My father, Roger Lacroix (pictured left), was a part of the 106th Infantry Division "Golden Lions", based in Camp Atterbury, Indiana. This blog is written in honor of my father for his bravery and loyalty to our great country, the United States of America, and to our family.
He was a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. Another veteran named John Kline, who was in the 423rd Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division, kept a personal journal of his experiences leading up to, during, and after that great Battle. We are very thankful for Kline’s excellent record of events, which are very accurate. A great credit goes to him for this.
After discussing it with my father, he confirmed to me personally that he was there at the same time and experienced many of the exact same events Kline did. However, my father’s party seems to have been taken in a different direction than Kline’s sometime in January 1945, ultimately ending up at Stalag II-A. My father was a rifleman with the 106th Infantry Division, 422nd Regiment, E Company, who joined the Army at age 18 and was deployed right after his 19th birthday. Many of the excerpts in the following account are quotes used with permission from
Kline’s journal, which he has published on the Internet.
Kline gives these interesting facts about the 106th Infantry Division, when they caught the brunt of the German offensive on 16 Dec. 1944:
-- Had been on the Continent only 15 days.
-- Had been placed in a "quiet" sector for orientation.
-- Had the youngest troops (average age - 22) of any American Division.
-- Had been in their front line positions only 5 days.
-- Had no prior warning the Germans were preparing to attack.
-- Occupied a front line that covered at least four times the normal distance.
10/09/44
Two days after my father’s 19th birthday, he left Camp Atterbury, by train, early Monday morning.
10/10/44
Arrived Camp Myles Standish, near Boston, Mass. Staging area for overseas move.
10/16/44
Left Camp Myles Standish. Arrived New York after dark, boarded Queen Elizabeth.
10/17/44
They left New York in the early morning. They did not see Statue of Liberty. The trip was peaceful. He ate greasy English sausage and potatoes. The "Queen" was chased by two submarines, and he saw those subs during the trip. The "Queen" had a record of outrunning fifty subs on one mission.
10/22/44
They arrived at Glasgow, Scotland, Firth of Clyde. This was the only time in crossing the Atlantic, that they were placed on alert. They were instructed to stand on the outside deck with their life belts on. They were told this was standard practice going into a harbor, where the subs could be lying in wait.
10/24/44
They left Glasgow by train late evening. Rode all night. Ate breakfast on the train.
10/25/44
They arrived at Cheltenham, England (photo at the top of this blog was taken while he was in England). The surrounding country side was very hilly. It was a beautiful area. They were billeted in metal
"Quonset" huts, a building that looks like a very large steel culvert pipe sawed in half, horizontally lying on its side. The Quonset huts were scattered throughout the area near the grandstands.
Though the training was tough, they did get a few evening passes into town. Cheltenham was a unique and picturesque town.
When they did have a pass they could walk into the town. Of course, it was always filled with soldiers. There were a few places to eat, and food was not plentiful. The town was in black out mode, so all windows were covered, and there was a pre-entrance to the taverns where an outer door was closed before an inner door could be opened. This was to prevent light from escaping and being seen by enemy bombers at night. The town was always "loaded" with soldiers.
11/06/44
Charlie McArthy and Edgar Bergen were being featured on the radio on the ABC Armed Services Network, which Roger listened to. Bing Crosby was on the radio singing
Dreaming of a White Christmas. This was so ironic, considering what Christmas would be like for Roger and his division in just a little more than a month's time.
11/09/44
They were into heavy physical training, part of which meant running through the town. The Armed Forces network was playing the song "Amor" and
Glen Miller songs, a popular, big band at that time.
11/19/44
Dad did not like the food there. He found it bland.
11/25/44
The homes and business buildings were all built of stone. All the streets except the main street were without sidewalks. The houses extended right out to the edge of the street. The homes were very pretty. The countryside was beautiful. The English beer was bitter and he didn’t like the taste of it. There were a lot of
Quonset huts where Dad stayed.
Troops were issued the new, longer style field jackets with tighter cuffs and a drawstring around the middle.
11/28/44
After a heavy training schedule, they went by train to the port of South Hampton for shipment to France.
11/29/44
Arrived in South Hampton. Boarded the Duke of Wellington, a small English craft. It held only a small number of troops. It was showing its age and had seen a lot of action. There were ominous signs all about, like "Don't Prime Grenades" and "Keep Weapons Unloaded." The English Channel was very rough -- it is always choppy. The Duke, pounding the waves with its bow, pitched and rolled like a roller coaster. Troops were happy to reach the temporary harbor at Le Havre. It is standard practice on entering a harbor area to stand to, on the outside deck, with life jackets on.
11/30/44
Le Havre, France. The original docking facilities had been destroyed during the invasion. It was now made up of many old ships, cabled together to make the temporary harbor. They debarked and formed up on the docks. It was still daylight.
Le Havre was leveled to the ground during the invasion. There was little standing. There were a few German pillboxes that had been camouflaged to represent commercial buildings. There was a very heavy downpour of rain, as troops marched nine miles to board trucks late that night.
12/01/44
Arrived at Field J-40 (a staging area) near Rouen, France. Troops joined other company members who brought along squad jeeps. Dad and his fellow troops slept in pup tents. The weather was wet and miserable. They could hardly keep the tent stakes in. As a consolation the food was good. The terrain was flat and open, with a few small woods. Troops had little to do. One afternoon, his captain went into town to buy some straw for the ammunition tent. He had brought with him a man with a French last name, who said he could speak French. When the captain discovered the man could not speak French, he came back and found my Dad. Upon discovering he could speak fluent French, he took Dad with him to interpret for him and they bought the straw.
They bivouacked in their two man pup tents for the six days they were at J-40. It rained, at least once a day. They were never able to get completely dry and comfortable.
12/07/44
Left J-40 combat-loaded in the early morning. It was getting colder. It was an arduous truck journey across France and Belgium, through bitter cold and clinging damp. As they traveled along the French road towards Belgium, they came across miles and miles of German vehicles that had been strafed and burned. They were lying in the ditches, either completely burned or stripped.
12/09/44
As they entered St Vith, Belgium, older, established troops gave them the normal "new kid on the block" salutations. They yelled at them, "You'll be sorry" and other similar phrases, some not so nice. Some said, “There’s nothing happening here.” They set up bivouac in woods on the edge of town. As Kline remembers: “The large pines, looking like huge Christmas trees made the woods quiet, warm and very beautiful. The silence and peaceful surroundings of the pines and snow, was pleasant. Especially after the week near Rouen, France, where they had rain beating on the pup tents and the hustle and noise of the motor march on the way to St. Vith.”
12/11/44
They left the woods near St Vith for front line positions. Their destination was a defense line in the Ardennes forest atop the Schnee Eifel (Snow Mountain). The positions were 12 miles east of St. Vith and were in Germany. A name they would learn to remember, Schönberg, was 9 miles east of St Vith and 3 miles west of their positions. They were facing the German troops from emplacements on the East slopes [reverse slopes] of the German Siegfried Line, known as "The German West Wall."
They took over positions held by the 2nd Infantry Division and exchanged much of their new equipment for the old equipment of the 2nd Division. The exchange was to be made as quickly and quietly as possible. The 2nd Division was being transferred to Aachen to participate in an attack on the Roer Dam area. Conditions were quiet. Excellent chow was served twice a day.
According to John Kline, “Historians and military strategists, argue that the Schnee Eifel positions should never have been occupied. They say that it was impossible to launch an offensive from there. They argued that the positions presented no defense against an assault from the east. This the Germans proved, on Dec 16, as they cut off our positions by attacking around the north and south ends of the Schnee Eifel. A static defense line was not the answer for a thinly spread force. Any penetration through our lines would result in disaster.”
Kline goes on to write, “The Ardennes forest is, for the most part, heavily wooded. It is interlaced with many small logging trails, fire fighting lanes and streams. We slept in rough, but warm dugouts and enjoyed solid gun bunkers. Built by the 2nd Division, they were built of logs, with a log and earth roof.” Since Dad was a rifleman, he was entrenched in a log-covered foxhole.
They completed the changeover with the 2nd Infantry Division as darkness came. They had no time to become acquainted with the territory around their new positions. Because of that, and since they were new and inexperienced troops, their first night was unforgettable. They were facing, for the first time, an enemy that they only knew from newsreels and training films. It was a sleepless and anxiety-filled night.
John Kline writes, “Every sound was amplified. Every bush could be an enemy crawling towards you. Your eyes grow bleary from staring into the darkness. You are happy when the relief crew shows up. The next day, you take a good long look at the stump that moved during the night. You take note of all unusual objects, and then things start to settle down.”
Their field of fire was good, but very limited. The 2nd Division had cut down a lot of trees and cleaned out the brush. However, the forest still offered the enemy excellent cover. The 422nd Regiment was on the Eifel. Dad’s regiment and the 423rd Regiment to the South sent alternate patrols across the several hundred yards of unoccupied space between them each half hour. Dad was on many of these 12-man patrols. They reported very little German activity. The first days passed without incident.
They left the foxhole area twice daily to eat their meals in a mess tent. It was behind them, on the opposite side of the hill. To get to it they had to walk along a trail, through a clearing, and down the other side. The Germans had the clearing zeroed in. As they crossed the clearing, they had to be prepared to hit the ground in case the Germans decided to harass them with machine gun fire. It was said that two men had been killed crossing the clearing a few days ago. The daily trips to the mess tent were something to look forward to. The food was good and the Mess Sergeant seemed to be friendlier since they had moved up to the front lines. Dad did enjoy those meals, there were generous portions and they could chat with the others and get brought up to date on the local news. After getting their food at the mess tent, they would carry it back to the foxhole area to eat it.
12/16/44--12/17/44
History reflects that The Battle of the Bulge" started at 0530 on the morning of December 16, 1944. John Kline states, “Because we were high atop the Schnee Eifel and out of the mainstream of the German Offensive, we were probably the last to know that it had been launched. I cannot remember any evidence or any sounds that would have indicated to us the size of the battle that was to take place. A battle, that was to become known as one of the largest battles in the history of World War II. The 40 days that battle raged were the coldest and snowiest weather remembered in the Ardennes Forest area. More than one million men, 600,000 Americans and 500,000 Germans and 55,000 Englishmen fought in this battle. 32 American, 3 British and 29 German Divisions were in the battle before it ended. The Germans suffered 100,000 killed, wounded or captured. There were over 81,000 American casualties, including 23,554 captured and 19,000 killed. The British suffered 1,400 casualties and 200 killed. Each side lost 800 tanks and the Germans lost 1,000 aircraft. The Malmedy Massacre where nearly 90 American Soldiers were slaughtered was the worst atrocity, against the Americans, during the European Campaign.” Dad clearly remembers hearing about the Malmedy Massacre.
Dad’s division, the 106th Infantry Division, suffered over 416 killed in action, 1,246 wounded and 7,001 men missing, in action in the first days of the Battle of the Bulge. Most of these casualties occurred within the first three days of battle when two of the three regiments were forced to surrender. In all, there were 641 "Killed in Action" from his division through to the end of the fighting. In losses "The Battle of the Bulge," was the worst battle for the Americans in World War II.
On the 16th, Kline recalls: “Part of the German 18th Volksgrenadier Division and the Fifth Panzer Army's Fuhrer Begleit Brigade [Tank Brigade] broke through the 14th Cavalry Group, who were on the left flank of our division (north of us on the north edge of the Schnee Eifel).”
Here is Kline’s account of the German units involved in the battle:
”The 18th Volksgrenadier Division was formed in Denmark around the cadre of a Luftwaffe field division, with fill-ins from the Navy. It was at full strength [17,000 men] and had two months experience, in defensive positions in the Eifel area. [The 106th Division was not at full strength. They probably were at less than 12,000 men. They had 5 days experience on the front line].
The Fuhrer Begleit Brigade, under control of General der Panzergruppen Hasso von Manteuffel, was built around a cadre of troops from Hitler's headquarters guard. It included a tank battalion from the Gross Deutschland Panzer Division (still on the Eastern Front). It was strongly reinforced with assault guns [large caliber guns mounted on tracks]. They were equipped with 88mm and 105mm pieces from the 460th Heavy Artillery Battalion.”
”It should also be noted that even though there were many young German troops and some fillers from other branches of service, the German unit commanders were veterans. The 106th Division commanders were, with a couple of exceptions, facing the enemy for the first time. The complete surprise of the attack, the overwhelming numbers of German troops and the static position of our two regiments atop the Schnee Eifel eventually led to our defeat and capture.”
German activity was not reported along the 422nd Regiment’s front until the 17th, the day after the Battle of the Bulge began. They were completely encircled by the enemy and cut off from the rest of the division early in the morning of the 17th. They were trapped.
Dad saw a U.S. Army Air Corps P-47 Thunderbolt chase a German Messerschmitt (ME 109) through the sky. Kline recounts this in his journal: “The P-47 was about two hundred yards behind the ME-109 and was pouring machine gun fire into the German plane. They left our sight as they passed over the edge of the forest. We were told later, that the P-47 downed the German ME-109 in the valley.”
During the night of the 17th they heard gunfire, small arms, mortars and artillery. They also could hear and see German rocket fire to the South. The German rocket launcher was five barreled and of large caliber. Due to their design, the rockets make a screaming sound as they fly through the air. Dad remembers the screaming sound they made.
12/18/44
On the morning of the 18th, the Germans had broken through the supply lines of the 106th Division. The artillery and rockets that they had heard to the south, were sounds of the battle that was taking place at Bleialf, a small village on the road between Prüm and Schönberg. Kline recalls: “The 423rd Anti-Tank Company who had that defensive area had been thrown out of Bleialf on the 16th. They used all available troops in the area and pushed the Germans back out of Bleialf, only to be overrun again on the morning of the 17th. They were overpowered by the tremendous numbers of German troops heading northwest up the Bleialf-Schönberg road. The Germans had closed the pincers behind us, at Schönberg.”
They then prepared to leave their positions taking only the bare necessities and as much ammunition as possible. Their personal gear was in their duffel bags, stacked near the mess tent. They left them there, thinking that they would retrieve them later. Just as Kline recorded this is the way Dad remembered it.
Kline goes on to explain that Colonel Cavender sent him two packets of the Colonel’s personal papers in November of 1989, explaining his reasons for his strategy during the first three days of the Bulge, and also explaining the reason he surrendered his regiment on 19 December 1944. The Prüm Corridor was left open for a purpose. The reason was that the Army and Corps Commanders were overconfident that the war was about to end.
“Both German units, those from the North down the Andler-Schönberg road and the ones on the South on the Prüm-Schönberg road had converged on Schönberg. They had closed the pincers. By that action the 422nd & 423rd Regiments of the 106th Infantry Division were trapped in the Ardennes forest southeast of Schönberg.”
12/18/44
As they approached the logging trail, near Radscheid, their column was shelled by German 88's.
Dad cannot remember what happened during the night of December 18. It would have been logical to set up defensive positions and sleep in shifts, which they probably did. However, Dad cannot recall the events of that night. M Company men whom Kline has met in recent years, 1988 and 1989, tell him that they spent most of the night trying to get their jeeps out of the mud. And this confirms what Dad remembers. He confirms Kline’s account that “the number of vehicles on the road and an unusually warm spell caused the fields to be very muddy. The weather turned much colder and stayed that way until after the end of January.”
12/19/44
Battle positions: In early morning of the 19th at about 0900 they were suddenly hit by very heavy artillery fire. It seemed that all hell had broken loose. The shells were exploding all around them, on the ground and in the trees. Men were screaming for medics. There was a terrible amount of confusion at that time.
Kline states: “The first hostile artillery barrage, at 0900, was unbelievable in its magnitude. It seemed that every square yard of ground was being covered. The initial barrage slackened after forty-five minutes or an hour. Men were on the slopes below, screaming for medics. Shortly after that the shelling started again. The woods were being raked throughout the day by a constant barrage of small arms and artillery fire. We were pinned down in the edge of the woods and could not move.”
“Most of our officers ended up being held at Oflag XIII-C (13C). After the aborted attempt by Patton to liberate the camp, the Germans put all the officers on the road, marching in the direction of Bavaria.”
“The Germans had many antiaircraft guns (88s and 128s) with them during their Ardennes Offensive. They were for protection in case the weather turned better. They knew for sure that the Allied air support would eventually come. The German antiaircraft gun is capable of being used to support ground troops. This is done by elevating the guns downward, and firing timed bursts or tree bursts into the trees that explode on contact. There is very little protection as the fragments rain down from above.”
“They also had 20mm antiaircraft guns, mounted on quad mounts and half-tracks. They were fired into the treetops, and sometimes at point blank range, causing severe damage to our troops. The tree bursts, exploding high in the trees, were hard to hide from. They caused many casualties. There is no doubt that they were used to our disadvantage.”
The weather was overcast and foggy and did not turn to the better until December 21st or 22nd. The sky cleared and it got much colder, as they were then walking, as prisoners, back into Germany.
On the Schönberg Hill, rifle companies like Dad’s, mortar and machine gun squads were being pinned down in the woods. In the confusion, caused by the demoralizing artillery fire, they were being separated from each other. The 422nd and 423rd Regiments lost track of each other. The day was going bad. There were no targets in view, at least from Dad’s point of view. The Germans were waiting for their artillery to neutralize the Americans, before they moved. With the ravaging artillery fire, and no chance of counter artillery, the Americans were literally sitting ducks. There was some action on the edges of the perimeter by two German tanks that were mopping up troops that were pinned down in the fields and road below. They were also scouting around the area, in the edge of the woods near Schönberg. One of them threw out a smoke grenade. Dad was only able to identify one German infantry troop, prior to being captured. Most of the action occurred early in the fight, between the rifle companies below and the Germans across the road.
K & L Companies, in trying to push into Schönberg, were caught in the ditches and fields. It was their men that could be heard screaming for help. They were being ripped to pieces by the tremendous artillery barrages. At the same time German troops coming up the road from Bleialf were hitting from the rear.
The order to surrender
The German tanks rolled through the battalions on the right while the German infantry poured in from the woods. At 1430 the 422nd regimental commander decided to surrender the part of his regiment that was disorganized and entrapped. After negotiations to determine that the Germans would feed the Americans and provide care for the wounded, the surrender was completed about 1600. An American officer, accompanied by a German officer told the 422nd Regiment they were surrounded. He told them that they were cut off from the other battalion, the 423rd, and that their Regimental Commander, was ordering them to surrender.
Kline states: “As the history of this battle shows, we were surrounded on all sides by German troops. They were heavily armed, with many mortars, antiaircraft guns, assault guns and artillery pieces. They were being reinforced by more and more troops from the Southeast and there would have been no possibility of reversing the battle situation.”
Dad and his fellow soldiers disabled their weapons by breaking them on tree trunks, as they were told to do, or by taking them apart and throwing the parts in different directions. After that the Germans led them to a clearing in the forest and directed them to throw down their equipment, such as ammo belts, packs, hand-grenades and trench-knifes.
Kline remembers that they were led in a small column down to the Schönberg-Bleialf road. There were Germans on one side of the road and Americans on the other. They had been facing each other, in a fierce firefight, from ditch to ditch. There were many dead, both Americans and Germans. The wounded were still crying for help. As they approached the Schönberg road, it seemed that hundreds of Germans rose up out of the field.
Kline recalls: “There was a German truck burning in the middle of the road. Behind the truck was an American infantryman lying in the middle of the road. He was dressed like an officer, but with no insignia, as would be normal in combat. His was wearing his winter uniform, a heavy winter coat, ammo belt and canteen. He was lying on his back, as if he were resting. The body had no head or neck. It was as if somebody had sliced it off with a surgical instrument, leaving no sign of blood. All my life I have had flash backs of that scene and I still find it hard to believe. I always wonder how it happened. He was the only soldier, either American or German that I saw laying on the road. There were many wounded and dead in the ditches and fields as we were led out of the woods.”
Kline states: “The Germans then walked the Americans in columns to Bleialf where they herded them into a church courtyard.
It had turned dark and the temperature was dropping. Most of them were without overcoats. They had only their field jackets and their winter issue of "Olive Drab" uniforms with long johns”. Dad recalls that he wore pants, his long johns and his field jacket. He still had a necktie on, since he had not even had a chance to change into his battle uniform since the time he arrived in theater. Upon his capture, he was forced by the Germans to give up either his ankle-high shoes or his overshoes (boots that fit over the shoes). He chose to give up the overshoes, thinking they would be too heavy to walk in.
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The churchyard at Bleialf where many of the 106th
spent their first in captivity |
While many had to sleep on the ground outside, he slept inside the church. Like Kline, my father remembers how nervous he was. Every little sound was amplified. He wondered what was going to happen to us when daybreak came.
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| A 2012 photo that I took of the Bleialf churchyard |
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| Inside the Bleialf church, where my father spent the first night |
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| The Bleialf church, with church yard just inside this gateway |
In 2012 I had the pleasure of visiting the battlefields of the Battle of
the Bulge in Belgium. I went to the church in Bleialf, where my father
spent his first night in captivity. You can see some of my photos here. There is one of the inside of the church where my father tried to sleep. If my father were still alive, he would have been very interested to hear that I went there. Nobody else in my family has ever seen this place.
I was blessed to meet a wonderful family in Belgium, who took me, my wife and children out to see the battlefield and the church. It was a day I will never forget.
If you would like to follow this story further, it's continued in the next post called
Death March.
_______________________________________________
Len Lacroix is the founder of
Doulos Missions International.
He was
based
in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as
helping leaders to be more effective at
making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the
ultimate goal of
planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United
States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission.
www.dmiworld.org.
