Grunts

by John C. McManus

  6 26th Infantry Regiment, AAR, National Archives; 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment Unit Journal, October 13-14, 1944; 26th Infantry Regiment Combat Interview, CI-4; “Aachen: 26th Infantry, Operations in Urban Terrain”; Leroy Stewart, unpublished memoir, pp. 58-59, 1st Infantry Division Survey Material, Box 2, USAMHI; Richard Tregaskis, “House to House and Room to Room,” Saturday Evening Post, February 28, 1945, pp. 18-19; Mack Morris, “The Fight for Aachen,” Yank, October 29, 1944, p. 5; Captain L. G. Lawton, “Tank Infantry Team,” Marine Corps Gazette, November 1945, p. 32.

  7 26th Infantry Regiment, AAR; S3 Journal, October 13-14, 1944, both at National Archives; F Company, 26th Infantry Regiment, “The Battle of Aachen,” AAR, Box 89; Daniel, “Aachen,” pp. 8-9, both at MRC; “Aachen: 26th Infantry, Operations in Urban Terrain”; Tregaskis, “House to House and Room to Room,” pp. 19-20.

  8 26th Infantry Regiment, S3 Journal, National Archives; “Evacuation of Civilians from Aachen,” CI-4; Dick Lang, oral history; Dye interview, both at MRC; Morris, “The Fight for Aachen,” p. 6.

  9 “Mines and Booby Traps in Aachen Operation,” contained in 1106th Engineer Combat Group records, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 14119, Folder 1, National Archives; “1106th Engineer Combat Group South of Aachen”; 26th Infantry, Combat Interview, both in CI-4; Curran, oral history; Dye interview, both at MRC; Stewart, unpublished memoir, pp. 60-63, USAMHI; Captain Amos Cahan, “Battalion Surgeon, Infantry,” Infantry Journal, May 1945, pp. 19-20; Tregaskis, “House to House, Room to Room,” pp. 101-02. The evidence of self-inflicted wounds is recorded in the 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, journal, October 16-20, 1944. All accounts and records agree that veterans were more susceptible to combat fatigue than new men.

  10 26th Infantry Regiment, AAR; S3 Journal, October 15 and 16, 1944, both at National Archives; 26th Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview, CI-4; 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, unit journal, October 15 and 16, 1944; Lieutenant Colonel John Corley, “Farwick Park, Aachen,” p. 1, Box 89; Curran, oral history, both at MRC; Runey, “Chaos, Cohesion and Leadership,” pp. 69-78; Charles Whiting, Bloody Aachen (New York: Playboy Press, 1976), pp. 152-55.

  11 634th Tank Destroyer Battalion, Daily Reports, RG 407, Box 23602, Folder 1; 26th Infantry Regiment, AAR; S2 Journal, October 18 through 20, 1944; S3 Journal, October 18 through 20, 1944, all at National Archives; 26th Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview, CI-4; F Company, 26th Infantry Regiment, “Battle of Aachen”; “Employment of Armored Vehicles in Street Warfare as seen by an Infantryman,” both in Box 89; Daniel, “Aachen,” pp. 11-12; Corley, “Farwick Park,” pp. 3-4, all at MRC; Stewart, unpublished memoir, pp. 63-65, USAMHI; 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, unit journal, October 18 through 20, 1944; “Aachen: 26th Infantry, Operations in Urban Terrain”; Runey, “Chaos, Cohesion, and Leadership,” pp. 80-84; Tregaskis, “House to House, Room to Room,” p. 102.

  12 26th Infantry Regiment, AAR; S3 Journal, October 21, 1944, both at National Archives; 26th Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview; “Experiences of Two American Prisoners of War Held in Aachen, Germany,” Combat Interview, both in CI-4; 3rd Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, unit journal, October 21, 1944; “Aachen: 26th Infantry, Operations in Urban Terrain”; Runey, “Chaos, Cohesion, and Leadership,” pp. 85-87; Keebaugh, “Offensive Action in Cities,” p. 10; Frederich Koechling, “The Battle of Aachen Sector,” Foreign Military Studies, Box 9, Folder A-989; Stewart, unpublished memoir, pp. 63-64, both at USAMHI; MacDonald, The Siegfried Line Campaign, pp. 316-20.

  Chapter 4

  1 99th Infantry Division, After Action Report (AAR), December 1944, Record Group (RG) 407, Entry 427, Box 14120, Folder 1, National Archives, College Park, MD; 99th Infantry Division, “The German Breakthrough,” Combat Interview (CI) #209, located in author’s personal collection; Hugh Cole, The United States Army in World War II: The Ardennes (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1965), pp. 19-47; Walter E. Lauer, Battle Babies: The Story of the 99th Infantry Division in World War II (Nashville, TN: The Battery Press, 1950), pp. 1-12; Charles B. MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets: The Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge (New York: Bantam Books, 1984), p. 83. For more on the ASTP program, see Louis Keefer, Scholars in Foxholes: The Story of the Army Specialized Training Program in World War II (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers, 1988).

  2 1st Battalion, 394th Infantry Regiment, Recommendation for Unit Citation, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 14199, Folder 1, National Archives; Lloyd Long to Roger Foehringer, December 15, 1992, World War II Questionnaire #7320, 394th Infantry Regiment Material, Box 2; Milton Kitchens to Roger Foehringer, December 16, 1992, World War II Questionnaire #7065, 394th Infantry Regiment Material, Box 2, both at the United States Army Military History Institute (USAMHI), Carlisle, PA; Major William Kempton, S3, 394th Infantry, Combat Interview with Captain William Fox, January 30, 1945, CI-209; Captain Wesley Simmons, “The Operations of Company K, 394th Infantry (99th Infantry Division), in Defensive Action Near Elsenborn, Belgium, 16-21 December 1944, Personal Experience of a Company Commander,” Advanced Infantry Officer’s Course, 1949-1950, Donovan Library, Fort Benning, Columbus, Georgia.

  3 3rd Battalion, 394th Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview with Master Sergeant Forrest Pogue, January 29, 1945, CI-209; John Thornburg, unpublished memoir, pp. 1-2, World War II Questionnaire #7315, 394th Infantry Regiment Material, Box 3; John Kuhn, unpublished memoir, p. 157, World War II Questionnaire #7108, 394th Infantry Regiment Material, Box 2, both at USAMHI; Simmons, “The Operations of Company K”; Charles Roland, unpublished memoir, located in the archival collection of the National World War II Museum, New Orleans, LA. He later published this under the title My Odyssey Through History: Memoirs of War and Academe (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2004); William C. C. Cavanagh, The Battle East of Elsenborn & the Twin Villages (South Yorkshire, England: Pen & Sword Books, Limited, 2004), pp. 39-42. Although the Americans called the railroad station Buckholz Station, it was actually Losheimergraben Station.

  4 1st Battalion, 394th Infantry Regiment, Recommendation for Unit Citation, National Archives; 1st Battalion, 394th Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview with Captain John Howe; 2nd Battalion, 394th Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview, both in CI-209; 1st Battalion, 394th Infantry, History, World War II Questionnaire #10226, 394th Infantry Material, Box 1; Combs is quoted in “The Fight for Losheimergraben,” Richard H. Byers Papers, Box 1; Danny Dalyai to Charles, February 17, 1991, World War II Questionnaire #6789, 394th Infantry Material, Box 1; Bob Newbrough, unpublished memoir, p. 2, Charles B. MacDonald Papers, Box 4, Folder 2, all at USAMHI; Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn, pp. 34-38; Cole, The Ardennes, pp. 82-86; MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, pp. 169-70; Lauer, Battle Babies, p. 23.

  5 1st Battalion, 394th Infantry Regiment, Recommendation for Unit Citation, National Archives; 394th Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview; 1st and 2nd Battalion, 394th Infantry Regiment, Combat Interviews, all in CI-209; I SS Panzer Corps, AAR, MS #B-779, Charles B. MacDonald Papers, Box 8, Folder 4; Ralph Gamber to Raphael D’Amico-Geran, no date, World War II Questionnaire #1897, 394th Infantry Material, Box 1; Gamber to Joe Doherty, no date, Battle of the Bulge Historical Foundation Papers, Box 14, 99th Infantry Division Folder; John Hilliard to Dick Byers, February 26, 1990; William Kirkbride, unpublished memoir, pp. 1-3, both in Richard H. Byers Papers, Box 1; Kitchens to Foehringer; Harold Schaefer, unpublished memoir, pp. 1-5, World War II Questionnaire #6787, 394th Infantry Material, Box 3, all at USAMHI; Steve Kallas, oral history, Steve Kallas Collection, #110, Veterans History Project (VHP), American Folklife Center (AFC), Library of Congress (LOC), Washington, D.C. Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn, pp. 73-86; Cole, The Ardennes, pp. 85-86, 90-94. Along the lines of screwups: During the retreat, Colonel Riley rashly ordered his men to abandon their vehicles, rather than reconnoiter, when they encountered machine-gun fire near the twin villages of Krinkelt and Rocherath. As it turned out, a battle was raging in the towns and some of the fire was friendly. The o
rder had the effect of dispersing and disorganizing the survivors of the 394th. In a memoir that is housed in the World War II Museum Archives, Lieutenant Henry Reath, an artillery liaison officer, harshly criticized Colonel Riley for this order.

  6 393rd Infantry Regiment, AAR, December 1944, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 14190, Folder 2, National Archives; 1st Battalion, 393rd Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview with Captain William Fox, January 27, 1945; 2nd Platoon, B Company, 393rd Infantry, Combat Interview with Captain William Fox, January 27, 1945, both in CI-209; Sergeant Ben Nawrocki, “Battle of the Bulge, 1944,” unpublished memoir, pp. 1-5, World War II Questionnaire #7895, 393rd Infantry Material, Box 2; Alvin Boeger, World War II Questionnaire #1637; Roy House, World War II Questionnaire #1499, both in 393rd Infantry Material, Box 1; Bernie Macay to Will Cavanagh, no date, Box 4, Folder 3, Charles B. MacDonald Papers, all at USAMHI; Lionel Adda, The Bulge Bugle, November 1990, pp. 16-17; Cole, The Ardennes, pp. 95-98; Dave Grossman and Loren Christensen, On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace (Portland, OR: PPCT Research Publications, 2007), pp. 30-46.

  7 393rd Infantry Regiment, AAR, December 1944, National Archives; 3rd Battalion, 393rd Infantry Regiment, Combat Interview with Captain William Fox, January 27, 1945, CI-209; Earl Wiseman to family, no date, World War II Questionnaire #7305; “History of Company M,” World War II Questionnaire #2485, both in 393rd Infantry Material, Box 3, USAMHI; Robert Dettor, diary, December 16, 1944, The Bulge Bugle, November 1994, p. 19; Cole, The Ardennes, pp. 96-97.

  8 393rd Infantry Regiment, Unit History, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 14189, Folder 2; AAR, December 1944, both at National Archives; Major Elmer Schmierer, S3, 393rd Infantry, Combat Interview with Captain William Fox; 2nd Platoon, B Company, 393rd, Combat Interview; 1st Battalion, 393rd Infantry, Combat Interview; 3rd Battalion, 393rd Infantry, Combat Interview, all at CI-209; “History of Company M,” USAMHI; James Langford, unpublished memoir, pp. 2-4, James Langford Collection, #7983, LOC; Allyn Vannoy and Jay Karamales, Against the Panzers: United States Infantry Versus German Tanks, 1944-1945 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Publishers, 1996), pp. 238-39; Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn, pp. 88-89; Cole, The Ardennes, pp. 99-100. The 1st Battalion of the 393rd withdrew later on December 17.

  9 23rd Infantry Regiment, Unit History, December 1944, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 5366, Folder 1; 393rd Infantry Regiment, Unit History, AAR, December 1944, all at National Archives; all 393rd Infantry Combat Interviews, CI-209; Major General Walter Robertson, Combat Interview with Captain Francis Phelps, March 19, 1945; 3rd Battalion, 23rd Infantry, Combat Interview; Major Vernon Joseph, XO, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Infantry, Combat Interview with Captain Francis Phelps, March 3, 1945, all at CI-20-21; Long Goffigan, Interview with Charles MacDonald, March 11, 1982, Charles B. MacDonald Papers, Box 2, Folder 3; Ewell Lee Smith to Charles MacDonald, June 23, 1975, Ewell Smith Papers, Box 1, Folder 2; Ewell Lee Smith to Colonel Cecil Roberts, September 10, 1985, Ewell Smith Papers, Box 1, Folder 3, all at USAMHI; Edward Bartkiewicz, oral history, Edward Bartkiewicz Collection, #18257, LOC; Charles MacDonald, Company Commander (New York: Bantam, 1947), pp. 119-22; MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, pp. 376-77.

  10 23rd Infantry Regiment, Unit Journal, December 17, 1944, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 5368, Folder 1; 23rd Infantry Regiment, Unit History, December 1944; 741st Tank Battalion, AAR, December 1944; Unit Journal, December 17, 1944, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 16703, Folder 8, all at National Archives; 3rd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Combat Interview, CI-20-21; Ewell Lee Smith, unpublished memoir, pp. 16-2 through 16-4, Ewell Smith Papers, Box 1, Folder 2; Smith to MacDonald, Smith to Roberts, Smith Papers; Ewell Smith to Charles MacDonald, March 26, 1982, Box 2, Folder 3; Hugh Burger to Charles MacDonald, Box 2, Folder 3; Goffigan interview, all in Charles B. MacDonald Papers, USAMHI; Bartkiewicz, oral history, LOC; Patrick Hargreaves, “With the Company Commander,” After the Battle, Number 73, pp. 4-10; Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn, pp. 91-98; Vannoy and Karamales, Against the Panzers, pp. 240-42; MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, pp. 378-80; MacDonald, Company Commander, pp. 122-37. Most of the records list Smith as the commander of K Company during the battle, confirming his recollection that his CO was gone. However, MacDonald, in Company Commander, a book he published in 1947 while the battle was fresh in his mind, wrote about interacting with K Company’s original commander throughout the battle. Yet, forty years later, in A Time for Trumpets, MacDonald listed Smith as the CO. Because of these conflicting accounts, I have elected not to list the original K Company commander’s name.

  11 38th Infantry Regiment, Unit Histories, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 5375, Folder 7, and Box 5376, Folder 3, both at National Archives; “The German Breakthrough, V Corps Sector,” 2nd Infantry Division Combat Interview; 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, Combat Interview; Major William Hancock, Executive Officer, and Staff Sergeant Norman Bernstein, Operations Sergeant, Combat Interview with Captain Francis Phelps, March 17, 1945; Robertson interview, all at CI-20-21; Major General Walter Robertson, Record of Events, Box 2, Folder 3; Ralph Steele to Charles MacDonald, June 27, 1983, Box 2, Folder 3; Ralph Steele to Joe Doherty, April 8, 1982, Box 2, Folder 4, all in Charles B. MacDonald Papers, USAMHI; Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn, pp. 107-11; MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, pp. 380-81.

  12 Statement by First Lieutenant Roy Allen concerning “B” Company, 9th Inf engagement east of Rocherath, Belgium, on 17 and 18 December, 1944; 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Combat Interview; Hancock, Bernstein, Combat Interview, all at CI-20-21; Herbert Hunt, unpublished memoir, pp. 4-13; Herbert Hunt to Charles MacDonald, December 5, 1981, both in Box 2, Folder 5, Charles B. MacDonald Papers, USAMHI; Frank Royer, unpublished memoir, pp. 4-5, Frank Royer Collection, #3858, LOC; Cole, The Ardennes, pp. 109-11; Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn , pp. 110-16; MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, pp. 380-83; Vannoy and Karamales, Against the Panzers, pp. 244-48. The accounts differ as to what kind of tanks attacked on the evening of December 17. Some claim they were Jagdpanzers; others refer to “Tigers”; still others claim that the Germans attacked with Mark V Panthers. Because of this confusion, I have elected to refrain from describing what sort of tanks attacked. Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention that large elements of the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, under Lieutenant Colonel Frank Mildren were in the twin villages that evening and helped stave off the enemy attack. For the sake of clarity and brevity, I have chosen to focus exclusively on McKinley’s 1st Battalion of the 9th Infantry.

  13 Allen statement; 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, Combat Interview; Hancock, Bernstein, Combat Interview, all in CI-20-21; “AGF Report No. 559—Comments on Anti-tank Weapons,” p. 4, Donovan Library, Fort Benning, Columbus, Georgia; Lieutenant Colonel Charles McMillan, “Manchus at the Crossroads: Defending the Northern Shoulder of the Bulge,” Army War College Paper; Brigadier General John Hinds, Commander, 2nd Infantry Division artillery to Will Cavanagh, September 30, 1982, Box 2, Folder 3; Steele to MacDonald, Box 2, Folder 3; Hunt, unpublished memoir, pp. 13-15, Box 2, Folder 5; First Sergeant Henry Albin to Scotty, September 14, 1981, Box 2, Folder 5, all in Charles B. MacDonald Papers, USAMHI; Royer, unpublished memoir, p. 5, LOC; Edward Murphy, Heroes of World War II (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990), pp. 249-51; Cole, The Ardennes, pp. 110-16; Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn, pp. 137-40; MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, pp. 395-98; Vannoy and Karamales, Against the Panzers, pp. 248-52. McKinley reported that mines destroyed four of the German tanks; bazookas killed eleven; fire wrecked the other two.

  14 23rd Infantry Regiment, Unit History; 38th Infantry Regiment, Unit Histories; 1944 History, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 5377, Folder 1, all at National Archives; 38th Infantry Regiment, AAR; Lieutenant Colonel Tom Morris, Executive Officer, 38th Infantry, interview with Captain Francis Phelps, February 23, 1945; 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry, Combat Interview with Captain Francis Phelps, March 15, 1945, all at CI-20-21; Kenneth Myers, unpublished memoir, pp. 1-2, Box 13, Folder 7, Battle of the Bulge Historical Foundation; Byron Reburn, World War
II Questionnaire #3075, 394th Infantry material, Box 3; Daniel Franklin to Charles MacDonald, Box 2, Folder 3, Charles B. MacDonald Papers, all at USAMHI; Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn, pp. 154-60; Cole, The Ardennes, pp. 113-16.

  15 23rd Infantry Regiment, Unit History; 38th Infantry Regiment, Unit Histories, National Archives; 3rd Battalion, 23rd Infantry, Combat Interview; 38th Infantry, AAR; Captain Ralph Stallworth, Headquarters Company, 38th Infantry, Combat Interview with Captain Francis Phelps, February 24, 1945; 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry, Combat Interview with Captain Francis Phelps, February 25, 1945; Lieutenant George Adams, Combat Interview with Captain Francis Phelps, February 25, 1945, all at CI-20-21; John Savard, unpublished memoir, pp. 33-35, World War II Questionnaire #7702, 2nd Infantry Division Material, Box 1; Burger to MacDonald, both at USAMHI; John Savard, The Bulge Bugle, February 1992, pp. 15-16; Merrill Huntzinger, Interview with Lesley Reser, Merrill Huntzinger Collection, #6793, LOC; MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets, pp. 399-400; Cavanagh, Battle East of Elsenborn, pp. 156-64.

  16 Colonel Richard Schulze to Hubert Meyer, Box 9, Folder 10; C Company, 12th SS Panzer Regiment, 12th SS Panzer Division, unpublished memoirs, Box 9, Folder 10; I SS Panzer Corps, AAR, Box 8, Folder 4, all in Charles B. MacDonald Papers; “Operations of the Sixth Panzer Army,” Foreign Military Studies, Box 5, #A-924, all at USAMHI.

  17 703rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, Summary of Operations, December 1944, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 23715, Folder 3; 741st Tank Battalion, AAR, December 1944; 23rd Infantry Regiment, Unit History; 38th Infantry Regiment, Unit Histories, S3 Artillery Reports, RG 407, Entry 427, Box 5383, Folder 5, all at National Archives; Adams Combat Interview, CI-20-21; Captain Halland Hankel, “Operations of Company M, 38th Infantry (2nd ID) in the Vicinity of Krinkelt, Belgium, 17-20 December 1944, Personal Experiences of a Company Commander,” Advanced Infantry Officer’s Course, 1948-1949, found at Box 2, Folder 3, Charles B. MacDonald Papers; Hunt to MacDonald, both at USAMHI; Howard Daniels, Jr., “Tanks Versus the Infantry—No Quarrel,” letter to the editor in Infantry Journal, June 1950, p. 32; Major Robert Bateman, “An Infantryman’s Thoughts on Armor,” Armor, January- February 2001, pp. 11-12; Joseph Kiss, The Bulge Bugle, February 1993, pp. 16-17; Vannoy and Karamales, Against the Panzers, pp. 255-62.