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SEPTEMBER 12, 1944. A thinning blanket of ground mist lay
over the long hills of Aachen Province, borderline country between
Belgium and Germany.
There was a clatter of tracks and motors in the air that day,
a clamor of guns. Through the yellow, acrid dust, tanks and mobile
artillery of the cutting edge of First Army power, Maj. Gen.
J. Lawton Collins' VII Corps battering ram, the 3rd Armored "Spearhead"
Division, crashed into and subsequently through the Siegfried
Line.
For the "Spearhead" Division it was the end of a
phase. The first signs of autumn were beginning to show; nights
were becoming cold, too frequent rain turned secondary roads
into impassible mire. Men and machines were weary. It had been
a long campaign for the armor.
FIRST SINCE NAPOLEON
Although they were first to invade the "sacred soil"
of Germany in force since Napoleon, first to take a Nazi town
-- Roetgen, on Sept. 13 -- the men of the 3rd Armd. Div. had
finished on nerve alone. They needed a rest and their vehicles
screamed for maintenance.
The division had entered the arena of war untried. In less
than two months of powerful all-out attack, it had hurled back
the blitzkrieg to the land of its origin. The bitter, dusty road
from Normandy to the Siegfried Line was cluttered with the flame-gutted
wrecks of a once proud German army. The supermen of Hitler's
Third Reich fought well, but the Spearhead pounded them into
the very ground they had stolen. Five German general officers
and 20,000 men were captured and the 3rd Armd. Div. drove from
the Seine to the Siegfried Line in 18 days!
No wonder it earned the name of "Spearhead"!
WEARING OFF THE GREEN
Although the 3rd Armd. Div. had undergone training in almost
every type of climate, nowhere had it been in terrain resembling
the hedgerow country of Normandy.
Its initial action was in that hedge-bound jungle before St.
Lo -- country not ideal for armored operations. Although apparently
the last place in the world for tanks, the 3rd was called upon
to help reduce a salient east of the Vire River protecting Villiers
Fossard.
To Brig. Gen. Doyle 0. Hickey's Combat Commend "A"
was given the assignment of clearing the pocket held largely
by the Fusilier Bn., 353rd Inf. Div. To accomplish this mission,
the Combat Command was given the 32nd Armd. Regt., the 36th Armd.
Inf. Regt., the 54th Armd. F.A. Bn., supporting engineers, medics
and maintenance elements.
Three task forces were formed -- "X" under Col.
(now Brig. Gen.) Truman E. Boudinot, "Y" commanded
by Col. Graeme G. Parks, and "Z" commanded by Lt. Col.
Walter Abney. In this and subsequent actions, two task forces
mounted the attack, and a third, in this case that of Lt. Col.
Abney, remained principally in reserve. Later, when the division
began to shake down to a more perfectly coordinated, fighting
machine, multiple spearheads of task forces were used in the
assault.
Although the division was green in that first engagement,
no man faltered or failed to advance toward the objective. The
attack jumped off at 0900 on June 29, and by 1130, Task Force
Boudinot reached LaForge-Bois de Bretel, where it was ordered
to remain. Enemy resistance was stiff; the terrain favored German
bazooka teams.
Task Force Parks, reaching a stream north of Villiers Fossard
and the right flank of the force, was held up by difficult terrain
and frantic enemy resistance.
On the following day, both task forces pressed on, stabilized
the line and turned it over to the 29th Inf. Div. The Villiers
Fossard bulge was dented, but the 3rd Armd. Div. suffered relatively
heavy casualties.
KRAUTS ARE TOUGH
Lt. Col. Nathaniel 0. Whitlow wrote of the action: "We
seemed to be stunned by the ferocity of the German small arms
and mortar fire, but we collected our wits and advanced in the
face of this fire just as we thought that we would do, and showed
little self-concern during the remainder of the battle. We pushed
on to our objective like veterans. I am sure that these men will
give great accounts of themselves in future battles."
Bocage country fighting was bitter; each hedge had to be breached
before armor could pass. Because it was impossible to requisition
enough versatile tank-dozers, 3rd Armd. Div. engineers designed
their own. The Maintenance Bn. constructed a "Rhino"
arrangement which could be fitted on light or medium tanks. Battle
experience and Yankee ingenuity began to weld the division into
a crack fighting unit.
Although the 3rd had been attached to the XIX Corps during
its initial action and was soon to revert, Combat Command Hickey
was ordered to an area north of the famous Foret de Cerisy, prepared
to counter any penetration on the V Corps front. It was never
committed, and on July 7, the 3rd reverted to the XIX
Corps, which ordered it to move across the Vire River at Airel
to occupy a bridgehead secured by the 30th Inf. Div., then to
advance southward toward St. Giles. That night troops of Combat
Command "B" (Brig. Gen. John J. Bohn) raced across
the Airel bridge under a hail of German artillery fire. Division
MP's, disregarding the vicious barrage, clung to their posts
directing traffic over the hastily reconstructed bridge.
FANNING OUT ACROSS THE VIRE
Fanning out across the Vire, Combat Command Bohn was attached
to the 30th Inf. Div. Combat Command Hickey received the mission
of protecting the corps' right flank, and was to attack in the
direction of Les Lendes and Le Perrey. At midnight of
the 8th, the combat command was attached to the 9th Inf. Div.
The cooperation with this division was happily continued throughout
much of the campaign in the west.
In the area of St. Jean de Daye, Combat Command Hickey battled
a defensive action chiefly against parachutists and other elite
units of the Wehrmacht.
On July 15, Col. Truman E. Boudinot assumed command of Combat
Command "B" and Lt. Col. L. L. Doan became CO of the
32nd Armd. Regt.
To the men of Combat Command Boudinot, a hill called Haute
Vents always will remain a bitter memory. Col. Dorrance Roysdon,
commander of the 33rd Armd. Regt., ordered to take the high ground,
delegated the mission to Lt. Col. Rosewell H. King. Because of
heavy losses in the previous action, he was able to muster only
two light and six medium tanks.
THEN THE RADIO QUIT
Col. King's radio was shot out and his infantrymen were unable
to maintain the rapid advance. Nevertheless, he proceeded to
Hill 91, or Haute Vents, and returned to his lines for infantry
support the next morning. Under heavy enemy shelling Combat Command
"B" held out for three days until finally contacted
by advance elements of the 30th Inf. Div. But Col. Roysdon and
his small band held Haute Vents, where they defeated the abortive
attempt of the 130th Panzer Lehr Div.'s powerful drive toward
Isigny to cut off Allied forces on the new beachhead.
The Lehr Div., in spite of its reputedly magnificent equipage,
took a terrible beating in the Haute Vents, Pont Hebert, and
Belle Lande sectors.
The division was beginning to click; the greenness was beginning
to wear off.
WE'RE COMING THROUGH!
On July 16, both Combat Commands reverted to division control
and moved into assembly areas west of. St Jean de Daye. The stage
was set under the direction of the VII Corps. Maintenance crews
worked furiously. Supplies and troops rolled in from the floating
docks below lsigny. Reconnaissance airplanes buzzed overhead.
The Kraut was nervous; he had reason to be!
The great armored breakthrough from Normandy into France was
the first true showing of American ground power in battle. In
the morning hours of July 26, wave after wave of Fortresses and
Liberators mode the initial assault.
There were probably more planes in the air at one time than
ever before in the history of air-ground operations. They came
endlessly over the horizon, dropped their bombs, and wheeled
away. It seemed impossible for any living thing to survive that
raging torrent of explosives. No one could guess the extent of
the proposed breakthrough, but orders were given and teams moved
out, multiple columns of armor leading.
In the initial stages of the breakthrough west of St. Lo,
Combat Command Boudinot spearheaded the attack of the famed 1st
Inf. Div. at Marigny, then made a right turn and drove for the
high ground around Montuchon, northeast of Coutances and behind
enemy lines. After taking its initial objective, it clattered
to within sight of Coutances. While tankers of the command pleaded
to go forward and seize the city, on order was received to turn
back and aid the 1st Inf. Div. to reduce a strongpoint.
When the Combat Command had turned west at Marigny, "B"
Battery of the 391st Armd. F.A. Bn. was firing support. The 4th
Cav. Sq. was having trouble with the enemy a few hundred yards
away. Command of the battery was turned over to a single non-com,
and all available personnel was used as infantry against the
Germans. Five of the battery's six guns were used for support
while the sixth was fired point-blank at the hemmed-in Germans.
Activity encountered by units normally in rear areas is described
in the annals of the 486th AA Bn., an attached unit: "From
0030 to 0105 hours the area around the division CP was heavily
attacked by enemy aircraft. Flares were dropped directly over
the CP and bombs fell throughout the area. No damage or casualties.
During this night the battery commander, Capt. Phillip Show,
with four or five enlisted men destroyed on enemy tank, several
half-tracks, Volkswagens, and numerous ammunition and gasoline
trucks, killed two enemy soldiers and captured nine. One of the
enemy, attacked by an American soldier wielding a hatchet, shouted
'Heil Hitler' and shot himself to death."
In the meantime, Combat Command Hickey had been given the
mission of taking Cerisy la Salle, Montpinchon, and the high
ground to the east and southeast of Coutances.
Because the enemy had expected such an attack, Combat Command
Hickey encountered more opposition than had Boudinot, but, with
the help of other armored columns to the east and west, forced
German armor below Roncey. At this point the 2nd Armd. Div. cut
the escape gap at St. Denis le Gast while the air forces pummeled
the road-bound Nazi vehicles.
From on operational standpoint, it was a combat command "show."
This was illustrated by the action of Combat Command Hickey,
which, on July 29, was ordered to turn south and seize a crossing
of the Sienna River at Govray. Lt. Col. L. L. Doan led his troops
across the stream on foot under fire to secure a bridgehead.
So fast was the advance that, at Brecey, the speeding Combat
Command caught German troops lolling under the trees, drinking
wine!
Combat Command Boudinot, attached to the 4th Inf. Div. attacked
on Aug. 1 to take the high ground east of Villedieu les Poeles.
It received strong opposition and was ordered to cross the See
River, move south and east to hold a crossroad at Le Mesnil Adelee.
The objective was reached on Aug. 4 after encounters with the
116th Panzer Div., the 363rd Inf. Div. and other forces.
On the 6th, weary of combat and in need of rest, maintenance
and rehabilitation, Combat Command Boudinot was ordered to a
rest area. Dirty men prepared to wash their bodies and clothing.
Baths never were taken.
On the 7th, the Combat Command was attached to the 30th Div.
to repel the German breakthrough attempt to Avranches. Heavy
fighting took place around Le Mesnil Adelee and Le Mesnil Tove.
The Command was shelled, bombed and attacked by infantry and
tanks for five consecutive days.
Official report for Aug. 9 described this fury: "At 1145
Task Force 1 (Col. Roysdon) was bracketed ... expected enemy
fire began falling around noon ... Lt. Col. King's command halftrack
exploded. Attempt was made to move Col. Roysdon's CP. A shell
struck the half-track, wounding on officer and cutting through
the sides of the vehicle so that it looked like a sieve ... There
was a tree burst; then a round landed by the front sprocket.
Co!. Roysdon and his staff were underneath the tank. No one was
injured. Heavy shelling continued until 1600."
Meanwhile, Combat Command Hickey had cut even deeper into
German positions and had received its full share of the attack
toward Avranches. On Aug. 1, Lt. Col. L. L. Doan's task force
was ordered to advance and to seize the high ground in the vicinity
of Belle Fontaine, northwest of Mortain. Task Force "Z,"
commanded by Lt. Col. John Daniels of the 1st Inf. Div., was
to advance via Reffuevielle to seize the high ground near Romagny,
to the southwest. The command was given the 3rd Bn., 18th Inf.
for further support.
During the night of Aug. 2, the advance was held up by a road
block, but at down Juvigny Ie Tertre was taken after a severe
fight.
Further advance was made on Aug. 5 when Task Force "X"
under Col. Doan set out for Le Teilleul. A smaller force was
sent to hold Barenton and did not rejoin the command until Aug.
12-13, being for the most port attached to the 2nd Armd. Div.
On Aug. 6, Task Force Doan set out for Ambriers le Grand on
the Mayenne River, arriving at 0830 hours. Considerable fighting
was necessary, but the bridge was seized quickly, and the 1st
Inf. Div. pushed across to establish a bridgehead on the east
side of the Varenne River. The following day, Col. Walter Richardson's
task force moved to positions around St. Mars sur Colmont. Except
for on outposting operation at Gorron, this maneuver practically
completed Combat Command Hickey activities west of the
Mayenne.
THE FORGING OF A MIGHTY WEAPON;
THE NEW SPEARHEAD EMERGES
The 3rd rested and licked its wounds. Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose
(then Brig. Gen.) had assumed command, and now he reviewed the
elements which were to go with him into further battle. What
he saw was impressive.
The 3rd Armd. Div. had been activated on April 15, 1941, at
Camp Beauregard, La., with a cadre from the 2nd Armd. Div. The
first division commander was Brig. Gen. (later Maj. Gen.) Alvan
C. Gillem, Jr. Camp Polk, La., was the semi-permanent home of
the division from June, 1941 to July, 1942. Then it was the first
armored division to move to the Desert Training Center. At the
Center, the division was commanded by Maj. Gen. Walton H. Walker,
now commander of the XX Corps. Brig. Gen. (later Maj. Gen.) Leroy
H. Watson, assumed command of the division on Aug. 22, 1942.
It was also in the southern California desert that the division
first operated under the VII Corps, an association that paid
off in smashed German armor and complete victory on the Western
front of Europe.
In October, 1942, the division moved to Camp Pickett, Va.
-- ostensibly for overseas departure. However, despite conflicting
rumors, the 3rd moved to Indiantown Gap Military Reservation,
Pa., in January, 1943, for further and more extensive training.
In the latter part of August, the division moved to a staging
area at Camp Kilmer, N.J., and embarked for Europe on Sept. 5,
1943. While in England the division used many of the better known
ranges, both artillery and tank. It maneuvered widely on Salisbury
Plain, and played host to such personages as Lt. Gen. Jacob Devers,
Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley and, on Jan. 17, Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery,
who announced that he would command American troops in the early
stages of the invasion. The division also entertained the Duke
of Gloucester, brother of His Majesty, King George VI.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gen. Montgomery, Air Chief Marshal
Tedder and others visited the division, accompanied by approximately
60 newspapermen and cameramen, to watch pre-invasion exercises.
Gen. Bradley paid the division another visit in May, speaking
to all officers and men. Shortly thereafter, troops moved out
of barracks and hutments into the field.
On D plus 18, after more than three years rigid training,
the division landed in Normandy on Omaha Beach and immediately
moved to Les Obeaux, below Isigny, where it coiled in readiness
for the fight.
Now the men of the 3rd Armored Division were quiet soldiers,
weathered and squint-eyed. They had been introduced to war.
They had plunged into action green but confident. They had
tasted the bitterness of death, and fear, and near defeat.
Yet these men who were once, in the words of Col. Whitlaw,
"stunned by the ferocity" of German defense, come back
slugging, to snatch a full measure of victory from the hesitant
brink of disaster.
They had gone to war with the good natured confidence of American
sportsmen, and had learned to play for keeps -- to hate the enemy.
These men had arrived in the arena of war, hard and ready. By
that token they had survived.
Now the tankers and tank destroyers, the artillerymen and
infantrymen of the 3rd Armd. Div. had something more to back
up the promise of their arms: they were schooled in the subtleties
of war.
SPEARHEAD IS A TEAM!
Now it was their turn to crack the whip. The division was
no longer a collection of separate elements; the "Spearhead"
was a team!
Proof was soon forthcoming. The British Army, driving south
from Caen, and the US First, smashing east, had trapped a sizeable
port of Field Marshal von Kluge's Seventh Army in the Falaise-Argentan
pocket. 3rd Armd. was ordered to close the escape gap.
On Aug. 13, Combat Command Hickey moved out in two columns
leading the division attack. The axis of advance was Mayenne
- Pre en Pail - Carrouges - Ranes - Fromental.
With Task Force Doan on the south, and Task Force Richardson
to the north, Combat Command Hickey moved through Couptroin and
Javron, clearing these towns of the 718th German Inf. Regt. The
command halted its first day's drive with more than fifty miles
of ground covered!
The 3rd Armd. Div. had become a perfectly oiled striking machine.
In comparison with this day's action, the German blitzkrieg of
1941 looked like a midget auto race in slow motion!
RANES - FROMENTAL
Heavy fighting broke out beyond Pré en Poil. Carrouges,
in the late afternoon of Aug. 14, was a picture of war at its
grim height. German vehicles by the score testified to the effectiveness
of the Spearhead.
Along the Carrouges-Ranes road, armor of both sides had suffered.
Panther-tank and Sherman alike were left on that bitter boulevard,
wrecked and burning. Stench of death and flames filled the air.
French houses burned sullenly and aircraft dropped flares above
the column.
That night, Task Force Richardson reached the outskirts of
Ranes. There was a minimum of shell fire. Men of the command
little suspected that dawn would bring some of the most vicious
fighting they had yet experienced.
On the left flank, Task Force Doan, coiling at Joue du Bois,
engaged dismounted German troops throughout the night and in
the morning moved up to seize Ranes.
The balance of Combat Command Hickey with a battalion from
the 60th Inf. Regt., engaged in mopping up activities. Counter-attacks
of the 1st and 9th SS Panzer Divs. were repulsed with severe
losses to the enemy.
The advance northward was resumed. AT guns and artillery impeded
progress. The German soldier at Ranes-Fromental was the best
that Hitler could put into the field. He fought well, but we
fought better.
SPEARHEAD PUNCHES VON KLUGE
The Spearhead Division ground forward and took Fromental on
Aug. 17, lost it the same day, smashed back in a third burst
of fury. That day, an estimated 1200 enemy vehicles passed across
the front of the division, receiving deadly artillery fire and
direct attack from the air. The Battle of the Argentan-Falaise
gap was nearly over, but it had not yet entirely spent its fury.
Many military observers agreed that this action was the true
"Battle for France." After Field Marshal von Kluge's
elite elements were crushed to bits here, the Wehrmacht never
again attempted to slug it out with allied forces in this country.
Individual performances were faultless. Tank commanders drew
straws -- the winner leading the attack. Fighting was often at
70 to 100 yards. One TD neutralized two Panther tanks at the
negligible range of 25 yards. Two shots pierced the thick frontal
armor of the vaunted Mark Vs. The TD commander himself was killed
when he dismounted from his vehicle to aid the enemy wounded.
Tank Destroyers of the 703rd TD Bn. proved extremely valuable
on road block positions, where they helped smash German armored
counterattacks.
On the afternoon of Aug. 18, the Spearhead Division, represented
by tanker Sgt. Donald Ekdahl of the 33rd Armd. Regt. met advance
elements of British armor on the rood near Putanges. The trap
at last was closed.
For the 3rd Armd. Div., however, the heaviest fighting was
over. A great armored division had found itself in battle. Weary
and combat-battered, the 3rd might still proudly recollects that
it had blitzed through enemy lines at exceptional speed, that
it had slugged gun to gun with the finest elements of a German
army -- and that after it was all over, the German army in question
no longer existed.
The division moved overland to the vicinity of Courville and
Chateouneuf, between Dreux and Chartres and on Aug. 24 rolled
again, this time to Corbeil and Melun. Preparations were mode
for the Seine crossing.
From this point on, it was a mad dash.
THE BATTLE IS FOR LAND AND WATER;
FROM THE SEINE ONWARD
The march through northern France was a nightmare without
benefit of sleep. The entire pursuit of disorganized remnants
of a Nazi army was a test to determine which had more stamina
-- men or machines. Spearhead men, trained to care for their
machines first, served the iron monsters with the deference due
to pagan gods.
In the headlong dash, supply trains accomplished marvels of
movement. Often these "rear echelon" troops were forced
to fight a path through enemy-held territory to deliver their
important cargoes of gas, ammo and rations. At one time, the
trucks were hauling gas 200 miles overland.
The 143rd Armd. Sig. Co. strung 1200 miles of wire by the
closing of the Argentan-Falaise gap alone! In the sweep across
France, on average of 1000 radio and personal dispatches per
day were handled. The mileage of the signal men was eight and
ten times the total distance covered by the division in attack.
Throughout the entire operation north of the Seine, the division
was inspired by the thought that it was the spearhead of the
First United States Army, and the phrase: "Call me Spearhead"
became popular.
Crossing of the Seine was begun on the evening of Aug. 25
by leading elements of Combat Command Boudinot and was completed
before darkness of the following day. One of the bridges had
been constructed by XX Corps troops but our 23rd Armd.
Eng. Bn. constructed a 540-foot steel treadway south of Corbeil
ready for use at daybreak on the 26th.
CONFIDENCE PACKS POWER
Combat Command Hickey led the advance with Boudinot on the
left. After crossing the river, the command moved to Chousse
en Brie, in two columns, driving through the 48th German Inf.
Div. On the following day, closely pursuing the retreating enemy
and overrunning several rearguards, the command passed through
Coulommiers and crossed the Marne, halting for the night just
north of that historic river.
A detachment was sent to Chateau Thierry, and the controversy
as to who was first to enter the town began. The commander of
the division's CIC detachment and the photo detachment commander
believe the honor is theirs. They had entered the town about
1500 hours on Aug. 28, and obtained from the Mayor a statement
reading, "Second taking of Chateau Thierry by the Americans;
all our gratitude." 0n their way into town, the two officers
passed the 4th Cav. Gp., and later met entering soldiers of the
87th Rcn. Sq.
SPEARHEAD CHANGED SIGNALS TO WIN;
AND THEN THE MARNE
By mid afternoon of the 27th, Combat Command Boudinot had
advanced across the Marne and, in an enveloping movement from
the west, captured Meoux, furthest point of the German advance
in World War I. The 9th Panzer Div., 48th Inf. Div., and security
battalions were encountered and routed here.
On Aug. 28, one of the busiest days in the division's history,
Combat Command Boudinot plunged on toward Soissons. So rapid
was the advance that the enemy front line in many areas become
only the width of the rood.
Many German units closed in behind each advancing column,
but they were doomed to destruction. Result, however, was that
every element of the division, including even the trains, become
a combat unit. Soissons was taken, but later that night
suffered an attack by 20 ME 109's.
Combat Command Hickey on that day went on to take objectives
beyond the Aisne River.
Meanwhile all had not been peaceful at the division CP. On
Aug. 26, after crossing the Seine, it reached Quincy, but not
before withdrawing Germans were encountered.
The following day the CP caught up with a German supply column
at Brie Compte Robert, took part in a fight, and moved to Mangy
le Hongre. At dawn the CP awoke to the familiar rattle of German
machine gun fire. An enemy convoy attempting to drive through
the area was destroyed.
HOW TO CATCH A TRAIN
The shooting-up of three trains in the vicinity of Broisne
and Soissons on Aug. 28 was a division highlight. By coincidence
both combat commands participated. "B" Battery of the
486th AA Bn., attached to the 67th F. A. Bn., fired on the engine
of one 42-car train at Broisne, stopped it after putting a 37mm
shell through the engine boiler and raking the cars with .50
caliber machine-gun fire.
Elements of the 32nd Armd. Regt. of Combat Command Hickey
stopped another train at Braisne at about 2000 hours, and engaged
Mark VI Tiger tanks loaded on flat cars.
Task Force 1 (Lovelady) of Combat Command Boudinot took port
in a third episode, destroying a freight just outside of Soissons.
Villiers Cottrets, which Combat Command Boudinot had passed,
was reoccupied by the Germans on Aug. 29, impeding the division
advance and resulting in the heaviest action on the corps front
that day. By nightfall, however, the CP was located outside Soissons.
A German ammunition dump estimated at 4000 truckloads, was taken
at Villiers Cottrets.
On Aug. 29, the crossings of the Aisne River were secured.
Both Combat Commands advanced to take high ground to the northeast
of the river, Boudinot-liberated Loon as well. Chief enemy resistance
on the 30th was reported in the vicinity of Montcornet and Rozoy,
with the 4th Cav. Gp. active in reconnoitering these areas.
NEW DIRECTION: EAST TO NORTH!
Given the mission of taking Sedan and Charleville on Aug.
31, the Combat Commands moved out, Hickey on the right, Boudinot
on the left, division reserves in the center. At 1315 hours word
come from the CC of the VII Corps. The direction of the advance
had been completely changed, from due east to north!
"You could hear the brakes squeal when we radioed the
order to halt!" one staff officer said. Some of the elements
already had driven 30 miles prior to the command.
This is the feat considered by some to be the most spectacular
ever performed by the division. At the time the change in direction
of attack was given, two of the six columns already had engaged
the enemy. The entire change in plan was accomplished by voice
and radio without the writing of a word other than entries into
journals.
Mons was the new objective. Combat Command Boudinot was to
advance to Vervins, Hickey to Seraincourt and Rozy sur Serre.
Combat Command Boudinot reached Marle that very day.
A six-pronged drive was launched toward Mons on Sept. 1 with
Combat Commands on a broad front, from left to right, Boudinot,
Hickey, and a separate command to the right, which centered around
the 36th Armd. Inf. Regt.
Combat Command Hickey pushed on to Avesnes, while Boudinot
pounded through Vervins, passed LaCapelle, and by nightfall was
due west of Avesnes. Several river crossings were made during
the day, and air support had been called to bomb a number of
enemy columns. Elements of the 36th Infantry's Combat Command
had been delayed, but late in the day reached Hirson.
In the early hours of Sept. 2, the first flying bombs passed
over the heads of division troops. They were not the last.
On the afternoon of Sept. 2 the first elements of the 3rd
Armd. Div. crossed the Belgian border. Moubeuge had been passed
earlier in the day and, when the commander of the task force
had been asked, via radio, whether the enemy was there, he replied
that there were so many joyous civilians on the streets that
there wasn't room for Germans!
THREE GENERALS & 40,000 TROOPS
The second great battle for Mons was not anticipated by either
the Wehrmacht or the American First Army, and yet it probably
decided the outcome of future battles more profoundly than had
any other action in which this division had engaged. The estimated
40,000 German troops cut off at Mons by this division and further
mauled and rounded up by the ensuing 1st lnf. Div. were attempting
to retreat to the Siegfried Line. Their organization shattered,
and without communication, the vanguard of this huge force ran
into road blocks of the 3rd Armd. Div. on Sept. 3. The debacle
that followed was complete.
The Spearhead captured nearly 8000 troops at Mons, killed
many more. The 1st Inf. Div., supporting the armor, captured
17,000 more. One platoon of the 703rd TD Bn., Co. "A,"
destroyed 20 enemy armored vehicles in six hours on a single
road block!
Three German general officers were captured by the division
in this battle! Lt. Gen. Rudiger von Heyking, of the 6th Luftwaffe
Field Div., who said that he had been "completely surprised
by our forces" because he had been advised that there was
a "15 mile escape gap" south of Mons; Maj. Gen. Hubertus
von Aulock, ex-commander of a kampfgruppe which was supposed
to defend Paris; Gen. Karl Wahle, once garrison commander of
the city of Hamburg.
Prisoners constituted, a vexing problem. Maj. Charles Kapes,
Provost Marshal, set up a PW enclosure in on old sugar factory
close to the fighting area. With prisoners pouring in by the
hundreds, and nearly 4000 already confined, Maj. Kapes and a
force of 16 division MP's and 27 infantrymen from the 1st Div.
waged a pitched battle against attacking German soldiers, not
only turning back the attack but capturing 300 more of the befuddled
supermen!
ON TO GERMANY!
By noon of Sept. 4 matters had become somewhat stabilized
around Mons and the division pushed on to Namur: Combat Command
Boudinot on the right, Hickey on the left.
Task Force Mills (Maj. Herbert Mills) of Combat Command Boudinot
reached Namur that day. Combat Command Hickey bivouacked that
night east of Charleroi, and Combat Command Boudinot, which had
allotted 45 minutes for passage through the city, took two hours
and 45 minutes. Advance had been delayed by the tumultuous welcome
of the citizens.
Next day all elements of the division were in the vicinity
of Namur, and that night engineers pushed two bridges across
the Sambre and Meuse Rivers. The first bridge measured 120 feet
long; the second, constructed in seven hours and 20 minutes,
was built under the cover of darkness. Combat Command Boudinot's
Task Force (King) was detached to aid the 9th Div. at Dinant.
Terrain east of Mons was a far cry from the wide plains of
northern France. In Belgium narrow valleys with swift running
streams split precipitous wooded hills. Densely populated and
highly industrial, the valleys were capable -- if properly manned
-- of easy defense.
Liege was the new objective. By nightfall, Huy, with the Meuse
bridges intact, was in our hands and Combat Command Hickey was
within quick calling distance at Antheit, and Boudinot's leading
elements were already beyond the town. Task Force Hogan encountered
stiff resistance from by-passed troops.
It was apparent the Germans were preparing hasty defenses
along the river route. Next day Combat Command Boudinot, on the
south side of the river, turned to the right and the high ground,
and by nightfall Lt. Col. Lovelady's task force was on its objective,
the southeast side of Liege. So surprised was the enemy by the
flanking move that their guns were pointed the wrong way.
The night of Sept. 7, Gen. Konrad Heinrich, commander of the
89th German Inf. Div., was killed as he attempted to drive through
a roadblock near Liege in a sporty convertible cabriolet. He
was the fourth German general for whom the division had accounted.
On the 8th Lt. Col. Hogan's force with supporting infantry
cleared Liege of the enemy while the engineers constructed 510
feet of treadway bridge across the river in darkness. Combat
Command Hickey meanwhile mopped up on the north side of the river.
Gen. Bock von Wulfingen, a fifth German general, was captured
on the 8th.
VERVIERS ENDS LULL
With Verviers the objective, Combat Command Boudinot set out
at 1100 hours on the 9th, and met organized opposition for the
first time in days. Meanwhile Combat Command Hickey crossed to
the east of the Meuse, advancing to the high ground north of
Dison also against opposition. Our air attacked German columns
stretching from Louveigne to Limbourg, and by that night leading
elements of the 33rd Armd. Regt. were in Pepinster.
The following day Combat Command Hickey reached Limbourg where
it was temporarily stopped. Boudinot found many felled trees
beyond Theux but advanced and took Verviers. At Theux was found
a German military warehouse filled with foodstuffs and tobacco,
providing 3rd Div. men with cigars. That day the division CP
moved to Verviers.
Eupen, falling to Combat Command Boudinot on the 11th, was
occupied by the infantry. Combat Command Hickey knifed through
Lohirville and Welkenroedt against constant pressure to an objective
northwest of Eupen. The 83rd Armd. Rcn. Bn. screened the division's
movement, and air cover was provided.
AMERICAN ARMOR CRASHES WEST WALL;
THERE WERE BITTER GLANCES
V-for-Victory signs, flowers and "vive l'Amerique"
declarations disappeared. Eupen was a sullen, paradoxical town.
A few Belgian flogs hung from the windows; the white banner of
surrender trailed in others. This was border country, a place
of conflicting emotions, bitter hatred -- and suspense. Last
stop in Belgium. The somber-eyed German civilians of Eupen glanced
furtively at the triumphant armor of America and wondered whether
the vaunted West Wall could possibly halt the avalanche.
Immediately, Gen. Rose ordered reconnaissance to patrol the
routes toward the Siegfried Line, to reconnoiter for crossing
points and to determine the strength of the enemy.
Recon elements of Combat Command Boudinot set out at 0800
on Sept, 12. Several routes were surveyed, and one finally chosen.
The advance was barred by road blocks of imbedded steel rails
and gates of heavy cables strung across the road. The obstacles
were covered by fire from heavy pillboxes on the flanks.
Excellent coordination between tanks, infantry, engineers
and artillery, quickly reduced these strongpoints. While artillery
and tanks maintained heavy fire, engineers attached to the task
force moved forward to remove the blocks. Tanks rumbled through
the gap and at 1451 hours leading elements of Col. Lovelady's
task force were on German soil. It was the first invasion of
Germany in force since Napoleon. Resistance in Roetgen was light.
The 83rd Rcn, Bn. occupied the town, outposted it immediately.
INSIDE HITLER'S REICH
Meanwhile, Combat Command Hickey also had plunged into Germany
proper, and on the night of Sept. 12-13 had assembled in the
concealment of the Aachen-Eynatten Wald. Patrols reconnoitered
the dragon's teeth of the line during the night, and the attack
jumped off at 1000 hours under the direct supervision of Col.
Doan. Infantry lunged forward through the dragon's teeth, followed
by engineers and tanks. Their combined efforts breached the first
line and led to a heavy exchange of fire. A number of 3rd Armd.
Div. tanks were knocked out and, for a time, the attack faltered.
But under the inspired leadership of Col. Doan, the task force
rallied and stabilized its gains. Sept. 14 was spent in mopping
up the area and in reconnoitering the second line of defenses.
SEINE TO SIEGFRIED -- 18 DAYS
On Sept. 1 5 the second line of the Siegfried was breached
and the town of Busbach cleared. Opposition was extremely heavy.
Artillery and mortar fire became intense, but the command moved
forward. Fresh enemy troops were encountered for the first time.
Fortunately, the rapid advance, plus the destruction of the large
German force at Mons, combined to prevent the enemy from properly
manning the West Wall.
Combat Command Boudinot also had attacked the outer defenses
of the line on Sept. 13 with similar success. Division engineers,
invaluable in the breaching of the line, said that the Siegfried
defenses were not a particularly intricate engineering problem.
"With proper covering fire," said Col. L. C. Foster,
"we could crack the Siegfried any Thursday afternoon, and
have time to knock off for tea."
The 3rd Armd. Spearhead Div. had wound up one of the most
amazing armored force operations in the history of warfare. Eighteen
days from the Seine to the Siegfried! And now, in a final, powerful
burst of effort the division had smashed completely through that
storied West Wall into the confines of greater Germany. With
the 1st, the 4th, and the 9th Inf. Divs., all elite units of
American power, these men who had first grappled with the enemy
only two months before, had now become part of the "'First
Team of the First Army." They were a power in the world.
They were the steel nearest to Germany's heart.
Behind the 3rd lay the long, bitterly-contested trail from
Normandy and the never to be forgotten dead of the division.
Before the 3rd lay the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler. The Spearhead
paused, with its steel point unerringly aimed at Berlin.
[END]
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