From: An Historical and Pictorial Record of the 87 Infantry Division in WWII:
All along the front the enemy was throwing everything he had into the fight- artillery, mortars, machine guns, tanks and self-propelled guns of all calibers. Tillet, situated on a barren hilltop between two larger hills, became the key town in the enemy’s scheme of reinforcement and supply. The Gerimont Station Hill was on the east. A forest covered ridge on the south which connected with the hill on the southwest was the attack problem that faced the doughboys.
On the afternoon of January 6 the attack on Tillet by the Third Battalion, 346th Regiment, started. As the fighting men of L and I companies came over the crest of the Gerimont Station Hill all hell broke loose. Company K coming out of the trees on the ridge to the south met the same resistance. The attack was held up and the battalion was pinned down.
From 346th Infantry:
(On 6 January) the new mission was to attack, capture and hold the town of Tillet. The Third Battalion moved to the high ground east of Tillet, and later in the day Tillet was reported burning. The Third Battalion attacked the town but were unable to capture it.
On 7 January the Third Battalion again attacked Tillet with no success. The enemy apparently were determined to hold the town at any cost. During the night German patrols were very active around our positions, and the outfit’s casualty toll was extremely high. … Attack after attack was repulsed by the stubborn enemy garrison… Digging in was necessarily slow and laborious due to frozen ground and heavy enemy artillery fire. Before the foxholes could be dug to an adequate depth, an enemy tank attack had been launched. Artillery support could not be used because of the lack of communication and observation, and the position was situated in such a way that no tank destroyers could be brought up in time. The result was a withdrawal of the two Battalions to their old positions from where they started the attack. Much equipment had to be abandoned and the resulting casualties for the day were very high.
From an email note received in August 2012, just before a visit to Belgium – from 93 year old Retired Lt. Col. Glenn Doman1On the morning of January 7, 2nd Lt Glenn Doman led 21 men into Tillet, for an 7 hour engagement which is described in a number of documents. Doman later stated that the standard procedure would be to take 2 squads into an engagement and keep one in reserve. Based on the description of Doman’s action (in particular, that the group suffered only 2 casualties, one killed and one wounded), comparing it to the events described in the citation, it seems likely that Donald was in the reserve squad and that some of them were carrying ammo to the rest of Company K, attacking as described above, who was Donald’s Platoon Leader at Tillet, and later Company Commander for K Company:
“Your father Donald was one of my boys in K (King) company, 346th INF Regiment, 87 Infantry Division (Golden Acorn) and it was a high honor to serve with a great hero like your dad. On January 7, 1945 around Tillet Belgium, one of our boys was seriously wounded in an open field. Your dad ran into the field under enemy fire and helped recover our wounded boy, most certainly saving his life. I was honored to recommend him for the Silver Star.”
Clipping from the Alexandria Indiana Times-Tribune, April 1945
Fields near Tillet, Belgium photographed in 2012:
