Battered Bastards of Bastogne

by George Koskimaki

  MAP 21—Attack toward Bourcy

  We started moving out as the artillery had finished. As we were moving up, I noticed the sergeant who had been lying down looking at the pictures in his billfold. He shot himself in the foot right in front of me. I knew we had to keep going before the Germans came out of their foxholes. I yelled at the troops to keep going. I turned to the sergeant and said, ‘You son-of-a-bitch!’ About that time our medic, the only one we had, and from some other outfit, came up to help the sergeant. I told the medic to keep going. He said, Tve got to help him!’ I said, ‘The hell with him’ to no avail. The medic had to help him. As we parted I said, ‘You help him and then catch up with the rest of us.’ I never saw that sergeant or that medic again.

  We moved on up. The Germans were the best at camouflage. I stumbled into a machine gun nest—three Germans—I think they had wanted to surrender. Then there was a small tank firing at us. While we were momentarily stopped, one of our soldiers ran up toward the tank with a bazooka. He was hit and rolled over in the snow. Another soldier, without hesitation, moved up, grabbed the bazooka and fired right into the side of the tank and hit it, disabling it. So we moved on, passing the tank and reached our objective with the loss of several of our men. The Germans had big losses, too.

  I called back on the pack radio and asked permission to go forward to our second objective. It wasn’t that I was so damned brave but the artillery was firing right on top of us. I got that permission. We were moving forward and my good friend, Pvt. James A. Poynter, was hit and went down. He yelled, ‘Jack—Jack!’ I looked back and saw him with blood on that white snow—God knows I wanted to go back and see him but if I had stopped to go back, my men would have stopped, so I went on.189

  I was way out in front and I was firing at a German sergeant and my submachine gun misfired—nothing was happening. The German sized up the situation and came back after me. The troops were catching up and one of my men with a BAR leveled on that sergeant and dropped him right in his tracks.

  Here I had a machine gun that was no good and a shell came in, exploding over our heads. There was a man standing there with a submachine gun. I guess he got a concussion with blood coming out of his mouth. He died. I got his submachine gun and he had a canvas bag of clips. I picked that up and moved up further.

  We got up to a wooded area and there was an opening where I waved four Germans in to surrender. One wanted to know if he could go to New York. Another said ‘War fini!’ We sent them all back.

  We moved on up and got into the woods and set up a defensive position. The Germans attacked us. We jumped up and attacked them. Then they retreated and went around our right flank and started in. I ordered all up to attack except a couple who were wounded. They were in a big German dugout. We moved out up to the Germans and mixed it up with them. One of my very brave soldiers, who hadn’t been up in the front lines very long, got killed right there. A couple got wounded and ran off toward the rear. I didn’t try to stop them. I hope they got back. We captured four more German soldiers, brought them back and stuck them in one of the German dugouts with a guard. We settled down for the night.

  Meanwhile, over on the “C” Company segment of “Ace” Company, Captain Walter L. Miller took advantage of some abandoned equipment and remembered losing a good friend as the result of the terribly cold weather. Miller related:

  During this attack, we had picked up an abandoned half-track and trans ported our heavy equipment on it. Unfortunately, the truck slipped off the road and we had to abandon it

  There were units to my right and left which attacked at the same time but they did not make it. We were glad to move forward as the tree bursts were deadly. 1Lt. Joe Carpenter was wounded and died because the plasma would not flow—it had frozen in the bottle and tube.

  We advanced, hollering and shouting through the woods, chasing out the Germans, and arrived at the Bois Jacques to find wellemplaced bunkers in which we took shelter from the tree bursts that we were receiving. We could see the enemy infiltrating behind us. We established a perimeter defense and beat off the Germans who approached through the woods to our left. We were aided by an artillery (‘1776’) concentration. We were isolated here for a couple days till the companies adjacent to us moved forward and established contact.

  I had informed 1st Battalion of the enemy troops between us and the Kraut lines behind us. In an effort to reach us, Colonel Salee was wounded along with PFC. Hugo Dobberstein, his radio operator.

  A member of the mortar section of Captain Miller’s segment of “Ace” Company, PFC. Werner W. Jutzin, had this recollection of the actions in the drive northward:

  Company ‘C’ was involved in a counterattack to take three objectives in three days. We were flanked by jumpers on our left and Company ‘A’ on our right. However, we moved so fast all opposition was overrun the first day and we were out ahead of our supporting companies. We remained in this wooded area for two days, using German foxholes well covered with logs and camouflage. We ran out of rations and existed on potatoes we found in the foxholes. We were attacked several times by Germans wearing white sheets but held our positions. We captured 10 to 12 Polish-speaking Germans who were interrogated by Sgt. Gus Orleansky.

  Though they had jumped off three-quarters of an hour late, much to the annoyance of General Taylor, 1st Battalion of the 327th had reached the northern edge of the Bois Jacquest by 1600 hours. They had taken a patch of woods between Bois Jacques and Bourcy. Having moved faster than the 502nd troops on the right flank, enemy troops in company strength had been able to move in behind “Ace” Company and the neighboring 502nd troops were being fired on from three sides. This certainly was a major factor in the 502nd not reaching their first day objective. LTC. Ray Allen and his 401st Glider Battalion was then brought forward to root out the enemy troops between “Ace” and the 502nd.

  2nd Battalion Attack on Foy

  The 506th had begun its part of the coordinated attack at 0900 when “E” Company attacked along the western edge of Foy, astride the road. The company fought into the edge of Foy, meeting increasing resistance and at 1015 Company “I” was sent up the road to help. Company “H” was also called into the fray and later in the afternoon “F” Company would join them. They were followed by “B” Company of the 401st on the right flank.

  Shortly after the new year began, the snow fall had increased and the temperature sank lower and hovered around the zero reading. Captain Dick Winters was now commanding 2nd Battalion and it was his troops which led the attack on Foy this day. He did some reading before daylight and then had the following description of the actions:

  The night before, I sat in my foxhole reading (by candlelight) the Infantry Manual on Attack. When I think about that—lugging an infantry manual off to Bastogne—I should have taken a Hershey chocolate bar. I had that manual memorized, but this time that manual wasn’t advanced enough for the situation for which I was preparing. It just seemed too elementary.

  At early dawn, I had 1Lt. Frank Reis, 2nd Bn. HQ. Co., set up two sections of LMG’s on the edge of the woods facing Foy. They were to provide covering fire as ‘E’ Company moved through the snow across approximately 250 yards of open field to the village.

  The attack jumped off. The covering fire was working but each time an MG had to change a belt, I held my breath through the lull of fire. The Germans fired only a few random rifle shots from an outpost on the west edge of the village. It was tough going for the men through that snow in a skirmish formation, but the line was keeping a good formation and moving at a good pace. Then, suddenly, the line stopped about 75 yards from the edge of the village. Everybody hunkered down in the snow and stayed there for no apparent reason. I could not get any response from Lt. Dilke (company commander) on the radio. The company was a bunch of sitting ducks out there in the snow. I turned around and 1Lt. Ronald Speirs was standing behind me. I ordered him to move out, take over company ‘E’ and move that attack. He did! The attack went off as planned. In t
he house to house fighting, we lost three men killed and several wounded.

  First sergeant Carwood Lipton sheds further light on the replacement of his company commander and describes the fighting in Foy. Lipton wrote:

  Lt. Dilke had managed to stay out of trouble since the shelling of ‘E’ Company on Jan. 3rd, but in the attack on Foy, he fell apart. The attack had hardly begun when he had one platoon stationary in an open position with no covering fire, and it was obvious he had no real plan for the attack. Captain Winters relieved him immediately and put 1Lt. Ronald C. Speirs from ‘D’ Company in command of ‘E’. Lt. Speirs proved to be a fearless, capable combat commander and leader.

  In the attack on Foy, we had three men killed—Herron, Mellett and Carl Sawosko, and several men wounded. Mellett’s death was an infuriating one. A German hid in a building and, after the fighting had carried on beyond him, he shot Mellett through the heart as he was walking in the door of the building. Alley caught Mellett as he fell. We didn’t take many prisoners after that. One of the wounded men, ‘Burr’ Smith, was hit in the leg close to me by a sniper. The sniper kept us pinned down for awhile. Then ‘Shifty’ Powers, one of our best rifle shots, saw the sniper in a building and put a bullet right in the middle of his forehead. ‘Popeye’ Wynn’, Shifty’s buddy, looked at me and said, ‘You know, it just doesn’t pay to be shootin’ at ‘Shifty’ when he’s got a rifle’.

  Break-In on Communications

  For the Ardennes campaign, 1Lt. Peter Madden had been assigned as the 81mm mortar section officer for 3rd Battalion. His men were to support the attack on Foy and, during the actions, he became suspicious of the directions he was receiving over his radio. Madden related:

  Colonel Patch had told me the night before that the 3rd Battalion was going to make the attack in the morning with ‘I’ Company on the left going into Foy and he needed cover from the high ground, just beyond Foy, and there were about three different enemy machine guns that had good commanding fire over the whole one side of the road and the little buildings in Foy. The attack started and I was waiting for radio silence to be broken and I kept waiting for the call from colonel Patch to go ahead and deliver the fire. We had all the sites numbered and coded. There didn’t seem to be any call at all. I got one call stating, ‘Stand by. We’ll be in touch with you.’ About a minute later, I got a call which I was not able to identify as the regular radio operator for Colonel Patch and he spoke about like the rest of the people in there and, of course, we weren’t in there analyzing voices at that time.

  We were watching very closely the movement of ‘I’ Company at this time. I got this call back, identifying himself as ‘Kidnap Blue’ stating ‘Hold your fire!’ I asked, ‘What target do you want me to hit first?’ There was a pause and then ‘Just hold your fire. It is not necessary now.’ By that time, I noticed there were little puffs of smoke up in the woods and I couldn’t quite figure this out. I called back again and that operator said, ‘I said hold your fire and that is a direct order!’ That sort of alerted me and I said, ‘Identify yourself!’ There was no answer.

  I called all four batteries in on the target in the direction the fire was coming from and said, ‘Fire for effect!’

  That night after we regrouped, Colonel Patch came over to me and said, ‘Pete, that was right on time!’ He added, ‘It really cut down on that machine gun fire. We were really getting it heavy in there for awhile.’

  I told him what happened and he said I had to send that back to regimental headquarters and let them know that the enemy had a pretty good break-in to our communications system.

  A Decimated “I” Company

  Though “I” Company’s numbers were way down by January 13, they were still called on to take part in the bitter fighting at Foy. Pvt. Albert Cappelli describes his limited role in the actions:

  At 0900 hours January 13th, it was supposed to be our last day in Foy. I had the bazooka and was sixth in line down the road. The first scout was pinned down by a Tiger tank in the curve of the road. I was called up and was stopped about 25 yards before the barn on the left. I laid on the side of a bank and felt heat on my left knee—saw two holes in my pants with red stuff. Got up and ran across the road to the side of the house on the right. I was told to go behind the house—down the pathway to see how close I could get to the tank. I hit the tank and it lost power. Before I could get another shot at it, I took a P-38 slug just six inches above my first wound. Richie Shinn helped carry me into the barn where Joe Madona was killed by a sniper. I got out of the barn about 5 p.m. that evening. The tank was captured when it ran out of gas.

  Captain Bernard J. Ryan, the 3rd Battalion surgeon, describes the attack of January 13 to retake Foy for the third time:

  ‘Easy’ Company of the 2nd Battalion and ‘I’ and ‘H’ of the 3rd attacked on the morning of January 13. I was the only medical officer available for the attack. Immediately, the Germans put a barrage into our positions. I followed ‘I’ Company into Foy, going down beside the main road. ‘I’ Company was held up on its way in by Germans in windows and cellars, firing automatic weapons.

  There were many wounded already and transportation could not be brought in as the road was mined and was under small arms fire. The engineers could not pull the mines.

  There were several casualties scattered about the second house on the left side of the road going into town so I decided to use that house as an aid station. With the help of T/3 Walter Pelcher and T/5 Eugene Woodside, several casualties were brought into the house. German equipment—grenades and panzerfaust—were lying in the kitchen. Several of the wounded were put on mattresses which the Germans had been using. S/Sgt. Joe Madona, a platoon sergeant in ‘I’ Company, and I went to the rear of the house to survey the situation. We heard Captain Gene Brown telling Battalion that Company ‘I’ had hit a hornet’s nest.

  Sgt. Madona and I were standing by the back door, peering out, when suddenly I staggered sideways and had the sensation of being hit in the chest with an axe. Sgt. Madona hit the floor like a ton of bricks, stone dead. A German 7.92 machine pistol had been fired into the doorway in which we were standing and had ricocheted off the stone door jamb, hitting us both. I know the caliber as I still have the bullet which was removed from my lung at the 60th Field Hospital. Another bullet had gone through my chest. Sgt. Madona, being short, was hit in the head.

  I felt myself breaking out into a sweat and getting weak but I was able to go into the room where the other wounded were collected and lie down. The blood was trickling down my back and Woodside applied a Carlisle bandage. I knew perfectly well what was going on; had practically no pain and told Woodside not to give me any morphine. I sent word across the street to Captain Gene Brown to notify Regiment that another medical officer would be nodded. I then started to cough up blood, thought ‘this was it’ and said an Act of Contrition.

  Pelcher came in shortly thereafter. Someone heard noises in the cellar and, looking down, said ‘My God, the cellar is full of Heinies!’ I could just picture them spraying the wooden floor from beneath with several halpless wounded lying on their backs above them.

  However, in about 30 seconds, four Germans came out of the cellar with their hands high. Someone said, ‘Let’s shoot the bastards!’ I said, ‘Hell no—we’ll use them to carry the wounded back!’ no doubt thinking of myself. Pelcher put them to work hand carrying the litter wounded up the ditches, through the snow, to a point where the jeeps could come. As I heard later, Captain Brown stumbled out of Foy that night with eleven riflemen left in his company.190

  One of those rare infantrymen of “I” Company who came through the actions unscathed was Pvt. Bill Chivvis who described bow men made choices when offered platoon assignments:

  Going into the attack one day, we were given a man named Florenzio Valenzuela. He was offered the job of 2nd scout behind me, (Bob Chouvan had been wounded) or the job of machine gunner (Dave Dillen was wounded). His response was that he was not interested in either job as he had hea
rd what happened was that he was not interested in either job as he had heard what happened to scouts and the enemy was sure to zero in on machine gunners. So he was made a runner. The next thing you can guess—a shell came over and hit him point blank. Jim Meade took over the machine gun and he and I continued the war, unscathed.191

  In a letter he wrote to his friend 1Lt. William E. Reid of the Mortar Platoon of 3rd Battalion, Captain James S. Morton related what happened to another friend, Captain Bernard J. Ryan, from the same battalion:

  Barney Ryan got two ‘burp gun’ slugs through the left chest on January 13, four days after I was hit. Joe Madona, a sergeant in ‘I’ Company, was standing next to Ryan and caught the same burst in the head. He fell stone dead.192

  After “I” Company had been committed to the fight for Foy and experiencing more casualties to its limited numbers, “H” Company was ordered into the fight. The action of his platoon is described by 1Lt. Alex Andros as his men took advantage of the mortar fire put down by Lt. Pete Madden’s 81mm men:

  I don’t know what the purpose of the attack was. I think they wanted us to take Foy so they could push some armor through there, which never happened. Actually, ‘H’ Company wasn’t leading the attack. ‘I’ Company was in front of us. We were in support. They got close to Foy and got sort of bogged down. I think Captain Walker told me he got ordered by Patch to do a flanking movement with 3rd Platoon, which we did. We went around to the right of the road, or east of the outskirts of Foy, through the snow. It was pretty deep and hard going. When we got half way around, we got four or five rounds coming from the far distant woods. It was German tanks or SP guns—we really couldn’t tell. As soon as we got close to the buildings, that fire stopped. I don’t think anyone got hit at that time. As soon as we had enveloped them, about twenty or thirty of them surrendered. Sgt. Sam Hefner was near me and I think he can verify this.