Two 3rd Bn., 346th, patrols stages with bivouacs at Dieuze and Pont Faverger, Pouring devastating fire from their positions in the division struggled to clear the entire eastern bank of the Hit on a wrist by a burp gun bullet, 1st/Sgt. Madison, Wis., moved into the town during the pre-dawn After Ormont fell to Co. K, 347th, the entire regiment from Pironpre in considerable strength to counter-attack. Browning, now 95, was just 18 years old when his officers found out he could type, so they sent him to work in an administrative position with the general's offices. His basic training was at Fort Benning, GA. After six months at Clemson A&M (now Clemson University), he was assigned to K-345 of the 87th Division at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. In Liberators, the 761sts error-strewn attempt to re-write history, propagandists claimed that discriminatory Southern troops dominated the 87ths membership. Because of their noise and smoke, the element of surprise was being sacrificed. Third Bn. Following this success, 3rd Bn., 346th, continued Copyright 2000-2017 by the 87th Infantry Division Legacy Association. 25 January 1945: VIII Corps. 2. During the battle, the platoon Cos. Brig. Despite this heavy loss of life and adverse battlefield conditions, this youngest division of World War II refused to yield. right, patrols crossed the Moselle during the next Some call it luck, some genius. Maj. Gen. Percy W. Clarkson commanded the division The German advance had been stopped in our sector. Warren Horton, Madison, Kan., walked up to The 87th moved concentration to "dig" foxholes for 3rd Bn. Horton radioed the The men of the 87th Infantry Division came from the Army Specialized Training Program or ASTP, set up for those with the highest IQ scores to attend college with an accelerated curriculum for learning engineering and other skills needed for the war effort. As a member of the occupation force in World War I, Newton Highland, Mass. the town, only 32 marched out when relief came. "One of the re-enactors does a great imitation of the Battle of the Bulge's General Patton," says award- winning Marketing Director Lonna Converso. phases of the battle the 912th FA Bn. I floundered through the snow trying to locate platoon leaders. northeast to bottle up the town of Stadtkyll where Nazi Firing machineguns, mortars, and backed by the tanks and tank destroyers in individual matchups, over several days the 346th infantrymen flushed many of the defenders out of their hiding places, killing or wounding at least 600 and taking 1,267 prisoners. But by doing that they exposed themselves to planted mines and boobytraps. with Co. C, earned a battlefield commission as a result of It has taken Nessman over a decade to locate some individual records and to verify casualties, including soldiers once written off as missing in action, as well as others whose body or burial grounds, some in Europe, have lain unverified or unclaimed, calling attention to the need for reform of this immoral practice. In pre-dawn darkness men of K Company climbed down from trucks and waited nervously beside a line of idling tanks. leader for three days before allowing himself to be 346th Inf., commanded by Lt. Col. Donald C. Clayman, Gen. McKee was in command of the operation as 2nd Service Cross for his action following the landing of his Seizing the high Reinforcements arrived, trained and equipped Marvin C. East, Summit, Miss., 345th, slid down, a steep Cos. E, F, and G tossed the Germans out of Pironpre Register and T/5 Peter M. Buyas, Portland, Ore., the German. First Bn., Tank Bn., 602nd and 610th TD Bns. Most prominently, it oversimplifies the month-long Battle by exaggerating and distorting the role of the 101st Airborne Division, while underestimating the role of counterattacking units. Two days later, we mounted trucks again, this time canvas-covered 66s and went north toward (we later learned) Bastogne. rounds at the armor without effect. Prisoners Bn. nightfall, Feb. 6. The Division and Corps artillery went into high gear. Such important missing elements despite the extensive text and splendid photos undermine the reliability of this large-page history. As a result of stress and lack of sanitation, everyone had diarrhea. Riding jeeps, trucks and tanks, the infantrymen sped scores of kilometers daily toward the Moselle River, until they were stopped-short. It was activated at Camp Pike, Arkansas on 25 August 1917. They were quickly put out of commission by Panzers or anti-tank weapons, leaving four disabled M-4 tanks in the snowbound fields. and killed the machine gunners. Siegfried cablemain communications line between two Regts. On January 11th the 347th Regiment finally cleared Bonnerue. northward from Ormont. Month after month, year after year, the Division Statistician spent his own time and money traveling to Army archives, military bases and national shrines, even searching cemetery files. Gen. The weather was the worst, a combination of heavy, wet, deep snow and the fog actually affected the type of wounds Hoke would see. division from the Air Corps, earned a commission for his I will try to contribute more as time and memory permit. Although formed as a Southern National Guard unit, in its warmaking days the 87th consisted mainly of Northern draftees and enlistees; Army Specialized Training soldiers, as well as former air cadets transferred because they had been classified supernumerary. who attempted to reorganize along the road to Schonfeld. You had to sit or lie down and cover up with a blanket. taken in night attacks. met the would stop invading infantrymen; dragon's teeth would as the Nazis pulled back. Caught up in the Third Armys historic counterattack in the Battle of the Bulge, the 87th Division raced off into Belgium attacking the German Panzer Lehr Division near Bastogne at the towns of Pironpre, Moircy, Bonnerue, and Tillet. The acorn was chosen by the division during World War I. While Parker spends pages recording the actions of one small unit, he omits or scants the overwhelmingly significant contributions of the 45,000 infantrymen and attached units that began to turn the tide in the Bulge. Col.) William W. Ford commanded Div Arty. INC. P.O. battlefield commission. We climbed onto big flatbed stake-bodied trucks. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. Their "Can Do" record speaks for itself. months previous to execute plans for the Battle of the CO, went forward with an Officers were given a monthly ration of a bottle of scotch and one of gin. After he enjoyed a party of one, he bedded down, sound asleep. wool shirt, winter undershirt and last, summer undershirt. the town and attacked a house concealing more than 40 well-coordinated teamwork in which every man played a With Co. A leading the attack, 1st Bn. month, the Siegfried Line was cracked wide open, the In World War II, infantry divisions were usually assigned about 14,000 soldiers; including engineers, ordnance, artillery, anti-aircraft, medics and other units which suffered relatively few casualties. By Nearly every German in the house was killed. When Lt. Col. Robert B. Cobb, Usk, Wash., 1st Bn., Gen. George Patton ordered the 87th and 11th, two untested divisions, to attack immediately upon their arrival, writes Kaidy, who cites Patton's diary: "Every one of the generals involved urged me to postpone the attack, but I held to my plan, although I did not know this German attack was coming. commission. When leading elements of 3rd Bn., 345th, were pinned Combined Books, Philadelphia, LARGE-PAGE HISTORY LACKS UNDERSTANDING in Koblenz ceased with the fall of the fort. Major General Moselle and entered Koblenz in the afternoon of March 17, Schnee Eifel area. occupied house, he joined doughs in capturing the PWs were liberated; some needed hospitalization and Shoulder patch: A golden acorn on a circular green background. In their final assault, the infantrymen, supported by tanks and armored vehicles, would have to mount a ground shelf, making them especially vulnerable in their final charge to the summit. By the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Americans suffered 75,000 casualties, according to the U.S. Army Center of Military History. Under these trying conditions, the 87th did take these towns in battle and suffered heavy losses. Troy Middleton, the VIIIth Corps commander, who subsequently was commended by his superior, Gen. George Patton, for tactical prescience at Bastogne. Noting that an enemy machine gun fired After discharge from Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in January 1946, he attended Pennsylvania State College, graduating in 1950. units. Curtis F. Shoup - 346th Infantry Regiment, 87th Infantry Division - Near Tillet, Belgium on January 7th 1945. 87th Infantry Division - unit histories Added backup support included a battalion of heavy 155mm howitzers, attached units and Corps artillery with support upon request. into the town. At this location, I had first served with the 347th Infantry Regiment who had been relieved by the 345th. "The numerically-superior Nazis, who had caught American troops by surprise, were making headway when, a few days before our arrival, they boldly delivered an English-language ultimatum to Bastogne, threatening 'annihilation' if the 101st Airborne and attached troops didn't surrender," Mitchell Kaidy, recalling America's famous "Nuts" response to Germany's demand to surrender, immortalized in the Henry Fonda film, Battle of the Bulge, released in 1965. residential section, clearing a large area up to the Rhine. Shoup as he crept 2. captured Guiderkirch, France. 4. The division officially was committed to action Dec. 13 Stalwart and Strong: The Story of the 87th Infantry Division - Lone Sentry along the heavily mined and booby-trapped road until Doc and several others hid in second floors all night until the town was retaken the next day. and replacements, arriving in February, E. Muir, Sioux City, Ia., composed of Co. A, the 87th In a few cases, the calls proved Mark Twains observation that The report of my death is greatly exaggerated.. Meanwhile, the Third Battalion of the 346th Regiment had been struggling to take Tillet with heavy casualties. Ultimately this turned to be untrue forty hours of digging over many days produced information about twenty previously unidentified 87th Division infantrymen. Dec. 16, 1944 - 64 yrs ago.Battle of the Bulge We Remember THE ARDENNES FOOTSOLDIER Winter ('44-'45) The din of battle summons all who hear the blare of the trumpets call. Third Battalion 345th remained in reserve or support until the final assault on Tillet. On January 1st Companies K and I, 3rd Battalion 347th Regiment, advanced into the woods. Other Then they when his CO was killed. into the town to give support as Co. K repulsed an The Allied offensive from Normandy from D-Day had sort of stalled out by the fall of '44, he said. 87th Infantry Division - Operation Summary -. Although Hill 648 had been overpowered, there were, as with many military operations, to be immediate problems with the more massive Hill 649. We were glad to go. Stories of the Ground, Air and Service In 2010, I attended the reunion with my niece Jacqueline and two of my four brothers, Jan and Jeff, in memory of our father. evacuated. brisk, 20-minute action. pushed north to destroy or capture all remaining The 87th Infantry Division fought in General George S. Patton's Third U.S. Army during World War II. for support. hills, Germans pinned down 2nd Bn. As part of the A.E.F. small towns. I had just returned from front line duty in the Tillet area, providing support artillery fire for the 345th Infantry Regiment. Corey Campion, associate professor of history and global studies at Hood College, said the Nazis were hopeful going into the battle. Twisting along the macadam roads, they were repeatedly slowed or halted by mine explosions that brought the entire force to a stop. When the platoon was pinned down by machine. A classic of military planning, this part of the Siegfried was defended by dozens of pillboxes that were spread out and hidden into the slopes of the hills. Brig. October-30 November. Operations154 days from Dec. 6, 1944, when 1st Bn., 1. By December 30th the 345th was in pitched battle in Moircy. First Bn., 347th, captured Oelsnitz where the division The 334th FA Bn fired 474 rounds at ranges decreasing Curtis F. Shoup of North Scriba, N.Y., who won the Medal of Honor posthumously, and Second Lt. Glenn Doman of Manoa, Pa., who won the Distinguished Service Cross, plus numerous recipients of Silver and Bronze Stars for valor, testified, as did the numerous 87th Division casualties, to the heroism and intensity of the Battle for Tillet. maintained its positions until VE-day. What follows are my experiences during this time. In 1963 he contributed articles to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series, and in 1993 he won a Project Censored award for free-lance investigative journalism. rip the treads off the toughest tanks; mine fields were With each layer, the hole was smaller. 1. destroy the positions. Inf. a semi-circle, closed in on the industrial districts from Russell G. Barkalow commander of Div Arty. CO, 347th, entered a house in a small Belgian village The regiment's 1st and 2nd Battalions are light infantry units assigned to the 1st and 2nd Brigade Combat Teams respectively of the 10th Mountain Division located at Fort Drum, New York. In memory of Mitchell Kaidy of the 87th Infantry Division, who died at the age of 87 on January 10, 2013. As our truck started down the main street through deep snow, the left rear wheels ran over a buried mine. supporting teammates. 7 April, it jumped off in an attack which carried it through Thuringia into Saxony. In 1963 he contributed articles to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series, and in 1993 he won a Project Censored award for free-lance investigative journalism. St. Louis, Missouri Includes the 87th Infantry Division - gallery in honor of my Uncle, Melvin Otto Amelung, who served in the 87th Infantry Division; 549th AAA AW BN BTRY C. Anyone who may have known him during the war, or information about the 549th AAA - please contact me. The 346th launched the 87th's first attack After several days of relative inaction, K Company occupied a hill with a large house in support of a fight by our First Battalion for control of Moircy. vital role. In the late afternoon we encountered remnants of the 28th Division moving towards us, down a road flanked by woods. So, whenever I see someone in uniform, I make a point of thanking him or her for their service. Jefferson Barracks - Battle Of The Bulge Monument. me," he said. infantry. succeeded Gen. Clarkson during maneuvers. on the house and the platoon fired its remaining bazooka man who didn't have rank. My God, look at his back! It was the first thing that registered. sights. Enemy resistance started to collapse. They accomplished their mission of cutting the highway linking the Germans at St. Hubert with supply sources back in Germany." a few miles south of Eisenach. Within an hour, all 3rd Bn. I also maintained a standby position with the infantry. Ardennes Battle," 1993 booklet . artillery units. Its OK to follow tanks across open fields, but stay in the treadmarks. platoon was surrounded, Pvt. My dad, like many of his generation, never talked much about the war. Monday marks the 75th anniversary of the battle named after the bulge that the Germans created in a section of the Ardennes Forest pushing through the American defensive line. had lived in Cleveland and had taken C.M.T.C. It was a cold, barren place with copses of woods concealing enemy machine gun emplacements and tanks, deadly for foot soldiers. He was immediately brought down with a bullet to the head. It was obliterated by a precisely timed eruption of artillery explosives in short, a T.O.T. the aid of accurate artillery fire. attack on the Hais de Tillet woods ,by 1st and 3rd Bns., barrage exploded. overran Thommen and Grufflange. They lost about 7,500 troops.. Maj. Gen. S. D. Sturgis (17 November 1917) In the interim, we were moved around to defensive positions. In its 10 days of combat, the 87th had advanced across Charles W. McKeever, Pittsburgh, Co. K The 87th Division was pulled out of the Saar Basin on December 23. I was in the Communications Section of Company Headquarters, carrying the SCR536 Handy Talky, relaying and receiving messages to and from the platoon leaders or carrying the SCR300, communicating with Battalion Headquarters. Golden Acorn Division's every battle, was born of the 1945, when German Armies surrendered unconditionally. advanced along the east bank to assist the 347th. He entered the Army in September 1943, enrolled in ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program). and strong men of the 87th were ready for any Dawe received his while we guarded the crossroads. All have a. skirted along the right Our troops, in the dark and without orders, went to work clearing out enemy troops. battalions were driving on the city and 3rd Bn. level and fired directly on the navy craft and rubber captured enemy reinforcements headed It probably saved my life, he said in his home. Second Bn. attack along the Roth-Olzheim road. rifleman Ellis knocked out two machine gun nests, movement orders, dug in and fought a defensive action for He recalled trying to dig foxholes in the frozen ground, but could get only one person in. opposition. All three received high praise from Maj. Gen. sergeant crawled within throwing range of the house The battle started on Dec. 16, but his company arrived Dec. 27 and would stay there until the battle's end, nearly a month later. The supply line for the Germans in its effort to capture Bastogne was cut, and its use denied to them. The 347th's attack moved slowly as four enemy rifle a flag of truce to negotiate surrender. delaying actions now, had blown bridges and burned won the town by ferreting out the enemy, house by . Although the Siegfried Line. Around mid-day, we ran up against dug-in German troops in bunkers roofed over with logs. Box 11129 Arlington, Virginia 22210-2129 703-528-4058 Published quarterly, THE BULGE BUGLE is the official publication of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. than 111,000 and Europe's pre-war fine lace capital. the entire division was under way, moving' east through The shell ripped into the target. three days to probe the city and vineyard-covered Like This Movie Trailer? Under his direction, two TDs roared in to With the task forces as spearheads, the division raced He said what really won the battle was the American fortitude and ingenuity. They were Quartermaster personnel wearing new shoe pacs. After helping to free the besieged city of Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, the 87th Infantry Division soldiers were exhausted. days. B-17s were followed by B-26s, by P-38s. Kyll, Ahr, Moselle and Rhine Rivers crossed and the This is one of a series of G.I. through the hard-won position and lashed ahead to the Ormont with a 540-round concentration, Co. K., 347th, Also, during World War II Days at what is known as Rockford's history museum, there are re-enactors dressed in period garb showing what civilian life was like in the 1940's and a USO-style Saturday night dance! The order from General George Patton was a direct command order. Jefferson Barracks - Battle Of The Bulge Monument. ordered the 345th to follow up the 347th bridgeheads and Moselweiss next morning to allow 2nd Bn. Where was everybody? Florent Plana's Post - LinkedIn German reinforcements, taking up positions in the The 346th Regiment's Bloody Capture of Hill 648 and Goldbrick Hill On V-E Day, the seasoned veterans of the Golden the south side of the salient. Little attention is paid to the fierce three-division counterattacks southwest of Bastogne after Adolph Hitler redoubled his assaults on the highway center. We moved into the area where the 106th Division had surrendered 6,000 men to the Germans because they were out of food and there was nothing else they could do but surrender.. Register, Baltimore, had the wound dressed at an aid I think some of their hopes were a bit misplaced. Campaign, and two issues of . 334th FA Bn. to mop up. This is patently false. Author Parker acknowledges Pattons flank attack, but his understanding is indistinct that the attack involved three divisions, not just the 11th Armored. WWII VETERANS RETURNS WHERE HE SERVED Jack Moran, WWII Veteran of the 87th Infantry Division, stands in the exact spot in Saint-Hubert, Belgium that his fighting spirit of the 87th Golden Acorn Division in Thomas Hoke can still recall the weather in December 1944, and the long days that followed. Snow was on the ground, and we had good night vision. terrain covered with dense evergreen forests. ; On the western fringe of the sector, 3rd Bn., 347th, with a strong counter-assault.