I hope this is the correct place to post this. My Grandfather passed away this week at the age of 92 and his service in WW2 has been a point of conversation amongst our family. A man of few words he hardly spoke of the war and I want to find out some more about his service.
What I know: He served in Patton's Army with Company I, 377th Infantry he was involved in battles in Rhineland and Central Europe. He enlisted in 1943 and was wounded in action in November, 1944.
I would just like to find some more info about Company I and their involvement in the war. Thank you for all the help in advance.
On July 15, 1942, the 377th Infantry Regiment was activated at Camp Swift, Texas, along with the rest of the new 95th Infantry Division. Due to the location, some, but not all, of the original men of the regiment were from the Midwestern United States.
They moved to Fort Sam Houston for more training, and then on to Louisiana for maneuvers in the summer of 1943, with other newly activated divisions. The regiment then trained in desert fighting at Camp Coxcomb, California, before preparing for overseas movement in February of 1944 by staging all the way across the country in Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. Final movement orders arrived, and the 377th boarded troopships on August 9, 1944, to sail to England, and then on to France to fight the Germans.
After staying in reserve, the 377th (and the third battalion, with Company I) got its first taste of the front lines on the last day of October 1944 when it relieved the 357th Infantry, 90th Division, in the area near Uckange and Mazieres-les-Metz. Their mission: cross the Moselle River under the cover of night and crack the line of forts surrounding the ancient city of Metz.
The Third Battalion, 377th's primary objective was the slag pile south of Mazieres-les-Metz, the Chateau Brieux and its adjacent woods, and the town of Hauconcourt on the Moselle.
"At the same time K Company attacked the slag pile, I Company set out to capture Chateau Brieux and the adjacent woods on the regiment's left flank. Lt. Peterson Cavert, leading I Company's first platoon, surprised a German outpost in the darkness and killed three Germans manning a machine gun. From then on, things got hot. The Germans, alerted by the firing at the outpost, opened up with everything they had. One enemy mortar barrage caused 13 casualties in the first platoon alone."
Two Company I men received posthumous Silver Stars for their heroism at Chateau Brieux; Pfc. Eugene Newlan and Pfc. Ernest Plude.
The chateau and woods were successfully captured, and on November 14, Company I prepared to jump off again and capture the city of Metz, now decisively surrounded by the Americans. Company K, 377th, captured the German General in charge of defending the city, Heinrich Kittel.
"While Sgt. Harry Brochman was standing guard at the door of the General's room, the General told him in broken English: "377th is good fighters. 378th pretty good. Where is 379th?"
Even though the General had been captured, stubborn Germans at his headquarters in the city continued to fight, and Company I was tasked with clearing it out.
With Metz secured, the 95th Division pushed on towards the Saar River. The Third Battalion moved out on Thanksgiving day 1944. The town of Teterchen was seized, and Beaumarais, a suburb of Saarlautern on the banks of the Saar, fell also. The 377th marched into Saarlautern with little resistance on the afternoon of December 4th.
When the Battle of the Bulge began on the morning of December 16th, 1944, the 95th Division was to hold fast and defend, for the weak Saar sector was ripe for another German breakthrough attempt. No such attack came, and the 377th was rotated back to the line for an “aggressive defense” of the Saarlautern bridgehead. After repelling heavy German counterattacks at Saarlautern-Roden, the 95th Division was transferred to Ninth Army, having served 117 days with the XX Corps of Patton’s Third Army. As a result, the Division moved north, through Belgium, and into The Netherlands to take up a position on the south wing of the 9th Army. It relieved the British 157th Highland Infantry Brigade.
The “break” ended in mid-March when the 95th (and 377th) prepared to move up and cross the Rhine. Third Battalion moved from positions near Wonck to Mersch, on to Herrinhoffen, and occupied its objective of Homburg on the banks of the Rhine.
After the Rhine crossing and a daring dash into Germany with the 2nd Armored Division, the 377th’s mission was not to drive even further, but to help pen up hundreds of thousands of German troops trapped in the Ruhr pocket. The 95th Division ended the war in Ludinghausen, Germany.
Here's an interesting 250-page history of the 377th Infantry Regiment, which includes many of the exploits of Company I. At the end of the PDF is a list of men of the Regiment with pictures, who were present with the Regiment at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, after it returned to the United States. Be warned, the PDF is large and takes a little bit to load.
http://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=ww_reg_his
I’ve prepared a few interesting pictures from the PDF into an album
Sources:
95th Infantry Division Combat Chronicle
http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/cbtchron/cc/095id.htm
377th Infantry Regiment History
http://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=ww_reg_his
ETO Order of Battle - DIVISIONS
no expert at all (unless it comes to some minor reginal knowledge about western germany - I live there and my fathers family comes from the Saarland, the french-german border), does this help (with his loacation when wounded): http://mathieu.gitzhofer.free.fr/purplegb.php