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A history of the 486th from Omaha Beach to Dessau, Germany,
as published in October, 1945, in the official battalion post-war
record:
Normandy
France & Belgium
Rhineland
Battle of the Bulge
Central Germany Conclusion
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Above: 486th AAA Bn Commander
Lt. Col. Raymond Dunnington (left) and Gen. Omar Bradley. The
date and location is not identified. (Photo by T/5 Marvin Mischnick,
3AD Hq) |
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to 486th Combat Index
NORMANDY
June 1944 will go down in history as the beginning of the
end for Germany. Increasingly heavy and destructive air raids
continued to pound shore installations. Communications and supply
systems were systematically destroyed. The stage was set; this
was it. Meanwhile the 486th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion
was ordered to proceed to a concentration area -- a field just
outside of Hayes House. On June 6th, the day that the whole of
the civilized world had been waiting for, came the invasion of
Europe. Names like Omaha and Utah Beach, the 1st and 29th Infantry
Divisions, and 101st and 82nd Airborne became main topics of
discussion.
As we listened to the news from the front, the realization
that soon we would become part of this gigantic struggle became
apparent to us. Our stay in the land of "mild and bitters"
was drawing to an end. On the 19th of June our unit moved by
convoy to the marshalling area at Weymouth. Two days later, the
21st of June, the 486th boarded LST'S and LCT'S and sailed on
the 22nd from Portland Harbor. The trip across the channel was
uneventful. Many of the men partook liberally of the anti-seasickness
pills and went to sleep.
At 1510 hours on the 23rd day of June all elements of the
486th landed on Omaha Beach, Normandy, France. Here they paused
briefly to remove water-proofing and immediately joined Field
Artillery elements of the Third Armored Division, then part of
the XIX "Tomahawk" Corps. With the exception of D Battery
these attachments were to continue throughout the struggle. A
Battery was attached to the 391st Armored Field Artillery, B
Battery was attached to the 54th Armored Field Artillery, and
C Battery was attached to the 67th Armored Field Artillery. For
the first few days D Battery remained un-assigned, then latec
went with the 58th Armored Field Artillery, a veteran outfit
of North Africa and Sicily.
At this time the battalion was situated on the hanks of the
Vire River Just south of Isigny. Soon A, B, and C Batteries moved
south to St. Marguerite sur File in support of an attack by Combat
Command A Battery D, remaining with Combat Command B, waited
in division reserve. The men were seeing Normandy and the results
of the bloody struggle that had raged over the ground just a
few days before. Discarded equipment, burned vehicles, and scattered
corpses -- all llie ugly left overs of battle were here.
The Third Armored Division was first wholly committed in the
attack across the Virc River on the 7th of July 1944. The division
was then in support of the 29th and 30th Infantry Divisions:
the objective was to be the cutting of the St. Lo - Periers highway.
After an intensive artillery preparation, and when the combat
engineers had bridged the river the division rolled across, and
A, B and D Batteries were with it. Tills was their real baptism.
German artillery was accurately registered on all roads and bridges,
and when our men passed through Airel they saw war at its worst.
The first thing they saw was the dead -- dead Americans, dead
Germans, and dead horses and cows, most of them not a pleasant
sight. It was dark and bewildering, and the sounds of the incoming
artillery were terrifying.
That night the bridgehead was secured, and in the morning
C Battery crossed the river. It was here that we sustained our
first casualties. Just south of St. Jean de Daye a D Battery
M-15 commanded by Sgt. Ri'chard Hopkins felt the impact of a
barrage of 88 millimeter shell fire. Pfc. Harvey Poupart was
killed. Sgt. Hopkins, Cpl. Alien, and Pfc. Bourdon were wounded.
Two M-16's of A Battery were hit by artillery, with no casualties.
One of these, commanded by Cpl. Henrickson, was hit by a shell
which landed on the center of the star on the liood, cleaned
the top off the motor and miraculously missed all the crew who
were under the veliicle at the time.
Now we wheeled south, and this movement placed the battalion
near Cavignv. It was slow, hard pushing for the tankers and doughs,
which meant that the armored field artillery battalions were
always busy. We normally stayed in one position for two or three
davs; the men dus; their half-tracks in deeply and built good
covered fox holes. On July 11th Cpl. Tracia's M-15 from A Battery
set a precedent that was to be followed many times in the coming
months. This gun was in position slightly forward of a battery
of the 391st Armored Field Artillery. Cpl. Tracia heard an explosion
near a house about three hundred yards away from him.
Three men crawled down the hedgerows to investigate but withdrew
quickly when the only voices they could hear were speaking German.
When about half way back to their position they were fired upon
and immediately took cover behind the hedgerows, then one by
one they dashed back to their gun. An enemy patrol consistng
of tanks and infantry had succeeded in infiltrating into this
position and were picking off thin skinned vehicles nearby. Cpl.
Tracia backed his half-track up to a hedgerow and opened fire.
The Germans returned this fire with machine guns and small arms
and this duel lasted for three hours until American Infantry
relieved the situation. Statements by the infantry returning
from the encounter showed that abort twenty Germans had been
killed by the M-15 crew. Cpl. Tracia was awarded a Silver Star
for his actions.
Lt. Thomas B. Fifield, Executive Officer of D Battery located
and assisted in knocking out a Mk IV tank four hundred yards
south of his battery's position. These two incidents were later
discovered to have been part of a defensive action to repel a
strong German thrust to retake Isigny.
Our normal function of antiaircraft came to the fore when
on July 15th B Battery fired on a FW-190. Hits were observed,
and the plane was seen smoking. The Third Armored Division then
passed into the Seventh Corps and was notified that preparations
were being made for a big break-through out of Normandy. The
batteries went into assembly areas west of St. Jean de Daye,
studied maps, and packed their equipment for this great operation.
A large scale false Gas Alarm was spread all over the beach head.
On the 25th of July on of the most awe inspiring sights we have
ever seen passed directly over us. On. that day the Germans felt
the full weight of our air power in close support. This was to
be what was called a saturation bombing. Thousands of Liberators
and Flying Fortresses came over in endless waves, and soon the
ground was reverberating from the mighty explosions. The first
day was a dry run, and the next day the Air Corps repeated their
magnificent performance and we broke out.
All we saw as we passed through the saturated area was burned
tanks, huge craters, and what had been Germans. We passed towns,
or rather shells of towns with names like Marigny, Montpinchon,
Roncey, Cerisy La Salle, and Gavray. The days were filled with
movement -- dusty convoys, little sleep, and K rations. Every
night had its "bed-check Charley", who would drop his
flares and light the way for the growling, throbbing JU-88's.
We suffered casualties from their strafing and anti-personnel
bombs. Passing through Villedieau les Poeles and Brecey the Seventh
Corps was hit by a last determined effort by Von Kluge to separate
our First and Third Armies. This attack hit the Third Armored
Division near Juvigny Ie Tertre, just west of Mortain. It was
here that Major General Leroy H. Watson left the division, and
Brigadier General Maurice Rose became our new division commander.
The 486th was heard from in the battle of the Mortain pocket.
It was here that our battalion got its first sure plane on
the evening of the 27th of July. C Battery had just been shelled,
and then at approximately 2030 hours just as dusk was falling
they heard the erratic sound of the Luftwaffe. Flares were dropped,
anti-personnel bombs fell in the area. Suddenly about a mile
to the north a great explosion lit the sky. That what Sgt. Little
and Cpl. Cavanaugh were waiting for. Clearly outlined against
this glare was a JU-88 and Sgt. Little's gun engaged it. Almost
immediately the plane exploded with a sharp crack, a burst of
flame, and came hurtling to the ground. There was no disputing
their claim because the plane tell in the field just next to
the division C. P.
During the night of the 31st of July Capt. Philip Shaw commanding
B Battery discovered a Mk V tank while on a reconnaissance. This
tank was parked just over the hedgerow from Capt. Shaw's battery
position. Crawling under the tank, Capt. Shaw attempted to blow
it up with a hedgerow breaching charge, but this was thwarted
when the tank started up and slowly began to move away. Capt.
Shaw and two men jumped onto the rear deck of the tank and attacked
the crew. An incendiary grenade was a good enticement for the
Germans to abandon the vehicle. One of the Germans was killed
with a hatchet, a traditional American weapon. Up rolled some
of B-Battery's M-16's and soon the dusk was streaked with tracers
as the chattering machine guns began their destruction. By the
time this action was over several half-tracks, volkswagons, numerous
ammunition and gas trucks, and a regimental command post had
been destroyed. The fires could be seen twenty miles away.
Meanwhile C Battery was having hard times. They had just entered
Le Tieulleui when trouble broke out on their left. Immediately
a screening force was made up to go to Barenton to hold that
sector. This task force consisted of battalion of tanks, a company
of infantry, some Engineers, Tank Destroyers, and one battery
of the 67th Armored Field Artillery. Attached to this battery
of the 67th were Sgt. Little, Sgt. Wisner (now Lt.), Sgt. Croughwell
(now Lt.) and their crews. The task force moved up but not far.
Overwhelming superior forces were met. Digging in and fighting
savagely, the doughs and tankers held but could not advance.
Heavy enemy artillery fire was falling all over the task force
when the news came that they were cut off.
They could see the enemy tanks on the next hill cutting off
their road to the rear, and soon the quadruple 50's and 37's
were raking the woods to keep out the supporting infantry. After
five days of severe fighting and five restless nights of heckling
by the Luftwaffe they were finally relieved and rejoined the
Third Armored Division. On this last day, the 12th of August,
C Battery's guns had a chance at their primary mission -- twenty
one German pursuit planes attacked the task force -- only to
be met by the withering fire of C Battery's guns. Three of the
planes fell smoking while the rest took off.
Near Juvigny our half-track ambulance and five of its crew
were captured. Capt. William Gianquinto had to crawl five hundred
yards to escape. On August 10th B Battery claimed a Category
I for a destroyed Messerschmitt 109. To the north of this great
pocket A and D Batteries were doing their part. Lt. Hall directed
artillery fire on five Mk V tanks and destroyed them. The second
platoon of D Battery, supporting the 87th Armored Field Artillery
Battalion repelled an attack of approximately two hundred infantrymen
and five tanks. Sgt. Plumer, Cpl. Denico, Lt. Doherty, Lt. Tonet,
Sgt. Rogers and Sgt. Coventry and many others fought as infantry
to repel this attack. Again the M-16's four machine guns proved
a deadly weapon against ground troops. It wasn't just weapons
that were doing a good job. Uncommon bravery was a common virtue
among Third Armored men, and the men of the 486th earned the
thanks and respect of many divisional units.
From Mortain the Seventh Corps slipped around the south of
the German pocket and bit into it again some forty miles to the
east. The men will remember names like Ambrieres les Grandes,
Laval, Mayenne, Pre-en-Pail, Ranes, and Fromental. It was just
north of Fromental that Tankers of the Third Armored Division
met British Tankers coming south from Falaise. This sealed off
what was left of the great German attempt to cut our beachhead
in two. Typhoons of the RAF smashed the retreating German columns
with deadly rockets. It was here that the division adopted the
name "Spearhead Division'', and well they might for they
were to continue spearheading the First United States Army's
drives across France, Belgium, and Germany to within fifty miles
of Berlin. Now began the mad race across the rolling sunny countryside
of Northern France toward Paris. This was good armored country,
and the Germans knew it and wouldn't fight.
The battalion was able to look back at the preceding month
and the Normandy campaign with pride. For a green outfit we had
done well. Our orientation was over. We suffered casualties in
personnel and material, hut our morale was high, ?nd we looked
toward the future with confidence.
Return to 486th Combat
Index
NORTHERN FRANCE AND BELGIUM
On the 21st day of August the Third Armored Division received
orders to proceed to an assembly area south of Dreux and prepare
to cross the Seine River, the division moved swiftly and crossed
the river without incident. On August 29th seven ME-109's flew
over installations protected by Battery C near Braine. In the
ensuing engagement one Category I was claimed. Sgt. Butler, Tec.
5 Albert Riccio, T/5 Nareau, and Pie's Pomerleau, Degrasse, and
Condon will long remember the town of Braine for its efficient
train service. Tipped off by a member of the FFI that a trainload
of Germans was due, Sgt. Butler trained his M-15 on the tracks.
Approximately fifteen minutes later the train came puffing
into view. The crew fired on and penetrated its engine with the
first round, causing it to stop. Capt. DeFr.anco, Battery Commander
of Battery C, then ordered Sgt. Butler to rake the train with
fire which Sgt. Butler did with devastating effect. Seventy prisoners
were taken, thirty were wounded, and much equipment including
a Mk IV tank was destroyed. Capt. DeFranco, Sgt. Butler, Cpl.
Sargent, Pfc's DeGrasse, Condon, Pomerleau, Tec. 5 Riccio and
Nareau were all awarded the Bronze Star for this action.
VII Corps objective was Sedan. Suddenly orders came to change
direction -- we wheeled to the North. The Seventh German Army
was attempting to escape from Calais and Dunkirk across Belgium
to the protection of the Siegfried Line. The VII Corps, spearheaded
by the Third Armored Division was going to stop them. As we passed
through Maubege, Col. Dunnington predicted that soon the 486th
would see plenty of action, and he was right. Near Longeville,
Cpl. Laden's section, of A Battery was escorting a column when
they were cut off. After a virgorous fire fight in the streets,
in which several German armored cars and trucks were destroyed
and a sniper shot from a church steeple with a rifle grenade,
his section was able to break out and rejoin their friends. We
c''ossed the Belgian border on the 2nd of September and rolled
into the sleepy, peaceful town of Mons.
Unknowingly, the division had stopped astride the main German
escape route. Down the roads they came, bumper to bumper (although
much of their transport was horse-drawn). The division's artillery
battalions were firing through 360 degrees, there were Germans
to the right, to the left, just all over. Prisoners began to
pour in. On the 2nd of September Lt. Donald H. Russell's first
platoon of D Battery attached to the 991st Field Artillery Battalion
captured four hundred Germans. Lt. Russell, later wounded, was
aided in this fight by Lt. Max Frucht, S/Sgt. Elmer Grade (now
Lt.) and S/Sgt. William Pike. In addition to this the guns of
Sgt. Henry Dewley, Sgt. John Krysuik, and Sgt. Robert Cosgrove
knocked ou.t two half-tracks, two self-propelled guns and seven
trucks.
All the other batteries were shooting up the Germans too,
a platoon of B Battery led by Lt. George Wilson mopped up a patch
of woods and bagged two hundred fifteen prisoners, A Battery
scored hits on several enemy vehicles and took two hundred twenty
five prisoners. Meanwhile Capt. DeFranco and two of his men captured
the Commanding General of Namur District, Belgium. No one has
ventured to guess how many supermen were killed by our depressed
guns. Hardly pausing to eat, the division pounded forward. Another
mad race was on -- Charleroi, Namur, Liege, Verviers, and Eupen
all slipped past in the next few days. From the time we had crossed
the Seine River until we were through the Siegfried Line's first
defenses only eighteen days had lapsed. The Belgian people were
even more fervent and enthusiastic in their greeting than were
the French.
All night long while the clattering tanks and rattling half-tracks
passed through these friendly Belgian towns, the people stood
out in the streets and cheered and wept. Everyone wanted to kiss
the American liberators. Many a soldier was kissed by an elderly
Belgian male, usually needing a shave. They couldn't understand
why the soldiers couldn't stop there instead of always moving
on. In Eupen there was no welcome -- only cold stares greeted
us from behind closed shutters. We were now standing on Hitler's
doorstep. At 1451 hours on the 12th of September, sections of
A Battery crossed the German border and immediately were called
upon to fire upon a pill-box with an M-15. Their fire was highly
successful, as eight rounds of HE entered the aperture. The other
batteries crossed the border soon afterward. The flush of victory
was hot upon our cheeks. Little did we know or realize that many
more months of bard and bitter fighting lay ahead.
Return to 486th Combat
Index
THE RHINELAND
The division ground to a stop in the Stolberg-Aachen sector.
Men and machines could have gone farther, but higher headquarters
gave orders to stop and reorganize. We had been on a sustained
drive for many weeks; so the men welcomed the break. Perhaps
we could have gone on to the Rhine, but that was not for us to
say. By now the supply lines were so drawn out and the '"front"
so fluid that to go on would have been a risky undertaking.
A Battery was in Breinig, B Battery was in Mausbach, C Battery
in Stolberg, first platoon of D Battery near Brand, second platoon
of D Battery in Bushach. We guessed that we would stay here for
a long time -- some people said we would be there for the rest
of the winter. About this time C Battery was to give us another
"'first". On September 18th a small flight of enemy
planes attacked the 67th Armored Field Artillery positions southeast
of Brand. Cpl. Zyza's M-16 crew, with Tec 5 Russ Eick as the
main gunner, opened up as one plane broke through the clouds.
Eick's aim with the quad-.50 's proved dead on, as the FW-190
fighter-bomber, with smoke pouring from the motor, took a sharp
dive, crashed and burned, killing the pilot. War had come home
to the Luftwaffe. The First United States Army awarded C Battery
credit for (of all Allied units in Europe) shooting down the
first German plane with guns emplaced on German soil.
About all there was to do was sit and wait fur air activity.
Although we were sporadically subject to artillery fire, the
intense ground activity of the past months was wholly lacking.
Showers, movies, and passes were provided, and the men began
to look around for fairly confortable billets. A, B, and C Batteries
established rest camps in their areas, and D Battery established
one in Ober-forstbach which allowed the men three day breaks.
Battalion Rear was set up in Raeren, and the forward C. P. in
Stolberg near the Division C. P. in the Prym House. On the 26th
of September during a counter-battery concentration Pfc. Donald
Behring of D Battery was killed. On the 29th of September Pfc.
Carlo Pellici and Pfc. Thomas Logue of C Battery were killed,
and Cpl. Ptak seriously wounded by a bomb.
The weather became cold and wet, and we needed more clothes
badly. Just in time, the battalion was autorized combat suits,
and these began to come in together with sweaters, overshoes,
gloves, and mackinaws. It was a cold, miserable, let alone boring
job to stand in a turret for hours on end, waiting for planes
that very seldom came. When we say that they very seldom came,
we are speaking of the daylight hours only, for a regular feature
every night was a visit from the groaning machines of the German
Luftwaffe. So active did they become that a system of prearranged
night firing had to be developed. First we fired at 90 millimeter
bursts, and although no results were recorded this system knocked
some of the cockiness out of the enemy pilots. Eventually a system
of roughly calculated elevations and azimuths was used for barrages.
The first night that this was used, all the ack-ack in the First
and Ninth Armies pushed their firing pedals almost simultaneously,
and the result was almost unbelievable. The murky, cloudy sky
was pierced by thousands of tracers so that it seemed there was
not an inch of space not containing a deadly missile.
Men learned that what goes up must come clown, and several
soldiers throughout the area were wounded by falling flak. Six
enemy planes, one an obsolete JU-87, were found crashed in the
division area the following morning, proof of the effectiveness
of the system. After a few nights of this firing the impotent
Luftwaffe stopped bothering us in such large numbers. One of
the good effects of this night firing was on the morale of all
the ground forces. An air raid is not nearly so nerve-wracking
when one can shoot back. One C Battery gun manned by ex-mess
Sgt. Stephenson and Cpl. DeFrancisco got a JU-88 at about 2300
hours one night.
Now daylight sorties.began to come more frequently. On the
5th of October a mixed flight of fifteen FW-190's and ME-109''s
were engaged over Kornelimunster by all batteries. On the 3rd
of December, seventy .two German fighters appeared over the area.
The battalion had a field day, claiming sixteen Category I's
and one Category II. Out of all those planes First Army Antiaircraft
accounted for all but eight. There were no friendly planes in
the area at the time.
From time to time the Third Armored Division would support
various infantry divisions in the attacks toward the Roer River.
Hastenrath, Gressenich, Eschweiler, Langerwehe, and Hurtgen Forest
were all taken at a frightful cost. Near Stolberg 1st Lt. George
W. Wilson was killed by a mine which also wounded Sgts. George
Rinkevitch and Jerome Cutone of B Battery. There we lost one
of the most popular leaders of the battalion. The war had taken
on a foreboding cast, and it looked as though we were stalemated
for the winter.
Return to 486th Combat
Index
THE ARDENNES SALIENT
[THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE]
On December 17th the division was placed on a four-hour alert.
Over the radio had come word that Field Marshall Von Rundstedt
had smashed through the First Army line near Monschau and was
swiftly exploiting his initial gains. The Spearhead Division
took off from the Stolberg area to help stem this tide.
C Battery left on the 18th of December when the 67th Armored
Field Artillery Battalion, part of CCA, moved to the vicinity
of Eupen to mop up German paratroopers. The 58th Armored Field
Artillery Battalion at this time was detached from the division
and sent south toward a then unknown town called Bastogne. Here
they were to later lose every gun in their battalion and suffer
heavy casualties. D Battery moved to the Soy-Hotten area with
the division reserve and was then attached to the 83rd Armored
Field Artillery. The Third Armored Division was under control
of the XVIII Airborne Corps until the VII Corps moved south.
The Spearhead Division, accustomed to biting off large objectives,
hurled itself into the very tip of the German salient. But they
met the cream of the Wehrmacht and too many of them, for they
were ground to a stop along the line Manhay-Amonines-Soy-Hotten.
Task Force Hogan was completely surrounded at Marcouray, and
with him was a section of B Battery under 1st Lt. Robert A. Weatherford.
Col. Hogan had been pushed back from LaRoche and set up a defensive
position on the high ground east of the Our the River. B Battery's
men shot up quite a few enemy infantrymen trying to get into
their position. On the night of the 23rd of December, they heard
that help was on the way -- none came; the same thing happened
on Christmas Eve. Supplies that were supposed to be dropped from
the air landed several miles to the north.
Then came the order to destroy all equipment and prepare to
move out on foot. Since fire and noise were prohibited, everything
had to be smashed. Radios were smashed, tires and tracks chopped
up transmissions were filled with water, and ammunition buried
in an old well. Then out they came on Christmas night. They walked
for fourteen hours and covered about twenty three miles; passing
through a German artillery battery where they could hear the
battery executive giving firing orders. Sgt. Sawtelle was the
only B Battery man missing at the end of the march; he came out
alone three days later. We had lost one M-15A1, and M-16, one
quarter-ton truck, and all the equipment on them.
Meanwhile, Capt. Ralph W. Abele had four guns of D Battery
working under Task Force Orr, holding the key town of Amonines.
These tracks were in support of two platoons of the 36th Armored
Infantry Regiment and four tanks of H Company, 33rd Armored Regiment.
On the night of December 22nd a German armored column came up
the road from Dochamps only to lose their first thirteen vehicles
to the guns of Cpl. Phillip Andrade, Sgt. John Rogers, Sgt. Lawrence
Trainor, and Cpl. Lorenzo LaRose. These four guns stayed in Amonines
for six days and helped Task Force Orr to frustrate all enemy
attempts to break through. The doughboys really appreciated our
multiple gun turrets.
At night trip flares were strung in front of our positions,
and these proved the undoing for many German night patrols. In
all the time that these men were fighting only two of them were
slightly wounded; Sgt. Swanson and Cpl. Caruso. A 210 millimeter
rocket burst on the window sill of Capt. Abele's C. P., destroying
it but miraculously injuring none of the eleven men that were
in the room at the time.
The rest of the line batteries were seeing much action at
this time too. C Battery was in Marche, the rest were helping
Col. Richardson hold back a dangerous Panzer drive through Mauhay,
Grand Menil, and Briscol. Several instances found the infantry
dug in behind our half tracks. This, however, was an unusual
situation, immediately corrected. Finally, the bulge into our
lines was contained, and the division moved back to the Ouffet-Clavier
sector to regroup and prepare to eliminate that bulge.
On the 3rd of January, with combat commands abreast. The Third
Armored jumped off to the south and east. Towns with the names
of Malempre, Lansival, and Lierneaux fell in quick succession.
Near Manhay, Sgt. Trainer's M-15 hit a mine. It was rugged going
then -- cold, slippery, and few houses were available for billets.
Snow drifts covered extensive fields of anti-tank mines and the
hard grc,ind made fox hole construction a nightmare when shells
were falling. What would have ordinarily been beautiful scenery
was really the worst possible terrain in which to fight.
At last Task Forces Kane, Hogan, Lovelady, and Welborn took
some towns on the Houffalize -- St. Vilh highway, while the Second
Armored Division, 83rd and 84th Division working with us met
Third Army troops coming from the south. The Ardennes campaign
finished, our batteries moved back with the division into assembly
areas. A Battery was at Borlan, B and C at Petit Han, first platoon
of D Battery at Andennes, the second platoon in Septon. Major
General Rose presented some awards to members of the battalion
in a ceremony at Phalanges. S/Sgts. Eiton MacGuarn and Elmer
J. Gracie received battlefield commissions as 2nd Lieutenants.
Then the division moved back to its old battle grounds. On
the 7th of February practically everyone was back in the Stolberg-Gressenich
area. Enemy air activity increased considerably as the Germans
tried to slow down our preparations for crossing the Roer River.
Jet-propelled aircraft were the most prevalent, D Battery engaging
several ME-262's in Langerwehe.
Return to 486th Combat
Index
THE RHINELAND AGAIN AND CENTRAL GERMANY
About this time spring came to Germany. The frozen ground
thawed out bringing back familiar seas of mud. Winches were used.
Some of the winter clothing we could have used before began to
come in. At last came the jump-off. At dawn on February 26th
the First Army crossed the Roer at Daren and began a swift drive
across the Cologne plains toward the Rhine. Ground action for
the battalion was negligible in this push. Just short of the
Erft Canal, near Bergheim, the Luftwaffe caused some damage in
a night raid. Colonels Richardson and Hogan raced across the
Erft Canal and began to take town after town on the way to Cologne.
Some guns of A Battery's second platoon, under Lt. Harris, while
protecting a bridge across the Erft, were emplaced ahead of an
infantry mortar section and provided overhead fire for advancing
infantry.
Within twenty four hours after crossing the Erft, the 991st
Field Artillery Battalion was throwing 155 millimeter shells
into Cologne. The German defenses crumbled, and although they
continued to pour artillery, mortar, and rocket fire on us, they
were driven bade to the Rhine. Elements of the 83rd Armored Reconnaissance
Battalion were the first units of the First Army to reach the
Rhine -- they captured Worringen at 0400 hours on the 4th of
March. On the 5th of March, Task Force Doan entered Cologne and
cleaned it up.
Meanwhile, to the south an unexpected streak of good luck
was being exploited. A bridge had been found intact at Remagen
and First Army troops were pouring across the Rhine. While this
bridgehead was being secured the Third Armored Division went
into an assembly area just west of Cologne. The batteries all
supplied themselves with power plants from the Ford factory there
-- other things were obtained in this area also. The first platoon
of D Battery was relieved from attachment to the 991st Field
Artillery Battalion and attached to the 83rd Armored Reconnaissance
Battalion.
CCR crossed the Rhine with the 1st Infantry Division on the
20th of March at Remagen. With them was the second platoon of
B Battery. They had been protecting CCR from frequent air attacks
near Bonn for several days. Three days later the remainder of
the division crossed the river.
In spite of the enemy's attempts to contain and even destroy
our bridgehead we began to grind forward. We began to break through
their thickest crust at Altenkirchen. The weather was nice now,
few people looked for houses in which to live anymore. Suddenly
the Third Armored broke through and went directly east to Marburg.
Here was to begin the greatest encircling movement in history.
The Ruhr valley and some three hundred thousand German troops
were to be cut off. Prisoners began to roll in, the division
taking three thousand one day. Sgt. Taylor's section from A Battery
captured ninety five near Marburg. On the 30th of March B Battery
destroyed seven enemy vehicles, and on the same day Task Force
Walker and his operations section captured one hundred seventeen
prisoners.
Actually the historic day was the 29th of March when the 83rd
Recon jumped off in three columns and galloped more than one
hundred miles that day. Cpl. Repinec of D Battery, travelling
with the 83rd, knocked out a German troop train and captured
one hundred prisoners near Obermarsburg. In the task forces behind
the reconnaissance battalion more resistance was met, for by
that time the Germans had begun to realize what was happening.
Frankenburg, Korbach, Drilon, and many other towns were taken
in rapid succession. Finally just three miles from the division
objective, Paderborn, the resistance stiffened as we ran into
elements of an SS Panzer Training Regiment equipped with Tiger
Royals and Panther Tanks. During this drive, four half-tracks
from B Battery were taken into a town from which bazooka and
small arms fire had been received, and wiped out this thorn in
their side.
Task Force Welborn, while fighting strongly dug in infantry
and tanks just north of Ettein, had his column cut by some marauding
German armor. Cut off with them was Major General Maurice Rose,
who as usual was with his leading elements. Here we lost our
dashing, masterful leader who had led the Spearhead Division
during all of its glorious campaigns. General Rose was shot to
death by a German tank commander. Command of the division then
fell upon the able shoulders of Brigadier General Doyle 0. Hickey,
formerly of CCA.
About one mile south of Paderborn Sgt. Nevers and Sgt. Cunningham
of C Battery cleaned out a woods full of fanatical SS troopers
who had been firing panzerfausts and schmeiser pistols at the
67th Field Artillery's men. Here Capt. DeFranco mopped up a machine
gun nest, a self-propelled gun, and evacuated many wounded into
a safe area. Approximately three hundred German troops had been
in this woods, but our quadruple mounts changed their minds about
fighting anymore.
The Ninth United States Army led by the Second Armored Division
was coming across the top of the Ruhr to meet us. Task Force
Kane drove Swiftly to a historic meeting with them at Lippstadt,
forming what is called the "Rose Pocket". With this
task force went the 67th Armored Field Artillery and our attached
C Battery. Firing as they went, reminiscent of wild west days,
the column rolled across to the west, bypassing strong resistance.
Sgt. Sullivan, Cpl. Sargent, and Sgt. Nevers worked over quite
a few German doughs. M-16's were ant necessary part of every
supply column trying to get through. This was another good use
for our weapon -- despite the fact that they couldn't depress
their guns over the cabs, the M-15's and M-16's made good protection
for the convoys, both against air attack and ground forces. Lt.
Col. Berry, C. 0. of the 67th Armored Field Artillery Battalion,
when asked if he needed some light tanks with his trains, refused
them, saying that his ack ack was enough.
Now at long last began the final drive of the war in the west.
Jumping across the Weser River we broke through the last of organized
resistance and began another mad dash to the Elbe. Everyone was
dashing; the Ninth, Third, and Seventh Armies were racing forward,
and from the east our Russian Allies were coming to meet us.
Long lines of German prisoners passed unnoticed; large groups
were bypassed and practically forgotten for the time being. We
began to liberate Allied prisoners of war and thousands and thousands
of displaced persons of all nationalities streamed back to the
rear.
Ironically enough the battalion suffered quite a few casualties
in the closing days of the war. Just before reaching the Elbe
and the Mulde Rivers the second platoon command car and jeep
of D Battery were hit by an 88 millimeter high explosive from
a concealed gun two hundred yards from the road. Miraculously
the only casualties resulting were some burns. On the 14th of
April Sgt. John Rogers' complete crew became casualties -- Tec.
5 William Weaver and Tec. 5 Cecil Howard were killed, three others
wounded. The second platoon of A Battery under 1st Lt. Clinton
L. Harris was given the mission of protecting a bridging operation
across the Mulde. This operation met with heavy resistance, and
in the ensuing battle an M-16 was hit by bazooka fire causing
the death of S/Sgt. Elmer Smolinsky, Pfc. Clyde Smith, and Cpl.
William Bradley. C Battery's M-2, Three baker, was in a fire
fight with about a company of krauts, in which several 486th
men were wounded and Pfc. George Abrams killed.
Tliese incidents do not represent the full scope of the ground
action encountered by the battalion during this period. Rather
it is but an example of the role we played during the division
operations. On the 25th of April the division moved to an assembly
area around Sangerhausen. The battalion was assigned the mission
of supplying protection to vital assembly areas and points of
concentration within the division. For the first time since its
arrival on the continent the battalion, including Headquarters
Battery, assembled in one area. In this period from May 1st to
the official cessation of hostilities the battalion did not engage
the enemy on the ground or in the air. For us the war in Europe
was "kaput". On the 12th of May the battalion moved
by convoy to the Frankfurt-Darmstadt area, with Battalion Headquarters
residing in Grafenhausen, Batteries A and D residing in Erzhausen,
and Batteries B and C in Wixhausen.
Return to 486th Combat
Index
CONCLUSION
The war in Europe over, everyone wondered what would be his
individual future and what would happen to the 486th. This was
answered in a way by the battalion's being put in Category II
reserve, which meant that we would continue to train as a unit
for the war in the Pacific. The point system was announced and
not long after we had been in the Frankfurt-Darmstadt area, we
began to lose 85'ers. When the War with Japan suddenly ended
in August, 1945, the possibility of any more combat was erased
and we all awaited our turns to go home. As this is being written,
many of the battalion have returned to their homes, many are
still waiting. Those who wait yet reminisce.
As we look back over the past two and one half years we find
that there were many harrowing experiences that will always command
a prominent place in our memories. The days of training seemed
hard and difficult at the time, but we soon came to realize that
it was this rigorous preparation that brought us through our
five capaigns in such good form. Each of us can remember untold
stories of heroism and sacrifice -- stories that reflect the
strength of each individual in the unit.
It is fitting to mention the splendid spirit with which every
man entered in all activities, be it a softball game or a sniper-hunt.
Many months we spent in forging a mighty fighting machine, and
when the final test came we could look upon the results and feel
that the job had been well done. Yes, it was difficult to stand
with our eyes in the skies and our feet in the mud, but character
and the knowledge that our cause was right overcame all obstacles.
Anything the Germans gave us for targets -- planes, armored vehicles,
trains, or church steeples, we engaged, fired, and destroyed.
END.
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