tanks from D Co., 81st Tank Bn., and about 20 infantrymen armed with sub-machine guns, were

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assigned to patrol the road from Ammeldingen to Wallendorf to Niedersgegen; this mission was referred to as the "Milk Run." Also throughout the night the positions of the 95th, 71st and 400th artillery battalions received counter-battery fire.

CC R's fifth day in Germany was relatively quiet. None of its units had to fight off any attacks. Helping to discourage the enemy from initiating any new assaults was a heavy incessant drubbing which the artillery batteries gave the German lines. The combat command's slightly shortened by the withdrawal of the 112th Regiment's 1st Bn. and the 2nd Platoon of B Co., 628th Tank Destroyer Bn., to Hommerdingen. Movements of enemy tanks from the Bettingen area west to the Mettendorf area were reported by the artillery observation planes. Some of these Panzers about nine that evening tried to move down from the north into Mettendorf, but they were driven back by the artillery barrages.

For CC B, however, the day was not so quiet. Task Force Gilson attempted to clear the enemy troops out of the two upper arms of the Niedersgegen Valley. It split up into two groups; one fought its way up the left branch of the valley toward Obersgegen, while the other pushed up the right arm toward Kewenig and Huttingen. The group on the left, driving toward Obersgegen, encountered piles of logs and stones in the road near Seimerich, about a mile beyond Niedersgegen. One tank in this group which tried to return to Niedersgegen struck a mine that had been placed in the road after the column had passed the spot a few hours earlier. In the right arm of the valley the group passed through Kewenig but was counterattacked as it approached Huttingen about two miles northeast of Niedersgegen. The Germans laid down barrages of artillery and mortar fire on the group and Wehrmacht infantrymen blasted it with rockets from the woods on the left flank. Three of its tanks were destroyed. In this close fighting, Staff Sgt. Thomas A. Greene of the 15th Medical Detachment advanced beyond the tanks to give aid to a soldier who had been dazed by the explosion of a rocket. For this extreme devotion to duty he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Task Force Anderson continued its job of demolishing the concrete implacements that extended toward Gentingen. It cleared

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out and blasted with close-range tank fire a total of 35 pillboxes that day. Near Ammeldingen Lt. Victor Anderson's tank exploded a pile of mines. Throughout the day both task force areas were Subjected to mortar fire, and enemy activity steadily increased northwest of CC B's zone.

Day dawned on 19 September with a burst of violence for CC R's Task Force Boyer on Hill 407. Shortly after the arrival of daylight on this foggy morning the hill was pounded with the heaviest concentration of artillery fire that the Germans had thus far laid down on this area. The barrages at first landed on the forward slope of the hill; then they were progressively shifted to the top of the elevation and finally down its reverse slop. All elements of the task force were blanketed with the exploding shells, including the supply trains. One shell ripped through CC R's command post tent as Colonel Anderson and Lt. Col. Dickenson were having breakfast.

While the dust from this shattering blow still hung over the hill, enemy tank movement was heard to the northwest. To counter any attack from this direction a platoon from the married B Companies went into position just behind the crest of Hill 426, which was about a mile west of Hill 407.

When the heavy fog began to lift slightly about eight that morning, a force of about 15 enemy tanks and other vehicles were sighted advancing from the northwest toward Task Force Anderson's positions. The married platoon on Hill 426 went into action and at a range of more than 1,000 yards knocked out two of the attacking Panzers by scoring hits on their thin-skinned under-sides as they came over a rise in the ground. These two tank losses plus the heavy artillery fire which was thrown at them discouraged the Germans from proceeding any further into the face of this fire. Shifting the direction of their attack, they then exposed their vulnerable flanks to the guns of B Co., 10th Tank Bn., and C Co., 628th Tank Destroyer Bn. These companies poured their direct fire on the Panzers and badly cut up the assault force. The remnants of its armor withdrew as the artillery fire thinned the ranks of its supporting infantry men. When Capt. Frank Pool, B Co., 10th Tank Bn., later inspected the burning

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tanks, he counted four Mark Vs, six Mark IVs and two halftracks. There were additional vehicles smoldering in the distance.

Other sectors along the edges of the Fifth Armored's corridor through the Siegfried Line also had to withstand enemy attacks that morning. North of Niedersgegen an enemy force of tanks and infantrymen supported by artillery fire descended on Task Force Gilson. Two tanks from A Co., 81st Tank Bn., were destroyed in the fight but the task force succeeded in repulsing the attack and killed 50 Germans in the woods between Niedersgegen and Kewenig. Action flared up on the corridor's right flank when Wehrmacht infantrymen pushed forward into Biesdorf and Panzer tanks appeared menacingly on the edge of the woods to the east. Attempting to counter this move, Battery D, 387th Anti Aircraft Bn., worked the town over with their 50 caliber machine guns. One of their halftracks, however, was knocked out by the Panzer fire from the woods. The enemy effort here was finally crushed when a married platoon from B Co., 81^st Tank Bn., and B Co., 15th Infantry Bn., cleared the town at 10:30 that morning.

Shortly before noon it was reported that Wehrmacht infantrymen had infiltrated back into the houses in Wallendorf and were putting machine gun and rifle fire on the Our River treadway bridge there. A CC B force with the assistance of elements of the 387th Anti Aircraft Bn. undertook the job of driving these enemy troops from the town. By three that afternoon Wallendorf was again under Fifth Armored control. In order to help protect the corridor's left flank along the Our River to the northwest a tank destroyer platoon was brought back out of Germany and sent to a point in Luxembourg a little north of Ammeldingen. Increasing pressure from Gentingen was felt by CC B toward the end of the day.

Meanwhile, CC R had been having no easy time of it during the afternoon. Its front had erupted at several points. It had to repel an attack that came from the direction of Olsdorf and Bettingen, another from Wettlingen and Enzen, and finally one from Nusbaum, Also, the drumbeat of bursting artillery shells in both combat command areas continued throughout the day.

The increasing tempo of enemy activity as the Fifth Armored's

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situation in the Siegfried Line grew steadily worse that day can be seen from a few of the words that Lt. Col. Washburn, commander of the 71st Artillery Bn., set down in his diary. He wrote:

"At 0545 Battalion received 30 rounds of 150 mm. from the southeast 0730 received 18 rounds of 150 mm. from the northwest At noon Battery A moved from right front of Battalion area to right near where they could use direct fire Lt. Harrison wounded while attempting to place fire on self-propelled gun which had knocked out three tanks within 500 yards of Battalion position... Battery C firing Charge One at nearly minimum elevation...Battalion conducting fire in four directions simultaneously... 1430--Tanks to our front ordered to our rear to clear roads Ammo trucks unable to get through to us ... Ammo down to less than 800 rounds Notified CC B of situation 1700-Ordered to withdraw to CC B perimeter ... Battery A ran into trouble at Biesdorf. Capt. Smithers reversed his battery and went out through the Niedersgegen ford. . .."

Late in the day the 112th Regiment's 2nd Bn. was sent forward to CC R's area to relieve the 1st Bn., which was given the job of defending Wallendorf and the Our River bridge that night. At 6:30 in the evening, however, CC R was ordered to withdraw from Germany and assemble south of Diekirch in Luxembourg. As this move got under way, the division's artillery batteries covered the enemy positions with heavy concentrations of fire to keep the Germans from disrupting the operation. Despite this intense shell fire, Panzer tanks and Wehrmacht infantry emerged from the woods east of Biesdorf and attacked the married B Companies of the 10th Tank Bn. and the 47th Infantry Bn, as they were passing through the town.

The assault was beaten back and the column continued grinding toward Luxembourg. While the l12th Regiment's 2nd Bn. kept the road open from Biesdorf to WaIlendorf, the division's artillery batteries displaced west of the Our River an hour after midnight and CC R completed its withdrawal at 4 a.m. As daylight brightened over the debris-laden hills and valleys that morning, 20 September, the Germans were anxious to find

Photos of Northern France and Luxembourg
[144-photos]

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out whether any Americans were still in Germany. They sent a force of tanks and infantrymen into Niedersgegen from the northeast and quickly discovered that all of the Fifth Armored troops had not departed. They were repulsed by a platoon from the married B Companies of the 8lst Tank Bn. and 15th Infantry Bn. Two Shermans, however, were lost in the counterattack.

The Germans then stepped up the intensity of their artillery barrages in the Niedersgegen Valley and on Hill 375. The shell fragments caused so many casualties in the valley south of Niedersegen that the area was dubbed "Purple Heart Valley" just as Hill 407 had been known to the men of CC R as "Purple Heart Hill." During one of these barrages Lt. Robert A. Lewis, the first Fifth Armored man to enter Belgium, was killed.

The division's artillery batteries were very active that day, too. From their new positions in Luxembourg they pummeled the enemy's positions around Biesdorf and also the Wehrmacht troops facing CC B. A German soldier captured near Hill 375 later in the day reported that 80 members of his company of 100 were killed by the artillery fire in the woods just north of Niedersgegen during the morning.

At one in the afternoon Task Force Gilson began its withdrawal from Germany. Its move was covered by Task Force Anderson on Hill 375 which kept the enemy units north of the valley occupied. After all of Task Force Gilson's vehicles had pulled onto the road, every gun then began spewing out bullets as the column roared out of the valley. From their positions on the high ground around Biesdorf the Germans sprayed the task force with machine gun fire. Along the route were piles of mines which the enemy had been preparing to plant in the road and thus trap the column in the valley. Lt. Col. Gilson was wounded during the withdrawal and as he lay in a ditch alongside the road he motioned to the vehicles to keep moving. Lt. Alexander Fraser, the 71st liaison officer, stopped, however, and after he carried the task force commander to his peep he brought him out of Germany.

That night CC B Headquarters and Task Force Anderson stayed atop Hill 375 while the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 112th Regiment continued to defend the road from Wallendorf to Biesdorf. Enemy pressure, however, began to bear down crush-

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ingly on these last remaining projections into the Siegfried Line. Enemy artillery shells rushing through the darkness broke up the Our River treadway bridge at Wallendorf and Wehrmacht infantrymen, who had crept back into the town, started to mine the approaches to the bridge on the German side. On Hill 375, where Task Force Anderson's tanks and infantrymen, as well as soldiers from Hq. Co. CC B had formed into a large circle to defend the elevation, enemy mortars blasted the area throughout the night. Also, enemy patrols were active; they tried to find out whether any of the pillboxes from which they had been driven earlier were still intact.

When daylight came to the hill that morning a platoon of Germans were discovered sleeping near a blown pillbox in the sector defended by the married B Companies of the 81st Tank Bn. and the 15th Infantry Bn. Other enemy infantrymen charged forward against the task force's circular defenses in the heavy fog which clung to the hill in the early morning. The tanks opened up with their cannons and machine guns at short range. And the Fifth Armored infantrymen, remaining in their fox holes between the tanks, cut down the Wehrmacht soldiers as they came out of the mist. When the fog lifted later, 50 Germans lay dead within 40 yards of the married C Companies positions.

During the remainder of the morning enemy troops were on all sides of Hill 375. With the help of supporting artillery fire the task force's tank-infantry teams fended off further enemy thrusts and cleared wooded areas only 400 yards from the top of the Hill. To haul ammunition to the task force the supply echelons of the 81st Tank Bn. and 15th Infantry Bn. found it necessary to use halftracks. The road from Wallendorf to the hill was under enemy machine gun fire all day. A married platoon, however, patrolled this road to prevent the Germans from permanently blocking it and thus cutting off the task force's last escape route out of Germany.

Going to the assistance of the surrounded task force, the 47th Infantry Bn. started to cross the Our River at noon between Waliendorf and Ammeldingen. But as the initial wave of infantrymen waded into the stream they were hit by high velocity shell fire from enemy tanks that had worked their way into Wallendorf.

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These Panzers were quickly put out of action, however, by the swift crippling fire from the tank guns of A Co., 10th Tank Bn., which were perched on the high ground in Luxembourg across the river from the town.

After the infantrymen climbed the slopes to the task force, they were distributed along the perimeter of the defenses to reinforce the iron ring around the hill. Throughout the afternoon the incoming mortar and artillery shells continued to bite into the high ground scattering their deadly fragments as they landed. In addition to these unrelenting barrages the Germans late in the afternoon also began using some large caliber artillery shells. Several of these rounds were observed, however, to fall in a wood occupied by Wehrmacht troops. When a column of 15 Panzer tanks, moving west, started to ford the Gay Creek at Niedersgegen in the latter part of the afternoon, they were attacked from the air by the fighter-bombers which destroyed several of them and dispersed the rest.

Just before dark an aid man from the 81st Medical Detachment who was searching for wounded on this littered battle ground, pushed open the door of a camouflaged pillbox. Inside he found a German captain and two lieutenants. The pillbox was about 300 yards from Colonel Cole's command post.

A liaison plane orbited over the Hill at 7:30 that evening. Then through the fading light it dropped a message to the weary troops below. It was an order Instructing CC B Headquarters and Task Force Anderson to withdraw from the hill and pull back to Luxembourg that night. There was no cessation of enemy fire as these CC B forces evacuated the hill, wound around the steep slopes to the Wallendorf ford and then crossed the river to Luxembourg. It was out of Germany by four in the morning of 22 September.

While CC B was completing this move, the 47th Infantry Bn., still on Hill 375, made a limited attack to cover the withdrawal operation. The action developed into a night hand grenade battle with the Wehrmacht troops on the north slope of the hill. Twice during the fierce fighting in the darkness Lt. Richard Lewis's platoon of Company B became intermingled with the Germans. At one point in the confusion Lt. Lewis was challenged at such

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close range by an enemy machine gunner that he could reach out and touch the muzzle of the enemy gun. He answered the challenge with a few quick shots from his carbine.

Then shortly before daylight the infantrymen walked quietly down the slopes of the hill and waded through the water of the Our River to Luxembourg.

Thus ended the Fifth Armored's first venture into Germany. Although the division had been forced to make its first retreat in this Battle of the Wallendorf Corridor, it had nevertheless served its purpose here. First well into Germany, it had drawn a horde of German troops, which prevented them from opposing the Allies' main breaching of the Siegfried Line being made at Aachen (other crossings were also made at Steinbruck, Stolberg, Geilenkirchen, and the effort to cross at Arnhem was made on 17 September). The German units which opposed the division in the action at Wallendorf included: A Panzer Brigade, a GAF Division, a separate infantry regiment, a machine gun battalion, several artillery battalions, a Panzer Lehr Division, and the border troops occupying the pillboxes. The Fifth Armored also severely mauled these enemy units which were thrown against it here. It killed more than 2,000 German soldiers and captured 1,218; of the approximately 100 Panzer tanks which counterattacked it, the division destroyed 45 and the fighter planes knocked out 19 more. But the most important was the fact that it captured and smashed up more than 100 pillboxes in this section of the Siegfried Line (the actual demolition work was done by B and C Companies of the 22nd Engineer Bn.): the removal of these concrete and steel fortifications thus made it much easier for the Allied units to re-enter Germany here when the big push to the Rhine was made months later.

Despite these accomplishments in this battle, the Fifth Armored did not feel happy about withdrawing from Germany after having cut the first corridor through the Siegfried Line. It believed an opportunity was lost here. Its spearhead had extended about seven miles into the Reich; two combat commands lay for two days before Bitburg; it had battered its way completely through the tough belt of pillboxes. It was fully confident then that it could have advanced the remaining 50 miles to the Rhine had

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it been supported by additional infantry division to broaden the penetration and to keep open its supply lines. But these infantry divisions, involved in petty skirmishing to the north, were not available.

Censorship Is Lifted
Shortly after the Fifth Armored's Wallendorf action the veil of censorship which had covered its identity was removed and the fact that it was fighting on the western Front was announced to the public. Press correspondents were permitted to file stories about its exploits on the continent. Following are two of the newspaper stories that appeared at that time:

New York Times, 1 October 1944
WITH THE FIRST ARMY IN GERMANY, September 30.- General Hedges took security wraps off another of his divisions today and disclosed for publication that the Fifth Armored Division ("Victory" Division) was one of his ace outfits which stormed across France after the American break through near St. Lo. This division entering combat for the first time in the drive across France was in forefront of the spectacular American operation and helped make a lot of tank history.

In the first twenty days of combat the Fifth Armored Division drove 400 miles to the Seine River and was one of the divisions which swept south fronm Countances and then hooked north from Le Mans to set the Falaise-Argentan trap which gave Von Kluge's Seventh Army such a terrific mauling. Military men will be charting that armored campaign for years to come. The Fifth Armored Division started its operations from assembly area in Normandy's hedge bordered fields in August 1. Tanks plunged through St. Lo gap and reared south to drive deep into enemy held territory. The division proudly boasted that this operation was the first time a full American Armored Division had been used in exploitation mission behind enemy lines.

To accomplish mission the division thrust 150 miles south, then continued 100 miles to Le Mans, then turned and drove 50 miles north to Argentan. Tanks of the Fifth Armored Division

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were first into both Le Mans and Argentan and were the first armor astride the main highway to Paris. Between Argentan and Gace the Fifth Armored had one of the toughest battles of the drive. They fought Germans for three days as pincers of trap closing in on the Seventh Army struggling to escape to the east. Then the armor wheeled and pushed on to the Seine. In this drive the division lists, 2,800 Germans killed and 4,300 prisoners of war, with its own casualties extremely light.

Across the Seine, the Victory Division kept wheeling to the east, and fought its way into Luxembourg, and when tanks rolled into the city, the Prince of Luxembourg rode with the Division Commander, Major General Lunsford E. Oliver. Luxembourgers gave the Tank men a rousing welcome along with the Armored Infantry, and quickly recognized the Prince of the Grand Duchy. They stormed his jeep and carried him on their shoulders through the streets.

* * * *
Stars and Stripes, 3 October 1944

FIFTH ARMORED MADE THE INITIAL ENTRY IN REICH.

FIRST ARMY HQ., OCT. 2, 1944--The Fifth Armored Division commanded by Maj. Gen. Lunsford E. Oliver, made the initial breakthrough into Germany north of Trier Sept. 11, it was revealed yesterday when the "Victory" Division was taken off the secret list for the first time since it went into action in Normandy on August 1.

The division started from upper Normandy and in 20 days fighting pushed 400 miles to the Seine River. The "Victory" Division's horseshoe-shaped thrust towards Argentan helped spring the trap on the German Seventh Army in the Falaise pocket. In this operation the outfit advanced 150 miles south, through Fougeres and Vitre, continued 100 miles east to Le Mans, swinging 50 miles north to Argentan.

Men of the Fifth Armored entered Le Mans August 9 and Argentan August 13.

Between Argentan and Gace, the Fifth Armored engaged the Germans in three days' hard fighting, while Allied units advanced

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from Caen to Falaise to form the other jaw of the pincers. The Germans, attacked from both north and south and hammered continuously from the air, suffered extremely heavy casualties.

The outfit then drove east 70 miles to the Eure River in a single night and liberated Dreux the following day, August 16. After crossing the Eure, the division remained in contact with the Germans between the Eure and the Seine until the pocked was cleaned out. On August 20, the Fifth Armored reached the Seine at Vernon, 35 miles from Paris.

Other stories about the division which appeared at that time included one in Yank Magazine. It was called "The Ghost of Wallendorf" and it described the activities of an alleged woman dressed in white who supposedly aided the Germans in directing their artillery fire by standing on a hill and moving to the right or left. Another story, which appeared in the Stars and Stripes, dealt with an incident in Wallendorf. According to the account, German tanks appeared in Wallendorf each night, while the Fifth Armored was fighting beyond the town, and shot up its supply trucks. These Panzer tanks supposedly made their entry and exit from this cutoff town through a tunnel.

What probably gave rise to this story was the appearance of the four enemy tanks in Wallendorf during the CC B's last day on Hill 375. These tanks were destroyed by A Company of I10th Tank Bn., firing from across the river. Maj. William Daniel, executive officer of the 10th, said later: "There were four enemy tanks in Wallendorf which we knocked out when we were firing in support of CC B. Company A did the job. I saw it."

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Chapter XV1
Paths of Armor
Wet Autumn
23 September--30 November

On the WESTERN FRONT the hot dry summer had given way to a wet autumn. Skies overhead were gray and overcast and almost every day they spilled out rain onto the battlefields. Under this drenching downpour the ground softened and then, as it was churned up by the trucks and armored vehicles, turned into quagmires of mud. With the mud, too, came an end to the spectacular advances. As the Allies dug in along the border, it was realized that gains from now on would be counted in yards rather than miles. Gone with the warm summer were the high hopes that a German collapse were imminent...or, at least, they should have been.

While CC R and CC B had been breeching the Siegfried Line at Wallendorf, CC A had been busy protecting a 26-mile stretch of the Luxembourg border that extended from Wallendorf south to the Third Army boundary at Niederdonven. Patrols were sent out daily by both the combat command's task forces. On 24 September a strong demonstration, supported by artillery and mortar fire, was made against Grevenmacher by the married C Companies of the 34th Tank Bn. and the 46th Infantry Bn. A freight train in the city was destroyed and German barracks east of the border were set on fire.

After this show of strength against the enemy, the division settled down in the Diekirch area; its activities during the remainder of September were restricted to patrolling the border from Rodershausen on the north to Bollendorf, which is four miles south of Wallendorf. Fifth Armored men knew for certain that they were in for a winter campaign when, on 28 September, a convoy of 80 trucks left on the long trip to Normandy to pick up the duffel bags which contained each man's winter clothing. When these bags were stored again at Luxembourg City the overcoats and long underwear had been replaced with many German

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military souvenirs. During this Diekirch period Lt. Col. Dickenson was transferred from CC R to the 15th Infantry Bn.; he replaced as battalion commander Lt. Col. Gilson, who had been wounded. The 127th Ordnance Maintenance Bn. used this breathing period to put more of the division's equipment back in shape. During August and September this battalion repaired 423 medium tanks of which 275 had their engines replaced or repaired; 87 light tanks; 53 armored cars; 102 halftracks; 174 trucks; and 184 peeps.

On 2 October the 8th Infantry Division relieved the Fifth Armored of its duties along this stretch of the Luxembourg border. Pulling up stakes the next day, the Fifth Armored then rolled north about 40 miles to the Faymonville-Waimes-Butgenbach area in Belgium. This was about four miles from Malmedy; and the area was to become famous a few months later during the Battle of the Bulge. When the division made its move north, this section had not yet been cleared of German troops; enemy patrols still roamed through the dense forests in the border area. A billeting party in charge of Lt. Robert C. Wenger, 22nd Engineer Bn. Adjutant, was captured by one of these enemy patrols near St. Vith.

After the division moved into this new location, the 85th Cavalry Sq. was placed under the direct control of V Corps. It was assigned, along with the 102nd Cavalry, to patrol the Corps' front. While he was accompanying a patrol on this mission on 17 October, Maj. John P. Gerald, commander of the 85th was killed. That same day another patrol was ambushed; its members reported that the German soldiers were wearing American uniforms and using American rifles.

Meanwhile, CC A had been placed in First Army Reserve and had been ordered on 11 October to move to the vicinity of Heerlen, Holland, in the XIX Corps sector. Here it remained until 26 October. CC B had also been placed in First Army Reserve and on 15 October was sent to the Aachen-Kornelimunster area under VII Corps.

On 23 October, the remainder of the division was assigned a sector of the V Corps front, which included the town of Hofen and Alzen. Leaving their halftracks in the rear, CC R's 47th

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Infantry Bn. moved into the 5,000-yard front and set up 27 observation posts. These posts were reinforced by shell fire from the 400th and 95^th Artillery Battalions and from A Co., 628th Tank Destroyer Bn. The 10^th Tank Bn. also assisted in putting down indirect fire on the enemy's position but its companies were rotated so that only one company participated at a time. In addition to this support, the multiple mount 50 caliber machine guns were used in indirect fire against the long range targets. Extensive mine fields were laid in the area.

On 28 October CC B returned to division control and immediately relieved CC R in the Hofen area. The 15th Infantry Bn. took over the positions which the 47th Infantry Bn. had occupied along the border. During this period the first snow fell on this sector of the front. Fifth Armored men in this area also were becoming accustomed to hearing overhead the roar of the buzz bombs which the Germans were launching. CC B remained in position until 10 November when it was relieved by the 99th Infantry Division. It then moved to the Moderscheid-Schoppen area and after a seven-day stay in the snow there it was sent to the bordertown of Rotgen.

In early November CC A assembled in the vicinity of Neudorf, Belgium. Here it prepared to plunge through the Siegfried Line at Lammersdorf: this operation was to be carried out in conjunction with other V Corps troops which were attempting to capture Vossenack and Schmidt to the north. Plans called for the Combat Command quickly to overrun the towns of Simmerath, Kesternich, and Konzen to the high ground east of the German border. The attack was not to be launched, however, until the troops on the north had succeeded in taking their objectives. Although Schmidt fell on 3 November, the town was recaptured the next day by a German counterattack. In this section, the 707th Tank Bn., which had been Fifth Armored until September 1943, was partially overrun. The planned attack at Lammersdorf was then postponed from one day to the next and finally was abandoned on 10 November. CC A moved to Walhorn on 17 November and remained there on a six-hour alert until the end of the month.

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After it had completed its mission in the Hofen-Kalterherberg area, CC R had been placed in VII Corps Reserve. Then on 19 November it was attached to the 8th Infantry Division to take part in the drive through the Hurtgen Forest. On 29 November the division, minus CC R, was attached to the VII Corps and on the following day CC A was further attached to the 4th Infantry Division.

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Chapter XVII
The Days Before Christmas
Hurtgen Forest to The Roer River
24 November-24 December

General Dwight D. Eisenhower said that veterans who participated in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest place that struggle at the top of their list of hard fighting. Without hesitation men of the Fifth Armored put that ordeal at the head of their list. The month in the Hurtgen Forest was the darkest period in the division's combat history.

In this dense and somber forest of pine, men battled snow and mud and frigid weather as well as an entrenched and fiercely resolute enemy, were prevented from maneuvering or deploying by the trees, the mud, the ravines and the extensive mine fields. Advances, therefore, had to be made in bitter yard-by-yard struggles against the well-placed Germans who fought here with savage tenacity. The attackers were subjected to tremendous concentrations of artillery and mortar fire directed from observation posts on high ground, across the Roer River. Foxholes offered little protection since the shells burst in the tree tops and sprayed the ground below with their fragments.

After each long, miserable and sleepless night spent in the icy foxholes, men numb from the cold climbed out at dawn to begin another attack. As they pushed forward through the thickly sown mine fields, the bursting shells and sniper fire, they watched their numbers dwindle. Each gain of a few yards exacted a frightful price in dead and wounded. And to the collecting stations in the rear flowed the heartbreaking procession of the wounded, some walking and the others on litters.

While the Fifth Armored was fighting its way through the Hurtgen Forest and across the approaches to the Roer River, the Germans on 16 December began their last desperate attempt to attain victory on the Western Front. Just a few miles south of the

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Fifth Armored's positions the enemy threw three armies, a total of 24 divisions, into a gigantic offensive through the Ardennes Forest. First of the Fifth Armored's combat commands to be committed in the Hurtgen struggle was CC R; it pushed toward the town of Hurtgen and then took Kleinhau, Brandenberg, and Bergstein. Near the end of November CC A entered the fray a little further to the north and nearer to the Roer River; it attacked through Gey, Horm and Kufferath to the banks of the river. CC B, which came into the fight in early December, also made for the river; it attacked through the towns of Langenbroich, Bergheim and Bilstein. After it completed its mission in the Hurtgen Forest, the Fifth Armored was pulled back into Belgium to help block the Germans' drive toward Liege during the Battle of the Bulge.

Combat Command R
The night of 24 November, 1944, was cold, black and rainy. At 2100 that night Combat Command R started into the Hurtgen Forest. The mission was to take the German town of Hurtgen. The 95th Armored Field Artillery Bn. had gone into position five days earlier. First company to move was B Co. of the 47th Armored Infantry Bn., part of Task Force Boyer. The infantrymen moved out of Rotgen in their halftracks, leaving their married B Co. of the 10th Tank Bn, behind, Too great a concentration of armor, it was felt, would attract heavy artillery fire. The plan or the attack called for two companies, B Co. of the 47th and of the 10th, to meet on the road between Germeter and Hurtgen and jump off in married formation for the attack.

At 2400 B Co. of the 10th left Rotgen and moved toward its designated area on the road. When the infantry company arrived, the men jumped from their halftracks and sought cover in the basements, for heavy artillery was already falling around them.

Marching in a column of twos, the infantry company moved out at 0530 toward the front lines between Germeter and Hurtgen. Rain and snow slanted through the pine trees, turning the muddy roads into quagmires, making their march a step-by-step struggle. The company was led by an 8th Infantry Division guide,

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one of the 22 men left of his company, and was to follow a path marked with white engineer tape. The heavy artillery and stormy weather had long since removed this marker and the company walked in the heavily mined forest without a marked passage. The Germans had sown the area heavily with schu and anti-personnel mines and almost immediately explosions and cries for "Medics!" filled the forest. At dawn the Germans began to pour in more and more artillery. Small arms fire increased.

Casualties skyrocketed, and when the tanks arrived at the jump-off point at their scheduled time, 0730, the infantry company was badly battered.

On the road between Germeter and Hurtgen, an 8th Infantry Division light tank had struck a mine, blocking the road. A tank retriever went forward to remove it, but the retriever, too, hit a mine and was disabled. An effort was made to dynamite the light tank off the road, but this caused a large crater which made as formidable an obstacle as the disabled tank.

Despite the cratered road and the heavy casualties already suffered by the infantry company, the attack started at 0730. The tanks lurched toward Hurtgen, with Lt. Jack McAuley leading. McAuley's tank neared the crater and he called back on the radio, "I'm going to try to jump the damned thing." His tank gathered speed, roared up the soupy road, his tracks throwing a brown spray of mud to the rear. At the crater's edge the drive put on one final burst of speed, but the crater was too wide. The tank slammed into the crater's side, rolled to the left and lay half on its side, but it was in perfect defilade. McAuley could fire his 75 only by using his elevating mechanism to traverse and his traversing mechanism to elevate. From this position, the officer and his gunner, Cpl. William S. Hibler, fired round after round into enemy positions. The 95th Artillery and Lt. James M. McFadden's 47th Assault Gun Platoon continued pounding the Germans in Hurtgen. B Co. of the 10th Tank Bn. had already lost three tank commanders to snipers who were firing from the woods on the left.

Engineers were called up to bridge the crater so the column could slip around McAuley's tank and push on to Hurtgen. Capt. Charles Perlman, commander of C Co., 22nd Engineers, came

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up to assist the engineers, was wounded and was evacuated. Heavy artillery and mortar fire rained on the engineers as they worked. Capt. Frank M. Pool, B Co., 10th Tank Bn., commander, was hit by a German burp gun while standing in his turret directing the bridging operations, but refused to be evacuated. He climbed out of his tank to help the engineers and while on the ground was wounded again, this time by mortar fire. He again refused to be evacuated, but was soon so weak from loss of blood that evacuation was necessary. Lt. Lewis R. Rollins took over the company. By 1030, working under heavy fire, the engineers had bridged the crater. Lt. McAuley ordered Sgt. William Hurley to move his tank over the span so he could fire on the right flank and protect the column, but Hurley's tank hit a mine, again blocking the road. While carrying out these orders, Sgt. Hurley was wounded by sniper fire and was evacuated.

Then S/Sgt. Lawrence Summerfield, who was later given a battlefield commission, managed to snake his tank around the other two disabled Shermans and almost to the bend in the road which led into Hurtgen. Just as his tank pulled up to the corner, a German antitank gun, which had been zeroed on the corner, fired at him and missed. As the shots zoomed by Summerfield's tank, his gunner, Cpl. Penny R. Majka, knocked out the German gun with one round from his 75. Just then another German gun opened fire on Summerfield's tank, knocking it out.

By now it was 1400. P-47's came over to bomb and strafe enemy positions in Hurtgen.

At this time Capt. Richard Lewis' B Co., 47th Infantry Bn., had only 80 men left out of 225. Mines, snipers and artillery had almost wiped out the company. The Anti-Tank Platoon was brought up to serve as litter bearers and emergency aid men, for although the medics worked fast, they found it impossible to care for all the rapidly mounting casualties.

The Anti-Tank Platoon worked unceasingly, treating and evacuating the wounded men. Sgt. Lyndall Mailes and Pfc. Charles M. Drake made trip after trip over the heavily mined ground to evacuate wounded men.

Pfc. Leonard Tanis, B Co., 47th Infantry Bn., noticed that the

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snipers and artillery seemed to have a working agreement. The crack of a sniper's rifle was frequently followed by an artillery concentration. Wriggling forward to a position from which he could observe, Tanis used his M-l to kill a sniper who was also directing artillery.

Attack To Kleinhau
By now Capt. Leo R. Marcikowski's C Co., 47th Infantry Bn., had been brought up and was trying to flank through the woods to the left of the road. The mines and artillery quickly took heavy toll and in 15 minutes 50 C Co. men lay wounded on the ground. Their progress was also slowed by Germans firing American machine guns from positions that were supposed to be in American hands. Both infantry companies were by now almost exhausted, even before they had come into close contact with the enemy. The Germans had booby-trapped every ditch and foxhole, and when the men flopped into a hole to avoid the artillery they were blown up by these mines.

It was impossible to employ the tanks or use the heavy infantry weapons. It was a hopeless job to continue the attack. Late that night Col. Anderson told Lt. Col. Boyer to pull his task force out.

Meanwhile, Task Force Hamberg, the married A and C Cos., had been living in the mud and muck just north of Germeter. They stayed there for the next three days under heavy shelling while the 8th Infantry Division, after paying a terrible price, finally took Hurtgen. On the morning of Nov. 29 Task Force Hamberg moved through the 8th Infantry Division to attack Kleinhau. The married C Cos. led the attack, moving up the road between Hurtgen and Kleinhau.

Lt. Robert Leas' 1st Platoon of C Co. tanks swung to the left off the road to provide flank protection and four tanks were immediately stuck in the deep, thick mud. The 2nd Tank Platoon, under Lt. T. A. Maguire, went straight up the road toward Kleinau, followed by Lt. George Kleinsteiber's 3rd Platoon. A 2nd Platoon tank section under S/Sgt. Edwin Gordon was detached and also sent to the left flank. While he was in an exposed position under heavy fire, Gordon was called on the radio and told

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he could pull out if fire became too heavy. He preferred to stick at his job. He was later shot by a sniper and was evacuated. By 1000 at least one platoon of tanks had bulled its way into Kleinhau. The 95th Artillery Bn. continued to pound the Germans during the attack, with Lt. Howard K. Kettlehut going far forward to observe and direct the fire.

At the time the married C Cos. were fighting their way into Kleinhau, the married A Cos, were following them up the road and through the fields to the left of the road.

Lt. William Drennen's platoon led the A Co. attack. It swung to the left off the road and around C Co.s tanks mired in the mud. Capt. Arthur N. Whitley, A Co. commander, was up with the leading tank platoon. Artillery rained on and around the tanks, for the Germans had direct observation and plastered the area with all their artillery to stop the attack.

Drennen continued to work to the left toward Kleinhau and Lt. Joseph Cardone's platoon ploughed straight for Kleinhau. Cardone arrived in Kleinhau with three of his five tanks. One was knocked out by direct fire and the other received a direct hit in the turret with a German mortar. By 1430 Capt. Whitley's company was in Kleinhau in support of C Co.

Again the two supporting infantry companies were fighting a losing battle with mines, artillery and snipers, trying to keep pace with the tanks.

Capt, Joe M. Beisenstein's A Co., 47th Infantry Bn., pushed toward Kleinhau, working to the left of the Hurtgen-Kleinhau road. Capt. Beisenstein was twice wounded and twice refused evacuation, He continued to lead his company until he was killed by a German artillery shell during the attack. By early afternoon both infantry companies had broken through to Kleinhau and helped the tanks outpost the town.

At 1800 that night Capt. Francis J. Baum was mortally wounded by a direct artillery hit in his tank. Capt. Baum had gotten out of his tank to check each of his platoons positions, and had just climbed back into his turret when the artillery shell landed on his tank. He died a short time later in the battalion aid station. That night, 29 November, the 8th Infantry Division moved into Kleinhau to relieve the two heavily hit 47th Infantry com-

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panies. The tanks stayed in the town until the next afternoon, and then pulled out of Kleinhau into a woods west of the town. Artillery and mortars continued to fall steadily.

During all of this action the 95th Artillery Bn. continued to blast German positions with counter-battery and support fire.

Task Force Hamberg stayed in the woods west of Kleinhau until it received orders on 1 December to take the town of Brandenberg, three miles south of Kleinhau. It was the start of another bitter, cruel fight against mines, artillery and the ever-present German snipers.

At 0700 2 December, Lt. Col. Hamberg's forces jumped off, A Cos. leading, Lt. Kenneth Wagner's 2nd Platoon in front. The platoon swung to the right of the road to avoid mines, but almost immediately Wagner's tank struck a mine and was put out of action. Wagner ordered the crew to abandon the tank, and then walked back to the platoon behind him to tell them about the minefield. Lt. Wagner, T/5 Harry Spletzer, his driver, and Cpl. Marty Aceithauer were crouching behind Lt. Cardone's tank to avoid a sudden artillery barrage when the driver, unaware that anyone was behind the tank, backed up, injuring the three men.

Mines Slow Advance
Stopped by the mines, the tankers and infantrymen waited for the engineers to come up and clear the field. While waiting for the engineers to arrive, the A Co., 47th Infantry Bn., halftracks parked in a field less than 50 yards away from a German antitank gun, but after the German crew had looked over the situation, they decided to give up rather than fight. They came out to surrender to Capt. Daniel Wersma.

That afternoon Capt. Samuel Siegler sent two of his D Co. light tanks to investigate enemy movement to the right of the road. Sgt. Chester F. Gorzynski and Sgt. Frank C. Wach took their tanks over. As Gorzynski approached a house in the area, he fired a tentative machine gun burst and almost immediately a German officer and 20 men came out, all carrying white cloths over their heads. Quickly another group of 20 appeared from the nearby woods, and then, as if on signal, Germans came pour-

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ing out of the woods and buildings from all sides. In 30 minutes the two light tanks had taken 175 prisoners.

The 1st Platoon of C Co., 22nd Engineer Bn., arrived and worked throughout the night removing mines from the extensive field. S/Sgt. Paul Bragg and his three squad leaders, Sgt. Charles Nader, Sgt. Leslie Hager and Sgt. William Kestner, found the pattern for the field and they and their men went to work with ropes, pulling out the mines. It was a nervous, touchy job. The men never knew when a mine was booby-trapped and they worked hour after hour in the complete blackness clearing the field. German artillery boomed and pounded in the pine trees around them. By morning more than 400 mines had been removed. The engineers had done all they could to clear the way.

While the engineers were pulling out mines, an A Co. outpost guarded the engineers from infiltrating Germans. S/Sgt. Guido Borella, member of the outpost, had just been relieved from guard and had gone into a dugout when he heard the new guards call for help. Scrambling out of his dugout in the pitch black, he discovered that the Germans had infiltrated the outpost line in strength. A damaged tank which had hit a mine stood nearby. Borella climbed into it to utilize the tank guns. He reached for the .50 caliber machine gun and found that the careful crew had removed the backplate to prevent the Germans from using it. Clambering down into the tank, he tried to fire the .30 caliber machine gun. Again the backplate was missing. Borella had never fired a 75 gun before, but he rammed a shell home in the chamber, pressed the trigger and nothing happened--the percussion mechanism had been removed.

Realizing the outpost was badly outnumbered, Borella and three other men started to the rear for help. Going to the company command post, he found Lt. Donald Hughes and told his story. By now it was almost daylight and Capt, Whitley had come to the infantry command post to say the attack was shoving off. The Anti-Tank Platoon followed closely to rescue the outnumbered outpost. When they arrived, they found five men had been carried away as prisoners and three lay wounded on the ground. Pfc. Richard Baer had escaped capture by feigning death after he had been knocked unconscious by a German grenade.

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He lay very still in the mud as the Germans milled around him, taking the prisoners and shooting those who tried to escape.

The attack on Brandenberg had jumped off at 0700 with C Co. of the 10^th Tank Bn. leading. Lt. Maguire rode the lead tank. He had gone only a few hundred yards toward Brandenberg when his tank hit a concealed mine. He jerked out his command radio, stopped Sgt. Rex Sterling's tank, second in the column, inserted his radio in it, and pushed on toward Brandenberg.

The Brandenberg assault was carefully planned. All firepower was used and Lt. Col. Hamberg later said it was one of the most perfectly timed attacks he had ever seen. As the C Co. tanks roared into town, shooting as they rolled, A Co. tanks and D Co. light tanks provided supporting fire. C Co., 47th Infantry Bn., closely followed the tanks and drove into the town to mop up. Tanks pulled up to buildings, blasted doors and windows with tank guns. Infantry boiled down into basements, digging out the Germans with hand grenades and small arms. By 1200 the town had been cleared and 75 prisoners had been taken. Casualties had again been high, and the wounded were evacuated in halftracks.

During the attack on Brandenberg, Lt. Kleinsteiber's 3rd Platoon of tanks had roared completely through the town and into the next town of Bergstein before he realized he had gone too far. The Germans were taken completely by surprise and not a shot was fired at him. Kleinsteiber hurriedly withdrew when he realized his mistake.

That night, 3 December, the C Cos. consolidated positions in Brandenberg. The married C Cos. were now commanded by Lt. Maguire and Lt. James Painter.

All day on 4 December the companies stayed in Brandenberg under heavy artillery fire. German planes came in to strafe and drop butterfly bombs. The companies knocked down two of the planes.

The "Rubble Pile"

CHAPTER XVIII
SNOW BATTLE
Belgium and Eicherschied
1 January-31 January

Most of January was relatively quiet for the Fifth Armored. As it sat amidst the snow covered hills of Belgium, the fighting strength which had been drained from the division during the Battle of Hurtgen Forest was slowly infused again. New tanks and halftracks arrived to replace equipment that had been lost in the fighting. And reinforcements were assigned to the division to fill in the casualty-depleted ranks of the companies. Then near the end of the month, after the division had been transferred to the Ninth Army, one of its combat commands was again called upon to go into battle.

Combat Command A was attached to the 78th Infantry Division on 28 January and was given the mission of taking the town of Eicherschied in the Kesternich-Konzen area of the Siegfried Line. The 47th and 71^st Armored Field Artillery Bns. moved into firing positions to support the attack.

The married A and B Cos. of the 34th Tank Bn. and the 46th Infantry Bn. plus the 34th Tank Bn. Headquarters Co., comprising a task force under Lt. Col. William L. Cabaniss, moved to the vicinity of Lammersdorf the night of 29 January. Task Force Burton stayed at Neudorf. The night was bitterly cold and deep, drifting snow covered the ground.

The Attack on Eicherschied was set for the next morning.

At 0530 on 30 January, after a five-minute artillery preparation, the 78th Infantry Division jumped off, making two diverging attacks. One force pushed toward Huppenbroich; the other toward Imgenbroich. A Co. 22nd Engineer Bn. began work immediately behind the infantry to clear the enemy minefields for CCA's attack on the right flank of the infantry. The married A Cos. were to jump off at 0730, but clearing the minefields

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was hampered by the deep snow and the attack hour was delayed.

Lt. Leonard Hammer of A Co. 22nd Engineer Bn. directed the work in front of the tanks. Three flails were knocked out by mines and a fourth by direct fire while clearing the minefield.

At 1000 the A Cos. were ordered to attack through whatever mines remained.

Snow Makes Going Tough
Capt. Richard E. Biederman reconnoitered a route for his tanks around an ungapped minefield. A Co. 34th Tank Bn. rumbled down the main road, followed by A Co. 46th Infantry Bn. halftracks, then veered to the left into open country when they found the road blocked. The tanks moving cross-country, ploughed through the heavy snow, but the halftracks stalled. A Co. infantrymen bailed out of their halftracks and began walking trough the deep snow. The tanks churned toward Eicherschied, 3000 yards away, with three platoons in broad wedge formation, firing as they moved. They ploughed over desolate, snow-covered landscape with hedgerows marked by lines of deep, drifted snow. An anti-tank gun opened fired from the east, but a stiff breeze whipped up a cloud of fine show which helped screen the tanks an its fire was inaccurate. Occasional rounds of German artillery dropped among the struggling infantrymen.

The tanks wallowed on through the snow, drifted in places into 14-foot high banks. They moved in a devious rout through the hedgerows after several tanks bellied on large concealed stumps and had to be pulled off.

A Co. infantrymen struggled to keep up with the lumbering tanks, but it was impossible to keep pace. The infantrymen couldn't walk more than 60 to 70 yards without flopping in the snow for rest. Control of the infantrymen was difficult. The extreme cold froze up most of the infantry radios. Machine guns froze, too, and they had to depend on rifles, grenades and bazookas. Two companies of the 311th Infantry Regiment were following A Co. 46th Infantry Bn., and the companies became mixed as the snow capes everyone wore hid all rank and division insignia. Lt. Col. Cabaniss, reconnoitering on foot, was wounded

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and command of the assault force fell to the commander of the attached 1st Bn. 322th Infantry Regiment.

At 1130 Capt. Raymond Weeks, commander of B Co. 34th Tank Bn., and Capt. John W. Hewitt, commander of B Co. 46th Infantry Bn. came up with one platoon of the married B Cos. tanks towing the halftracks, and formed on the right of Capt. Biederman. Capt. Billy Devault's A Co. 46th Infantry Bn., could be sighted slowly coming up through the flying snow.

By 1230 A Co. 34th Tank Bn. had deployed behind the last defilade before Eicherschied. The infantry still struggled in the snow, far behind, so Capt. Biederman called for a Corps "time on target" concentration on the town. Twenty-one battalions of artillery hit Eicherschied at the same time. The town exploded in one violent mass.

The attack on the town started and the deployed forces moved over the crestline with all guns firing. Debris was still falling from the artillery concentration. Three 88's, camouflaged with white sheets, threatened the advancing tanks, one to the right and two to the left, and all with good fields of fire.

One enemy gun fired three rounds close to Sgt. William Kundman's tank. Kundman swung his turret quickly, his 75 mm. gun roared and pieces of the enemy gun flew into the air. Lt. Otho E. Thomas discovered a second gun and split the barrel with one round. Lt. Gerald F. Axner knocked out the third gun and T/5 Clayton Wainwright jumped from his tank, threw a white phosphorous grenade into the gun position. Flushing the gun crew from their foxholes.

"Married Companies" Assault Town
The tanks rolled up to the edge of the town and stood outside, pumping shells into the houses and buildings until the infantry came up. At 1600 the assault was begun by the married A and B Co., and the 311th Infantry Regiment in close support. A Cos. took the east half of the town, and the B Cos. the west half. Tanks pulled up to buildings, fired round after round of high explosive into the doors and windows, then doughboys ran into the basements and dug out the terrified Germans. The tank-infantry teams, working with practiced precision, cleaned out house after

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house, block after block. They were old hands at this business and they worked fast and sure at cleaning out the town.

By 1800 the town was clear and outposts were set up. A Co. engineers worked throughout the afternoon to clear the main road into Eicherschied of snow and mines. During the night a 311th Infantry Regiment patrol went to the Roer River and contacted the 8th Infantry Division.

The town finally yielded 230 prisoners, including three women, two in German Army uniforms. The prisoners wore makeshift white camouflage suits with diapers, doilies, sheets and tablecloths predominating. They looked dirty, tired and beaten.

Lt. Mayo Elliott, A Co. 46th Infantry Bn. platoon leader, and his men captured a German medical station while mopping up the town. The German medics were armed with pistols. "The pistols are for the hopelessly wounded", a German medical officer explained apologetically. "We put the muzzle against the patient's heart, pull the trigger, and he is out of his misery".

At 0800 on 31 January the Married A and B Cos. moved out to take the high ground beyond Eicherschied, and gained it with little resistance. That afternoon the 311th Infantry Regiment began to relieve CC A. The relief was completed at 2300 and the entire combat command moved to its former billets in Neudorf.

Men in CC A agreed that taking Eicherschied had been a good operation. Casualties had been extremely low, important ground had been taken and key enemy guns had been destroyed.

In this operation CC A captured or destroyed four anti-tank guns, one 150 mm. howitzer and three 120 mm. mortars. The 47th Artillery Bn. Fired 2000 rounds in support and claimed the destruction of five additional anti-tank guns.

On 28 January the Fifth Armored moved to Hergenrath and then on 5 February, to Herleen, in Holland.

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Chapter XIX
Through The Cabbage Fields
Roer to the Rhine
24 February-10 March

XX
ACROSS THE HEART LAND
Rhine to the Elbe
31 March - 14 April

Chapter XXI
The Last Fight
15 April-23 April

After its spectacular drive to the Elbe the Fifth Armored turned around, cleaned out by-passed rear areas, destroyed a newly-formed German division, and for the second time, fought to the Elbe River.

CC B raced 55 miles to the rear to trap and destroy the Von Clausewitz Division. CC A drove north to the Elbe and made contact with the British, CC R, keeping abreast of CC A, also drove to the Elbe.

Combat Command B
CC B's final appearance on the Western Front came as an encore. But it was an encore which almost surpassed an already brilliant and spectacular main performance. Appropriately, it was a battle between American armored and German panzer forces. And it was CC B's most decisive engagement.

When the combat command reached the Elbe on 13 April, it appeared that CC B's job on the continent had been completed. But on 15 April, when word was received that marauding enemy groups were endangering the division's supply lines far to the rear, CC B was ordered to meet this new threat. At 1730 that day, less than an hour after they had rejoined the rest of the command on the Elbe after being relieved of their security mission at the Weser-Elbe Canal, the married B Cos. of the 81^st Tank Bn. and the 15th Infantry Bn. were sent racing back to Winterfield. The entire command prepared to make the 50-mile run the following morning.

While the column was on the road, rolling west during the morning, Col. Cole was notified that a convoy of supply trucks had been ambushed near Ehra. He immediately sent the armored fingers of the reconnaissance elements probing the area north of

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the main supply route between Ehra and Klotze. Task Force Anderson combed the area in the vicinity of Donitz, while Task Force Dickenson worked from Brome to Millin and the 85th Reconnaissance Sq.'s B Troop from Brome to Jubar. But no enemy force was encountered.

Forest Combed for Krauts
The forests in the area were combed again the next morning and roadblocks were strung out along a 25-mile front facing north from Wittingen through Zaesenbeck to Ruhrberg. Thirty minutes after tankers and infantrymen from the married A Cos. had set up a roadblock near Ohrdorf they spotted a column of vehicles sneaking along the edge of a woods southeast of Wittingen.

"We could just about make them out because they were about 2600 yards away," said S/Sgt. Harold J. Strunk, sergeant of the 2nd Platoon. "There were five tanks and two halftracks."

"Right after we caught our first glimpse of the column, it disappeared behind another clump of trees," said Sgt. Salvatore Candito, a tank commander, "But when it came out on the other side of the trees, we started tossing shells at it."

Sgt. John Ivers, tank gunner, targeted in and, at the 2600-yard range, knocked out a tank and a halftrack.

That evening Col. Cole summoned his task force commanders for a meeting at CC B Headquarters. On his way there, Lt. Col. Dickenson was thrown out of his peep and injured when the vehicle hit a bomb crater in the road. He was evacuated to a hospital and Major Emerson F. Hurley took over command of the task force.

That night Task Force Anderson established roadblocks at Mehmke, Ruhrberg and Stockheim, while Task Force Hurley set up roadblocks at Zaesenbeck, Ohrdorf and Wittingen.

About noon on 18 April the 71st Artillery Bn.'s observation plane reported that strange vehicles were moving southeast out of Lindhof. A section from the married B Cos. was sent to investigate, and when the men reached Jubar they noticed what appeared to be a column of enemy tanks heading into the woods north of Ludelsen,

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More Road Blocks Established
Task Force Anderson moved quickly to surround this enemy force. The married B and C Cos. set up strong roadblocks at Jubar, Borsen, Mehmke and Stockheim, while a tank destroyer platoon from the 628th T.D. Bn.'s B Co. and the Anti-Tank Platoon from the 15th Infantry Bn.'s B Co. put in a roadblock at Ludelsen.

After all of the exits from the forest had been sealed off, the gun batteries of the 71st Artillery Bn., which were in position at Gladdenstadt, started pounding the woods. Fire was adjusted by the Cub observation plane, and then the 47th and 555th Artillery Bns. joined in the serenade.

When the clouds of billowing smoke and dust started to clear, a platoon of infantrymen with a tank destroyer and a new M-26 tank went down one of the firebreaks to develop the situation.

"Our first shot got an American truck which the Krauts had captured and were using," said Sgt. Herbert A. West, commander of the tank destroyer. "After our second shot set the truck on fire, our third round also went through the truck, set fire to a halftrack that was behind it, and then knocked out an armored reconnaissance car."

Small arms fire was heavy, but the M-26 tank opened up with its powerful 90 mm. gun and destroyed two more armored vehicles. Then the small probing force was instructed to pull back out of the forest immediately. Supporting fights of Thunderbolts had arrived to deliver a final, crippling blow to the remaining enemy resistance in the woods.

Six flights of four planes each descended on the woods. Following the radio directions of the slow-flying but sharp-eyed Horsefly (air-ground liaison observation plane), they bombed and strafed and sent rockets smashing into the trapped enemy force. The roar of the explosions could be heard for miles across the German heartland and by dusk every German vehicle beneath the huge clouds of dust and smoke had been destroyed.

The Horsefly, a recent innovation to aid fighter-bomber observation, had been developed some time earlier, but ideas for its further development had been added by Major Ernest Briggs, division G-3 air officer. Lt. Edward F. Little, of CC A Headquarters,

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did the observing during the action; he helped the fighter-bombers locate their targets and then radioed back the results. Survivors of the attack came out of the woods. Sick of war and shaken within an inch of their lives, they surrendered readily. Just before dark the 3rd Platoon of the married A Cos, went up from Ohrdorf through Haselhorst and set up a roadblock in the little village of Lindhof, They were sent there to prevent any elements of the battered enemy force to their right from moving west and also to protect the 71st Artillery Bn.'s batteries which had taken up positions to the south of Haselhorst. They did not know what was north of them and had been informed that friendly troops might be in the area. About 2130 that night a powerful force of tanks and armored vehicles descended from the north and rolled into the village. We held our fire and let them get up close to us because their column was led by three American halftracks," said Cpl. Vincent Stolarczyk of the 15th Infantry Bn. "We didn't know they were Heinies until they started talking German."

"Before we knew it, they had hit our tank and set it on fire," said Cpl. Stacey Dickson, a tank commander of the 81st Tank Bn. "We were lucky and we all managed to get out of it all right."

When the Germans started to surround the roadblock, the GI's fought their way out of the encirclement and pulled back toward Haselhorst. Ten infantrymen and two halftracks got caught in the enemy trap. The wounded infantry platoon leader, Lt. William M, Capron, was evacuated on the back of one of the tanks.

From the ridge near Haselhorst, the tankers, acting as observers, started directing artillery fire on the enemy vehicles and temporarily halted the advance.

We used our knocked-out tank, which was burning brightly in the darkness, as a reference point and laid down the artillery barrages all around it," said Sgt. Wilbert Hufman.

When the shells started whining in on the enemy force and scattering the German soldiers, the A Co. infantrymen who had been encircled took the opportunity to make a break from their captors. Cpl. Stolarczyk and Pvt. Glen Byrd got up and ran while the Germans had their heads down and rejoined their platoon at Haselhorst, Then Pfc. Robert E, Scharon and Pfc. Charles G. Harrison

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climbed out of the foxhole where they had concealed themselves and made a dash to one of their abandoned halftracks. While Scharon guided him from the front of the vehicle, Harrison drove the halftrack back to American lines.

Enemy Plans Revealed
"They captured me and I was put in a halftrack with 12 Germans," said Pvt, Rasilo Contrares, "But when our shells began whistling in, they all jumped out and headed for cover--all except my guard. So during the excitement I grabbed him and threw him out of the vehicle; then when a shell blew his head off, I took off and got back to my outfit."

When the enemy assault wave first hit the roadblock at Lindhof and started to overrun it, the 85th Reconnaissance Sq.'s B Troop, which was holding a block on a road that ran northeast out of Lindhof, captured one of the attackers. Pfc. Ray F. Burke took this soldier and rushed him back to CC B Headquarters through territory that had now been overrun by the Germans.

Interrogated by Lt. Franklin P. Copp, this prisoner revealed not only the identification of this enemy force, but also its strength, mission and operational plans. He stated that it was the Von Clausewitz Panzer Division, and that it was attempting to push south across the Weser-Elbe Canal and then head for the Hart Mountains. The recon party that had been sent out to find a clear route south out of Jubar was the force that had been destroyed in the woods that afternoon.

The main body of the panzer division, he said, consisted of three task forces. Each task force, approximately 1000 men strong, was equipped with one Mark V tank, two tanks mounting 75 mm. guns, one Mark IV with 75 mm. rifle one tank destroyer mounting an 88, 25 halftracks, four 105 mm. self-propelled howitzers, three tractor towed 105 mm. guns, many cargo trucks, and several American peeps, trucks and halftracks. The division also had attached to it a special signal company so that it could remain in direct contact with its army group.

Said CC B's S-2, Major Martin M. Philipsborn, who had also served as an intelligence officer in North Africa, "This is the first instance in operations against the enemy, that I can recall, when

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we knew his strength, objective and tactical plans while they were still being executed."

This invaluable information was immediately dispatched to all units. They now knew what faced them and could prepare to counter the enemy plans. On the road that led west out of Lindhof, Headquarters Platoon of the 85th Reconnaissance Sq.'s B Troop held a roadblock with two halftracks, one armored car and three peeps. When the B Troop commander, Capt. Loran L. Vipond, read the message from CC B, he immediately sent back the following message: "If the attack is diverted in this direction, we may need a little help."

While one enemy column was pushing from Lindhof to Haselhorst that night, another started south down a second route which led to Hanum. Out in front was a truck and an American halftrack with all guns blazing. When a 628th T. D. Bn. Tank Destroyer smashed both vehicles as they approached the town, the remainder of the column deployed into the woods and did not attempt to advance any further.

Throughout the night the enemy vehicles could be heard moving about and getting into position for an attack in the morning, At the A Cos, command post the tank company commander, Capt. Robert M. McNab, and the infantry commander, Capt. George W. Kellner, organized their men and prepared to meet the full weight of the enemy thrust. The married 1^st Platoon was sent to Haselhorst to reinforce the 3rd Platoon. Then, after the 71st Artillery Bn. batteries had displaced from Haselhorst to Ohrdorf, the two platoons also pulled back to Ohrdorf at 0500 and set up defense positions in a semi-circle around the town.

"As we were withdrawing to these new positions, a German self-propelled gun and a halftrack started down the road toward us," said Lt. Robert P, Lant, the 1st Platoon tank commander. "Our tanks opened up and got the gun and our infantry shot up the personnel in the halftrack."

Germans Try Again
At daybreak the German tanks and self-propelled guns rumbled to the edge of the woods and started blasting the defense positions around the town. Two medium tanks were hit and the building

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in which the 71st Artillery Bn, fire direction center was located was also hit and set on fire. The rest of the Shermans swept the advancing enemy tanks and guns with fire and the artillery batteries put down a barrage of shells on them. "We pumped five shots into a Mark IV and finally stopped it," said Sgt. Charles Petersen, tank commander. The enemy attack got no further than the edge of the woods. To the west, tank destroyer men on a roadblock near Wittingen saw two German vehicles come out of the forest behind them.

"Our gun was pointed in the opposite direction when we spotted them through binoculars," said Sgt. Mike Gazdaka. "We swung it around quickly and at a range of 1500 yards knocked out both of them. We later discovered that one was a halftrack and the other a German tank destroyer."

At Lindhof Pfc. Grover Peffers and Pvt. Paul Dempsky had remained in their foxholes all night while the artillery pounded the enemy-held village. Then, at daybreak, they crawled out and were taken prisoner.

"We got to talking to this Heinie tech sergeant who spoke very good English," said Dempsky. "He had lived in the States for several years and we talked about Boston and New York and the World's Fair. And then he told us he was fed up and wanted to surrender. So during the next barrage the three of us took off for our lines."

All day the artillery continued to smash the bottled-up enemy vehicles which had deployed in the woods. Waves of Thunderbolts roared in and, working through the Horsefly, mercilessly strafed and bombed the German force.

During the afternoon six enemy ambulances, loaded with wounded, pulled down to American lines and surrendered. Out of the woods came streams of nerve-shattered prisoners, including all of the division's staff except the division commander, Gen. Unrein, and his chief of staff who managed to slip through to the south and were later captured in the Hart Mountains.

When one of these prisoners declared that a GI lay wounded in a house at Lindhof, the report was radioed to Task Force Hurley and was overhead by Pfc. George S. Kehm and Pvt. Herman Kaplan, medical aid men,

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Although the village was in German hands and was being leveled by artillery and fighter-bombers, Kehm and Kaplan left immediately in their peep and entered Lindhof. The peep was seen by the planes from the air, but task force headquarters could not assure the pilots that it was one of their vehicles, so the planes continued to bomb and strafe.

"After we picked up the wounded man and started back out of town," said Kaplan, six Germans who said they wanted to surrender jumped on the peep and came back with us."

On the right flank Task Force Anderson combed the woods in which the recon elements of the Von Clausewitz Division had been trapped, but no further resistance was encountered. Later in the afternoon the roadblocks south of Jubar were strengthened, as it was believed that the Germans would make an attempt after dark to break through there.

The remnants of this debacle did make the desperate attempt to escape through the steel cordon that had been tightened around them, but they were unsuccessful.

"Our battery was still in position near Ohrdorf and about 0230 that morning we heard their vehicles start milling around, and then about 0400 they started coming toward us," said Lt. Norman E. McNees, reconnaissance officer for the 71st Artillery Bn.'s B Battery. "We started firing point blank, but we didn't hit anything in the dark."

"When it got light," said Sgt. Philip L. Henderson, third section chief, "we knocked out a radio truck with direct fire and captured the occupants of an armored recon car and a motorcycle rider."

Sgt. Gazdayka and his tank destroyer crew, after firing without success in the dark, went into action again at dawn and destroyed a halftrack and a cargo truck.

At 1000 that morning the married B Cos. started clearing the Klotze Forest from the east, pushing west toward Lindhof and Haselhorst. The fighter-bombers and artillery worked the woods over again about noon and by 1400 both towns had been taken. On the west side of the forest a tank equipped with a loudspeaker urged the Germans to surrender. Twenty men and one officer responded immediately.

CC B had trapped two task forces of the Von Clausewitz Division

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in this pocket. The third task force had turned west and then south and was being destroyed by XIII Corps troops. By the morning of 21 April, all of the enemy vehicles which had attempted to slice through CC B had been knocked out and all but a few of the German soldiers had been killed or captured. CC B's losses in annihilating these two task forces were five men killed, two wounded, two missing.

Since 1 April the command had taken 3150 prisoners, killed 800 Germans and wounded 800 more. And it had destroyed or captured 72 miscellaneous assault guns, 110 miscellaneous vehicles, 10 tanks, 21 locomotives, a trainload of ammunition, 11 barges and two flak radar stations.

On 24 April the order came down for CC B to leave the Klotze Forest and move to another area a few miles west. Men in the command did not know it then, but for them the war in Europe was over.

Combat Command A
On 20 April, CC A was alerted for a move to clear out German pockets north toward the Elbe. That afternoon A Troop, 85th Reconnaissance Sq., and Task Force Jones moved north, clearing the woods north of Rohrberg and seizing the line of departure for the attack.

At 0100 the forces manning the line of departure reported vehicular movement to their front. From prisoners it was learned that two battle groups of 100 to 200 men each, with 12 assault guns or tanks, were attempting to move south through the outpost line. Enemy pressure increased, and soon the married 2nd Platoons of the B Cos. of the 34^th Tank Bn. and the 46th Infantry Bn. were heavily engaged in the darkness against an aggressive enemy. The platoons were only at half strength as a result of the previous heavy fighting at Wolbeck, the railroad bridge and Arnsburg.

Lt. Alfred Richter, B Co., 34th Tank Bn., platoon leader, called for permission to withdraw from the town of Wistedt and move back across a small stream 50 yards from the town. By 0500 enemy infantry had infiltrated across the stream and superior forces were closing in on the platoon from three sides. The married 2nd

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Platoons withdrew across the stream and reinforced the 3^rd Platoons in Langenapel.

At 0630 Lt. Col. Burton arrived at Langenapel with the married A Cos. The presence of this force effectively discouraged the enemy from making further attacks. Gen. Regnier arrived shortly afterwards and made plans for the 2nd and 3rd Platoons to retake Wistedt. The married platoons attacked the town again and by noon had retaken it. Gen. Oliver had come forward to confer with Gen. Regnier and watched the fight as Wistedt was recaptured.

In Wistedt the married platoons found ample evidence of the effectiveness of the fight they had been waging. A total of 171 prisoners was taken, and 24 trucks, 10 trailers, two halftracks, six scout cars and two assault guns were destroyed.

Meanwhile the married A Cos. had deployed over a wide front and, as soon as Wistedt was taken, launched a full scale attack on Hennigen. The town was quickly taken, together with large numbers of prisoners. Most of the prisoners were from the Panzer Brigade Feldhernhalle, the same outfit which had given CC A such a fierce fight outside Luxembourg City back in September.

By now the backbone of the enemy's defenses had been broken and CC A advanced rapidly. In Gergan Task Force Burton came under mortar and anti-tank fire. The infantrymen of A Co., 46th Infantry Bn., dismounted and mopped up the resistance. By nightfall, leading elements had reached Gaddau.

Resistance was lighter on 22 April. In the morning the A Cos. received two concentrations of nebelwerfer fire and suffered casualties. The command advanced rapidly north through a large forest, meeting scattered small arms and rocket fire.

Tallyho!
The afternoon of 22 April, the A Cos. made contact with the British. The meeting almost ended in disaster. American, British and German forces were so intermingled throughout the area that it was impossible to decide whether to fire if a strange vehicle were sighted. Cpl. James E. Mathies, tank gunner of A Co., 34th Tank Bn., was all set for anything as his tank rounded a corner and he saw an unfamiliar vehicle 400 yards away, its gun pointed straight at

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Mathies' tank. Mathies' 76 roared twice in rapid succession and the rear of the strange vehicle disappeared. It was a British scout car. The British soldiers manning it piled out and were recognized before further damage was done.

The British commander of the car afterwards came up looking for Mathies. "That was fast shooting, old chap," he told the 34th Tank Bn. gunner. "We had been there an hour, waiting to shoot anything that moved around that corner, and when you came around it you hit me twice before I could lay my hand on the trigger." With that he patted the startled Mathies on the back and went to see what he could salvage out of his scout car.

The combat command continued to push north, cleaning out objectives one by one during the day. Major Fuller, leading the married C Cos., reached the last corps objective on the west.

During the night the C Cos. sent out a patrol to make contact with the A Cos. on their right. An enemy column was discovered, caught between the two married companies. Lt. Walter Williams, commanding the 2nd Platoon of A Co., 34th Tank Bn., with tank destroyers of A Co., 628th T. D. Bn., knocked out two German tanks at a roadblock and the patrol was burdened with so many prisoners that it had to return without making contact.

The last day of the fight, 23 April, the married A Cos. of Capt. De Vault and Lt. Thomas attacked the town of Hitzacker and seized the high ground nearby. The 85th Reconnaissance Sq. set up an observation post there. Hitzacker was defended by a company of dug-in infantry on the western edge, a roadblock, a flak gun, a Panther tank and many panzerfausts. The infantrymen of the 46th Infantry Bn. attacked the town on foot, supported by tank and tank destroyer fire. As they moved in they received heavy fire from German machine guns and the Panther tank. The machine gun positions were chopped up by the heavy tank fire, and the Panther tank was blasted with three direct hits by Cpl. Samuel Kubisco, Lt. Williams' gunner.

By 1300 the town was taken and the high ground to the north secured. A total of 200 prisoners was taken in the town.

From the high ground the infantry spotted a barge loaded with Germans trying to escape with their equipment across the Elbe. Tank guns fired at it, but it floated out of range down the river.

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A Cub plane arrived and laid in the command's artillery, knocking out the heavily loaded barge.

On the north the married C Cos. pushed patrols down to the Elbe at numerous points. Task Force Jones took prisoners in the Dannenberg Forest and at Schmardau the 34th Tank Bn.'s Reconnaissance Platoon forced the surrender of an entire German company. At a large oil dump near the river, Capt. Seymour Scott, commanding A Troop, 85^th Reconnaissance Sq., captured another 170 Germans with their officers.

By a coincidence, a German maintenance unit surrendered its complete equipment, including a large stock of tires and tubes, to the 34th Tank Bn. maintenance officer, Capt. Armand E. Cabrel. The German unit had heard a rumor that it was to be used to defend Berlin, and had decided to reassemble on the American side of the river and surrender.

On 24 April the 29th Infantry Division relieved CC A and the command moved to occupy an area further west.

V-E Day found the command peacefully caring for displaced persons, the war having ended for them almost two weeks before.

Combat Command R
CC R had ended its first battle for the Elbe River, but the combat command had still another mission ahead of it before its war role was over.

The combat command was mopping up scattered resistance in the vicinity of Winterfeld when, on 18 April, it was ordered north of Salzwedel, in the British Zone of Occupation. From there it was to drive north, smash strong enemy forces still holding the area, and take the Elbe River town of Dannenberg. For the second time in a month its objective was the historic Elbe. On 20 April, C Troop of the 85th Reconnaissance Sq. set out from Salzwedel to reconnoiter routes toward Luchow and ran into enemy roadblocks and infantry in the woods west of Salzwedel. The order for the attack came 21 April. The married A and C Cos. of the 10th Tank Bn. and the 47th Infantry Bn. under Lt. Col. Hamberg were to clean out German forces from the woods to the west, while the married B Cos. were to push toward Luchow and await the rest of the combat command there.

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Clearing the woods was no simple mopping up operation for Task Force Hamberg. The enemy armored and infantry forces holding the area were augmented by Germans who had been pushed back into the woods by CC A's advance on the left of CC R.

While one married company thrust south from Salzwedel to a railroad line, the other struck north from the southern edge of the woods. The 5th Artillery Bn. smashed enemy troops and material caught in the trap, blasting eight dual-purpose 88 mm. guns, nine nebelwerfers and a number of machine gun nests.

Near Seeben, Pvt. Hugo D. Musgrove, of the 47th Infantry Bn, set off into the woods after four German soldiers and found himself face-to-face with an enemy tank. He ran back to his halftrack, snatched up a bazooka, returned, and with his second round destroyed the retreating tank at the range of 300 yards.

By 2100, when the task force bivouacked for the night, they had flushed out and destroyed nine long-barreled 75 mm. guns mounted on Czechoslovakian tank chassis, as well as three armored vehicles, a Volkswagon and a dozen trucks.

The married B Cos. attacked north at 1430 and ran into heavy enemy fire from their left flank as they neared Saase. Lt. Howard K. Kettlehut, 95th Artillery Bn., forward observer, moved with the forward elements, directing artillery fire from his batteries on anti-tank guns and nebelwerfer positions. A half hour later the armored column hit a roadblock protected by mines. The C Co. engineers went forward to clear the mines while the task force went into bivouac. In a day of hard, bitter fighting the combat command had taken 300 prisoners.

After their mission of clearing the woods was completed, the married A and C Cos. of Task Force Hamberg moved out at 0645 the next morning, 22 April, in two columns pushing toward Luchow. The C Cos. moved through Salzwedel and Luckau; the A Cos. through Brietz, Wustrow and Dolgow. South of Luchow the B Cos. ran into a hasty minefield. Lt. Stephen E. Alien, Jr. and his 22nd Engineer platoon cleared away the mines and the column ground on toward the town. The two columns of Task Force Hamberg joined near Luchow and the C Cos, led the way into the town. The B Cos., on a parallel route across the Juetze River, entered Luchow from the

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opposite side. The town surrendered unconditionally at 0815.

The two task forces pressed on, the A and C Cos. of Task Force Hamberg striking north through Grabow; the B Cos. thrusting through Seeraw toward Zadrau. As they advanced, all three companies came under heavy nebelwerfer fire north of Luchow. The columns halted while the 95^th Artillery Bn. went into position. Because of the difficult terrain, however, placing the howitzers into position to bring fire on the nebelwerfers proved to be a long, tedious task.

While the column was halted, Lt. Robert Stutsman led a dismounted patrol from B Co., 47th Infantry Bn. through the Luchow Forest toward Zadrau where the enemy was reported to have set up its regimental command post. Moving through the woods, the patrol encountered heavy sniper fire. The infantrymen continued mopping up the area during the halt, and C Cos.' engineers pulled mines from the road shoulders.

Fight to Dannenberg
It was 1400 before the columns moved out again. Lt. Col. Hamberg's troops met with little resistance as they pushed through Tramm and on toward the outskirts of Dannenberg.

The married B Co. under Lt. Col. Boyer found Zadrau bitterly defended by Hitler Jugend troops, some only 14 to 16 years old but fighting with fanatical tenacity. Their sniper fire was unusually accurate, and they continued to fire even when the houses where they had barricaded themselves burned down around them.

Roadblocks and tank traps around Zadrau added to the difficulty of taking the town. The 95th Artillery Bn. and the supporting fighter-bombers took over. Zadrau was a mass of smoking rubble when the task force again churned on, turning west toward Heide.

In Heide a Cub plane pilot, flying in the rain ahead of the armored column, spotted six heavy German 88 mm guns, being towed by prime movers. He radioed the position to the 95th Artillery Bn. The batteries let loose with a barrage on the enemy column. When the tankers and infantrymen of the married B Cos. entered Heide and turned east toward their original route, they found the six demolished 88's, the crews still in their seats where

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they had been caught by the deadly accuracy of the 85th Artillery Bn.'s shellfire.

Outside of Heide, Task Force Boyer ran into a column of 10 towed nebelwerfers. First encountered by the married A Cos. as they had moved off on the left to contact CC A to the west, the German column had fled east, cut in front of the C Cos. and would have made good their escape had not the B Cos. come thundering up the road at that moment. The tanks blasted the six-barreled mortars, smashed the entire column, and ground on toward Dannenberg.

As the A and C Cos. of Task Force Hamberg moved through Shaafhausen toward the outskirts of Dannenberg, the 2nd Platoon of the C Cos., led by Lt. William J. Caroscio and Lt. Paul Vostic, turned down a side road and came upon a huge, carefully concealed assembly plant for V-l and C-2 robot bombs. So well camouflaged that it blended into the woods and was almost invisible from the road, the plant consisted of more than 60 separate buildings, roads and railroad sidings. There the men discovered a new and untried German secret weapon, a piloted V-l bomb complete with cockpit, instrument panel and controls, and a parachute so the pilot could drop to safety after he had trained his bomb on the target.

Lt. Col. Hamberg's A and C Cos. were closing in on Dannenberg from the west when anti-tank shells from the vicinity of the town came slamming into the column. The lead tank and two halftracks were knocked out. The armor drew back while infantrymen of the 47th Infantry Bn. Dismounted and made their way through the forest toward Dannenberg, looking for the gun positions. They found three 88's and two 20 mm. guns, and directed 95th Artillery Bn. fire on the positions.

The two task forces remained overnight outside of Dannenberg and prepared to assault the town in the morning. The A and C Cos. Bivouacked at Shaafhausen, while the married B Cos. halted at Nebenstedt.

That night the report came that the Germans were hurriedly ferrying reinforcements across the Elbe for the defense of Dannenberg. All available artillery was turned on the town and the ferry sites on the river.

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On the morning of 23 April, the two task forces moved into Dannenberg; the two married companies of Task Force Hamberg pushed in from the west, and the married B Cos. of Task Force Boyer entered the town from the east. After a brief fire fight, the town put out white flags at 0830.

Now the ferries that had been bringing reinforcements were evacuating the Germans back across the Elbe at Domitz. The 95th Artillery Bn. batteries turned their fire on these ferry sites.

During the remainder of the day, CC R accepted the surrender of a number of communities in the area. The A and C Cos. cleared the area through Prisser, Riskau and Kabmen; the B Cos. mopped up around Quickborn and Susborn. By late evening, CC R's second drive to the Elbe and final mission in Europe had been completed.

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Combat Command A
Brig. Gen. Eugene A. Regnier, Commanding

Combat Command A plunged into the fight south of Fougeres, France, to lead the Division in the encirclement of the city of Le Mans. Striking north, Gen. Regnier's columns forged the inner ring of the steel circle which trapped the Germans in the huge pocket behind the Argentan-Falaise gap. The fighting men of Combat Command A saw the city of Argentan on te night of 12 August, eight days before the trap was closed. In the Eure-Seine corridor bitter resistance was crushed to create the second pocket in France.

Crossing the Meuse south of Sedan, the tank-infantry teams caught the Germans by surprise and liberated Luxembourg City and captured intact the powerful transmitter of Luxembourg Radio at Junglinster. Shaef Psychological Warfare Section regarded this as the "greatest single stroke of luck in the war."

Beyond the Hurtgen Forest in the mud and cold of December the enemy was cleared to the Roer River by taking the high ground overlooking Winden and the capture of the towns of Kufferath and Schneidhausen. Across the Roer in February the battle was carried from Rheindahlen to the Rhine at Krefield.

In the final chapter of World War II this fighting team crossed the Rhine River on the last day of March and reached the Elbe River at Tangermunde at noon on 12 April 1945.

Gen. Regnier joined the Fifth Armored Division in December 1942 at Camp Cooke, Calif., and was assigned to Combat Command B. In September 1943 he was transferred to Combat Command A, which he commanded throughout the war.

He began his military career in May 1917, when he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry. Serving overseas in World War I he participated in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns.

Following the war Gen. Regnier served two tours of duty with the 1^st Cavalry Division. During the period 1929-1933 he was Aide-de-Camp to the Honorable Henry L. Stimson when he was Governor-General of the Philippines and Secretary of State.

He attended the Cavalry School in 1921 and the Command and General Staff School in 1938. He was an instructor in the tactics department of the Cavalry School in 1939.

In March, 1941, he returned to the 1st Cavalry Division and commanded the 91st Cavalry Squadron. Transferred to the 6th Armored Division in July, 1942, he commanded the 68th Armored Regiment. He was promoted to Brigadier General 3 December 1942 and joined the Fifth Armored the same month.

Combat Command A's Fighting Team
34th Tank Battalion
46th Armored Infantry Battalion
47th Armored Field Artillery Battalion
Troop A, 85th Cavalry Recon. Squadron
Co. A, 22nd Armored Engineer Battalion
Co. A, 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion
Battery A, 387th AAA AW Battalion

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Combat Command B
Col. John T. Cole, Commanding

Combat Command B engaged the first enemy troops near Vitre, France, as the columns rolled east to block the escape routes from the city of Le Mans. Following the drive to Argentan, the tanks raced to the city of Dreux to capture the Eure River line as German tank reserves approached from Paris.

After clearing the enemy between the Eure and Seine Rivers, Combat Command B streaked north through the Compiegne Forest to the Belgian border at Conde. Then, after clearing a sector through Luxembourg 150 miles to the east, Col. Cole's troops were the first Allied soldiers to cross the German border. A small patrol from Troop B, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron crossed the Our River boundary at Stalzemburg at 16S0 on 11 September 1944. Five days later the whole combat command penetrated into the pillbox area beyond Wallendorf to draw large German forces from the Aachen area.

In the crossing of the Roer in February, Combat Command B lashed out across the flat country to cut off Erkelenz and capture the key city of Rheindahlen. Four days after crossing the Rhine in April the Weser River was reached at Minden and Bad Oeynhausen. Stopped at the Elbe on 13 April, Combat Command B returned 75 miles to open up the XIII Corps supply route. The fighting ended with the complete destruction of the Von Clausewitz Panzer Division in the Klotze Forest.

Col. Cole was assigned to Combat Command B in September 1943 when the Fifth Armored Division was stationed at Pine Camp, N. Y. He took the combat command overseas and commanded it throughout the fighting in Europe.

A graduate of West Point's 1917 class, Col. Cole served overseas in World War I with the 3rd Cavalry and the Tank Corps. From 1924 to 1928 he was an instructor in the techies department at the United States Military Academy.

Col. Cole was a member of the Army Horse Show Team and the U. S. Olympic Equestrian Team from 1930 to 1934. Following the Olympic Games in 1936 he was Captain of the Army Horse Show Team in 1936-37 and again in 1938-40. He was Captain-elect of the U. S. Olympic Equestrian Team in 1940 when the games were cancelled due to the war.

He graduated from the Cavalry School Troop Officers' Course in 1925, advanced Course in 1929, and Advanced Equitation Course in 1930. He completed the Command and General Staff School in 1938.

From 1934-36 he commanded the 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. Assigned to the 2nd Cavalry at Ft. Riley in 1940, Col. Cole assumed command of that unit in April 1941. He was transferred to the Armored Force in July 1942 and assigned to the Fifth Armored Division the following September. He commanded the 81st Armored Regiment until September 1943.

Combat Command B's Fighting Team
81st Tank Battalion
15th Armored Infantry Battalion
71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion
Troop B, 85th Cavalry Recon. Squadron
Co. B, 22nd Armored Engineer Battalion
Co. B, 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion
Battery B, 387th AAA AW Battalion

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Combat Command R
Col. Glen H. Anderson, Commanding

The History of Combat Command R really began in June 1944 when Gen. Oliver designated Col. Anderson's Reserve Command as a fighting combat command. Augmented with personnel from the 47th Armored Infantry Battalion, the staff was complete when the command assembled in Normandy.

Pacing Combat Command A in the drive to create the Falaise Cap, Combat Command R awaited orders on 12 August 1944 to advance and meet the British north of Argentan. When the Division stopped on the Belgian border, Col. Anderson's forces streaked 100 miles in eight hours, to make the first crossing of the Meuse River in the First Army sector.

On 14 September the combat command completely penetrated the Siegfried line and had crossed the Prum River on the route to Bitburg when orders stopped the advance. In the muddy battles in the Hurtgen Forest in December, Combat Command R received the Distinguished Unit Citation for the capture of the towns of Kleinhau, Brandenburg, and Bergstein.

In late February Combat Command R passed through the other combat commands, to carry the advance of the Division to the banks of the Rhine River at Orsoy. Col. Anderson's troops spearheaded the Division's advance to the Weser River. After a three-day halt, Combat Command R continued to drive to the Elbe, reaching its bank opposite Whittenburg, 12 April 1945.

Col. Anderson's service with the Fifth Armored Division started in the middle of the desert maneuvers in September 1942. He commanded the 46^th Armored Infantry Regiment until September 1943. From that date, as commanding officer of the Reserve Command, he supervised the training of the three armored infantry battalions. Col. Anderson's military career started in 1917 when he graduated from West Point with a commission in Infantry. He served as a captain during the first World War. He graduated from the Infantry School in 1933 and completed the course at the Command and General Staff School in 1936. He is also a graduate of the French Tank School in Versailles, France.

Col. Anderson had various assignments with infantry units following the war. From 1936 to 1940 he was an instructor at The Infantry School. Two years prior to joining the Fifth Armored Division he commanded the 752nd Tank Battalion at Ft. Lewis, Washington.

The title of "Foghorn" was given Col. Anderson by the soldiers of Combat Command R because of his deep, mellow voice.

Combat Command R's Fighting Team
10th Tank Battalion
47th Armored Infantry Regiment
95th Armored Field Artillery Battalion
Troop C, 85th Cavalry Recon. Squadron
Co. C, 22nd Armored Engineer Battalion
Co. C, 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion
Battery C, 387th AAA Battalion

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Division Artillery
Col. Douglas J. Page, Commanding

The Fifth Armored Division Artillery included three organic self propelled battalions; the 47th, 71st, and 95th Armored Field Artillery Battalions; The 387th Anti-Aircraft Artillery AW Battalion operated under "Divarty" and, at times, the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion fired under the artillery control.

The armored artillery M7s were designed to keep closely behind the fast-moving tank columns and answer requests for fire from positions on the roads or in the fields. The quick response from the artillery battalions was outstanding in the Fifth Armored Division.

The 47th claims the distinction of having fired the first artillery at the Germans in Argentan and to have said "On the Way" for the first shells that landed in Germany.

Most exciting action for the 71st occurred in April 1945, at Hazelhorst, Germany, when 88mm shells ripped through the building housing the fire direction center. The M7s returned with direct fire while the headquarters moved.

The 95th's most thrilling action came during the first penetration of the Siegfried Line through Wallendorf. At Hommerdingen the 105s fought off tank-infantry assaults to defend their position area.

Prominent among the attached artillery units were the 400th Armored, 987th, and 557th Field Artillery Battalions.

The first Artillery officer for the Division was Col. Harold W. Blakely. He was succeeded by Col. Boy L. Dalferes, who remained in that position until June 1944. At that time Col. Douglas J. Page joined the Division in England and continued until the end of the war as Artillery Officer.

Col. Page graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1916 as a Second lieutenant in Infantry. He transferred to the Cavalry in 1917 and to the Artillery in 1920. During World War I he was promoted to the rank of Major. Colonel Page's military career includes many artillery assignments. In 1940-41 he commanded the 34th Field Artillery Battalion. In the fighting in North Africa he was executive officer of the 9^th Infantry Division Artillery.

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Chief of Staff
Col. Edward G. Farrand

In an armored division the Commanding General has in his headquarters the General and Special Staffs to handle the details in planning and carrying out operations of the division.

The General Staff is responsible for the management of the personnel, intelligence, operations, and supply of the division, while all other activities in the headquarters are performed by the Special Staff members.

Col. Edward G. Farrand, as Chief of Staff, directed and coordinated the work of both staffs and acted as the adviser to the Commanding General from August 1945 until the end of the war. The personality of Col. Farrand is woven deeper into the record of the Fifth Armored Division Headquarters than any other officer since he was present at the origin of the Division as assistant G-3, He became G-3 in January 1942 at Camp Cooke, Calif., and Chief of Staff at line Camp, N. Y. Tall, energetic Col. Farrand was known to everyone as "The Chief."

He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1927 with a commission in Artillery. After several assignments with artillery units he returned to West Point as a language instructor from 1934 to 1938. Shortly before joining the Fifth Armored in October 1941 he attended the Command and General Staff School at Ft. Leavenworth.

Assistant Chief of Staff G-1
Lt. Col. Francis W. Marks

Lt. Col. Francis W. Marks was the personnel manager for the Division. His duties included the requisition and assignment of replacements, processing of the recommendations for decorations, promotions and transfers of individuals, and the evacuation of prisoners of war. He joined the Division at Camp Cooke, Calif., as adjutant of the 81^st Armored Regiment, and became G-l in December 1943. A lawyer in civilian life, Lt. Col. Marks is a graduate of Boston University.

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Assistant Chief of Staff G-2
Lt. Col. Lonsdale F. Macfarland

Lt. Col. Lonsdale P. Macfarland, Jr., directed the Division's intelligence activities. He evaluated and disseminated enemy information and furnished terrain studies for the combat elements. From troop reports and the interrogation teams he furnished the Commanding General detailed reports of the enemy's capabilities. Lt Col. MacFarland joined the Fifth Armored Division during activation in August 1941. He is a graduate of Virginia Military Institute and Cumberland University. A native of Tennessee he practices law in civilian life.

Assistant Chief of Staff G-3
Lt. Col. F. Boynton Butler, Jr.

Lt. Col. F. Boynton Butler, Jr. was responsible for the preparation of field orders and keeping higher headquarters informed of the location of the flying tank columns. His section also coordinated the air support for the Division. An original cadreman at Ft. Knox, Ky., Lt. Col. Butler was executive officer of Combat Command A prior to becoming G-3. He is a graduate of New Mexico Military Institute and Northwestern University. In civiliam life he is the business manager of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation at Madison, Wisc.

Assistant Chief of Staff G-4
Lt. Col. Harrison R. Entrekin

Lt. Col. Harrison A. Entrekin was responsible for the supply of the Division. Whether it was exploiting across France and Germany or slugging it out in the Hurtgen Forest, Lt. Col. Entrekin coordinated the flow of food, clothing, gasoline, and ammunition with the battalion supply sections. He joined the Division on October 1, 1941 as a member of the Division staff. Born in Indiana and a graduate of Purdue University, he is a telephone engineer and lives in Oak Park, Illinois,

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Combat Command A's Married Team

34th Tank Battalion

	Lt. Col. Thomas B. Bartel
	Lt. Col. Richard H. Jones

The 34th Tank Battalion was activated at Pine Camp, N. Y. on 20 September 1943 by the redesignation of the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armored Regiment. The light tank company, (D), was formed by the transfer and redesignation of Company A, 81st Armored Regiment. Lt. Col. Thomas B. Barrel commanded the battalion on activation and went with it overseas. He was wounded 13 August near Argentan, France. Major Glen L. Foote led the battalion to the Seine River. Lt. Col. Karl L. Scherer commanded from 30 September to 8 November when Lt. Col. William L. Cabaniss arrived. On 30 January Lt. Col. Cabaniss was wounded. Lt. Col. Richard H. Jones assumed command on 15 February 1945 and remained until the war ended.

46th Armored Infantry Battalion

Lt. Col. William H. Burton, Jr.

The origin of the 46th Armored Infantry Battalion dates back to 1 January 1942 when the 3rd Battalion, 46th Armored Infantry Regiment was formed from the 1st and 2nd battalions of that unit. On 20 January 1943 it received the separate battalion designation. The list of commanding officers includes Maj. Dee R. Ellis, Lt. Col. Leo F. Kengla, Lt. Col. Edgar A. Gans, and Lt. Col. Burton. The 46th was taken overseas by Lt. Col. Earl S. Gibson. Receiving command of the 46th again in April 1944 Lt. Col. Burton led it throughout the war except for a week in August when he was wounded.

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Combat Command B's Married Team
81st Tank Battalion

Lt. Col. LeRoy H. Anderson

Personal of the 81st Tank Battalion trained for two years as the 2^nd Battalion, 81st Armored Regiment. On 20 September 1943 personnel from Headquarters and Service Companies of the 81st Regiment were added when it became a separate battalion. Company B of the Regiment was redesignated Company D and became the battalion's light tank company.

The first commander was Lt. Col. Hollis B. Hoyt. Maj. Jesse M. Hawkins, Jr. succeeded Lt. Col. Hoyt upon arrival at Camp Cooke. In July 1942 Lt. Col. LeRoy H. Anderson became commanding officer and remained with the battalion through the remainder of the training and all of its combat in Europe.

15th Armored Infantry Battalion

	Lt. Col. Glenn G. Dickenson
	Lt. Col. John S. Wintermute

The 2nd Battalion of the 46th Armored Infantry Regiment was redesignated as the 15th Armored Infantry Battalion on 20 September 1943. Lt. Col. Earl S. Gibson commanded during the first two years of training. Lt. Col. Wintermute took the battalion overseas and was wounded 10 August north of Le Mans, France. Major Toney Giorlando assumed command until 28 August. Lt. Col. Kenneth P. Gilson led through north France and Luxembourg and was wounded near Niedersgegen, Germany on 20 September. Lt. Col. Dlckenson joined on 23 September and commanded until the last fight near Wittingen, Germany, the middle of April 1945, when he was injured in a vehicle accident.

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85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron

	Lt. Col. Kent Fay
	Maj. John P. Gerald
	Lt. Col. George C. Benjamin

During the first two years of training the 85th Armored Reconnaissance Battalion consisted of four line companies. In September 1943 Troops D and E were added with the redesignation and transfer of the Reconnaissance Companies of the 34th and 81st Armored Regiments, respectively. At the same time the title was changed to Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron and the the "Troop" replaced "Company."

The list of commanders from the beginning included Lt. Col. Frank A. Alien, Jr., Lt. Col. Thomas G. Dobyns, Maj. Wayne J. Dunn, and Lt. Col. Gustavus W. West. Lt. Col. Kent Fay became commanding officer when the unit moved to Tennessee in March 1943.

The 85th reconnoitered routes and front lines 50 miles south of the Division assembly area in Normandy. Troops of the 85th were the first soldiers of the Fifth Armored to contact the enemy--2 August 1944. Lt. Col. Fay was killed in action as the drive across France approached the Compiegne Forest on 30 August. Maj. John P. Gerald commanded the Squadron through north France and Luxembourg. During the consolidation on the German border Maj. Geraid

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was killed in action on 17 October while accompanying one of his reconnaissance patrols. Lt. Col. George C. Benjamin commanded the 85^th for the remainder of the fighting.

\ Trained and equipped as the eyes and ears of the Armored Division the 85th did everything from slugging it out as tanks and infantry to performing rapid road reconnaissance. Across France the troops protected the flanks of the spearheading combat commands, contacted friendly troops across miles of enemy-held area, and kept up the constant flow of enemy information through its many radios.

The Squadron carried its own artillery in Troop E, the assault gun troop. Many times it was the only support for the armored cars and peeps of Troops A, B, C, and D. In the Hurtgen Forest fighting near the Roer River the men from the line Troops fought in the mud as infantry.

Company F, the light tank company, was a burning needle in the flank of many German columns. With other members of the 85th as infantry, these tanks fought through the mud in December to carry supplies and evacuate wounded from Bilstein, Bergheim, and Hill 201 overlooking the Roer River at Winden, Germany.

In the 12-day drive from the Rhine to the Elbe, the 85th came into its own as the peeps and armored cars roamed far and wide over the North German Plain to protect the flanks of the Division's columns.

75th Medical Battalion Armored

Lt. Col. Benjamin H. Bader

Gallant soldiers were the aid men who followed the tank company in a peep and accompanied the infantry platoon on foot.

Symbolic of the courage and devotion to duty of all Fifth Armored Medical personnel were the actions of S/Sgt. Thomas A. Greene. His Distinguished Service Cross citation read: ". He was last seen kneeling over a soldier on the side of the road, dressing his wounds."

In the furious fire fights during exploitation across France they used tanks as a shield from machine gun fire as they stopped the bleeding and splinted fractures. After transferring the wounded from peep to ambulance, sometimes it became a rolling hospital as they were evacuated forward. Plasma bottled swung from the tops of the ambulances, pouring life-saving fluid into the veins of the wounded. When the tactical situation permitted, the ambulances would make the long trip to the evacuation hospital.

At Wallendorf, in the pillbox area, it was "Medics! Medics!" Armored doughboys of CC B and CC R spread the cry as the Germans poured artillery into their positions. Aid men pulled the wounded out of foxholes and surgeons worked miracles in the surgical trucks and tents.

Again in the Hurtgen Forest it was "Medics! Medics!" Artillery was so heavy that frequently the aid men could not crawl to a wounded man's foxhole. Instead they rode in tanks. They pulled the wounded out of their cold, water-filled holes, lifted them into tanks, and took them back to a crude aid station for treatment. Ambulances couldn't make it through the shelling by day, but carried their wounded at night, churning steadily back to the clearing station. Here the men were treated and their pain eased. The men with trench foot had the shoes cut off their purplish, swollen feet. A few minutes later they were moved again, rolling back in ambulances to the comfort of an evacuation hospital.

From July until V-E Day, the 75th Medical Battalion treated 10,346 patients, including many wounded Germans. Members

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of the Battalion won six Silver Star Medals, 43 Bronze Star Medals, 35 Purple Hearts, and a Croix de Guerre.

The 75th was an original unit of the Division. At Ft. Knox and Camp Cooke the commanding officer was Lt. Col. Carlton D. Goodiel. Lt. Col. Benjamin F. Bader took command in the Tennessee Maneuvers and remained until 5 February 1945, when he was returned to the states. Maj. Raymond J. Winkler continued until the end of the war as the battalion commander.

628th Tank Destroyer Battalion

Lt. Col. William J. Gallagher
(No Picture Available)

The 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion was attached to the Division 2 August in Normandy and fought with it for the duration except for six weeks in mid-winter--19 December to 28 January. During that period the 628^th fought in the Ardennes with the 3rd Armored and 82nd Airborne Divisions.

In offensive action one company of the 628th was attached to each of the combat commands - A Company to CC A, B Company to CC B, and C Company to CC R.

Originally the 28th Infantry Division's Antitank Battalion, it was designated the 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion on 8 January 1942. The battalion trained in Louisiana, Camp Bowie, Texas, and participated in the Tennessee maneuvers in the summer of 1943. It sailed for England on 29 January 1944 and arrived in Normandy on 50 July 1944.

Lt. Col. William M. Hernandez, battalion commander since November 1941, was killed in action in France on 20 August 1944. Lt. Col. William J. Gallagher commanded the battalion for the remainder of the fighting. Inactivated 14 November 1945.

Division Trains

Lt. Col. Karl L. Scherer
(No Picture Available)

The division trains was organized in January 1942 as the Fifth prepared to move to Camp Cooke, Calif. Col. Gustin M. Nelson commanded the Trains most of the training period and took them to England. Shortly before the move to Normandy Lt. Col. Glenn G. Dickenson was assigned to the Trains and led them until 18 August when Col. Nelson returned. On 7 November Lt. Col. Karl L. Scherer became commanding officer and remained until war's end. In the exploitation across France the Trains stayed as close as possible to the combat commands for security. When the fighting settled down to the slugging along a line the Trains found it possible to remain well to the rear in order to perform the administrative details required in a division.

The term "Trains" includes all the personnel, vehicles and equipment that make up the rear echelon of the Division. Most

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familiar to the combat troops were the Battalion Personnel sections, the Army Post Office, and the finance office. Also located in the Trains area were the Ordnance repair shops, the Signal maintenance and supply sections, the Quartermaster office, the Division Band, the Adjutant General, and the other special staff sections.

Many times the unit personnel officers were required to form patrols from their groups of company clerks and search woods for German paratroopers when the Division was located near the Hurtgen Forest.

Just four days before the Ardennes offensive started the Trains moved from the path of the panzer divisions at Waimes, Belgium. In late December and early January 1944 they assembled at Verviers and Pepinster, Belgium to replace and repair the damages suffered in the Hurtgen.

During the exploitation to the Elbe River in April the Trains played hide and seek with two Infantry divisions in trying to keep up with the rapid advances of the combat commands of the Fifth. The friendly Infantry divisions ordered the Trains off the road several times in an effort to keep up close behind the Victory tankers.

The Forward Echelon is the tactical headquarters of the Commanding General, his staff, and those directly concerned with the fighting. In the rear echelon are the administrative offices which maintain the vast amount of records and reports. The rear echelon moves with the Division Trains.

Closely behind the fighting combat commands move the halftracks and peeps of the forward echelon. Into this headquarters flow orders from higher headquarters, reports on the progress of the fighting, information of the enemy, reports on strength in personnel and materiel, and the availability of supplies. Here this information forms the basis of the Commanding General's plan of action. Orders covering all phases of the operation go out by radio, liaison officer, wire, and messenger to the units.

During combat Gen. Oliver seldom stayed at the headquarters but was up front with the battalion commanders where he secured first-hand knowledge of the changing situations.

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145th Armored Signal Company

Signal Activities in combat were directed by Capt. Glenn A. Welde, 145^th Company Commander, and Lt. Col. Erling J. Foss, Division Signal officer.

The 145th radio operators, repair and supply crews performed the never-ending job of maintaining communications. When on the move, the radio sets were issued on an exchange basis; when the Division stopped, the sets were repaired and wire was used. "No set deadlined more than 24 hours," was the motto of the 145th. A total of 1625 radios were repaired during the fighting period. In addition, all the signal equipment in the replacement vehicles was checked and serviced before it went forward to the combat elements.

The 145th was an original Fifth Armored Unit. Company commanders during the training period were Capt. John S. Gruel, Capt. Erling J. Foss, and Capt. Wolf E. Jessen. Succeeded by Lt. Col. Foss in September 1943, Lt. Col. Lee R. Williams was the first Division Signal officer.

Quartermaster Truck Companies

THE 3907th Q. M. Truck Company was attached on 29th August 1944 and remained with the Fifth for the remainder of the war except for three weeks in December.

The 3912th Q. M. Truck Company was attached on 5 August 1944 and on the very first trip delivered gasoline directly to the tanks in the fields south of the Mayenne River on the route to Le Mans.

Only colored troops to wear the shoulder patch of the Fifth Armored were the men of the 3907th and the 3912th. Their main job was hauling gasoline-the life blood of an armored division. But they also hauled ammunition, food, clothing, and the many other items required by combat troops.

It was a hard, grueling grind, highballing the 2 1/2-ton six-wheeled cargo trucks and their trailers over the rutted, battle-scarred roads of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, but the truckers can boast they never let the Division want for supplies when they were available. They relate many thrilling stories of rolling through enemy infested areas and have seen many fire fights.

Eleven 3912th truckers hold the Bronze Star Medal, while five of the 3907th have received that decoration along with five Purple Hearts and eight individual citations.

After joining the Fifth, the 3912th clocked 825,000 truck miles and the 3907th followed closely with 785,000. These truckers claim to be the first colored troops in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, as well as the first Negro soldiers to enter Paris in World War II.

3907th QM Truck Co.
Capt. Charles H, Dudley

3912th QM Truck Co.
Capt. Joseph L. Ziolkowski

The Chaplains

The forward observer was having a tough time trying to keep the artillery fire on the German soldiers, who were appearing on all sides like ants swarming out of an ant hill, when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Turning, he saw that it was the chaplain. "I was just giving you the blessing," said the officer with the cross on his collar. "You keep the shells flying and I'll do the praying."

But the chaplains did more than pray. When all but one of the surgical sections were withdrawn from a particularly hot section of the Siegfried Line, he stayed with the remaining medics, helping to carry litters and evacuate the wounded. He was one of the last to leave when the troops were withdrawn under heavy shelling.

Men at war are always in need of spiritual support. Throughout the Victory Division's rough and stormy career, its chaplains have always been at the side of the fighting men, administering to their spiritual needs and sharing their dangers and hardships.

During the drive across the European continent, all sorts of strange places have served as their churches: beer halls, movie houses and stables. But more often the services were held in open fields, during rain and snow storms, with a portable field organ resting in the mud or an altar on the hood of a peep. Often these services were interrupted by the whine of incoming shells. When the men were too busy to attend

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services, the chaplains visited them at the foxholes and tanks.

When the fighting was heavy, the chaplains were never far behind the assault troops, at the collecting stations for the wounded, giving aid and comfort to the men, and frequently visiting the forward aid stations.

For their meritorious service in action, nine of the Division's Chaplains have been awarded the Bronze Star Medal and one received the Purple Heart for battle wounds.

Lt. Col. Harold H. Schulz was Division Chaplain and Maj. John H. Callahan was Assistant Division Chaplain.

American Red Cross

John R. Barstow, Sr., Field Director Division Rear (Transferred from Fifth Armored at Malmedy)

Fred Lange Stone, Sr., Field Director Division Rear (Succeeded J. Barstow at Malmedy)

George E. Wright, Field Director CC B

Harold S. Tinklepaugh, Field Director CC R

Military Police

The Military Police Platoon was activated at Pine Camp in September 1945 and operated under the control of the Provost Marshal, Maj. Alexander T. Nelsen.

The Traffic Section, under 1st Lt. Manuel P. Ashkenas, directed and coordinated the movements of the Division. The Police Section, commanded by 1st Lt. Peter J. O'Neil, collected prisoners of war from each of the combat commands and escorted them to the enclosures.

At Wallendorf, five out of six men at one control point were wounded. As one man was hit, another took his place from the nearby foxholes. In the Hurtgen Forest, 52 control points were set up to control the Division's traffic. After the tank columns crossed the Rhine the prisoner bag became so large that it was not uncommon to see a lone MP in charge of a thousand prisoners.

Military Government

Immediately behind, sometimes with, the tankers and infantrymen as they entered the German towns came the Military Government Section (later called the G-5 Section), to assist the fighting troops in controlling the civilians.

Operating as a Civil Affairs Section under Maj. John W. Sampler in friendly countries, this group became the Military Government Section upon entering Germany and was directed by Maj. Alfred E. Baldridge. Its function was to govern the civilians in areas occupied by the Division.

Security was the principal objective during combat. MG men, entering a town, ordered the civilians indoors, the firearms collected, and the soldiers surrendered. They posted regulations and ordered the burgermeister to have the streets cleared of roadblocks.

When the troops stopped long in an area, the MG men regulated the circulation of civilians, selected temporary officials, and listened to many problems of the civilians whose economy had been disrupted by the war.

Maj, Gen. Jack W, Heard
Commanding General
October 1941 to February 1949
Maj. Gen. Jack W. Heard was the first Commanding General of the Fifth Armored Division.

Following the activation 1 October 1941, the Division trained at Ft. Knox, Ky. until February 1942 when it moved to Camp Cooke, Calif. After completing the basic training for 9,000 soldiers the Division moved to the Desert Training Center for

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four months of maneuvers in the fall of 1942. Returning to Camp Cooke in December, the troops were in the midst of combat firing when Gen. Heard left the Division. He was transferred to the War Department Manpower Board where he served as chairman and member until May 1946.

Gen. Heard's military career began in 1910 when he graduated from the United States Military Academy with a commission in the Cavalry. In World War I he attained the rank of Lt. Col. He was promoted to Brigadier General in October 1940 and Major General in February 1942.

The list of service schools completed by Gen. Heard includes the Command and General Staff School, the Army Industrial College, the Army War College, and the Naval War College.

Prior to joining the Fifth Armored Division, Gen. Heard commanded the 13th Cavalry and the Armored Force Replacement Training Center at Pt. Knox.

Distinguished Unit Citations

Combat Command R
Troop A, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance
Squadron (Mecz)
Company B, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion
Company C, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion
______________________________________________

Combat Command R At Kleinhau, Brandenburg, And Bergstein

General Orders WAR DEPARTMENT
No. 31 Washington 25, D.C., 18 March 1947

* * * *

V. --Battle Honors. --As authorized by Executive Order 9396 (sec. I, WD Bul. 22,
1943), superseding Executive Order 9075 (sec. III WD Bul. II, 1942), the following units
are cited by the War Department under the provisions of section IV, WD Circular 333,
1943, in the name of the President of the United States as public evidence of deserved
honor and distinction. The citation reads as follows:

Combat Command R, 5th Armored Division, composed of the following units:
Headquarters Reserve Command, 5th Armored Division;
Detachment A, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3d Armored Group;
10th Tank Battalion;
47th Armored Infantry Battalion;
95th Armored Field Artillery Battalion;
Company C, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance squadron (Mecz);
Company C, 22d Armored Engineer Battalion;
Company C, 628th Tank Destroyer Battalion (SP);
Company C, 387th Antiaircraft (AW) Battalion (SP);
Company C, 75th Medical Battalion (Armored);
Detachment, Company C, 127th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion,

is cited for outstanding performance of duty in action from 29 November to 8 December
1944 in Germany. During the severe battle of the Hurtgen Forest, this combat command
played a heroic and highly essential part in the operation aimed at capturing the vital
Roer River dams, Combat Command R, 5th Armored Division, spearheaded three important
advances during the period, capturing Kleinhau on 29 November, Brandenberg on 3 Dec-
ember, and Bergstein on 5 December. In each instance, the men of Combat Command R,
5th Armored Division, were sent out front to capture the fortified town and hold it until

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friendly infantry could clear the adjacent woods. Under extremely unfavorable weather
conditions and over terrain emphatically not suited to armored action, this command
gallantly attacked through deadly mine fields against a determined enemy, well-entrenched,
fortified, and supported by intense artillery and mortar fire. In conjunction with friendly
infantry on the flanks, Combat Command R, 5th Armored Division,successfully captured the
three important towns and cleared a fortified zone of enemy resistance on the Vossenach Ridge.
Since Bergstein was most important to the Germans in connection with the defense of the Roer
River dams, they defended it bitterly and made fanatic efforts to recapture it, once it had
fallen. However, Combat Command R, 5th Armored Division, although reduced to 8 effective tanks
and some 20 effective riflemen per company, employed the last available man, and heroically
repelled almost continuous combined armored and infantry counterattacks against the heights of
Bergstein for a period of 36 hours. In keeping with the highest traditions of the military
service, the entire Combat Command R, 5th Armored Division, and attached units, by its
undaunted determination, outstanding courage, and grim tenacity, captured and held, against
the strongest German resistance, the important heights which dominated the Roer River dams.

Troop A, 85th Cavalry, At Untermaubach

General Orders WAR DEPARTMENT
No. 34 Washington 25, D.C., 3 May 1945

* * * *

IV. -BATTLE HONORS. - 7. As authorized by Executive Order 9396 (sec. I, WD Bul.
22, 1943), superseding Executive Order 9075 (sec. III, WD Bul. 11, 1942), citation of the
following unit in General Orders 12, Headquarters 5th Armored Division, 6 April 1945, as
approved by the Commanding General, European Theater of Operations, is confirmed under the
provisions of section IV, WD Circular No. 333, 1943, in the name of the President of the
United States as public evidence of deserved honor and distinction. The citation reads as
follows:

Troop A, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized, is cited for outstanding
performance of duty in action from 15 to 22 December 1944 near Untermaubach, Germany.
During a series of attacks eastward from Kleinhau, Germany, unto high ground north of
Untermaubach, Troop A, though previously trained and experienced in mounted reconnaissance,
exhibited a remarkable adaptability to dismounted infantry tactics and was successful in
seizure of its assigned section on Hill 253. Despite a terrific barrage of enemy artillery
and mortars and two savage counterattacks, Troop A held its sector firmly against overwhelming
enemy numbers and fire power for a period of 4 days. On 19 December 1944, having suffered 50
percent losses, the troop was assigned the mission of penetrating to the rear of the enemy
outposts and severing the main enemy supply route. The troop, with 50 percent of its fighting
strength suffering battle wounds, deftly cut the supply route and established a road block
which it held for 3 days, even though the operation planned relief the first day. Although
completely surrounded by strong enemy forces, it decisively defeated a concerted tank-infantry
attack thrice its strength, using to defeat the enemy weapons no more powerful than antitank
grenades. One Mark V tank was destroyed after advancing to within 10 yards of the troop's
position, while two others shelled the two houses which the troop occupied, from a distance of
200 yards, Simultaneously, 75 infantrymen charged the houses but were finally repulsed with
losses of 60 enemy killed and 6 taken prisoner. This small force of 4 officers and 41 enlisted
men was responsible for an effective block which cut off large enemy forces from their base of
supply and greatly facilitated the capture of these forces and the sector which they held. The
troop held the road block against all odds until finally relieved by other friendly forces.
The heroism, fighting determination, and versatility displayed by the members of Troop A,
85^th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized, are worthy of emulation and
reflect honor on the armed forces of the United States.

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Company B, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion, In Crossing The Meuse River

General Orders WAR DEPARTMENT
No.45 Washington 25, D.C., 12 June 1945

* * * *

XI. - BATTLE HONORS. - 1. As authorized by Executive Order 9396 (sec. I, WD Bul.
22, 1943), superseding Executive Order 9075 (sec. III, WD Bul. 11, 1942), citation of the
following unit in General Orders 14, Headquarters 5th Armored Division, 14 April 1945, as
approved by the Commanding General, European Theater of Operations, is confirmed under the
provisions of section IV, WD Circular 333, 1949, in the name of the President of the United
States as public evidence of deserved honor and distinction. The citation reads as follows:

Company B, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion, is cited for outstanding performance of
duty in action against the enemy on 4 and 5 September 1944. On the night of 4 September 1944,
Company B was given the mission of establishing a bridgehead over the Meuse River, east
of Charleville, France. In order to do this, a cliff approximately 400 feet high on the north
bank of the river had to be taken. Although this company had marched a distance of 96 miles
during the period immediately preceding the attack, they dismounted on the south bank of the
river, and supported by one battalion of 105-mm howitzers, one company of medium tanks in
initial stages, one platoon of engineers, one platoon of heavy machine guns, one platoon of
81-mm mortars, and one platoon of 75-mm assault guns, crossed the river on an improvised foot-
bridge under heavy enemy mortar and artillery fire. Immediately after crossing the river and
still under devastating enemy fire, the company re-formed and attacked the cliff where concrete
fortifications, underground tunnels, and wire entanglements were manned by approximately one
company of a panzer division supported by self-propelled 88 mm guns, antiaircraft guns, mortars,
and possibly one battery of 105-mm artillery. This position was formerly part of the French
Maginot Line defenses. Company B fought grimly for these heights, repulsing numerous
enemy counter-attacks until 1200, 5 September 1944, when the enemy was defeated and routed
from their positions because of the gallantry and determination of this company. Heavy
casualties were inflicted on the enemy whereas this unit suffered a total of 1 killed and 12
wounded. The heroic efforts of Company B, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion, resulted in the
defeat of the enemy, the capture of this height, and the establishment of a bridgehead which
enabled an armored combat command to cross the Meuse River and proceed with the attack. Only
the will to defeat the enemy in his carefully prepared natural and artificial defenses and the
splendid esprit de corps of this company made possible its achievement, which reflects the
highest credit on the military forces of the United States.

Company C, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion,
In Crossing The Meuse River

General Orders WAR DEPARTMENT No. 38
Washington 25, D.C., 16 May 1945 * * * * XIII.-BATTLE HONORS.-2. As authorized by Executive Order 9396 (sec. I, WD Bul. 22, 1945), superseding Executive Order 9075 (sec. III WD Bul. 11, 1942), citation of the following unit in General Orders 14, Headquarters 5th Armored Division, 14 April 1945, as approved by the Commanding General, European Theater of Operations, is confirmed under the provisions of section IV, WD, Circular 333, 1945, in the name of the President of the United States as public evidence of deserved honor and distinction. The citation reads as follows: Company C, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion, is cited for outstanding performance of duty in action against the enemy on 4 and 5 September 1944, On the night of 4 September 1944. Company C was given the mission of establishing a bridgehead over the Meuse River, east of Charleville, France. In order to do this, a cliff approximately 400-feet high on the north bank of the river had to be taken. Although this company had marched a distance of 96 miles during the period immediately preceding the attack, they dismounted on the south bank of the river and, supported by one battalion of [p.351] 105-mm howitzers, one company of medium tanks in initial stages, one platoon of engineers, one platoon of heavy machine guns, one platoon of 1-mm mortars, and one platoon of 75-mm assault guns, crossed the river on an improvised footbridge under heavy enemy mortar and artillery fire. Immediately after crossing the river and still under devastating enemy fire, the company reformed and attacked the cliff where concrete fortifications, underground tunnels, and wire entanglements were manned by approximately one company of a Panzer division supported by self- propelled 88-mm guns, antiaircraft guns, mortars, and possibly one battery of 105-mm artillery. This position was formerly part of the French Maginot Line defenses. Company C fought grimly for these heights, repulsing numerous enemy counter-attacks until 1200, 5 September 1944, when the enemy was defeated and routed from their positions because of the gallantry and determination of this company. Heavy casualties were inflicted on the enemy, whereas this unit suffered a total of one killed and seven wounded. The heroic efforts of Company C, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion, resulted in the defeat of the enemy, the capture of this height, the establishment of a bridgehead which enabled an armored combat command to cross the Meuse River and proceed with the attack. Only the will to defeat the enemy in his carefully prepared natural and artificial defenses and the splendid esprit de corps of this company made possible its achievement, which reflects the highest credit on the military forces of the United States.

French Government Unit Citation

DECISION NO. 246
On the motion of the Minister of National Defense,
The President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic
Cites to the
ORDER OF THE. DIVISION:

Combat Command R, 5th Armored Division, including:

	Hq, Detachment Combat Command R 

	10th Tank Battalion

	47th Armored Infantry Battalion 

	Troop D, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron

	628th Tank Destroyer Battalion

	Company C, 22nd Armored Engineer Battalion


"A group of units inspired by a fierce will to conquer. It especially distinguished itself 
in the break-through of the Siegfried Line at Wallendorf, Germany. From 14 to 20 September 
1944 it threw itself into the attack on the city and drove the enemy from it. It continued 
its advance and seized a bridge over the river Our. Subject to a counterattack supported by 
tanks and in spite of heavy losses, Combat Command R, nevertheless, continued its advance, 
penetrating farther and farther into Germany." 

*	*	*	*

"This citation includes the award of the Croix de Guerre with silver star."
							General of the Army JUIN
							Chief, General Staff of National Defense.
									Signed: JUIN 
							Paris, 15 July 1946.

Belgian Government Unit Citation

Ministry Of The National Defense
Decree Of The 20th Of November 1945 -- No. 1391.
Charles, Prince of Belgium, Regent of the Kingdom.

	On the proposition of the Ministry of the National Defense. 
We decided and decide: 
*	*	*	*
Art, 2. The units mentioned below are cited in a general order of the Belgian Army:

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Company A, 47th Armored Infantry Battalion
*	*	*	*
for the following reasons:
	"From 20 December 1944 to 26 January 1945, in the course of the German offensive
in the Ardennes, the 9th Infantry Division of the United States and the attached units 
received the mission to defend the north flank of the counteroffensive led by the V Corps 
of the United States Army in the sector of Eupen (Belgium) - Montjoie (Germany). Facing an 
obstinate defense, it attacked without respite. The enemy counterattacked but was unable 
to enlarge the breach caused by its break-through. After the enemy attack was unsuccessful, 
the 9th Infantry Division and the attached units attacked and forced the German Army to 
retreat and abandon the Belgian territory in that region."  
	Given at Bruxelles, on 20 November 1945.

COMMENDATIONS

To the Commanding General, Fifth Armored Division--

									August 1944

"You have done a fine job. You have whipped the German wherever you have met him. You have strewn the country-side with the wreckage of his equipment. you have captured thousands of prisoners. With the experience gained in this campaign you will handle whatever lies ahead of us with confidence and ease..."

									5 September 1944

"I desire personally to thank you and every member of your command for the splendid accomplishment of every task assigned. Your achievement as a first-class fighting division is playing a large part in the liquidation of the German Army which is our eventual goal..."

-- Maj. Gen. Wade H. Haislip,
Commanding XV Corps

17 September 1944
"...The aggressive courage, unselfish devotion, tenacity of purpose and outstanding
leadership of all ranks is evidenced by the fact that the 5th Armored Division has
never failed to capture its assigned objectives and has never lost ground to the enemy.
"I am proud to have had the opportunity of commanding you in battle. and I shall
watch your future successes with the greatest of interest, with the knowledge that
victory is assured.

--Maj. Gen. L. T. Gerow,
Commanding V Corps

31 January 1945
"Upon the relief of the Fifth Armored Division from attachment to this corps, I desire
to express to you, and through you, to the officers and men of your command, my personal
thanks and appreciation for the excellent manner in which they functioned at all times
while under this corps.
"With the exception of a comparatively short period of time, the Fifth Armored
Division has served with this command since 28 August 1944. It saw considerable action
and rendered invaluable service during the pursuit of the enemy through France, Luxembourg
and Belgium. Elements of the division were the first Allied troops to enter Germany...
"I accept this loss to this command with regret. My thanks for the excellent job
you did go to each and every one of you."

--Maj. Gen. C. R. Heubner,
Commanding V Corps

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15 March 1945
"Prior to its assignment to Ninth U. S. Army. I followed with keen with keen interest
the splendid record built up by the Fifth Armored Division during its advance across
the continent. Thus it was that the recent assignment of this division to this command
afforded extreme pleasure. "Likewise it was gratifying to me to know that the division
was afforded another opportunity to distinguish itself during the Roer to Rhine Campaign
just concluded. That full advantage was taken of this opportunity is conclusively proven
in the fine performance by the division during the execution of this operation.

--LT. GEN. WILLIAM H. SIMPSON,
Commanding Ninth U. S. Army

18 April 1945
"I wish to convey to you, your staff and your command my commendation and entire
satisfaction with your rapid advance from the Rhine River to the Elbe River. Your
advance of approximately 100 miles in one and one-half days through hostile country
is an outstanding achievement of this war. It exemplifies energetic leadership,
skilled employment of armor, and a high order of execution by your troops. "The Fifth
Armored Division by such vigorous execution of all assigned missions has won a high
place in the esteem of all ranks of this corps,"

-- Maj. Gen. A. C. Gillem, Jr.,
Commanding XIII Corps

7 May 1945
"...I wish to convey to you, and through you to the members of your command, my complete
satisfaction with the service rendered by the Fifth Armored Division.
"The planning and the energetic and efficient execution of all tactical and technical
plans by the Fifth Armored Division during the advance to the Elbe River contributed greatly
to the successful accomplishment of all corps missions."

--Maj. Gen. A. C. Gillem, Jr.,
Commanding XIII Corps

SUMMARY OF AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

		
		Distinguished Service Cross ....................... 20
		Distinguished Service Medal ........................ 1
		Legion of Merit .................................... 6
		Silver Star Medal ................................ 312
		Distinguished Flying Cross ......................... 2
		Soldier's Medal ................................... 11
		Bronze Star Medal ............................... 2105
		Air Medal ......................................... 53
		Total ........................................... 2510

CAMPAIGN CREDITS, 5th ARMORED DIVISION

Normandy Combat zone. European Theater of Operations, exclusive of land areas of United Kingdom and Iceland.
Time limitation. 6 June to 24 July 1944.

Northern France Combat zone. European Theater of Operations, exclusive of the land areas of the United Kingdom and Iceland.
Time limitation, 25 July to 14 September 1944.

[p.354]

Rhineland Combat zone. Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, and France east of the line: Franco-Belgian frontier to 4 degrees east longitude, thence south along that meridian to 47 degrees north latitude, thence east along that parallel to 5 degrees east longitude, thence south along that meridian to the Mediterranean coast except that the area of the Ardennes-Alsace combat zone is excluded from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945.
Time limitation. 15 September 1944 to 21 March 1945.

Ardennes - Alsace Combat zone. Euskirchen, Eupen (inclusive), Liege (exclusive), east bank of the Meuse River to its intersection with the France-Belgian border, thence south and east along this border to the western border of Luxembourg, thence to Metz (inclusive), east bank of the Moselle River to Epinal (inclusive), Strasbourg (exclusive).
Time limitation, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945.

Central Europe Combat zone, The areas occupied by troops assigned to the European Theater of Operations, east of a line 10 miles west of the Rhine River between Switzerland and the Waal River until 28 March 1945, and thereafter east of the east bank of the Rhine.
Time limitation. 22 March to 11 May 1945.

5th ARMORED DIVISION ASSOCIATION

Gen. Oliver is congratulated by Gen. Jacob L. Devers at the organization of the Fifth Armored Division Association in Washington, D. C., on 11 September 1946. The photo at the activation ceremony includes, left to right: Maj. Gen. Harold W. Blakely, Lt. Gen. Wade H. Haislip, Lt. Col. Maynard N. Levenick, Gen. Devers, Maj. William G. Reynolds, Gen. Oliver, Lt. Col. Harold M. Schultz, and Maj. Henry P. Halsell.

Gen. Oliver was president and Lt. Col. Fred E. Ressegieu was secretary-treasurer of the the Association for the first year.

The permanent officers were elected at the first annual convention in Chicago in August 1947. Lonsdale P. MacFarland of Columbia, Tenn., succeeded Gen. Oliver as president, and Louis Filas of Lyons, Illinois, was the first permanent secretary-treasurer.

ASSIGNMENT AND ATTACHMENT
To Higher Units


DATE			CORPS			ARMY			ARMY GROUP AND OTHER
						
					Assigned	Attached	Assigned	Attached

24 Feb 44								ETOUSA	
 3 Mar 44				Third
 4 Mar 44		XX		  ----		SBS Com Z	
29 Mar 44		XX		Third
17 Jun 44		XII		Third
31 Jul 44				---		Third
 1 Aug 44		XV		Third				12th
24 Aug 44		XV		Third		First		12th
26 Aug 44		XV		First		----		12th
29 Nov 44		VII		First				12th
20 Dec 44		VII		First				12th		Br 21st
23 Dec 44		V		First				12th		Br 21st
18 Jan 45		V		First				12th		----
27 Jan 45		XIV		Ninth				12th		Br 21st
29 Jan 45		XVI		Ninth				12th		Br 21st
 1 Feb 45		XIII		Ninth				12th		Br 21st
 4 Apr 45		XIII		Ninth				12th		----
 4 May 45		XVIII Abn	Ninth				12th
 8 May 45		XIII		Ninth				12th

--- Indicates relieved from assignment.

ATTACHMENTS

	ANTIAIRCRAFT ARTILLERY
387th AAA AW Bn (SP)........................................01 Aug 44 - 25 Mar 45
387th AAA AW Bn (SP)........................................28 Mar 45 - 09 May 45
	ARMORED
Sq C Br 1st Lothians & Border Yeo (Bn 79th Armd Div)........25 Feb 45 - 04 Mar 45
	CAVALRY
4th Cav Gp..................................................01 Dec 44 - 02 Dec 44
4th Cav Gp..................................................11 Dec 44 - 22 Dec 44
	ENGINEER
996th Engr Treadway Br Co (-1 Plat).........................31 Aug 44 - 01 Sep 44
254th Engr C Bn.............................................15 Sep 44 - 22 Sep 44
989th Engr Treadway Br Co...................................25 Feb 45 - 07 Mar 45
989th Engr Treadway Br Co...................................07 Apr 45 - 01 Apr 45
	FIELD ARTILLERY
400th Armd FA Bn............................................02 Aug 44 - 04 Aug 44
400th Armd FA Bn............................................05 Aug 44 - 02 Oct 44
208th FA Bn (155 Gun).......................................17 Aug 44 - 24 Aug 44
975th FA Bn (155 Gun).......................................20 Aug 44 - 24 Aug 44
987th FA Bn (155 Gun).......................................26 Aug 44 - 08 Oct 44
196th FA Bn (105 How).......................................31 Aug 44 - 07 Sep 44
187th FA Bn (155 How).......................................11 Sep 44 - 22 Sep 44	
Hq 187th FA Gp..............................................11 Sep 44 - 22 Sep 44
953rd FA Bn (155 How).......................................21 Sep 44 - 22 Sep 44
400th Armd FA Bn............................................23 Oct 44 - 29 Nov 44
987th FA Bn (155 Gun).......................................28 Oct 44 - 09 Nov 44
987th FA Bn (155 Gun).......................................20 Nov 44 - 05 Dec 44
400th Armd FA Bn............................................08 Dec 44 - 18 Dec 44
695th Armd FA Bn............................................06 Feb 45 - 09 Mar 45
557th FA Bn (155 Gun).......................................26 Feb 45 - 09 Mar 45
557th FA Bn (155 Gun).......................................30 Mar 45 - 25 Apr 45
252nd FA Bn (105 How).......................................22 Apr 45 - 23 Apr 45
	INFANTRY
112th CT (28th Div).........................................11 Sep 44 - 26 Sep 44
2nd Bn 110th Inf (28th Div).................................15 Oct 44 - 26 Oct 44
2nd Ranger Inf Bn...........................................03 Nov 44 - 14 Nov 44
2nd Bn 330th Inf (83rd Div).................................15 Dec 44 - 22 Dec 44
3rd Bn 121st Inf (8th Div)..................................17 Dec 44 - 21 Dec 44
1st Bn 334th (84th Div).....................................13 Apr 45 - 16 Apr 45
1st Bn CT (102nd Div).......................................13 Apr 45 - 16 Apr 45
407th CT (-3rd Bn)(102nd Div)...............................17 Apr 45 - 18 Apr 45
1st Bn 335th Inf (84th Div).................................17 Apr 45 - 18 Apr 45
	TANK DESTROYER
628th TD Bn (SP)............................................02 Aug 44 - 19 Dec 44
628th TD Bn (SP)............................................29 Aug 44 - 14 Dec 44
628th TD Bn (SP)............................................28 Jan 45 - 09 May 45
771st TD Bn (SP)............................................17 Apr 45 - 24 Apr 45
	ARMORED
CC A........................4th Div.........................01 Sep 44 - 03 Sep 44
CC A........................First Army......................14 Oct 44 - 26 Oct 44
CC B........................First Army......................15 Oct 44 - 28 Oct 44
CC R........................VII Corps.......................09 Nov 44 - 19 Nov 44
CC R........................8th Div.........................19 Nov 44 - 16 Dec 44
CC A........................4th Div.........................30 Nov 44 - 02 Dec 44
CC R........................V Corps.........................16 Dec 44 - 19 Dec 44
Co A 10th Tk Bn.............78th Div........................19 Dec 44 - 20 Dec 44

DETACHMENTS
(Attached To)

CC R........................78th Div........................19 Dec 44 - 21 Dec 44
Co A 10th Tk Bn.............9th Div.........................20 Dec 44 - 25 Jan 45
CC R........................V Corps.........................21 Dec 44 - 24 Dec 44
CC A........................78th Div........................27 Jan 45 - 01 Feb 45
CC B........................102nd Div.......................06 Feb 45 - 24 Feb 45
	CAVALRY
85th Cav Rcn Sq.............28th Div........................07 Sep 44 - 09 Sep 44
85th Cav Rcn Sq.............102nd Cav Gp....................23 Sep 44 - 26 Sep 44
85th Cav Rcn Sq.............102nd Cav Gp....................02 Oct 44 - 24 Oct 44
	FIELD ARTILLERY
5th Div Arty................XIII Corps......................07 Mar 45 - 30 Mar 45
	INFANTRY
Co A 47th Armd Inf. Bn......78th Div........................19 Dec 44 - 21 Dec 44

COMMAND POSTS

Date 		Town 			Region	 			Country

1944 

01 Mar 		Chiseldon		Wiltshire 			England 
15 Apr 		Ogbourne St-George 	Wiltshire 			England
15 Jun
23 Jul 		Southampton 		Hamshire 			England 
24 Jul 		Utah Beach 		Manche	 			France
25 Jul 		St-Sauveur (vic) 	Manche	 			France
02 Aug 		Feuillie (vic) 		Manche				France
03 Aug 		Ganerie (vic) 		Manche				France
04 Aug 		La Bogerie (vic) 	Manche 				France
05 Aug 		Fougeres (vic) 		Ille-et-Vilaine 		France
07 Aug 		Houssay (vic) 		Mayenne 			France
09 Aug 		Le Mans (vic) 		Sarthe 				France
10 Aug 		Courcement 		Sarthe 				France
11 Aug 		Sure (vic) 		Orne 				France
12 Aug 		Sees (vic) 		Orne 				France
15 Aug 		La Houdiere (vic) 	Eure-et-Loir 			France
16 Aug 	Marville Moutier Brule (vic) 	Eure-et-Loir 			France
18 Aug 		Les Boseus (vic) 	Eure-et-Loir 			France
19 Aug 		Cravent (vic) 		Seine-et-Oise 			France
24 Aug 		Champenard (vic) 	Eure 				France
25 Aug 		Boinville (vie) 	Seine-et-Oise 			France
30 Aug 		Pacy-sur-Eure (vic) 	Eure 				France
02 Sep 		Noyon (vic) 		Oise 				France
03 Sep 		Maing (vic) 		Nord 				France
04 Sep 		Wasigny (vic) 		Ardennes 			France
05 Sep 	Montigny-sur-Vence (vic) 	Ardennes 			France
06 Sep 		Noyers (vic) 		Ardennes 			France
08 Sep 		La Moncelle (vic) 	Ardennes 			France
09 Sep 
10 Sep 		Bascharage (vic) 	Moselle (sic)* 			France (sic)*
12 Sep 		Fels (vic) 						Luxembourg
18 Sep 		Mastroff (vic) 						Luxembourg
22 Sep 		Fels (vic) 						Luxembourg

[p.388]

05 Oct 		Faymonville (vic) 	Liege 				Belgium 
17 Oct 		Bambusch (vic) 		Liege 				Belgium
04 Nov 		Neudorf (vic) 
01 Dec 		Hahn 			Rhineland 			Germany
08 Dec 		Zweilfalt 		Rhineland 			Germany 
24 Dec 		Eupen 			Liege 				Belgium 

1945 

28 Jan 		Moresnet 		Liege		 		Belgium
05 Feb 		Hoensbroek 		Limburg 			Netherlands
26 Feb 		Ubach 			Rhineland 			Germany 
27 Feb 		Hottorf 		Rhineland 			Germany
01 Mar 		Rath 			Rhineland 			Germany 
02 Mar 		Hardt 			Rhineland 			Germany 
04 Mar 		Kempen 			Rhineland 			Germany
10 Mar 		Neersen 		Rhineland 			Germany
31 Mar 		Stockum 		Westphalia 			Germany 
01 Apr 		Nattuln (vic) 		Westphalia 			Germany 
02 Apr 		Everswinkel 		Westphalia 			Germany
03 Apr 		Herford (vic) 		Westphalia 			Germany
07 Apr		Bad Oeynhausen 		Westphalia 			Germany 
11 Apr 		Lessien (vic) 		Hannover 			Germany 
12 Apr 		Brunau 			Magdeburg 			Germany 
18 Apr 		Neuemuhle (vic) 	Magdeburg 			Germany 
21 Apr 		Salzwedel (vic) 	Magdeburg 			Germany
25 Apr 		Neuemuhle (vic) 	Magdeburg 			Germany

(vic) = vicinity

*Webmaster's Note: Bascharage is located in south-western Luxembourg.
It is part of the canton of Capellen.

Historical Timeline of the 5th Armored Division

10-01-41 	Activate at Fort Knox KY-USA
02-14-42 	Leave Fort Knox KY-USA
02-15-42 	Arrive Camp Cooke CA Camp-USA
08-30-42 	Arrive Mojave Desert CA-USA
10-01-42 	3rd Armored Division Mojave Desert CA-USA
11-30-42 	Leave Mojave Desert CA Mojave Desert CA-USA
03-01-42 	Major General Lunsford E. Oliver Camp Cooke CA-USA
03-15-42 	6th Armored Division Camp Cooke CA-USA
03-24-42 	Tennessee Maneuvers Cumberland River TN-USA
07-04-42 	Leave Tennessee Cumberland River TN-USA
07-05-42 	Arrive Pine Camp NY-USA
12-09-43 	Leave Pine Camp NY Pine Camp NY-USA
12-10-43 	Arrive Indiantown Gap PA-USA
02-08-44 	Leave Indiantown Gap PA-USA
02-09-44 	Camp Kilmer NJ Camp Kilmer NJ-USA
02-10-44 	Board Edmund B. Alexander & Athlone Castle ships On Board Ship Atlantic
02-24-44 	Arrive Liverpool, England
02-25-44 	Chisledon & Ogbourne St. George Camps England
02-25-44 	Swindon, Perham Down Camp, Salisbury area England
02-25-44 	3rd Armored Division kitchens served 5th AD England
02-25-44 	Falmouth, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Torquay England
04-10-44 	Truro, Plymouth, Torquay marshalling areas England
07-26-44 	UTAH Beach UTAH Beach France
07-30-44 	3rd Army, XV Corps St. Sauveure Le Vicomte France
08-01-44 	1st ARMY, VII Corps Avranches France
08-03-44 	79th & 90th Inf. Divs, XV Corps Selune River France
08-03-44 	79th Infantry Division Fougeres France
08-04-44 	79th & 90th Infantry Divisions Fougeres France
08-06-44 	3912 Q.M. Truck Company attached St. James, Fougeres, Vitre' France
08-07-44 	79th & 90th Infantry Divisions Laval-Le Mans highway France
08-07-44 	106th Cavalry (VI Corps) Laval-Le Mans highway France
08-07-44 	3912 Q.M. Truck Company refueled Meslay France
08-07-44 	79th & 90th Infantry Divisions Orne River France
08-08-44 	2nd French Armored Division Orne River to Garrouge-Sees France
08-13-44 	90th Infantry Division Rodeau France
08-14-44 	79th Infantry Division Argentan France
08-18-44 	993rd Engineer Treadway Bridge Co. Dreux=Bonnieres, Seine River France
08-24-44 	106th Cavalry Group Mantes-Gassicourt France
08-26-44 	Transferred from THIRD to FIRST Army, V Corps east of Paris France
08-30-44 	pass through Paris Paris France
08-30-44 	4th & 28th Infantry Divisions east of Paris France
08-31-44 	4th Infantry Division Morienval France
09-01-44 	400th Artillery Battalion Compiegne-Soissons line France
09-01-44 	112th Regiment of 28th Infantry Division Compiegne, Oise River France
09-01-44 	Combat Team 109 of 28th Infantry Division Compiegne Forest France
09-02-44 	V Corps Conde' Belgium
09-04-44 	196th Artillery Bn [truck-drawn] Charleville Belgium
09-07-44 	28th Infantry Division; V Corps Sedan & Charleville France
09-07-44 	First Army supply 
09-09-44 	Combat Team 110 of 28th Inf. Div. Aubange Belgium
09-09-44 	100th Artillery Battalion Luxembourg City Luxembourg
09-09-44 	Combat Team 110 of 28th Infantry Division Florenville France
09-11-44 	1st Bn, 112th Reg, 25th Div; 400th Art Bn; 987th Art Bn Siegfried line near 
		Stalzembourg, Luxembourg
09-14-44 	1st Bn, 112th Reg, 25th Division Wallendorf Germany
09-15-44 	1st Bn, 112th Reg, 25th Division Wettlingen Germany
09-16-44 	1st Bn, 112th Reg, 25th Division, relieved CCR Wallendorf Germany
09-16-44 	1st Bn, 112th Reg, 25th Division, relieved CCR Biesdorf to Wallendorf road 
		Germany
09-16-44 	1st + 2nd Bn, 112th Reg, 25th Division Wallendorf Germany
10-17-44 	102nd Cavalry [V Corp]Faymonville-Waimes-Burgenbach Belgium
10-11-44 	XIX Corps sector Herleen, Holland Holland
10-23-44 	400th Artillery Battalion Hofen & Alzen Germany
11-10-44 	99th Infantry Division Moderscheid-Schoppen, Rotgen Belgium
11-25-44 	8th Infantry Division Germeter, Hurtgen Germany
11-29-44 	8th Infantry Division Kleinhau Germany
12-03-44 	8th Infantry Division Brandenberg Germany
11-30-44 	4th Infantry Division Zweifal, Kleinhau Germany
12-02-44 	8th Infantry Division Kleinhau Germany
12-10-44 	83rd Infantry Division Gey, Strss Germany
12-10-44 	3rd Infantry Division Kleinhau Germany
12-22-44 	3rd Infantry Division Hahn Germany
12-24-44 	Relieved to Baelen, Eupen Belgium
12-10-44 	30th Reg, 83rd Inf. Div. Hurtgen Forest Germany
12-10-44 	330th Reg, 83rd Inf. Div. Hurtgen Forest Germany
12-11-44 	330th Reg, 83rd Inf. Div. Bergheim Germany
12-20-44 	330th Reg, 83rd Infantry Division; 4th Cav Group Untermaubach Germany
12-24-44 	21st Army Group reserve Verviers Belgium
01-28-45 	78th Infantry Division Eicherschied Germany
01-29-45 	311th Inf Reg, 8th Inf. Div. Eicherschied Germany
01-31-45 	311th Infantry Regiment relieve CCA Eicherschied to Neudorf Germany
02-24-45 	102nd Inf. Div. Erkelenz, Rheindahlen Germany
02-26-45	XIII Corps' east flank Wockerath, Terheeg, Mennekrath, Kaulhausen, Venrath 
		Germany
02-26-45 	102nd Infantry Division Herrath Germany
02-26-45 	Air Corps liaison officer Erkelenz-Rheindahlen road Germany
02-26-45 	102nd Infantry Division Rheindahlen Germany
02-28-45 	29th Inf. Div.Venn, Poth [Munchen-Gladback] Germany
03-01-45 	XIII Corps right flank Rheindahlen Germany
03-01-45 	84th Infantry Division Huls Germany
03-05-45 	8th Armored Division Orsoy Germany
04-08-45 	2nd Armored Division Cub plane XIX Corps Zone Springe Germany
03-31-45 	British 2nd Armored + 17th Airborne Division Munster Germany
03-31-45 	3907th Quartermaster Co. Sassenberg, Versmold Germany
04-01-45 	British Third Para Brigade Minden Germany
04-02-45 	84th Infantry Division Minden Germany
04-12-45 	2nd Armored Div., 50 miles south Bismarck Germany
04-14-45 	102nd Infantry Division Arneburg Germany
04-15-45 	British Elbe River Germany
04-18-45 	555th Artillery Bn Gladdenstadt Germany
04-22-45 	British north of Gaddau Germany
04-23-44 	Hitzacker Hitzacker, Elbe River Germany
04-24-45 	29th Infantry Division relieved CCA Elbe River area Germany

Foreword

Chapter I A Star Is Born It Was 1 October 1941.

Chapter VI Preview In Tennessee 24 March-1 July 1943

Chapter IX Over There England 24 February 1944--July, 1944

Chapter X A Military Wedding

Chapter XIV All Is Kaput The Seine to Luxembourg 30 August--10 September

Chapter XV1 Paths of Armor Wet Autumn 23 September--30 November

CHAPTER XVIII SNOW BATTLE Belgium and Eicherschied 1 January-31 January

XX ACROSS THE HEART LAND Rhine to the Elbe 31 March - 14 April

Chapter XXI The Last Fight 15 April-23 April

Combat Command A's Married Team

46th Armored Infantry Battalion

Combat Command B's Married Team 81st Tank Battalion

15th Armored Infantry Battalion

Combat Command R's Married Team 10th Tank Battalion

47th Armored Infantry Battalion

47th Armored Field Artillery Battalion

71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion

95th Armored Field Artillery Battalion

387th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion

22nd Armored Engineer Battalion

127th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion

85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron

75th Medical Battalion Armored

628th Tank Destroyer Battalion

Division Trains

145th Armored Signal Company

Quartermaster Truck Companies

The Chaplains

American Red Cross

Military Police

Military Government

Distinguished Unit Citations

French Government Unit Citation

Belgian Government Unit Citation

COMMENDATIONS

SUMMARY OF AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

CAMPAIGN CREDITS, 5th ARMORED DIVISION

5th ARMORED DIVISION ASSOCIATION

Chapter I
A Star Is Born
It Was 1 October 1941.

Chapter VI
Preview In Tennessee
24 March-1 July 1943

Chapter IX
Over There
England
24 February 1944--July, 1944

Chapter X
A Military Wedding

Chapter XIV
All Is Kaput
The Seine to Luxembourg
30 August--10 September

Chapter XV1
Paths of Armor
Wet Autumn
23 September--30 November

CHAPTER XVIII
SNOW BATTLE
Belgium and Eicherschied
1 January-31 January

XX
ACROSS THE HEART LAND
Rhine to the Elbe
31 March - 14 April

Chapter XXI
The Last Fight
15 April-23 April

Combat Command B's Married Team
81st Tank Battalion

Combat Command R's Married Team
10th Tank Battalion