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Red Cross Clubmobile at Your Service
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Editor's Preface by John Kline
Jill Pitts Knappenberger is a sister to Captain Jonh J Pitts III, “A” Battery, 590th Field Artillery, who was killed during the Battle of the Bulge. At the time he was killed, Jill was in St Vith, having just arrived there in her American Red Cross Clubmobile.
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| We shipped out of Southampton, took an L. S. T. across the Channel and landed at Utah beach the middle of July about 3 A. M., again in complete black-out. I drove our 2 1/2 ton Clubmobile - the “Cheyenne” - what seemed fifty miles instead of only five miles to reach the transit area where we spent the remainder of the night. The next day our group joined VIII Corps at Mt. Martin Sur-Mur, a little, old town in Normandy. As soon as we were on the Continent we were attached to VIII Corps and went out to the divisions that were with corps. We moved with them thru the Hedgerows of Normandy and on into Brittany. There were eight clubmobiles with crews of three each that went out on detached service to the divisions that were in Corps. Our crew served among others, the 29th, 27th, 5th Rangers, 8th Divisions, and field hospital and replacement groups in Brittany. We were stationed at Morlaix for some time and would leave daily to serve the troops that were taking Brest. Late in September we packed our entire convoy and drove by way of Paris to Bastogne, Belgium arriving there on October 1, 1944. This was a four-day 600 mile convoy across France and Belgium and our Red Cross Clubmobile, trucks, jeeps, etc., were a part of a 135 vehicle military convoy. Each night we bivouacked around, under and in our vehicles. It rained during the entire trip.!! |
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| "Voluntary K.P.!" |
| London Green-Line buses converted to A.R.C. Clubmobiles for use in the United Kingdom. |
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| Bastogne was our base until we were driven back by the Germans during the “Battle of the Bulge”. We served different divisions that were in Corps, until November 11th, when we began supplying doughnuts and personnel for running the 8th Corps Rest Center in Arlon. The cinemobile with our group worked at this task along with our clubmobiles. This work continued until the German breakthrough in December. Later we joined the 8th Infantry Division at Wiltz and worked with them for four days when were replaced by the 28th Infantry Division On November 20th, we had our first meal in an indoor mess hall since reaching the Continent Until this time - through the rainy season in October and November - we ate all meals out-of-doors with the G.I.’s of the 35th Special Service Company. The usual procedure was to balance the mess-kit and canteen-cup on the hood of a jeep or any other convenient spot. Then it was necessary to eat quickly as possible before the utensils became filled with rainwater! |
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| At this time our crew had a five day leave and we went to Liege and Brussels, Belgium, and then on into Holland. |
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| December 16th our assignment took us to the 106th Infantry Division, with headquarters at St. Vith. Our crew had lunch with the officers of VIII Corps Rear Hqs. in Bastogne and left with our packed Clubmobile about 1 P. M. We stopped in Vielsalm, Belgium, to buy decorations for our Xmas tree, and presents for one of crew members who was celebrating her birthday that day. It was at Vielsalm about 4 P. M. that some G.I.’s in the store told us that we should also buy some candles as the enemy had start a terrific shelling barrage in our area that morning and had knocked out most of the generators which supplied electricity. This was our first knowledge of the beginning of the “Battle of the Bulge”. |
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| We arrived at our destination and were welcomed by officers and enlisted personnel who did not imagine that we would come. That night, and every night that we were there, we ate by candle light. It was late that afternoon that my twin brother, Jack, a Battery commander for one of the heavy field artillery battalions with the 106th was killed while trying to save some of his men. He was buried there in Germany until after the Bulge and the Americans retook that territory, when he was transferred to a military cemetery at Foy, Belgium. When this cemetery was closed in 1947, he was moved to the permanent cemetery at Hamm, Luxembourg. |
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| The next morning we were completely surrounded by the enemy and with no communication or roads open for the passage of supplies - which were very, very low as far as food and ammunition were concerned. We turned all of our supplies over to the Army and they used the doughnut flour to make pancakes. The coffee, too, was very welcome. We aided at a near-by hastily erected hospital by trying to cheer the wounded, passing out candy, gum, cigarettes and smiles. I remember one soldier who was brought in with 58 machine gun bullets in his body. Also of holding another soldier’s good hand while a surgeon extracted shrapnel from his other arm. December 20th, our crew of three girls, decided to have our Xmas, so opened the packages from the States that we had brought with us from Bastogne. We sang some carols and tried to be happy. Later that night we were told to pack our musettes (small shoulder bags) and prepare to crawl thru the lines under the protection of black-out. I put an incendiary bomb in the Clubmobile as we were not leaving our equipment and personal supplies for the enemy. We were alerted this way until the 23rd of December when the 82nd Airborne Division opened up one road for a few hours. Two officers and two enlisted men from VIII Corps had been in the area interrogating the German Prisoners of War and were to lead us out. They had a jeep with a 1/4 ton trailer and we were to follow them in our Clubmobile. We took the bomb out of the Clubmobile and left about 10 P. M. under the protection of the black-out and a thick fog. Our road was being shelled heavily and we could hear artillery and small-arms fire all around us, so the noise was terrific. Suddenly the tail lights on the trailer on the jeep ahead of us vanished. Because of the noise, nothing was heard, but we stopped and walked up the road a few feet to find that our escorts had rammed into a 2 1/2 ton GMC loaded with shells coming to the front. (These were some of the first shells that had come in since December 16th, and were badly needed). One officer and one soldier were unconscious on the road. The other two were only shaken and shocked. The jeep was demolished, so we hurriedly pushed it into the ditch and transferred their gear and trailer and the men to the Clubmobile, and proceeded on in the darkness as we could not block the only road of escape. |
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| That night we stayed at the forward observation post of a new armored division that was being sent into the area. Enemy planes strafed us that night but there were no casualties. At 5 A. M. - still very dark outside — we were told to get out of there as fast as we could, as we had lost the only road block between us and Marche, which was held by the Germans. We did not know where the 8th Corps was then as we had had no communication with anyone outside our own little area, but knew that Bastogne had fallen, so we wandered around France by asking all the American military personnel that we encountered, we finally learned that VIII Corps had retreated to Charleville - Mezieres, France. |
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| We delivered the two officers and enlisted men at VIII Corps forward Headquarters at Florenville, then went to Charleville, arriving there late in the afternoon of December - - Our group was billeted in an old F.F.I. barracks and we stayed there five days with no heat, no light and no windows. We did have straw mattresses. Charleville was bombed two nights in a row. Later we moved with the 35th Special Service Company of VIII Corps back across the Meuse River to Mont Laurent, France. At this time our Clubmobile operations were restricted by VIII Corps as all roads were too full of military vehicles. |
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| January 7th, 1945 our entire Group F moved in convoy forward to Charleville, France. On the 9th, our crew, the ‘Cheyenne”, joined what was left of the 28th Infantry Division (They, too had been caught in the Bulge). The 23rd we all moved to Neufchateau, Belgium, and the 7th of February we moved back to Bastogne, Belgium. This time staying in old Belgium Barracks which had been badly hit and leaked rainwater. Thou chateau just outside of Bastogne where we were billeted before the Bulge, was completely demolished, as was the major part of the town. The mud was so deep that transportation was impossible, so crew and the “Miami” crew opened a Doughnut Dugout at VIII Corps Headquarters and served everyone who appeared. February 17th, we joined the 6th Armored Division for detached service. We moved with this division into Germany. Our first billet was very elegant in the fact that it was the only house in the town that still had running water, although little in the way of roof, windows, and of course no electricity. On March 15th we moved through the Siegfried Line fortification (the second time our crew had crossed it as we passed through it to join the 106th Infantry Division) to Adeneau, Germany, with VIII Corps. March 22nd, we joined the 28th Infantry Division again on detached service, which we left March 25th and went directly to the 76th Infantry Division.With this division we crossed the Moselle River then the Rhine River on the pontoon bridge, just south of Coblenz. April first, which was Easter Sunday, we were in Idstien, Germany. We went to breakfast that morning with an odd and very amusing assortment of the finest in Easter millinery that the barracks and our ingenuity could conjure. One hat was an inverted bread-basket with ribbon and glass cocktail picks, another a wicker letter basket, and another a kitchen sieve with ribbons and artificial flowers. It was fun making them and everyone loved the touch of Americanism that these ‘chapeaux’ created. |
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April 10th, 1945 we moved with Corps to Eisenach, and the following day to Ordruff, where we saw the first Nazi atrocity camp taken over by the Americans. The horrors that we saw there were almost unbelievable.
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On the 13th our crew joined the VIII Corps Engineers at Bad Berka. The 18th we moved to Zeulenroda. (Within ten miles of the Czechoslovakian border) The 21st of April we again joined the 6th Armored Division. On May 8th, GERMANY UNCONDITIONALLY SURRENDERED. Our only victory celebration consisted of removing the blackout curtains and looking at the vehicle headlights - a sight many of us had not seen in about two years.! May 16th, we moved back to Weimar, Germany, with 8th Corps Headquarters. The next day we visited Buchenwald Nazi Concentration Camp, about two miles from our headquarters. The 26th, VIII Corps held a magnificent Victory Ball at the Elephant House Hotel in Weimar, Germany. (Hitler had slept there).
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About this time our crew took leave - the first battle of the Bulge and flew to Cannes and had a marvelous rest and vacation at the famous French Riviera. We also visited Nice (the enlisted men’s rest center), Grasse, where much of the French perfume is manufactured, St. Paul, an old Roman walled town, Monte Carlo and drove along the coast into Italy. I obtained an extended leave from my superior in Paris, so had about three weeks rest and vacation at Cannes.
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| American Red Cross Clubmobile - Somewhere in Great Britian |
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When I returned to Weimar, I packed all my belongings and went to Paris to clear for the States. I was being sent home on a home-emergency leave due to the serious illness of my Father. While awaiting transportation back to the States, I operated a Clubmobile group at Mailly-le-Camp headquarters near Chalon (Marne) France. This camp was being used as a clearing area for the units returning to the States. I was billeted with a charming French family about two miles from the camp, and drove my jeep back and forth. The mother and father and two daughters (about my age) spoke some English, so we helped each other with our foreign languages. After six weeks here, I was called from Paris to finish clearing and proceed to Camp Phillip Morris (all the camps of embarkation carried the name of a famous brand cigarette) where I boarded the John Ericson (sister ship to the Gripsholm) and came back to the United States, arriving in New York City in mid-August, 1945. The next day I left by train for Chicago and home.
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As I have said before, this was one of the most worth-while and exciting jobs that I have ever had, and I loved every minute of it, because we were working with and for the greatest people in the world - the American G. I.
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Source: “The Cub of the Golden Lion” April-May-June 1994
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| By Jill PITTS KNAPPENBERGER |
Red Cross Clubmobile
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Campaigns
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Battle of the Bulge,
Belgium
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