Hodges ordered the 12th Infantry Regiment from the 4th Division to be attached to the 28th Division and relieve the shattered 112th. As soon as possible, the 4ths 8th and 22nd regiments would take over the remainder of the 28ths positions. In addition, the 1st Infantry Division, which had finally taken Aachen, was summoned for an attack from the north. Along the left flank of the 47th Infantry Regiment, GIs would strike toward Gressenich from their Schevenhütte outpost. To soften resistance, a massive bombing attack by the U.S. Eighth Air Force and the British RAF would precede a sustained cannonade from corps and division artillery. Despite this massive bombardment, the Germans refused to wilt. South Carolinian Marcus Dillard, still six weeks shy of his 19th birthday and a mortar gunner with the 12th Infantrys Company M, had stepped onto Utah Beach on D-Day. We were alerted to move at once on the 6th of November, recalled Dillard. We were told to cover our division insignia on our helmets, remove or cover our shoulder patches and all markings on our vehicles. At about 1800 hours we started moving north. It was cold, miserable and raining. We arrived and started detrucking about 0200 in the morning of the 7th.It was dark and I mean dark, raining, cold, wind blowing. We all wondered, Where are we? This was a secret move, and no one except the top brass knew where we were. I looked up trying to see something, and all I could make out were the tops of trees swaying and hear the wind whistling through them. We were told to move out and to follow the man in front as close as possible. We didnt want anyone to get lost. We were told to leave our 81mm mortars behind. We would take the ones left by the unit we were relieving, and they would get ours. We walked, stumbled and slipped for the next couple of hours, barely able to see where we were going. We finally halted and were to stay in place. Wet and miserable as I was, I dropped off to sleep — I dont know for how long — but then we were told we would take the foxholes and positions of the soldiers we were to replace. It was starting to get daylight, and we could see the shoulder patches of the 28th Division. They didnt say much. They just moved out and looked tired and exhausted. As it got brighter, what I saw scared me. Shell holes all over, the trees, most of them looked like shredded matchsticks with points. Half of the trees standing, the bark was torn off by shrapnel. Just utter devastation. It was cold, rainy, foggy. Just plain miserable. No hot food, just K rations. Our positions must have been the only open area around because we had to have clearance overhead in order to fire our 81s. The Germans had to know our positions because of that. We could not see our targets but were told what they were. The artillery fire on us was very intense. The Germans started a barrage that lasted over three hours. We had cut logs and put them over the slit trenches that had mounds of dirt around them. We could not even get out to our mortar positions, which were about 20 to 30 feet out in the clearing. The telephone line to the company CP was cut by the barrage, and we had no communication. We could not give supporting fire until we fixed the cut lines. A day after their arrival, the 4th Division troops began an attack designed to eliminate a salient that extended into the Weisser Wehe Valley. Dillard remembered: As we started through a fire break, there was a minefield and barbed wire. The company commander stepped on a mine. Then the Germans started shelling us. They must have had an observer in the woods. Almost all supplies had to be hand carried over trails and paths barely wide enough to walk [on]. We had never encountered terrain like this.When the regiment renewed its drive on November 9, Companies I and K were designated as the main assault units, but a 500-yard-wide minefield separated them. Company I had to withdraw from its frontline position, and a support platoon from Company L replaced it. Company K, said Dillard, moved rapidly until it reached booby-trapped concertina wire covered by machine gun fire. All this time we in Company M were laying down a mortar barrage in front of K. Company I, which circled around the minefield, came up in the rear of K, then swung to the left. They too caught intense small-arms fire. Both of our infantry companies were calling for our 81mm mortars, but the Germans were well dug in. [Companies] K and I had to dig in for the night, all the time under intense artillery and mortar fire. The German gunners, mines and soldiers with small arms effectively broke up the attack, inflicting severe losses. When some GIs tried to return to their old foxholes, they found Germans in residence. Again, command and control broke down; shortages of food and ammunition bedeviled the Americans. The splintered 12th Regiment reverted to the 4th Division. Only three days after being committed, it was a shambles, counting 562 casualties among its complement of 2,300.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 11:36:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015