Howard Liddic attempted to post a list yesterday of the casualties suffered by the 21st Tank Battalion, but it seems that Excell spreadsheets don’t post well within the blog text area. At least we haven’t figured out how, if it is possible, to do it correctly. I created a separate page for it which can be found at the link below.

Thanks, Howard!

21st Tank Battalion Casualties

“I never thought I would ever be standing in Germany……”

–CWO Howard S. Liddic, Service Company, 21^st Tank Battalion, 10^th Armored Division in a  

March, 1945 letter Dad’s statement could just have easily applied to me 57 years later as my wife and I stepped off the plane at the Frankfurt airport.  I have studied World War II history, and the 10^th Armored in particular, for nearly 30 years, but never seriously considered a trip to Europe until earlier this year.  But now here we were, off on a two week vacation through Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Austria following the tracks of the 10^th Armored.       After arriving in Frankfurt, we rented a car and began the four hour drive to Bastogne.  We made good time on the autobahn all the way to Luxembourg, where we picked up a series of back roads that roughly paralleled the advance of the 47^th Panzer Corps toward Bastogne on December 16 and 17, 1944.  We made one stop along the way at the Diekirch Historical Museum.  The museum is housed in an old warehouse and contains a wonderful collection of military artifacts, vehicles, uniforms, etc.  Looking at the Sherman tank in front of the museum, it occurred to me that I had not been on a Sherman for almost 25 years, since Dad and I used to climb on one at the local VFW.  Without another thought, I was up on the tank, inside the turret, and then climbing down into the driver’s compartment.  I’m sure the museum didn’t want people climbing on their tank, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.     It was getting dark as we arrived in Bastogne and checked into our hotel on thePlace McAuliffe square.   We found Col. Roberts’ headquarters, the Hotel LeBrun, right around the corner from where we were staying.  It’s now called the White HouseRestaurant and Hotel.  There’s an Internet Cafe in the front of the building, while the back houses the restaurant and the hotel rooms are upstairs.  They have a picture of General McAuliffe in the lobby, along with some pictures of the town during the siege.  No mention of the 10th, nor did anyone at the desk know about the history of the building during the battle.  While having a nightcap at the bar, we speculated about what may have occurred in this very room.  Troop assignments, orders, counter orders, etc.  If only the walls could talk! The next day, we found the location of the 20th AIB aid station that was destroyed by a bomb on Christmas Eve.  There is now an electronics store on the site, a plaque on the side of the building being the only reminder of what happened there.  Across the street from the aid station is the original Bastogne Museum.  Their brochure is the only advertisement we found that carried the 10^th Armored insignia.  We walked across to the museum and struck up a conversation with the owner.  He noticed that we had been reading the plaque and proceeded to tell us that the aid station bombing was shown incorrectly in “Band of Brothers” and that in fact, it was a 10th Armored, not a 101st Airborne aid station.  He was quite surprised that we even knew of the 10^th, let alone the detail of the aid station bombing.  When CCB arrived in Bastogne, they deployed three combat teams to block the main roads east of town.  We visited each of these roadblock towns:  Longvilly and Margaret (Team Cherry), Noville (Team Desobry), and Wardin and Marvie (Team O’Hara). There is a tank turret on the road to each of these towns; the one on the Longvilly road has the 10th Armored insignia on the side.  While taking pictures of the road signs at each town, we received  more than a few strange looks from some of the residents.  They probably don’t get many tourists in their little crossroad towns, some of which are only 10 – 15 houses.  At Longvilly, we parked at the grotto of St. Michael where Team Cherry engaged Panzer Lehr on December 18.  Across the road from the grotto is a hiking trail that we followed off into the woods.  While walking along, my thoughts again turned back to the events of December 1944 that occurred on this very spot.  It is one thing to read about Bastogne, but it is quite another to actually walk the ground where the battle was fought.  Only then do you gain a better understanding of the geography, the troop movements, and the magnitude of what happened here.  The Bastogne Historical Center on the Longvilly road has an excellent film about the battle that covers the action of the 10th in detail.  Other than that, however, I only saw one manikin out of about 50 or 60 with a 10th Armored patch, but nothing else related to the division.  The gift shop, however, had several copies of Les Nichols’ book “Impact” and the tank in front of the museum carries 3rd Tank Battalion markings.  Across from the Historical Center is the Mardasson Monument, the official US Battle of the Bulge monument.  It is shaped like a star, with the history of the battle and the insignia of all participating divisions engraved on the inside and outside walls.  From the top of the monument, there is a beautiful view back into Bastogne and of the surrounding Ardennes countryside.       From the Historical Center, we went back into Bastogne to the Maison MathelinMuseum at the end of the main street.  On the second floor, we found some 10^th Armored items donated by Stan Davis, Pat Corcoran, and Lucky Loicaino.  We also visited museums at Clervaux, and La Gleize.  The La Gleize museum bills itself as one of the most important military collections in Europe, and with good reason.  Their collection is truly amazing and contains some of the rarest uniforms, headgear, medals, etc. that I’ve ever seen.  The museum at the Clervaux castle was also very impressive.  They have a display of shoulder patches for all divisions in the Bulge, along with the names of the divisional commanders, including General Morris.  On the 3rd Floor, there is a 10th Armored winter shirt on display.   After 3 days in Bastogne, we headed east toward Germany, stopping at the American Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg on our way to Trier.  Near the entrance to the cemetery are several large monuments chronicling the war in Europe, complete with maps showing the movements of most of the divisions.  Unfortunately, the 10^th is not listed.  We paid our respects at General Patton’s grave, which stands alone at the front of the cemetery, the other crosses lined up as if on parade in front of him.  We then walked around the cemetery and found the graves of many men from the 21^st TNK, 54^th AIB, 20^th AIB, and 609^th TDB.  All of the graves are immaculately maintained, with an air of quiet dignity and respect.   We then continued on to Trier, staying at a hotel right across the street from the Porta Nigra.  Trier is the oldest city in Germany and was captured by the 10^th in March, 1945 during the Saar-Moselle Triangle campaign.  We walked all over the old town and saw the Roman amphitheater and baths.  Unfortunately, we missed the Roman Bridge over the Moselle that was captured intact by Team Riley.  We also took a day trip to Koblenz on the Rhine, then followed the Moselle wine road back to Trier.  Along the way, we stopped at some of the small towns, sampled the Moselle wines, and had an excellent bratwurst dinner at a riverside inn.       The next town on our itinerary was Heidelburg, where we spent a day walking around the downtown area.  After that, we took a day trip up the Neckar River valley to visit some of the ruined castles along the river.  One stop was the town of Mosbach, where the 10^th crossed the Neckar in March, 1945.  Near the end of the day, we arrived at Crailsheim, “the second Bastogne.”  In April, 1945 the 10^th had a tough battle at Crailsheim with the 17^th SS Panzer Grenadier Division.  Dad was slightly wounded during this action.  We then took a back road from Crailshiem to Schwabisch Hall, a beautiful town built into the side of a large hill with a river running right through the town at the base of the hill.  Elements of the 10^th withdrew here after the Crailsheim operation. The next day, we made the drive to Munich.  Again, we walked around the city and saw the usual tourist sites – the Glockenspiel, the Feldhernnhalle Memorial, the Frauenkirche, and the old town.  Had a great dinner at the famous Hofbrauhaus one night.  I located a couple of military antique dealers adjacent to the Food Market, but unfortunately they were closed.  We also took a day trip to the Dachau concentration camp memorial outside of Munich.  Our guidebook said to allow 2 hours to see the place, but I don’t know how they came up with that.  We spent 3 1/2 hours at a pretty brisk pace and without stopping to read each and every display.  It’s a very moving, almost surreal, spot. From Munich, we continued on to Garmisch-Partenkirchen where we spent a week.  Garmisch is a beautiful little town nestled right in the Alps.  Dad always said how fortunate the 10^th was to end up on occupation duty in Garmisch.  One look around and I knew exactly what he meant.  We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast on the road to the Zugspitz.  I had to smile when the owner directed us up the stairs to our home for the next week — room number 10.  We used Garmisch as a base for day trips to Schloss Linderhoff, Schloss Neuchwanstein, Murnau, Oberammergau, and Innsbruck.   Another day, we went to Obersalzburg to see Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest on top of the mountain.  We had lunch one day at the Hotel Eibsee.  I had a picture of the Tigers Lair at Eibsee, but no one at the hotel recognized it or knew anything about it.  We were unable to find the Division Headquarters building, but we did locate the house where Dad stayed during the occupation.  The owner of the B& B recognized my picture of the house and the mountain background and directed us right to it.  We didn’t make the trip up the Zugspitz, as there was fog on the mountain almost every day obscuring the view.  Another stop in Garmisch was the 1936 Olympic ice stadium that was used for USO shows during the occupation.  We also found the Partenkirchen town hall building, which looks the same today as it does in the wartime pictures published in “Impact”. Just as Garmisch was the end of the line for the 10^th Armored, it was the end of our European journey as well.  Unlike the Tigers, however, we wanted to stay longer, as there was so much more to see and do.  We covered a lot of ground in two weeks, saw some beautiful scenery, had excellent food, and perfect weather.  In almost every way, this was the perfect trip.  Even our flights were on time!  We hope to return again in the near future, perhaps in the winter to spend Christmas in Bastogne or to Garmisch to see snow on the Alps.  In the meantime, we have some great vacation memories, and a new understanding and appreciation for the accomplishments of the 10^th Armored during the Second World War.     

I was able to duplicate a picture, from an original in Howard Liddic’s collection, of at least some of the officers of the 20th Armored Infantry Battalion, and I have posted it to my website. Some of the men are named along the top and bottom of the picture, but the names are missing for many.

I am hoping that someone will recognise a face or two and help me fill in the blanks.

The full size picture can be found at http://oldtigercub.com/pictures/20aibofficers or by clicking on the thumb-nail above.

Edit: An update! I received an e-mail from Warren “Dusty” Shulze, the service company commander, and one of the men in the picture! Almost all of the men have been identified….

Bottom row left to right:
Aiello, Benator, Lezotte, Jacobs, Nurthern, Mann, Samuel, unknown, Rabideau, Doris, Culinaine, Kehr, McDonald

Standing (back row) left to right:
Bernstein, Geiger, Yantis, Schulze, unknown, unknown, Allen, Weiner, Holhouse, Bush, Waddell, Revell, Mason

Thanks, Dusty!

While surfing about on “teh interwebs” as kids call it today, I came across an aerial picture of the town of Noville, the site of one of the 10th Armored Division’s finest, though most desperate hours, during the openning days of the Battle of the Bulge. It was in the cold and the fog and the snow that my father and many of his fellow soldiers fought a desperate battle to hold the enemy at the small villages such as Noville, Longvilly, Magaret and Foy, and to keep them from advancing into Bastogne. Noville is just another blip on the map to so many, but it has a place in history. 

 It was to Noville that Team DeSobry was dispatched to set up one of the key roadblocks that would slow the enemy advance. The details can be found in “Bastogne, The First Eight Days”  by S. L. A. Marshall, in chapter 7, Team DeSobry at Noville  and chapter 8, Attack and Withdrawal . It was during the defense of Noville that Lt. Col. James L. LaPrade, commanding officer of the 101st Airborne’s 506th PIR, 1st Battalion was killed, and Maj. William DeSobry of the 10th AD was seriously wounded.

From chapter 8 of Bastogne, The First Eight Days:

The plan was for Company B to defend to the northwest and Company A to the northeast and Company C was to cover the southern half of the perimeter while the armored group was held in the center of the town ready to strike out in any direction.¹⁴ A few minutes after LaPrade was placed in command, an 88 shell landed in the street outside the command post. The explosion shattered the clothes closet and both commanders were struck down by fragments.¹⁵ Colonel LaPrade was killed and Major Desobry wounded. Major Robert F. Harwick, LaPrade’s executive, who had rushed back from a leave in Paris to join his battalion and had arrived in Noville just at the close of the afternoon fighting, took command of the combined force. The armor passed into the hands of Major Charles L. Hustead.

 I would like to invite anyone who was there to share their stories about this tiny speck on the map that was a key to the defense of Bastogne.

There were a lot of decorations awarded for bravery and gallantry to the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines that served during the Second World War, not the least of which was the Bronze Star. There were a great many more Bronze Stars awarded than many realize, but there were and are veterans that earned the right to wear it but never received it. It came to my attention just a few years ago that my father was one of those veterans.

According to the official website of the Pentagon:

3. Criteria: a. The Bronze Star Medal is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity in or with the military of the United States after 6 December 1941, distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.

        b. Awards may be made for acts of heroism, performed under circumstances described above, which are of lesser degree than required for the award of the Silver Star.

        c. Awards may be made to recognize single acts of merit or meritorious service. The required achievement or service while of lesser degree than that required for the award of the Legion of Merit must nevertheless have been meritorious and accomplished with distinction.

What many miss is this part:

 5. Background: a. General George C. Marshall, in a memorandum to President Roosevelt dated February 3, 1944, wrote: “The fact that the ground troops, Infantry in particular, lead miserable lives of extreme discomfort and are the ones who must close in personal combat with the enemy, makes the maintenance of their morale of great importance. The award of the Air Medal have had an adverse reaction on the ground troops, particularly the Infantry Riflemen who are now suffering the heaviest losses, air or ground, in the Army, and enduring the greatest hardships.” The Air Medal had been adopted two years earlier to raise airmen’s morale.

        b. President Roosevelt authorized the Bronze Star Medal by Executive Order 9419 dated 4 February 1944, retroactive to 7 December 1941. This authorization was announced in War Department Bulletin No. 3, dated 10 February 1944. The Executive Order was amended by President Kennedy, per Executive Order 11046 dated 24 August 1962, to expand the authorization to include those serving with friendly forces.

        c. As a result of a study conducted in 1947, the policy was implemented that authorized the retroactive award of the Bronze Star Medal to soldiers who had received the Combat Infantryman Badge or the Combat Medical Badge during World War II. The basis for doing this was that the badges were awarded only to soldiers who had borne the hardships which resulted in General Marshall’s support of the Bronze Star Medal. Both badges required a recommendation by the commander and a citation in orders.

The decoration can be retroactively awarded to any veteran who earned it by contacting the army by way of the National archives. It is my hope that every veteran who earned the Combat Infantry Badge or the Combat Medical Badge learns of this and receives the awards due to them. The link below leads to the page where replacement records, medals and awards can be ordered.

The National Archives page for replacement medals and awards

Howard Liddic, another son of a ”Tiger Vet”, and an active researcher and historian of the 10th AD sent me an updated copy of a list of excellent resources to use to research the history of the ”Tiger” Division. I have created a page on the website and pasted a link in the Blogroll area for anyone wishing to visit it.

Many thanks, Howard!!!

 Below is the list Howard sent:

Edit: I appologize about the formatting. Cutting and pasting from a Word document directly to the page produces strange results. The linked page in the blogroll is much easier to follow.

   10^th Armored Division Historical Resources Where to research and learn more about the 10^th Armored Division. Websites ·         10^th Armored Division – www.tigerdivision.com·         10^th Armored Division Veterans Association Western Chapter – www.10tharmoredwest.com ·         419^th Armored Field Artillery Battalion – www.419th.com·         National World War II Memorial – www.wwiimemorial.com ·         10^th Armored Division Resources, Photos, and Blog – www.oldtigercub.com  Books & Publications ·         “Terrify & Destroy, The Story of the 10^th Armored Division” – booklet published after the war and reprinted by the Veteran’s Association.  Sometimes available on eBay.·         “Impact, The Battle Story of the 10^th Armored Division” – out of print, but sometimes available on eBay or Amazon.com·         “The Tigers – History of the 10^th Armored Division” – out of print, but sometimes available from Turner Publishing Company (www.turnerpublishing.com), eBay, or Amazon.com·         “Honor Roll of Tigers Who Died in the ETO” – compiled by Klaus Feindler (Compklaus@aol.com) ·         “Index to the General Orders of the 10^th Armored Division” – available from D-Day Militaria (www.ddaymilitaria.com)·         Pike Military Research Retail Reports – www.militaryunits.como   10th Arm. Div. 16-27 November 1944 Crossing the Moselle o   10th Arm. Div. 17-24 December 1944 Drive From Luxembourg to Echternach o   10th Arm. Div. 17-24 December 1944 o   10th Arm. Div. 17-26 December 1944 Defense of Bastogne o   10th Arm. Div. 19 February 4 – March 1945 Saar-Moselle Triangle and Trier Museums ·         Patton Museum of Cavalry & Armor, Ft. Knox, KY – www.generalpatton.org ·         AAF Tank Museum, Danville, VA – www.aaftankmuseum.com ·         US Army Ordnance Museum, Aberdeen, MD – www.ordmusfound.org·         Bastogne Historical Center, Bastogne Belgium – www.bastognehistoricalcenter.be  National Archives ·         College Park, MD – houses original general orders, after action reports, operational reports, special orders, etc. from both the division and battalion levels.  www.archives.gov ·         St. Louis, MO – morning reports by company.  www.archives.gov  Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, DC 

• The John Toland Papers – Box 33, Col. William Roberts

          US Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, PA 

• William Desobry Papers
• Charles MacDonald Papers – Boxes 2 and 5
• S.L.A. Marshall Papers – Box 2, Desobry Miscellaneous Notes

 Individuals ·         Klaus Feindler – 10^th Armored historian specializing in the 20^th Armored Infantry Battalion.  Compklaus@aol.com·         Howard Liddic – 10^th Armored historian specializing in the 21^st Tank Battalion.  tigersnwolves@comcast.net ·         Christian Pettinger – 10^th Armored historian specializing in the 11^th Tank Battalionmilpol@web.de 5/29/2007

The 10th Armored “Tigers” played a decisive part in several major battles of the Second World War, and while it was Major General William H. H. Morris that took the division into battle, it was Major General Paul W. Newgarden that first commanded and trained the men of the 10th AD.

From the pages of “Impact” by Lester M. Nichols:

Major General Paul W. Newgarden was a superb leader. His troops sensed his genuine interest in their welfare and his leadership was clearly reflected in every Tiger. His many mottos provided an insite as to his personal beliefs. “Stand up, Muscle up, Clean up, Carry out orders, March, Maneuver and Shoot”, were his bywords. “If we are to be successful,” he would say, “We must work like hell, play like hell and fight like hell.”

General Newgarden was much beloved by his men, and it came as a terrible shock when he perished in a plane crash on July 14, 1944. He was on his way back from Ft. Knox, Kentucky to participate in the division’s second anniversary review.

General and Mrs. NewGarden at Camp Gordon

The veterans of the 10th Armored division have honored the memory of General Newgarden at their reunions ever since.

I have often thought about the men that my father served with while in the 10th Armored Division. I had the opportunity to meet a few of them at the 2006 Labor Day ”Final Salute” reunion in Louisville, Kentucky. There are some, however, that I can only read about in history books and letters written home. One of those men was Captain William F. Ryerson, my father’s company commander.

Captain Ryerson is named prominently in several publications for his actions during the Ardennes offensive, so finding information about what he did during the war is fairly easy. One such account, from “Bastogne, the First Eight Days” ,  published on the Army Military History website regarding the fighting outside of Bastogne:

There was still so much shelling from the south of the village however, that the American guns had to stay immobile and the small force of infantry could not get forward. Prisoners they had taken said that the enemy infantry group comprised about 120 men. The 40-man force which had attacked toward the south of Magéret had no communication with Captain Ryerson’s main force and later that evening somewhat less than half of them came back. They bad made no real progress.

Since noon Captain Ryerson had been aware that infantry forces were coming to his aid from Bastogne. He didn’t know which units were coming but the expectation of relief encouraged his efforts to take Magéret.

Through its various misadventures, Team Cherry as a whole had come to a pass where it could no longer confront the oncoming enemy and where most of its energies would be directed to saving its remaining elements, and covering its own flanks and rear. Whether the German advance into Bastogne from the eastward could be checked and thrown into recoil now depended on the forces of the 101st Division itself.

Other sources include such books as “Impact” by Lester Nichols and “Alamo in the Ardennes” by John C. McManus.

The only solid artifacts I have, however, are a few envelopes from letters home, on which Captain Ryerson’s signature appears by the censor stamp. It is the little things like Dad’s letters, which my grandmother saved, that help me connect to the young man, the soldier, who would one day become my father, and to the men he served with. One such envelope is this one:

Sadly, Captain Ryerson was killed in action before the Battle of the Bulge was officially concluded. He is buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

William F. Ryerson
Captain, U.S. Army
Service # O-422559
20th Infantry Battalion, 10th Armored Division
Entered the Service from: New York
Died: 14-Jan-45
Buried at: Plot B Row 10 Grave 33
Luxembourg American Cemetery
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Awards: Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart

Since this is a new blog, and is dedicated to remembering the historic achievements of the 10th Armored Division and the men who served, I will be posting stories of and, hopefully some accounts by, 10th AD veterans, including my father, but will not be giving any particular priority to the order in which various people are mentioned. To me they were and are all heroes. Some made it home and some did not, but the sacrifices made by all helped to make it possible for us to enjoy the freedoms we have today.

Although the news is a bit old, I have just learned of the passing of one particularly notable officer of the 20th Armored Infantry Battalion of the 10th AD, Dr. John “Jack” Prior, M.D.

His obituary is listed at Syracuse.com

The then Captain Prior was in charge of the field hospital at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, and wrote a captivating account of his service there, most notably talking about Christmas eve…

When my oldest son was a youngster he periodically posed the question, “Dad, what’s the most exciting thing that ever happened to you?” It was a question I never remember asking my Dad and I wonder today what his answer would have been – he did not serve in World War I. At any rate my answer to my son, John, was always the same; recounting episodes of the Battle of the Bulge with particular emphasis on Bastogne since I was “in resident” there from December 20, 1944 until January 17, 1945. I would often tell the children the depressing story of December 13, 1944, just after I had finished reading “the night before Christmas” to them on Christmas Eve, emphasizing that this particular Christmas was neither happy nor merry for many people. For a long time I had promised myself to put this Christmas story on paper and it is some 28 years later that it is occurring.

Much of the detail of this particular period remains surprisingly fresh in my mind and the dates and sequences I had recorded daily in my diary which I carefully kept (contrary to my army directives) and still possess. I have always chuckled over the years to see General after General (one being a past President) publish his memories which had to have had origin in a carefully kept record – maybe this rule did not apply to General officers!

I was a member of the Medical Battalion of the 10th Armored Division. This division left Georgia where it had trained too long and arrived in Cherbourg September 23, 1944. The Division first saw action in attacking the outer fortifications of Motz on November 14th and my assignment was to help operate a clearing station preparing patients for transit to the nearest evacuation hospital. Working in a safe climate, free of artillery and small arms fire, I was ill-prepared for the baptism that was soon to follow.

On December 14th I was detached to the 20th Armored Infantry Battalion as their surgeon to replace their regular officer who had been evacuated with pneumonia. I had assigned to me a dentist, and about 30 enlisted men who were trained as liter bearers and first aid men. Our detachment had armored half-track ambulances and two jeeps and was a well trained unit. The 20th Armored Infantry was part of a combat team, the latter composed of a tank battalion, an engineer platoon, and a reconnaissance squadron. This team, called “Team Desobry,” after its infantry commanding officer, moved through Luxembourg on December 17th on what we believed was an administrative march with eventual quartering of the unit in Luxembourg. I have always been impressed with how little information in the army filters down to personnel at my level from the Army and Corps Headquarters. Perhaps there was some virtue in this, for our assignment actually was to move into the town of Noville (seven kilometers northeast of Bastogne). Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt could have told us our assignment. As the West Front Commander, he had struck a blow in the Ardennes. He was on his way to override Belgium, Luxembourg, Northern France and penetrate to the channel coast. The little village of Bastogne was in his way since it was the hub of a network of seven spoke like highways and would need to be taken on the way to his capturing Antwerp, largest supply point for Allied troops on the West Front. Soldiers of the 9th Armored Division, 4th and 28th Infantry Divisions could also have made our assignment clear since their ninety-five mile sector was being overrun by the German onslaught at that moment.

Arriving in Noville at six a.m., December 19th, we found a sleepy little crossroads. My Aid Station was located in the pub. I found this type of building always best for our purposes since the large drinking area accommodated many litter patients. Within two hours of our arrival the little town had turned into a shooting gallery featuring small arms, machine gun and tank fire on the main thoroughfare. The large front window of the pub was an early casualty and it was necessary to crawl on the floor to avoid being hit as we treated our increasing number of casualties. Someone had selected our backyard as the “ammo” dump and this did not boost our equanimity. Team Desobry was ordered to hold Noville at all cost and it was not until the Battalion Command Post was hit and Major Desobry was wounded that we were ordered to withdraw to Bastogne. Evacuation of the score of injured had been virtually impossible. We did load four patients into a half-track at one point and just as it lumbered off, it received a direct hit from a tank and burst into flames. The four patients were unloaded and returned to the Aid Station; this under the gaze of the German tank commander. Upon receipt of the withdrawal order we were given ten minutes to move out. Since I had no functioning vehicular transportation and no litters I decided I would stay and surrender my patients to the Germans. I asked for volunteers to stay with me but the silence was deafening! It looked as if only myself and the tavern owners (an old lady and her husband who said their rosaries aloud for two days in their cellar) would remain behind. At this point my first sergeant seized the initiative and ran into the street, shouting at the departing tanks to swing by the Aid Station. The tankers ran into our building after ripping off all the doors from the walls, strapped our patients to the doors, and tied them to their vehicles. The column then moved down the road to Bastogne where I assumed there was a hospital and fresh defenders! It was not until after the war that we learned that Team Desobry had stopped the entire Second German Panzer Division which had assumed it was opposing a much stronger force. Outnumbered by ten to one, the Noville defenders knocked out thirty-one enemy tanks in two days.

Even the trip back to Bastogne turned into another fire fight. In a later afternoon fog the column was stopped by the enemy who knocked out our tanks and harassed us with small arms fire from the flanks. We treated serious injuries in the ditches as we waited three hours for the column to move again. Lying in the ditch and having sniper fire chip away at a fence post beside me was a terrifying experience. I was head to head in the ditch with my dental officer. He did not wear a helmet with the bright red cross and suggested mine was a sniper target and should be shed – a suggestion I resisted. Many of our enlisted men demonstrated great bravery on the road, pulling tankers from their blazing tanks, driving jeeps with the injured on the hood to our Aid Station. Many of these air men were soldiers whose reputation in the unit would have given no clue to the fact that under stress they could meet this challenge. This observation was to be pounded home again, time after time, in the months ahead. I have never learned who to predict will be a hero! I have often thought I’d still be in that ditch on the Bastogne road if it had not been for the arrival of a Parachute Battalion from the 101st Air Borne Division. This division had been hastily summoned from a rest area and was rushed to Bastogne without sufficient weapons and suitable warm clothing. They were instrumental in getting the remnants of Team Desobry back to Bastogne on December 20th by routing the enemy.

Bastogne on this date was an intact but somewhat deserted city. The sight of the residents dragging their belongings with them on little carts, leaving as we entered, was recognized as a bad omen – “rats leaving the sinking ship.” Many of these people faced the difficult decision of whether to retain the American flag over their door or to put the Swastika back up. My Aid Station was initially in a garage on one of the main streets. Two days later I had to move into a larger area in a private three story home as the casualties increased and because I could not heat the garage adequately – the weather was very cold and there was about a foot of snow on the ground. My diary indicates we worked twenty-four hours a day in the Aid Station, that the plasma froze and would not run, that we had no medical supplies and that the town was continually shelled. It was a major decision whether to run up the street a block to the Battalion Command Post. We in Bastogne never had any idea of the importance of this battle, thinking it was just another town. Its importance did not dawn upon us until one day we hooked up a radio to a vehicular battery and heard the BBC in London paying tribute to the “Gallant defenders of Bastogne.” They compared this battle to Waterloo, Gettysburg, and Verdun. The news that we were surrounded also had a curious effect upon our men – such remarks were heard as: “they’ve got us surrounded, the poor bastards,” or “surrounded, good – now we can attack on all sides.” I can never remember considering that we were going to lose that fight or that help would not eventually arrive. German artillery fired propaganda leaflets into the town, urging us to surrender. These were regarded by the GIs as humorous and were collected and swapped like baseball cards. One of these had a photograph of a little girl and her letter to her daddy.
Dear Daddy,

Today I went to the birthday party of Jean, but I didn’t have a good time because I was worrying so about you. Last night Mummy cried and cried because we haven’t heard from you for so long. Jean got a letter from her Daddy. He is a prisoner of war. Jean says he will be sure to come back home now. Oh, Daddy, you just got to come home. We miss you so.

Loads of kisses,
Winnie
Living in a city without electricity, water, food and medical supplies was a challenge. My men scrounged port steaks, ham and jam from the vegetable cellars of deserted homes. The combat units sent whatever food they found to the Aid Station and any medical supplies in deserted doctors’ offices found their way to us. Civilian physicians were always scarce in towns we took. I never remember seeing a civilian physician in all of Germany. The only explanation for this I can offer was that many physicians were members of the Nazi party and that they took to the road before we arrived. Jewish physicians had either left the country or were in concentration camps. This, of course, had serious implications in that the civilian population descended upon our Aid Station as soon as the Red Cross flag was hoisted – I even did a delivery! The water problem was serious – melted snow was some help but Champagne filled a big gap. Very few people have shaved and bathed in Champagne as I did! On December 22nd German Commander sent a major, captain and two enlisted men into the town with a while flag – it was quickly rumored that they had come to arrange our surrender. Many of our defenders took this lull to shave, wash, to visit the straddle trenches. What followed is well known – we were given two hours to surrender the garrison or face complete destruction. The German Commander, Lt. General von Luttwitz, listed one Artillery Corps and six heavy A.A. Battalions as ready to annihilate us. General McAuliffe’s reply of “nuts” posed a problem for their interpreters. The best they could do with the translation was: “Go to Hell.” We were advised that a heavy shelling would occur – it did but I can not recall it being any different from the usual.

Now, in regard to the care of the wounded in Bastogne, I have always believed and still do that this did not constitute a bright page in the history of the Army Medical Department. I operated the only Aid Station for the Armored Division Combat Command although there were at least three other Battalion Surgeons with the Armor. I was holding over one hundred patients, of whom about thirty were very seriously injured litter patients. The patients who had head, chest and abdominal wounds could only face certain slow death since there was no chance of surgical procedures – we had no surgical talent among us and there was not so much as a can of ether or a scalpel to be had in the city. The extremity wounds were irrigated with a preciously low supply of hydrogen peroxide in an attempt to prevent gas infection. I attempted to turn my litter bearers into bedside nursing personnel – they were assisted by the arrival at our station December 21st of two registered female civilian nurses. One of these nurses, Renee Lemaire, volunteered her services and the other girl was black, a native of the Belgian Congo. She was “willed” to me by her father and when we eventually left Bastogne he was most distraught with me for refusing to take her along. They played different roles among the dying – Renee shrank away from the fresh, gory trauma, while the Congo girl was always in the thick of the splinting, dressing, and hemorrhage control. Renee preferred to circulate among the litter patients, sponging, feeding them, and distributing the few medications we had (sulfa pills and plasma). The presence of these two girls was a morale factor of the highest order. This decaying medical situation was worsening – with no hope for the surgical candidates, and even the superficial wounds were beginning to develop gas infection. I never did see any tetanus develop during the entire siege. It was at this point that I visited the acting Division Surgeon of the 101St Air Borne Division and requested he make an effort to bring medical help to us.

I had not visited the Air Borne area up until this time, December 23rd. Their headquarters and hospital area was in a former Belgian barracks compound. Major Davison, their surgeon, listened as I detailed our hopeless situation, and he assured me it was impossible to bring a glider surgical team into the area because of the weather and because the Germans would knock down anything that tried to fly in. He also stressed the fact that his paratroopers were used to being cut off (Normandy and Holland), and this situation was the expected. He then brought me to a riding hall where I saw the unbelievable! There on the dirt riding floor were six hundred paratroop litter cases – I can not recall the number of walking wounded or psychiatric casualties. These patients were only being sustained as were mine. I did see a paratroop chaplain (armed with a pistol and shoulder holster) moving among the dying. While I was there someone announced that General Patton was only a few miles out and that the road in would be opened momentarily. This evoked loud cheers and whistles from all those in the riding hall. Gas gangrene was rampant there, aided and abetted, I’m sure, by the flora on the dirt floor. Major Davison did drive into the German lines later with a white flag in an attempt to arrange a truce for medical evacuation. He proposed to take out one German wounded to two American but this was refused by the ranking German medical officer.

I returned to my Aid Station very depressed – it is ironic but surgical help did arrive in the person of a Major Sorell on December 26th. He came in via a piper cub to care for sixty patients – a mistake in decoding from the Air Borne headquarters had occurred and the figure of six hundred surgical patients was interpreted as sixty. Major Sorrell had a basic instrument kit and a few cans of ether. When he saw the riding hall and the mass of patients needing surgery he was overwhelmed. His decision was to take care of the gas infected extremities first; feeling that he could save more lives this way, as against the time it would take to do one belly, one chest, or one head case. On December 23rd hundreds of C-47’s droned over Bastogne and multicolored parachutes fell to earth – each color representing a various category of supplies. Food, ammunition, blankets, medical items were eagerly gathered. There was no attempt at control collection and each unit corralled whatever fell in their vicinity. Many parachutes fell in German territory, and we later learned that they relished the famed “C” rations. Even the parachutes were utilized as bedding in our hospital. I can recall Renee Lemaire leaving her duties and rushing into the back yard to get a chute. She wanted the silk for a wedding dress. She invariably was beaten out by a soldier and always returned empty handed.

December 24th was another day of constant shelling. General McAuliffe sent his famous Christmas message to the troops asking them, “What’s merry about this Christmas?” He added that they were cold and hungry and not at home, but that they had stopped four Panzer divisions, two infantry divisions and one Parachute division. He concluded his message saying that we were giving our loved ones at home a Merry Christmas and that we were all privileged to take part in this gallant feat of arms. At 8:30 p.m. Christmas Eve, I was in a building next to my hospital preparing to go next door and write a letter for a young lieutenant to his wife. The lieutenant was dying of a chest wound. As I was about to step out the door for the hospital one of me men asked if I knew what day it was, pointing out that on Christmas Eve we should open a Champagne bottle. As the two of us filled our cups, the room, which was well blackened out, became as bright as an arc welders torch. Within a second or two we heard the screeching sound of the first bomb we had ever heard. Every bomb as it descends seems to be pointed right at you. We hit the floor as a terrible explosion next door rocked our building. I ran outside to discover that the three-story apartment serving as my hospital was a flaming pile of debris about six feet high. The night was brighter than day from the magnesium flares the German bomber pilot had dropped. My men and I raced to the top of the debris and began flinging burning timber aside looking for the wounded, some of whom were shrieking for help. At this juncture the German bomber, seeing the action, dropped down to strafe us with his machine guns. We slid under some vehicles and he repeated this maneuver several times before leaving the area. Our team headquarters about a block away also received a direct hit and was soon in flames. A large number of men soon joined us and we located a cellar window (they were marked by white arrows on most European buildings). Some men volunteered to be lowered into the smoking cellar on a rope and two or three injured were pulled out before the entire building fell into the cellar. I estimated that about twenty injured were killed in this bombing along with Renee Lemaire. It seems that Renee had been in the kitchen as the bomb came down and she either dashed into, or was pushed into the cellar before the bomb hit. Ironically enough, all those in the kitchen were blown outdoors since one wall was all glass. I gathered what patients I still had and transported them to the riding hall hospital of the Air Borne division. At about 2:00 a.m. Christmas morning the bomber returned and totally destroyed a vacant building next to the smoldering hospital. I have often wondered how the pilot picked this hospital as a target. There were no external marking but, as some of the men said, the bomb must have come down the chimney. Many tanks and half tracks were parked bumper to bumper in the street in front of the hospital so it seems probable he simply picked an area of high troop concentration. Before our unit left Bastogne we dissected the hospital rubble and identified the majority of the bodies, including Renee Lemaire. I brought her remains to her parent encased in the white parachute she so dearly wanted. I also wrote the following commendation for her and forwarded it to our Commanding General:

Medical Detachment
20th Armored Infantry Battalion
APO 260, US Army
1 January 1945

SUBJECT: Commendation for Renee Bernadette
Emilie Lemaire (deceased)
To: Commanding General
10th Armored Division
APO 260, US Army
(Attn: Division Surgeon)

Thru Channels:

As Battalion Surgeon, 20th Armored Infantry Battalion, I am commending a commendation for Renee Lemaire on the following evidence:

This girl, a registered nurse in the country of Belgium, volunteered her services at the aid station, 20th Armored Infantry Battalion in Bastogne, Belgium, 21 December, 1944. At this time the station was holding about 150 patients since the city was encircled by enemy forces and evacuation was impossible. Many of these patients were seriously injured and in great need of immediate nursing attention. This girl cheerfully accepted the herculean task and worked without adequate rest or food until the night of her untimely death on 24 December, 1944. She changed dressings, fed patients unable to feed themselves, gave out medications, bathed and made the patients more comfortable, and was of great assistance in the administration of plasma and other professional duties. Her very presence among those wounded men seemed to be an inspiration to those whose morale had declined from prolonged suffering. On the night of December 24 the building in which Renee Lemaire was working was scored with a direct hit by an enemy bomber. She, together with those whom she was caring for so diligently, were instantly killed.

It is on these grounds that I recommend the highest award possible to one, who though not a member of the armed forces of the United States, was of invaluable assistance to us.

Jack T. Prior
Captain, M.C.
Commanding

Renee Bernadette Emilie Lemaire
Place du Carre 30
Bastogne, Belgium
I have never heard what action was taken on this commendation.

Lt. Col. Abrams (now General Abrams and awaiting confirmation as Army Chief of Staff) opened the road on December 26 and elements of the 4th Armored Division poured into Bastogne. I spent the next few days assisting Major Sorrell in surgery, and, on December 27th a Glider Surgical Team arrived. This was a highly organized unit and they worked as teams on the abdomen, chest, etc. It was their role to prepare as many casualties as possible for evacuation to the rear. The Germans continued to shell the town day and night and the bombers continued their activities several times a night until January 2nd. It was not until January 17th that Team Desobry left Bastogne.

The most spectacular battle of World War II was over. More than fifty-six thousand Americans were killed in this winter blitz. The Germans had thrown five hundred thousand crack troops and one thousand tanks into their last stand. They had used eight hundred Luftwaffe planes in the Ardennes battle. They are now reluctantly withdrew, battered and bleeding, and the wound of that fight never healed.

In a later post we will meet Renée Lemaire, the Belgian nurse now immortalised by the Band of Brothers mini-series.

Welcome to the Old Tiger Cub Blog. This website and blog is dedicated to the memory of my father, a veteran of the 10th Armored Division and an ex prisoner of war. It is also dedicated to the memory of all of the men of the 10th Armored Division; those that made it home and especially those that did not, and still lie in the cemetaries of Europe, the Pacific, North Africa, asia and here at home.

This site will be dedicated to preserving some of the history of my father and others through pictures, stories, documents and hopefully first-hand accounts by veterans who served with the “Tiger Division”.