The 188^th Engineer Combat Battalion was formed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts on September 9^th, 1943. The noncommissioned cadre were from the Louisiana maneuver area. The majority of the recruits were from the New England area. Basic training in infantry skills, and combat engineering skills were conducted. At the conclusion of this thirteen week training period you could consider yourself as being on the way to the status of a combat engineer. The battalion conducted maneuvers in the mountains of West Virginia in January and February of 1944. On completion of training there, the battalion was moved to Fort Dix, New Jersey to continue our training in combat engineering skills and techniques.
In the latter part of June, the battalion moved to Camp Shanks New York, to prepare for movement overseas. Shortly before midnight on July 23^rd, the battalion boarded The Mauritania along with thousands of other troops, for the movement to England. The Mauritania was one of the premier ships of the Cunard White Star Line. It was the fastest ship of its class in the world. It had a British captain and crew, but the gun crew was composed of American sailors.

We departed the port of New York at 9:15 a.m. on the morning of July 24^th. The ship was unescorted as The Mauritania could outrun anything in the German navy. The ship zig-zagged across the Atlantic Ocean arriving at Liverpool on July 31^st. Prior to arriving at Liverpool and moving down the Irish Sea, I saw a dark line on the horizon. One of the ships officers was standing nearby. I asked him just what it was and he told me it was the coastline of Ireland, and it was about eight miles away. Sometime later in a letter to my parents, I told them of the sighting. My father in an answering letter said “You saw the coastline of Ireland, and it was eight miles away. Son you have been closer to Ireland than any Riley in the last one hundred and sixty nine years.” My great great grandfather had emigrated to America as a bonded servant at the age of fifteen in 1775.
We left the ship on August 1^st and boarded a train for Nantwich, a town in central England. A motor convoy carried the battalion to Duddington Hall, where we were to continue our preparation for combat in France and beyond to who knows where. An Engineer Combat Battalion is highly mechanized, and the next three weeks were spent in acquiring the vehicles, equipment, and tools for the battalion. We had left the states with only our personal weapon. Everything else was left behind. The vehicles were stored at depots like Aintree Race Track. There were vehicles of every classification stored there, and they numbered in the thousands.
In a Combat Engineer Battalion, every squad of a line platoon has a two and one half ton truck for personnel and equipment. Additional vehicles are required for the Supply Sergeant, Company mess personnel, stoves, etc. and various vehicles for officers and others. In all, each line company can have as many as eighteen or more vehicles and trailers. Vehicles for the battalion staff, medical department and supply will add even more to the total required. The channel crossing was made on Sunday August, 27^th, and we anchored overnight at Utah Beach in the Cherbourg Peninsula that evening. While in England, we learned that the battalion would be a part of General George Patton’s Third Army. Now that we landed in France, our first job would be to catch up to him, as his army had broken out of the Cherbourg Peninsula and was moving east across France.
We began our movement on August 29^th, and as we passed through the town of St. Lo, we could see the damage wrought on that town. There was not one building that had four walls standing. The three or four French civilians that we saw were wandering aimlessly, as there was no place to go. The first day we traveled two hundred and thirty five miles from our departure point. We were out of gas and waited three days for fuel [German gasoline] to continue on our “catch up”. We then traveled another one hundred and sixty miles, arriving at a town near Troyes, France. While stopped there, we had our first encounter with the enemy. A five man reconnaissance patrol from B Company, led by a platoon lieutenant, met a group often or eleven SS troops. The patrol captured three of the enemy, and killed one. We had no casualties from this first encounter with the enemy.
Then the fifth of September, we were on assigned our first job at Joinville, France, on the Upper Mame River. It was the first of many bridges to be built by the Battalion in the months ahead. The damaged bridge was of masonry construction, and the first job was to clear the rubble in the foundation areas, to provide a solid, stable foundation base for the wooden bridge bents to be built at the site. Twenty four inch I beams were to be used as the bridge stringers. Suprisingly, these were found in the local area. The existing masonry piers were utilized after some cleanup and repair. The bridge was completed on September 12^th, and placed in service when the 79^th Division crossed it with their light tanks, and artillery.
All the material for the two bridges, and canal rerouting were from nearby areas. I tip my “helmet” to the members of these reconnaissance teams that locate acquire and arrange for transporting of this material to the job site. I never was a member of one of those teams, but I know what an important part they play in the success of any construction. The design of the bridge depends on the material they locate. The length of the bridge spans, and the number of stringers per span, and other vital construction items, depends on what they find and deliver.
The Battalion then moved to the Moselle River where the 4^th Armored Division had built a tread-way bridge. Our task was to replace this bridge with two bridges, a class 70 and a class 40 bridge. Work started on September 13^th as previous reconnaissance by the battalion staff had been completed prior to the arrival of A and C companies, who were to construct the two bridges. A low level timber bridge was to be built along side the recently installed tread-way bridge. A combination of various sizes of I beams were used as there was an insufficient number of any one size for the complete bridge. A trademark of combat engineers is their ability to adapt the design with the materials at hand. The two bridges were completed and ready for traffic at midnight on September 17^th.

From September 13^th to October 18^th the battalion swept two hundred and seven miles of

mined roads, and filled craters, removed road blocks and cleared mine fields. These operations cost the battalion thirteen casualties, and three deaths. The losses were sobering, and caused a change in our tactics of removing mines and anti-personnel devices. All were to be detonated in place when located, no exceptions. We had additional casualties in spite of this. The Germans had ingenious ways of disguising these deadly devices. Most of the casualties we suffered in our activities in Europe, were the result of mines and anti-personnel devices.
The Germans excelled in their use of land mines, and anti-personnel devices. They were ingenious in their placement and disguising of these deadly devices. The German land mine was a finely machined device. The fuses for their land mines were either pressure type, or pressure release type. Both were very effective. The anti-personnel devices were pressure release types. That is, if you stepped on, or a vehicle ran over the triggering device, they exploded with a deadly force when you moved your foot, or the wheel weight was removed as the vehicle moved. Other anti-personnel devices utilized trip wires to detonate them. The most infamous anti-personnel device was a “Bouncing Betty.” When actuated, the explosive charge was elevated to waist height and then exploded. The “Bouncing Betty” was the most feared of all the devices. I have seen, too many times, the crippling, deadly results of their activation.
One of our most catastrophic events with land mines and anti-personnel devices was in the Foret de Haye, between Toul and Nancy, France. This was the site of a German officer training center and proving ground. Imagine the methods of placement and disguising of these mines by German officers, striving for a high mark in their classroom lessons. We had three deadly activations of mines and anti-personnel devices while working in this area, for a total of thirteen casualties. Removal and destroying of these devices was a dangerous job, but it had to be done, and it was the job of the combat engineer to do it.
The Battalion continued to build bridges, repair roads, and all of the other tasks pertinent to being a combat engineer, as we continued to move east across France. Every bridge construction presented new difficulties, but each and every one was solved by the men on the job, and we continued our move east. We had been assigned to support The Fourth Armored Division on our arrival in France, so every bridge job was a “hurry up job”, as the armor was always waiting to cross the river and hammer the enemy. We never kept them waiting too long.
The Battalion continued building bridges across the Moselle River at various locations. As the bridge at Flavigny was nearing completion, heavy rain, which had been falling for a week, caused the river to rise six feet in forty eight hours. This rapid flow of surging water threatened to scour the footings under the bridge bents. There was danger that the bridge might collapse. Work to save the bridge was constant, night and day. The footings were reinforced, and after many hours of anxiety the bridge was saved.
The XII Corps of The Third Army had taken up a defensive position east of Nancy and our drive was stopped. The divisions were rested and re-supplied for the battle yet to come. In early November, while in the Nancy area, word was received that the commanding General, George S. Patton would honor us with a visit. That announcement sure started a commotion. General Patton is well known as an advocate of a full and proper uniform at all times. We had been in France for two months, and not every soldier had a full and complete uniform, especially a necktie. Other items of clothing could be borrowed from another soldier, but each of us only had one tie to start with, and none to lend.

A combat engineer is an ingenious individual, and we soon came up with a solution for the missing neckties. A suitable facsimile could be fashioned with a pair of G I socks. Not a work of art, but it could probably make it in a “walk through” review. It did. General Patton presented Colonel Allen with the Battalion colors, and made a short speech commending us for our performance as a part of the Third Army. We appreciated his visit and his remarks on that occasion.
Early on the morning of November 8^th, the artillery illuminated the sky, and we were headed east once again. B company moved to the town of Vie sur Seille where C company constructed a bridge across the Seille River at the town ofChambrey. A company began clearing mines for a bridge at Nomeny, and pile driving began for the bridge. In eight days they had completed a bridge two hundred and twenty five feet in length over the river.
More bridges were constructed on the Saar River, near Diedendorf, Al beschaux, and Neufvillage. Road repairs continued at several locations including damages by bomb craters. B company began construction of a fixed bridge to replace a Bailey bridge at Keskastel. They were within a day of completing the bridge when word was received to stop all construction and prepare to return to the Company area. When I asked about completing the bridge, I was told “your orders are to stop construction and prepare to move out. Some other engineer outfit will complete the bridge, as I doubt that we will ever return to this area. We never did return to this area.
On December 20^th we began a bumper to bumper movement of vehicles and personnel -NORTH. We traveled twenty four hours a day, full headlights at night. From time to time we had to move to the side of the road, to permit armored units to pass through us. It seemed that armored units were the ones most wanted first. During one of the stops to permit armored units to pass, I was asked by one of the men where we were headed. I told him that I had not been given that information before our departure. I knew that did not satisfy him. I told him that if we survived this mission, that someday in the future, after the war, we would probably think of this moment as we sat in our rockers, with our favorite libation in hand, and smile. I wonder if he ever did, I know I have.

The seriousness of the German counteroffensive was made known to us at one of the later halts in our movement north. While the Battalion waited at Longuyon France, for one day we were further briefed on the happenings ahead of us, and learned that we were to be assigned to support the Fourth Armored Division in the effort to relieve the units defending Bastogne. That meant we would be in the thick of things, and we were as soon as we arrived.

The Battalion moved from Longuyon to Aubange. A company was to construct a Bailey bridge over the Sure River at Martelange, Belgium. After waiting a day south of the town while the Fourth Armored Division cleared out the Germans, construction began at 7am on the 23^rd of December. There were some incoming rounds of mortar fire, but no casualties at the bridge site. The bridge was completed at noon, and placed in service immediately.

For several days there was nothing but fog. The ground combat activities continued, but

all aerial activity was at a standstill. Finally the fog lifted one morning, and the sky was clear. Then we heard the roar of airplane motors. Looking up, we saw the sky was filled with airplanes – Our airplanes. Imagine an expressway, four or five lanes wide in each direction. The first wave of planes were all flying east, literally wing tip to wing tip as we viewed it with the naked eye. We looked up into the sky at the wonderful sight, and shook our fists and cheered like fans at a football game.
The first waves of bombers. Liberators, and B52’s, filled the sky. What a most welcome sight to behold. These were followed by low level bombers and fighter planes that attacked the German lines, that were no more than a hop, skip, and jump from our lines. The German soldier in those positions must surely have thought, “What the hell am I doing here!” These bombing, strafing runs continued from dawn to dusk. The air was continuously filled with planes. One wave coming to punish the Germans and return waves, not as orderly, returning to base for refueling, and reloading of bombs and ammunition for the next trip. What a sight to behold, and one that is indelibly impressed on my mind, for the rest of my life. The odds on the Germans expanding The Bulge must have been shortened as a result of the excellent work of the American and British Air Forces on that day, and the days following.
The American forces defending Bastogne were bolstered by the air drops of supplies by parachute when the skies cleared. Parachutes were of various colors to indicate the type of supplies they were delivering. I am sure some of these parachutes landed in the areas occupied by the German forces. That is understandable because their and our forces were so close. I collected a number of these empty parachutes. The supplies had been removed by the time I reached them. I cut them into smaller sections and mailed them home to my wife. She was an excellent seamstress, and created handkerchiefs, scarves, babushkas, and pillow cases for our family, friends, relatives, and neighbors. So the parachutes went on to a further use after they had done their primary job.
B Company was assigned the mission of out-posting the town ofMartelange. Our platoon was approaching their assigned position at a road intersection north of the town and were challenged, and ordered to halt. Passwords and the usual questions about city and baseball in America. The challenger was satisfied, and we were told to advance. After a few steps, we were once again ordered to halt. It was then that I could see a tank, partially obscured by a small building and a tree. When I looked up at the tank, the muzzle of the gun seemed to be about a foot in diameter, pointing right at me. A voice from within the tank said “I would suggest that you discard or pull up that long coat you are wearing, up to your waist and secure it. Right now you look like a German soldier.” It was far too cold to discard the coat, so I quickly tucked it in at my waist. The next day I traded the long coat for a mackinaw, through the good graces of our supply sergeant. We moved on to our assigned area, and took defensive positions.
At first light a column of American tanks moved down the road toward us, and then stopped as they saw us. An officer in the lead tank asked if we had heard any activity in the town just ahead of us. He was advised that we had heard vehicle movement during the night. With that he ordered the column to move, and it proceeded into the town ofBigonville, Belgium, which was held by the German army. The sounds of battle were soon heard. Sometime later. Fourth Armored Division soldiers were bringing captured German soldiers into our area, where they searched them for weapons, and then assembled them for delivery to a prisoner of war holding area. Our mission was completed and we returned to our company area.
The next day, December 24^th, Christmas Eve, the battalion, together with the 249^th Engineers, was placed in the line east ofMartelange. The Fourth Armored Division had progressed nearly to Bastogne, and was ready to breech an opening in the German defense. The two engineer battalions were to take the place ofCCR of the Fourth Armored Division, which was to move east, and sweep around the left into Bastogne. Under cover of darkness we moved up on line and began the process of digging in at our defensive positions. The snow was deep, and the night was very cold. Machine guns were set up and bazooka teams were positioned to prevent any breakthrough by German tanks.
All night long the whine of outgoing artillery was heard as they passed over us. But there was no whistle of incoming shells to our defense position. However, there were flares launched into the sky by the enemy. They illuminated the area as if it was daylight. When the flares would burst we froze in place to prevent any detection of our presence. There were no untoward incidents during our stay at our defense position. At noon we

were relieved by elements of the 6^th Cavalry Division, and we moved to a rear area, where our cooks had prepared a most welcome Christmas dinner. That Christmas Eve has never been one of my favorite memories when measured against all of the others in my lifetime.
The maneuver by the CCR of the Fourth Armored Division of moving out as we moved in was a successful one. The next day, December 26^th, they pierced the Bulge, and the city ofBastogne , and the American soldiers defending it were relieved. Bastogne was important to the German plan because it was at the center of five roads. It was very important to control the city and the five roads in the German plan of attack, to divide the Allied forces. The campaign to stop the German advance was a success, and we were a part of that success. The war moved on as we once again were headed east.
The fighting was fierce and the weather was extremely cold to the point of bitter cold during the month of December. I believe that we accomplished things that none of us thought we were capable of. The German High Command placed the best they had in the line, and we beat them-There was still a lot of fighting ahead of us, but I believe the German High Command realized after their defeat at Bastogne, that the tide of the war had changed, and the Allied Armies would prevail. I believe that they would have surrendered then, rather than suffer the complete destruction of the German homeland. Hitler had nothing to gain by agreeing to a surrender, so the war went on for four more months.
All of this happened sixty nine years ago, and I am now ninety one years old. In retrospect my feelings now, as they were then, are that I am glad that I did not miss it, but I would not want to go through it again.

After the Bulge was blunted, that is the Germans were placed in retreat or captured, since the foxholes did not have running water etc. we had not washed. We were in the same clothes worn when we left Haverford West, South Wales, UK 6 weeks or so before. Some soldiers may have had an opportunity to change clothes. We didn’t. If you were to look at my hands, the only clean parts would be my fingertips where the dirt and grime would wear off from use in handling my rifle, ammunition and a month or so of living outside under bad conditions.

One day we were transported about 10 miles behind the front lines to a temporary Quartermaster operated washing and change of clothes-station. They had set up a truck alongside a small stream. The truck was equipped with water heaters and showers. There were small tents at the front and rear of the truck. Small groups were let into the first tent and given instructions in very colorful language “take off all your clothes” you will not see them again. “If you have any valuables hold them in your hand.” “When you enter the shower find someplace where they may not get wet”. My “long Johns” felt like a part of me. I had sweat in them, froze in them and did everything in them. I mean everything. When I took them off it was like peeling off some of my skin. So there we were naked and shivering waiting for more instructions. All our clothes were on the ground (dirt) and we were freezing. It was winter and we were nude in a forest by a stream.

We were then given instructions as to what was going to happen next. Once again instructions were given in colorful language. It seems that no one would pay attention unless you spoke that way. We were told it was to be a three-minute shower. You would go up the steps into the shower cubicle, which was built into the truck somehow. The water would come on. You would have one minute to wet yourself, followed by one minute to soap yourself and then one minute to rinse. We were reminded that if soap was still in your eyes or anywhere else “too bad”. The water would be shut off anyhow. Pick up your valuables (family photos and other items of value) then go down the steps into the rear tent.

As I went down the steps from the shower into a cold tent someone handed me a set of new clothes and shoes without any regard for size. We were all nude wandering around that tent bumping in to one another asking anyone what size they were given and “could we trade”. I ended up with very narrow shoes. (They were probably 11 and a half-triple A). They curled up in the front and seemed to say “hello”. Did you ever try to dress and/or bend in a crowded room of nude men or try putting on a pair of shoes? We were then ushered outside the tent, which seemed extra cold because our pores were now wide open and we weren’t wearing the dirt-clogged underwear etc. As dirty as my “long Johns” had been, I longed for them at that moment.

Because we were a company of about 250 men it was a slow and long process to shower and process everyone. Some of us wandered down the road to a bar that somehow was open. It didn’t take much cognac, so for the first time in my life I got drunk. I hardly remember getting in the truck to return to the front lines. I can’t remember where I went. I thought about it later and realized it was dangerous being on the front line and not really having all my senses.

S/Sgt James K. Cullen, 3^rd Armored Division, 36^th Armored Infantry Regiment, Company E
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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