The Battle of the Bulge

[Owen]

Did you say you were in 394th Infantry.
I know you mentioned the I & R platoon.
I see ,

the I&R Platoon, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division, would later become "the most heavily decorated platoon for a single action in World War II.

The Heroic Stand of an Intelligence Platoon

[Franek]

Owen;
That was an amazing find. I know the story from our division book. Yes,it was the 1st,battalion of the 394th regiment. Today Lt. Boueck is a retired doctor. That is if he is still living.They deserved more credit than what they got.Although there was a corporal, the name I forgot. He deserved the medal of honor. He mounted a jeep 50caliber machine gun and instremental in most of the german dead. From what you showed me,he only recieved the Bronz star. Hell I never did more than he did. And I have two bronze stars.
There was a lot of injustice shown in the war. After the war I got a book from my division telling what decorations were handed out. Almost all of the officers got silver stars and others.That was bull shit. Most of them in HDQS never deserved them.There were good officers and bad.Although I dont know him. There was a refort that one of the line company commanders cracked and command was taken over by a sargent. Yes this was the same I&R platoon that I spoke of. I spent a lot of time with them I knew them all.
Look up Bucholtz station. That played a big part in my story. The 393rd, battlion used that as an escape route.
I left a lot out of my story because of my eyes,and I make a lot of mistakes in my typing and spelling. That bothers me. If there are any questions you want to know. Just ask. I loved your pictures of our dugouts.They were our for sure. Just remember the story that I told was just the highlights of what happened there is so much more.

MAYBE ANOTHER TIME

[Owen]

He was still alive in 2004.

azcentral.com | Phoenix Arizona News - Arizona Local News

Here's book.
The Longest Winter by Alex Kershaw

I've just realised that back in February I drove right across that area on the way down to Prum from Trois Ponts.

EDIT: Just found another interesting webpage about the 99th during the Battle.
99th ID Testimony

[Franek]

Jeff, I have been using a computer for a couple of years. BVut I never was able to become good at it because of my eyes. When I get stuck my daughter helps me out. My eyes are bad because of some damage to my brain from that head wound.I suffer from extreme virtigo too from the same wound.
My daughter is going through boxes in an effort to find that telegram.
You also asked about reunions. It was many years later that I read in my DAV magazine ,that my outfit had an organization. I joined and recieved a division paper called the checkerboard four times a year.In it I found 6 names of guys that I served with.They were shocked to find that I was still alive. It seems that they found a body of an American,with my serial number in it.The helmet had a bullet hole through it. They assumed that it was me. I found this out a number of years later

[Franek]

For those of you that do not know. The Battle of the Bulge (The Watch on the Rhine) was but one of two attacks that Hitler planned. The other Operation Norwind took place in early January. They attacked south to Alsace and Strasborg. At first there was some success. But it too faltered. Check out the URL below.

HistoryNet » Operation Nordwind: U.S. Army’s 42nd Infantry Division Stood its Ground During World War II

[Franek]

The Mauser Karbiner R(W) .It was a 5shot b olt action rifle. Range 4000 yds.
It was changed to a weapon with a range of 4000 yds.
With a smaller,less powerful cartridge. The older was kept but only issued to snipers.
After seeing the American M1 simi-automatic Gerand. They tried a semi automatic of their own but were not happy with it.

[Slipdigit]

Originally Posted by Owen

He was still alive in 2004.

azcentral.com | Phoenix Arizona News - Arizona Local News

Here's book.
The Longest Winter by Alex Kershaw

I've just realised that back in February I drove right across that area on the way down to Prum from Trois Ponts.

EDIT: Just found another interesting webpage about the 99th during the Battle.
99th ID Testimony

I've read the book, it was good.

[Franek]

[/IMG]http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll71/franek_01/mp40.jpg[/IMG]

The MP40 schmeisser was used to great exte nt by the German Army
The earlier design was the MP38
A less known model called thrERMA. It was a copy of the British sten gun
The Waffen SS used a submachine gun called the MP34

[Franek]

I 1943 it was developed. It was less powerful but less recoil. Hitler still wanted the 4000 yd. Mauser. The arms minister disobeyed and put them into production.They were shipped to the eastern front. The troops loved them. They begged for more. Hitler found out and blew his mind.He ordered an investigation which proved to Hitler that it was a superiour weapon and it would counter the American Thompson 45 cal sub machine gun. Hitler relented and ordered full production.
I have a picture of it,but for some reason it will not paste

[Franek]

Controversy at high command
As the Ardennes crisis developed, Montgomery assumed command of the American First and Ninth Armies (which, until then, were under Bradley's command). This controversial move was approved by Eisenhower, and was intended to prevent communication and control problems between Bradley and the North flank command.[14]
On the same day as Hitler’s withdrawal order, 7 January, Montgomery held a press conference at Zonhoven in which he said that he had “headed off ... seen off ... and ... written off” the Germans. “The battle has been the most interesting, I think possible one of the most tricky ... I have ever handled.” Montgomery said that he had “employed the whole available power of the British group of armies ... you thus have the picture of British troops fighting on both sides of the Americans who have suffered a hard blow.”[15]
Montgomery also gave credit to the “courage and good fighting quality” of the American troops, characterizing a typical American as a “very brave fighting man who has that tenacity in battle which makes a great soldier,” and went on to talk about the necessity of Allied teamwork, and praised Eisenhower, stating that “Teamwork wins battles and battle victories win wars. On our team, the captain is General Ike.” Despite these remarks, the overall impression given by Montgomery, at least in the ears of the American military leadership, was that he had taken the lion’s share of credit for the success of the campaign, and had been responsible for rescuing the besieged Americans.
His comments were interpreted as self-promoting, particularly his claiming that when the situation “began to deteriorate,” Eisenhower had placed him in command in the north. Patton and Eisenhower both felt this was a misrepresentation of the relative share of the fighting played by the British and Americans in the Ardennes (for every three British soldiers there were thirty to forty Americans in the fight), and that it belittled the part played by Bradley, Patton and other American commanders. In the context of Patton and Montgomery’s well-known antipathy, Montgomery’s failure to mention the contribution of any American general beside Eisenhower was seen as insulting. Focusing exclusively on his own generalship, Montgomery continued to say that he thought the counter-offensive had gone very well but did not explain the reason for his delayed attack on 3 January. He later attributed this to needing more time for preparation on the northern front. According to Winston Churchill, the attack from the south under Patton was steady but slow and involved heavy losses, and Montgomery claimed to be trying to avoid this situation.
Montgomery subsequently recognized his error and later wrote: “I think now that I should never have held that press conference. So great were the feelings against me on the part of the American generals that whatever I said was bound to be wrong. I should therefore have said nothing.” Eisenhower commented in his own memoirs: “I doubt if Montgomery ever came to realize how resentful some American commanders were. They believed he had belittled them—and they were not slow to voice reciprocal scorn and contempt.”
Bradley and Patton both threatened to resign unless Montgomery’s command was changed. Subsequently Bradley started to court the press, and it was stated that he would rarely leave headquarters “without at least fifteen newspapermen”; it has been suggested that he and Patton began to leak information detrimental to Montgomery. Eisenhower, encouraged by his British deputy Arthur Tedder, had decided to sack Montgomery. However, intervention by Montgomery’s and Eisenhower’s Chiefs of Staff, Major-General Freddie de Guingand, and Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith allowed Eisenhower to reconsider and Montgomery to apologize.