Battered Bastards of Bastogne

by George Koskimaki

  Situated in the middle of his platoons, 1Lt. Ed Mehosky moved along with his men of “C” Company. He added:

  Seeing the situation, I then deployed my reserve platoon around my right end on the flank of the enemy pocket. I quickly followed the platoon on the run, constantly advancing with fire and movement. The Germans could see we were flanking them and started to move from their positions. This coordinated movement between the two lead platoons and the maneuvering platoon enabled the attack to continue with sufficient fire power to cause the enemy casualties and to withdraw into a crossfire from ‘A’ Company and other elements of the regiment. Many were killed, others captured. A bunch of them were chased over into the 501st area.

  As the two companies charged forward, enemy soldiers in the forward-most foxholes panicked. Some fled. A few surrendered. Harwick continues his narrative:81

  Two prisoners come back. They were terribly scared and kept ducking their heads as the bullets buzzed and whined. Finally, a close burst and they dove for a foxhole. The guard took no chances and threw a grenade in after them. He walked up to the hole and fired four shots from his carbine and returned to the fighting in front. Cruel? No. Calloused? Maybe. But the penalty for a mistake here was death. If you are a prisoner, you don’t run, if a guard, you don’t take chances.

  The fight was not long, but it was hard—it was bitter, as all close fighting is. A wounded man lay near to where I had moved. I crawled over. He needed help badly; beside him was an aid man, still holding a bandage in his hand but with a bullet through his head.

  Out front, with the attack platoon of “A” Company, Pvt. Steve Polander describes the final rush and the result of their actions:

  We made a second lunge with fierce small arms firing and more men drop as I see tracers fly by me. At close range now, only about 20 yards now, we make the final dash and more men drop. Many Germans lay slumped dead against their foxholes.

  In 15 to 20 minutes, the bloody ordeal is over. We have punched a hole in the lines at this point. We lost about 15 dead and about 10 wounded, some seriously. I would guess the Germans lost twice that many dead and 20 surrendered.82

  A terrified prisoner and a scornful enemy lieutenant are part of Major Harwick’s continuing description of the action of the 21st:

  Prisoners are coming in. One, terrified, kept falling on his knees, gibbering in German, his eyes continually here and there. Finally, in English he kept repeating, ‘Don’t shoot me!’ He finally fell sobbing on the ground and screamed as we lifted him. The rest had an attitude between this man and the coldly aloof lieutenant who was so aloof that somehow, somewhere, he got a good, stiff punch in the nose. His dignity suffered as he nursed the injured member.

  We had these prisoners carry our wounded back. In all, there were fifty-seven.

  ‘C’ Company was still working on a group. When they finally quit, there were about thirty more prisoners. There were fifty-seven German dead scattered through the trees. Most had been shot as they climbed out of their holes and ran to others further in the woods. The fifty-fifth German was made sure about this time when one of the ‘dead’ Germans was found to be trying to operate a radio on which he was lying.

  Not all were accounted for, so we reformed and began sweeping the woods toward the waiting company.

  We soon found them. Having reached the edge of the woods, they were afraid to take to the fields. Hastily, they tried to dig in. They fired on our scouts. One squad worked around their flank. The fight was sharp and quick. Four Germans dead, three wounded and one prisoner. The fight was over, with none of our men hit in this last fracas.83

  “C” Company commander Ed Mehosky summarized the 1st Battalion actions in the following manner:

  The enemy was written off by 1600. The line was restored. We killed 65 enemy soldiers and had taken 80 prisoners. The 501st captured 85 of the enemy who withdrew into their sector. We later learned we were up against 1st Battalion, 77th Regiment, 26th Volksgrenadier Division. This battalion-size force, had it not been stopped, could have opened the way for panzer divisions to enter Bastogne and cut the 101st in half.

  “A” Company of the 501st

  Pvt. Christopher McEwan hadn’t been aware that his company moved back from their position along the railroad the night before. During the night, he had moved further west through plantations and clearings. He heard the sound of voices and clinking cannisters. Dropping to the ground, he had positioned his gun in the direction of the approaching soldiers. Listening closely, he determined the language was German. He had fired into a group of enemy soldiers. Afraid to move, he had laid behind his machine gun in the same position all night. With the approach of daylight on the 21st, he was able to survey the scene in front of his position. McEwan added to his story:

  The next morning when I could see, there were dead bodies all over. I realized then, that I was behind the German lines by myself. While I was wondering what my next move would be, I heard firing way behind me and to the left. I assumed it was my own unit firing at the enemy. I then circled to my left. I finally came up behind the enemy soldiers who were battling ‘A’ Company.

  As darkness turned to daylight on the 21st, PFC. Edward Hallo was out in the forefront, along with scouts out oh his right. “A” Company was returning to the same action site from which they had withdrawn the previous night. Hallo recalled:

  The next day, we got the orders to move up again to see what the situation was. The whole company was on the right side of the railroad track. I don’t think the company realized the Germans were closer to us, the 3rd Platoon on the left, but still on the right side of the railroad grade. We moved up to the area we were in the night before. The scouts were out. They were more or less to the right. I stayed ahead of Capt. Stach and we were moving up and I was closer to the track. As we moved up, the very tree behind which our MG had been the night before, there was now a German. I raised my rifle in the air in the ‘enemy in sight’ signal and everybody went down. I don’t think the scouts on the right side knew we were moving up and this German started to aim from behind that tree so I quickly took aim and fired and saw him pitch forward. I don’t know if I killed him or not. At the same time, I crawled forward and took out a grenade and threw it as hard and as far as I could over the railroad track and crawled back. The firing started on the other side of the track—I don’t know what was going on over there.

  As a disciplinary measure for not heeding a warning to get rid of his German motorcycle, which he used to scrounge the countryside near Mourmelon for wine and champagne, Pvt Michael J. Caprara was sent to Company “A” a few days before departure for Bastogne. Consequently, he didn’t know any of the men with whom he was entering battle. Caprara reminisced:

  The first trooper I got to know was Pvt. John W. Conn in ‘A’ Company. He and I became a team as we were vets as far as combat goes. He was much younger than me—also, a very good soldier. We fought side by side in a winning way. One day, we were in a wooded area and just got there about dawn. The Germans opened up with 88’s in this area, hitting trees and completely saturated the area. ‘Billy’ is the name he went by and that is why I remember him, because of a prize fighter named Billy Conn.

  Me and Billy were under a large tree and shrapnel from the 88’s came in on us. Billy was unlucky that day and was killed. I asked him where he was hit and the only response I got from him was a gurgling sound. We were lying in a prone position at the time and I called out for the medics but never saw any.84

  The same artillery barrage that snuffed out the life of Pvt. Billy Conn took out Medic Robert W. Smith as he hastily dug a foxhole. He related:

  The next morning, our people got some heavy stuff in the form of artillery. I was only there a couple minutes when another trooper came to me with an arm wound. I put a dressing on him and sent him to the battalion aid station. I went back and told Lt. Jim Murphy where I would be digging in. I think I had dug a couple of shovels of dirt when I got hit from a tree burst overhead—caught a piec
e of shrapnel in the butt and started back to the aid station to see if they could get it out. Sgt. Johnny Hughes followed me part way up the hill and asked me to lend him my boots, in case I didn’t come back. Hughes later lost a leg in action. He was a good man. The battalion aid station could do nothing for me and sent me to the next place.

  The enemy soldiers in the woods to “A” Company’s front were now being squeezed by “A” and “C” Companies of the 506th Regiment, “D” Company of 2nd Battalion of the 501st while “F” Company of the 506th and Captain Stach’s “A” Company were in position to trap the retreating enemy forces.

  Having roamed around, lost behind enemy lines during the morning, Pvt. Christopher McEwan was in position to block one of the last escape routes open to the enemy. He wrote:

  I set up my machine gun in a position of the only retreat the Germans had. I opened up and was delivering some real effective fire. The enemy had nowhere to go. They must have called for some supporting fire to knock me out. Rocket and artillery fire started knocking down the trees around me. Branches were hitting me in the back. The concussions were awful. There was yellow sticky stuff coming out of my eyes, nose and ears.

  The fight ended with the remaining Germans surrendering. As we gathered the prisoners to bring them back to Bastogne, one prisoner made a run for it. A short, stocky trooper ran after him and shot him.85

  A summary of the day’s actions is provided by 1Lt. Joseph B. Schweiker who wrote:

  The following morning, ‘A’ Company went right back to our position of the night before. The Germans were across the tracks and some-where to our right We fought a good part of the day until contact was made with the 506th. Then the squeeze was initiated and it was too much for the Krauts and the fight and attack ended. The German casualties were high, bodies all over the place. Our lines consolidated. Company ‘D’ tied in with the 506th and we in ‘A’ Company were pulled back closer to town in reserve.

  The woods into which the 1st Battalion of the 506th Regiment was sent on the 21st were the same plantation growth into which S/Sgt. Vince Occhipinti and his 1st Platoon of “F” Company (506th) had reconned and lost two of his key personnel. He had been told only a few Germans were positioned there. The process of clearing the wooded area on the 21st proved there were far more enemy soldiers involved. S/Sgt. Occhipinti added to his narrative:

  The following morning (21st), the unit in reserve for the 506th and units from the 501st on the east went through the woods that we were originally selected to secure and in the ensuing morning fire fight over 200 Germans were killed, wounded or captured. During the fire fight, our platoon took several prisoners who had escaped in the wrong direction.

  Regimental headquarters instructed me by phone to bring in all prisoners for questioning to determine the forces against us. As all telephone conversations were being monitored by other units, a sergeant from another unit ran up to my position to relieve our platoon of the first two prisoners we had acquired. I didn’t like the look in his eyes and told him we’d see that the prisoners would get back to regimental headquarters. (Can’t blame the sergeant—he had seen a good buddy killed right next to him and didn’t feel we should keep prisoners.)

  Snow fell on the night of the 21st. Everything turned white. The frost penetrated deeper into the ground. S/Sgt. John H. Taylor describes action which took place at the Halte railroad station:

  Later that afternoon we went down. We tied in again with the 501st at this railroad station. That night, it snowed. We had people in the railroad station house. It was set out in a clearing and our main line dropped back around the edge of the woods. We had good fire across the open area to protect this outpost. We dug in there and stayed several days in this position. We went around to our right and tied in with Occhipinti’s 1st Platoon, which had been shifted around in there. There we tied in with the 501st.

  We had a little trouble. The Germans would try to take the station. They dropped mortar fire on the house and then the fire would be moved to the back of the house. They tried this two or three times but the house was strongly built. The men could tell when the fire shifted and they’d be ready for the infantry attack and halted it with automatic weapons fire. The enemy got to the door and around the house but they never got in it. They lost some people there.

  Another unit which went into a blocking position near the railroad track was Captain Richard Snodgrass and his “D” Company of the 501st Parachute Regiment. The company executive officer was 1Lt. Bill Sefton who recalled the final phase of the “squeeze” operation this way:

  Later that day, a battalion of the 506th attacked along the other side of the railroad from the back end of the woods. From our side of the track the firefight sounded like a gigantic popcorn popper as they wiped out the enemy unit that had dispossessed ‘A’ Company. A few of the enemy fled across the tracks into our area as the assault reached a crescendo, only to be killed by ‘Dog’ Company.

  Tom Butcher

  It wasn’t until near the end of the war that PFC. Anaclete Leone learned why he was always invited to share foxholes with others. The men of his platoon wanted him nearby when they were wounded so he could patch them up. He recalled an action near Bizory on the 21st of December that would cost the life of his friend, Tom Butcher, the following day. Leone related:

  It was getting near dusk and we were told to dig in along the road. The ground was frozen. The shovels would just bounce off that frozen dirt. I remember some 88’s coming in and the ground ‘seemed to melt.’ Sergeant Butcher came over and asked if I knew anything about a .50 caliber machine gun. ‘Yes, I knew something about a .50 cal.’ I had training in intelligence and the medics. I joined the paratroops in England where I had my training in heavy weapons.

  There was a .50 caliber on a knocked-out half-track and I told Butcher I could take it apart and put it back together. He took off like a bunny and came back lugging this big weapon. I showed him how to load and operate it. I asked him where he wanted it zeroed in. He showed me a line that he wanted to fire on. He was absolutely fascinated by the butterfly trigger but the tracer bullets brought in mortar rounds and I told him to leave it alone and get some sleep. It was very dark by now. I took off up the road to my hole just on the other side of the line. I was passing Shuler and Calahan. ‘Hey Cleto, no sense going any further, stay here with us!’ They had a hole dug there nice and neat, lots of room for me.

  Later that night, I heard the pumping of that .50 caliber machine gun. Then I hear some mortar rounds. Next morning we learned Sgt. Butcher was killed.

  Describing the early actions in and around Bizory where the 2nd Battalion was positioned, Pvt. Henry DeSimone related the action in which he lost his close friend:

  On the 21st in Bizory, we made a tactical withdrawal back about 1,500 yards to the next high ground. We were digging in. Sgt. Tom Butcher, who was my squad leader, and I were dug in next to each other along the bank of a road into Bizory. We dug all night When daylight broke, I was down in my hole and Tom Butcher was putting a roof on his foxhole. I told Tom the Germans were dropping artillery to the left of us about 150 yards and he’d better get down in his hole. He replied, ‘Those god-damn Krauts can’t hit me!’ and with that I heard this tremendous explosion and saw the shrapnel coming off the opposite bank. It picked him up and threw him down like a rag doll. He was dead. The next shell threw stuff into my hole. At this period in my life (three seconds), I saw my whole life pass in front of me. I don’t know what happened. I jumped out of the hole and took off. I ran into Sgt McClure and told him, ‘They got Butcher!’ This was one of the worst things that ever happened to me as a soldier. I saw one of my best friends get killed.

  It’s All In Front Of You!

  An enlisted man on a mission with an officer may have an altogether different idea of what is being sought than the officer in whose company he is traveling. Such was the case for Sgt. Arthur Parker who thought he and his lieutenant were out looking for target areas inasmuch as they had very
few maps of the Bastogne area. Parker wrote:

  Paratroopers from “Easy” Company of the 501st Parachute Regiment took over a half-track which was abandoned by retreating soldiers. This is the vehicle from which Sgt. Tom Butcher retrieved the .50 caliber machine gun for added fire power at his foxhole position. (Photo from the collection of T/4 Richard C. Rowles)

  We tried to get maps of the area but none were available at that time so we could not run a survey for locating exact positions of guns and possible target areas. We took off the next morning (December 21st) and headed southeast out of Savy and tried to find just where the front lines were. We got close to Marvie where we were stopped. Some 327th infantry men told us that this was the end of the line. Everything else in front of us was held by the Germans. We returned to Savy and Lt. Shaw reported to Colonel Elkins what we had found. Shaw then told us we were out looking for some supply trucks that were trying to find us but they never made it and were probably captured by the Germans.

  A sudden change in gun firing direction ordered by superiors caught gun sergeants by surprise. Two of the former members of the 377th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion relate such experiences.

  Sgt. William D. Gammon of “Baker” Battery, a veteran of both Normandy and Holland, describes his experience: