Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II (14 page)

Verviers to the Siegfried Line

The approach to Verviers was similar to that at Liège. Combat Command A, with two columns, approached and secured the high ground northeast and northwest of Verviers by nightfall. Combat Command B with its twin columns approached the south between Verviers and Theux but met extremely heavy resistance and could not secure its position by nightfall. The men coiled into a defensive position and prepared to attack at dawn the next morning.

At daybreak, CCA continued its advance and entered the city. Combat Command B continued against heavy resistance. At the same time, the forward elements of the 83d Recon bypassed Verviers and headed northeast. Although Verviers was finally subdued after considerable fighting, it was obvious that the resistance was getting much stronger.

The campaign was entering a dramatic new phase. Eastern Belgium, from Verviers to the German border, was taken by Germany in May 1940. This buffer zone, where many German nationals lived, had long been contested. The people spoke both French and German, and many were strongly pro-German. As we raced across Belgium, we would notice Belgian flags hung from the windows of the houses. We now saw a combination of Belgian flags and white flags; the deeper we went toward Germany, the more white flags we saw. The flags were to let us know that the German nationals living in these homes were willing to surrender peacefully; they knew that the Belgians would turn them in to the Americans.

During the initiation of this new phase, Major Arrington called the three liaison officers, Lieutenants Nibbelink and Lincoln and me, into his trailer. Because we would now be moving into enemy territory, we could no longer depend on help from friendly civilians; to the contrary, he said, the Germans would look upon us as invading their homeland and would do everything in their power to stop us.

Arrington warned us that because, as liaison officers, we would travel alone a great deal of the time, especially at night, we were much more exposed than soldiers traveling in a group and that Germans were not above torturing and killing captured liaison officers. This is the reason I had a thermite grenade in my plywood map box, to destroy the box in the event of imminent capture. The major knew that we realized the danger; he just wanted to caution us not to take any unnecessary chances and to perform our job as expeditiously as possible. I appreciated his remarks, because I knew he had our best interests at heart and was doing everything possible to protect us.

We approached the northern reaches of the Ardennes Forest. This area of Germany, known as the Eifel, had narrow roads and heavily wooded hills that extended from the Ardennes up through the Hürtgen Forest.

The next morning, CCB launched an all-out attack against Eupen. Part of Germany prior to World War I but ceded to Belgium by the Treaty of Versailles, Eupen was still really a German town. In May 1940, when the Germans launched their assault through Belgium into France, they took back Eupen. Although the citizens spoke both French and German, the majority of the sentiment was pro-German. Here was where the white flags began to outnumber the Belgian flags.

After overcoming a number of roadblocks and isolated strongpoints, CCB quickly passed through Eupen and headed east. The division was now only a few miles from the German border, and General Rose ordered both CCA and CCB to reconnoiter in force for weak points in the outer defense. Combat Command A reached the outer rows of the dragons’ teeth—heavy reinforced-concrete mats, forty to a hundred feet wide and extending three to six feet below the ground—on the German border at a point south of the Aachen–Eynatten Forest and east of Eupen. Lieutenant Colonel Doan’s Task Force X probed these outer defenses and reconnoitered through the night preparatory to attacking the next morning.

After overcoming a number of roadblocks and mines, Lieutenant Colonel Lovelady’s task force in Combat Command B crossed the German border on the afternoon of September 12 and entered Rötgen. After several firefights, the town fell, and CCB proceeded northward on the road toward Rott and the dragons’ teeth. The 83d Recon Battalion sent units to outpost Rötgen, and CCB coiled for the night preparatory to attacking the dragons’ teeth at dawn. This was the first time since the Napoleonic wars that a German town had fallen and been held by an enemy. The division drew up before the vaunted Siegfried line, poised to attack. The battle of Belgium was over, and the battle for Germany had begun.

The Siegfried Line

The Siegfried line fortifications, which varied in depth from ten to forty miles and had fairly well dispersed strongpoints, extended from the heavily wooded hills in the Saar region northward along the German border up through Luxembourg. North of there up through the Hürtgen Forest and the beginning of the Rhineland Plain around Stolberg and Aachen, the line narrowed to four to six miles in depth, though the concentration of fortified strongpoints was much greater.

The concept and tactical planning for the Siegfried line were a direct result of the brilliant German general staff and its desire to design a fortified line incorporating all the latest military technology. Unlike the Maginot line in France, which was farther south and limited primarily to the Saar region, the Siegfried line was designed for a new type of highly mobile warfare.

Although fighting a two-front war simultaneously was to be avoided, if possible, German planners recognized that this might be necessary for a short period. Realizing that the French and the British would most likely carry out their commitment to Poland, the Germans decided to build the Siegfried line in the west between Germany and France. It was not only to be the strongest defense line in the world, it was designed to be a launching platform for a major offensive.

The Siegfried line varied in depth depending on terrain and population density. Small villages and towns in close proximity with a concentrated population were incorporated into the defense system. Many of the small cottages in Hastenrath and Scherpenseel looked like innocent farm dwellings but were actually fortified pillboxes. The basement ceilings were made of twelve- to eighteen-inch-thick reinforced concrete. The basement walls, also reinforced concrete, extended two feet above ground level and had long, narrow gun ports disguised as ventilator slots. The trenches going into the basements zigzagged, so it was difficult to throw in a hand grenade. In effect, these houses were built on top of pillboxes and were so well camouflaged that we had to be right on top of them to detect their true purpose.

The major pillboxes, in the countryside outside the villages, were generally rectangular but were sometimes built in a polygon shape to fit the slope of the land. They varied from thirty to sixty feet across and could accommodate up to fifty men.

The location of these pillboxes at first appeared random, but after close observation we noted that each pillbox took maximum advantage of the terrain. In most instances, the pillbox was located so that a direct assault would bring the attacking force under the fire of two other pillboxes. Therefore, the pillboxes did not necessarily face the direction of the enemy attack but could face any direction that might support another pillbox that was being attacked.

The pillboxes had heavily reinforced concrete walls from three to six feet thick and roofs from three to four feet thick. Their trilock construction consisted of railroad rails placed flange to flange on the bottom layer, with another row at ninety degrees to the first. The rails were approximately six inches apart. Several layers of these were placed in this same pattern one on top of the other. Concrete was poured in between to form an extremely heavy fortress deck that was virtually impenetrable by artillery. A direct hit from a 240mm shell, the largest we had in the field, detonated on top of a pillbox and generated a crater eighteen inches deep and four feet in diameter. An armor-piercing 76mm shell striking the side of the pillbox would generate a hole about ten inches deep and eighteen inches in diameter. If a tank could hit the same spot innumerable times, it might be possible to get a penetration, but in the meantime the tank would be exposed to murderous antitank fire. The best method was to get around to the gun port, where the protection was thinner. Once a pillbox was captured, our engineers would place large explosive charges inside, then they would blow back the roof in one section and neutralize the pillbox.

The aggregate used in the German concrete gave the pillboxes a dull grayish color, which made them blend in perfectly with the surrounding terrain. In front of the pillboxes lay long, continuous lines of dragons’ teeth. On top were staggered rows of pyramids, starting about two feet high in front and tapering gradually upward to a height of five to six feet. It was virtually impossible for a tank tread to span them. Thus, the dragons’ teeth kept tanks too far away to fire directly at the pillboxes’ gun ports but close enough to come under antitank fire from the pillboxes.

The combination of pillboxes and dragons’ teeth made an ideal matrix. The Germans dug trenches between the pillboxes, allowing infantry to move freely from one position to another. They used bulldozers to dig large, inverted, tapered wedges, with the dirt pushed into the end facing the enemy. A tank could then enter the pit with its gun barrel barely above ground level. This offered protection for the tank hull and exposed only the gun, the gun mantlet, and the forward part of the turret, with the heaviest armor on the tank facing the enemy fire. It also provided a reasonable degree of camouflage. The tapered pits could be dug quickly, and the tanks could be moved from one position to another. The pits also made ideal positions for 88mm dual-purpose guns.

Farther to the rear were similar positions with artillery and Nebelwerfer multibarreled rocket launchers. Although Nebelwerfers were not as accurate as artillery, their blanketing fire was effective against advancing infantry. Because of the high-pitched noise of these rockets, they were known as “screaming meemies.” Interspersed between the pillboxes, communication trenches, and gun pits were a number of slit trenches and foxholes to accommodate machine guns, mortars, and individual riflemen.

Thus, there was no solid line to break through but instead a whole series of positions in tremendous depth. As soon as our troops advanced through one row of defense, they would immediately face second and third rows. Once a penetration was started in a formidable defense such as this, it was absolutely necessary to proceed as rapidly as possible to widen the breach in order to avoid attacks on both flanks of the penetrating unit.

The Siegfried line’s intricate series of dragons’ teeth, pillboxes, interconnected communication trenches, gun pits, and foxholes supported by an excellent road net provided the Germans with not only an effective defense system but also a base from which to launch a major offensive. We were to learn this during the disastrous German offensive in the Ardennes a few months later.

The First Army pursued the Germans rapidly and tried to intercept them before they could get back into the Siegfried line. Although this was done successfully at Meaux, Soissons, Laon, and Mons, the Germans were still able to extract a number of troops. Our mission was to attack them as quickly as possible, before they could get reinforcements and organize their defense properly.

According to the Armored Force Doctrine, an armored division was not supposed to attack a heavily fortified position but instead wait for a buildup of infantry, artillery, and general headquarters (GHQ) tank battalions, plus airpower, to make the assault. Although General Rose was obviously aware of this, he measured it against the fact that waiting for a buildup would give the Germans more time to reinforce their positions. Knowing that the Germans did not have sufficient troops to man the line in depth, he decided to make an all-out assault as quickly as possible.

Attack Through the Dragons’ Teeth

The plan of the attack was simple and direct. Task Force X from CCA was to attack the line at a point east of Eupen and south of the Aachen–Eynatten Forest. Task Forces Lovelady and Kane from CCB were to continue past Rötgen and attempt to attack through that area northward in a flanking movement. On the night of September 12–13, CCA patrols sent out to reconnoiter the dragons’ teeth located an area where German farmers had piled up dirt between the “teeth” to make a temporary crossing for farm equipment. The German soldiers had not had time to remove this crossing, but it was assumed that they had mined it heavily.

The assault started at approximately 0800 on September 13. Task Force X sent forward infantry supported by artillery and tank destroyers that fired directly at the gun ports on the closest pillboxes. A flail tank from the 32d Armored Regiment attempted to neutralize any mines buried in the dirt.

The flail tank worked well on level ground, but the under-powered M4 tank did not have sufficient horsepower to operate the flail over rugged ground. As the flail tank got about halfway up the wedge, one of the chains fouled on a dragon’s tooth and brought the tank to a halt. The entire crew bailed out and went forward under extremely heavy German fire to disengage the chain. Two other tanks from the 32d Armored Regiment came forward and extracted the flail tank with their towing cables. Combat engineers from the 23d Armored Engineers Battalion, under intense German fire, finally neutralized any mines in the path.

A tank dozer came forward, plowed up a wedge of earth, and filled the space between the dragons’ teeth sufficiently to establish another ridge that allowed the tanks to cross. The Germans apparently never anticipated the use of a bulldozer blade hooked onto a tank.

Colonel Doan of Task Force X immediately moved twenty tanks through these paths and approached the pillboxes in support of his infantry. Once the tanks got inside the dragons’ teeth, they were extremely effective at firing shots into the pillboxes’ gun ports. Elements from the 26th Regimental Combat Team of the 1st Division gave them additional support, and with engineers and artillery they gradually overcame the rows of pillboxes. They not only knocked out pillboxes but also destroyed a number of 88mm antitank guns. That eight of these guns were completely unmanned indicated the German manpower shortage. The shock to the German infantry of being overrun by our tanks contributed largely to the success of this action.

The successful penetration of this first outer layer of the Siegfried line cost CCA dearly. Casualties among the infantry and engineers were extremely high, and ten M4 tanks of the first twenty to cross the dragons’ teeth were knocked out by nightfall. Of these ten, eight were set on fire and burned, another example of the relatively weak firepower of the 75mm and 76mm tank guns and the extreme vulnerability of the light armor on the M4 tanks compared to the German armor.

The dug-in German tanks plus the antitank guns and the fire from the pillboxes were awesome. Once again, the Germans continued to fire on a stopped tank until it burned. The flames from two hundred gallons of gasoline plus ammunition and other parts surged into the tank; the turret and the open cupola hatch acted like a chimney. Most of the internal equipment melted and fused together, and the armor was softened by the intense heat. That tank would never be an effective combat vehicle again.

As CCA made its frontal attack across the dragons’ teeth just south of Aachen, CCB launched a flanking attack north of Rötgen. The men passed through the northern fringes of the extremely rugged and heavily wooded Hürtgen Forest, which was ideal defensive territory. They finally encountered a roadway through the dragons’ teeth that was blocked with cables, mines, and steel reinforcements. Engineers went forward under heavy fire to remove these obstacles so the tanks could pass.

At Schmidthoff, Lieutenant Colonel King’s task force made a frontal assault but was repulsed by extremely heavy German fire. A mined roadway, blocked with cables and steel reinforcements, passed through the dragons’ teeth at Schmidthoff. After engineers removed the mines and destroyed the reinforcement and cables, the task force attempted to move its tanks through the opening. Just to the left of the roadblock was an innocent-looking farmhouse that was actually a pillbox. The tank column came under severe fire from the rear and the flanks. Only after a heavy firefight was the pillbox knocked out, and the tank column proceeded through the town.

The division was now well into the outer defenses of the Siegfried line. By September 15, CCB had penetrated the second-line defenses as it attacked northeastward. We were headed up the road about a mile south of Kornelimünster, trying to contact Task Force King of CCB. Suddenly, I saw a long white plume of a rocket heading straight up from the woods to the east. At first I thought it was one of our artillery rockets marking the target, but I never recalled seeing such a long white plume. Unlike an artillery rocket, this one kept going straight up and did not arch over. I hollered to Vernon to stop the Jeep, and I got out with my binoculars to inspect the plume more closely.

As it continued its path straight into the heavens, a second rocket slightly to the right of the first started along the same trajectory. Knowing that the German lines were somewhere in the woods to our right, I assumed that these rockets must be theirs and estimated them to be firing from a position approximately three-quarters of a mile to one mile to the east. The rockets continued straight skyward until they disappeared without any evidence of their arching over. It was a relatively clear day, so with my binoculars I could see the entire spectacle extremely well.

Maintenance battalion headquarters was located in Raeren, Belgium, about a mile and a half to the west. When I reported to Major Arrington what I had seen, my buddies made snide remarks that I’d gotten into the German schnapps. But I was vindicated the next day by the G2 report of the Germans having fired the first V2 rockets into Antwerp. We knew about the V2 rockets; the Germans had already fired them at London, the Thames estuary, and other Channel ports. As far as I know, this was the first observation by ordnance personnel of a V2 rocket fired from the ground.

Combat Command A, approaching east, and CCB, approaching northeast, were slowly converging into a relatively narrow front. By September 23, they reached the Stolberg-Aachen area. Stolberg was an industrial city in a deep, narrow valley southeast of Aachen and just north of the Hürtgen Forest.

By this time, the 3d Armored Division and elements of VII Corps had penetrated the last heavy fortifications of the Siegfried line and were in a deep salient in the German lines, in a highly exposed position from both flanks. In barely eighteen days, the First Army, spearheaded by the 3d Armored Division, had dashed from Paris to the Siegfried line and killed or captured many thousands of Germans. In another twenty days, they had fought a desperate battle and penetrated the Siegfried line. The press now called the division the Spearhead Division, a title it had justly earned.

We were completely overextended and had run far beyond the capability of our supply lines. The great majority of our supplies were still coming by truck and pipelines from Omaha Beach. Our supplies of gasoline, ammunition, rations, and vital ordnance supplies were extremely limited. We had even run out of maps. It was necessary for me to mark on my map case with a grease pencil the route we had taken during the day, so I could go back at night with my combat loss report and then return.

The First Army was given the order to halt and set up a defensive position. It was to consolidate it as quickly as possible to allow time for other elements both north and south to straighten out the line and prepare for the next attack. Our division established a line from a point approximately halfway through Stolberg southeast to the high ground on hill 287 and then south to Mausbach.

General Rose moved division headquarters into the Prym House, on the forward slope of a hill on the southern outskirts of Stolberg, well within small-arms and mortar fire range. We weren’t sure if the Germans knew that the division headquarters was that far forward. Even though the headquarters received its share of artillery fire, there appeared to be no attempt to destroy the building.