by David Bailey, 106 INFD, 422 INF, 3 BN, CO F
A native of Bluefield, West Virginia, as a young recruit I enlisted in the Army in November 1942 and completed my basic training in the infantry at Camp Wheeler, Georgia in April 1943.
After completing my basic training, I qualified for the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), which was the brainchild of the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Army, who believed that the ASTP would provide a pool of available leaders when the war ended.
I studied military government and engineering at Alabama Polytechnic Institute and Clemson College. However, ASTP was later disbanded, in order to provide the Army with replacements to depleted US divisions serving overseas. I was sent to the newly formed “Golden Lions” of the 106th Infantry Division and later assigned to Company F, 422nd Infantry.
Deployed from Fort Miles Standish (near Boston) on November 10, 1944, we sailed on the troop ship Aquitania and arriving in England November 17th, where the Division trained briefly before moving to the European Theatre of Operation. The 106th landed at Le Havre France on December 3rd and were trucked to the front east of St. Vith, Belgium a week later. We were relieving the 2nd Infantry Division in the Scene Eifel sector, a snow-covered ridge of the Ardennes Forest, covering a 27-mile front bordering Germany and northeast of Luxembourg.
The Army used the Ardennes to acquaint newcomers, like the 106th, with some of the milder elements of infantry warfare—such as observing and patrolling.
Needless to say and against all odds, in the early morning of December 16th the Germans launched a surprise attack outnumbering our troops by a “factor of five” in terms of armor and manpower. Our Division had only five days of front-line experience, had no air coverage due to the dense fog, and indeed was cut off from our supply lines. This was the start of the largest and bloodiest battle of WWII, in which there were 81,000 American casualties and 19,000 killed.
The German’s ultimate destination in this last ditch, “all-or-nothing” initiative was the strategic port of Antwerp. So sudden and swift was the attack that it soon punctured a huge hole, or salient, in the Allied lines that gave the battle its name: “The Battle of the Bulge.” Those of us at the 422nd and 423rd who survived this ordeal were able to take part in the reorganization of the 106th Division, which regrouped in northern France and participated in all future European campaigns until final victory on May 7th 1945.
On the following day, May 8th 1945 (known as “VE Day” Victory in Europe), I had a streak of luck and appeared with some of my 106th comrades on the cover page of the Army newspaper The Stars and Stripes, celebrating the happiest day of our lives. We were the lucky ones who were able to return home to friends and family and a life thereafter. In my particular case, I have always relied on my Guardian Angel, in addition to Having Faith! And Going Forward!