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From D-Day to V-Day

December 1944

December 9, 1944 - D-Day + 186

On December 9, 1944, the 75th Infantry Division was assigned to the US Ninth Army and, two days later, was reassigned to the XVI Corps. The XIX Corps’ 30th Infantry Division received an order to secure its area between the Inde and Rur Rivers.

The US First Army halted its attack operations in order to improve and secure its defense positions.

Commanded by Col Oscar Koch, the intelligence department of Patton’s Third Army warned the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) of a potential German offensive in the Ardennes. The report was ignored and this proved to be a fateful mistake – just ten days later, the dismissed threat became a horrible reality. The XX Corps’ 90th Infantry Division dedicated all of its energy to expanding and securing the bridgehead. With support from heavy 240 mm howitzers, the division’s 359th Infantry Regiment started to conquer the fortified posts in the sector between the 357th and 358th Infantry Regiments. Parts of the 358th Infantry Regiment supported the 357th Regiment, which was holding the northern flank of the bridgehead and was targeted by enemy counterattacks. These events weakened both sides of the front, and supplies for American units later reached critical levels.

Additional units from the 358th Infantry Regiment slowly advanced along the railroad tracks in Dillingen and were able to seize several German 75 mm cannons. The Americans then used the cannons to fire at houses being used for enemy resistance. That night, tanks and other heavy machinery started to be transported over the river using barges, but supplies and reinforcements for the 359th and 357th Infantry Regiments relied on using attack boats and passenger and cargo planes. The 95th Infantry Division continued in its fruitless effort to expand the bridgehead in Saarlautern. The 607th Tank Destroyer and the 778th Tank Battalions were deployed to support the division’s units. The quickly rising Saar River also exacerbated problems with supplies. With the relocation of the 6th Cavalry Group (Mechanized) to the Corps’ southern flank, the 5th Infantry Division’s 10th Infantry Regiment was relieved, allowing the division to concentrate on preparing its attack against the Siegfried Line.

The XII Corps’ 35th Infantry Division continued to cross the river under enemy fire. At midnight, soldiers from the 150th Combat Engineer Battalion under Lt Col Bruce W. Reagan finished two class 40 Bailey bridges. The 1st Battalion from the division’s 137th Infantry Regiment was deployed to Sarreguemines to mop up the western sector of the town as fire from the sector was preventing the 134th Infantry Regiment from advancing forward.

Assault battalions from the 26th Infantry Division’s 328th Infantry Regiment finished occupying Fort Wittring before sunrise, and after dawn they discovered that the enemy had deserted the second fort, Fort Grand Bois. The 104th Infantry Regiment doggedly advanced towards Gros Réterching. The III Corps’ 87th Infantry Division was assigned to the XII Corps in exchange for the 26th Infantry Division. The 87th Infantry Division arrived in France just days earlier, on December 5, 1944, and was composed of three infantry regiments (345th, 346th and 347th), four artillery battalions equipped with 105 and 155 mm cannons, and several other units. By December 19, the division was caught up in fighting in the Ardennes. From December 1944 all the way through to May 1945, the division suffered through numerous battles in Luxembourg and especially in Germany. Although it was on the front for a relatively brief period of time compared to other units, the division lost 1,295 men in action and another 4,342 were injured. From its arrival on the front all the way up to the end of the war in Europe, the Golden Acorn Division was led by Major General F. L. Culin. Advancing to the northeast on the XV Corps’ left flank, the 12th Armored Division’s Combat Command A occupied Singling. The 44th Infantry Division conquered Enchenberg while units from the 100th Infantry Division occupied Lemberg. The VI Corps’ 45th Infantry Division mopped up Niederborn, and units from the 79th Infantry Division broke through Bischviller and advanced to the edge of Haguenau.

During mopping up operations in Mittelwihr, the French First Army’s II Corps became engaged in heavy fighting. The French I Corps’ 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division continued to mop up Thann while the French 4th Mountain Division encountered fierce enemy defenses in Lutterbach.

The members of the Czechoslovak Independent Armoured Brigade took advantage of the relative quiet at Dunkirk that day to augment their machinery. That day the 1st Tank Battalion received another six American M5A1 Stuart light tanks, designated as Stuart Mk VI tanks in British tank units. This was a 15-ton tank that served in the tank brigade’s reconnaissance platoons and in the motorized battalion of the Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade Group. A 37 mm cannon was installed in the turret of the four-man tank. After the fighting ended in Europe, General Liška’s men brought the tank with them to Czechoslovakia. The tank was nothing new for the local population, however, as American armored units in southwestern Bohemia in 1945 were heavily equipped with Stuart tanks.

In the skies over the former Czechoslovakia – split by the Nazi dictatorship into the Sudetenland, which was integrated into the German Reich from 1938-1945, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – yet another of a series of catastrophes took place involving young American pilots. That day the US Fifteenth Air Force headed out against the Bavarian city of Regensburg and the refinery in the northern Bohemian town of Záluží. Because part of the formation could not precisely identify the Bavarian target, the crews flew to the alternate bombing site – Pilsen. There was no damage to the city, but the anti-aircraft artillery located in the area seriously damaged the aircraft flown by 1/Lt Woodruff J. Warren from the 20th Bombardment Group’s 20th Bombardment Squadron under the 5th Bombardment Wing. Before the destroyed Fortress made an emergency belly landing near the Czech-Austrian border town of Dolní Dvořiště, at the time a part of the Sudetenland, five pilots parachuted out of the aircraft. After landing on the ground, one of them, 2/Lt William Jolly, was shot by a local Nazi. The other five men remained on board the B-17G Boeing until it landed on a snow-covered field and were apprehended by members of the Wehrmacht. Although they were POWs, all five Americans were murdered by a German gendarmerie official and a regional Nazi Party leader. After the war, the Americans sent one of the self-appointed executioners to the gallows; the other opted to commit suicide before the American soldiers came for him. The war was filled with injustice and inhumanity. The Americans would again experience the horrors of war firsthand a few days later, at the intersection near Baugnez, Belgium.