6 December 1944
Subject:
Unit History for November
To: S-1, 112th
Infantry
The 1st finds us in the Hurtgen
Forest about one half mile west of Germeter.
Everybody has plenty of cash in his pocket, being that yesterday was
payday. The irony is that there is no place to spend it.
On the 2nd, an attack was launched by the battalion at 9:30
against Vossenack,
which proved successful, and the C. was established in the cellar of a house
300 yards east of the shell battered church. PFC Robert Somerville was
evacuated due to wounds caused by a smoke shell. Sgt. Delay, T/Sgt.
Harry G. Umbenhauer and PFC Andrew Pelech were wounded by antipersonnel
mines. Umbenhauer and Pelech both died from their wounds.
Delay was evacuated by the medics. Cpl. William O'Brien was also wounded
and evacuated.
The night of the 2nd was comparatively quiet, although the
enemy resumed shelling the following morning. All movement was kept at a
minimum, due to the fact that we were disposed on a ridge which stood out like
a sore
thumb, and the enemy had excellent observation of the ridge, not only from
the east, but from the high ground near Brandenberg and Bergstein to the
northeast as well.
On the 3rd, PFC Willard Radcliffe was wounded and
evacuated.
On the morning of the 4th, Pvts. Robert Oak and Donald
Corcoran were killed by fragments of a mortar shell which landed near
them. In the evening the CP was moved to a more secure shelter about a
hundred yards west of the church.
In the meantime, the shelling of our position by the enemy
grows steadily more
intense. The only let-up is at night, and during the daylight hours,
only when our planes are flying overhead. Sometimes the enemy fires in
spite of the planes.
The tempo of the enemy fire seemed to continually increase
until the morning of the 6th, F and G companies, after having received the
direct fire deflected flak guns and 88s, not to mention the artillery
and mortar fire, for three consecutive days and nights, withdrew.
As a consequence of this, we built
up a line on both sides of the CP. The A & P Platoon defended
the north side of the road, and the Communications Platoon defended the south
side. Considering the intensity of the shellfire, an enemy counterattack
seemed inevitable.
During the day the Battalion was strengthened by the 146th
Combat Engineer Battalion, but not before the enemy had retaken the ground
as far out as the church. Pvt. Louis Rothstein was
wounded and evacuated.
On the 7th Major
General Cota came up to look over the situation, and he must have had his
Guardian Angel along with him, for during his stay and for some minutes after
he left, not a shell landed in the area.
On the
night of the 8th, we were relived by the 2nd Battalion of the 109th
Infantry, and what men were left withdrew to the draw west of Germeter, where
we were picked up by trucks and taken to the rear.
Robert F. Flynn
1st Lt. 112th
Inf.
Unit History
"Huertgen Forest"
"Entering the Huertgen Forest, thick with dark green fir
trees seventy-five to a hundred feet tall, so densely interwoven that they
obscure the sky, a man might experience for the first time the stifling
embrace of the kind of forests he had heard or read about in old German
folk tales. Like Hansel and Gretel, he might be inclined to drop things
behind him to mark his path." Charles MacDonald, The Battle of
the Huertgen Forest, 5.
"Behind them and in front of them, surrounding them
on all sides, they saw dark rain-saturated forest. It had the feel of
some nether region, foul with the offal of war. The broken muddy trails
were pock-marked and heavily cratered by shells and mines. The
splintered trees added to the sense of ruin. Rotting, sodden garments
clung to hideous scraps of green flesh that yet bore an obscene resemblance to
the living. tins, helmets, boots, tools, spent cartridges and old mines
lay about in the dark and muddied confusion. In it there seemed the
breath of despair." R. W. Thompson, The Battle for the
Rhineland, 35.
"No one could have known it at the time, but this
battalion was destined to fight here for almost a week and to lose most of its
men in the process." Charles MacDonald, The Battle of the
Huertgen Forest, 74.
"Germeter"
" . . . the 112th regiment advanced out of Germeter in a
state of innocence most terrible to contemplate, and to meet the worst
disaster on a divisional level to befall U.S. troops in the campaign in
north-west Europe." Thompson, The Battle for the Rhineland,
38.
"The men moved close up behind the tanks, keeping in
their tracks for safety against mines. But safety was gone. Upon
the instant, as the barrage lifted, the enemy artillery came down upon the
forward positions all along the line, accurate and deadly, killing and maiming
men as they rose up from cover to go forward." Thompson,
41.
"Vossenack"
" . . . the 2nd battalion, 112th infantry, under Lt.
Colonel Hatzfeld, had attacked with a company of tanks from Germeter to clear
the Vossenack Ridge. Assault guns from the Brandenberg-Bergstein Ridge
knocked out several tanks, but the spinelike village of Vossenack was in hand
by early afternoon. As the tanks sought cover among the damaged
buildings, the infantry began to dig in along the exposed northeastern nose of
the ridge." MacDonald, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest,
96.
"anti-personnel mines"
"One man stepped on a booby trap, and a second man moving to
pick him up stepped on another, touching off a chain of five anti-personnel
mines. Twelve men of the headquarters group were killed or wounded in
the minefield within four hundred yards of the start." Thompson,
42.
"stood out like a sore
thumb"
"Uncomfortably aware that the enemy
was watching from the Brandenberg-Bergstein Ridge, more than one man
questioned why they had to defend from the open ground when they might
accomplish the same thing from concealed positions in the fringe of the
village. The only answer was that some planning officer poring over the
map had drawn a goose egg with a grease pencil over the nose of the
ridge. Here the men were to go; here the men were to stay. It was
as rudimentary and obtuse as that." MacDonald, The Battle of
Huertgen Forest, 97.
"more intense"
" . . . the 2nd Battalion, bothered but little by enemy
artillery the first night in its Vossenack Ridge positions, retained its
defensive role. The men noticed an increase in enemy shelling on 3
November, and those on the forward slopes of the exposed ridge discovered they
could not move from their holes in daylight without drawing the fury of enemy
artillery and mortars. The ridge became more and more pock-marked
with the eruption of shells . . and the building housing the battalion command
post was hit several times. Night brought intermittent relief from
the shelling and became a period of almost frantic resupply."
Charles MacDonald, Three Battles, 285-6.
" . . . Germans began concentrating mortar and
artillery fire on successive individual foxholes, firing round after round at
each one until they killed its inhabitants. Then they shifted fire to
the next hole and began the process over again. It was a cold-blooded,
nerve-shattering, and extremely effective device. Defenders knew they
would continue to face imminent death every hour they remained on the
Vossenack Ridge." Cecil B. Curry, Follow Me and Die: The
Destruction of an American Division in WW2, 112.
"withdrew"
"The men of Company G had enough. Panic-ridden, many of
them suddenly grabbed wildly at their equipment and broke for the
rear.... The disorderly retreat became a snowball, carrying with it any
who chanced to be in its path.
"The
Company F commander, Lieutenant Kauffman, witnessed the retreat from his own
command post in a building near the eastern edge of town and immediately
realized it endangered the situation of his own unit.... Kauffman
ordered his platoon leaders to withdraw their men to the line of buildings and
there to hold. The platoons began to withdraw in small groups, but there
was no control. The mushrooming effect of the retreat had spread too
quickly, and the men could not be stopped when they reached the
houses." MacDonald, Three Battles, 344.
" 'It was the saddest sight I have ever seen,'
Lieutenant Condon of Company E reported later. 'Down the road from the
east came men from F, G, and E Companies: pushing shoving, throwing away
equipment, trying to outrace the artillery and each other, all in a frantic
effort to escape. They were all scared and excited. Some were
terror-stricken. Some were helping the slightly wounded to run, and many
of the badly-wounded, probably hit by artillery, were lying in the road where
they fell, screaming for help. It was a heart-breaking, demoralizing
scene.' " quoted in Whiting, The Battle of Hurtgen Forest,
83.
"we built up a line"
"Despite continuous withdrawals of individuals and small
groups, by about 1030 a line had been established with approximately seventy
men, who, fortunately, had retained their weapons. No one seemed
to have any illusions about the solidity of such a defensive force, but at
least for the time being the retreat had been blocked." MacDonald,
Three Battles, 353.
"146th Combat Engineer
Battalion"
"The 1st Platoon on the right
(south), using run and duck tactics which involved advancing in short rushes
singly or in pairs, reached the crossroads and captured the church, taking
eight or ten German prisoners at the cost of approximately five engineers
wounded. Other men of the platoon too a building on the right of the
church. By nightfall the company had established itself completely in
everything west of the church." MacDonald, Three Battles,
360.
"Cota came up"
"In the early afternoon, General Dutch Cota paid his only
recorded visit to any divisional unit during the entire course of the
Schmidt-Kommerscheidt-Vossenack action.... Cota remained in the
Vossenack command post for half an hour. Lieutenant Jim Condon remarked
in surprise that during Cota's visit 'not a single artillery shell fell, the
first such lull in six days.' The respite did not last long. 'Five
minutes after he left it started all over again. One shell landed in the
exact spot where his jeep had been parked.' " Curry, Follow Me
and Die, 199.
"On the night of the 8th"
"Surviving soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 112th
Infantry Regiment, began their withdrawal shortly after dark. Even that
was not easy. Corporal Joe Philpot, of G Company, told how on the way
back, 'A lucky barrage fell on us and 1st Lieutenant Julian Ferrier and 1st
Sergeant Dale Todd were hit. Medics took care of them. The rest of
us continued on back for what seemed like three miles through heavy mud up to
our knees.' Finally they were picked up by trucks and driven to a rear
kitchen area, where they ate and pitched tents." Curry, 200.
"On Wednesday, November 8, in a drenching rainstorm,
the haggard, battle-worn survivors of the 112th . . . began their withdrawal
to the Kall. As darkness fell, every man was ordered to strip down to
absolute essentials. All remaining equipment, including the three
surviving tanks, was to be wrecked as silently as possible. The Germans
were not to know the Americans were retreating.
"As the covering artillery began to thunder, the men slung
greatcoats between poles to fashion litters and makeshift stretchers that
would be used for taking the many wounded down the trail." Whiting,
92.
"Lt. Col. Hatzfeld"
"Early in the afternoon [Nov. 6] Colonel Hatzfeld, while
sitting hopelessly in the battalion command post, finally collapsed into
tears. So many hours had gone by without the arrival of reinforcements
he had earlier asked for. In a state of shock, Hatzfeld left for
Germeter with the avowed intention of obtaining help. It was, said his
S-1 personnel officer, Captain Nesbitt, 'the last we ever saw of
him.'
"When he arrived at the Germeter
aid station in hasty dismay, medics tagged Hatzfeld as a casualty with a
sprained ankle. According to Captain Pruden, Hatzfeld was of little
assistance after the first two days of incessant artillery fire.
Overwhelmed with grief at the terrible ordeal visited upon his battalion, he
suffered almost complete nervous collapse."
Curry, 168-9.
"it is a lot more quiet here"
"In late November, the veteran 28th Infantry
Division, having lost five thousand men in bloody fighting in the Hurtgen
Forest, replaced another division that had been resting in the Ardennes,
taking over a 25 mile front along the Our River all the way south to the
juncture of the Our and the Sure. In effect, the 28th held nothing more
than an outpost line." MacDonald, A Time for Trumpets,
83,84.
Honor Roll of the
Fallen
