Signal
Corps Successes How
Seven Signal OCS Graduates Built The
103rd Infantry Division’s Signal Company
– Part II of IV –
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continuing...
Returning
to the story: on
Eisenhower's and Bradley's inspection tour one of their first
stops was at Patton's 3rd Army HQ, in
Nancy, about 30 miles north and 60 miles
east of both the 103rd Signal Company
and Eisenhower’s worry spot: the Colmar
Pocket. What they saw discouraged them,
as they determined that Patton was in no
condition to support a serious offensive
action. Despite his reputation for being
able to beg, borrow or steal what he
needed to keep his men on the move, the
truth was that Patton’s Army simply did
not have enough supplies to keep moving
forward. Bold fighters aside, there was
just not enough logistical support
available to him to sustain an
aggressive drive.
From meeting with Patton, Ike and Omar
Bradley moved on to meet with Devers and
Patch, where they rehashed every sort of
alternative they could come up with to
bring more supplies of men and material
to the front. Finding no ready solution,
they moved on to Sarrebourg to look at
the state the XVth Corps was in, then on
to Brooks' VI Corps at St. Dié, finally
ending their journey with an inspection
of the French Army, which was further
south still.
In a state of gloominess, Eisenhower
concluded that his Army was in no
condition to cross the Rhine any time
soon. Devers’ plans were to be
abandoned.
Instead, Eisenhower ordered Generals
Devers and Patch to focus on helping the
French Army eliminate the German 19th
Army elements that appeared to
Eisenhower to be in a strong defensive
pocket at Colmar. Whether due to pique
at Eisenhower not allowing him to move
forward with his own plans to cross the
Rhine, or for some other reason, Devers
made no bones about the fact that he
felt that not only was Eisenhower’s
Colmar Pocket worry nothing more than a
pipe dream, it was a mistake to base
both strategy and tactics on its
existence. As far as he was concerned,
the German 19th Army had ceased to
exist. What the Germans might have posed
as a threat to him in the past was no
longer a threat to his forces today.
With this as his mindset, he left it to
the French to do the bulk of the
fighting with the Germans,
sending them out in two columns to
attack and free Strasbourg from German
occupation, rather than going after the
German threat that Eisenhower instructed
him to take care of at Colmar.
The result: the German forces in the
Colmar Pocket were not eliminated.
Further, not only did they exist, but
they were soon strengthened to the point
that they were able to harry the
southern end of the French–German border
for another 3 months until eventually
Eisenhower stepped in again and directed
that they be addressed, immediately. In
the mean time, the French victory in
“freeing” Strasbourg was overturned when
the Germans came back and drove the
French out. As Ike had predicted, the
Colmar Pocket proved to be a sore spot
in the Allied lines, delaying even further
Eisenhower's plans to cross the Rhine.
More determined than ever, Eisenhower
stuck to his policy that called for
destroying all German forces west of the
Rhine, up to and including the
Netherlands and down to and including
the Swiss border, before he would begin
any major operations east of the Rhine
River. For the 103rd Infantry Division
and its Signaleers, that meant a long
winter of fighting to try and clear
Germans from their operational region;
for while in the end Eisenhower’s
operational concept relied on a main
Allied push into Germany from the north,
if the Germans repulsed that attempt Ike
had every intention of loosing the 103rd
to take it to the Germans in the south,
crossing the Rhine wherever they
happened to be at the time, and moving
on to Berlin.
Thus we find ourselves in November,
1944, with the 103rd Signal Company on
the move. Under command of Captain Beck
(Signal OCS Class 42-06), he and his men
were moving in lock step with the
103rd Infantry Division, fighting their
way through the Vosges Mountains.
On
November 24 the men found themselves
moving late in the afternoon through the
town of La Pecherie, working their way
up snow covered mountain roads, deeper
into the Vosges, on their way to the
town of St. Dié. When they got there
what they saw was a town completely
leveled and burned to the ground, from a
battle that had taken place only a few
hours before. Many commented that the
ruins of the town stood in stark
contrast to the beautiful hills and
wooded forests that they had just passed
through.
All around them were signs of a hasty
German retreat, but this was not the
time for them to stop and bivouac.
Instead, they pushed on with the 103rd
I.D. As dusk approached, the 103rd
arrived in the town of Provencheres, in
Alsace-Lorraine. It should be remembered
that before the war Alsace was part of
France. One of Hitler’s first moves in
starting the war was to occupy Alsace,
returning it, he said, to rightful
German sovereignty.
As the men sought out a place to sleep
for the night, they were warned to keep
their eyes open, as the town had just
been retaken from the Germans that
morning. Most of the men of the 103rd
Signal Company bedded down in a textile
mill that made women’s silk stockings.
As they set about stuffing their pockets
with fine French stockings to trade with
the women they would meet as they moved
through the war (for what, we can only
guess…), talk turned to their day’s
march and how, just before leaving La
Pecherie, they had seen General
Eisenhower drive by with Lt. General
Patch. They laughed about having seen
Ike and saluting him in person. Little
did they know he was there assessing
whether they were in fit enough
condition to cross the Rhine and invade
Germany. Little too did they know he
thought that they were sitting on a time
bomb, as the Germans in front of them
were far more prepared for war than
these fresh out of Texas training
recruits were.
As to what the men did as the 103rd I.D.
fought its way forward, they were along
for more than just the ride. As the
Division’s Signal Company, most of their
work focused on keeping Division and
lower level commanders in communication
with all of the various HQs.
As an example, Colonel Donovan P. Yeuell
was the 411th Regimental Commander. He
had the habit of setting up two Command
Posts, one in the rear, and the other in
an advanced position, where his infantry
men were fighting. The 103rd Signal
Company directly supported him by
providing men to assure that he had
functional radio communications not only
for his CP in the rear, but wherever he
happened to be as he moved throughout
the day, in real time.
Usually this caused the 103rd Signaleers
to ride along with Colonel Yeuell, to
make sure that he had radio
communication available to him both at
his rear CP, as well as his advanced
Regimental CP, as well as at any advance
CP he might stop at along the way.
Typically, this meant that a floating
radio communication net had to be set up
to move along with him such that, as he
toured his combat battalion commander’s
HQs, he would still be in communication
with everyone else. Further, since
Colonel Yeuell tended to order that his
Battalion commands set up their own CPs
alongside that of one of their own
infantry companies, this meant that the
103rd Signaleers not only spent their
day riding with Colonel Yeuell, but also
nearly every one of his subordinate
commanders, down to the commanders of
each Infantry Company that might be
located along the front lines, in the
thick of the fighting. For the 103rd
Signal Company then, daily life meant
being glued to the sides of those
infantry men and commanders in the thick
of the fighting… both providing them
with communications, as well as fighting
alongside of them.
In the case of Colonel Yeuell, that
meant that the 103rd Signaleers that
supported him moved with him in rolling
combat throughout France... first in
Combrimont, then quickly through the
409th's sector at Frapelle and
Provencheres, and then on through a
series of rapid advance movements to
attack Steige and Maisonsgoutte, until
the Germans in each of these towns had
been overcome and driven out. And they
did this all in 10 days.
Seven battles in ten days was what it
actually amounted to. When it was over,
quite a few of the men said that
absolutely none of the training they
received in Texas prepared them for this
kind of action.
As
an aside, during this freewheeling
combat offensive, Colonel Donoval P.
Yeuell personally captured two German
prisoners, with the help of a couple of
Signaleers that were travelling with
him, as he and they accompanied the lead
infantry platoon as it moved into the
town of Maisonsgoutte.
In the end, if it were not for the radio
net that the 103rd set up and operated
for the Colonel, out of his own jeep,
these kind of fast moving situations
would not have been possible. For
Colonel Yeuell to command his troops on
the fly, he needed constant contact with
Division Headquarters. The men of the
103rd Signal company made that possible.
Daily combat was thus a real experience
for the Officers and men of the 103rd.
In another case the advance Command Post
for the 411th was set up in a building
just opposite a German position. As told
by Private Evans, one of the men of the
103rd Signal Company that supported the
411th, “The building entrance was at
street level, but the building was dug
into the mountainside and extended out
to the rear so the ground floor in front
was the second story in the rear. The
rear exit was a story lower. There was
an outhouse behind the building.”
“The CP was at street level, and our
radio crew was sleeping in the rear of
the same floor.
“At dawn, 411th infantrymen who had
slept in most of the other buildings in
town had fallen out into the street and
were preparing to move out against the
Krauts. Then all hell broke loose. The
CP came under heavy enemy artillery fire
that threatened to destroy it. The very
first few rounds landed outside the CP
building directly under the heavily
shuttered downstairs windows in the rear
of the building.
“A second and third round came in very
close to the point of impact of the
first and then rounds came in all up and
down the street. The infantrymen were
caught by surprise and there were more
than fifty casualties within a few yards
of the CP.
“An emergency Battalion Aid Station was
quickly set up in one room of the CP at
street level.
“Someone risked a look out through the
shutters and shouted, "Hey, there are
wounded down there." I ran down the
stairs to the lower level at the rear of
the building and saw an unconscious G.I.
lying on the ground. I crawled out and
dragged him back inside. There was no
visible sign of a wound. As soon as I
got him inside the building I got my
shoulder under him and carried him up to
street level where the aid station was
being set up.
“When I went out for him I thought that
I heard someone else crying for help so
I went back down to the rear exit. There
was another infantryman there at the
door. He said that he was looking for
his buddy who had brought a German
prisoner down to the outhouse and had
not returned with him.
“I told them that his buddy was wounded
but that I had gotten him up to the
battalion aid station.
“The first artillery shell that had
wounded his buddy had hit directly
behind the outhouse and had blown the
German prisoner out of it. He was
sitting on the ground crying, "Mama,
Mama," We ran out to get him. The other
G.I. grabbed his shoulder and I grabbed
his feet. He was seriously wounded and
one of his legs pulled right out of his
pants. We managed to get him into the
building and up to the aid station but
he didn't make it. He was too severely
injured. The American soldier that I
brought in did survive. His wounds were
serious, too, but they got to them
quickly enough to save his life.
“A 411th infantryman, a private named
Edward Holt, acted on his own initiative
to locate the enemy artillery
battery. He got so close that he had to
call in fire from our artillery right on
his own position in order to knock out
the German artillery. For his heroic
actions he received the Distinguished
Service Cross.”
In spite of being in nearly constant
combat, the primary effort of the 103rd
Signal Company's front line Signaleers
centered around setting up and operating
radio nets. This meant that they
travelled with front line Infantry
Lieutenants, which in turn meant that
they tended to bunk where the front line
infantry men of the 103rd I.D. bunked…
in whatever place they ended up at the
end of a hard day of fighting. Sometimes
those places were terrible… cold, damp,
indefensible, and on the other side of
the street or river from angry Germans.
At other times they weren’t so bad.
Captain Beck tells of a couple of
pleasant nights he and his men spent
while “on the road” and fighting.
One occasion he told of in letters he
sent to his family back home occurred at
Thanksgiving time, in November 1944. On
that occasion the 103rd Signal Company
moved into a town and occupied several
of of the houses along the main street.
Captain Beck set up his Company
Headquarters in a farm house, just
outside of town… as he put it… “amidst a
cow, about 50 rabbits and a few
chickens.”
Just about the time his HQ was set up,
the owner returned.
“He was so happy to see us [Americans]
in his house [that] he dug up some
cognac that he had buried under the
house, and gave all the men around a
drink.”
“The poor man had only recently escaped
from the Nazis. The farm was damaged and
pilfered a little [but otherwise suited
our needs]. I plunked my bedroll down in
the kitchen.
“[As I was settling in for the night]
the Frenchman [began] eating a hunk of
old dry bread for supper. I told my
First Sergeant to feed him out of the
mess hall, which I had set up in a
stable.”
Captain Beck went on to say that while
the smell in the stables might have been
a bit challenging to deal with while
eating,
“The weather [was] always so nasty, that
any dry place [was] heaven....”
He closed his letter by saying that
“Today was Thanksgiving. We had 449
lbs. of turkey [for the company to chow
down on]. It pays to be in the army. Or
does it?”
On still another occasion he found an
even better place for his men to set up
camp and get a little R&R as the war
tore on around them. In this case, in a
letter he wrote home on December 2,
1944, he told of hearing that some of
his men had set up a radio net in a rich
mansion just outside of town.
“High above this town [of St. Martin] is
a beautiful chateau untouched by the
ravages of war. When it was under siege
I was on the outskirts, entering it when
our infantry had pushed the krauts
further back. This town was earmarked
for a Div CP and I was on the hunt for a
place to put my company. The Chateau
caught my fancy as I rode through the
now deserted street looking for a
possible sniper.”
As Captain Beck approached the Chateau
he was approached by its owner, a women
whose “hair was white, done up, in an
upswing."
“I spoke to her in French telling what I
desired. She spoke a little
English. Soon her son (about 36 years
old) appeared. He, too, understood a
little English. After they learned of
what I wanted they showed me the
grounds.
“There were four very beautiful
buildings, two with towers, a private
motion-picture house, a chapel, several
bath houses, a swimming-pool and an
underground shelter. Beneath the
swimming-pool was a Turkish bath
(inoperative at the time). The driveway
swung all around the houses and
continued on out. All the houses were
well furnished.
A few hours later, Captain Beck ordered
the 103rd Signal Company to move onto
the property and settle in.
“My office was located in the main house
(The Master's quarters) in two rooms
overlooking the mountains. When we were
set up the son, (his name was Jean
Klienknischt) paid me a call and told me
about himself, his mother and the
grounds.
“Primarily they are very wealthy (or
were). His father was a Professor of
Surgery in Paris, but died in
February. Jean, unmarried, was left to
run the eight factories owned by the
family. He and his mother live in the
Chateau alone, with about five servants
(maids, housekeepers, cook, gardener,
etc). Their main home is in Strosbourg
[sic] which had been in German hands
until then. This was only their summer
estate.
“They lost a great deal by the Nazi
occupation, but nevertheless were not
poor as most French were. Reasons why
they weren't completely wiped out are
many, most of which will never be
known. The old man was quite a public
figure for one. Jean had a great deal of
influence in the manufacture of goods,
such as cloth, wool and silk—all used
for uniforms. They lived under the Nazi
yoke for four years—as a result they
speak German quite well. Suspicious? At
first I was, but the Counter
Intelligence Corps checked them and they
are basically French.
“They lived in the privately built bomb
proof shelter for weeks while all the
fighting was going, existing on black
Kraut bread and vegetables.
“When it became quiet they ventured out
to obtain more food and water from the
house. The Jerries had started to shell
the grounds many times. During one of
these quiet periods, as the old woman
was coming out of the house, she heard a
motor coming up the driveway. She was
badly frightened. She told me later that
she was amazed and happily surprised to
see "little truck." It was SHELDON and
myself coming up the driveway in my jeep
(Sheldon, as you know, is my driver and
my man Friday.) And that's where I
started this description.
“They gave me whatever I wanted–not that
I was demanding. All my men were careful
not to break anything or act
impolitely. The house had steam heat,
lights, a beautiful radio from Germany
in my room and all conveniences that you
could think of. A piano was even there,
which AMBROSE (remember him?) played.
“I operated out of there for about four
days, (after which) I went back to the
mud and dirt and torn buildings.
“Coming from the mud and dirt it was a
revelation. (And then) we pushed on, and
it was just a memory. "Rags to riches to
rags" or "once in a lifetime"
– call it
what you like.”
Today as we read these recollections
Captain Beck’s story seems like those of
so many others who served in WWII…
pathos, a bit of humor, more sadness,
some joy, followed by hope, all
underwritten with an unstated but ever
present great longing for home… and all
said without mentioning the dirty part
of war, the killing part. Clearly, in
the above story Captain Beck has sifted
out all the war events he and his men
lived daily… the ones that brutalized
them. Why did he do this? For the same
reason every other man in every other
war has ever done it… for the sake of
the family at home reading the letter.
This is normal. Most men in battle, when
writing home, write of warm things, good
thoughts, and in the process try to
convey the feeling that they are fine
and safe. But it must be remembered, in
Captain Beck’s case he was at that time
just over 25, had been commissioned to
the rank of Captain less than 3 months
earlier, was fresh out of Fort Monmouth
OCS, and was leading the 103rd Infantry
Division’s Headquarters Signal Company
in the midst of very heavy daily battle
conditions.
In our eyes, he was a remarkable man.
While deep down inside he still held the
youth of an American kid, traipsing
through Europe tasting the luxuries of
life that Europe’s richest families
showered themselves with, on the outside
he was already a grizzled combat
veteran. And to his benefit, the way
this young but grizzled combat veteran
commanded his men earned him a Bronze
Star.
- - -
With this temporary reprieve from the
filth of war behind them, the 103rd’s
next objectives were the towns of
LeHohwald and Barr, and from there
Dambach-la-ville, a small town just 5
miles north of Selestat, and then
Selestat itself. During this time the
men began to notice that the Germans
were getting pretty good at homing in on
their radio signals… to the point that
if they stopped to transmit and stayed
for any length of time in that position,
artillery fire would soon rain in on
them.
To overcome this problem they turned to
an easy but creative solution of the
type that only Signaleers could come up
with. An early version of what
Signaleers in Vietnam did when they
kluged together three or four
transmitters and stuck them behind the
seats of a Commander’s helicopter so
that he could hover over a fire fight
and call in artillery, talk to his HQ in
the rear, call for Fast Movers to take
out the enemy, and direct the battle on
the ground… all at the same time. This
time however the idea was to locate the
radio jeep in the best place possible
for a solid 5 X 5 signal strength, leave
it there even while artillery landed
around it, but move the radio operators
to safety by moving them from the
vicinity of the jeep itself. This they
did by making use of something all radio
jeeps were required to carry at the
time, but no one knew why.
For some strange reason, there was a
directive that all radio vehicles have
with them a spool of "Spiral-4" cable.
In those days Sprial-4 was new and
exotic, and most Signaleers had no idea
what it did that normal cable couldn’t
do. Still, they carried it with them.
As the Germans began to improve their
signal tracking capabilities, a good use
for Spiral-4 was soon found. What the
men did was to rig up a way to run the
cable out from where the jeep was
located, to a safe place at a safe
distance. Cellars of buildings were
ideal, but almost any kind of cover
would work as long as it was out of
artillery range of the immediate
vicinity of the radio transmitter in the
jeep. With the cable they then separated
the insulated conductors such that a
portable speaker could be tied onto one
pair, while the other pair was attached
to the transmission switch. In this way
they could send messages over the
transmitter, all by remote control.
Their only worry was to make sure that
the jeep or truck battery was kept
charged, and that during this time
someone paid attention to the amount of
gas in the tank… so that if a crises
came up they would have enough gas to
pack up and leave before things became
hairy.
- - -
By
December 1st the 103rd Infantry Division
was driving to the east-northeast trying
to push the Germans back. Their goal was
the earlier mentioned Selestat, a town
on the plains southwest of Strasbourg.
Unlike earlier however, this time they
were entering enemy territory, as not
only was resistance tougher, but the
native population seemed decidedly on
the German’s side. This, along with the
simple fact that as the Allies advanced
the German supply lines became shorter,
made fighting that much more intense.
And to add insult to injury, the
squabble Eisenhower, Devers and Patch
had had earlier, over whether Devers
should be allowed to cross the Rhine,
had slowed the Ally’s advance so much so
that the Germans were able to make use
of that time to construct stronger
resistance points along the front.
So effective were the Germans at
preparing for the Allied advance in the
area that while the French had captured
Strasbourg on 25 November, they soon
lost it. In the process, the Germans put
up such a determined defense that while
the 409th Regiment’s B company (along
with elements of the 36th Infantry
Division) had fought their way into
Selestat, they were soon cut off and
almost completely wiped out.
To help a rescue effort undertaken
by Brigadier General Pierce (the
Assistant Division Commander), who led a
special task force to rescue the men cut
off in Selestat, several 103rd Signal
Company wire teams, along with a radio
team, several Sergeants and an Officer,
were dispatched to support General
Pierce’s effort.
The rest of the Division, and the 103rd
Signal Company, moved on in a
motor-march toward Gougenheim in the
northeast of Alsace.
It was about this time that the earlier
disagreement between Eisenhower and
Devers was resolved once and for all. By
the 5th of December it became clear that
the French First Army in the area of the
Colmar Pocket was unable to keep the
Germans buttoned up. Eisenhower and
SHAEF found this situation intolerable,
as having so many Germans running
around, ready to move to support
wherever the Allies tried to cross the
Rhine, meant sure disaster. Despite
Devers’ and Patch’s continuing
insistence that they would drive the
Germans out, and therein create an ideal
place from which the Allies could cross
the Rhine near Strasbourg, by this time
no one bought the plan. Eisenhower put
it to bed forever when he ordered the
7th Army to move northward, abandoning
its campaign around Strasbourg and the
Colmar Pocket, instead to now support
the US 3rd Army as it prepared to make
an assault across the Rhine River at
Manheim.
With this order, the possibility of a
drive through Strasbourg and into the
heart of Germany ended.
But the war didn’t. For the 103rd, the
next obstacle was getting past the
Maginot Line and Germany’s Siegfried
Line. With the conclusion of the battle
for Selestat, and the 7th Army on its
way to support the 3rd Army’s attempt to
cross the Rhine at Manheim, the 103rd
found itself in tow. For the most part,
the men made rapid advancements toward
the Franco-German border, through
essentially open but wet country.
Sprinkled with rolling hills and small
mountains in an area that had been
prepared by the French as a defensive
barrier to stop Germany from invading
their country, the whole idea of going
over the Maginot Line in the opposite
direction from which it was meant to
provide security seemed ludicrous. But
that was what the 103rd was doing…
taking the French Maginot Line from the
back, leaping over it, and now chasing
Germans moving away from the Maginot
Line, retreating back through the same
fields over which that they had once
charged towards the Maginot Line.
Lacking any ability to use the Maginot
Line’s bunkers for their own benefit,
the Germans established their own
defenses just beyond the normal fields
of fire that extended beyond the Line.
As it turned out, this simple expedient
worked to stymie the 103rd’s advance,
because while in and of itself the
Maginot Line provided a strong bulwark
against attack, the French never
bothered to build the Line as a
fortification offering defense-in-depth.
That is, yes… it was big, and strong…
but it sat there all by itself. No
forward defenses, no defenses to the
rear, nothing but one long line of
concrete bunkers… with no depth to the
defense they offered. For an army trying
to move forward, from France into
Germany (instead of the other way
around) the Maginot Line offered nothing
of value that could be used as a point
of thrust with which to attack the
Germans.
As a result, even though the 103rd
I.D.'s infantry was able to push the
enemy beyond the shallow defensive
corridor of the Maginot Line, the
bunkers it comprised did little in the
way of helping them win the fight, and
so were soon left behind. That wouldn’t
be the case however when the next road
block came up… the German Siegfried
Line.
For
those that might have forgotten, unlike
the Maginot Line, which was one long,
cement bunker system with no defense in
depth nor any means for swinging its
guns around to face to the rear, the
Siegfried Line was well laid out. It
consisted of groups and segments of
camouflaged machine gun emplacements
concealed in the mountainsides. Usually
grouped into three or more strong-points
laid out to provide protective fire for
one another, each section provided a
formidable defensive system. More
importantly, unlike the Maginot Line,
they were laid out in depth and in a
systemic manner, with layer upon layer
of interlocked, hidden defensive strong
point positions all positioned to
support each other. When it was
designed, the idea behind the Siegfried
Line was to assure that the attacking
forces took such heavy losses that they
would simply give up and go home.
Pausing to reflect on how far the 103rd
Signal Company had come so far, by this
point in its trek to war the unit had
fought through heavy resistance as they
worked their way through the Vosges
Mountains, increasingly greater
resistance as they crossed the
Meurthe River, and ever increasingly
more as they took St. Dié (23 November),
captured Diefenbach (29 November) and
assaulted and took
Selestat on 4 December. It seemed
almost as though from their very first
day in Europe, the resistance they met
was greater with each step they took
towards Germany… which is exactly what
one would expect.
Along about this time (5 December), the
103rd Infantry Division was reassigned
out of the 7th Army XV Corps and into
the VI Corps. The following day,
December 6th, 1944, the 103rd relieved
the 45th and 79th divisions on the
Zintel river, from Uttenhofen to
Mertzwiller, in the vicinity of
Gougenheim. From there, on 10 December
1944, the Signal Company and its
Division crossed the Zintzel River at
Griesbach. Once on the other side and
assembled, they pushed through to
Climbach, where finally, on 15 December
1944, they pushed another mile further
north and crossed the Lauter River [Ed
Note: a.k.a. Wieslauter, it is
the upper portion of and left tributary
of the Rhine] into
Germany.
After so much time, here they were…
standing on land they had been preparing
to take since the 103rd Signal Company
was first activated on 15 November 1942,
trained at
Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, and Camp
Howze, Texas, brought ashore in
Marseille, France, and fought their way
to where they now stood. To most, it was
a good feeling, they had entered
Germany. Yet it was one filled with
trepidation.
Taking not a minute to rest, the 103rd
Infantry Division, along with its Signal
Support Company, immediately assaulted
the outer defenses of the Siegfried Line.
From the 15 of December through to the
22nd the Division fought its way through
to the
Sarreguemines area, where they
settled in to create an active defense,
awaiting a German effort to drive them
back across the river into France.
Interestingly, the Germans decided not
to mount an assault on the 103rd at that
time, but instead to move their troops
south. This opened up room for the 103rd
to maneuver even deeper into Germany,
and so on 14 January, 1945, the Division
moved to Reichshofen,
taking up positions along the Sauer River.
It was during this period, from the time
the 103rd Signal Company reached the
Maginot Line to the time they settled in
along the Sauer River, that they saw
some of their most intensive fighting to
date. For one thing, they were now
within easy reach of the German
Luftwaffe, and began to feel the
effects. On 6 December 1944, the unit
received its first in depth, continuous
air assault and strafing. Surprised
beyond measure, the Signal OCS
Lieutenants commanding the company
quickly established an enemy aircraft
alert system. While on the surface it
was said that its purpose was to alert
the Division CP staff and men of an
imminent air assault, the truth was
probably closer to the point that the
103rd Signal Company itself wanted to
know what the heck was going on when all
of those aircraft appeared above their
heads.
As to how the system worked, it was
really quite primitive. Local Anti
Aircraft (AA) Battalions broadcast air
attack alert warnings, which the 103rd
Signal Company picked up and passed on
to Division HQ, and as many of the
surrounding subordinate commands as
could be reached… including, of course,
the 103rd Signal Company CP itself. As a
measure of warning and security, the
system worked well in the CP area, but
the Company’s Signal men in the field
remained out of the loop, and had to
depend on themselves to visually
identify any aircraft above them, and
provide for their own defense if they
wanted to stay alive. Still, it was
better than nothing, considering the
number of alerts the unit faced each
day. Regardless of how well the 103rd
was able to prepare for aerial attacks,
in the end, as the men were want to say,
after crossing into Germany everyone
became much more alert, and considerably
more adept at finding and “diving into
the nearest foxhole, hiding behind the
nearest fortification, tree, bridge,
vehicle, or even dung pile.”
In one of his letters home, Captain Beck
wrote, “This morning a couple of Stukas
tore loose out of the sky and went
belching their machine-guns at tree-top
level. They come in so fast it's hard to
spot them. The ack-acks caught one in
the nose and it went down in flames. I
watched the proceedings from behind a
wall 3 feet thick—of concrete. In
air-attacks like that the only thing for
someone like me to do is get out of the
damned way. [Now] every time I hear a
motor I get anxious and uneasy. When I
get back to the states I'll jump every
time I hear a plane.”
Attacks by Stukas or not, the men were
ordered to move on. But progress was
slow. The Germans may have been giving
up ground, but it was begrudgingly and
only at the rate of an inch at a time.
To slow the 103rd’s onslaught, the
Germans wrapped explosive charges around
nearly every tree that bordered the
roadways, and set them off. This created
a jumble of tree trunks and debris that
virtually closed the roads until foot
soldiers could secure the area and mine
sweeping engineers be brought in behind
them to clear the paths. Until that
happened, while the Infantry could
advance on foot, communication wire was
hard to lay, and the 103rd Signal
Company’s communication vans could not
move forward with the troops.
Interestingly, while the level of combat
got hotter, and danger levels much
worse, the Signaleer’s quality of life
actually got better. This was because
they were now out of eastern France,
which had been fought over both as the
Germans entered it, and as they were
driven back out of it… and so everything
for miles around was devastated. Now,
being in western Germany, an area that
had not been fought over, everything was
pristine. The houses were intact, food
was available, and except for dealing
with the enemy in your front, life
looked normal.
One squad in the 103rd Signal Company
commented that when their midnight radio
shift approached, while most of the men
were sick with dysentery and barely able
to move forward with the Company as it
pulled out for another town, things
seemed to be easier than they should
have been. After all, they were at war.
As the sick men in the Company struggled
to keep up, the 103rd marched through
the towns of Wasselnheim, Hoch Feloen
and Ettendorf, and kept on going. After
a bit more, Captain Beck ordered that
the Company C.P. be set up in the next
town, La Walch.
Expecting an uneasy night in a dismal,
rain filled field, the stragglers with
dysentery who came in long after the
Company had settled down were surprised
to find that the CP was set up quite
snugly and securely in a lumberyard, and
that one of our OCS graduate Officer’s
of the Day had secured for them sleeping
quarters in a cold but dry upstairs
room, in an undamaged house. From the
furnishings in the home the OD had even
set aside for the most seriously ill of
the men two soft feather tick beds. The
German owners, downstairs all night,
didn’t seem to complain.
Notwithstanding the occasional
comfortable night’s sleep, it should be
remembered that the men of the 103rd
Signal Company were still new at this
game of war, and in fact had been living
through combat for no more than one month's
time at
this stage. Yet in that time they had
proven their mettle, as they were now
spearheading the drive of the 6th Army
Group into Germany. And yet again, as
they pushed their way into Germany, near Wissembourg, it was beginning to look
like they would have to slug it out
every inch along the way, and that they
would pay dearly for the German soil
they took.
As the 103rd assaulted the Siegfried
Line, all hell broke loose. Confusion
reigned, up and down the line. The
German’s fought hard, and scored more
than one would like to think. Signal men
out laying cable at night often found
themselves staring down the barrel of
88s, wondering whether they could get
off the road fast enough to avoid direct
fire. Others found themselves trying to
hide from columns of Tiger tanks,
flanked by German infantry, searching
for American troops to take on. Still
others found themselves fighting other
Tiger tank units with bazookas, not
normally a weapon Signal men need to
depend on.
Still others, while trying to
lay wire at night through the town of Bobenthal, within the Siegfried Line,
faced German shelling all night
long. Holed up in the basement of one of
the houses, they spent the entire night
“sweating out each shell”, until
morning, when they climbed out ready to
start laying wire again, only to find
that their communication vans and
vehicles had all be destroyed.
Several commented that the severity of
fire forced them to lay wire faster than
they had ever done before, and that
the danger of being out laying wire was
such that most men barely slept… opting
to lay wire when they could at night, catch a cat
nap on the ground, and then set off
pulling wire again when it seemed safe.
The result was an extremely fluid
situation, where everyone lost sleep.
Adding to this, it seemed as though
there was no directional component to
what they were doing. Wire was laid in
one direction one day, and the opposite
the next. Combat was “a swirl of
activity!”
One
Signaleer commented in a letter home to
his family,
“Small gains were made against the very
strong defenses of the [Siegfried
Line’s] well defended bunkers and
in-depth fortifications. The Germans were able to use the rugged
terrain beyond the forts to prepare a
well organized and determined
defense. Progress was very slow and
losses were increasing for the GIs. The
German defensive effort in our sector
seems to have increased."
Others commented that “For some
reason, we cannot figure if we are
coming or going—literally. We are
hearing stories of strong enemy action
everywhere. The infantry men are being
pulled out of the line and we are
preparing to move in [yet] another
direction.”
What they didn’t know was that their
pressure on the Siegfried Line had been
one of the factors that kicked off the
Battle of the Bulge, and the effects
were now being felt by the 103rd Signal
Company.
Hundreds of thousands of men from both
sides were now being thrown into the
events of the Battle of the Bulge, and
that included the men of the 103rd
Infantry Division. In their case, they
were given the task of providing support
for the southern edge of Patton's
3rd
Army. Patton, for his part, mobilized
his men to dash northward, to help
repulse the massive German force that
was attacking in the Battle of the
Bulge, in the Ardennes forest.
For the 103rd Signal Company there was
no time to waste. They were needed to
support Patton, and so with no warning
at all, they were ordered to disengage
from their attacks on the Siegfried Line
and immediately move from wherever they
were—wherever each and every man found
himself—towards Patton’s 3rd Army.
It was an abrupt and disorderly affair,
with men, squads, platoons and the
Company as a whole scrambling to gather
up its equipment, load it and head
northeast, all while the Germans they
had only a few moments before been
firing at continued to pour fire back at
them. Command being what it is, few of
the men had any idea why they were
disengaging, why they were packing up,
or where they were going. All they knew
was that they were ordered to pack up
and move out on the double. For everyone
involved,
being in the middle of a live fire fight
and being told to pack up and get moving
in an entirely new direction…
even while the enemy continued to pursue
and fire at you, without knowing what
was next, was physically and emotionally
straining.
As all of us know now, sitting here far
removed in history from those days in
the middle of December 1944, the Battle
of the Bulge proved a turning point in
the war. Hitler had used the pause that
ensued as the Allies slowly prepared to
cross the German border as an
opportunity to organize 30 German Panzer
Divisions into a counter offensive that
he would loose through the Ardennes
forest, in Belgium. This he did on
Saturday, 16 December 1944, amidst a
weather system of thick fog and heavy clouds
so extensive that it covered the battle
front. Ideal conditions for a surprise
attack, the Germans used the low
visibility on the ground to obscure
their troop movements, while all along
knowing that the grey skies above would
keep the Allied air force grounded.
Their quick success was thus due in part
to the fact that ground conditions were
right. But it was also due to the fact
that the front they were attacking was
being held by a combination of a very
large number of green, untried troops,
supported by a very small number of seasoned units,
mostly sent along
to that particular spot so that they
could get some much needed
rest. Basically, SHAEF thought it would
be a "quiet front", and so paid little
attention to it. What the Germans faced
then were American men strung out in
lonely outposts, and hunkered down in
cold, wet foxholes cut off from each
other.
When the fighting started hardly anyone
expected the enormity of what was to
come. The first sound of gunfire started
as normal, but within minutes escalated
into one of the largest artillery
barrages of the war. The German field
guns in some sectors outnumbered the
American’s 10 to 1. But artillery was
not all the German’s had. The German
infantry swept forward behind their
artillery en masse, and quickly overran
the inexperienced 106th Infantry
Division that had been assigned to hold
this "quiet area".
As it turned out, they were no match for
what came at them, as soon over 4,000
Officers and men of the 106th were
forced to surrender to the Germans.
Looking back at it today, there is no
doubt that they made a brave and
determined fight… but even so, it was
brief, desperate, and ended in a
rout. Considering that these men had
been on the front line for only 8 days,
and had seen combat for only 3 of those
8, it is no
wonder the commander, Major General
Allen Jones, bemoaned "I have lost a
division faster than any other general
in the US Army."
As we all know, the month-long Battle of
the Bulge was to be the biggest and
bloodiest battle American soldiers ever
fought, either before or since.
- - -
While this battle in the Ardennes forest
seemed far to the north of the 103rd
Infantry Division’s position, their help
was needed and so they were ordered to
quick march to Patton’s aid. So much so
was help needed to stop the Germans from
bursting through the Bulge that a large
and rapid re-deployment of almost all of
the Allied forces in Europe was made.
Eventually word passed through the ranks
of the 103rd that they were heading to support
Patton and join the Battle of the Bulge.
As far as the men were concerned,
if Patton's 3rd Army was making a charge
northward 100 miles to support the
thinly spaced troops on the southern edge
of the Bulge, then they intended to be
there too. And when the word passed
around that Patton had sent word to
Bastogne, where the Battling Bastards
were surrounded by the Germans, "I'll be
there by Christmas", then they intended
to be by his side.
As they approached the Bulge, the 103rd
moved around the rear of the 7th Army,
and then moved northwest, to the flank of
the Bulge, into a position near the left
flank of the 7th Army, with the 106th
Cavalry Group sitting between them and
Patton’s 3rd Army, at a spot where the
most intense fighting was taking place.
So intent was the 103rd Signal Company
on getting where they were needed as
fast as possible that most of the
Company’s units moved ahead of the
reserve-support infantry that was
already in route to the area. As it
turned out, these were the men that they
would have to provide communication for
when they finally arrived, so this gave
the 103rd
the chance to actually begin setting up
communication lines along the front even
before the infantry they were assigned
to arrived.
Eventually Patton's 3rd Army broke
through the German lines and reached
Bastogne, on December 26,
1944. Supporting him was a bombing
campaign unlike any the men of the 103rd
had ever seen. Looking up, at first they
sought out the sound of the heavy bombers
they heard moving towards them. Within minutes what
they saw surprised them beyond measure;
a sky filled from
horizon to horizon, in every direction,
with America's largest four engine bombers. B-24
Liberators, B-17 Flying Fortresses,
British Wellingtons and even Lancasters
were all there. Each came in a
V-formation, with one formation after
another being tucked in behind the lead
wing, each followed by another and still
another... seemingly off to
infinity. With barely a space between
them, the formations were packed wing tip
to wing tip as far as the eye could
see. As the men looked on in awe, they
could see enormous shock waves radiating
out from each bomb burst.
In support of all of this massive numbers
of P-47s, P-51s, Hurricanes, Spitfires,
and B26s flew low level sorties against
the panzers and ground troops of the Wehrmach. In quick order, Patton’s
tanks, the infantry on the ground, and
the Army Air force broke the back of the
German offensive.
All the while, the 103rd Signal Company,
led by 7 Army Signal Corps OCS
graduates, kept communication flowing
for the 3rd Army, whenever asked and
wherever needed. As an example of the
level of traffic being passed, a
telephone traffic survey conducted in
the early days, when the unit was back
in St Jean, Rohrbach, France, showed
that a total of 2,700 calls were handled
every twenty-four hours through the
103rd Signal Company’s switchboards. By
the time the unit was supporting Patton,
this traffic level had tripled.
In terms of radio communication, radio
nets were installed and continuity of
service was maintained with all
elements, 100% of the time, whether the
men were on the road or in
bivouac. Adding to this, the previously
mentioned Aircraft Warning Alert System
that was set up as they approached
Germany became a standard functional
support element for the Division, as did
both scheduled and special messenger
service to all of the 103rd’s Division
elements, Corps, and attached units. In
this area, on a typical day, Harley
Davidson supported Signaleers ran
messages an average of 406 miles each
day, with 50% of the daily mileages
being run at night and under blackout conditions. To
Captain Beck’s credit, during this whole
period only one minor motor vehicle
accident occured.
Not surprisingly, even in battle our 7 Signal
Corps OCS graduates continued to train
their men. Whenever time was available,
men were turned out in small groups to
sharpen their skills. In one case one of
the Officers observed that some of the wire teams
had failed to utilize
to the utmost the availability
commercial lines running in the vicinity
of the units being supported. To remedy
this, our OCS graduates schooled the men
on open wire
construction and repair. While some of
the men grumbled, most realized that
tapping into existing overhead lines was
easier and less risky than running up
and down streets, hills, along country
roads, and through forests packed with
German troops, and so they grudgingly
paid attention. Similar training was held
in the field and on the fly for those men
involved in telephone and teletype
operations, switchboard operators, and
more.
By the time the Battle of the Bulge
neared its end, the men of the 103rd Signal
Company began to
realize that they were no longer
rookies. Instead, they were now operating as a
well oiled machine. In a letter home, one of
our Signaleers commented that,
“Everyone plays his position that he
knows best. If it brings victory then
what the heck, we'll all go home. The
boys are starting to feel like combat
veterans. They acquire that tough,
arrogant, rough and boisterous complex.
“We are not starving nor are we freezing
to death. I think that the government
has done and is doing a splendid job of
equipping and feeding us. We don't get
steaks or fancy dessert with our
chow. It's all a plain basic ingredient
of a ration, usually the same
thing. But, it's food, wholesome and
nutritious. We may get tired of it—but
that's only natural. You should see what
the Krauts have to eat.”
Captain Beck himself commented on how
his view of the U.S. Army had changed.
Proud to be a Signalman, he nevertheless
took time out to write home about the
infantrymen he worked alongside.
“No
matter what is written or said about the
various branches engaged in war none can
compare to the infantry. All branches
are doing a magnificent job and none
should be belittled. And in some
instances we all fight as infantry. But
for straight fighting, continually at
grips with the enemy in a physical
manner, the infantry is far ahead of us.
“It is the infantry that attacks,
occupies and defends whatever land is
fought for. The infantry are the one
that first get in there and wade
across. None of us can move forward
without the doughfeet to push the Hun
back. When we retreat, it's the infantry
that holds the enemy at bay, while the
rest of us go back safely. It's the
slogging, plugging infantry that win the
battles. We just support them. By "we" I
mean every other branch. The infantry is
paratroopers, rangers and the motorized
troops. They are all doughfeet! And
without the doughfeet we might as well
go home. My hat (or helmet) is off to
the infantry.”
And then he continued on to speak to his
wife of his own Signal Corps…
“Now for my dear Signal Corps. It has
been often said that the boys of the
crossed-flags are the nerve center of
the army. And so we are! Without us
there would be no information, no
orders/no command. To accomplish this we
go from the plodding infantry to the
plush of higher headquarters. We are
everywhere. We link all branches, all
services with one and the other.
“Our main threat is artillery, planes
and bombs. Occasionally a little small
arms fire is thrown in for good
measure. We have had more than a taste
of it. Some of us have had gulps. After
a fashion it's rather tolerable, subject
to ones (sic) constitution.
“A plane, an enemy one, would suddenly
come charging out from behind a cloud
and come tearing straight for the ground
you stand on. For a moment you are
frozen. Your eyes are glued to that
human bullet. You think, there is a man
in there and he is coming at you with a
ton of greased lightning, with 8 machine
guns ready to bark fiercely in rasping
tome at his slight touch of a button. He
dives in a crescendo of roaring motors
growing louder and louder. Suddenly, as
if by instinct you hit a hole, any hole,
or a cellar if one is nearby, and burrow
your body as far down as you can worm
that clumsy body of yours. Your heart
beats fast (frankly more from the
excitement than fear) and you clench
your fists. If he starts to pull out of
the dive it will be clear for you to
look up as his proverbial bolt is
shot. Our ack-ack is now pocketing him
in a ring of flack. He either pulls out
prematurely or gets it. Most of the time
he gets hit, and you watch that plane,
who only a few moments ago was a roaring
lion, go crazily earthward, to hit the
ground a mile away in a terrific
explosion.
“After a while it's rather a
lot of fun. The threat of danger is
really very little as cellars, buildings
or holes are always available. And it's
very seldom does the Jerry try such
foolhardy tactics. He hasn't the planes
to spare.”
“… It's more a war of nerves than
anything else. I think that slowly we
are becoming veteran combat soldiers
instead of rookies which we were
actually called upon our initial
landing.”
Clearly, the men of the 103rd Signal
Company had come of age, as had their
Officers. Captain Beck, his soft-spoken
way of writing to his wife aside, had
matured and seemed to have had clear eyes
when it came to understanding the
role he and his troops played. Their job
was a tough one, yet not as tough as
that of the infantrymen they supported.
And yet the work they did was essential to
those very same infantrymen. Without the
men of the 103rd Signal Company, the 103rd Infantry Division
could not have done its job.
- - -
For the 103rd Infantry Division and its
support elements, the war to this point
had been tough on all combined. So tough
that on January 8th the 103rd Division's
Commander, Major General Charles Haffner,
gave up his command and returned to the
States in poor health. The next day the
103rd was placed temporarily in the XXI
Corp. By that time the Battle of the
Bulge was well under control, and the
situation stabilized. With that, Major
General Maxwell Taylor, the Division
commander of the 101st Airborne
Division, was able to return to his
troops and then, on January 11th,
Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe,
the hero of the Battle of Bastogne, was
given command of the 103rd Infantry
Division, and there through the 103rd
Signal Company.
McAuliffe… the man who, as commander in
Bastogne, received this
typed note
from his opposite German commander:
December 22nd 1944
To the U.S.A. Commander of the encircled
town of Bastogne.
The fortune of war is changing. This
time the U.S.A. forces in and near
Bastogne have been encircled by strong
German armored units. More German
armored units have crossed the river
Ourthe near Ortheuville, have taken
Marche and reached St. Hubert by passing
through Hompre-Sibret-Tillet. Libramont
is in German hands. There is only one
possibility to save the encircled U.S.A
troops from total annihilation: that is
the honorable surrender of the encircled
town. In order to think it over a term
of two hours will be granted beginning
with the presentation of this note. If
this proposal should be rejected one
German Artillery Corps and six heavy A.
A. Battalions are ready to annihilate
the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne.
The order for firing will be given
immediately after this two hours' term.
All the serious civilian losses caused
by this artillery fire would not
correspond with the well known American
humanity.
The German Commander.
And who replied with a typewritten note
of his own, on a full sheet of paper:
December 22, 1944
To the German Commander, N U T S !
The American Commander
Now here he was, in command of the
103rd.
If life had been tough before,
it was about to get much tougher,
because while General Haffner had been a
"map-room" commander, McAuliffe was a
"hands-on" commander.
Join us next month for Part III of this
IV part series, as we follow the
103rd Signal Company as it continues to
work its way through World War II.
You’ll especially like what happens when
our Army Signal OCS graduate Captain
Beck runs afoul of General McAuliffe.
Reference Sources
Pictures from various online sources.
When shown without identification, no
identifying source was able to be found.
103D Infantry Division Signal
Company Remembrances, William F.
Barclay, various online sources.
Quotations shown, unless otherwise
identified, were excerpted and extracted
from 103D Infantry Division Signal
Company Remembrances, William F.
Barclay; sourced from various online
locations.
The Patriot Files; dedicated to
the preservation of military history;
www.patriotfiles.com.
Map Graphics and References courtesy
www.103rdcactus.com.
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.
Our understanding is that the bulk of
this material came from Captain Beck's
personal letters, as made available by
his son.
Index of /Sexton/103rd; deep
web sourcing.
Various data: Audie L. Murphy Memorial
Website.
103D Infantry Division Signal
Company History, online as a
Pierce-Evans.org project.
103rd Infantry Division,
Wartime Press.
Miscellaneous fact checking: The Patriot
Files; an online resource dedicated to
the preservation of military history.
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