MEMORIES WINTER 44-45 PART2/3

This was to be our first combat experience. In the morning, according to protocol, we set up our aid station within a litter carry distance of the front. We were in a little clearing in the woods. We were soon collecting casualties, and we found it impossible to work in the cold. Our plasma was freezing. At first we tried immersed the bags in heated water, but as we administered the plasma, it would still congeal in the tubing.

So much for Carlisle’s training. We decided to move back to the farmhouse, which was about a mile from the battlefield, and use our jeeps to run as near as possible to the front line to pick up casualties. Our litter bearers and aid men now had only a short carry before their burden would be picked up. The wounded now were being treated quicker and better.

The initial action took place in a snow storm on a ridge later named“Dead Man’s Ridge”.Repeated German counter attacks by several Panzer Divisions including Tiger Tanks inflicted heavy casualties of at least 10%..The 550 Infantry Airborne Battalion which was attached to the 17^th was nearly destroyed that day. The battle there lasted about three days. Units involved included the 550.507,513,(all parachute regiments) and the 194 and 193 glider regiments. After the Bulge the 550 and the 193 were so depleted that they became the nucleus for a 3^rd battalion of the 194^th.

Our medics’ performance under fire was extra-ordinary. Several were awarded a bronze star, and one the Silver Star for their action that day. During the German’s counter attack an aid station of the 193^rd Glider Infantry Regiment was overrun. We fortunately did not lose any of our litter bearers.

We were fortunate to have the common sense intelligence to use the burned out farmhouse as our aid station. The road was the subject to periodic 88 mm. German artillery shelling. Our location protected us from anything except a high trajectory shell such as from a mortar. I am sure the thick concrete ceiling that separated the barn area from the ruins of the first floor of the house would have withstood such shells. By Jan. 7^th, our troops had advanced far enough that we had to move. We never set up an aid station in the open after that first experience.

One day the 9th air force flew over to bomb the Germans. Several bombs landed on a hill not a far distance to our rear. Fortunately, this time no Americans were injured by friendly fire.

The German counter attacks failed, and four days later they began to retreat. We began to move, often cross country, in the hip deep snow. We were now the left flank of the 3rd Army and where wheeling north-east to come in contact with the forces under Montgomery coming from the north. Our Division liberated many small towns including Flamierge, Flamizoule, Bertogne, and. Houffalize. I also think Saint Hubert which was on the armies' borders. For logistical purposes during the later part of the Ardennes campaign, the 193^rd, was attached to the 101 Div on our right.

The Airborne divisions were not equipped with any armored vehicles or even heavy guns other than the 75 mm sawed off or pack canon. Rocket launchers were just beginning to be supplied to us. We were happy to have attached to us the separate 761st tank battalion, a now famous black Afro-American unit. They were crazy men who would run their tanks full blast down icy hilly village streets and lock the tread on one side to make a 90 degree turn at a corner. Often they had to bounce off a building to make the turn. They were replaced by Co.C 15^th Tk Bn (6^th Armd.Div).

As we advanced against the Germans we saw great numbers of vehicles and artillery that had been abandoned during the retreat from the initial German attack. Both the 106^th and 28^th (the Pennsylvania National Guard) divisions had officers with us, reclaiming their abandoned property. At one point our regimental colonel appropriated an abandoned armored vehicle. He proudly led the column in it until a land mine blew off a tread. During that time, he had the entire regiment in column following his command vehicle along ridge lines in the deep snow. Often the column would stop. One time Father Combs a priest from the tri-cities area of New York said to me “What is that damn fool doing? Trying to get us killed?”

We also had a Southern Baptist minister assigned to our regiment. He traveled everywhere in his Jeep with his driver who could play his folding organ. During combat without any regard for his own safety he was fearlessly out among the fighting troops comforting the wounded. A man to be admired for his dedication to his mission in life.

For a short period, there was a French Parachute Battalion, former resistance fighters, in the Ardennes, with us. We did not like them because they were not sociable and gave us the impression that they were doing us a favor. Also their attitude implied resentment of the Americans and a denial of our aid. This probably was inborn since in France ruins from WW I were still standing.

Once I was ordered to set up an aid station in a small town (I don’t remember the name) which I was assured had been secured. Therefore, I moved in with one jeep and a few aid men into a house along the main street. About an hour later we noticed the point of A company coming down the street. Apparently, we had been the first Americans into the town. Another time; for several days we had been driving up and down a well traveled snow covered road before a jeep triggered a buried unexploded mine. Another of my nine lives must have been expended.

The snow was knee deep and the cold so severe during the Bulge that many of the troops suffered from frostbite. It was so cold that we, like the Germans before us, used every building that we could find as shelters and the rooms for latrines. No one wanted to be caught dead by a sniper with their pants down.

The American troops in Europe had not been issued adequate winter equipment, especially snow boots and gloves. Their availability would have prevented the massive amounts of frostbite that we encountered. Indeed we did not get “Artic gear” until we were at the end of the Ardennes campaign. We were finally also issued gloves and scarves knitted by American Red Cross volunteers. I had a scarf that must have been knitted by an enthusiastic volunteer who was so engrossed in her work that she did not know when to stop. I could wrap it around my neck twice and both ends still reached my boots.

Since the manpower in the trenches was being drastically depleted, we were finally ordered not to send anybody to the rear who could still function despite potential loss of frost bitten fingers or toes. To this day I am bothered by a large toe that suffered mild frost bite encountered during that period.

Our rations were cans of C rations, similar to todays canned Chef Boyardee or Campbell Beans or Meat Stew. Most of the time we ate C rations cold not heated. Very often we ate the K rations. The latter were in small cans and looked like today’s meat pate or cat food. Some of our favorites were the chopped egg and the devilled ham. K rations did not have the laxative effect of the C ration. The other packaged ration, for emergencies use, was D rations, a very highly concentrated chocolate bar that caused diarrhea if too much was eaten. When we received a hot meal it came up from the rear to each company or platoon after dark. Of course it was served in the dark. By this time most of us had lost at least half of our mess kits and some utensils. The spoon was the most important one not to lose. I can’t recall many intact kits in our outfit by the end of the campaign. It was not unusual to have mashed potatoes, stew, or gravy and chocolate pudding in one mass. Truly the term mess kit was appropriate

Our helmets doubled as wash basins when we had the opportunity to wash or shave. Despite, the Geneva Convention rules, we quickly covered over the large red crosses painted on our helmets. They made too good an aiming target. Front line officers also hid their rank insignia.

One night the troops in the front lines reported cries from a wounded soldier down between the lines. Our litter carriers volunteered to go out in the dark of the night to find and bring him in, even though they could be under fire.

When he arrived at the aid station on a stretcher he had severe shrapnel wounds to the right leg and the buttocks. We could not immobilize the leg with a Thomas (metal) splint due to his hip wounds. The buttocks and back wounds prevented us from transferring him on his back. After dressing the wounds, I elected to use the “well leg splint” method, i.e. firmly binding the injured leg to the other leg with bandages and tape. He was then transported face down on the stretcher by our jeep to the collecting company. He had been given additional morphine for his pain.

According to regulations, he was transferred with the all proper information tags firmly attached to him. These tags were initiated as soon as the patient was triaged. The tag had all known vital information, including a description of injuries and treatment, and were signed by an officer before the patient left the station.

Several weeks later I received an inquiry from division medical command regarding a complaint from the Inspector General’s office. Apparently, this man had arrived at the field hospital in critical condition with out any splint or immobilization. The only tag with information on him was the one I had initiated. He had gone from us to a collecting company then by ambulance to a clearing company, all physicians staffed medical units, before ultimately being transported to the field hospital.

Since our tag unaltered, was all that was on him when he reached the hospital, in one or both of these installations no one had apparently examined or treated him. In both of those installations the medics should have added pertinent comments to the existing tag, or initiated a new one.

I felt it was unfortunate that I and my aid men should be criticized for their doing a heroic job. Of course, after I responded in triplicate, there were no repercussions.

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