Remembering World War II and the Battle of the Bulge
by Philip Walsh, 2^nd AD, 66^th AR, Co C

I was 18 years old when I got my draft notice from President Franklin Roosevelt.  It was 1943. The notice read “greetings from President Roosevelt” and went on to say I was drafted to the US Army. I had never been away from home before and I wondered if I would return home to Maine.

I was sent to Fort Devon’s, Massachusetts, for a few weeks where I received my army uniform and medical shots.  I recall walking down a narrow hallway and got shots in both of my arms. The fellow in front of me passed out after receiving his. I can still hear the guys who had already got their shots saying “you will be sorry.” They were right. They also warned me to watch out for the square needle that’s left in overnight.  I found out to my relief they were just kidding because I was a new recruit.

From there I was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for 21 weeks of tank training. I remember being homesick, went to see the doctor, a major, who gave me some pink pills and said I would be fine.  I wasn’t.  I was still homesick. When our training ended we were sent to Fort George Meade, Maryland, for advanced training. Then I was sent to Camp Shanks, New York, to board the Aquitania for Europe.

I recall when we landed in Greenock, Scotland some Scottish girls greeted us and gave us muffins filled with meat. I took one bite and threw it out.  It tasted awful to me. We left Scotland by train to England.  By the time I arrived in England I was no longer homesick. It was more than 6 months since I left Maine. The war was underway, and by this time I figured I’d never get home alive.

When I was sent to France I was assigned to Company C 66 Armored Regimen, 2^nd Armored Division. Afterward I was deployed to Omaha Beach in June – six days after D-Day.  When I landed I asked the Beach Master if many men were killed. He said if anymore were killed no one would have gotten ashore. I remember one solider, in particular who landed on the beach with me. He was from the southern part of the States and was assigned to another tank because tank commander, Lt. Johnson, also from the south, picked him for his crew because of the connection to the south.

This was the first day in battle for us. Lt. Johnson’s tank was heading down a road between a row of hedges rows and ran over a mine.  The explosion blew a track off the tank. The crew climbed out of the tank, started to crawl on the ground and a mortar shell landed on the back of the soldier from the south. All that was left of him was a piece of his fly and belt buckle. It was terrifying.  Later I was told that Lt. Johnson was planning to get married in Paris after the war and arranged to have his bride’s wedding dress made from a parachute.  Unfortunately he was killed outside of Berlin at close range by one of Hitler’s Youth with a Panzer Faust bazooka after he stepped outside of his tank. 

We were never told where we would be deployed or given any details.  That was one thing I didn’t like about the Army.  After Omaha Beach we were sent to another location in France. We were on the front line for 21 days with the Germans firing at us from a train with artillery guns. I remember it sounded like a freight train coming at us. Three crew members and I barely left tank for the entire 21 days. It was too dangerous to stay outside for any length of time due to the constant shelling from the Germans.  We had to be extremely careful.

The ground around the tank was all torn up from shelling and the mud was a foot thick. Every time someone left the tank they would get about two inches of mud on their boots. I remember getting mud dropped on my shoulders whenever the tank commander, a schoolteacher, climbed back into the tank after checking our surroundings. I was seated at the machine gunner’s seat and there wasn’t any room to move.  It was very tight quarters inside the tank.  I also recall when the lieutenant was injured after a shell struck the side of the tank when he was underneath trying to cook a meal with a Coleman Burner.  He was taken to the aid station.

We had an opportunity to take prisoners. Seven Germans waving a white flag tried to surrender to us. One of our crew members fired at them and they took off.

After 21 days in France we were on the move again, this time to Germany. We arrived to a location that looked like a park and were able to sleep outside on the ground. One morning when I awoke, I noticed the tank was leaking. I looked inside and saw about three inches of gasoline on the bottom of the tank.  A new replacement had changed the fuel filters incorrectly on both Cadillac engines.  

Our next deployment was to Bastogne for combat at the Battle of the Bulge where I remained for the duration of the conflict. It was winter, freezing cold, and I drove an open top half track 100 miles in the pouring rain to Bastogne. Somewhere along the way I drove off the road.  I was very tired, soaking wet and it was difficult to see because there were no headlights. I accidentally backed into Captain A.Z. Owen’s tank. He hollered “get that man’s name.”  I was afraid he would send me to jail.  He didn’t do anything.

When we arrived at our destination near Bastogne we were exhausted and cold. We pitched our pup tents in the freezing temperatures and went to sleep shivering.  What amazes me now as I think back about sleeping in soaking wet, heavy Army clothes with my shoes frozen to the ground is that I never caught a cold.

Our tank was parked next to a farmhouse. The family living in the home felt sorry for us staying outside in the cold and they invited us in to dry our clothes and get warm. We stayed with them for several nights.  Unfortunately one of the soldiers flirted constantly with the homeowner’s wife. The husband got fed up and told us all to leave.

One time we liberated a couple of chickens and some vegetables from a Belgium farmhouse and I cooked it in a 5-gallon can. You cannot imagine how good this tasted on a cold day especially after living on K and K rations. It was the best chicken soup I had ever eaten. A captain from Georgia said to me, “Walsh where did you get the chickens from?” Another soldier spoke up and said he got a package from the states. This seemed to satisfy the captain who helped himself to the soup without asking any more questions.

Later during the battle I was asked to drive this same captain in a jeep to a command post set up in a house near Bastogne. When we arrived we saw the T/5 Sergeant who had flooded our tank with gas when he was assigned to our crew in France. He was on duty at the command post and did not salute the captain in my jeep. The captained yelled to the T/5 sergeant “Salute me.”  He obeyed.

When the Battle of the Bulge ended, I was deployed to Berlin. We were the first troops to arrive in Berlin after World War II ended.  I was transferred to the 12^th Armored Division and sent to Marseilles, France where I prepared to go home.  It was 1946. I am proud to have served my country, but I wouldn’t want to go through this again.

In the past, the term “combat arms” referred to the infantry, cavalry and artillery.  Later, the “cavalry” was replaced by the “armor” branch.”  Services such as engineers, ordnance, signal and others were considered to be supports for the combat arms.  However, historians have recorded that many supporting troops became combat troops during the Battle of the Bulge.  The same was true for administration personnel including those in combat arms units.

On December 16, 1944, Combat Command B (CCB) of the 9th Armored Division (AD) was preparing for an attack with the 2nd Infantry Division to capture the Roer River Dam.  That mission was cancelled and, for the next several days and nights,  CCB of the 9th AD and CCB or the 7th AD fought alongside in Belgium delaying the main enemy attack.  It ended when both units withdrew on December 23, 1944 from St. Vith, Belgium.

During that period, CCB of the 9th AD had no contact with their 9th AD headquarters which was in Luxembourg.  A part of CCB task force was the 14th Tank Battalion (Bn).  Captain Frank Simons commanded the Bn Headquarters Company whose enlisted staff maintained the records of the battalion – the movements, locations, casualties, losses and the important Morning Report which is often a source for military history.  At one point, Capt. Simons ordered his clerical personnel to exchange their pencils for their side arms (weapons) and join the tanks and infantry of CCB to stop or delay the enemy advance.

I was a tank platoon leader in the 14th Tk Bn with five tanks and 24 men.  My combat orders and missions changed frequently during the combat as our higher command attempted to stop the enemy and armor attacks.  On day I was ordered to protect our 9th Armored Engineers who were preparing a roadblock to halt an possible or anticipated enemy attack.  This type of operation had not been part of our many months of training.  How was it accomplished?

The platoon leader and the other two tanks in his section moved into enemy territory to select a location from where they could observe an approaching enemy and warn the engineers..  As for observation, only the tank commanders can observe since the gunners, tank gun loaders, drivers and bow gunners are inside the tank with their hatches closed.  Consequently, tanks are highly vulnerable, particularly to infiltration by small groups such as an enemy infantry squad,  So, the tanks were positioned to observe but also,  that if hit by a surprise attack, the platoon leader could engage the enemy to cover the withdrawal  of the other two tanks.

The tank platoon sergeant and his second tank remained with the engineers who were preparing the roadblock. Once the platoon leader had his tanks in position, his next action was to establish radio contact with the platoon sergeant, who could than alert the engineers. He made contact with his own tank and with another of this tanks to provide a back-up in case of a communication problem. Incidentally, higher authority  had ordered “radio silence” which meant we could receive messages (such as orders)    but could we could not transmit messages.  Under certain conditions, there is a reason for this restriction.  However, since the platoon leader was the “higher authority” in this combat situation he changed to orders to meet the need and the combat situation.

The illustration shows the engineers at work preparing and wiring the trees alongside the road so they could be blown to block the passage of vehicles.

The surrounding terrain was unfavorable to tracked and wheeled vehicles.  This was an action under combat conditions.  The engineers along with the tankers were engaged in a combat action. In this action, the tank platoon sergeant informed this platoon leader when the engineers had completed placing of demolitions.  The three advance tanks then withdrew back to the engineer location and the leader reported the situation to higher headquarters.  He was given another mission.  It is not known how the roadblock was manned to detonate the charges since, to be effective, a roadblock should usually be covered by fire.

As a tactical note, when an enemy column is stopped by a roadblock, the defending unit should be prepared to first   disable a vehicle in the rear which prevents the withdrawal of the vehicles between the disabled vehicle and the roadblock.

In a later operation during the Bulge, the engineers were placing demolitions on a bridge.  This required them to enter the bitter cold water of the river.  You can bet that tanks in their dry locations did not envy the engineers!

by Dee Paris, 9th Armored Division, 14th Tank Battalion