A Blood-Dimmed Tide by Gerald Astor

Author:Gerald Astor [Astor, Gerald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2015-01-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter X

HIGH WATER MARKS

A MOTLEY OF GERMAN troops, some in standard field gray, some wearing white snow camouflage garments, and still others dressed in pieces of American uniforms with boots stripped from prisoners or yanked from dead men’s feet, battered the GIs ensconced along Elsenborn Ridge on the northern shoulder of the German salient. The Germans brought to bear whatever armor and artillery they could muster. Victory here would open up a northern road route to the Meuse.

The Americans enjoyed the advantage of favorable terrain to entrench the troops and an ever-increasing superiority of artillery. Ben Nawrocki, with the handful of men left from B Company, labored over his foxhole along the crest of the ridge. “We had only our rifles and the ammo we could carry. The ground was frozen hard, like rock. There weren’t any entrenching tools. We used mess kits, mess knives, bayonets and helmets to dig in. It was frantic, hard work, but with shells flying all the time, we had to have shelter.

“We could see them shelling and attacking to our right rear in the Malmédy-St. Vith area. They were coming at us through the deep draws leading to Elsenborn Ridge. We kept beating them off. We had a good open field of fire and a lot of artillery to help us. A day or two after the 99th dug in on Elsenborn Ridge, two hundred Germans with tanks came toward our lines. The 394th Regiment was in front. The Germans carried their arms in sling position on their shoulders and waved white handkerchief flags as if to signal surrender. They were told to drop their arms. They refused and kept coming. Obviously they wanted to get closer and overrun us.

“Our officers readied all our firepower along with artillery. After they didn’t respond to repeated demands to drop arms and surrender, all of the firepower on the front opened up. They tried to and did run over some of the foxholes with their tanks. But our firepower and artillery really chewed them up. There were pieces of bodies and tanks flying all over. When the fire lifted, nothing moved. They all died. The tanks and equipment destroyed.”

The only surviving platoon sergeant from his company, Nawrocki became first sergeant. “I made my first morning report on a piece of toilet paper on December 21. It accounted for one officer and thirteen men of Co. B, 393rd Infantry. We had 210 men on the morning of December 16th. Later, we started to get back some of Co. B who had mixed in with other troops and fought. But there still weren’t many left.

“We received replacements almost daily. One batch of about fifty arrived, flown to Europe from the States. Some had very little training. I told them to dig in and they just stood there in the open when a few rounds of 88s struck nearby, wounding six. The rest started to dig in, as we used sticks of dynamite to break through the frozen crust.”

* * *

The U.

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