The 109th Infantry expended 280,000 rounds of small arms, 5,000 mortars, 3,000 grenades and 300 bazooka rounds in just three days of fighting near Diekirch.Įven members of the 28th Division Band pitched in, trading their instruments for Bazookas and Carbines and helping to form a provisional defense battalion near Wiltz. ![]() James Rosborough, commander of the 107th Field Artillery, earned a Distinguished Service Cross for leading infantry counterattacks to retake artillery positions overrun by the German assault. With overcoats caked in snow and ice and bare frozen hands, with bandoleers of ammo and a few anti-tank rounds, the "Men of Iron" made proud of the legacy earned by the division in the last war. In Ouren, Reuler and Hosingen, towns whose names would forever be remembered by veterans of the division, men fought with tenacity. Kuhn, a platoon sergeant in the 110th Infantry, fought from his unit’s outpost in Marnach hotel for two days, calling fire in from the attached Cannon Company, knocking out enemy halftracks, and directing machine guns until a “German Tiger tank smashed through the hotel’s front door and German troops poured into the lobby. The division made stands wherever they could as waves of German armor and infantry advanced. Baker Company lost 95 men killed, captured, or missing.” In the ensuing battle, some of it hand to hand, the Germans lost 150 men, with 73 captured. “Captain Stanley Dec, the company commander, was killed in the first few minutes of fighting. “At 0600 hours the Germans struck outpost 88, knocked it out and stormed the 1st and 3rd Platoon CPs,” Hadden wrote. Alexander Hadden of the 112th Infantry described the attack on his position where in his book “Not Me: The World War II Memoir of a Reluctant Rifleman.” Across the entire front of the 28th Division, German forces attacked with ferocity. The division’s recuperation ended violently as elements of Gerd von Rundstedt's Army smashed into the 25-mile front held by the Keystone Division. The artillery began to rain on my beautiful little village, we knew that an attack by the German Infantry would follow." I jumped out of bed, slipped into my overcoat, got into my harness that had my ammunition and belt with bayonet, canteen, and first aid kit on it, grabbed my rifle, and bounded down the stairway to join the rest of my squad. ![]() I was jarred awake by an artillery shell exploding outside my window. Tom Myers of the 110th Infantry recalled: "About 5:45 a.m. German patrols became less frequent, the sounds of tracked vehicles could be heard behind German lines and strangely large spotlights began to search the American lines, illuminating the pitch black of the night. In the quiet of the European winter, Keystone Division soldiers noticed a change on the battlefield. That would change dramatically in the early hours of Dec. At first, the positions served their purpose, allowing a light schedule of patrolling, stationary guard and time to integrate replacements. The sector was intended to allow the units of the division to recuperate, train replacements and shuffle leadership worn by months of fighting through difficult objectives. Still, the division endured, and new men were incorporated into its ranks to fill the gaps left by the fallen.īy mid-November, the battle-hardened remnants of the division filed out of the Hurtgen Forest and made their way to the VIII Corps sector, assuming a 25-mile defensive line from Bollendorf to Sevenig along the Our River and north to Lutzkampen. The repeated assaults on the Siegfried Line and the "Green Hell" of the Hurtgen Forest had drained its ranks of experienced officers and men. Against nine divisions it has held so firmly that the German timetable has been thrown of completely." - Morely Cassidy, New York Times/CBS Radio.ĭespite months of near constant fighting in late 1944, the spirit of the 28th Infantry Division was not broken. “The 28th Division has performed one of the greatest feats in the history of the American Army.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |