You Can't Get Much Closer Than This: Combat With Company H, 317th Infantry Regiment, 80th Division by Adkins Jr. A.Z. & Andrew Z. Adkins III

Author:Adkins, Jr., A.Z. & Andrew Z. Adkins III [Adkins III, Andrew Z.]
Language: dan
Format: azw3, mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781612003115
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2015-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

THE RELENTLESS, BITTER COLD WINTER

January 16, 1945 – February 5, 1945

At 7:00 p.m. on January 16, we moved out to relieve the 3rd Battalion in position about three miles north of Heidersheid on the forward slope of a mountain looking across a valley at the Krauts, who were dug in on the forward slope of a mountain across the valley. The company and battalion CPs were in the little town of Tadler on the banks of the Sure River, off to our left front down in the valley. To our immediate front were two little towns at the base of the mountain; both were held by the enemy. I tried to dig in behind a little ridge near the front edge of the mountain, but every time we moved, the Krauts opened up on us. I got permission from Lt. Colonel Boydstun to move back about half a mile, which was the only place around suitable to set up the mortars.

I went back to the 3rd Battalion to get the map overlays they had used. I finally found Company H’s mortar platoon sergeant in a room, trying to get warm. In the corner was a blonde lieutenant. “Sergeant, who’s your buddy over there?” I asked.

He looked at me and answered, “Lieutenant, he’s no buddy of mine! He’s a yellow son of a bitch if I ever saw one. He’s been trying to get back to the hospital ever since he’s been with us. Claims he’s got frozen feet. He first went to the battalion medics bellyaching about his feet. They saw nothing wrong with them and they told him to get the hell out of their aid station and quit trying to goldbrick. That didn’t suit him, so he sneaked off from the platoon and went to the collecting company. He pulled the wool over their eyes long enough for him to talk them into believing he had something wrong with his feet. Now he’s waiting for an ambulance to take him to the hospital.”

I decided the sergeant had this under control. I had enough to worry about my men, let alone some coward. I didn’t care if he was an officer.

Movement in Tadler and on the front edge of the mountain was strictly verboten. Any movement at all on our part prompted the Germans to open fire on us. They had a lot of machine guns and burp guns, and they could see our every move. They picked at us all day and, in turn, we picked at them all day. It was about the same affair we had had a couple of weeks earlier.

There were a lot of dead spaces in our defensive line, so we had to do a lot of night firing to keep the Kraut patrols out. Our foxholes were very good. The engineers had blasted them out for us, and we cut logs to make dugouts. My dugout was about ten feet long, six feet wide, and four feet deep. I could burn

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