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continuing...

As for the kind of training the unit received before heading to war, it began, as we said, in late 1942 at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, where the unit fell into step with the IV, XV and III Corps of the Third Army. It ended a year later, between late September and early November, 1943, when the unit finished up its field training by taking part in one of the largest field maneuvers ever held by the Third Army. With their preliminary training now behind them, the unit left Louisiana for Camp Howze, Texas, where they were placed under the X Corps, Third Army, for another year of advanced training, and to prepare for war.

By September, 1944, they were headed for Europe, and by November they had already had their first taste of combat.

But we get ahead of ourselves.

Number of ASTP Graduates That Joined The 103rd Signal Company
Training University	Number Of Men
Texas A&M	10
Oklahoma University	7
North Texas State College	5
Oklahoma A&M	4
North East Junior College, Louisiana	1
Total:	27

One of the reasons it took so long to stand up the 103rd Signal Company was because it was a communications company. In those days finding qualified men to handle what was then considered sophisticated electronics equipment was difficult. In order to find and bring these men into the service, the Department of War scoured the U.S., seeking out young men of above average intelligence, and offering them specialized training in a program called the Army Specialized Training Program, or ASTP.

For the newly graduated Army Signal OCS Officers of the 103rd Signal Company the ASTP was a God-send, as it brought into the unit men already trained in communication, needing only training as to how the military functioned and what role they played in it. For those EM that passed through ASTP they could expect to receive training in fields such as electronics and general engineering, specialized technical skills, foreign languages, security, and even medicine.

For the most part, the men who graduated went on to serve as Enlisted Men, at least that's what happened in the 103rd Signal Company. However it was possible if a man showed exceptional potential to be promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. A program clearly intended to help meet wartime demand, most ASTP training was conducted at American universities throughout the country, but particularly in the South Central states.

Slowly then, over the latter part of 1942 and into 1943, men and materials began to trickle into the 103rd Signal Company. Twenty one men came into the 103rd Signal Company from the 85th Division Signal Company. Another couple of men, newly promoted NCOs, showed up in November, 1942, from the Midwestern Signal Corps School, one of the ASTP schools. All told, by the end of 1942, there were 250 Officers and men in the 103rd Signal Company, all being led by a newly promoted Army Signal OCS graduate named Captain Bernard Beck.

As to what these men did, their duty lay in supplying to the 103rd Infantry Division itself all required radio, telephone/teletype and messenger service communications, from Regimental Headquarters up through Division HQ level, to the 6th Corps. And for good measure, the boys of the 103rd also built and maintained the communication networks that formed the lateral backbone from Division Headquarters down to the many attached support units, such as the heavy artillery units, tank destroyers and anti-aircraft operations.

All in all, the Company was composed of 5 normal Sections and 1 Special Ops Section: telephone, telegraph, teletype, messenger, and radio communications, plus cryptographic code services on the Special Ops side. For a bunch of newly minted Second Lieutenants fresh out of OCS, the new Officers that led this group had their hands full. As to how the Company worked within the Division, while the bulk of it was located at the forward Division Command Post, other elements of the 103rd Signal Company were assigned to work within various sections of the Regiments involved.[1]

By January, 1944, the 103rd Infantry Division was coming along nicely in terms of preparing for its role in war, with the 103rd Signal Company doing the same. Located at Camp Howze, Texas, when graduates of the ASTP programs arrived for their posting they were surprised to find out that while upon entering ASTP training they had been promised service in the Pacific, now, as members of the 103rd, they were heading to the ETO.

While few knew it, the reason for this was that bickering had broken out between the U.S. and Britain as to how much effort should be put into the North African Campaign. Eisenhower was against the campaign, on the whole, while Churchill was ready to bet his life on it. The problem, as Eisenhower saw it, was that the campaign was a draw on the men and machinery he needed for OPEREATION OVERLORD. Because of this, there was an urgent need to find more men… to support both the campaign in North Africa, plans for the crossing of the English Channel, and the invasion of Sicily and Italy. As far as Eisenhower was concerned, if Churchill was going to keep running around starting his own little campaigns, then the war in the Pacific was going to have to wait. He needed men and materials for his own tactical operations, and if Churchill was going to rob him of some of those men, then he was going to get what he needed from the PTO.

By February 1944, the 103rd Infantry Division, and its Signal Company, were ready to join the war. The only question was when and where. As it turned out, with the invasion of Sicily and Italy underway, and elements of the US 7th Army stuck on Anzio beach, and the continuing head butting between U.S. and British political and military leaders over how to prosecute the war, where and when to insert the 103rd into the equation kept changing. Rather than send them out to land, say, in Italy, only to be shuttled up the coast to France, or back to England to be held in readiness for some other operation, it was decided to simply leave them where they were, in Texas, sharpening their skills. Not surprisingly, the 103rd wasn’t the only unit kept on a hot plate. A number of other divisions sat around waiting for tactical decisions to be made on the battlefield in Europe.

With this being the case, the 103rd simply carried on with its training, accepting in mid-March 1944 another complement of signal trained ASTP recruits.

Finally, on 6 June 1944, the Normandy Invasion took place, causing the European field of battle to begin to firm up in terms of where units like the 103rd Infantry Division could be best used to press the Germans. On 15 August 1944, the ANVIL invasion of Southern France kicked off, adding a bit more certainty to the fact that the 103rd was needed, albeit whether it should be sent to Normandy or Southern France was still a toss-up.

By October 1944, the decision had been made. The 103rd Infantry Division, along with its Signal Company, were combat loaded… along with several other Infantry divisions… and told that they were heading to Europe. While it was supposed to be a secret, it didn’t take long for the men on board to pass the word around… they were headed for Marseille, a port secured back in August. Needless to say, the men of the 103rd Signal Company were keyed up and excited to finally be on their way to do their part.

Crossing the Atlantic was uneventful, with the men of the 103rd Signal Company sighting land for the first when the Strait of Gibraltar came into view. As they entered the Mediterranean Sea, everyone that could crowded the rails, staring off at the coast of Africa, pointing to the cities of Tangier and Oran, and babbling on about the campaigns that had just come to a conclusion in North Africa. For men without any combat experience, these early days were filled with awe and trepidation.

Their vessel, the Henry Gibbons, arrived in Marseilles on the evening of October 20, 1944. A mostly flat head of land, Marseille slowly wends its way from the ocean front on up and into a set of surrounding hills. Across the intervening space factories could be seen, while the hill itself was topped by a cathedral (Church of Notre Dame du Garoe) with a large golden statue on it. As noon of the 21st of October passed, the vessel anchored, while alongside of them a huge convoy headed out to sea, on its way back to the U.S.

All about, the harbor was chaos, with new breakwaters being constructed, leftover German direction signs pointing in every direction, British ships plying the inner harbor unloading their own troops, 5 scuttled French ships blocking the shore line, piles of recently recovered water mines littering the shore, and on and on.  For the Signal OCS Officers so recently out of Fort Monmouth’s training, there could not have been a more stark difference… Fort Monmouth and its East Coast bungalow housing, to the flatland of Minnesota and Texas, to the war torn shore of Southern France.

As the men unloaded via L.C.I. (Landing Craft, Infantry), something they had not trained for, air raid sirens sounded, anti-aircraft flashes lit the sky, and planes buzzed the harbor, laying down a smoke screen. It wasn’t until midnight that the men of the 103rd Signal Company were all assembled on shore. Standing uneasily in the softly lit dark, on ground that didn’t swell up and down with every wave, they looked around. Training was over. This was what war looked like, and they were now part of it.

What kind of war they would face, they didn’t know. That would be determined by someone named Lt. General Devers, the Commander of the 6th Army Group, under whose authority the U.S. XV Corps and VI Corps served, which in turn contained the 7th Army and the 1st French Army, and now the newly arrived 103rd Infantry Division. General Devers was under orders from his boss, General Marshall, to use the American forces under his command, including this new unit that he watched unloading at Marseille, to take the field in northeastern France, and occupy the center of what was to be a strong, coordinated push towards the German border… and beyond to the Rhine.

Thus, unbeknownst to the 103rd Signal Company, they and the infantry they were tied to would find themselves in the middle of this effort. To help them gain their foothold and acquire a taste for war, they in turn would receive support from both British and French forces that would fight alongside of them. Specifically, to the north of the 103rd, British forces under the control of General Montgomery would protect their left flank as they headed for Germany. To the south of them, the previously mentioned French forces, serving as part of the U.S. 7th Army, would protect their right flank as they fought their way east.

Over the next day or so the 103rd Signal Company slowly moved inland, bivouacking at a convenient and secure place a few miles inland. There they set about doing all needed to support a Signal Company in the field, as it prepared to go to war… as did the rest of the 103rd I.D., as it went about its own tasks.

Across the Division each unit concentrated on the specific tasks most important for its preparation. Infantry units got their weapons ready… cleaning and sorting out rifles, machine guns, mortars and ammunition as it came off of the boat and was piled ashore. When this was sorted out and everyone armed, units assembled and began practicing firing these newly cleaned and readied weapons. As far as they knew, from this point forward, the next time they found themselves firing a weapon, it would be at an enemy. That being the case, it was crucial that whatever preparation was needed was done now, and done right. One’s first taste of combat was no time to find out that their weapon was not properly prepared.

For the service companies, and the 103rd Signal Company in particular, their major task was readying for combat roles the new vehicles that had been shipped over and unloaded for their use. Since each Section outfitted their vehicles to support the particular job that Section did, each vehicle signed-for had to be rebuilt to meet that Section’s needs. Thus, Wire Construction Sections outfitted their mostly new 3/4 and 1-1/2 ton trucks  with the wire laying gear they needed. The same could be said of trailers… Sections and groups that were assigned trailers stocked them so that everything was ready when communication was called for. One thing the men of the Radio Operating Section found quite pleasant was that they now had a 3/4 ton Weapons Carrier truck of their own… something they never had back in training. With a truck of their own, they could now mount all of their radios and auxiliary equipment, as well as a machine gun to protect themselves.

One of the first complaints the 103rd’s Signaleers had was that the 3/4 ton trucks they were issued did not have all-steel enclosures. Instead, the top of the cab was covered by a flimsy canvas top. The back window portion too was little more than a piece of tarp that flapped in the wind. This being the winter season, the men soon learned that inside the cab of their vehicles was just as cold, wet and covered with dirt and snow as the outside. Being unable to solve the problem, the Signal OCS Officers commanding these men simply looked the other way, as a few industrious E.M.’s raided a local farm, begging, borrowing and stealing plywood and other materials to enclose their cabs. As far as our OCS grads were concerned, diverting their eyes was an expedient of war, as it was more important that the communications equipment and cryptographic machines be protected from the elements than the local farmer’s chickens. And it’s well they did this, as during the early days of combat in the Vosges Mountains of France, the weather would turn nasty, piling snow and ice on the men, while whipping them with wind and rain on those few occasions when the temperature made it above freezing.

Ready for war and as fully equipped as they would ever be, it was time for the 103rd Signal Company to move out, leaving their peaceful staging area near Marseille for another, much closer to the combat zone they were headed for. To manage this, the Company was further broken down into groups and sections, this time not on the basis of operational needs, but on the basis of how long it would take each group to prepare to march. Because the preparation time for each element differed, a master plan was developed to see that the entire Company eventually found its way to the Vosges Mountains they were heading for, in eastern France. This entailed combining groups into newly defined sections, not on the basis of whether they normally worked together or not, but on the basis of when they would be ready to join the march, and how important it was to get each particular group to the front line.

Once these new section assignments were determined for the 103rd Signal Company, Captain Beck issued a route of march and orders for each group and section, telling them where they fit into the convoy and when to move forward. At the same time, he assigned to each of his fellow OCS grad Officers "route of march sections", to be overseen as the convoy progressed. In doing this he attempting wherever he could to match each section Officer to the group he normally commanded. However, this didn't always work as sometimes groups had to be split across multiple sections, simply because the time it took individual squads in each group to prepare for the march might be longer than the group as a whole, again due to the difference in the equipment a squad had to make ready. The result of this mismatch in required prep time soon became evident, as some elements of the Division descended into a mild form of chaos, while others breezed along quite smoothly, as each tried to pull together the groups they needed to join the route of march. In the end, the confusion that ensued made a mockery of the fine planning that preceded the effort.

As we think of this today, it is useful to remember that the 103rd Signal Company was not operating on its own. It was part of a 15,000 man Division, which in addition to having to be served with communications each and every day, had its own logistical problems to deal with in getting the Division to the Vosges Mountains. All of this required close coordination, as well as lots of time and energy to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there. Unlike the kind of Division movements we saw in Vietnam, large unit movements in WWII did not have helicopters to shuttle men around. At best they had trains, at worst the men’s feet would serve the purpose. Add to this the need to send small search and clear groups out, along with survey teams to chart the route, and Command and Control Officers to keep everything moving, and you had the makings of a nightmare.

In spite of the occasional SNAFU, for the 103rd Infantry Division everything worked surprisingly well. Advanced teams hit the road as required, followed by Division Staff Officers, then MP traffic control men, Quartermaster corps staff, mobile mess units, and finally convoy after convoy of vehicles from the service companies themselves. In all of this, the men of the 103rd Signal Company both led the charge—moving along in front of the Division, laying wire to provide communication along the route—and following up in the rear, with their own logistical elements, as well as a group of men to police up the wire that was laid or the repeaters that were set up along the route.

The 103rd Division’s infantry soldiers however mostly escaped this motorized march. Instead of falling in line and riding the entire way in trucks… or marching by foot… they were packed into old, rickety, French “40 by 8” (for their ability to carry 40 men or 8 horses) railroad box cars—just as had been done in WWI— and carted off to the next stop.

Sunday, November 5, 1944, saw the 103rd Signal Company officially push off for the Vosges Mountains. Covering about 160 miles, they moved by truck until their first stop, just before dark, at a large park in Dijon. There they lined up for dinner at a field kitchen set up to provide them with a hot meal. Unfortunately, well meaning as it was, a cold drizzle tinged with sleet and rain washed out the hot meal, as well as the men. But no one complained… at least they had not been shot at yet.

From there, over the next day or so, from November 5th to November 11th, the 103rd Signal Company travelled on, crossing the Moselle River before entering the town of Docelles, where they settled into a muddy field amongst houses clearly wrecked by artillery shelling. Having covered about 475 miles they knew they were getting close to their goal. Rumor quickly spread around the Signaleers that they were only 16 miles from the 7th Army Front. The meaning was clear: they were now in the Vosges Mountains: combat was coming, soon.[2]

It is worth noting that unbeknownst to a number of the men, there was a long standing military theory that said that no army could advance through the Vosges Mountain area during the winter months. Napoleon had tried and failed, as well as other commanders down through the ages. Each had despaired, and pulled back in defeat. So widely held was this view that when the French command reviewed the Army’s plans to take the Vosges Mountains before the campaign started, they predicted utter failure.

Apparently someone forgot to tell the 103rd, as it took the mountains in stride. Rather than fear what had brought others to their knees, the 103rd proudly followed in President Truman’s footsteps, as in an earlier period the then Captain Harry Truman, in command of a horse-drawn artillery battery in WWI, faced and succeeded at combat in the same Vosges Mountains the 103rd now occupied.

Having arrived at the front lines, the 103rd Signal Company set about fulfilling its duties during this first month of combat, in November, 1944. Specifically it established and operated a set of fully integrated Division and support level radio nets, assuring continuity of service with all of the elements that participated in the net, for 100% of the time that the net was in operation. This the Signaleers of the 103rd did even as they learned how to install and defend relay stations on the peaks of mountains, something they found necessary in order to get signals up and over the mountainous terrain. At the same time they learned how to lay cable in the snow, something they had not practiced in sunny, humid Louisiana.

Similarly they established and maintained both scheduled and special messenger service to all of the Division elements, as well as at Corps level, and for each and every attached unit. All totaled, the distances covered by the 103rd Signal Company’s messenger service averaged 390 miles per day, in both combat conditions, as well as blackout night conditions.

Supplementing this, in November the Company installed communication centers in LesRouges Laux, Nompatelize, La Pecherie, Provencheres, Lubine, Fouchy, St. Martin and Dambach laVille. Finally, they set up and operated communication centers at the Forward Command Posts, Rear Echelon Post, at Bruyere and at St. Dié. By the time the month had ended—the first month of the 103rd Signal Company’s entry into war—the Commanding Officer of the Rear Echelon Group had personally commended the men of the 103rd Signal Company for the type of service rendered and the manner in which they performed their routine duties. Clearly, our original 7 Second Lieutenants must have been paying attention while in OCS, or things would not have gone as well as they did on this, their first command.

Dates are confusing as to when the 103rd Signal Company received its initial combat experience, some say it was on 12 November, others on 16 November. Working in the vicinity of Les Rouges Eaux, France, the Company was busy doing what it had been trained to do: furnishing telephone, telegraph, radio and messenger service for all of the command and administrative elements of the 103rd Infantry Division, and their attached units, when the enemy appeared. As the men moved about their duties, they heard the first sounds of action. 

Moving down, out of the forest and into the valley containing the Taintrux River, one of the wire men in a small squad saw a village on the far side of the river. Thinking it might have trunk lines to which they could connect, they planned to cross a bridge that lay in front of them and enter and scout the town. However, it was too dangerous for them to do so by day, so instead the Signaleers sat back for most of the day and waited for dark. As the evening sky darkened and night fell, they approached the river. What they saw was that the bridge across it had been partially destroyed, yet it was still in good enough condition to support them if they were careful in crossing it. Rather than get wet, they took to the bridge.

Moving quickly, they worked their way, house by house, through the village when in an instant a sniper put a bullet into a door-beam 6 inches above the lead scout’s head. Before the sniper could be located and eliminated, another shot rang out, with another member of the squad catching the shot just above his eye. Since the village did not appear to be held by a strong force, the men set about moving their way along the few houses and buildings that they found along the main road, searching for the sniper while clearing any outlying structures they came across. Not bothered by the situation they found themselves in, they acted with great caution but still proceeded. In doing so they used the most basic of fire and movement tactics to clear the village, something that they had learned in field training in Louisiana. Seeing how determined they were, the sniper must have decided that it was better for him to withdraw than stand and fight.

It is interesting to note that several of the Signaleers who participated in the Company’s drive through the Vosges Mountains commented after the war that what struck them most about their first engagement was not the combat itself, but the tactile feel of the sound that filled the area, and the stark sights they saw within the forest itself. Apparently, more impressive to them than the skirmish with the German sniper was the strange surroundings of the forest itself.

Filled with shattered trees and recently abandoned foxholes, most of the time the woods were eerily silent, yet while no sound filled the air, the deafness was overwhelming. Old German horse blankets littered the ground, as did scattered items of soldiery. Breaking up this surreal environment was the occasional sound that floating up from the valley below. Sounds like small arms fire and burp guns, something most of them had never heard. Add to this the 24 hourly peeling of church bells throughout the district, and the overhead whistle of artillery shells at night, and the men were getting a taste of what war was really like.

Captain Beck, our graduate from OCS Class 42-06, took these early days of the unit’s campaign in stride. At only 25 years old, he seemed not to be bothered by the enormous weight on his shoulders that command of the 103rd Infantry Division’s Signal Company brought him. As far as he was concerned, locked in a position near the 45th Division, the 3rd Division and the 36th Division, the 103rd Signal Company was well protected, even though the onset of serious combat engagements was just a matter of time.

Instead he worried about his men. At the time every Officer was allowed to receive one ration of whiskey, or more accurately, he could purchase one for 105 Francs. Good stuff, the whiskey was American, and just about any brand you wanted to buy could be had. Enlisted men however weren’t allowed any. Captain Beck thought this a bad idea, and while he saw to it that none of his men drank, he nevertheless bought a quart of the best whiskey he could afford, through what was called the Army Agency, and stored it away in the company safe, for safekeeping until Christmas. His intention was to issue a ration to each E.M. that worked in his office. And, to make sure that no one was slighted, he approached the other Signal OCS Officers that came through 42-06 with him, and asked them to do the same for their men. They did, and soon the other officers in the unit fell into line too, doing the same for their own men.

On November 23rd the 6th Corps ordered the 103rd Infantry Division to continue its drive deeper into the Vosges Mountains, and advance eastward toward Ville, an important road junction. From there they were to drive toward Barr, on the Alsatian plains, about eight miles northeast of Ville. The 103rd Signal Company moved out as part of this action, with the men encountering heavily mined roads, well defended road blocks, and more artillery and mortar fire than they had ever seen. Along the full length of their drive they met heavy resistance. Nevertheless, they progressed, eventually crossing the Meurthe River and taking St. Dié.

St. Dié  was a milestone for the 103rd, as when the town fell the men were less than seven weeks from their final "Pass In Review" ceremony at Camp Howze, Texas. Yet here they were, standing on the heights, commanding St. Dié, like a bunch of old pros.

From there they moved on to capture Diefenbach on the 29th of November, and Selestat on the 4th of December. At this point they were only 29 miles south of Strasbourg, on the left bank of the Ill River. For all practical purposes, they were in Germany, having traversed the infamous Vosges Mountains.

At the same time as the 103rd Infantry Division settled on the western edge of the Ill River, French General le Clerc, commander of the French 2nd Armored Division, along with elements of the U.S. 79th Infantry Division, drove into Strasbourg itself. Two days later the German commander of Strasbourg surrendered to him, along with 6,000 of his soldiers. Recognizing that a hole had been punched in Germany’s line of defense, Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler hurried to Alsace, in an effort to organize the German defenses as part of a last gap, massive counterattack (Operation Norwind), which was to be made in conjunction with another German offensive in the Ardennes Forest (the Battle of the Bulge). 

Himmler established his headquarters in Colmar, an area within the Allied western front that still remained in German control. The men of the 103rd had made advances, but the war was not yet over. Worse, they were about to lose Strasbourg as the Germans rallied to push the front line back.

Join us again next month when we offer you Part II of this four part series, Signal Corps Successes – How Seven Signal OCS Graduates Built The 103rd Infantry Division’s Signal Company. In Part II we will follow the 103rd Signal Company as it pushes its way deeper into Germany. Stay with us as we follow them to the Siegfried Line, the Sauer River, the Rhine Valley, Dachau, the Danube River, into Austria and on to Victory in Europe Day.

 

 

            

Footnotes

[1] Technically, the Division was split into a rear Division Command Post and a forward Division Command Post. The Generals and their staff officers were in the rear Division Command Post, as was Captain Beck, his Company administration, Support and Supply elements. Forward Division Command Post mostly entailed what were called "operating section officers” of the 103rd Signal Company,  as well as senior NCOs, the unit’s Message Center, what was called the “wirehead”, and the wire construction and radio operating teams. Naturally, as a Company, the unit also had its own mess, supply, Motor Maintenance, Headquarters, and Division Signal Supply and Repair groups.   - To return to your place in the text click here:

[2] The Vosges Mountains are composed of the lower Vosges Mountains, and the higher Vosges Mountains, followed to the East by a wide plain leading to the Rhine river . - To return to your place in the text click here:

Additional Sources

103D Infantry Division Signal Company Remembrances, William F. Barclay, various online sources. 

Papa's War, Evans, Pierce; Limited Publication, 1995; various online sources.

Report After Action: The Story of the 103rd Infantry Division; Mueller, Ralph; Turk, Jerry; Printing Office, Innsbruck, Austria.

Captain Bernard Beck, various personal remembrances provided to William F. Barclay et al, various online sources.

Index of /Sexton/103rd; deep web sourcing.

103D Infantry Division Signal Company History, online as a Pierce-Evans.org project.

103rd Infantry Division, Wartime Press.

 

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This page originally posted 1 April 2015