Attracted to the Battle of the Bulge
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Company "M" suffered horribly in the Hurtgen Forest. I was to experience only a small part of the rest of the fighting; but during which I did pick up two valuable souvenirs. I was rushing through part of the forest during intermittent enemy artillery fire. Trees were splintered, fires everywhere. I passed a knock-out German tank. A kraut was draped over the turret, dead. His upper torso was bent over toward the ground. Out of his pockets dropped a thick aluminium spoon and fork, neatly folded into a soft kit; and of greater value, a German rifle-cleaning kit with everything one needed, again neatly folded into a compact kit. I used them through most of combat. I began to sense immediately that we were a bunch of amateurs fighting a well-organized, well-trained and well-supplied professional army.
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| From the Hurtgen we were sent to rest, recuperate, rearm and receive replacements in the quiet (?) Ardennes sector. By now I was a veteran, and the new replacements looked up to me as the font of combat wisdom--ridiculous, of course. |
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| When we arrived in the Ardennes, we first were positioned as a MG platoon along a ridge facing the Siegfried Line. It was snowing and very cold. The ground was so solidly frozen one could not dig the foxholes and slit trenches we were able to excavate in the Hurtgen. I asked the 1st Sergeant who was emplacing us where I would put my squad. "Right here," he said. (Fortunately, when we had a chance to organize watches, we were able to dig small caves in the rear, eventually equipping them with make-shift fireplaces made from mud-filled Spam cans; so when we were not on duty we could warm ourselves a bit.) |
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| We, heavy weapons men, and I suppose the artillery and other supporting units, began to get comfortable, as much as we could. As miserable as we all were, we felt good compared to the riflemen. Our General, Norman Cota, wanting to keep us alert and fit, used the rifle companies for scouting parties and to knock out an occasional pillbox on the Sigfried Line in front of us. |
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| My gun was part of a section of two. Sergeant McGinnis and I covered a gap in the line between "K" and "L" Company of about 300 yards. With our cross fire, it was supposed that we could trap any breakthrough there. We relieved our gun positions every evening after dusk and before dawn. On the night of December 15, 1944, I was taking the relief up with Sergeant McGinnis. We had got used to the regular gun fire of burp guns, enemy artillery, mortars, etc. Tonight, however, was strangely different. One could still hear an occasional burp gun, but artillery and mortar fire were diminished. Replacing the normal sound of battle was just raucous, solid noise. The Germans had brought up loud speakers and were playing records of just plain, loud noise. In addition to this, our eyes were blinded by several searchlights whose beams were directed directly toward us. |
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After we had put our two replacements at each gun, I told McGinnis to take the other men back to the company as I wanted to scout around. I travelled as far to the left flank as I could to get out of the searchlight beams, took out my binoculars and counted four or five German tanks moving up. I literally ran back to our company area and to the captain's large cave reporting what I had seen.
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| "Well, Sergeant, if you think it's important, call up battalion S-2, and report it." Which I did immediately, cranking the phone set and getting a sergeant almost at once. |
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| "My captain wants me to speak to your officer." "Sir", I reported to the officer when he came to the phone, my captain wants me to report to you what I have just seen." (And so I did) |
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"Hold on Sergeant," S-2 said; then returning he informed me thus, "Sergeant, you have to be mistaken. We have no reports of enemy activity up and down the line." (I have talked to a few sergeants who were in like positions of mine during the 55 years since this event, and some tell me they also reported something of what I did!)
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The next morning, it was Sergeant McGinnis and my turn to man guns. We took up two gunners with us and began our trek to our camouflaged positions, turning off the road to go behind the hedgerows which formed a solid wall to the rear of our guns, and turning right at the cave of an anti-tank gun crew. My M-1 was strapped to my back (I refused to accept a pistol when I was told to trade it for my rifle) as I was carrying a bag of potatoes in one hand and a cup of butter in the other. (IOt was a long day on the gun and we usually read and cooked food, using our K-ration waxed containers as smokeless fuel. We each carried about 8 to 10 K-rations.)
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As we came upon the anti-tank gun crew, I noticed the sentry fast asleep at the entrance. I suggested to McGinnis that we wake him, but he thought they would get mad at us, so we let them all sleep. Almost half-way up the slope to our guns which were midway down the reverse slope, we could barely see through the fog about 10 hunched bodies moving toward us. We stopped dead in our tracks. Our minds not wanting to accept what our eyes were barely seeing.
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"What the hell is that," I asked. Mc Ginnis suggested it was "K" Company's cooks delivering hot rations to fox-holed troops. We stood there contemplating this when suddenly ten more hunched bodies appeared on the left and ten more on the right, coming at us in a semi-circle. (They were hunched over carrying weapons and ammo, not breakfast.)
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"Let's get the hell out of here," I shouted. Needless to say, the other three men were already acting before the words were out of my mouth. The two gunners ran wide, escaping the hedgerow so they could warn the company; McGinnis and I ran straight backwards to try to alert and save the anti-tank crew. (Our two MG guns, incidentally, had already been silenced by the Germans.)
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| McGinnis arrived first and began firing his pistol. I jumped right on the sleeping sentry, shook him and shouted to wake up hid men. I crawled back out of the entrance, unstrapped my rifle, pushed the safety; but before I fired I saw a German hand grenade silhouetted on top of the earth mound which formed the roof of the cave. |
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Shouting, "Grenade!" I instinctively hit the ground. Too late for McGinnis. The blast blew off my helmet and made me a bit groggy; but the cold and danger restored my alertness immediately. The heinies were charging in with bayonets. Grabbing my helmet and rifle, I made my way to the hedgerow and wiggled my way through using my helmet as a battering ram. Normally, one couldn't get through such a tangle, but I did. My rifle was hopelessly tangled and had to be left there. My great coat was in shreds with all the brass button ripped off. My machine gunner's gloves were in shreds; but I made it to the other side and eventually back to regiment where I and 39 other men were put on a rear guard the next day, stopping a German tank column of 10 tanks and a company of infantry.
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| It may have been fate that I was finally attracted to the Battle of the Bulge; but fate treated me kindly; I survived when so many others did not. There are two things I do not understand to this day: 1) How did I survive without a wound except for frozen toes, and 2) Who the hell gave General Omar Bradley the title of "The Soldiers, General"? This guy, who gladly sacrified so many of us in his "gamble," did not measure up to the likes of MacArthur or Patton, both of whom had the least number of casualties within their various commands. |
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Source: Bulge Bugle May 2001
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S/Sgt Murray SHAPIRO
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"M" Company
3rd Battalion
112th Infantry Regiment
28th Infantry Division
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Campaigns
Battle of the Bulge
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Wednesday, 06 January 2010 19:39 | 
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