Aachen: The U.S. Army's Battle for Charlemagne's City in World War II (8 page)

Recognizing that his task force would now have to descend a steep, muddy slope off the hill and then cross the river before reaching a more protected wooded area in the hillside on the far side of the valley, Mills determined that the infantry would have to attack. He selected Captain Vaughn's Company I for this assignment; its first objective was to secure the bridge that crossed the river before seizing the commanding ground beyond. While enemy infantry were observed in the hills over the river, Vaughn nevertheless led his men into the valley with Captain Getter's Company H following.

By 1200 Vaughn's leading squads were almost to the bridge, aided in their mission by friendly artillery fire. From observation points in Brockenberg, the 391st FA batteries laid down three heavy concentrations of M-7 105mm SP howitzer shells. Division artillery joined in the attack, laying rounds on the nose of the hill while VII Corps M-12 155mm SPs also fired other concentrations to the right of the hillside. But when Captain Vaughn's men patrolled up to the bridge at 1230, reports came back indicating it was blown and that it would take considerable work to repair the damage. When Mills reported this to Colonel Boudinot, he was ordered to send reconnaissance out to contact Task Force Lovelady and to eventually follow its columns rather than waiting for engineers to fix the blown bridge.

Lovelady's task force was initially held that morning in Breinigerberg while his engineers determined what to do about the demolished bridge
crossing the Vicht River just north of this village. They soon discovered a suitable site near a former streetcar crossing, but rather than rebuilding the blown bridge here, the engineers miraculously completed a nearby 48-foot span with two trestles and a treadway just before 1100 hours. By early afternoon, Lovelady's infantry was pushing up the valley leading toward the smokestacks in the mining settlement of Diepenlinchen. At a crossroad just to the south of this village, these men turned east toward Mausbach where enemy artillery made a direct hit on one tank, slowing up progress. Still, the long, main body of the task force swung in this direction, formed right behind the half-track mounted infantry, rolled by pristine fields of cattle and then into Mausbach shortly after 1500. They found surprisingly little resistance, except for some occasional small-arms and sniper fire.

After the column turned at the main crossroad in the village and moved about a thousand yards northward along the road to Gressenich, an ancient ore mining town, all hell broke loose. Lovelady noted: “The column at this time was almost eight miles long, its tail back across the bridge near Nachitgallschen [
sic
], and it was caught unprepared for the intense enemy attack.”
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The enemy was in force on both flanks of the task force. Four or more self-propelled guns were scattered on the ridge on both sides of the column. Heavy fire came from the factory and buildings in Diepenlinchen, while two more self-propelled guns opened up from the rear near Fleuth. The air liaison officer managed to knock out one of these with his tank's fire. Still, [enemy] Panther tanks fired from south of Diepenlinchen. Machine gun and rifle fire of the enemy was also prevalent on both flanks. The fire came as if by a pre-arranged signal, and before the task force could maneuver into cover it had lost seven tanks, one tank destroyer and one ambulance.

These circumstances led Lovelady to direct most of the column back into Mausbach where the task force coiled; some tanks deployed southeastward toward the single crossroad hamlet of Krewinkel where there was more defilade at the edge of the woods. By this time Major Mills's leading elements of tanks and infantry, accompanied by engineers and TDs, had
made contact with Task Force Lovelady and bivouacked at Breinigerberg. Lovelady eventually set up his command post in a captured pillbox outside of Mausbach, not knowing at the time that his mission for the next five days would entail overcoming immense difficulties before trying to attack past the cheaply made houses of mining workers now occupied by German infantry in Diepenlinchen. But, Task Force Lovelady had passed the last bunker of the Schill Line to the east of Stolberg; open country lay ahead toward Eschweiler, still the VII Corps objective.

At noontime on 15 September the tanks and infantry of Task Force Doan were before the dragon's teeth on the Schill Line about two kilometers east-southeast of Eilendorf. Doan's patrols had actually started out at first light that morning and moved to the southwest edge of the village to inspect the enemy forces here; several light tanks also got close enough to ten pillboxes to determine that they were manned. They had made contact with a friendly platoon of Captain Merendino's Company B, commanded by Lt. Frank J. Kolb Jr.; his force had just been strengthened with three light tanks, a thinly armored M-10, and a platoon of heavy (.50-caliber) machine guns.

When General Hickey conferred with Doan about whether to attack through the pillboxes, neither officer knew that there was a nearby gap in the dragon's teeth barred only by a few old farm wagons and some loose concrete. This was discovered when Doan sent a platoon of his tanks over to support Lieutenant Kolb's infantry and armor; it was decided to go through the Schill Line here. By early afternoon the tanks had pushed the farm wagons aside and the armored vehicles gingerly started through the gap. Hickey and General Rose were at the edge of a nearby wooded area, near enough to witness the penetration. Not surprisingly, they contacted Doan at 1315 hours and ordered the rest of the task force through.
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Meanwhile, the advance guard went northeast beyond the dragon's teeth for about 300 yards and then made their way to a road junction at hillier Am Geisberg. Here the tanks were held up by an enemy armored vehicle and self-propelled gun fire that came in frontally from the direction of the Wurseler Wald, directly across the road junction. This fire was also laid on eight of Doan's tanks and a platoon of armored infantry that were farther back and still trying to make their way through the gap. Concentrated fire directed by observers of the 116th Panzer Division's
3rd Battalion of their Artillery Regiment added to the mayhem.
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Two American tanks were knocked out when they got inside the dragon's teeth, and two others were hit by antitank fire from a nearby pillbox. Shortly after this a squad of the infantry that had gone through the gap reported sighting three enemy tanks approaching from up the road. German antitank fire soon knocked out two more American tanks.

This prompted Doan to confer with General Hickey, who still insisted that they press forward without interruption. By this time Lieutenant Kolb's Company B platoon had cleaned out several pillboxes, capturing thirty-one prisoners. The other platoons then worked their way up to the crossroad at Am Geisberg, where they swung east, avoiding some ferocious mortar and artillery fire. The company eventually formed a goose-egg position on the road and held there. At 1800 the enemy counterattacked from the Wurseler Wald with one tank and two half-tracks of infantry. At this time Company C, under the command of Captain Briggs, was working its way to a position just to the northwest of the crossroads and to the right of Company B. For a short period the fighting was at close quarters, but the enemy forces eventually withdrew.
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Driscoll's Company A followed Briggs's Company C after an artillery barrage was laid down and eventually breached the Schill Line to a depth of approximately 3,000 yards. During this advance, the accompanying platoon of M-4 tanks from the 745th Tank Battalion fired into several pillbox embrasures from about 800 yards, forcing many of the boxes’ occupants out into the open and to their deaths. Company A then continued with its penetration, now with the mission of occupying a hillside directly overlooking the outskirts of Stolberg.
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This move initially turned out to be problematic. Semi-hilly and heavily brushed terrain slowed the approach. When the company did arrive—aided by using previously captured German tactical maps—it was discovered that the area was dotted with more pillboxes and open emplacements that were manned by enemy troops with machine guns, antitank guns, 120mm mortars, and small arms. Noting that “the enemy was well dug in, in the cellars of surrounding houses, and in the factories in the outlying district of Stolberg with tanks placing fire on our positions,”
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Driscoll's Company A halted. In this salient position their right flank was open to a large valley and their left flank was exposed to another deep draw covered with slag piles and rubble from earlier Allied bombings.

More of Task Force Doan's tanks had penetrated the dragon's teeth by this time. Three tanks had advanced with the forward elements of Orr's infantry, and another two followed to the rear. Keeping their assault guns and mortars behind the barriers to cover the advance, the armored infantry cleaned out the enemy remaining in the road junction at Am Geisberg and then moved up the roadway. The German antitank guns had also withdrawn, so the advance proceeded another mile without resistance until Orr's three infantry companies reached a road junction near Hamm. Here some fire was still coming into their left flank from the Wurseler Wald, as well as from a factory area to their right.

With darkness now approaching and a major part of his task force still a mile or so to the rear on the other side of the dragon's teeth, Lieutenant Colonel Doan ordered Orr's infantry to button up for the night. A horseshoe-shaped defense was set up across the road junction, facing the enemy. Doan ordered the lead company to fan out on either side of the road, and then he brought up two tanks that he positioned at the rear of his command post; another two emplaced on the edge of the forest. Continued patrol activity seemed to indicate that the Germans had formed in strength again in the Wurseler Wald, but they later discovered that this force was no larger than a company of infantry. After darkness fell Doan moved up more assault guns, mortars, and some tank destroyers, to include a 57mm antitank gun that he emplaced on his left flank in the woods for added protection. Patrolling continued into the night toward Hamm and the high ground west of Schneidmuhle, with a platoon of the 83rd Reconnaissance Battalion also moving out at 2100 hours with the mission of making contact with the 16th Infantry units on the right.

That morning had started with Colonel Gibb's I&R platoon reconnoitering the area northwest of Brand in their five jeeps. They encountered small-arms fire before making contact with Captain Ferry's Company C of the 26th Infantry, but these men were still able to take up a defensive position at a crossroads from which this intermittent fire was coming. Barracks in the area were soon found to be empty, so Hicks's 2nd Battalion was given the mission to take historic Eilendorf, first ravaged back in the Thirty Years’ War in the 1600s and ruthlessly pillaged again by Louis XIV later in that century. Now it was the Americans’ turn; the 16th Infantry was to seize the high ground here and protect
General Hickey's left flank during his armor's continued drive toward Eschweiler. Hicks assigned Capt. Joseph T. Dawson's Company G with leading the day's advance, assisted by three medium tanks, as well as three light tanks and two TDs. Eilendorf was just two miles from Brand, but Dawson had to take an indirect route that ran for more than three twisting miles, his right flank protected by Doan's then-advancing tanks and infantry. Hicks held the rest of his 2nd Battalion in place, giving his men time to dry out while others worked on some hard-to-start tanks worn down from running continuously the previous day.

Dawson, Texas-bred and the son of a Baptist preacher, started out cautiously when the attack jumped off. Gas had to be hand-carried to his attached tanks and TDs, so they were delayed but expected to catch up. The terrain Company G eventually crossed was flat and open, with little protection, so when the tanks did arrive two of Dawson's platoons mounted their decks and rode for about two miles of the way. As they got closer to Eilendorf, however, machine-gun fire came in from the high ground east of town. This prompted Dawson to order his men to dismount, whereupon they sprinted across 1,500 yards of still-open terrain to a point just south of a railroad line where they took up defensive positions. Fortunately, the company took no casualties during this move.

Bringing the rest of the 2nd Battalion up proved to be problematic for its executive officer, Maj. Edward F. Wozenski, a big man from Terryville, Connecticut. Enemy artillery forward observers had spotted the move, and some shells eventually fell on Company F. By this time Dawson's men had occupied the outer edges of Eilendorf, and after some confusion at a road junction where signs were hidden from view, Wozenski was nevertheless able to get the rest of the battalion closer to the railroad line behind Company G. The location did not inspire confidence. Some men noticed that “the enemy on the forward slope across the tracks could look right down our throats. Why they did not fire is an unsolved mystery.”
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But a later report noted, “The Germans were taken so completely by surprise that they hastily improvised white flags of surrender ranging from babies’ diapers and adult's underwear to pieces of sheets.”

At 2000 hours Dawson was given a new mission, this time to gain the ground atop the railroad tunnel leading out of Eilendorf and to capture a commanding ridge that would cut off the incoming roads from Verlauntenheide. The order Dawson had been given from Lieutenant
Colonel Hicks was verbal, and when he called his platoon leaders to his command post, he quickly provided background and his own orders.

The enemy strength and capabilities are unknown, as we do not know what German units are to our front. We do know that there are enemy troops out there in those pillboxes because we saw them running around earlier in the day. We also know that they have some artillery and mortars to back them up, as they lobbed a few in on us.

The friendly situation is a bit clearer. Several thousand yards on our right at the present time is the 1st Battalion, in position in the vicinity of Stolberg. On our right are also elements of the 3rd Armored Division. Company F is in physical contact with the left flank of our 3rd Platoon. When we jump off in the attack we also will have Company E on our right. The mission of the company is to take and hold the high ground northeast of here, clean out the pillboxes in our zone of action, and make contact with the friendly units on our flank.