Author: dan

From 346th Infantry:

The short respite from fighting came to a halt on December 21, as orders were received instructing the outfit to leave its present mission and proceed to locations near Obergailbach, Neidergailbach, and Bliesbruck, France. Here two Battalions relieved the First and Third Battalions of the 320th Infantry of the 35th Division at 1200 hours. The men climbed into their defensive foxholes at dusk and prepared for the attack the next morning.

WE LEAVE THE SAAR –  On the 23rd of December orders calling for another move puzzled everyone but were carried out the next morning. The nature of the change was not known at the time. Christmas Day was celebrated by a special turkey dinner and church services for all the troops. It was a far cry from Hometown, U. S. A. But there was turkey and holy thoughts and a chance to imagine and dream of the family. However, the brief celebration was interrupted in mid-afternoon by an order to move on to a new area.

Under bitter weather conditions, the convoy crossed the IP shortly after dusk and not too long thereafter was bombed and strafed resulting in the injury of three D company men. That Christmas night will remain in the memories of those who experienced it for some time to come, etched there by intense suffering from the agonizing cold, cramped quarters and utter fatigue. But notwithstanding, the Regiment arrived at the Assembly Area, ten miles east of Reims, France, at 0900 hours the next morning.

From: An Historical and Pictorial Record of the 87 Infantry Division in WWII:

On December 13 the Germans launched their Ardennes offensive into Belgium. On December 23 orders were issued for the 87th Division to break contact with the enemy in the Saar region, turn its sector over to another division and get going to Belgium in a hurry. The movement in three stages to Dieuze, to a forest near Reims, to the vicinity of Seviscourt and Bertrix, Belgium, a total of over 350 miles, was accomplished with the loss of only five days fighting time for the Division.

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                                                  Christmas Day
Hello Everyone,
   I sure hope you are having a Merry Christmas. To tell the truth, although it may not seem so, this has turned out to be a very wonderful day for me. I hate to always seem to be keeping secrets but, of course, I can’t explain the circumstances now. I’ll probably remember this particular day so if you’ll ask me about it later, I’ll tell you about it! Compared to how we might have spent today it is truly a work of God to be able to spend Christmas in this crude fashion. We have already got mail once today and before the day is over a few packages may come. I got the Christmas card and letter that you wrote Dec. 13. I generally have to destroy my mail as soon as I get it but this one today did me so much good that I think I’ll try to find some place in my pocket for it. To make the day complete we are having a worship service and turkey for dinner. Sorry I haven’t been able to write more but I’ve been getting mail every couple of days. Use Vmail. The other takes about a month.
God be with you all,  Donald

                                                 Dec. 18, 1944
Dear Folks,
   This will likely get there at the same time as the one I wrote yesterday but I hope you don’t mind. I’ve thought of a few more things I want to tell you.
   I can tell you that I saw Metz and you can get a way general idea of where I have been. The places in the central part of France weren’t torn up too badly but things here like the coast are in bad shape.
   I am praying that it will be possible for Christmas to go on as nearly as normal back there as possible. We had a church service yesterday more because we had a chance then because it was Sunday. As I started to say we sang Christmas hymns and the chaplain preached an appropriate sermon so it gave us a little holiday feeling. That’s almost the first it has even entered our minds. Its a good thing that the bulk of our packages arrived while we where back in England where we had time to enjoy them. Don’t send my Bible because I couldn’t take care of it.
   Let’s put our complete trust in the Lord to bring us together again soon. Complete faith is the only way I can endure conditions like this. Don’t worry about me but just continue praying. I’ll write again as soon as I can.
Love,  Donald

No further letters were received from Donald until the one dated December 17, 1944. Here are some background details of his service during that period.

From 346th Infantry:

On December 4th, the trucks were loaded in preparation for the movement, and on the following day at 0400, the organizational vehicles departed for Metz, France; the personnel of the Regiment entrained at Critot, France. December 7th found the troops billeted in Metz where the signs of war were still freshly in evidence. Metz had taken a beating from General Patton’s Third Army not too many days before, but there were still snipers and at night the boom of American artillery pieces shelling the forts still occupied by the enemy near the city gave the men and inkling of what was to come four days later. The 9th of December found the Regiment at the town of Kalhausen and a night of sleeping in the snow. On 10 December the Regimental CP was set up at Achen and orders were received to relieve the 104th Infantry Regiment of the 26th Division at dawn, 11 December, 1944.

FIRST COMBAT IN SAAR BASIN
At 0930 hours it was over the top and a few minutes later the men of the Regiment were combat veterans. The Second Battalion was on the right, the Third Battalion [Donald’s] on the left and the First in reserve as the attack plowed through the mud and heavy fire from tanks and pill-boxes. The Second Battalion was hardest hit as the initial assault fell slightly short of its target. A lot of mistakes were made as was to be expected, but the experience and valuable combat information gained from this first day of battle far outweighed the errors. The next day found the attack shifting in the direction of Rimling, France. Two days of bitter fighting carried the troops slowly toward the town objective. Not only were the front line troops catching it, but the enemy had located the Regimental CP set-up in the town of Gros-Rederching and were giving it a heavy artillery shelling. Morale was low, casualties high and the weather was proving almost as formidable as the enemy. Finally on the evening of the 13th, the attack had moved up far enough to allow patrols to be sent into Rimling itself.

Dawn found the Second and Third Battalions jumping off on the final assault of the town and the complete capture of Rimling took place around noon. Resistance stiffened and in the early morning hours of the following day the First Battalion was called upon to repulse a surprise counter-attack in their sector. Air support in the form of twelve P-47’s flew over on a strafing mission, and at 1425 hours of December 15th, the Regiment led by Charley Company crossed the German Border. The troops were located in the vicinity of Erching, France and Guiderkirch, France. Col. Travis, commander of the Third Battalion, was wounded in the assault and his command was taken over by Major Reilly. At the end of the day the Regiment was relieved by the 345th for a well-earned breathing spell and the men had a chance to think things over and take stock of themselves. They had weathered four days of combat and although they had suffered many casualties, their combat efficiency was rated officially as “very satisfactory.”

For next few days the Regiment was given the mission of defending its own Regimental Area which meant a rest and a chance to clean both men and weapons. On December 16, Col. Costello was relieved of command of the Regiment and Col. Richard B. Wheeler from the 35th Division assumed command of the 346th.

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                                                      Dec 17, 1944
Dear Mother and all,
    I sure hope everything is OK back there. I know that by the time this gets there you’ll be very anxious to have heard from me but this is the best I could do. We got mail today for the first time since we left England and we sure had a celebration reading it. I got seven letters from you and three others. They were dated  from Nov. 17 to Dec. 4 and it sure was worth several months' pay to get them. We may get more mail this evening or tomorrow and I’ll try to get at least one more letter written while I have the opportunity. Your sweater and knot helmet that you sent will be very useful now if they get here. I hope (and we may) that we’ll get mail every few days now. You’ll just have to spread the news around that you heard from me because I sure doubt if I’ll get to write anyone else. I guess about all you can tell them is that I’m very busy and am OK.
   It’ll be after Christmas when you receive this but it’ll be my only opportunity or at least my nearest one to wish you the best of holiday wishes. And even more than that I want to wish God’s blessings upon you. In a situation like this I am wholly dependent upon Him so I ask interest in your prayers.
Your loving son & brother,  Donald

                                                      France
Hello Family,                                   Dec. 3, 1944
   It would certainly please me greatly to hear from you one of these times. As yet our mail hasn’t caught up with us and that’s one of the things that means the most. It’s a rainy, muddy day here and if it weren’t for church services it wouldn’t seem at all like Sunday. It does help a lot though in enduring conditions like this just to think about home. I also find that prayer is very helpful along this line. Since I know that you are praying too, after I have prayed I almost have a feeling of having communicated with you. Let’s let prayer keep us together even though so many miles are between. It is very noticeable at a time like this how the feelings of the fellows change towards religion. It’s very common now to hear almost anyone talking about reading his Testament. I am anxious to see if the crowd is any larger at the services today.
   I think we are going to work this afternoon but I’m very thankful just to get Sunday morning off. I wonder how things in general are coming at home. Richard and his basketball work are still big questions in my mind. It’s not long till church time and I’m out of space anyway. I’m OK.
Love,  Donald

                                                      Nov 30. 1944
Dear Family,                                          France
   If there has been any lapse in my mail you no doubt have guessed that I have moved. I wrote a regular letter a couple days ago but this is the first we’ve been allowed to send. If I don’t lose it I’ll send it the first chance I get and then there will be just a little repetition.
   Any time now that you cease to  hear from me very often you’ll know I am either too busy to write or there are difficulties in the mail situation.  Keep praying and I’ll do my best to write. You may be concerned about me but don’t worry. It won’t do a bit of good. Let’s both trust in Him and all things will work out for the best.
   I sure can’t say about France as I did about England that I’ve seen many very interesting sights. We saw La Havre and it certainly has been ruined. That is also the situation in just about every place I’ve seen here. You can certainly see the effect of war on the looks and actions of the people.
   For the present till I can do more writing, I’d appreciate it if you’d sort of spread the news around to those I should write to that I’ve moved. It looks as if my days of being a garrison soldier are over. We’re really living in the field now. Hope everything is alright back there. I’m doing well in body and unoppressed in spirit.
God bless you.          Love,  Donald

From 346th Infantry:

… On the 26th (of November) we loaded on the ships that were to take us across the English channel. The crossing was uneventful. The Regiment lined the rails of the ship that had carried them across the channel and gazed out into the clear night at the bombed-out shores of Le Havre, France. It was the 28th of November, 1944, “D” day for the 346th Infantry’s personnel invasion of the European continent, just 175 days after the first Allied Invasion force had hit the Normandy Beach.

ASHORE IN FRANCE – The harbor was filled with the hulls and masts of sunken ships, and rumor had it that mines still made passage to shore dangerous. But a short time later LST’s bumped the beach and the 346th had arrived. Tugging at heavy duffel bags, the men scrambled up a slight hill and assembled for what-ever was to come. And it came. A long eight mile hike with full field equipment. At the halfway mark rain began to fall and the morale dropped with it, reaching a new low when the column stopped in the middle of a muddy field-the bivouac area.
After a session of fighting insomnia brought on by mud and cold, the troops moved by trucks to the Red Horse Assembly Area located some five miles south of St. Saens, France-another open field. But by now the sun was shining and the ground a little drier, and there were pup tents with straw floors.
The grapevine spread the news that it was just a matter of days before the Regiment would hit combat so the men spent the next few days writing letters, cleaning weapons, and thinking.

Donald arrived in France.
This is scanned in color because it is on different, rougher and heavier weight, paper than the previous

                                                       Nov. 29, 1944
                                                       France
Dear Family,
   It looks to me very much like I’d better grab this opportunity and get a letter written. We’ve no way of sending out mail yet so you’ll understand if I have to hold on to this for a few days before I get it mailed. From here on I’ll do my best to write you but don’t expect letters very often. If the letters I wrote in England have arrived or ever do arrive you’ll understand that I’ll write every chance I get.
   I can not say about France what I did about England. I’ve seen just the opposite of interesting and pretty sights. Although what I’ve seen so far is likely very insignificant compared with the whole, it's enough to make you wonder about how civilized we are. Just seeing some of the destruction makes you wonder if we will have gained much when the war is won.
   Before we left England, we were given ETO (European Theatre of Operations) ribbons so I’ll have something to show off when I get back. They don’t mean much here but of course sometime we’ll be proud of them.
   It looks to me as if my days of being a garrison soldier are over. Right now we’re living in pup tents and it may not be long before we’ll have to get along with even less than this. We have sleeping bags and as long as we’re able to use them, we can get a very decent night’s sleep. I’m thankful for what I have and am not worrying about what I haven’t.
   I am praying that the best will come out of all of this but I am not worrying about what hasn’t happened and very likely won’t happen. I appreciate the fact that you too are praying but please just be concerned about me and do your worrying about something else (or don’t worry at all).
   I hope it won’t be too long before mail comes through. I can see that a letter is sure going to mean a lot more than it ever has before. So whatever you can contribute along this line will be appreciated. I get a great kick out of imagining what must be going on at home. I have come to the conclusion that it’s better psychologically for me to think of myself as imagining about home rather than wondering. That way you can keep up even though letters don’t arrive so often.
   I am well in body and unoppressed in spirit. Hope you can say the same. May God’s richest blessing be upon you.
        Love, 
          Donald
                                                       Dec 1, 1944
This is the letter I mentioned in the V-mail. I’ll send it more because I have it written than because it contains anything new. I guess there is no real news to tell so I’ll just say that I am still alright
        Your son & brother,
           Donald