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Escape
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| I was CPL Richard L. Warren, a member of the 428th Military Police Escort Guard Company. As I write this it is a few days past the 57th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. I will note some things that are forever embedded in my mind. I was attached to the 2nd Infantry Division in Wirtzfeld Belgium, General Robertson was commanding General and Major North was, I think, Provost Marshall and the one I received orders from. |
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| There were two farmhouses about 100 yards apart. We had 19 prisoners in the attic of one and the other was Division CP. On the morning of December 16, 1944, we were awakened when a shell made a direct hit on the house we were in. We scrambled to the basement as the shelling continued. After a short time it slowed down and I went outside. It was very foggy and cold and snow covered everything. The fog seemed to be illuminated, but you could not see through it. This has always been a mystery to me. |
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| I looked at my watch, and it was 6:30. I could hear large machinery starting up and moving out. Soon we started getting tank fire. General Robertson sent word for me to bring the prisoners and men to the house being used as CP and put out a perimeter guard, which I did. There were several cows in the stalls, and we crowded them all into one and put the 19 prisoners in the other. I was able to squeeze in with the cows and enjoy their body heat for a short time. We were expecting the Germans to appear at any moment, but thank God they didn't. I guess they were more interested in the supplies at Bullingen and Butgenbach. |
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| A halftrack with two soldiers pulled up between the house and the outhouse. As one got off and started toward the outhouse he heard a plane and returned to his gun and shot him down. A few minutes later the same thing happened, and they moved on. I don't remember if he made it to the outhouse or not, but he shot down two of the only three planes I saw on December 17. We received word General Robertson had found an opening we might be able to use to get out. This was the first official word we had received. We were cut off and had been for several hours. |
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| We were given a choice of waiting for transportation or walking the prisoners to Camp Elsenborn. We chose to walk. There were people in white camouflage coming over the hill towards us. We only carried what we were wearing. We arranged the prisoners and guards so as to be easily identified as both Germans and GI's and started out. The fence posts helped locate the road, as snow was several inches deep. Once a plane came down as if to strafe but just turned away. We met some first Inf. and talked briefly. |
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| As we went through Bullingen, there were GI gas cans burning and white flags in some windows. Pieper had already gone through. We saw almost the same thing in Butgenbach. Then, we turned into the woods on a logging road as we had been instructed. As we reached the road that was to take us to Camp Elsenborn, a very unusual thing happened. A truck went by loaded with soldiers. They recognized us and backed up and carried us to Camp Elsenborn. |
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| It was Lt. Fahy of our company. He had learned we were surrounded, got some men together, and they were coming to get us. Before he could get to Wirtzfeld he was stopped by a road block and told there were only Germans past that point. They were truly overjoyed in finding us. |
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| At Camp Elsenborn we were in a small flattop hut near a forest. The forest had some good foxholes. I learned after the war that Curtis Jones from my hometown of Davisboro, Georgia was an engineer, and his outfit had camped there before the bulge and were responsible for the foxholes. Things seemed to be somewhat confused with reports of English speaking Germans in GI uniforms infiltrating our unit. Therefore, we had lots of I.D. checks, etc. |
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| Heavy shelling was continuing. There was a kitchen in one of the large brick buildings that fed lots of soldiers from different outfits, but you had to know the password and have an I.D. Sometimes the shelling would get too heavy to wait in line outside, and the person checking I.D.'s would get overrun. There were not many German planes flying because of the weather, but they seem d to find us. One came over and dropped a bomb a few yards before he got to the flattop house and one just past it, but the next day a shell few in and we got it dead center. Somehow no one got hurt, but one of those nearby foxholes got used. I dove in one end, and Hollis Anderson in the other. We were facing each other, and I noticed he was barefoot. Ice was protruding from the sides, and I asked if his feet weren't cold. He said, "No way!" When I told him he didn't have any shoes on he was surprised. Going back to the building I looked for his tracks, and he looked for mine. We didn't see anything. |
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| There was sunshine on Christmas day, and the Air Force was out for the first time in a long while. We had turkey with white bread. We were still being shelled and a dogfight was going on overhead as we ate. We stayed in Camp Elsenborn until the Bulge was about over, and we went back to Eupen. We had several near misses, but I was never wounded. We landed at Omaha Beach with invasion forces and went on to Berlin where we joined in five major battles. |
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| Cpl Richard L. WARREN |
428th Military Police
Escort Guard Company
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Campaigns
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Normandy, France
Battle of the Bulge,
Belgium
Rhineland, Germany
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