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Steven Ambrose Battle of the Bulge Trip
2024 |
 It rains and snows a lot. The entire week. Much like the Aldis grocery cart you can rent an umbrella at every hotel!  You can do your laundry outside in the Aldis parking lot!  There are Pizza vending machines at every corner. Fascinating. Popular... so I guess they are known for good pizza!
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 I’m one of the luckiest husbands in the world. One year ago today Annie gave me a birthday gift of a lifetime. Thanks “Doll”! You continue to amaze me! Two days ago the last site stop of our tour was to be Flamierge. That was where the 17th Air Borne Division., under appalling conditions of snow and fog, with poor intelligence, no air cover and inadequate artillery support ran head on into the numerically-superior infantry and panzer tank forces. Chris, our tour historian, crouched over the seat in front of me, explained in a hushed tone the narrow 2,250 yard high-rimmed farm pasture between the villages of Mande St. Etienne (to the east) and Flamierge (to the west), would be just off our left as we were to travel the farm road connecting the two villages Dad’s unit, “H” company, 3rd Bn of the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment tread there 80 years ago. January 7, 1944 at 0900 hours his battalion moved into its first attack of Flamierge. Assault companies G, H & I moved rapidly forward in the cold, grey and foggy morning. Visibility was less than 100 yards. They attacked in a narrow “V” column of companies to seize their originally assigned sectors in Flamierge. The village of Flamierge was taken, and the battalion was organized well enough to meet a counterattack by 1300 hours. In taking the objective the battalion had killed about thirty Germans and had knocked out one Mark IV and one Mark V tank. The tour group emptied the bus near the small village memorial commemorating the 17th. Chris our historian, gave a short description to the attack to the group, people took pictures and I just stared across the field my Dad had ran despite the knee deep snow. Chris then told everyone to get back on the bus while he and I walked to the church square a stones throw away, and then further to the village’s north side. The rest of the tour followed in the bus while he explained. Your Dad’s company was assigned this sector of the village he told me. Over the course of the night the company took turns, spend two hours alternating between manning the skirmish line and warming in the building still there today. Accounts indicate they were repeatedly counterattacked with mortar, tank, and machine-gun fire. Then foot infantry yet Company “H” checked the assault. It was an amazing dream all to vividly made clear with Chris’s words. Thank you Dad! Thank you Annie!!!  The 80th infantry division was all draftees. Mostly 18-20 year old high school graduates. His Dad was a medic. He was injured and returned home.  Dad is the center soldier in the FlAg photo. Still learning about his mission as intelligence and morale booster. I'm told by folks who knew him that he was quite a cheerleader so it makes some sense that he kept boosting spirits!  What a trip! To see where our Fathers fought!  Day 4 Today’s tour began in St. Vith at the 106th Infantry Division memorial and an overview of the sites to be visited A story of the Battle of the Bulge’s most unappreciated infantry division. The 106th Infantry Division gets a bad-rap due to its controversial surrender. It constitutes the second largest surrender by US forces in WWII (aproxly 6000 soldiers). In hind-sight, the cause was largely due to a misleading commitment of support forces by higher command, a frontline force inadequate for the extent of the front to be successfully defended and the inadequate equipping of solders manning that front. We next visited the 168th Engineer Battalion Monument where a hodge-podge thrown- together bunch (350) of combat engineers were ordered from their normal divisional infrastructure support duties into infantry action fending off a force of 500 infantry, 150 tanks and 75 armored vehicles. They were given rifles, grenades and string mines. They heroically were over-run in 6 precious hours. Half the battalion KIA or wounded. The other half captured. Next it was on to the Capt. Eric Fisher Wood Memorial. He was a member of B battery 589th field artillery battalion when his retreating group was over-run by German armored vehicles. Captain Wood escaped towards the right while other members of the two trucks, were ejected to the left side of the road and immediately captured. Wood ran up and disappeared into a heavily forested hillside. Accounts from local villagers in area reported periodic small arms fire during subsequent days. Wood’s remains were found Feb ‘45 as allied forces re-captured lost ground. Wood was found surrounded by the remains of seven German soldiers. His M1 Grand rifle clip was found to have only 1 bullet left. Indicating the 7 bullets that were expended from the 8 bullet clip were spent in an extraordinarily accurate and Rambo-like fashion. The next site visited was shock, horror and pure serendipity. As we left our seats on the bus Annie picked out the next few American Flags from her napsak. She has traveled with 100 little American Flags with each having a WWII veteran’s name on it. She had picked out the flags randomly when we stopped. At the US Memorial of the Wereth 11 she unexpectly chose her father’s flag. The site memorializes the 333rd field artillery unit and the 11 soldiers trying to retreat from the German offensive. These 11 Black American soldiers were taken in by a local Wereth family and provided warmth and food. A neighboring German sympathizer family told German troops about this and the 11 were taken outside of the village and summarily tortured and murdered. Hearing this story, knowing Daniel Hart’s named flag had been placed aside the 11’s memorial stone… gave us both chills as our eyes met. Annie’s father had always respected Black Americans. Color didn’t blur the merits of a man in her father’s eyes. He was friends with Joe Louis, refereeing some “smoker” boxing events for servicemen entertainment. He was tennis hall of famer and humanitarian legend Aurther Ashe’s tennis coach. Indeed, It was serendipity that guided Annie’s hand today when she picked her fathers’s flag for this memorial. Chills! The next visit was up on a hill above the village of Schonberg. Our tour was lead up a long steep hill to a forested crossroad visited little but to a reverenced memory. Deep in the woods of history, 6000 US infantry soldiers were ordered to surrender by their regiment commanders. Men of the 106th Infantry Division’s 422nd and 423rd regiments reluctantly obeyed… but they knew, as the world eventually would realize later, their stand helped unbalance the German’s Ardennes Offensive timetable. Annie, having planted so many named flags before, was urged by our tour historian (Chris Andersen) to definitely bring a few more flags with her up the hill for this site visit. He said “this lost place without even a memorial stone or marker… deserves your gift of remembrance and our eternal respect.” Chills again! There were a few more sites visited (Bleialf & Scwarzer Mann). Their stories and ties to Kurt Vonnegut is a chill for another time. “Good night. Rest easy you troopers, you heroes, bonfires of freedom’s flame”   Day 2 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12 A unique view of the tour today byway of chronologically following the path of the SS Panzer Division commander PIEPER. His Division was the “tip of the spear” that lanced through the Ardennes forest Dec. 16, 1944. The tour began at the Sceid RR Bridge - the stepping off point for Peiper’s 12th SS panzer div. The importance of this bridge was that, right from the start, the planned “blitzkrieg” assault was delayed 10 hours. This vital bridge crossing had been blown by retreating German forces earlier in the fall. The occupying allied forces never repaired it and lead the first of many obstacles for Peiper’s panzers. Our next site was Lanzerath. While the miles long columns of Peiper’s division waited for bridge repair a battalion of his infantry airborne patrolled the proposed route later to be taken. An 18 man US Army platoon manned the high ground over the village and at 1100am spied the patrolling airborne battalion (600 soldiers) marching thru the village below. The skirmish commenced and 6 hours later the 18 are taken prisoner. The german airborne battalion suffer approxly 200-250 causalities (KIA or wounded) while the 18 making their last stand suffering only one casualty. Peiper’s columns finally get underway and in the wee hours of Dec. 17 the division makes it to Honsfelt, our next visited tour site. Due to US 1st Army high command’s disbelief it was a major German offensive, tactical planning and chain of command communications were slow to react causing greater American Casualties and continued disorder on the frontlines. 300 soldiers of the US 99th Infantry Division, all sleeping in the local village houses of Honsfelt were captured by German forces, and later in the afternoon, several prisoner (12 in one part of town & 8 in another) were taken out into the streets of the village and murdered. In the part of town where the 8 were executed, their bodies were intentionally left in the street and were pulverized into the pavement by the miles long column of tanks and mechanized vehicles. The POWs witnessing this atrocity were later forced to join the ranks of enemy columns and marched over their comrades. An oh so cruel torture of terror. Next on the tour was the village of Bullingen, where Peiper captures a US Army fuel depot. Retrieval of gas was vital to the success of the German offensive. There are more accounts US prisoner murdered. Next we visited Baugnex crossroads where at midafternoon on 17 December 84 American prisoners (285th forward observation field artillery battalion) were massacred. This was part of a series of terror intended war crimes committed by Peiper’s div. during the previous and following days. The 285th had been warned by Lt. Col Perigrine at a road block just outside of Malmedy that enemy activity was approaching on the road their battalion was intending to proceed. Driven by orders to get to St. Vith without undue delay, the 285th made a fateful choice. An acount by Lt. Col. Perigrine reported that 20 mins after departing the road block, mortar, small weapon and machine gun fire was heard from the direction the 150 man Batallion proceeded. It was dubbed the Malmedy Massacre due to AP journalists being in Malmedy when survivors found their way back to allied lines. Typical news reporting required journalist to have their stories screened and sanitized. Upon submitting to localized higher command, it was decided to bypass further command control (Gen. Bradley and Gen. Eisenhower) and put to ink. An extreme breach of protocol. Malmedy was the reporting AP station so thus the dubbed name. Allied Soldiers all over the Ardennes battle theater heard the news in following days and committed never to surrender no matter any circumstance. We visited a Halftrack Memorial in Stavelot, where on December 18, 1944, German soldiers from the Kampfgruppe Peiper armored battle group attacked Stavelot, crossing the strategic bridge into the village and capturing it. Between December 18–20, 1944, soldiers from Kampfgruppe Peiper murdered more than 100 civilians and American prisoners in Stavelot and the surrounding area. There were more sites visited, more stories shared, deeper appreciation forged, but our final visit today was a bridge between Neucy & Habiemont. It is where Peiper’s armored battle group was ultimately stopped and the point at which his retreat began. Personally, I felt an immediate sense of relief our tour’s end mirrored the end of such a harrowing historic chapter of the Battle of the Bulge. Day 2 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12 A unique view of the tour today byway of chronologically following the path of the SS Panzer Division commander PIEPER. His Division was the “tip of the spear” that lanced through the Ardennes forest Dec. 16, 1944. The tour began at the Sceid RR Bridge - the stepping off point for Peiper’s 12th SS panzer div. The importance of this bridge was that, right from the start, the planned “blitzkrieg” assault was delayed 10 hours. This vital bridge crossing had been blown by retreating German forces earlier in the fall. The occupying allied forces never repaired it and lead the first of many obstacles for Peiper’s panzers. Our next site was Lanzerath. While the miles long columns of Peiper’s division waited for bridge repair a battalion of his infantry airborne patrolled the proposed route later to be taken. An 18 man US Army platoon manned the high ground over the village and at 1100am spied the patrolling airborne battalion (600 soldiers) marching thru the village below. The skirmish commenced and 6 hours later the 18 are taken prisoner. The german airborne battalion suffer approxly 200-250 causalities (KIA or wounded) while the 18 making their last stand suffering only one casualty. Peiper’s columns finally get underway and in the wee hours of Dec. 17 the division makes it to Honsfelt, our next visited tour site. Due to US 1st Army high command’s disbelief it was a major German offensive, tactical planning and chain of command communications were slow to react causing greater American Casualties and continued disorder on the frontlines. 300 soldiers of the US 99th Infantry Division, all sleeping in the local village houses of Honsfelt were captured by German forces, and later in the afternoon, several prisoner (12 in one part of town & 8 in another) were taken out into the streets of the village and murdered. In the part of town where the 8 were executed, their bodies were intentionally left in the street and were pulverized into the pavement by the miles long column of tanks and mechanized vehicles. The POWs witnessing this atrocity were later forced to join the ranks of enemy columns and marched over their comrades. An oh so cruel torture of terror. Next on the tour was the village of Bullingen, where Peiper captures a US Army fuel depot. Retrieval of gas was vital to the success of the German offensive. There are more accounts US prisoner murdered. Next we visited Baugnex crossroads where at midafternoon on 17 December 84 American prisoners (285th forward observation field artillery battalion) were massacred. This was part of a series of terror intended war crimes committed by Peiper’s div. during the previous and following days. The 285th had been warned by Lt. Col Perigrine at a road block just outside of Malmedy that enemy activity was approaching on the road their battalion was intending to proceed. Driven by orders to get to St. Vith without undue delay, the 285th made a fateful choice. An acount by Lt. Col. Perigrine reported that 20 mins after departing the road block, mortar, small weapon and machine gun fire was heard from the direction the 150 man Batallion proceeded. It was dubbed the Malmedy Massacre due to AP journalists being in Malmedy when survivors found their way back to allied lines. Typical news reporting required journalist to have their stories screened and sanitized. Upon submitting to localized higher command, it was decided to bypass further command control (Gen. Bradley and Gen. Eisenhower) and put to ink. An extreme breach of protocol. Malmedy was the reporting AP station so thus the dubbed name. Allied Soldiers all over the Ardennes battle theater heard the news in following days and committed never to surrender no matter any circumstance. We visited a Halftrack Memorial in Stavelot, where on December 18, 1944, German soldiers from the Kampfgruppe Peiper armored battle group attacked Stavelot, crossing the strategic bridge into the village and capturing it. Between December 18–20, 1944, soldiers from Kampfgruppe Peiper murdered more than 100 civilians and American prisoners in Stavelot and the surrounding area. There were more sites visited, more stories shared, deeper appreciation forged, but our final visit today was a bridge between Neucy & Habiemont. It is where Peiper’s armored battle group was ultimately stopped and the point at which his retreat began. Personally, I felt an immediate sense of relief our tour’s end mirrored the end of such a harrowing historic chapter of the Battle of the Bulge. |
Annie Hart CoolAnnie is a avid traveler and sometime writer, philosopher and cheerleader. 
Daniel J Hart
Donald E Cool. Age 19
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