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Emberménil du 14 au 22 octobre
1944
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Grumpy's Trials
or
With the I&R Platoon,
315th Infantry Regiment in WWII
John M. Sword
Sunflower University Press, 1988 |
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Chapter 11
Embermenil
Setting: By 9 October the British
Army had given up the drive east between the Maas and Rhine rivers
and reshuffled to finish clearing the enemy from west of the Meuse
River. The Canadian Army was fighting to finish off the enemy south
of the Scheldt Estuary. In the American First Army zone, priority
on supplies was given to the Aachen drive which started on 2 October.
Lack of supplies held the rest of the First Army in place. The
Third Army was in much the same shape and could only make minor
adjustments in its lines when supplies were available. In the 6th Army Group, the French First Army came abreast of the Vosges
Mountains adjacent to Switzerland at Belfort, while the American
Seventh Army strung out to the north with its line running near
Epinal north to the eastern edge of the Forêt de Parroy. On 14
October the 79th Division of the Seventh Army, XV Corps jumped-off
in an attack to gain a high ridge east of the Forêt de Parroy.
Hq & Co of the 315th Regiment had moved to a small village east of
Luneville. All personnel were quartered in buildings and had three
hot meals a day. Some miles farther east, the front line ran through
the Fort de Manonviller and the village of Embermenil. These two
places had been taken by the 314th and 313th respectively on 13
October. The 315th Regiment was in reserve, while its line companies
were relieved in the forest by the 106th Cavalry and inserted into
the line between the other two regiments.
14 October. The 313th and 314th Regiments jumped-off on an attack to
gain a high ridge two miles east of Embermenil. The 315th held in
place.
The I&R' s letter writing, cleaning of equipment, and loafing were
interrupted by orders to conduct a patrol. We jeeped to the jump-off
point, a concrete bunker built into the side of a hill probably part
of Fort de Manonviller. The CP in the bunker was consulted for
necessary cooperation. Strung out in the loose fashion of a foot
patrol, we moved up over the sharp rise the bunker was built into
and on out into a rolling, open land. Later, while working our way
down a gentle slope into the cover of a wide draw, we passed through
the front line. In single file we snaked our way in stop-and-go
fashion through the brush and trees toward a village. An artillery
barrage made us bug the earth - nobody - hurt probably interdictory
fire to deny use of that area. We halted for a last time, while Zim
and Gib eased through the brush to a road crossing the draw, and
observed the village not far beyond. Gib said a trip-wire attached
to a personnel mine was stretched along the brush in front of the
road.
As the patrol passed through the front line on its retum the enemy
shelled the area. Men ran toward a large, rectangular concrete
building. We made for it also. Two latecomers from the line company
were caught out in the open. They were 500 yards behind us when we
arrived at the shelter, and shells were dropping around them. Inside
the shelter we overheard that one had been hit, that the wounded one
was being helped in by his companion. Then, the door opened and one
breathless soldier stumbled inside. The wounded soldier, hit in the
leg, had been unable to go farther and demanded that his companion
go on. A pair of medics and a stretcher soon had the wounded man on
the way to the rear.
A village on the Division's southern flank was held by a few men of
the 2nd French Armored Division. The French were leery and had set
up for all-around defense which included mines. Shorty Kelso and one
jeep's crew were sent into the village to set up an OP. Sometime
later, Gib told us that Kelso had been badly hurt and was on his way
to the rear. Shorty had turned up an alley, while looking for an OP,
and had set off a personnel mine. Gegan (Grog) took over his squad.
Not long after Kelso's departure another reconnaissance was ordered.
The starting point was this same 2nd French Armored-held village.
The village was either under enemy observation or those French did
not believe in taking chances. To start this little jaunt we crawled
on our bellies for 50 yards following a French soldier guide. The
guide left after warning us to return in the same manner and by the
same route. From the rear of the village we swung back to the road
that passed through there. A bridge over a stream was checked, and a
halt called at a road junction on the far side. After a period of
observation on a village supposedly held by the enemy, artillery
fire was called for and a possible OP shelled. The Platoon returned
to the CP.
A two-story, stone house with full attic and basement stood as the
easternmost point of Embermenil. Half of the tile roof was gone. The
southeast corner of the attic had been sandbagged. This was the
315th Regimental OP. Stored hay, in the barn some yards to the south,
could be seen through what was left of the barn's roof. The church
which had been planned for use as the possible OP was no longer
there. The whole village was being shelled frequently.
The forward echelon of Hq & Co including the l&R had jeeped some
four miles north from the CP and then east a few miles. The road
passed through the soaked, rolling countryside over which the 313th
had fought. Shattered, lonely buildings, muddy tank and vehicle
tracks, and the litter of battle were passed along the road. No
civilian or soldier was seen after the convoy turned east. The road
bent slightly just before entering the village of Embermenil. From
the bend into the village the road must have been under enemy
observation. The jeeps were halted just short of the bend. We left
the road and walked in, using the houses for cover. The forward CP
was set up in a house on the west edge of the village while the l&R
hunted an OP.
19 October. The Division opened an all-out three regiment attack to
gain its objective, the high ridge two miles east of Embermenil.
21 October. Early in the morning, the Regiment jumped-off in a
continuation of the general attack. Grog and three other l&R men
went with Company ''A'' which was to move as swiftly as possible and
get on the ridge.
On the second floor of the OP building Moon and I rolled out when
the day began to break and started awakening the rest of the squad.
Crash!!! A shell exploded in the hallway. I peeked around the corner
into the main hallway to see a stone as big as a basketball laying
on my bed. The shell had hit the outside of the house close to the
south window. The floor of the closet under the attic stairs where
Moon had slept was scored in several places by shrapnel. A small
piece of stone or something had opened the skin in front of my ear.
No one else had been touched. Moon insisted I have the medics look
at the wound.
To my surprise, an aid-station was doing business in the OP's
basement. The room was crowded and busy. The civilian family of the
house were grouped over in one corner. The man had come up to the
attic at one time and, excitedly, tried to tell us to be careful of
some small round beans and peas he had spread out on the attic floor.
They had been already badly mixed and scattered by the falling roof
tile. A medic slapped a patch on me, and I left slightly embarrassed
for taking their time.
The OP was manned continuously, but little could be seen of the
attack, for between the ridge and the village lay rough ground
covered with patches of trees. Small arm firing to the south began
to grow heavier as the forenoon wore on. The barn blocked the view
in that direction. At last, fearing the enemy might be making a
successful counterattack toward the village, I ran to the barn in
between shellings.
The stored hay was high enough in the mow to stand on and observe to
the south. The roof was so shaky that it seemed another hit might
bring the whole thing down. A short mile to the south, the grassy,
undulated top of a hill stood above its rougher surroundings. It was
marked “Henry Hill” on the map. A few of our infantry appeared near
the top on the west side. German tracers streaked toward that area.
A few eruptions of black smoke and earth on the top of the hill
meant mortars. Movement on the eastern side of the hill pinpointed
some dug-in enemy whom our men could not see. The infantry seemed to
be shooting from the hip in a spraying fashion as they advanced.
Krautheads began to appear with their hands in the air. I returned
to the OP.
A shell hit the OP roof but failed to get anybody - a Iittle more
daylight, and the beans. or peas scattered farther.
Company "A'' had reached its objective in quick time and was digging
in according to report.
In the late afternoon, figures appeared on the high ridge directly
east of us. An enemy tank, firing wildly, burst out of a clump of
trees on the ridge and faced the OP. Then, it turned north and then
east seemingly surrounded by our infantry. A bazooka team fired
twice at it. Then, the tank disappeared over the ridge. There was no
doubt where the OP's early morning shell had come from.
22 October. Morning brought the news that "A'' Company had been
counterattacked during the night with tank and infantry. They had
lost some of the high ground but regained it in an early morning
daylight attack.
Zim, Gib, Moon, myself, and two others from my squad went forward to
locate Grog 's group and relieve them at an OP they had set up.
Somehow, they had survived the enemy night attack. Telephone wire
was laid on the way forward. We walked through an antitank mine
field in which the engineers were preparing to blow a gap, passed a
knocked-out Sherman tank on an open, grassy rise, and passed a dead
doughboy and some fresh shell craters as we took to a brushy tree-filled
draw. From the draw, we moved up the west side of the ridge crossing
an open field rising into the woods. A World War I trench led us to
the ridge top. An entrance in the trench led down to a WWI shelter
that was in use as a CP. The trench petered out, and we hurried
across open ground to another WWI trench running in snaky fashion
along the ridge top north and south. This was the front line. The
infantry had dug foxholes in the trench as further protection.
Grog's group returned to the CP with Zim and Gib.
We set up the German artillery scope, but the brush in front of the
trench limited the view. A barrage of shell whistled shrapnel around,
and it became urgent to find 44th Division started taking over from
the 79th, unit by unit. We went back to Embermenil and from there to
the rear for a rest period.
Captain Patch was killed. When we first had arrived on the ridge we
saw him and exchanged greetings. Tall, slim, and whitefaced from a
recent bout in the hospital (wounded in action), he looked tired
and a bit on the ragged edge. Half an hour later he was dead -
shrapnel. He had been the commanding officer of our Headquarters
Company at one time, and l liked and respected him more than any
other officer I was acquainted with. He had a wife and kid. His old
man was head of the Seventh Army.
From 25 October to 10 November l 944, the Division rested in the
vicinity of Luneville. The 315th Regiment was at Bayon. It was late
autumn, though it seemed like midsummer. The first two or three days
we rested, ate good, and cleaned equipment. Also, the I&R collected
ail the large denomination French bills from the stolen German
payroll and put them in safekeeping (buried near a large tree I was
told). There were rumors that a checkup was being made. I lost about
80 dollars on the deal because I changed some of the guys' larger
bills. It was worth it though. I did not feel like becoming part of
a court-martial. About the middle of the first week, training
started night and day patrolling. map reading, radio and wire
communications, shooting mortar flares, firing the .50 caliber
machine gun in a stone quarry, and breaking in the few new platoon
members. |
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