This story is a continuation of William Gieske’s WWII memories as a soldier.
Falaise Gap. We were set on a sloping field about two hundred miles from the road. When the Gap was closed we saw truck loads of prisoners being hauled out. I remember the funeral services for Sgt. Roy. We went over to Headquarters battery. The service was like one that would take place at home except it was held outdoors in a small clearing in the forest. It struck me as being ironic that we could hold a service like this after all the dead we had seen before this who were disposed of like so much garbage.
One place we stayed several days was only a few miles from Paris, but we never got there. We were not aware of the big shindigs going on as we made a hero of Charles DeGaule, what a farce. Many of our men left to form the Red Ball express, needed because we were advancing faster than normal means could handle. General Patton was racing through the lower end and we were moving along in the Northern Area. We had a greater concentration of Germans to take care of and were further handicapped by the British who were on our Northern Flank. We entered Belgium with a big welcome by the people. I was driving the second jeep in our column and it was slow moving with the flowers and the kisses and the handshakes. We stopped for the night off the road in a small grove of trees.
One of the trucks was missing, so two jeeps were sent out looking for them. I drove with Lt. Sherman and Bill Merethew, our record keeper in the control center. We had to go back near the border to find them, they said they broke down but the truck ran all right when they came out of the house they were in.
We returned and were surprised by some of our men marching prisoners down the road. When we pulled in to the area we were told of the mornings events. I wanted to see the action so I and some one else slowly made our way through the rather dense trees toward the field on the other side. About half way in, there was a burst of fire off to our side and shortly after more shots closer to us. After a halt, we proceeded slowly and came upon two of our men who had just shot a German who had been laying in wait but they had seen him first. While we were there, another of our men came to us and told us he was with Rouse when they were shot at and he could not locate Rouse, I think he was too scared to search by himself and came for help which was a smart move.
We went up where he had last seen Rouse and started our search, very carefully going through the woods. It wasn’t long before he was found, shot about twenty times in the chest, we carried him back to our unit so he would be taken to Graves registration rather than be left there in the woods. I went back and crossed the woods again and again but we saw no more Germans. There were several Belgium civilians in the field who had armed themselves with discarded German weapons, we felt they were more dangerous than the Germans. During the night there was a big commotion near one of the gun batteries, numerous shots were fired.
Early in the morning some one in the woods called out, he was told to come out and show himself. It turned out to be a German Major, the big prize was the Lugar he carried. I learned later it was taken by our Captain making the Sgt. rather angry.
September 16
I remember crossing the Siegfried line with its dragon teeth. We had seen pictures of this defensive system for years and now we saw it first hand. With the return of our men from the Red Ball Express we are now back in business. I don’t remember details of all the areas we were in when we arrived in Germany. I recall one position shortly after we were in on the outskirts of Aachen. We had an antiaircraft unit of two half-tracks with us. One vehicle had quad fifties in a cockpit like arrangement and the other was a thirty seven mm with a pair of fifties. They did their own cooking as they were always on their own. One of them butchered a heifer, and we in our ignorance took the round steak instead of the better fillets. We told the Germans it was wounded by shrapnel and we put it down. I went to the mess truck that night with a large steak overhanging my kit. What a shock to find out we were to have steak that night, the first we ever had over here.
I remember moving to Aachen very well. We were near Service Battery in a residential part of the town. Most of the houses were very nice and not damaged too much. Our guns were set up in what were gardens the Germans had and we were in a house across the street with our fire control group. Service Battery had a large generator and they tapped it into the main electric lines so we could have electric lights.
One of the men asked me to run a line for him over to the gun position. I had a reel of the lighter wire we used and since he only wanted one light I ran that over. When I started I tapped it into an outside light but only tapped one side in case the generator was started. When I got to the end of the wire I went to cut it off the reel, that’s when I found out it was hot. I cut into the wire and since I had wet feet and muddy boots I made a good path to ground. I hollered for him to get a stick and knock me free as I was froze to the wire, it was as close as I ever wanted to get to death.
Aachen was an inviting place to explore when we were off. One day after looking around I found a doorway sticking up in what was a barren area where a large building had stood. I went down and found a series of rooms which had been used as a hospital. I was ready to leave when I found another passage which led to a room with a big Diesel Generator. I knew we could use this so I reported it and we had our mechanic who knew nothing of diesel come to start it. After several hours, they finally primed it with gas and it ran great. The army would not let us have it but in exchange for removing it with our heavy wrecker, they gave us a generator with no engine. We got a motor from a wrecked jeep and Heinz turned a coupling for it with some primitive lathe they found. This jury rig was used for quite a while.
I remember that when we moved out of Aachen and back to our old area we were shocked at the increased number of units that had moved in. It was raining and muddy a good bit of the time and the streets and roads were rivers of mud. One night we were standing around listening to Bed Check Charlie which was what the evening plane of the Germans was called. We heard three pops not very loud, this was followed by a sound like a lot of rain. We all hit our foxholes in a hurry. It sounded like several strings of firecrackers going off very close by. We found out that there was an ordinance outfit near us in tents with lights on. They made a good target for the anti personnel bombs the Germans dropped. I think about thirty or more were wounded or killed that night. This was also the area where we saw our first V1 planes. These were flying bombs the Germans used, propelled by a pulse jet engine. They shook everything as they flew over. They never flew very high and were easy to shoot down, but exploded when they hit so sometimes it was as good to let them crash on their own. Our ack-ack was dispatched to shoot them before they got over Liege.
It was in this position where a P51 dropped his bomb on the way home, it hit right in front of a foxhole that an ack-ack crew had dug. It was very visible as it fell so they had time to jump in. The longer you are in an area the more you dig, sometimes for want of something to do rather than for safety. No one believed they could survive this but when they were dug out they were fine. Of course it strengthened the already warm feelings we had for the airforce. We fired our 50,000 round on Thanksgiving day. It was sunny and rather nice to be with friends celebrating our holiday together. We all had feelings that now we were in Germany the end was in sight, no one dreamed of what was to come.
I remember another position, the one we were in before we left for the Battle of the Bulge, as it was called. It was muddy and I had found an old pair of goulashes which kept my feet dry. Our gun positions were so muddy we moved into an old house on the outskirts of the muddy field. Near this house was a wrecked trolley car with the sign reading Aachen. We fired mostly at night. During the day I rambled around a large hill near us, I found a lot of ammunition from a heavy machine gun and stripped the belts and loaded my M1 clips. I shot into a quarry on top of the hill and became very good with this rifle. We received word that paratroopers were in the area and several personnel mines were found. When we received word of the counter attack, it was not believed. Knowing of the progress we were making no one could believe a beaten German army was making the kind of advances that they were making. Everyone is on the alert not knowing what to expect.
December 21st
We received orders to saddle up in the morning. We were all ready to go when it was usual Army, hurry up and wait. I remember we were clowning around in the old farmhouse when someone wanted to see if the piano would fit in the cellar steps, it didn’t go down so we left it stuck half way down. Sometime in the afternoon we started to move, It was cold so instead of riding in the open truck I connived a ride in the mess truck. The stoves which were started later to make coffee made the truck warm but the fumes almost killed us.
We rolled through Liege with only blackout lights on while there were vehicles running with full lights on. Later we found out that Germans posing as MPs were splitting up convoys. A V1 bomb landed about a block from us as we went through town. A long ride later we pulled up late at night and waited for our forward party. The mess truck served coffee and every one slept, or gathered around to talk. We were near a bridge over a small stream which was tended by several Engineers who had mined the bridge and would blow it if the Germans came.
Our forward party located us late in the morning and we went into a defensive position overnight along a stream. Several of us were playing poker in the kitchen of a farm house when a Lt. and a Sgt. from some infantry outfit came in. The Lt. went to confer with our officers and the Sgt. waited with us, we tried to engage him in conversation but he was so petrified he could not talk, it was his first combat assignment. They went in position at the top of the hill putting us between them and the enemy, fortunately, we got out of there in the morning.
We went into firing positions on the outskirts of Marche in a large field behind a rather modern brick house with a large double garage on the lower level. The garage became the mess hall and the house was a catchall, rest area and sleeping area for off duty men. It had tile floors all over on the first floor, and I remember spending several nights sleeping in the house. We had the duty spit up so we all got some time off. These were very stressful times and we had special guards out always. The outfits along side of us got shelled so bad two of them got out. It was as though they were under direct observation.
December 24th
Lt. Pritchard and Henry Isaac got hit while observing outside Marche, Heinz dragged them to a safer spot until the medics took over. Henry never rejoined us after that but Lt. Pritchard soon returned. The Germans are making strong attacks but are running into the best forces of the First Army not the untested outfits they had walked through earlier.
The airborne was holding at Bastogne and more experienced troops were pouring into action. All night we manned roadblocks and any one going through had to be very quick with answers. We soon got to know some of the jeep shuttles going back and forth so we were kept up to date on the latest from the front. We were stopping the main thrust of the breakthrough so the enemy was giving his all. Most of the units near us had left and we got so many conflicting orders that Dede sent out the message to beware of submarines coming up the creek.
We were setting along side a nice highway so if the tanks had broken through we would of set up in defensive position and fought it out as they had to be stopped. We stayed here until early January when we found out we were being replaced by the British. I was up in the house playing poker when the first elements of the British arrived, an officer and a noncom. The officer went to see our Captain and the noncom brought in a British mess kit or whatever. The first thing he wanted to know was where the officers mess was, not getting an answer he tried to locate the noncom mess. The Brits are great on formality and we were not. Most of the time the officers ate with the men in the field and I am sure any noncom wanting a mess for himself would of got something.
A day or two later they came in so we moved our guns out of there place so they could take over. What a bunch of B.S. experts. This is not to say they did not do a great job for years in holding back the Germans but I think the best were gone by this time and the rest did not impress us. One thing that surprised us was a whole truck devoted to sports, uniforms and all. This is not to say we had nothing, but ours was a sideline not the main event.
Before the British came in we spent Christmas here, a sober yet somewhat happy occasion. We were fed well as we had great cooks and a good mess Sgt. They always put out great grub and, although we did go on ten in ones and C rations at times, it was because of conditions not because of the mess unit. C rations during cold weather always seemed to consist of Eggs and Spam and always lemonade. Ten in ones were great and came with some neat stuff like a little gas stove, handy can openers and great chocolate bars made to carry a person several days as emergency rations.
The Brits came in and took over and we moved off to seek more of the enemy who was now being driven back. By now we had snow on the ground and the further in the hills we went the deeper it got. We spent one night in a location were a barn had burnt down leaving only the lower floor. We slept in there on scorched beets that were raised to feed the cattle, they smelled burnt but we slept well any way. When we pulled out one of the tracks with a gun went off the road and we were delayed several hours until he could get up on the roadway again. This was only done when the fifth section track went in and they pulled tandem style. It pointed out the need for snow cleats as we were on road tracks which are smooth.
One place we had a tent up in the field and took turns sleeping in a little house with the Belgium family. This consisted of the grandfather, the wife and the man who was a shoemaker. They had one child and the house was only about twelve by fourteen in size, so it was crowded with them and jammed with us. The old man took a shock of wheat and spread the straw at night and picked it up in the morning. About six of us slept downstairs and four upstairs.
The Lt. and I went looking for stove pipe for our homemade stove, we drove over to some town about fifteen miles away. As we were returning we came up to the old man and a friend walking along the road. We found out he was the official grave digger, even had a hat with a skull above the visor as his badge of office. He had walked over ten miles to dig a grave and was on the way back. The weather was very cold and the ground was snow covered, we brought him back with us.
By now everyone knew about the butchery at Malmedy, the Germans made a big mistake here. All Americans would never surrender after this, and God help the Germans who would show any resistance. I remember Cp. Kida being killed, the shell blew up in the barrel one night while they were doing interdiction. His head was blown off and the other two were hit by the breech flying into their tent. We were in one location where the Germans had backed a Tiger Tank into the barn. It sat there in full splendor but other than looking into the interior no one climbed down, the Germans were too good at booby traps.
To be Continued.
Published U.S. Legacies November 2005
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