Wounded Lions Claw Nazi Juggernaut
Feats of individual gallantry and courage against long odds were legion. Men alone and in little groups fought their way out of the surrounded units. For days, soldiers made their way back through enemy lines. Some fought with whatever outfits they found. During the early-hours of the Nazi assault, the 423-IR I&R Platoon, under 1/Lt Ivan H. Long, effectively held a road block. The Germans, learning at great cost that they could not smash through the block, went around. The platoon was faced with the alternative of surrendering or making a dash through enemy territory. The men were without overcoats or blankets. Among the 21 doughs were only four D-ration chocolate bars. They had little ammunition. But they fought their way through the snow and gnawing cold to rejoin the division with every man safe.
Cpl Willard Roper, led the group back as first scout. After 72 hours of clawing through enemy patrols, tank and machine gun positions, the exhausted and footsore men, some of whom had lost their helmets, could still grin and fight. One of the most noteworthy efforts at St Vith was the leadership of Col Thomas J. Riggs commanding the 81st Engineer Combat Battalion. Once a midshipman at the US Naval Academy, Col Riggs first won fame as an All-America fullback at the University of Illinois. On the morning of December 17, Col Riggs took over the defense of the town. He disposed his limited forces, consisting of part of his own battalion; the Defense Platoon, 106th Headquarters Co, and elements of the 168th Engineer Combat Battalion, and waited for the coming blow. The wait was short. Soon a battalion of German infantry attacked behind armored vehicles and tanks. Time after time more tanks and infantry tackled the engineer line, probing for a weak spot. During these attacks, Col Riggs was in the center of the defense, rallying his men and personally heading counter-thrusts to keep the enemy off balance. Col Riggs was captured while leading a patrol in the defense of St Vith. Marched across Germany, he escaped near the Polish Border and made his way back to the frontier.
Col Riggs was sheltered three days by civilians and then joined an advancing Red Army tank outfit. After fighting with it for several days, he was evacuated to Odessa (Ukraine) and from there was taken to Marseilles (France). He rejoined the 81st in the spring when it was stationed near Rennes (France).
Ruthless concentrations of German artillery, armor and infantry were thrown against the 81-ECB on the eastern approaches to St Vith. In the meantime, the Headquarters Defense Platoon was making a heroic stand in an attempt to protect the CP. Cpl Lawrence B. Rogers, and Pfc Floyd L. Black, both members of the platoon, along with two men whose identity never was learned, successfully held a vital road junction against three Mark V Panther tanks supported by infantry. With a machine gun, rocket launcher, two rifles and a carbine, the four-man volunteer rear-guard stopped the advancing force. They held the enemy at bay for two and a half hours, retreating only when their machine gun failed to function.
T/5 Edward S. Withee, 81-ECB, volunteered for what seemed to be a suicidal mission. His platoon was pinned down in a house near Schoenberg (Belgium) by four enemy tanks. All were doomed unless escape could be made while the enemy’s attention was diverted. Withee attacked the four tanks and the supporting infantry, armed only with a sub-machine gun. His platoon withdrew safely. When last seen, Withee was pouring fire into German infantry. He was listed as missing in action until April when he turned up in a PW camp. For this action, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. There was also the magnificent bluff of 220-pound Capt Lee Berwick, 424-IR. He talked 102 Germans and two officers into surrendering an almost impregnable position to a handful of men. He boldly strode to the very muzzle of enemy machine guns to warn of the ‘huge force’ supporting him and ordered the senior officer to surrender. It worked!
As the relentless drive of the Nazi juggernaut ground in on the surrounded units, many men and small groups made desperate attempts to cut their way out. A number were killed or captured, but a few made it. Two who succeeded were 1/Sgt Wallace G. Rifleman and Capt Edward H. Murray both of George Co 423-IR. With several others, the pair started for the American lines under cover of the night. There was a bridge over the Our River guarded by three Germans but they bypassed in an enemy motor pool and radar station. Another couple of German guards on a building were silenced in hand to hand combat. Two Germans who rose from foxholes to try to bar their way were also liquidated. Encounters with an enemy tank, a German artillery crew, and a close escape from a heavily armed combat patrol sent out to track them down rounded out the adventure. Sgt Rifleman won the Silver Star for gallantry in action in a subsequent battle.
Enemy artillery fire on the second day of the attack damaged a mortar base manned by Pfc Harry V. Arvannis of the 424-IR. He resumed fire, holding the tube between his legs and aiming by hand. After firing about 50 rounds, he saw a squad of Nazi infantrymen creeping toward his position. Training the mortar on them, he shot his last 30 rounds of ammunition, killing or disabling eight of his attackers. The other four rose to their feet and lunged at him in a bayonet charge. Arvannis and his assistant gunner emptied their service pistols, stopping three of the four. The fourth was upon them, bayonet gleaming. Pfc Arvannis threw his four pound revolver at the German, hitting him squarely in the forehead and knocking him down instantly.
Heroes Upset von Runbstedt Timetable
There are stories too, of units that fought and served in the face of overwhelming odds: the 106th Quartermaster Co, the 106th Military Police Platoon, even the 106th Signal Co, the Division Band and the 106th Medical Battalion. Each received the Meritorious Service Unit Plaque. Despite intense enemy artillery and small arms fire, the MP Platoon kept traffic flowing and performed other duties all during the German counter-offensive. At St Vith, when shelling by the enemy was at its heaviest, the men at the traffic posts were forced to take a prone position, but they stuck to their posts and directed traffic. During this critical period, over 700 POWs were handled by the platoon.
When St Vith finally fell to the enemy, all remaining PWs were marched to Vielsalm (Belgium) under cover of darkness. This operation was accomplished without the loss of a single prisoner. Members of the platoon conducted ammunition trains over routes which were under constant artillery fire. They helped stragglers to get back to their own units and into the fight. They reconnoitered roads, planned roadblocks, crippled an enemy tank, destroyed an enemy staff car with its officer occupants. The 106th Quartermaster Co, composed almost entirely of New England personnel, found itself partially surrounded at times, and had to depend on the ingenuity of its men to get the supplies through. On December 19, the ration shortage was becoming critical in Vielsalm due to the enemy advance and destruction of supply depots. Twelve QM trucks set out to find a depot still open. Rations and Gasoline were located at Dinant (Belgium). For security, the trucks made the 35-mile return trip in two serials. The first arrived in Vielsalm on December 20. The second ran into a furious tank battle near St Hubert (Belgium), detoured, avoided destruction and got through to Vielsalm with all supplies intact.
As the fury of the battle mounted, maintenance of communications became literally a matter of life or death. Skill and courage of signalmen of the 106th Signal Co kept, in the regiments, the vital communication lines open whenever it was humanly possible. Again and again through the whole division sector, trouble shooters made emergency repairs on lines severed by artillery fire. For signalmen, field splices under enemy small arms fire became almost commonplace.
New lines frequently were laid through territory teeming with enemy patrols. While the town of Schoenberg was under heavy bombardment by the Germans, four men of the signal unit stayed at their switchboard while the building in which they were located was blown down around them. A shell ripped off the rear of the structure. Another reduced the right side to rubble, and the roof collapsed as a third shell tore into the structure. Still the men stayed at their post. A fourth shell landed behind the switchboard, wounding two of the operators. They destroyed the board and withdrew only when ordered to leave by a superior officer, after German infantry had entered the town in strength as the barrage lifted. These men were T/5 Seymour H. Zorn; T/5 James R. Leonard and Pfc Donald A. Allen, and Pvt Archie L. King.
Medics of the 106-ID also distinguished themselves in the bloody Ardennes. One was T/5 Marshall W. Walker, who made repeated trips by jeep through German-held territory near Winterspelt (Germany) to evacuate 424-ID wounded. Capt Philip J. Antrim, 424-IR’s Battalion Surgeon, found that deep snow, rough terrain, roving enemy patrols and the number of casualties prevented litter bearers from bringing wounded to his aid station fast enough. He packed equipment on his back, went forward to treat men where they had fallen. Capt Antrim received the Bronze Star and was decorated for two other heroic deeds in the next five weeks. Men of the 331st Medical Regiment Detachment Battalion also followed the ‘Service Above Self’ motto. Collecting Companies (Able, Baker and Charlie), supporting the 422, 423 and 424-IRs, respectively treated and evacuated the wounded so efficiently that Clearing Company (Dog Co) had only six deaths among all the wounded treated during the Ardennes Campaign. Dog Co, functioned for three days and nights as a field hospital in the Vielsalm area, although completely surrounded.
Two other units of the division won praise for a difficult job well done, the 806th Ordnance Co which worked under trying conditions, and the 106-ID’s Band, which fought as infantry in the defense of St Vith. During the period of December 19 – December 21, the 112-IR (28-ID), the right (South) flank of the 106-ID, was cut off from its own division. This Regimental Combat Team had been attached to the 106-ID, and with the 424-IR, held against German attacks south of St Vith.
424-IR Lashes Back at Manhay
The fall of St Vith became inevitable late December 21. All units of the 106-ID and the 7-AD withdrew to form a perimeter defense west of the town and east of the Salm River in the vicinity of Vielsalm.
These positions were held against renewed attacks the next day. Orders were received on December 22 from Gen Matthew B. Ridgway’s XVIII Corps (Airborne) to withdraw farther for the west. The 82-A/B was moving into positions along the Salm River and a line running west from Salmchâteau. Elements of the 106-ID, the 7-AD (CCB) and the 9-AD (CCB) were to move back to the northwest through new lines formed by the paratroopers. Careful planning and leadership enabled the units to pull back under constant enemy infantry and tank attacks. The successful withdrawal across the two remaining routes over the Salm River was completed by night of December 23. It was at the start of the withdrawal across the Salm River that Gen Alan W. lones became a casualty and was evacuated to a hospital in Liège (Belgium). Gen Herbert T. Perrin (106-ID ADC), assumed command. That night and the next day, the weary battle-bruised survivors of the first week of the Ardennes Breakthrough took their first respite from battle. Without blankets, with barely enough rations, and unable to light fires for warmth, they dug in on a windswept hill in the vicinity of Werbomont (Belgium).
Sixteen hours later, on the coldest Christmas Eve in the memory of the Belgian Citizens, the 424-IR launched the first counter-attack of the Battle of the Bulge at Manhay (Belgium). This heavily fortified crossroads junction on the St Vith (East) – Houffalize (Southwest) and Liège (North) – Bastogne (South) Highway was the northern pivot point of the German penetration into Belgium. It was to be another bloody battleground for the remainders of the 106-ID. Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote Gen Perrin: The magnificent job you are doing is having a great beneficial effect on the situation. I am personally grateful to you and wish you would let all your personnel know that if they continue to carry out their mission with the splendid spirit they have so far shown, they will have deserved well of their country.
