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FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE
The story of the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion begins
on July 2, 1941 in Fort Dix, New Jersey. The 44th Anti-Tank Battalion
(Provisional) was formed from elements of the 69th Field Artillery
Brigade, 44th Infantry Division. The new organization was commanded
by Lt Col John Lemp. G and H Batteries of the 157th Field
Artillery Regiment comprised the nucleus of the battalion and
became A and B batteries. The remainder of the personnel came
into the new unit from the AT platoon of each battalion headquarters
battery of the 157th FA, 165th FA, and the 156th FA Regiments.
When the job was completed, this battalion had been formed with
Hq, A, B, C, and D batteries. Several days later a fifth battery,
E, was formed from the AT personnel of 71st Infantry Regiment.
The shooting material of the battalion consisted
of sixteen 75mm M2A2 guns, drawn by 2-1/2 ton trucks, and thirty-six
37 mm guns drawn by 1/2 ton weapons carriers. During the
first three weeks of August, the battalion attended a school
maneuver at A.P. Hill military reservation, near Fredericksburg,
Virginia. The Grizzlies, the GIs
and the Screamers surpassed in importance any of
the more formal anti-tank training here. Shortly after its
return to Fort Dix, in late August, the battalion moved with
the 44th Division to Wadesboro, in the North and South Carolina
First Army Maneuver Area. During the latter part of the three
month maneuver period the 44th Division, with the 44th AT Battalion,
opposed the 8th Infantry Division. Thus it was, in 1941, that
the first contact was made with the division of which the battalion
was to be a part in the coming European Phase of World War II.
On December 15th, the unit was back from Fort Dix, and on
that date was redesignated the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion,
Light (Towed). It was at this time that E Battery was detached
from the unit and returned to the 71st Infantry Regiment. The
weapons of the outfit were changed to include only 37 mm guns,
towed by 1/2 ton weapons carriers, and the unit was compressed
into Hq, A, B, and C Companies. Change of station orders
cut short well earned furloughs and moved the 44th Division to
Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, where it arrived on January 16, 1942.
During its stay at Claiborne, the 644th TD Bn underwent two substantial
changes. The first was the separation of the unit from the 44th
Division. Tank destroyer battalions had won their spurs and were
now separate units and under War Department control. The second
was the addition of a fifth company, called the pioneer company
(forerunner of the present Reconnaissance Company). This was
accomplished by transferring to the 644th TD Bn, the Regimental
Headquarters Battery of the 157th FA Regiment. In addition, the
strength of the battalion was gradually being built up by replacements
from Ft Bragg and we became (on paper only, of course) self-propelled.
On February 25, 1942 the 44th Division with the 644th TD
Bn again attached, moved by rail to Fort
Lewis, Washington, where attachment to the Division
terminated. While at Fort Lewis, we participated in defensive
operations which included guarding the Pacific coastline at North
Cove near Aberdeen, Washington, and evacuating Japanese from
Portland and Hood River, Oregon. Training was profitable and
continuous during our stay at Fort Lewis. Gradually the unit
welded itself into a well trained fighting outfit. All this was
accomplished in spite of many obstacles and involved what was
then considered tough training. (For example, that 27 mile night
hike -- everyone crawled home on his knees or staggered in on
his bleeding ankle bones). Cadres were furnished to create new
units. This period also had its pleasures. members of the battalion
enjoyed the scenic beauties of Portland (Mount Hood), Seattle
(Puget Sound) and Tacoma (Happy Days, Mt. Rainier, and the Moose
Club). On 12 September 1942 many sincere friends, sweethearts
and wives were left behind on the west coast or accompanied the
battalion (the wives, of course) when it went to Texas. By this
time most of us considered ourselves seasoned travelers, having
covered much of the United States. We made the move to Texas
by rail under Major Ephraim F. Graham, Jr., who assumed command
in August, 1942. On September 18, 1942
the unit arrived in Texas and went into a bivouac area on Georgetown
Road, a few miles outside of Camp Hood. To many of the new members
of the battalion, this was the first taste of outdoor life, but
we quickly acclimated ourselves and became used to the foul Texas
weather, the bitter tasting alkaline water, chiggers, tarantulas,
armadillos, the lack of beer, and outdoor showers in mid-December.
Some of the personnel insist they sweated out the
full six months without a drop of water, having survived the
Texas heat on Coca-Cola alone. We all tried to say something
nice about Texas, but honestly triumphed over charity every time.
The battalion lived in tents and training
was carried on with borrowed equipment. Much of the work, such
as loading ammunition belts and cleaning weapons, was done during
the dark, early morning. At this time the M3 half-track, mounting
a self-propelled 75mm gun, was supposed to be our primary weapon
(but we had 37mm guns blocked up on half tons) and the motto
Seek, Stride, Destroy was the basis for TD tactics.
There were those days at the machine gun
and rifle range, where three-fourths of the battalion was behind
the lines listening to lectures by bewildered second lieutenants
or waving their arms to produce the appearance of calisthenics;
and the rides to the range in the icy winter wind, without windshields,
with the weather cold enough to cause a brass monkey considerable
discomfort -- and dont fail to mention the commando course,
with its Puke Hill, the water obstacle, that night
tank-hunting problem, and the bloke who kept shooting at your
heels with a cal.30 rifle in the village-fighting course. Or
the big demonstration near Antelope School for all the generals,
when, for three hours, we see-sawed back and forth only 400 yds
from the tanks, showing how to fire and move, screaming to each
other over a single battalion radio channel, and damning the
Texas corn fields because their furrows always ran crosswise,
no matter which side you entered on. Of course there was Gatesville
-- two movies, count them, two -- and Waco. During
the stay in Texas, the battalion crest, designed entirely by
the men of the 644th TD Bn, was approved by the War Department.
The crest consists of a mailed fist superimposed on a red Norman
shield with the motto: Fortune Favors The Brave.
Each spike of the fist represents a company in the battalion,
and the color of the shield represents the red of the artillery
from which branch the Bn originated. The mailed fist symbolizes
the might of TD armament and the motto indicates the spirit of
the unit. The battalion moved into barracks
in Camp Hood on December 26th and received replacements totaling
over one hundred men, who were given basic training and assimilated
into the organization. We were issued six M-10s, and we
lashed the tubes down with ropes (they forgot to build em
with turret locks) and got our first driver and maintenance instruction.
During the latter part of January 1943,
the battalion moved by three trains back to Fort Lewis. For the
next three months, equipment was brought up to date, training
continued, and old acquaintances (female, of course) were renewed.
Our commanding officer was promoted to
the rank of lieutenant colonel. During the month of May 1943,
still with only six destroyers, the battalion moved to Yakima,
Washington, where it trained extensively in direct fire. We became
accustomed to sagebrush and rattlesnakes, snarled a little at
the 633rd T. D. Bn, and the 4th TD Group, established our reputation
in Yakima, and returned to Fort Lewis during the middle of June.
Then preparations began for a move to the high desert of Oregon
for large scale maneuvers to be held from July to November 1943.
Prior to the move to Oregon the unit received its total complement
of thirty-six M-10 Tank Destroyers. After
detraining at Redmond, Oregon, inexperienced drivers made a long
march across country through the dust for over forty miles of
difficult ground, to Sisters, a town named after the famous Three
Sisters, Oregon mountain peaks. Succeeding
weeks saw the outfit lick its maintenance problems, become accustomed
to heat and lack of water, give up wine, women and practically
song, and put into application all the lessons it had learned
through lectures, demonstrations, and garrison training (including
How to Change a Bogie Wheel). A three week rest (?)
period was utilized for direct and indirect fire training at
Buffalo Crossing, Ore., and here the battalion became aware of
the potency of its weapons. We moved cross country to Hole in
the Ground, Oregon, and practiced combat plays and then entered
the IV Corps maneuver at Glass Buttes. The
Corps maneuver was a wild operation. We were credited with 150
enemy tanks in the second problem during which, as Reds,
we engaged a superior force of Blue troops. The ending
of maneuvers was premature for us, because the unit was alerted
for overseas movement. An eventual move was made to Lapine, Oregon,
where the tracks were moved by rail (we loaded them in an hour
and fifty-five minutes) and the belance of the unit marched to
Fort Lewis again by truck, arriving at our home station on September
29th. The following weeks were filled with
inspections and replacements of equipment, night infiltration
courses, physical fitness tests, Army Ground Force tests (where
we all lost our breakfasts), furloughs, and polishing up of training
preparatory to the big moment. It came on the 22nd of December
when the battalion boarded troop trains at the Fort Lewis Depot
for an unknown destination. Our principal regret at this time
(except that we had to say Goodbye to the girls at
PX26) was that we had to turn in all our equipment, which we
had uncrated, issued, cleaned, oiled, and sweated over for weeks.
A short period of depression was felt by
most members during the Christmas Holidays, in spite of the turkey
dinner and a little liquid Christmas cheer, but by the time the
unit arrived at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, most of us were in the
pink again. To many this was a homecoming! A
busy period. Rushing through physicals, abandoning ship drill,
a hurried sorting of personal effects; (throw away your
shaving lotion and shampoo, youll need the room for cigarettes).
What to do with the damn bedroll? Change of APO, a pass to get
home and see the family once more, or a first visit to the Big
City, dim-out or no dim-out. Last minute packing of TAT
boxes, lettering of duffle bags and everything else. And finally,
the move by train, the wrestle with the suspenders and field
bag, the ferry boat and that long climb up the gangplank. The
Date? January 1st, 1944. A fine way to start the New Year! We
found we were aboard the good ship H.M.T. Aquitania. The rats
had deserted it two trips back, people said, and later we came
to respect their judgment. After an overnight stay in New York
harbor, we moved out the following day for a voyage filled with
rumors, strange changes of course, blackout, seasickness, awful
British chow and perhaps a little homesickness. In addition,
the job of guarding the ship was given to the unit, and we got
shots again. Popular opinion had us off the coast of Greenland
and eventually, when the weather suddenly turned warm, close
to the Azores. Finally, after ten days at sea, we anchored in
an inlet outside of the Scottish town of Gourick (near Glasgow)
and transferred to the U.S. Troop Transport Henry T. Gibbons.
We learned to eat again, American food being served. The following
morning without touching land another move was made, and the
new day found us docked in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We
got a hasty view of some of the bombed-out sections of the town,
and had a short discussion with the Tommies. It was
a little exciting to see that the war had been here. We moved
by British trucks to the station, where we entrained for Enniskillen,
Northern Ireland, and then proceeded to two bivouac areas, part
of the battalion to Crom Castle and part to Belle Isle. This
was a new world! Nissen Huts, fog, powdered eggs, (and the screamers
again), free cigarettes and PX rations, the additional twenty
percent overseas pay, dehydrated food, Guiness and such mysteries
as a Two and Six,apenny,florins
and half crowns. Another move by those
dinky trains on January 23, 1944 for Larne, to our new area at
Kilwaughter Castle,
in Country Antrim. More problems to face: a motor
park to build (hard standing). additional training
in indirect fire, passes and dances in town, NAAFI pastry, organization
of the battalion band, sleeping on boards and straw ticks, training
and more training! But some of us got furloughs to visit all
parts of the UK, which included London, which included Picadilly.
The Larne townspeople always knew where the outfit was going
two days before we did. All British sailors disliked us and vice
versa. We fired at direct targets near Bushmills, and indirect
at Collin Top and in the Sperrin Mountains. We hiked to Ballygalley,
knocked down a house with bazookas and bangalores on the Creeve
Mountain Range, and watched the gals shed tears when we packed
up to leave. May 10 found us off again,
this time to Belfast, and aboard ship for two days across the
Irish Sea to Newport, Wales, and another train ride to Hungerford,
England, where we arrived on the 13th. Our tracked vehicles had
gone before us and we were later assured by the personnel accompanying
them that an LST is not a pleasure craft. More
problems in England. Modifications of equipment, more firing,
camouflage nets to garnish, C47s and gliders overhead constantly,
D-Day, and finally waterproofing of vehicles and the preparations
to move once more. This time it was to Southampton, on the 6th
of July. Here the war was closer than ever before. Vehicles were
camouflaged in the streets, we saw several buzz bombs, had a
six day wait for orders and ships in a stinking tent camp in
the woods. Finally there were the loadings on LSTs and
the movement across the Channel to the Normandy Peninsula (we
landed on Utah Beach) on July 11 and 12. The battalion assembled
and moved on July 12 to a point near St. Sauveur du Pierre Point.
We saw our first dead Kraut, had an ammo dumb blow up near us,
drove through desolate, ruined towns, and fired at everything
that moved (including the OD) during our guard tricks at night.
This was it! All the sweating, training,
hiking, moving, inspections, drilling, were paying off now, at
last. We were here and we were ready, and even if we were a bit
jumpy we were ready to account for ourselves. Two days later
we were given the chance! Assigned to
the First United States Army and attached to the 8th Infantry
Division, the 644 TD Bn was ordered to relieve the 803 TD Bn
in the line of 15 July. We moved into positions about the three
miles south of La Haye Du Puits. Company A was attached to the
121st Regiment, Company B to the 13th and Company C was held
under battalion control to deliver indirect fire through division
artillery. Later Company C was attached to the 28th Regt and
these attachments continued intermittently throughout the war,
with one company sometimes under battalion control on artillery
missions and two usually in infantry close support and anti-tank
roles under regimental control. Elements of Recon Co operated
both as a company unit and with a platoon attached to each TD
company. It also got some nasty division missions now and then.
We experienced our first association with
Jerry and his methods, Battle sounds, more dead men in the ditches,
burp guns, the whistle of 88s, new tactics, swelling rotting
cows and horses, hedge-row cutters on the M-10s, ten-in-one
rations, cooking our own meals, living in foxholes that got deeper
and deeper, (duplex apartments, in some instances). Digging-in
vehicles and getting so you could call the shorts
and overs from the sound of the shells coming in.
Souvenir hunting, the scramble for a P-38 or Luger. Finally,
that competent feeling of having been there -- --
the state of nerves and the ability to calculate chances that
separates a veteran from a rookie. No
contact except by patrols and delivery of artillery fire was
made by the battalion until 26 July, but all elements were subjected
until that date to sporadic fire from 88mm guns and mortars.
The Forward CP and Recon were pasted constantly. Bs 3rd
Plat was on a Heinie fire chart for sure. And then the infantry
wanted Cs 2d Plat to dig in on a forward slope. We got
bombed by P47s and straffed by ME109s. We saw 500
beautiful Forts fly over one morning. The wire crews laid line
after line, under fire. We wont ever forget Vesly, Laulne,
Pissot, and Me de Claides. All elements
participated in Operation COBRA beginning 260530
July 1944, with Company B firing prearranged missions for Division
Artillery and Companies A and C in close support. We pushed forward
in the advance of the division in pursuit of enemy forces and
struck south of the Lessay-Periers line and beyond Coutances.
(Operation COBRA was the attack which developed into
the famous Normandy breakthrough.) After
August 1st, we continued the advance to the south with the leading
forces of the division, reaching RENNES on the 4th. During this
movement, Co B and then Co A went ahead with CT 13, performing
security missions in the forward areas of the division sector.
Contact with the enemy was slight, although we were very nearly
bombed off the road in one hair-raising night march. Scattered
pockets of German troops constituted the only resistance encountered
by any elements of the battalion. We saw our first Mark V abandoned
in a courtyard south of Coutances. Bed-Check Charlie
tucked us into those slit-trenches a little deeper every evening.
From August 4th to August 13th, the battalion
(less Co C after August 8th) held positions in the vicinity of
Rennes, prepared to meet an attack by armor from the south. Northeast
of us the Falaise pocket was being worked over. General Patton
was shaking himself free for the race across France. On August
8th, Co C was attached to the 121st Infantry Regiment, and moved
to the northwest for the bloody capture of Dinard. Recon Co patrolled
the area within a ten-mile radius of Rennes and performed three
division reconnaissance missions to the south and east. From
August 13th, to August 18th, the battalion accompanied the 8th
Division from Rennes to a position southeast of Dinan where we
stayed for a couple of days and were joined by weary Co C. Then
in two days to an assembly area north of Brest through a shower
of fruit, onions and flowers from the happy French. Co A was
attached to one battalion of the 28th Infantry Regiment to from
in a task force which reduced an enemy position on Cape Frehel
and then moved into the vicinity of Brest. The Rear CP sat in
a position ahead of the infantry for several days. The battalion,
less Co A, established itself in an area southwest of Lesneven
on August 18th and began preparations for attack on the German
garrison at Brest. Co A went into assembly under enemy observation
and absorbed quite a little German artillery. Prior
to the attack on Brest, Recon Company, operating under division
orders, patrolled the right flank of the division, twice engaging
enemy patrols in the vicinity of St. Renan. A recon section drove
into and out of a German bivouac, we shot up a couple of trucks,
jockeyed around to get at German patrols, and in general had
quite a time. The attack on Brest started
noisily at 1300 hours on the 26th. Companies B and C performed
close support missions for the infantry while Co A acted in close
support of the main attack and also in operations against minor
pockets of enemy in fortified positions along the coast to the
west of Brest. Lt. Stevenson of C Co was captured while on a
foot patrol on August 26, 1944. He escaped to the Daolas Peninsula
and later rejoined the unit when it was moving to the Crozon
Peninsula. Co A remained attached to the
29th Infantry Division from the first part of September until
September 21, 1944, performing close support missions with the
infantry attacking Brest and with Task Force Sugar,
in fighting along the coast west of Brest. The
operation was nastier than anyone had anticipated. We found that
we were facing a combination of paratroopers, marines, sailors,
and fortress troops, well armed, cocky, and beautifully dug in.
Hill 88, Kergroas, Pontanezen Barracks, the fort on the river,
and a dozen other tight sport will stand in the history of this
war as some of the toughest in Europe. Co A had to pick up rations
in M-10;s, the pioneers dug Co Cs destroyers in on the
outpost line at night, and B Co led the infantry from one critical
point to the next. We watched the P47s drop gasoline bombs,
we put out red panels and were bombed by our own P38s,
watched a Fort go down when it collided with a Thunderbolt, began
to take prisoners. Also the Krauts had a few coastal guns which
shook us up at night. We moved (less Co
A) to the Crozon Peninsula south of Brest on September 11th to
finish off the German garrison. A Co stayed with the 29th Division,
while B worked with the 28th Regiment and C with the 121st and
finally the 13th. Recon Co fired continuous harassing missions
with its 37mm guns. The pioneers dug us in again on the outpost
line at night under fire, we sneaked up on a 105 AA gun and knocked
it out, we entered the town of Crozon and dug in again to attack
the big fort to the north, fired several hundred rounds of direct
fire, broke through the defenses and saw General Canham, 8th
Division assistant commander, take General Ramcke prisoner. The
Brest Campaign was over! The battalion
was assembled in a bivouac area in the vicinity of Treflevenez,
France, on the 24th of September in preparation for movement
to the east. This was our first real breathing spell, and the
first time the battalion had been together since we hit the beach
in July. Here we got hot showers, coffee and doughnuts, a dry
pair of shoes out of the good old duffel bag and a look at the
once glamorous class A service coat. A chance to clean up, get
some sleep, and grease, weld, repair, and generally get things
in shape. Here too we mixed a little pleasure with business.
Passes to Landerneau if you were lucky, and it was a break even
if you did have to carry a K ration along to keep
from starving. But the rest didnt
last long. We were off again on the 27th of September when the
battalion wheels moved as part of a huge 8th Division column
across France to Luxembourg, where we arrived at the end of the
month. The tracks came by rail. September 30th found us in bivouac
in the rain and fog near Eschdorf, Luxembourg, with visions of
beer, ice cream, and a knockout victory through the Siegfried
Line into the heart of Germany. But we
were given a long front and a holding mission. On October 1st,
1944, the battalion, without Cos A and B, was attacked
to the 28th Regiment. Recon Co took up duties patrolling a portion
of Division sector between 13th Inf Regt and 2nd Bn of
the 28th. Contact with friendly units on both flanks was maintained.
Recon Co CP moved to Ursplet. The Fwd CP moved to the vicinity
of Holzthum, then to Clerf and finally to filthy little Boevange.
Co C was assigned the mission of setting up defenses from Marnach
to Diekirch. B Co was partly through the Siegfried line east
of Leiler, and Co A established itself south of Ettlebruck. The
infantry regimental fronts were from ten to twenty miles broad,
and we had to have planned positions to cover every spot along
them. In addition we had to fire daily direct missions and a
lot of artillery targets. At first we could plainly see the Krauts
sunbathing and answering the calls of nature in front of the
pillboxes across the valley. We taught them to cover and concealment
in short order. Luxembourg wasnt
really too bad. There were showers in Diekirch and Wiltz, a few
buzzbombs, the red-ball highway from which you could look at
the tonsils of the Siegfried guns, a lot of indirect fire (remember
when Co Cs 3d Pln shelled B Co?), a certain pitch-fork-welding
female named Annie in Boevange, dull passes to quaint little
Clerf, enemy patrols every night, dashes into Vianden under enemy
fire, one or two movies (with the damn sound track kaput), and
the eternal stench of cow manure in every little town. The Krauts
kept everlastingly feeling us out, and we pulled away about one
month before they decided that here was the thin spot, and Von
Rundstedt sent his panzers through. We
got a rumor from the third stool that wed fight a winter
campaign up north and in mid-November we took over west of Hurtgen,
inside Germany, from the 630th TD Bn. That operation, a fight
eastward toward the dams on the Roer River, was the dilly
of the war. From that dampish first night until the December
snows we had rain, rain, rain, with indescribable seas of mud
on every road. We were issued overshoes, and then sweaters, and
slept in the destroyers, or in damp dugouts. Remember the road
up to Germeter from the south, with the corduroy under six inches
of chocolate slime, where Bs 2d platoon sat for a long
two weeks? And the cellars in Vossenack with Cs 1st Platoon
receiving thousands of rounds every day. Or As 3d and Cs
2d at the Germeter junction. And As 1st at the little bridge
where it burned up the Sherman the Jerries were firing. Then
the 5th Armoreds CCR fiasco, followed by the march into
Hurtgen, after the Pioneers had dug all night up on the road
that had S mines all along it. C Co moving into Hurtgen
with three TDs out of twelve operational, A Co grinding
a road of its own through the minefields in the middle of the
night. Those 120mm mortars, the 22 ME 109s over the town
and then the P 38s taking over where the Luftwaffe left
off. A Co in Brandenberg and Bergstein, Ren setting up regimental
communication in the infantry forward CPs, Echelon pulling
M-10s out of minefields, and As first platoon beating
off the Heinies in some of the toughest stuff we saw (with everybody
else in the cellars and our Cal. 50 AAs doing the real
job). Kleinhau, on the hill, where they could see you from the
Cologne plain, and laid in on you whenever they felt like it.
Snow came to join the mud and we settled down to hold. A deep
breath at last! So, instead of letting
us get stale in a nasty old holding action, they bustled us down
to the 2d Division to attack. We set up in Sourbrodt, Belgium,
in a snow storm, leaving Co B back in the Hurtgen Forest to sweat
out German artillery, patrols, and mid-winter weather with the
8th. A and C moved through quiet little Butgenbach, quiet little
Bullingen, and quiet little Krinkelt into the woods to the north
and attacked the Westwall forts. The idea was to capture the
Roer River dams from the south. For two days we went along wonderfully
and we got ready to break thru the line for midwinter victory.
It just happened that Von Rundstedt had the same idea, and on
the 17th of December before daybreak, the world caved in. Co
Cs 1st platoon raced down south of town to meet and destroy
the point of a column coming north from Bullingen while Lt Pattersons
Recon platoons with one section went way ahead to hold off the
Kraut infantry for a few precious hours before they were swallowed
up. A Co set up a ridgeline defense south of Wirtzfeld with its
1st and 3d platoons, and the battalion was credited with saving
the division CP from displacement to a German PW camp. The Wehremacht
shelled our rear echelon at Sourbrodt and the Luftwaffe bombed
it, V-1s were traveling overhead in platoon column and
for three days Co C and As 2d Plat fenced and feinted with
the 12th Panzer Division among the ruins of Krinkelt. It will
be some time before we forget the two Mark Vs that knocked
out the front of the AT Co CP at a range of 20 yards with Sgt
Mounts TD sitting behind it, or the column of 12 Panthers
coming down to the church, firing into every house, until Cpl
McVeigh tore up the first one with HVAP at 75 yards and turned
them around. Or the night of the withdrawal, with yellow tracers
ricocheting into the sky and the Forward CP doing rear guard
in Wirtzfeld in a nebelwerfer concentration. We found that a
Panther tank gun had very little respect for the armor of an
M8, but the panzers moved pretty quickly when Rcn got at them
at short ranges with bazookas in a little contest which saved
the skins of two infantry battalions and a regimental headquarters.
Lt. Parker got the DSC for that one. We
dug in again on Elsenborn ridge, and things quieted down a bit
for A and C. B Co joined us again, but went to the 1st Division
south of Butgenback. The mission it got was in the best TD tradition
-- the 3d Plat merely moved to the very corner of the bulge and
took an ungodly shelling day in and day out until the Heinies
retired. Our medics did some yeoman service here, as always.
We had turkey for Christmas, and a visit
from the Luftwaffe. We had turkey for New Years Day, and
quite a little German artillery. The Forward CP was shelled out
of Berg by rockets and moved to Elsenborn and the line companies
fired those night indirect missions that dug us out from under
the snow at 0300 for platoon 3 rounds, quadrant one two
zero. Star shells and reduced charge. Watching the buzzbombs
sputtering away toward Liege, and the Heinie night recon planes
drop photo flares. Co C went to the 9th Division and set up in
Mutzenich in early January. Co B and then A were attached to
the 99th Battle Babies Division and a new offensive
began for the Roer River Dams. We had shoe pacs and fancy two
layer gloves by this time. The opposition
here was not so fierce, and by the first part of February we
had another look at Krinkelt, recounted the seventeen Kraut tanks
and other equipment we had knocked out, and moved on to the east.
Co C worked for a while with the 102d Cavalry Group and wont
be remembering Rohren, Dedenbom, Imgenbroich or Ruhrberg with
much pleasure. But it didnt last long. The battalion reassembled
and returned to the 8th Division in a wet and miserable night
march through Eupen, Aachen, and Stolberg for the Roer-to-Rhine
Offensive. From the 9th to the 24th of
February we waited for the Roer to subside, read the Nazi leaflets
assuring us that the Heinies were going to give us a warm reception,
and watched the AA tracers trail a few jetpropelled planes by
1000 yards. Bs 2d Plat was in behind houses along 88
boulevard in Rolsdorf, A Co got the bulk of the shelling
in Gey, and C Cos 2d and 3d went to movies in Lendersdorf
in a big barn under mortar fire. The crossing
was quite a formation. Three-quarters of an hour of artillery
preparation, in the dead of night, then over the bailey bridge
into Duren under some screaming artillery that nearly nailed
us (our armor was the first over, and Yanks
cover photo is here to prove it) and those ghastly night bombings
of the bridgeheads. There were also some minor classics in horror
in Stepprath, Stockheim, the barracks on the hill above Duren,
and Co A being sent to take Girbelsrath across flat treeless
country in the broad daylight. From then
until the Rhine was reached, the warfare became a little more
open. The battalion worked as a unit for division right flank
defense and moved continuously day and night. The doughs looked
pretty good in this operation, too. From the tag end of February
through the first half of March we chased the Krauts from Blatzheim
to Kerpen, exchanged a few rounds in a weird series of attacks
on Moderath, (remember B Co sitting on the road in a smoke screen
for 5 hours?), got into Frechen and took a little SP fire, and
then fanned out to occupy the suburban villages west and south
of Cologne. Some of us sneaked close enough to spit in the Rhine.
-- And at least once, the battalion forward set up shop ahead
of the infantry front lines. 120mm mortars mangled C Cos
first platoon at bit in Gleuel, and A Cos second and third
were given a peculiar daylight mission of rescuing two companies
of infantry who didnt want to be rescued until the village
cognac was fully sampled. We occupied
the west bank of the Rhine and fired reduced charge across the
river, visited the ruins of Cologne, took pictures of the cathedral,
washed up and did some maintenance while the Remagen bridgehead
was being expanded. Co C went across at Bad Godesberg with the
104th Division and into the thick of it again. After the 3rd
Armored Division punched a hole in the defenses and rumbled out
into the Westerwald region in early April, Co C went to the 1st
Infantry Division in a push northeast toward the Seig River,
with the German SPs cutting up in a pretty annoying way.
The battalion came over with the 8th, and C Co went to the 121
Regt, A to the 28th and B to the 13th. By
this time, the Ruhr and the Sauerland had become a huge pocket,
the biggest prize of the war, with a reported 60,000 to 80,000
troops in it. The 8th was assigned as one of the mop-up units.
A Co went over to the newly arrived 86th Division, and the offensive
began. At first the going was as rough as any weve had.
The TDs operated as tanks, assault guns, personnel carriers,
recon vehicles, and anything else that occurred to those minds
at higher headquarters. Recon Co showed the division how a cavalry
troop ought to do it, capturing towns, leading the infantry,
poling up side roads to tell the doughs if there were enemy SPs
waiting for them, operating 24 hours a day. Co C looked down
the tube of a 128mm Jaegtiger for several days in Netphen. Co
B knocked out a paratroop counterattack and broke up the resistance
around Siegen while A Co did a little education of the new outfits
in the 86th Sector. The infantry performance was of the first
order here, and the PWs began to come back in company-sized
groups. We broke loose across the Sieg River and made up armored
combat teams with the 740th Tank Bn to move north in big bites
during mid-April. The 8th was traveling much faster than its
flank divisions by this time, and reached the Ruhr River in time
to make first contact with the 79th Division blasting down from
the north. Remember Kierspe Bahnohof, where enemy burp guns nearly
broke up the infantry attacking aboard Bs TDs, and
Olpe, Milspe, Wuppertal and flak-gun valley, and
that mansion in Ludenscheid were A Co established its CP? Instead
of the 80,000, we found 315,000 Krauts in the pocket, and getting
them and the liberated PWs and the DPs and the wrecked
German vehicles off the roads so we could get by became a problem.
In the middle of April we went through
Wuppertal to the Dusseldorf-Cologne area and tired our hand at
military government. We ferretted out a few SS men, picked up
dozens of German soldiers with discharges dated April 16, and
found that if you couldnt say that non-fraternization was
rough, you had to admit it was awkward. But
the war wasnt over yet, and about the time we began to
get shaken down, the division moved out again, and we followed,
on a two day road march through the Ruhr, Paderborn, Hamlin and
Braunschweig to the River Elbe. There we were attached on the
1st of May to the 82nd Airborne Division and when the paratroops
had made their bridgehead and the engineers had put up a pontoon
bridge, A Co went across in a shower of German light artillery,
and was followed the next day by Rcn, B, C, and the Forward CP.
The war was fast fizzling out. We formed
up in two columns with the tanks, some armored artillery
and the 121st Regt to go from the Elbe to the Baltic Sea to meet
the Russians. The British paratroopers were doing the same thing
to the west and we wanted to get there first. We marched up to
the Schwerin area by 1400, took ten thousand prisoners, carloads
of Lugers, P38s, and lesser models, shot ourselves for
days afterward seeing how they worked, and were stopped (by order,
not by the Krauts) before we could get to the Baltic. This
was a dramatic finish for the 644th. In four days the 8th Division
took 245,000 PWs. We liberated a camp of British and American
prisoners and got some first-hand accounts of the SS troops.
We filled a huge field with thousands of surly, scared and evil
smelling Kraut soldiers, looted their supply columns for cigars
and assorted liquid refreshment, and then drove away to assembly
areas past many more straggling, dirty and unguarded groups moving
wearily in to give themselves up. For the ne3xt few days we occupied
the area around Schwerin, and waited for General Eisenhower to
announce V-E Day. For all practical purposes the war had ended.
We had on our hands thousands upon thousands of prisoners, uncounted
numbers of displaced persons of all nationalities, and several
overcrowded military hospitals. Hitler was reported dead, the
war lost, V-E day very near, and the civilians were terrified
by the prospect of eventual Russian occupation. We
went to the Wobbelin concentration camp, and even in the excitement
and elation of victory were sobered and sickened by the piles
of wretched bony corpses and the dying skeletons of men. For
three weeks we tried military government again, administering
PW enclosures, trying to feed displaced persons and to teach
them what latrines are for, watching them eat their horses, and
shoot rifles, flare pistols and panzerfausts at the lake, the
Heinie prisoners and each other. V-E day came as an anti-climax.
We went swimming, motor boating and to the Schwerin Theater.
We looked the young female population over critically, but of
course there was that non-fraternization order. General Moore
reviewed us and said hed give his shirt to take us to the
Pacific. We all wanted him to keep his shirt on, for gosh sakes.
And then the redeployment scores were announced. The proud fathers
became even prouder of their bouncing 12-point babies, and battle
participation credits acquired a new meaning. It
wasnt aice war. We have left some of our best soldiers
in France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany and enriched their
lands with our blood. We shall never forget those men. But the
enemy will never forget the 644th. We met, held and defeated
their best troops in Normandy, and then broke through west of
St Lo around Brest, we took forty thousand first quality troops
to the PWE, in Vossenack, Hurtgen, and Bergstein we opened the
route for the march to the Roer River dams, around Krinkelt,
Bullingen and Elsenborn, we helped to smash the Ardennes counterattack,
from the Roer to the Rhine, into the Remagen bridgehead, up through
the Ruhr pocket, and finally from the Elbe to Schwerin, we dealt
the death blow. The price we exacted was
many times the one we paid and we came through with a well-established
reputation as the best TD battalion in the Army.
FORTUNE
FAVORS THE BRAVE |