At 2100 on the night of 17 December 1944, Col. Tucker was summoned to 82nd Airborne Division Headquarters. Shortly after his return to the regiment, men of the 504 knew that they’d “had it”. The enemy had broken through into Belgium and Luxembourg with a powerful thrust launched south of Aachen.
Immediately after being alerted, personnel of the 504 went into a frenzy of packing and preparation for combat. “A” and “B” bags were packed and stored, combat shortages filled, ammunition and rations drawn. Dawn of the 18th found the regiment a little short on sleep, but in every other sense, fully equipped and ready for combat.
Big trailer-trucks had roared into the area during the night and were waiting to take the paratroopers to the scene of the breakthrough; most men were grouchy and in no mood to go back into action; they had just begun to relax from the Holland mission. However, with remarks such as, “Well, I’d rather go in these things than in a damn C-47”, and “Why aren’t they making us walk – it’s only 200 miles”, they resigned themselves to their fate.
Thirteen hours after leaving Sissone, the convoy unsnarled itself from a traffic jam and unloaded at Werbomont, Belgium. On the way, the destination had been changed from Bastogne to Werbomont – a point more seriously threatened.
The dull rumble of gunfire from the East was the only obvious indication of the enemy’s proximity. As the men of the 504 took up their positions in an initial defensive perimeter established upon the high ground surrounding Werbomont – a vital junction on the even more vital Bastogne-Liege lateral road of communications – they wondered what all the fuss was about. Few men had more than the faintest conception of what the big picture contained, what was at stake, or what the next few days held in store.
That night the 504 moved forward on foot for a distance of eight miles to set up a defensive position near the village of Rahier. The 1st Battalion remained in the town to prepare for an attack on Cheneux, two miles north, on the following day.
At 1400 on the 20th, the 1st Battalion, less A Company which had been dispatched to Brume, moved out toward Cheneux, where they were immediately engaged by an estimated battalion of the 1st Panzer Grenadier Regiment of the 1st SS Division.
As the afternoon waned the battle grew in intensity and it became apparent that the enemy column, stalled within the town, contained more armor than had been originally estimated. Approaches to the town were exposed; the enemy’s fire was the heaviest ever experienced by 504 men. Flak wagons, 75mm cannon, mortars, mobile artillery, and machine guns loosed a murderous barrage on the paratroopers as they attempted to advance across a 400-yard open field that was laced at 15-yard Intervals with barbed wire. No cover was afforded the attackers, who by short rushes, were inching their way toward the enemy. They jumped on enemy half-tracks and with clubbed rifles and bayonets knocked the enemy from his positions; they threw grenades, emptied their tommy guns, and kept pressing forward, fighting the Germans with anything at their disposal; even with their hands if necessary.
All that night and on into the morning of the 21st, the 1st Battalion slugged its way through the battle-scarred village. By mid-morning the town belonged to the 504 when the 3rd Battalion executed a wide flanking maneuver to enter the village from the North. A quick tally disclosed that fourteen flak wagons, six halftracks, four trucks, four 105mm field artillery pieces, and one Mark VI tank had been put out of action. Those enemy vehicles which were still serviceable were promptly utilized by the regiment. The 504 suffered heavily in this attack but annihilated an enemy SS Battalion and handed German forces the first defeat they had suffered in the “Battle of the Bulge.” The fierceness of the battle can be attested to by the fact that of the enemy forces, only 31 were taken prisoner – half of them wounded. This SS Battalion was the same one that had been responsible for the infamous massacre of American prisoners at Malmedy; they were repaid with interest by men of the 504.
It was on December 21 that the 504 (and doubtless others) played host to a party of five Germans attired in American uniforms who drove about in the area in two jeeps. One member of the party was disguised as an American captain, while the remaining four men were dressed in typical GI combat fashion. These men were encountered at several different points throughout the rear areas and on all occasions did not hesitate to indulge in conversation with American soldiers. They even carried their bluff so far as to stop in front of the regimental CP to pass the time of day and bum a cigarette from one of the staff officers.
Later in the day, however, the spies overplayed their hands when they drew up before the 1st Battalion CP in Cheneux. An overly curious private, unsatisfied with the faltered replies afforded his questions, alarmed the Germans when he brandished a bazooka he had picked up, causing them to abandon the jeeps and flee. Several Americans fired on the Germans as they ran into the woods, wounding one. Nevertheless, all escaped despite the fact that they could easily have been apprehended had the fact that they were illegitimate registered on the paratroopers, who stood around curiously, wondering why one American was shooting at another. Their immediate reaction was to defend the fleeing enemy spies from what they thought was a neurotic GI.
The period 21-24 December was occasioned by a reshuffling of forces in and out of Cheneux, with the 2nd Battalion moving South of Lierneux to reinforce other units in the division, and the 1st Battalion doing the same in the vicinity of Trois Ponts.
On the night of the 22nd, the regiment was alerted against a possible enemy parachute drop. Shortly before midnight the drop materialized In the form of an unknown quantity of equipment bundles, a half dozen of which were picked up by patrols of the 3rd Battalion. The bundles contained gasoline, rations, and ammunition, and were apparently intended for a beleaguered enemy force trapped in Staumont.
Christmas day brought all battalions back under regimental control, and except for a meal of frozen turkey, the day slipped by unmarked by incident. It was a white Christmas.
During the ensuing week the regiment repulsed four counterattacks ranging from company to battalion strength and continued to prepare for an expected attack of much larger proportions. The defensive scheme was Improved by the establishment of roadblocks, the laying of concertina wire and mines. Offensive activity was limited to aggressive patrolling.
New Year’s Eve came and went, uneventful, unspectacular, heralded only by bursts of machine guns on the stroke of midnight “just to start the year out right.”
On January 2, 1945, the 1st Battalion left its reserve position around Bra, to relieve the 325th Glider Infantry on the right flank. Enemy artillery fire increased in intensity, setting fire to many buildings in Bra with incendiary shells.
The 504, relieved in the Bra sector on January 4, by the 329th Infantry, marched 15 miles to Fosse. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions immediately went into the attack and gained their objective – the high ground southeast of Fosse overlooking the Salm River.
Enemy resistance to the advance was generally light, consisting mainly of small, isolated units. Several poorly organized enemy counterattacks in company strength were broken up by the 3rd Battalion with heavy losses to the enemy in both casualties and prisoners.
The quality of enemy soldiers encountered at this time was far inferior to those met in earlier stages of the breakthrough. Whereas first contact with the enemy had been made with SS Panzer Grenadiers – first class opponents – the regiment was now fighting a heterogeneous mass of second-rate troops consisting of raw, ill-trained recruits, satellite troops, and “drafted” Russians. The degree of resistance offered by the enemy was in proportion to the inferior quality of their personnel.
On the 9th, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Battalions, and the 551st Parachute Battalion, which had been attached to the 504 the day before, jumped off on an attack to reach the West Bank of the Salm River. In the early phases of the attack, enemy infantry and artillery resistance was stubborn. However, as the attack progressed, resistance waned with only the 2nd Battalion meeting any real opposition in the final stages of the advance.
The line along the Salm was held and improved with little noteworthy activity until January 11, when the regiment was relieved and moved by trucks to billets in and around the village of Remouchamps.
After a cheerful two weeks, during which the only outward manifestation of the enemy’s ill-will was ro-bombs which putted continuously overhead on their way to Liege, the regiment was notified of a mission. Two days were consumed by staff meetings, command reconnaissance, map distributions, the usual stop and go, pack and unpack dry runs until on January 26, battalions loaded on trucks and headed toward St. Vith; the regimental CP was set up in a hall room of an antiquated, trophy-bedecked chateau in the neighboring village of Wallerode.
The division field order was received, establishing as fact what most paratroopers had for several days taken for granted-an attack on the Siegfried Line. The First and Third Armies were to pierce the Line; the 504 was allocated the right flank of the First Army.
At 0600 on January 28, the regiment crossed the line of departure. Dressed in snow suits – the temperature crowded zero – the paratroopers advanced in a column of two’s along a two-foot deep snowy trail that lead through the heavily-wooded pine forest of Bullingen. Single Sherman tanks were interspaced throughout the column at platoon intervals. For twelve hours the column advanced, meeting only spotty resistance from the enemy, a half dozen of whom were killed; 25 were taken prisoner. Enemy artillery fire fell spasmodically along the route of advance inflicting several casualties.
While approaching Herresbach, a battalion of the enemy was encountered in a head-on engagement. Neither unit was aware of the other’s presence until they met. The battle-wise paratroopers, without stopping, without a moment’s hesitation, accelerated their pace and moved on the enemy. The lead tank, the only one in a position to bring fire upon the enemy, opened up with its machine guns, while 504 men operated their weapons from the hip and knocked off Germans at shooting-gallery speed. Within ten minutes the enemy was overrun; more than 100 had been killed and 180 captured. The 504 suffered not a single man killed or wounded.
An hour later the town was in the hands of 504 men after sharp but short clashes with the enemy. The only enemy armor present was a Mark V tank which, along with its crew, was promptly disposed of when paratroopers dropped a Gammon grenade on the turret.
As January became February, the 504 continued to hold and develop its defenses along the right flank of the First Army, still waiting for the order that finally came on February 1; to attack the Siegfried Line.
At dawn of the 2nd, the 1st and 2nd Battalions jumped off on the attack. The air was cold and raw, the snow deep on the ground as the regiment pushed slowly East through the somber, forbidding shadows of Forest Gerolstein. Moving cautiously from bunker to bunker and from pillbox to pillbox, the paratroopers encountered heavy machine gun and small arms fire at all points. However, impregnable as the Siegfried forts might have been, their occupants seldom took full advantage of the defenses. When it became apparent to the defenders that their particular fort had been surrounded, most of them chose to surrender rather than to hold out for the Fatherland.
Ironically, the enemy’s powerful Panzerfaust with which the 504 was plentifully supplied, proved to be the regiment’s most effective weapon in the decontamination of pillboxes. However, mighty as the Panzerfaust is, it would have been dolefully inadequate had the courage of the defenders been as comparably stout as the eight feet of reinforced concrete which protected them.
Mines and booby traps were encountered by the thousands, yet only a small percentage of those actually disturbed were detonated. Freezing temperatures, snow, ice, and what might have been years of exposure to the elements had corroded and made unserviceable the detonating mechanisms.
By nightfall, the 2nd Battalion had seized high ground 1000 yards east of the Wilsam River, while the 1st Battalion secured high ground to the southeast overlooking the Lewart River. The 3rd Battalion, taking a more circuitous route in order to flank their objective, followed the 325th Glider Infantry through Neuhof and then turned south to come down on the left flank of the 2nd Battalion. During the night several heavy counterattacks supported by armor, artillery, and mortar fire were repulsed with high cost to the enemy.
The 3rd and 4th of February were characterized by vicious counterattacks of the enemy, all of which were repulsed, and on February 4, the regiment was relieved.
If the problems of supply and movement had been tough heretofore, they became even more so in this assault against the Siegfried defenses. For two days it was necessary to haul supplies for five miles across streams, over precipitous, ice-glazed hills and through trailless forests by means of carrying parties. Even the iniquitous “Weasel” was immobilized until the last day when 307th Airborne Engineers charted and plowed a trail up as far as the Wilsam River.
After several uncomfortable days spent in the shell-racked, almost uninhabitable village of Grand Halleux, taken by the 504 in the previous month, the regiment moved by truck across the German border to Schmithof, a railroad stop In the first belt of Siegfried defenses.
Here, at rest for the first time on the wrong side of the International Boundary, troops were exposed to the evils of fraternization. However, if the germ existed at all, it was promptly rendered impotent by an explosive “non-fraternization” movie and a set of iron-clad rules backed up by a “We aren’t kidding” monetary fine. There were no obvious violations of the non-fraternization code. On February 13, the regiment was moved to the west bank of the Roer River, where they were to remain and prepare for a crossing of the raging stream. After daily postponing this river crossing, attendant upon a lower water level, the 504 was relieved, spiritually as well as physically, on the 19th of February.
With an overnight stop-over at Schmithof, the regiment proceeded to Aachen, where they entrained in “40 and 8’s” for a trip back to the base at Sissone, France. The former camp, however, had been transformed into two General Hospitals in the regiment’s absence, and the 504 was once again moved-this time to Laon, 17 miles from Sissone. Life, molded and compressed to the limitations of a garrison existence, had once again, in the words of one battle-worn paratrooper, “become GI as hell.”