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Defense of Spa Gas Dump
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| Interviewer: T/3 Linndl Jones |
| 4th Information & History |
| Date: January 12, 1945 |
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| On Monday, December 18 1944, Headquarters Company, US Armored Group, received orders from Lieutenant Colonel Lowell S. Love, Armored Section, First US Army, to take up defensive positions south of the gas dump in the vicinity of Spa and provide a radio security net for First Army. The company had never been in action. |
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| Initially three company officers were in charge: Captain Olaf W. Christolpherson, Commanding Officer; 1st Lieutenant Walter R Butts, radio net officer, and 2nd Lieutenant Donald Miles, in charge of the assault guns. Equipment consisted of five half-tracks and three assault guns. The half-tracks had their regular crews, each consisting of a driver, an assistant driver and three radio men. |
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| Initial reconnaissance of four proposed positions was carried out by the three officers in the morning, and it was evident that additional Officers were needed. Captain Christopherson and Lieutenant Butts returned to Spa and First Army assigned two additional officers, Captain John L. Fellows and Captain James W. Gooley. |
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| The men had moved to their positions about 1000 hours. The officers returned to the positions at 1530 hours. |
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| Positions of the four road blocks follow: |
| 1. North of Francorchamps at road junction 735087. Its defenses included three assault guns and one half-track. Lieutenant Miles was in charge of this block. |
| 2. Near Baronheid at the road junction 745104. This block was defended by a single half-track. Captain John L. Fellow was in charge. |
| 3. At road junction 679071. one half-track. Lieutenant Butts was in charge. This was the block at which the action to be described took place. |
| 4. On a hill above Stoumont and just to the south of Moutoûyet. Captain Gooley was in charge and had one1 half-track. One radio was at Spa to act as net control. |
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| Before the Officers returned from Spa at 1500 hours, the men at road block three saw three P-47’s fly over the valley to the south, and then saw the German anti-aircraft in the valley open up on the planes, knocking down two of them. This was in the vicinity of Moulin du Ruy. This was the first indication that the enemy was in the vicinity. Lieutenant Butts and the other officers believed that the enemy was a considerable distance away, and that the blocks were simply security measures against individual enemy troops who might infiltrate behind the lines. |
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| The enemy, however, was coming up the valley in force, apparently searching for a weak point. Apparently he had no knowledge of the existence of the gas dump in the Spa area, because he never made a serious attempt to break through there. One column was sent against Lieutenant Butts’ position and was driven away. Later, another column was sent against Captain Gooley’s position. The fight here was a much larger action, and again was driven back. |
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| The significance of the small action fought by Lieutenant Butts’ little group, however, rested in what might have happened rather than in what actually did happen. |
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| Lieutenant Butts’ road block was located on the southern edge of what is said to have been the largest gasoline dump on the continent. At least 4.000.000 gallons of gasoline were stored there, and the southernmost stacks were actually south of the road block. And for a short period, 1000 hours Monday December 18 to 1600 hours. Tuesday, December 19, the men on this block were the dump’s only defenders. The ten-minute action fight by the men may have saved millions of gallons of gasoline. |
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| At the end of the period, the 30th Infantry Division came in with tanks, and reinforcements continued to arrive until a division was in position between the dump and the enemy. From Monday through Thursday, truckers hauled the gas back to a safer place, working 24 hours a day. |
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| At 1500 hours Monday, Lieutenant Butts returned to the road block, and the position of the track was changed. There was no immediate evidence of the enemy in the vicinity. |
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| That night about 2030 hours, the men began hearing tank engines turning over in the valley, and an immediate attempt was made to obtain reinforcements. At 2100 hours, a gasoline company which was working in the dump sent out 16 men in a 2½ ton truck to help outpost. Patrols were sent out, and the roads were out posted. It was very foggy and there was practically no visibility. |
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| About midnight, Colonel Love came to the road block and Lieutenant Butts asked for additional support. About 0400 hours the 110th AAA Battalion sent in two 90mm guns and four multiple 50mm AA guns. Captain Julius Reiver, CO of Battery "D" was in charge of the detachment, but left the defense of the crossroads to Lieutenant Butts while he took charge of the gun themselves. |
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| The guns were set up in the following manner: |
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| Note by e-mail from Mike Marine dated 29 December 2019: |
| "In his haste to get his 90mm guns in position to defend the gas dump, Captain REIVER had two of them slip off the narrow road into a ditch. In order to retrieve the guns, REIVER and his men used winches mounted on the front of the prime movers (used to tow the 90s) for several hours. The Germans heard the prime movers' engines revving again and again to gain power to pull the heavy guns back on the road. They thought a U.S. armored division was moving into position to defend the gas dump! " |
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| Lieutenant Butts says, “It was simply a case of sweating out the night. We couldn’t see anything, but we could hear the tanks every now and then. We just waited for something to happen and thank God, nothing did.” |
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| About 1030 hours Tuesday morning, 19 December, Colonel Love returned. One of his reconnaissance men had reported a tank to the south of the roadblock. Lieutenant Butts and a patrol went down the road toward Cour to a hill overlooking Borgoumont. They saw an enemy tank (type unknown, probably a Panther) just outside of the town. The crew members were out of the tank and were working on it. T hey wore blue uniforms and leggings. They apparently had no security and no fear of any enemy in the vicinity. |
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| The patrol returned at 1130 hours, and Lieutenant Butts sent out foot patrols to cover southeast to southwest. One patrol set off to the southeast just before noon. The other was ready to set out at noon. |
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| It was at noon that the detachment’s only action took place. |
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| A German column came up the road from the west. It consisted of two armored cars, two trucks and two self-propelled 88′s (with prime movers), and according to the towns people, a tank. The tank was in the rear of the column and was not seen by any men in the detachment. |
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| The men had orders not to fire on any enemy column until it actually got into the minefield, but Lieutenant Butts believes the minefield was placed a bit too far to the west. The road curved and the idea was to place the field so that enemy vehicles would hit it before they could stop. As it was, the enemy saw the mines too quickly and the column halted just around the bend and beyond the line of fire or the 90 mm guns at the crossroads. |
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| Two men got out of the leading German armored car and went up to the minefield. A member of the 110th who also manning the multiple cal .50 furthest south, could see them through a clearing and had the best line of fire. Although he had been ordered not to fire until order was given or until the column was within range of the 90mm, he opened up on the men. The column immediately returned the fire and killed the gunner. |
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| That was the signal for everything to open up. The other multiple Cal .50′s sprayed the column, making a terrific racket. The men let go with small arms. The two ground-mount Cal .50′s joined in. |
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| “Jerry must have thought he hit a regiment,” Lieutenant Butts said. “I don’t know how much damage we did, we made a hell of a lot of noise. After ten minutes, the column pulled out. We just let it go. We didn’t have anything to follow up with, and there was nothing to do but sit there.” |
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| Source: document N.A.R.A. & updated by Mike Marine the 29 December 2019 |
