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Recollection (299th Engineer)
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| This is a segment taken from my transcript of my WW2 experiences. It all started with our landing, 1st wave, on June 6, 1944. Our task was to blow the beach obstacles so the infantry could make their landing. Within minutes of landing, 75 plus of our men were killed and a great many wounded. |
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| Now I will tell you about my experience in the Battle of the Bulge. I will do my best to recount what happened to me and to share my experiences. But events may be out of sequence. It's been a very longtime and, unlike D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge took place over a month or so. |
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| We were quartered in a school in the village of Hachy, Belgium, west of the city of Arlon. From Hachy, we would go out each day and run sawmills and maintain the roads in the area. I remember one time when we were in Martelange and we were maintaining the roads there, when some civilians came out. One of them said to us, "In a couple of days you'll be leaving." |
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And we said, "Where are we going to go?"
"The Germans are coming," he replied.
"The Germans aren't coming," we said, figuring that the war was just about over.
But he repeated, "Yeah, they're coming back." And he was right.
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December 16th 1944
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| On December 16 reports were coming in that the Germans had started their attack. In fact, prior to the 16th there was talk about capturing parachuting Germans who were dressed as American soldiers. We never caught any of those people but we were told about it. After the attack started, Company "A", the company I was in, and Company "B" maintained a barrier line from Martelange to La Roche. A lot of this is detailed in our history book. The book is called The Famous 299th Engineers. |
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| The first action I saw was in a task force called Buick. I was a bazooka man as was a man named Bill McCue. We were assigned to go with this taskforce. We were put in the lead Jeep to go to see what was going on I guess; I didn't know what the heck was going on. This was something we were unprepared for. The thing that concerned me the most was that we were being led by a man who was in charge of the motor pool. Someone who was in charge of vehicles! Now here he was in charge of this group of men who were going in to God knows where. Anyway, as I said Bill and I were in the lead vehicle as bazooka men. It was really pitch black. All of a sudden the jeep ran into a crater that had been blown as a roadblock. The driver had trouble getting out of the crater. All the passengers got out of the Jeep, which took a little time. Then we pushed the Jeep out of the crater. While this was going on we were startled by a bright light approaching us. Someone was carrying a light. So the Lieutenant. |
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| I don't know what he was thinking, all of a sudden yells, "Achtung!" So naturally the guy behind the light answers in German, thinking perhaps that we were Germans. I think he was a civilian. Anyway the Lieutenant has a pistol and he fires it at the guy. He drops the light and takes off and then we all got in the Jeep and we took off. Which made me happy because I just didn't trust this man, the Lieutenant who was supposed to be my leader. |
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| We returned to Hachy and a short time later Company "A" was sent out to a barrier line to support some non-combatants with our fire power. Most of these guys were just clerks; they never saw any type of action. When we arrived there we found them sitting in their trucks which they never got out of. They were so frightened and you could hear some of them crying. We set up and after a couple of hours we were relieved by another engineer battalion. As far as I know the clerks never left the trucks and that really bothered me because we had to worry about these guys and they had to worry about us. But they were so frightened that they didn't want to move. We returned to Hachy after we were relieved. |
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| Our squad, which was lead by Sgt. Jerry Burt, the guy that was guiding the dozer on the beach, was assigned a bridge to blow up in Sprimont, Belgium. We were to meet up with Sgt Bob Denno and his squad to set up the explosives. (Sprimont is situated North West of Flamierge and 15 miles from the surrounded city of Bastogne) On the way to the bridge we met a Lieutenant with a Jeep driver who never said a word. This guy was really over-dressed. He was too cool and he was too formal. He had a silk scarf around his neck and so forth. He told the Sergeant, "I'll follow the truck." |
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| While we were driving I made a remark that I didn't trust this guy. He might be a German. I told someone that they should be leading us as a jeep always leads a truck. One of the guys said, "let's see what we can do." |
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| He pounded on the cab of the truck to signal the driver to stop. We waved the Lieutenant on and he just took off. He didn't even look at us and kept on going and I think to this day that the guy was a German. We never challenged him, which I think we probably should have done. At the bridge site we met with Sergeant Denno's squad and the bridge was set up for demolition. While this was going on some of the guys conversed with a Belgian woman. She was leaning out of an open window on the top floor and seemed to be very friendly. Guys were talking to her. I don't know what they were talking about. |
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| As we went about our business they would converse with her. When we finished up and were deciding what we were going to do, two soldiers came down the road in a Jeep and told us that the Germans had just overrun the nearby hospital. They were right behind them. They were in such a hurry that they were driving with their emergency brake on. The wheels were smoking. Sergeant Burt told them to get going and we went about setting up our defense. It was decided to set up the fire power on the enemy side of the bridge: bazooka and machine guns. As we were crossing over the bridge a tank appeared and opened fire. With no place for cover, we were caught in the middle of the bridge, so we ran back to the friendly side. As we were running back, I could hear the guys behind me dropping their equipment, I guess so they could move faster. The bullets from the tanks were flying all around us. No one was hit. |
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| Unable to set up because of the fire power from the tanks we got in the trucks and moved away from the bridge. A couple of the fellows stayed behind to detonate the explosives. There was a large explosion and we took off. I never knew where this bridge was located until September 1993 when one of the fellows from the outfit gave me a copy of the battle reports on the Battle of the Bulge and there it was, in Sprimont. |
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| After Sprimont we traveled to Neufchateau where there was a headquarters division or corps. Sergeant Burt reported what we did and then we were told to get some rest. Next day we went to Hachy and from there to Malonne (South of Namur). |
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| At Malonne they have a monastery called the Abbey of Malonne. It was at this Abby that we rested and recuperated because a lot of men were missing and we had some prisoners taken, along with some wounded and some killed. We also lost a lot of our vehicles. We were at Malonne on December 24 and 25. On Christmas Eve we had a Midnight mass and troops of all faiths attended. Our Chaplain, Father Silas Rooney, officiated. Father Rooney, after the war, became one of the faculty at St. Bonaventure University in Olean, New York. He was also the Brother of Dan Rooney who was owner and President of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both of these men are now deceased. |
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| After we regrouped at Malonne we moved on to Spa, Belgium where we guarded some bridges. It was very cold. I remember one bridge we were guarding, where we could hear the ice forming on the river. At nighttime it was so cold you could hear it cracking out there. |
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| While we were there we met a family named Tedesco. The man of the house used to go out and measure the snowfall. He would come out in the morning and then later in the afternoon. He would take a couple of measurements a day. While we were in Spa a Buzz Bomb landed a V-1, Vengeance Weapon and some of our men were injured when that bomb hit. From Spa we then went to Saint-Vith where we swept for mines. The roads were covered with snow and we had to make sure there were no mines so the roads could be plowed. While we were there we took some prisoners, some of them were just kids; they were 14 and 15 years old, German soldiers. |
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| They would be next to us and crying. We tried to be consoling and to reassure them that nothing was going to happen and that everything would be alright. While we were sweeping for mines someone came along and said, "Go and look at this house down the road. You will see something very curious." So we went down to this house and looked in. You could see through the windows. I don't think we ever went in. But there were six to eight German officers sitting around a table. A big dining room table with high back chairs. It looked like a real nice home because it had such nice furniture in there. The table was set for dinner. Food was on the table. But the odd thing about it was these guys were all dead. They were sitting down having a meal, I don't know what happened to them but they all wound up dead. I didn't see any wounds on them. Perhaps their food or drinks were poisoned. The odd part about it was their pants were wide open with their privates showing. Every single one of them. That to me was the oddest day. Maybe someone may have heard of this. Maybe they know something about it. |
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| Well the Battle of the Bulge ended and Bastogne was relieved and so forth. We went to another action. We went to the Roer River. |
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