The FReeper Foxhole Revisits John Kline & The Bulge (Dec. 16-19, 1944) - December 17th, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.

The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer.

If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions.

We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

The FReeper Foxhole Revisits
John Kline & The Bulge
(Dec. 16-19, 1944)

The following story is from the "War Diary" of John Kline, a nineteen year old Squad Leader, Heavy Machine guns, 2nd squad, 1st Platoon, M Company, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division.

12/11/44

We left the woods near St Vith for front line positions. Our 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 we would learn to remember, Schönberg, was 9 miles east of St Vith and 3 miles west of our positions. We were facing the German troops from emplacements on the East slopes [reverse slopes] of the German Siegfried Line, known as "The German West Wall." We took over positions held by the 2nd Infantry Division and exchanged much of our new equipment for their old. 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. My machine gun position was a log bunker with field of fire obstructed by dense forest. Conditions were quiet. Excellent chow was served twice a day. 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. They, the crystal gazers, were right. A static defense line was not the answer for a thinly spread force. Any penetration through our lines would result in disaster.



M Company, 423rd Regiment, was assigned positions along the front line to support the rifle companies. An Infantry heavy weapons company, like ours, is equipped with 81 mm mortars and water cooled 30 caliber machine guns. A rifle company, is equipped with automatic weapons and mortars, but they are 60 mm mortars and air cooled machine guns. Our duty is to support the various rifle companies of the 3rd Battalion, 423rd Regiment. They are, I, K and L Companies. Such was our deployment along the tree covered ridge atop the Schnee Eifel.

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. We completed our changeover with the 2nd Division as darkness came. We had no time to become acquainted with the territory around our new positions. Because of that, and since were fresh and inexperienced troops, our first night was unforgettable. We were facing, for the first time, an enemy that we only knew from newsreels and training films. It was a sleepless and anxiety filled night.

I can personally confirm that a snow covered tree stump will actually move. That is, if you stare at it long enough - and if you are a young, nineteen year old machine gun squad leader peering, into the darkness, towards the enemy through a slit in a machine gun bunker. Every sound is amplified, every bush could be an enemy crawling towards you. Your eyes grow bleary from staring into the darkness. You are happy when the relieve 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.



There were two gun emplacements (bunkers) for my machine gun squad. One was higher on the hill, and the other a couple of hundred yards down the slope. When we first moved in, our gun position was in the lower bunker. After the first night we were asked to move back up the slope, to the alternate bunker. For what reason, I don't know. We did appreciate the move, for the alternate bunker was much warmer and drier. As in the lower bunker, there were "trip lines" running from the bunker down into the forest and through the barbed wire. The lines were attached to hand grenades and flares that were placed in their shipping containers attached to the trees. If we detected movement in the area beyond the barbed wire we could pull a trip line. This would cause a grenade to explode, after it was pulled from its container. A flare could be ignited to light up the area in the same manner. Our 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.

I remember one day being convinced that I could see a vehicle, in the woods, several hundred yards down the hill. The contours of the hill and the thick forest were playing games with my imagination. When I looked at it from another vantage point, the illusion disappeared. There was one rifleman to the left of my bunker. He was entrenched in a log covered foxhole. According to members of the patrols, this rifleman was the last person between my machine gun emplacement and the 422nd Regiment. The 422nd Regiment was reported to be five miles across a valley. The two regiments sent alternate patrols across the unoccupied space each half hour. They reported very little German activity.



The first days passed without incident. The most excitement we had in my bunker area was when a nearby 50 caliber machine gun started blasting away. The gunner had become bored and decided to kill a deer. We left the bunker area twice daily to eat our meals in a mess tent. It was back of us, to the West, on the opposite side of the hill. To get to it we had to walk along a trail, through a clearing, and down the other side. The Germans had the clearing zeroed in. As we crossed the clearing, we had to be prepared to hit the ground in case they decided to harass us. The 2nd Division's squad leader that I relieved, said two men had been killed crossing the clearing a few days ago. Our daily trips to the mess tent were something to look forward too. The food was good and the Mess Sergeant seemed to be friendlier since we have moved up to the front lines. I did enjoy those meals, there were generous portions and we could chat with the others and get brought up to date on the local news.

12/16/44--12/17/44

History shows "The Battle of the Bulge" started at 0530 on the morning of December 16, 1944. 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 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 81,00 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.



My division, the 106th Infantry Division suffered 416 killed in action, 1,246 wounded and 7,001 men missing in action. Most of these casualties occurred within the first three days of battle when two of the three regiments were forced to surrender. In losses - the German Ardennes Offensive, later to become known as "The Battle of the Bulge," was the worst battle for the Americans in World War II.

Our company commander set up his headquarters in one of the enormous Siegfried Line bunkers. The bunker was not completely demolished, as they usually were. The underground rooms were intact and accessible. He had taken a room several flights down. The command bunker was on a crest of a hill. The firing apertures faced west towards Belgium, the backside towards the present German lines. There were steep slopes on either side, with signs and white caution tape warning of "Mine Fields." There was a pistol belt and canteen hanging in one of the trees on the slope. Apparently, some GI had wandered into the mine field.

German activity was reported along our front on the 17th (remember the Bulge started on the 16th). The commander called me back to the command post. He informed me that I should be prepared to move my gun to his area to protect the commandpost. While visiting with him, I noticed that he was very nervous. His 45 Colt pistol was on the table, ready for action. Our Master Sergeant who was also present, seemed equally concerned. Later I was to learn the reason for their anxiety. I suspect, in retrospect, that they had been made aware of the German breakthrough. Yet did not yet know the importance of the news.



While in the vicinity of the command post bunker, I watched a U.S. Army Air Corps P-47 Thunderbolt chase a German Messerschmitt (ME 109) through the sky. They passed directly in front of us. Our area being one of the highest on the Schnee Eifel, gave us a clear view of the surrounding valleys. 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.

As it turned out, my machine gun was not moved to the command post. During the night of the 17th we heard gunfire, small arms, mortars and artillery. We also could hear and see German rocket fire to the South. The German rocket launcher was five barreled and of large caliber. The rocket launcher is called a "Nebelwerfer." Due to their design, the rockets make a screaming sound as they fly through the air. Using high explosives, but not very accurate, they can be demoralizing if you are in their path of flight.

12/18/44



On the morning of the 18th I was instructed to report to the mess tent for a briefing. As I was walking to the tent I noticed two German prisoners being guarded by an American GI. They were setting under a tree near the mess tent. During the briefing we were told that the Germans had broken through our supply lines. This turned out to be true, however, we were not informed of how grave the situation was. The facts were ,as you will read later, that we were cut off from the rest of the division early in the morning of the 17th. The artillery and rockets that we 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. 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 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. We were like a boulder protruding from the middle of a stream. This proved the military strategists to be correct. A mountain is not the place to be when you have no support.

But, I am getting ahead of my story....

---

---

FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[Iris7]

Been reading The Fleet the Gods Forgot, W.G. Winslow, who served aboard USS Houston.

In 1942 New Guinea was really, really a near run thing. MacArthur made Guadalcanal happen mostly to take pressure off of New Guinea, the Coral Sea battle was to stop the Japanese landing on the southern shore of New Guinea, and then on to Australia, all that. Australia came to within an inch of having hordes of Japanese landing. Pressure and extreme danger was, in retrospect, not over until after Guadalcanal and Midway.

So those Asiatic Fleet lads paid a huge price, all that mortality can bear. Could be, I think so, they bought just the time absolutely needed to defend Australia.

The war ran real close in 1941 and 1942. How about the Third Reich occupying Egypt and tying in with the Japanese by sea across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea? Hmmm??

Hadn't realized you had done so much work on the von Rundstedt offensive. Lots of fine rear guards and last stands in those hills. Running around blowing those bridges must have been fun, well, for a younger man than I! I bet Joachim Pieper was disgusted.

Speaking of Pieper, he survived the war. "Thoroughly disillusioned with the "new Germany," he retired to rural seclusion in eastern France. In 1976, French communists orchestrated a campaign to drive him from the country. He refused to leave, and on the night of 14 July, Bastille Day, after having sent his wife to safety in Germany, he was killed in a fire-bomb attack on his home."

Brave Communists, brave Frenchmen, burn a guy out in the middle of the night.

Hope you don't find offensive that I write both to you and for the other readers, good folks with varying backgrounds in this sort of stuff. My obsession with geopolitics, grand strategy, and battle stories is not shared by many!!

[colorado tanker]

Except for the camouflage, it looks like the one-stacker in "The Enemy Below."

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the personal look at the Bulge. The 106th sure took a mean hit right across the chops.

I'm not sure why I find the Bulge such an interesting battle. Maybe it's because there were so many desperate fights and acts of heroism.

My mother-in-law said Christmas 1944 was colored by the whole country desperate for news from the front and hoping for the best.

Have fun with the party!

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the personal look at the Bulge. The 106th sure took a mean hit right across the chops.

I'm not sure why I find the Bulge such an interesting battle. Maybe it's because there were so many desperate fights and acts of heroism.

My mother-in-law said Christmas 1944 was colored by the whole country desperate for news from the front and hoping for the best.

Have fun with the party!

[colorado tanker]

I enjoy your comments, Iris7.I would feel much better about Rummy if he didn't seem to have such a grudge against the Army and armor in particular. I would hope the experience of the Iraq war would make him understand that heavy units are still needed.

[SAMWolf]

McCain is as bad as the Libs, he'll use anything to get himself in the News.

[SAMWolf]

I find the Bulge to be a fascinating battle.

According to his biography, Pieper's body was found in the ashes along with an empty pistol, looks like he went out fighting.

"Those Damned Engineers" is an excellent read on how small units slowed down Pieper's advance and finally helped to cut him off in La Gleize.

Your comments are more than welcome here Iris7. We learn new stuff here every day becasue of our readers.

[alfa6]

Sorry I am late with the Christmas Cartoon today, night shift is fun :-)

Regards

alfa6 :>}

[SAMWolf]

Maybe it's because there were so many desperate fights and acts of heroism.

I know that's part of it for me.

[SAMWolf]

LOL! Could be the "Anti-Christmas" Police too.

[tomball]

Hello, Foxhole

Excellent thread for an ice cold, sunny Friday. 

 

 

 

"My first assignment was as a "Jeep" driver for the 2nd squad, 1st Platoon - a machine-gun squad (30 cal water-cooled). After a short time as Jeep driver, I requested to join the squad for whom I drove. I was given the position of "second gunner." Shortly after that my Squad Leader was sent to a replacement depot for an overseas assignment. I then made "first gunner." Then, again, the new squad leader was sent to a replacement depot at which time I became "acting squad leader." A few days before we embarked on the Queen Elizabeth to England, in October 1944, I was made Sergeant - machine gun squad leader. That was my rank and duty until I was captured in The Battle of the Bulge on 19 December 1944.

As a prisoner I walked a total of approximately 525 miles. One hundred and ten miles from the point of capture on the German-Belgium border to Stalag 12-A (German prison camp), Limburg, Germany. We never entered the camp, but were loaded into box-cars, 60 men to a box-car. We then traveled seven days, six nights in the 40&8 box-cars (Originally built for 40 men or 8 horses) to Stalag 4-B, Muhlberg, Germany (on the Elbe River). Due to bombing raids and bad tracks our trip was much longer than normal. We did not get out of the box-cars during the whole trip. Our toilet facility for 60 men was a 5 gallon bucket. We were fed only three times during the trip. A slice of bread and a small, very small portion of cheese, water only twice. We used a can on a string to scoop snow from the tracks. "

Personal History - Sergeant John Kline

106th Infantry Division - WW II

 

 

 

 

[Professional Engineer]

ROFLOL

[GailA]

It finally turned fairly nice...low 50's with SUN.

[Soaring Feather]

Hi snippy!

[SAMWolf]

Afternoon tomball.

[PhilDragoo]

Thank you for the informative thread. It was of course Rumsfeld's fault.

GrrrRUMSFELD!

[snippy_about_it]

Hiya tomball.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks ct. The food was yummy. Sam got coffee and I got a bowl. :-)

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Stick 'em up Santa.

[snippy_about_it]

I'd be sad if you stopped commenting.