Posted on 08/05/2004 10:45:35 PM PDT by snippy_about_it
Morning Aeronaut.
Morning E.G.C. Overcast this morning but just a little drizzle so far.
Good Morning Alfa6.
Thanks for the pictures Matt.
I have heard nothing over here in the news about the Polish Troops be engaged.
Good Morning Feather
Morning Mayor.
Maybe it had something to do with the Nuns telling you you were gonna "burn in hell" for every minor infraction of the school rules. ;-)
Morning PE.
Congrats Samwise! Nice pictures. What's that Corsair next to the flag made out of?
Morning CholeraJoe.
Thanks for the great piece on my fathers Division. He was a staff sgt with the 137th in Company A. Like most vets he doesn't talk much about his three days in combat but I've gleaned enough from the web and from his few letters to have an overall impression of what Hell must have been like in the hedgerows. He was wounded at a fortified church called St-Gilles. Then he was wounded a second time while being evacuated back to Omaha Beach. He turned 86 yesterday and I'm as proud of him as I am thankful for his survival. There are fewer than a dozen men left that he hit the beach with left now at their annual reunion in Atchison Kansas. The men in the 35th were replaced at least three times during the course of the war. God Bless them all in every Division. Every man of them is a hero.
I thank your dad for his Service.
Battling against fierce resistance, through entrenched positions, the men moved up the main road to famed "Purple Heart Corner." Here, in a solid stone chateau, behind a seven-foot granite wall, had been the Gestapo Headquarters. The Germans had studded it with machine guns which covered the road with withering fire. More Santa Fe men fell. But the steady advance was not to be stopped. By now the Santa Fe's troops had tasted battle. The initial nervousness and fear that besets each man in combat had lost its newness. The Boche, they had discovered, was not an impregnable superman. He was a good fighter, but the doughboys had taken the best he had to offer and had driven him back.
Despite the loss of ground and many prepared positions, the enemy continued to fight stubbornly. A few hundred yards down the road, beyond "Purple Heart Corner," was his key defense in the area, the Church and the Chateau at St. Gilles. The Church was one of those pretty monuments that are often seen near the roadside in France. Erected in 1718 by the Corps de Denis, it stood sturdily by its quaint and well-kept cemetery, surrounded by several small buildings used by the church officials. The Church itself was built of sandstone and, like most edifices of that area, had walls eighteen inches in thickness. It was surmounted by a bell tower about fifty feet in height.
The beauty and sanctity of this haven did not prevent the enemy from converting it into a veritable fortress. It bristled with firepower and atop the bell tower was a German machine gun nest that commanded the approaches to the area. Close behind the church was a chateau, another thick-walled building with excellent facilities for fortification. To this building the enemy added embellishments of his own devising. A labor battalion of impressed Russians had been forced to build heavy reinforcements and a bomb shelter of concrete with walls three feet thick. Here the enemy was determined to make a last stand.
Colonel Grant Layng of Connecticut, Commanding Officer of the 137th Infantry, was wounded by machine gun fire during this battle, while Lieutenant Colonel John N. Wilson, Commanding Officer of the 219th Field Artillery Battalion and Captain John R. Kerr, artillery liaison officer, were killed.
Brigadier General E. B. Sebree, Assistant Division Commander, was placed in temporary command of the 137th when Colonel Layng was hit and continued in command during the day of 11 July until Colonel Harold R. Emery reported. Major Claude N. Shaver assumed command of the 219th Field Artillery Battalion.
The first enemy prisoners indicated that the Division was facing elements of the 897th and 899th Infantry Regiments, comprising the Kampf Gruppe Kentner.
Despite pounding by the artillery, the fortified strongpoint at St. Gilles could not be eliminated, and throughout the first day of combat the 137th was subjected to heavy machine gun and mortar fire as well as fire from 88 and 150mm artillery pieces.
Casualties in the regiment for this day's operations were 12 killed, 96 wounded and 18 missing in action.
The next day, the weather was cloudy and intermittent showers slowed down the attack. Finally the tank destroyers of the 654th Tank Destroyer Battalion attached to the 137th, and in conjunction with the 35th Reconnaissance Troop, an assault was made. Armor drove up to the church and fired point-blank into it. At 1045 elements of the 1st Battalion stormed the citadel and captured it. Continuing its attack the battalion reduced all resistance in the vicinity of St. Gilles by 1400, while the 3rd Battalion, after capturing an enemy strong position about 1000 yards south of St. Gilles at 1600, was held up by machine gun fire, mines and booby-traps.
The positions of the enemy were now highly untenable. Further resistance would only force him into the trap that the 3rd Battalion was closing. During the night he retreated.
Casualties on 12 July were seven killed, 74 wounded and seven missing for the 137th. Among these was Lieutenant John T. Graham of Company F, the first officer of the 137th to give his life in battle.
Good morning Aeronaut.
Good morning EGC.
TGIF. Good morning alfa6.
Only if you straighten it, because one corner is 1/16th inch lower.
Strange. If Poland isn't taking part then why the death threats from the terrorists for Poland to pull out?
We know you are there and so does Iraq. Poland has lost at least seven soldiers, certainly we know you are by our side.
Thanks for the pictures Matt.
Good morning feather.
Good morning Mayor. We are blessed with rain again today after weeks of having none. How goes the weather back east?
I love it. I know you all are very proud of the work you've done for our troops and I'm sure they appreciate it. Does a heart good. God Bless the Hobbit Hole and the work you all do.
Hey Samwise, are those longaberger baskets?
So Valin, have you ever been caught?
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