A walk through the woods.

The I&R Platoon, as part of HQ Company, moved into Buchet and occupied a small four room two story schoolhouse on the southern edge of the village. In the days before the 16th, the platoon manned two observation posts and conducted sporadic patrolling toward the German lines. These patrols were among the first to report sounds of German vehicles. On the 16th, the platoon along with other troops of HQ Company, were moved to the vicinity of Bleialf.

After Bleialf had been secured by the provisional battalion under Lt. Col. Nagle, the headquarters contingent was recalled to Buchet to resume their regular duties in support of Regimental Headquarters. The I&R returned to the schoolhouse as part of the security forces for Regimental Headquarters throughout the night of the 16th.

DECEMBER 17.

Along about 1200 on the 17th, Ike came back from S-2 at headquarters and reported that Col. Cavender had requested an airdrop of food, ammunition and medical supplies be made in a field in the vicinity of Halenfeld. He was assured that this would happen the following day. He was also told that an armored column would be attacking from St. Vith to relieve the regiment. These two events never occurred. The platoon got in their jeeps and moved to the outskirts of Buchet to take up their assigned position as rear guard for the company that was beginning their move to Oberlaschied. Headquarters started their move about 1600, but by that time, the Colonel had decided the I&R should stay in Buchet for the night, as a security platoon. Back we went to the schoolhouse and, after scrounging around in the village, found enough food to have some sort of an evening meal.

DECEMBER 18.

The I&R posted sentries around the schoolhouse and, throughout the night, kept in touch with the small security force that had been left in Buchet proper after the headquarters started their move to Oberlascheid. We struggled out of our sacks at dawn. Packs, weapons and ammunition were checked and our barracks bags were stacked in the command post on the first floor. In the meantime, Ike had taken off for headquarters to find out what the situation was. Our combat packs, usually carried in the jeeps, had the bare minimum for survival for a couple of days. They contained a blanket, a change of socks and underwear, what food we could locate - an occasional K ration or extra chocolate bar - a small first aid kit and any extra ammunition we could pack in. Our weapons consisted of M-1 rifles or .30 caliber carbines, two jeep mounted .50 caliber machine guns, and two .45 caliber "grease guns". Overcoats were packed in the barracks bags - they were too cumbersome for fighting. We had not yet been issued overshoes.

By the time Ike returned, we had all the jeeps loaded and ready for whatever we had to do. The I&R was to fall in as rear guard at the end of the regiment to protect against any German attacks from the rear. We found the end of the column about three quarters of a mile outside Buchet on the road to Halenfeld. We could hear that the fighting had intensified over near Skyline Drive and the column had ground to a halt. We were told to hold our position and be alert for any enemy movements in our rear. And hold we did — for five or six hours. During our wait, Hank Iverson had found an abandoned 2 ½ ton truck and, taking three of the fellows with him, went back to the schoolhouse and loaded up all our barracks bags rejoining us a short time later. We had hated to leave all our possessions and were bound and determined to get them out if we could. Some of the second squad also went back into Buchet to check out the headquarters buildings for any classified material that might have been overlooked when they moved out. They found quite a lot of papers laying around and, to be safe, had quite a bonfire. Late in the afternoon, the convoy got moving again.

The 1st Battalion had been nearly wiped out with the exception of A Company that was serving as their rear guard. Lt. Col. Nagle came to Ike about this time and told him to have the platoon establish a roadblock at the crossroads south of Radscheid. Half of our little force was to hold the roadblock at all costs and the other half were to occupy a hill overlooking the Ihren valley. The 1st squad, in charge of the roadblock, had a backbreaking job during most of the night. We succeeded in felling one tree across the road using a rusty hatchet we found in an abandoned truck and one or two entrenching tools from our jeeps. We would work two or three at a time while the others kept watch at our rear. During the night, the fighting continued, more intense than before. Ike, trying to keep in touch with headquarters, found that Col. Cavender had moved the headquarters contingent to 3rd Battalion CP on a hill overlooking Schönberg. Ammunition was extremely scarce, food and medical supplies had run out and the regiment was only at about fifty percent of full strength.

Considering what the line companies were going through, the I&R were comparatively lucky. The Germans had not tried to come down our way and had not, obviously, spotted our positions so we received no artillery fire. Toward daybreak, spelling each other, we were able to get a few winks of sleep.

DECEMBER 19.

As dawn arose, the squad holding the hill overlooking the Ihren valley, were relieved by remnants of Fox company of the 422nd, who had somehow wandered out of their assigned area in all the confusion. The squad returned to the roadblock and reinforced our small group that had been there throughout the night. The weather continued snowy and foggy, the fighting continued in the valley to our west and it was evident that the troops were being severely battered. Shortly, we moved our jeeps and the 2 ½ down the hill a few yards and lined them up on a small dirt road within sight of the fighting, all the while maintaining the roadblock at the crossroads. In an attempt to establish communications with Division, Ike sent two of the radio jeeps up onto Skyline Drive to try to get a message through to Division.

Skyline Drive was under direct observation by the Germans and was zeroed in by mortar and .88 fire. One at a time the jeeps would go down the road for a few yards and stop to try to key the message on the radios. Usually the message could not be completed before shells started dropping around the jeeps. Then it was down the road for a few more yards and try again. After a couple of passes back and forth, it became impossible to make any more attempts. Both jeeps came back to the platoon position with holes in the back of the radios and one of the drivers had a nice dent in his helmet from shrapnel. We assumed that the message never got through. Meanwhile, Ike had headed out to find Regimental headquarters to see what the situation was. From our semi-concealed positions on the road, with the valley on our left and a hill and tree line on our right, we saw, at about 1000 yards, a group of American soldiers of about company strength under a white flag of surrender. So far the I&R had not been spotted in our position on the hillside and we had not been fired upon. Ike returned about 1200 and said Col. Cavender had indicated that he would be surrendering the Regiment to the Germans at 1600 and that any troops who wished, had permission to take off and try to work their way back to American lines. There was no question of what the I&R would do.

As we started to move the jeeps and the 2 ½ further along the road, a barrage of .88’s landed all around us. We had been spotted. We hit the ditches, and, between shell bursts, we’d pop up and grab any ammunition we could, fired rounds into the radios, threw grenades under the hoods of the jeeps and took off over the crest of the hill to our right. The last thing we did was to throw an incendiary grenade into the back of the 2 ½ and, from the top of the hill, looked back and saw the truck and all our personal belongings enveloped in flames and black smoke. After reaching the crest of the hill, we proceeded rapidly eastward across Skyline Drive, skirted Oberlascheid, then across open fields for about a mile, crossing a small stream on the way. We assembled in some heavy woods at the top of a small hill and stopped to rest and get organized. We had escaped the .88’s with just the clothes on our backs -field jackets - no overcoats or overshoes. We were in good shape as far as ammunition was concerned since everyone had grabbed all he could carry from the jeeps. All cartridge belts were full. Sparks, who was carrying a "grease gun" had about ten magazines stuck in the pockets of his field jacket . Mowery, who had the other one, had a similar amount. "Irish" Sheehan, in his inimitable fashion, had removed his gas mask and had stuffed the carrier with a dozen or so K ration bars, our only source of food. As we rested, Ike and Casey went back to Oberlascheid to reconnoiter and soon called us down to the village.

Assembled there were about 150 - 200 American GIs, the remnants of various units, under the command of Major Helms, Regimental G-3. In the bunch, was a Lt. who had his jeep loaded with all his Officer’s gear and other booty that he was bound and determined to get out. It took a direct order to get him to abandon his precious possessions. Capt. Nauman was there with what was left of the men from A Company, and also Lt. McKinley with men from A & P Platoon plus a few other stragglers. What a motley looking crew we were - dirty, wet, tired - with some that only could be classified as walking wounded. Major Helms insisted that we try and mount an attack on Schönberg. Ike tried his best to convince him the it would be far better to abandon the few vehicles and try to infiltrate through the German lines back to St. Vith. The major would have none of this and ordered the I&R, along with Nauman and McKinley’s groups, to fall in as rear guard for the attack. The column had no sooner started out than .88’s started to hammer the column.

The I&R and the other two groups in the rear, dropped down into a small ravine and made their way into a patch of woods out of sight of the enemy. Here we reorganized with Capt.. Nauman and A company in a column on the right, and the I&R and McKinley’s group on the left. Ike designated Sam Bordelon as lead scout because of his knowledge of French. Ozzie Spier, who spoke fluent German, was to follow Sam. Bill Morris’ 1st squad was next in line, with Sparks and his "grease gun" near the head of the column to provide covering fire if necessary. Bob Jones and the 2nd squad followed, with Mowery near the end providing for the same covering fire to the rear. Irish took up position as rear scout. Ike and Casey moved along the column to where ever they were needed. Thus, in that single file fashion, the I&R started their little hike. We moved out in a easterly direction into a patch of woods to get out of sight of the enemy. Directly in front of us, we saw a small German village, probably Schlausenbach. For some reason, Capt.. Nauman and A Company immediately took off to attack the village that seemed to be swarming with Germans. Knowing that to try and to help A Company would be futile, Long and McKinley’s groups made a hard swing to the northwest away from the village and pulled up to the edge of the patch of woods. [Sam Bordelon] -

"As I went to the edge of the woods to reconnoiter, I saw a farmhouse across a field and about a quarter of a mile away. Standing outside the house was an elderly German couple talking to two German soldiers. Our only recourse was to go ahead since, obviously the Germans were coming right behind us and we had nowhere to go. I started across the field thinking any moment I would hear the clatter of machine guns from the farmhouse. Immediately the German couple went into the house and the two soldiers ran around the back. I kept going. When I finally reached the house there was no one there. I motioned for the men to come forward and join me at the house."

By this time it was probably about 1600 and growing dusk, making visibility in the fog even more impossible. We could hear German vehicles in the distance, and coming soon to the main highway from Auw, we cautiously crossed it one by one before the Germans came into sight. In the ever increasing darkness, we could see, off to our left, another small village, probably Laudesfeld. We had no intention of blundering into the village in the dark. This territory was too busy for us to hang around in. We were next to a fast flowing stream and in we went as quietly as we could, wading across it in water up to our waists, ultimately gaining the woods on the other side. The shock of the cold water was almost enough to do us in, but we continued moving in the woods parallel to the stream until we had passed the village on the other side. We could clearly hear German voices. We moved on about a quarter of a mile, to the top of a nearby hill, where Ike called a halt. We were in bad shape. We could go no further without rest.

Looking to our right, we could see the glow of the German fires 800 to 1000 yards away. Hoping that the Germans would mistake us for some of their troops, Ike gave us the OK to scoop out three or four pits about a foot deep in the frozen ground and start small fires so we could try to dry out. As the fires were lit, we huddled around them trying to hide them from the German view. We melted snow in our canteen cups, shaved some of the K ration bars into the water with our trench knives and got a little warm liquid in our bellies. The small fires didn’t do much to warm us up. We didn’t dare build them up too much for fear we would be seen. We huddled together in small groups hoping the shared body heat would allow us to rest. A couple of the fellows took off their boots to try to rub warmth into their feet but found they could barely get them back on. Their feet were too badly swollen. One of the guys had managed to grab a blanket when we left our jeeps, and we cut it up in strips to wrap around our hands. And so we sat, leaning against the tops of trees knocked off by artillery fire, and tried to rest for a few hours. Our minds were foggy with fatigue. Our only thoughts were of survival.

DECEMBER 20.

At about 0300, we painfully got on our feet again and started moving out. To rest any more would be dangerous, not only because of the presence of the Germans, but because our physical condition was deteriorating more all the time. If we didn’t get our blood circulating, the continued below freezing weather would seriously impede our ability to move. We proceeded north for about half a mile until we saw a road ahead of us at the bottom of the hill. Sounds of tanks and trucks indicated this was a main road for the German advance. We veered west, parallel to the road, along the forward slope of the hill that was covered with scrub growth, looking for a place that would be safe to cross the road. The fog still hung over the area and helped shield us from any German eyes that might be on the lookout. The road below us made a sharp bend to the south following the contours of the hill . At the bend, we could see the lights of another small town, probably Andler.

Another 500 yards beyond the bend, we stopped while Sam Bordelon went forward to scout out the chances of crossing the road at that point. At the road, Sam came upon a Belgian civilian walking down the road away from the village. Sam questioned him in French and was told that there was a heavy concentration of Germans in the village and that we should try to cross the road and get into the woods on the other side. It was getting on toward 0600 and dawn would soon be upon us. The platoon joined Sam at the edge of the road, crossed a barbed wire fence and crawled into a ditch along side the road. No sooner had we gained the ditch than a convoy of German tanks and trucks started to leave the village and come down the road toward us. Since it was dark they were traveling under blackout conditions with only small slits of light showing as headlights. They were spaced about twenty five to thirty five yards apart and moving at a fairly slow pace. After the first tank passed, Irish dashed across the road and dove into the ditch on the far side. A swift flowing stream ran parallel to the road a few yards from the ditch and Irish discovered a log, eight to ten inches in diameter had been felled across the stream to form a crude bridge. As each tank passed, Casey would send another man across the road and into the ditch to join Irish. One by one, we ran the gauntlet between vehicles with the last three men making a dash all at the same time.

As the platoon was crossing the road, those that were first across were tightroping the log and hitting the ground at the far side of the stream. As the last man crossed the stream and dawn was beginning to break, we looked back toward the road and saw a number of German troops coming down the road and along the bank of the stream. We had probably made some noise in our crossing and they were out looking for some "ghost men." We immediately got to our feet and ran the few yards to the dense woods and made our way quickly to the top of a very steep hill. The Germans came down the stream, going as far as the edge of the woods and then gave up the search. Lt. McKinley’s group had crossed the stream slightly below us and we could hear them coming through the woods on our left. They were making too much noise to suit us and two or three men went back to quiet them down. Most of the bunch had not been trained in patrolling as we had and didn’t appreciate the need for absolute silence. The exception was their 1st scout, a corporal by the name of Willard Roper from F Company.

The group immediately took off in slightly different direction. [John Califf] - "Towards morning, Sparks and myself became separated from the I&R and found ourselves with McKinley’s group. Finally we had to stop for a few hours rest. As it began to get light, we could hear Germans talking all around us. Luckily they moved off and so did we. We traveled all day in the woods at top speed for we knew that if we didn’t reach our lines, the German advance would completely engulf us. We could hear artillery barrages all around us. Once, while in the woods, we thought we heard American 2 ½ ton trucks on a road nearby. They were 2 ½ all right but loaded with German SS troops followed by tanks, assault guns etc. We had to drop quickly and I happened to be on the edge of the woods. One German with a machine pistol came up to within 10 yards of me, but apparently thought I was dead due to the battered helmet I had on." Meanwhile, the I&R also decided that it would be best to travel during daylight hours. There was obviously a lot of German activity around and, by the sound of the artillery bombardments, the front lines couldn’t be too far away. To wait for nightfall would be too risky. Jim Mowery’s feet were in very bad condition and he was having a hard time keeping up with his load of "grease gun" ammunition. Bob Jones, sensing this, moved him forward in the formation. Irish swapped his rifle for Mowery’s "grease gun" and ammunition and moved to the front of the column to take over Sparks place when he and Califf became separated from the group.

The forest, in this section, was very dense and since it was so hard to see, Sam and Irish ranged out ahead for greater distances than usual while the platoon waited for the signal to move ahead. After an hour or two, they came to the edge of the woods bordering a broad valley, about 200 yards wide, A small road ran down the middle and it looked like it had been used to recently move vehicles. While Sam cautiously went down the hill, crossed the road and continued to the tree line on the opposite hill, the rest of the platoon came up to join Irish on the near side. On Sam’s signal that all seemed clear, the platoon moved out and crossed the valley without incident. Irish waited until the last man was over and then started down the hill himself. [Irish Sheehan] - "As I started down the hill and across the valley itself, the pack of "grease gun" ammunition on my back kept bouncing up and down and eventually knocked me face first into the mud. Just as I started to get up, a German tank came around the bend. I could see the machine gun turret swinging toward me. Just as that happened, an artillery shell landed on the hill we had just left. The German tank closed down and backed down out of the way. I got up and made my way across the valley and joined the rest of the guys at the tree line.

The artillery kept falling on the opposite hill, and we decided it was time we got going and head for St. Vith." Again Sam and Irish ranged out ahead of the platoon to scout out the territory. As they approached a small foot path in the woods, Sam spotted what looked like a Belgian civilian coming down the path. [Sam Bordelon] - "Irish and I hid behind some trees bordering the footpath the Belgian was using. As he came closer, I stepped behind a tree and spoke to him in French. I told him who we were and what our problem was. This was risky because some of the Belgians near the German border, were pro-German. He told us we were in the midst of a group of Panzer divisions and even gave us the names of those divisions. He also knew the name of the General of one of them. ... As we left the Belgian and started back to the platoon, we heard vehicles approaching through the forest along a small dirt road. We dropped behind some bushes about fifty yards from the road and along came two touring cars, the open convertibles that German officers liked to ride in. For some reason, they always loved to ride standing up holding on to the windshield. In the first vehicle, was a tall German officer, probably in his forties. I could easily have picked him off at that distance but decided to leave well enough alone. He drove on by.

Later on, after the war, I recognized his picture from a newspaper photo. He was the Commanding General of the Panzer division the Belgian told us about." By this time, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 1300. The platoon continued to head in a westward direction and, after about an hour, again heard more vehicular traffic nearby. Cautiously, they moved up to the edge of the trees, a short distance from the road, to observe. To the left, the road made a swing to the south about fifty yards from where the platoon was hiding. The traffic was moving to the north, left to right, with two or three vehicles of various types in a group and a spacing between groups of about 100 yards. Other tank noises could be heard to the rear and it was evident that the platoon had to get across the road or get trapped. So, using the technique of the night before, they would wait until one group had passed. Even though they were not completely out of sight, two or three of the guys would tear across the road and into the trees before the next group could nose around the bend to the left. Everyone got across. No one was seen, even though it was broad daylight.

Moving on again west, following the noise of the buzz bombs that were constantly flying overhead toward Liege, one of the men heard the sound of foot soldiers in the woods off to the left. Everyone hit the ground. It was McKinley’s group led by Will Roper, that emerged from the trees. Califf and Sparks were with them. The I&R had not known what had happened to the two of them. As the men rested and the officers and non-coms were talking things over, Sam had found a patch of short evergreens roughly fifty yards square. They formed a dense thicket and the lower branches came to within eighteen inches of the ground. Since it was then about 1600 and the activity around was intensifying, it was decided to crawl under these trees and rest until dark before trying to proceed any further. [Dick Sparks] - "Both McKinley’s group and the I&R moved in under the trees leaving as little evidence as possible that we were there. Roper and I moved up to the edge of the northern boundary so we could observe any activity coming from that direction. We were no more than a foot back from the edge and burrowed as deep as we could into the snow. Our weapons were in front of us and we lay with our heads on our arms to try and get a little rest. The rest of the men were spread out throughout the patch of woods, disbursed, but yet close enough to reach out and touch a buddy near them, for this would be our only means of communication. Soon after we had gotten settled, German tanks and troop carriers began to move into the area next to our "home" and proceeded to establish a night bivouac around three sides of the patch of trees.

As we lay there, a detail walked up the side of the woods where Roper and I were laying and dug a latrine just beyond the boundaries of our woods patch. Throughout the gathering dusk, German officers in two’s and three’s strolled down this path, deep in conversation. They were close enough that I could have easily reached out and tripped them up. Luckily, they never looked down and we were not spotted. As darkness began to arrive, a couple of the guys fell asleep and one even began to lightly snore. A sharp jab in the ribs soon put a stop to this. After about four hours of lying virtually motionless, the German encampment seemed to be settling down for the night. I soon felt a tug on my boot, indicating that we were pulling out to the rear away from the main encampment.

As I started to slide back, I found that my right arm, which had been holding the "grease gun", had fallen fast asleep and was completely numb. I couldn’t have squeezed the trigger if I had to. Roper and I were the last ones to slide out from under the trees and were starting to quietly follow the other men as they headed west, when, all of a sudden, we heard a loud HALT! We had almost literally stumbled into a German outpost manned by a single sentry. Roper quickly jumped into the fox hole, hitting the sentry in the face with his carbine and proceeded to choke him to death. I knelt down beside the fox hole ready to lay down a field of fire if any Germans should appear. The noise of the challenge and subsequent activity alerted both the Germans and our group up ahead, and we all took off, running as fast as we could through the dense, black woods. We could hear the Germans mounting a search, shouting at the top of their lungs and crashing through the underbrush in pursuit. Thank God the Germans were afraid of night fighting and made a lot of noise shouting orders back and forth as they searched.

Our group, because of their training, moved more quietly and as rapidly as possible for a half mile or so and, surprisingly, found each other. We formed a defensive perimeter and stayed low for about a half hour until we could hear the German troops moving back to their bivouac area." Ike and Casey called the men together. McKinley’s group had taken off in a different direction. We took a head count and found that Ozzie Spier and Bob Brendlinger were not with us. We waited a few more minutes and then moved out in our usual formation with Sam and Irish out in front. [Irish Sheehan] - "Sam and I were out in front scouting our way through, working about ten yards from each other, when, all of a sudden I stumbled right into a German machine gun nest. The two men manning the machine gun were as startled as I was. I stood with my "grease gun" pointing at them and they were looking at me with their machine gun pointing at me. I let out a discreet yell for Sam and he quickly came over. He spoke to them in French. He told them we were a heavy combat patrol returning to St. Vith. He told them to move away from their gun, and amazingly they did. They were just kids, younger than I was. Sam went back and got the platoon while I stood guard. The platoon came forward, passed the machine gun nest and headed on to St. Vith.

As Sam and I got ready to move out, one of the German kids said,"Look out for the mines," and told us where we might find them." It was near midnight by this time and we were about on our last legs. We could hear the distinctive sound of German .88’s firing from our left rear, and the answering fire from American artillery from our right front. We were caught in the middle. Nobody knew we were out there and we realized that the most dangerous part would be getting back into American lines. We soon came to a major secondary road. Sam started to scout it out in a southwesterly direction, when we heard him challenged by a loud HALT! That word sounded the same in both German and English and we didn’t know what we had run into. We froze, and when Sam didn’t return in a reasonable amount of time, we took off along the edge of the woods in a more westerly direction. Ike took over the point. We were at the edge of a large, fairly level plain that stretched as far as we could see in a southwesterly direction.

The ever present fog obliterated any landmarks and our only guidance were the flashes of the American artillery in the distance. A few hundred yards along the edge of the woods, we came to a slight depression that seemed to bisect the vast expanse ahead of us. Ike decided that this would provide us with some minimal cover and, single file we headed down it. Hank Iverson, who was about the fifth or sixth man in line, suddenly stopped. His boot had nudged a trip wire. Reaching down and carefully exploring it with his fingers, he cut it with his radio pliers. No sooner had we moved on again than the night was suddenly lit up with the brilliance of star shells that turned the night into day. As we had been trained, we froze in place until they had burned themselves out in two or three minutes. In the bright light, however, we could see what looked like some sort of object on the horizon at the far edge of the plain. Not knowing what it was, Ike told us all to get down as low as we could and wait for him to scout it out. As he moved nearer to the far edge of the plain, he thought he heard sounds of some kind of movement. Taking a big risk, he stood up at full height and yelled, "Ya, Ya!" - or "Ja, Ja!" - since both sounded the same and would serve to call attention to him. What a wonderful sound it was when an American voice asked him for the password.

Of course he had no idea what the password was and so he waited, spouting English phrases, until a squad of men came and "captured" him and took him to a Lt. who was manning a dug-in tank with his squad of men. It took him quite awhile to convince them who he was and that those of us, still out in the ditch, were American soldiers. He, of course, wasn’t aware that Germans dressed in American uniforms, had infiltrated the American lines the past few days. After convincing them, he signaled for us to come up to his location. As we moved up along side the tank, we passed through a gauntlet of GIs, standing with weapons pointed at us, still not quite sure that we weren’t the enemy.

It was 0200, December 21, 1944. The Lt. radioed back to his battalion command post and asked that a truck be sent to take us back to the CP. While we were waiting for the truck to arrive, the Lt. told us that it seemed impossible that we had come across that plain without setting off a mine or trip flare. During the past two days, the plain had been solidly mined with anti-personnel mines leaving only one path open for purposes of counterattack. Orders had come down in the early evening that, if any mine or trip wire was kicked off, the battalion was to fire all it’s weapons at that spot. We had hit that one path. We knew that someone "up there" had been watching out for us. The truck soon arrived and deposited us at the CP of one of the 7th Armored Battalions which was located in a house on the edge of St. Vith. We almost literally collapsed on the floor. Most could barely hobble and some fingers were turning white at the tips. While Ike and the non-coms were being debriefed, the rest of us were given part of a K ration and immediately fell asleep in whatever space we could find. We were home again!

DECEMBER 21.

At daybreak, we again were put in a truck and moved to a large schoolhouse in the middle of St. Vith known as "St. Joseph Kloster." This building had become the headquarters of the defenders of St. Vith, under the command of Brigadier General Bruce Clarke, Commander of Combat Command B, 7th Armored Division. We had expected to find the 106th Division Headquarters there, but were told that they had moved back to Vielsalm on the evening of the 18th. But we did find McKinley’s group who had come into the American lines within a couple of hours of our arrival. And, also to our delight, we found Sam Bordelon, Ozzie Spier and Bob Brendlinger.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

After Sam had been challenged back at the woods road, he was taken to a tank stationed in the woods. He, too, was taken to a unit headquarters and interrogated, having quite a time proving he was not an infiltrating German. After spending the night there, he was taken to the schoolhouse in the morning. Ozzie and Bob, realizing that they were lost from the group, knew they had to make their way to the American lines by themselves. Using their imagination and good old I&R ingenuity, they decided to try to pass as Germans. They turned their helmets around backwards and slung their rifles upside down in order to look more like German troops. Soon after they started out, they came upon a German outpost, and, in the dark and in his fluent German, Ozzie, in a very convincing Prussian manner, told the sentries that they were spies ordered to get behind American lines, that he outranked them, and they were to let them pass.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

We were taken inside the schoolhouse while the officers were debriefed. This was the first concrete evidence known to the higher echelons, that the 422nd and 423rd had surrendered. As we stepped back outside the schoolhouse, we were met by reporters and photographers from Pathe News, Fox News and an assortment of still photographers. We were heroes that day - one of the greatest stories to come out of the Bulge to date. But soon there was Bastogne!!! Of course we were in bad physical shape. Any of us could have passed as Bill Mauldin’s "Willie" of cartoon fame. We were sent to the field hospital nearby, which had not been evacuated, and the medics tried their best to help us out. They arranged for us to be fed, and given new boots and clothing if they were available. There weren’t enough to go around and the fellows in the worst need got them. At least there were enough dry socks and everyone was happy to get them.

As we pulled our wet ones off, a couple of guys found that the skin was coming off with the socks. Everyone had a good start at frostbite or frozen feet. The medical supplies were limited and about the best that could be done was to sprinkle sulfa powder on the worst cases and give the rest of us some foot powder or salve to use. We didn’t spend a lot of time at the medics. More serious casualties continued to stream in and they took priority. At least we were still on our feet, even though some were barely able to walk. By this time, it was approaching 1200 and we were told to go up to the third floor of the schoolhouse and get some sleep. We knew we would be needed to fight again before the day was out. At about 1500, "screaming meemies" and .88’s started hitting the schoolhouse. We tried as best as we could to scramble into our boots and rushed to the basement, half dressed and lugging our gear with us. Soon the shelling let up somewhat, and we tried the third floor again, only to have the same thing happen. We stayed in the basement after that. Around 1600, we were told to go to the basement of a building down the street, where a kitchen had been set up, to get a hot meal.

It was decided that McKinley’s group would go first and, when they were finished, the I&R would follow. The shelling was intense, and we ducked between shell bursts and in and out of doorways on our way to the hot meal. Again, surprisingly, no one was hit. The hot meal consisted of beans and franks, garnished over with, of all things, canned fruit salad. But it sure tasted good.While we were eating, word came down that the Germans had broken through the defenses outside the town and were starting to come down the streets toward the main square at it’s center. McKinley’s group, who had finished their meal, were immediately ordered out into the streets and sent down to meet the enemy. Before we had a chance to finish our meal, the I&R were called out and deployed around the main square. There we found four or five tanks and a tank destroyer assembled and, one by one they were sent out in different directions on streets emanating from the square. Ike made a deal with a tank commander that if he would provide protection from German tanks, we would keep the German infantry off his tanks.

Soon, it was reported that a German Tiger tank was seen coming down a street heading for the square. The lone tank destroyer left in the square, was sent out to stop it. Jones’ second squad was positioned on the right side to protect it from accompanying infantry. They had barely gone a hundred yards, when the Tiger was spotted about a hundred yards away. The TD stopped and fired first, but only by a split second. The TD shell, luckily made a hit on one of the tracks on the Tiger, making it impossible for it to proceed any further. The shell from the Tiger hit the TD a glancing blow, scattering shrapnel all around. The resulting concussion of the two near simultaneous shots, almost literally blew Jones’ squad over a hedge between two of the houses. It left most of the guys somewhat deaf for a period of time. Picking themselves up and with Irish in the lead, they hightailed it through back yards, and, in the pitch dark, straight into a chicken coop, each man piling in on top of the man in front of him like a row of dominoes. Finally the squad found their way back to the square and joined the rest of the platoon. As we were crouching in doorways around the square, word came to Ike, at about 2200, that all the other defenders of St. Vith that were able, had left town and would try to form some sort of a defensive line to the west.

That left the I&R as the only organized infantry unit in St. Vith together with a dozen or so stragglers. The tank commander started to move one of his tanks down a side street when, from a second story window, a grenade was lobbed into the open turret. The tank came to a sudden stop. Who threw the grenade? An infiltrator? A German sympathizer? We never knew. Casey crawled up on top of the tank and dropped down inside. All he found were dead bodies. After he crawled out, the remaining three tanks, with the I&R along side, proceeded cautiously down another street that led to the northwest. When we got to the edge of the town, the tanks and the I&R took off in the midst of a murderous cross fire coming from either side of the road - a cross fire marked by machine guns firing red tracers, scaring the living hell out us. Luckily the Germans were firing too high and the tracers criss-crossed safely a few feet above our heads.

At the top of a small hill about a mile to the west of town, we pulled off the road. The tanks took up position at the edge of a small patch of woods. The I&R moved down the forward slope of the hill a few yards, spread out and dug in as best we could. Ike, Casey, Morris and Jones went up and down our meager lines all night long making sure we were awake. The temperature had dropped significantly during the evening and it was snowing hard. We expected a German attack at any time. Why they didn’t come after us, we never could figure out. They didn’t do us in, but the weather almost accomplished the same purpose. We never knew "hell" could be so cold! St. Vith was in German hands that night. We had accompanied the last three tanks out on the last road that was barely open - the last troops to leave St. Vith. And yet, the unit was still intact! We lost no one! We were still the I&R!

DECEMBER 22.

The sound of American tanks moving in the patch of woods to our rear in the early hours before dawn, alerted us that something was up. We found that all the tanks that had left St. Vith with us, had been ordered to pull out and move to the rear. Those in charge of the tanks obviously never thought to let us know - we who were supposed to be their supporting infantry. When Ike made contact, he was ordered to enlist us as rear guard for the retreating tanks. In no uncertain terms, he told them where to go and, from now on we would fend, once again, for ourselves.

St Vith 21 December 44, Sheehan, Bordelon, Long

We crawled wearily out of our makeshift foxholes and gathered together in the edge of the woods. Some of the guys had to be supported as they tried to stand, and to a man, walking was painful. Our legs had stiffened up over night and our near frozen feet had become more swollen as we crouched in our defensive positions.

As we approached the edge of the woods about 1000 yards away, the sky began to lighten somewhat and we could see open fields ahead of us and hear intense fighting in almost all directions with the heaviest concentration to our northwest around a small town, probably Sart-lez-St.Vith.

Taking advantage of scrub growth and the ever present fog, we made our way further southwest passing to the north of what we believed to be Crombach, then over country lanes heading northwest, skirting Hinderhausen to the east, and finally making the St. Vith-Vielsalm road a couple of miles west of Poteau. By now it was about 1000 hours. It was almost unbelievable the amount of traffic on that small two lane road. Tanks and trucks carrying the men that were pulled back from the St.Vith perimeter were lining the sides of the road all heading west. Trying to head east down the center of the road, were the tanks and men of the 7th Armored moving up to fight the Germans surrounding St. Vith. Even in our pitiful condition, we knew we could make better time walking, so down the road we went, cheering the advancing troops as best we could. As we approached what was probably Poteau, we crossed a small bridge and came to a scattering of farm houses at the edge of the village. As we were leaving the village, we ran into some artillerymen and piled into their trucks. We were again with American troops. Between 1800 and 1900 that night we finally pulled into Vielsalm.

Much to our disgust, we found that division had again moved back another fifteen miles to a small town of Ferrieres. There were one or two liaison officers from the 106th in Vielsalm and they arranged for us to be put up in some Belgian army barracks in the town. We were given some warmed up beans to eat and some warm water so we could scrape off some of the dirt and grime we had accumulated over the past few days. There were cots and blankets and we were soon dead to the world, feeling that maybe we had outrun the Germans at last - after all we were at least twelve miles back of St. Vith.

DECEMBER 23

Near 0200, we were suddenly awakened and told to again get into the trucks of a convoy heading west. The German forces were approaching the outskirts of the town. When could we ever get a rest? We spent a good share of that day getting to Ferrieres and when we arrived in mid afternoon, we finally caught up with division headquarters. We found some of the guys from the company there - only a few. Eddie Shannon from the I&R first spotted us. He had been sent back on an errand to division on the 16th. Charlie Sartori, a staff driver was there, along with Herb Heidepriem and Eliot Annable from the Communications Platoon, who had separately made their way back through the lines, Joe Curtis, Company Clerk, and Sgt. Maj. Dave Givens. The rest of the men from the company were either presumed Missing in Action or Prisoners of War.

All told, only about sixty men from the 423rd were accounted for out of the full regiment of three thousand. After hot coffee and donuts courtesy of the Red Cross, we were assigned to a little convent at the edge of town run by two Catholic Sisters. They couldn’t have been more caring. They turned the large schoolroom over to us, started a fire in the pot bellied stove, and helped us bring in some straw to put under the blankets that we had been given. We hung our few grenades, our cartridge belts and other gear, in the hallway on pegs meant for children’s coats and caps. We were told to get settled in and then, as the first order of business, disassemble and clean our weapons. After our experiences of the past couple of days, it seemed like the smart thing to do.

RECONSTITUED I&R CADRE - MARCH 1945. RENNES - France Back I/r - Shannon, Sparks, Hirst, Spier, Sartori Front I/r Slaby, Casenhiser, Jones, Zorovich

During that afternoon, in a tragic accident, Bill Morris was killed and Felix Hendrickson was wound. Why did this have to happen after all we had gone through? We had no real answer. One of the division Chaplains tried to help. "Bill has served his purpose on this earth," he said. "God needs him now more than you do."

DECEMBER 24.

At first dawn we heard the sound of planes and, at the same time, a brilliant sun came up over the hills, shining on a day with no snow or fog. Soon the sky was filled to the horizon with planes of every description - B-17s, B-24s, P-38s. We could hear bombs dropping on the German positions in the distance and the clatter of machine guns as the fighters strafed the German columns. A few German Luftwaffe were in the air and we watched numerous dog fights as our fighters took them on. Some of our planes were hit by anti-aircraft fire and small specks, with parachutes above them, floated to the ground. What a sight it was. During the day we visited the medics, were issued new clothing and, for the first time in days, had three hot meals. Most welcome of all, we were able to take quick showers. That day, we were told that we were now attached as an excess platoon to the 424th. We would be together. That evening there was a Christmas Eve service outdoors under a starry sky. We felt secure.

DECEMBER 25 - 31.

We joined the 424th Regimental Headquarters Company at the small crossroads town of Harre, about three miles from Manhay, where the line companies were fighting. We were an excess platoon - no one seemed to know what to do with us - and for the next few days, our duties consisted mostly of guard duty with occasionally one or two men designated as messengers or liaison with the various commands of the regiment. We were billeted in the homes of Belgian civilians, two or three to a billet, and had a chance to rest up. We continued to hear rumors that we would soon be broken up as a unit and assigned to various commands of the 424th. Ike spent a lot of his time trying to find reasons for us to stay together and defined all sorts of missions we could perform as a platoon. Yet the rumors persisted.

On about December 30, 1944, the 424th was pulled back to reorganize and we found ourselves in the small town of Ohey, some ten miles west of Ferrieres. As usual, we were on our own, and soon located a large two storied barn where we set up headquarters for the platoon. Rather than depend on the company kitchen, we proceeded to scrounge our food from a wide variety of sources and came up with a few K rations and a couple of cans of grapefruit juice. We also quickly made friends with the family in the nearby farm house and, with the basics we had "requisitioned" from company supplies, they kept us supplied with delicious Belgian waffles. The next night was New Year’s Eve, and Ike determined that we just had to have a typical I&R party to celebrate. But our eating and drinking supplies were meager - no fit fare for the I&R. So he called on Irish and set out to find suitable supplies.

[Irish Sheehan]

- "We went out and walked about a mile down the road to a supply depot. We went in and Ike requested two cases of C rations from the Corporal in charge. The Corporal told us he couldn’t give us any C rations, or any other supplies, without a requisition form. Ike slapped his carbine down on the counter pointing at the Corporal and said, ‘This is my requisition form!’ The C rations miraculously appeared. Then, as an afterthought, Ike said, ‘And where is my officer’s liquor ration?’ -and suddenly he had two bottles of gin."

What a party it was - maybe not quite as sophisticated as some in the past, but surely in the spirit of the I&R. We had C rations, Belgian waffles with jam and jelly that we had been hoarding from our ration packages, some cheese, and grapefruit juice liberally spiked with Ike’s gin. And then Ike broke the news. He told us that the next day we were to receive our individual assignments to units of the 424th. We could no longer stay together as a unit -a big, but not unexpected disappointment. The next morning, January 1, 1945, we moved to Louveigne and into a chateau a few miles southeast of Liege, right in the middle of "Buzz Bomb Alley." Ike brought us our assignments that afternoon and told us we would be dispersed the next morning. The majority of the guys were assigned to 1st Battalion. Ike was made Battalion S-2 and Casey went with him.

Most of the others were sent to 1st Battalion Headquarters and Company A where many were quickly made squad leaders. Bob Waddail was assigned to the 2nd Battalion. Dick Sparks and Bob Jones found homes in 3rd Battalion Headquarters. During the fighting around Coulee, Irish Sheehan, Johnny Johnson and Johnny Califf were wounded and sent back to the states. Hank Iverson received a battlefield commission in that same campaign. In the morning came the "good-byes" and "good lucks" and "see you in the States." The I&R saga had ended - the I&R as we knew it.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

On April 6, 1945 the Division was moved back to Rennes on the Brittany Peninsula. On April 15, in a very solemn ceremony on the airstrip, the 422nd and 423rd Regiments were formally reconstituted. The sixty or so of us from the 423rd were lined up, almost in single file on one side of the runway facing the newly arrived replacements at full regimental strength on the other side. On command, we marched across the runway carrying our company guidons and the regimental flag, thus formally inducting the men into the new outfit. The I&R had the greatest number in line and were the cadre for the "new" I&R. After the war had ended, because of their fighting in St. Vith with the 7th Armored on December 20-21, the platoon was deemed entitled to wear, on an individual basis, the Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the 7th Armored. All members of the platoon have now been accounted for.

Of the original twenty four that left the states together, seven are deceased. Fourteen of the remaining seventeen attended the 106th Reunion at Columbia in 1993. We are constantly in touch with each other and the spirit of the "old days" is still with us.

423rd I&R Platoon Members at the 1993 COLUMBIA, S.C. REUNION

Back I/r - Califf, Prater, Johnson, Slaby, Brendlinger, Zicker, Shoffit

 Front I/r - Sparks, Casenhiser, Jones, Sheeban