Battered Bastards of Bastogne

by George Koskimaki

  2nd Battalion Actions

  Captain Richard Winters describes the confusion which existed in his area on the 20th of December. Though 2nd Battalion was in position, the enemy seemed to move around quite freely—even in the area of the Battalion HQ.

  A heavy mist or fog during the night was hanging over the woods and fields at first light of dawn, on the second day. I was standing in the edge of the woods, by a field to the rear of the 2nd Battalion CP. All was quiet and peaceful. Suddenly, to my left, out of the woods walked a German soldier in his long, winter overcoat. He had no rifle, no pack and he continued to walk slowly toward the middle of the field. A couple of men with me instinctively brought their rifles to their shoulders, but by a hand signal, I told them to hold their fire. We watched as he stopped, took off his overcoat, pulled down his pants and relieved himself. After he was finished, I hollered to him in my best German, ‘Kommen sie hier!’ (Come here), which he did. All the poor fellow had in his pockets were a few pictures, trinkets and the butt end of a loaf of black bread, which was very hard.

  Think of this—here is a German soldier, in the light of early dawn, who went to take a crap, got turned around in the woods, walked through our lines, past the company CP, and ended up behind the battalion CP! That sure was some line of defense we had that first night.

  Meanwhile, over in the “E” Company area where 1/Sgt. Carwood Lipton was positioned, so he could view actions south of Noville and in Foy itself when the fog would lift, he observed the following through his binoculars:

  Noville was outside our defensive positions, however, so that morning the 1st Battalion was ordered to withdraw back through Foy. This was to be difficult as the Germans held Foy and the road between Foy and Noville and the withdrawal became a continuing battle back along the road

  The sounds of the fighting came back clearly to me and, from time to time, I could see the maneuvering of the tanks and half-tracks and the slow movement toward Foy.

  At the same time, a second battle was underway, in the fairly clear area south of Foy, and I could also watch this fighting through my binoculars. The 3rd Battalion of the 506th was attacking Foy from the south, probably to lessen the enemy pressure on the 1st Battalion and Team Desobry withdrawing from Noville.

  As I watched, the German forces began to advance out of Foy against the 3rd Battalion to the south with a tank and infantry. They had gotten several hundred yards out of Foy when a round from a bazooka or an antitank gun hit the tank and damaged one of its treads. The battle continued on while the tank sat there right out in the middle of the open area, unable to move.

  Suddenly, out of Foy, another German tank appeared and ran right up to the tank with the damaged tread. A man jumped out of the good tank and pulled out a heavy chain from the rear of it. While the fire-fight was raging all around him, I’m sure everyone in the 3rd Battalion who could see him, was trying to put a bullet in him; he fastened the end of the chain to the knocked-out tank and jumped back into the good tank. That tank then pulled the damaged tank back through the German positions and probably back to where it could be repaired to fight again.

  After that, the Germans south of Foy withdrew slowly as 3rd Battalion advanced against them.

  Shortly after that, the 1st Battalion and Team Desobry reached Foy in their withdrawal from Noville. They were stopped there for a time by the enemy forces in and around Foy and by fire from tanks in the woods north of our positions. As they were now closer to us, we could see them quite clearly through binoculars, but they were still too far away for us to give them any supporting fire.

  Some of the tanks moved to the right, the west, of Foy while others attacked straight through and the Germans had to give way. Once they started withdrawing to the west, the situation cleared up fast.

  In the road was Colonel Sink and he was shaking hands with the men and slapping them on the back in greeting as they came by. He was obviously overjoyed that the men of his 1st Battalion were back.

  PFC. Charles Cram, a mortarman with 2nd Battalion Headquarters Company, remembers being in position at the edge of Luzery on the morning of the 20th in an effort to help 1st Battalion. He wrote:

  We had some of the 326th Engineers with us and they had a weapons carrier on the road. We had flankers out from our rifle companies that I could see to our right and we had just taken off for maybe fifty yards. We must have been under observation by Kraut tanks because two 88 rounds hit close together right in the column with no warning that comes with incoming artillery. Apparently it was flat trajectory fire from relatively short range. We were all flattened on each side of the road and our platoon leader asked who had been hit. A man on the road said that the weapons carrier driver was killed and Cpl. Wayne Huffman and Sgt. Jack Barickman said they had been hit. My weapon was a folding stock carbine and Huffman gave me his M-1 and told me to be a good soldier, the war was over for both of them.

  After a few minutes, our lieutenant said we weren’t going to Noville, but were turning 90 degrees east into the field. That was the direction I thought the fire had come from and I thought this was insane. I was shaking badly, thinking I was about to march into cannon fire in which the Krauts were aiming the cannon directly at me. However, the officer was as cool as could be. We proceeded two or three hundred yards up to the edge of a wood where we stayed until the day after New Years.

  Closing the Gap

  As has been mentioned by 1Lt. Alex Andros of “H” Company in his earlier account concerning the problem of having men spread too thinly along the MLR so whole platoons and even battalions of enemy soldiers could march through the space between adjoining foxholes if weather conditions permitted, Captain Richard Winters had witnessed first hand an enemy soldier behind 2nd Battalion Headquarter’s Company CP. Now in the afternoon of the 20th, he continued to be concerned about the contact between the 501st and 506th Regiments near the railroad which was supposed to be the contact point between the two regiments. Winters related:

  Keeping contact with the 501st on our right flank at the railroad station was a running problem. They were there, then they were not there. It made us a little nervous about that right flank.

  S/Sgt. Vincent Occhipinti describes the first action in which his unit was involved and how he lost two close friends on the second day while an attempt was made to close the gap between the two regiments near the railroad line running northeast out of Bastogne:

  The 1st Platoon of ‘F’ Company was designated to close the gap between the 3rd Platoon and the 501st PIR on the east of the small railroad station with the railroad track running north and south as the boundary between the 506th and the 501st. Platoon strength at that time was approximately 35 and advance information estimated that only a half dozen Germans were in the area. The action started at about 1600 hours on the 20th of December. Although two days later the entire area would be covered with much snow, the woods and fields were bare at this time and the temperature was probably in the 30’s. I attached myself to the 1st Squad because I carried a Thompson sub and the area we entered was dense woods. The firing, if any, would mostly be at close quarters. The area to be cleared with the 501st was approximately 300 to 400 yards.

  We had gone about 100 yards, keeping in contact with 3rd Platoon of ‘F’ Company which was deployed on the small trail running east and west and passing the railroad station at the railroad tracks, which was our contact point with the 501st. Because the woods were rather dense, our platoon proceeded slowly to keep that contact with 3rd Platoon and moved in the general direction of the station. Sgt. Gordon Mather was up front with his scouts, Cpl. George Lovell and one other.

  All of a sudden, all hell broke loose as the dug-in enemy opened fire on Mather and Lovell, the first two persons to come into view. (If they had not opened fire for an additional five minutes, they might well have had a field day with 1st Platoon.) As the enemy fire came through our positions (we were too closely bunched), we hit the deck and did not return the fire. The small arms and machine gun
fire continued for what seemed like a long time but was probably not more than one minute and I suspect that the Germans realized they might be exposing their positions and they no longer could see us because of the approaching darkness. (It seemed like all of a sudden, it was dark.) During that minute or so, while pressed into the ground, I could see tracer bullets skipping through our positions. No one else was hit but I’ll never know why not.

  At a distance of perhaps 50 yards, I could hear the Germans make some rude remarks about President Roosevelt and American soldiers in general. I presumed it was all of the choice English words they had learned. We withdrew approximately 50 yards and spread out in a skirmish line, northwest to southwest, still keeping our contact with the 3rd Platoon and providing flank protection for ‘F’ Company.

  The platoon started digging in. Entrenching tools were at a premium, helmets, knives and hands were the order of the night. A runner was dispatched to notify company headquarters and field phones were installed from my position (approximately in the center of the skirmish line) and the right end of the line where we placed one of our machine guns. We also had phone contact with the ‘F’ Company CP.

  Another member of the 1st Platoon, PFC. William True, had a slightly different view of the action. He related:

  The 1st Platoon of ‘F’ Company (my platoon), or at least two squads of it, were sent into a wooded area to see about setting up a line. Gordon Mather’s squad was in the lead and my squad was in the rear. Suddenly, a German machine gun opened fire and we all hit the dirt. I recall choosing my landing spot even as I was going down in order to take advantage of a slight depression in the ground. Perhaps four or five inches at most. That very small difference may have kept me from being hit, because the crack of the bullets going over my head was even closer than in training days when we had been intentionally exposed to very close overhead fire as we learned to hug the ground while crawling on our bellies. None of us ever spotted where the fire was coming from and, after about a minute (or less), it stopped and we were able to move around a bit and assess what had happened.

  Apparently, the German machine gun emplacement had simply been an outpost and they had withdrawn after our contact with them. George Lovell, 1st squad scout and Gordon Mather, 1st squad leader, had both been killed. George’s position out front as scout had made him an obvious target, of course, and Gordon had been killed as he raised up slightly to turn and call out some orders to his squad and others of us in the rear.

  S/Sgt. John H. Taylor had a different assignment with his 2nd Platoon of “F” Company. He related:

  We started moving the next morning (20th) toward Foy, crossed a road, started drawing quite a bit of artillery fire. We moved off to the side of the road to our right. This was getting around noon time. We were still in the ‘fog’ not knowing what was taking place. We moved into some woods where we were help up. That night, we were to outpost an area to our right. We did this. Later found out there was a gap in our lines between us and the 501st. This was in the area of a railroad that went south into Bastogne. There was a place called Halte which was really only a railroad station. There was a stone house. We outposted that area that night. The Germans were moving into the area. We had told the men on outposts to come straight back from their assignments when they were relieved. We had a new man named Ceniceros62 out in the area with Joe Hogenmiller. It was foggy and misty. Hogenmiller came back. We had another new man named Luke Atkins from Harlan County, Kentucky. He was a crack shot. Ceniceros came back in the fog, dodging from tree to tree. I heard Luke fire. I ran over there and had an idea of what happened. It turned out that Luke had shot Ceniceros. It was an unfortunate thing. It was really Ceniceros’ fault as he hadn’t followed instructions. We went out and brought him in. Right after this, another company was brought through our position and told to clean it out.

  Marvie

  The morning of December 19 had been a beehive of activity in the Division assembly area as the various units were sent on their missions around the perimeter. Shortly after the parachute infantry units moved out, Division Headquarters moved out from its positions around the little red school house in Made St. Etienne and headed for the former Belgian army barracks at the north end of Bastogne, which had served as VIII Corps Headquarters.

  The 327th Glider Infantry Regiment moved into the brick schoolhouse at 1500 hours and used it as its temporary command post. A few hours later, the 1st Battalion, less “B” Company, was sent east to provide flank protection for the 501st Regiment, near Neffe. The 3rd Battalion (401st) faced its line companies to the west and sent its “B” Company to positions southeast of Flamierge. 2nd Battalion was in bivouac as a protective screen around regimental headquarters.

  As the newly appointed executive officer for “G” Company, 1Lt. Alfred Regenburg recalled the first day for the 2nd Battalion as somewhat relaxed at this locations followed by an early morning order to move out.

  When we disembarked that first morning, we had a defensive bivouac and tried to make life easier and more comfortable with bedrolls and extra goodies that had been stored away in our sleeping bags. Nothing happened that night in our area. The next morning we awoke to shouts of ‘Let’s get going!’ and this time we were going on foot.

  As a member of the last infantry regiment to arrive in the assembly area at Mande St. Etienne, PFC. Donald J. Rich, of “G” Company in 2nd Battalion, had this recollection of a directive issued early on the morning of the 20th that caused problems later.

  We left our packs, overcoats and sleeping bags behind, which we later regretted, because the next three days we almost froze. Later, some coats and sleeping bags were brought to us.

  Afraid of falling behind as he struggled to remove his overshoes, PFC. Charles Kocourek of “F” Company finally gave up trying to get them off. He wrote:

  As we marched into Bastogne—the last of the long column to arrive, there was the supply sergeant—he directed us to drop all our overcoats and blankets to lighten our loads and we’d get them back when we got up to the front lines. All I had was my overshoes and the column was moving farther away. I couldn’t get them off my boots. I said, ‘To hell with it—I’m gonna leave them on.’ I Kept them on and thank God I did.

  During the pre-dawn hours of December 20, Team O’Hara’s roadblock, on the Wiltz-Bastogne road, received heavy shelling. At 0645, there was thick fog and little movement could be seen. As day lightened, the fog lifted a bit and the tankers were able to see enemy soldiers attempting to remove the logs and other obstructions at the block site.

  The 420th Armored Artillery Battalion was called on to fire on the enemy engineers at the block site. The enemy was driven off with the loss of two killed. The enemy then put up smoke on the position to hide their actions. At this time, they came under first from O’Hara’s mortars and fire from the armored vehicles.

  The direction of the enemy assault was then altered and deflected toward Marvie. At 0400 on the 20th, 2nd Battalion, along with the 327th Glider Infantry regimental command post was ordered to move from Mande St. Etienne to Bastogne. The regimental CP set up in Bastogne while 2nd Battalion continued on to Marvie where it took over its defense from troops of the 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion. 2nd Battalion entered Marvie just as the enemy was attempting to break up the roadblock.

  Colonel Joseph Harper accompanied the 2nd Battalion troops and joined with LTC. Roy L. Inman, 2nd Battalion commander, in visiting LTC. O’Hara to decide how best to line up the available forces for the defense of the southern perimeter. The troops were then assigned their positions along the MLR.

  At 1125, Col. Inman’s CP called to report heavy shelling and the appearance of enemy tanks coming toward Marvie, from the southeast.

  At that time, Colone Harper was continuing his inspection of the area and when he got to the top of a rise he turned and saw the enemy tracers streaking toward his troops from the edge of the woods directly southeast of Marvie. The small arms tracers and artillery shells were impacting
among the houses in the village.

  On the first day, there is often a lot of useless digging in as the officers haven’t yet decided on the final disposition of the various units. That is always frustrating to soldiers. PFC. Charles Kocourek wrote:

  We got just to the edge of Marvie. We were told to dig in. No sooner did we get dug in than we were ordered to move further south; then ‘G’ Company took our positions. No sooner do we get situated in our new holes when the sergeant comes along and orders: ‘Kocourek—take three men and go out to the edge of those woods. We’ve got to protect the flank—one guy from each squad.’ 1st Platoon was 300 yards to my right. They had a building and a barn. Between us were open fields. The grass had been cut so there was no concealment for anyone trying to sneak up on us between the two platoons. In front of me was a swamp.

  Sergeants Mackey and John came out to our position and noted it was well situated so they put up an observation post nearby.

  MAP 8—2/327 at Marvie

  The move of 2nd Battalion to Marvie was to replace the undermanned troops of “C” Company of the 326th Airborne Engineers which had been positioned at Marvie on the 19th. One of those engineers was Cpl. C. E. “Stub” Storeby who had been on a four hour patrol during the night in which they failed to make contact with the patrol of the adjoining company. His group had spent the night in a hay loft at the edge of the village. He describes the enemy attack on Marvie during the morning of the 20th: