30th Opens Line North Of Aachen

LONDON - (AP) - Oct. 3 The U. 8. First Army's 30th division striking one of the greatest offensive blows of the war in an effort to break a new hole in the Siegfired line, drove a steel wedge two miles deep on a six mile front north of Aachen Monday.
Ending a stalemate of almost two weeks, in which German counterattacks were beaten off while the mighty punch was prepared, the 30th division warriors began one of the greatest combined sir and land assaults of the European campaign against the entrenched enemy.

The attack was preceded by a heavily concentrated artillery barrage and by a thunderous drumbeat of thudding bombs from hundreds of medium and fighter bombers.

Racing out of gray cloudy skies at about 9 a. m., the planes dropped hundreds of tons of explosives on Nazi pillboxes and gunposts while in scores of nearby French, Belgian and Netherlands villages the people watched the silver-winged armada unloading its bombs on Adolf Hitler's west wall.

Hardly had the ground stopped shaking from the bombardment before veteran doughboys crashed forward through the smoke and rubble.

Drive For Rhine

The attack was launched at a new sector of the Siegfried line near Aachen where the Americans already had pierced the enemy defense belt at three places, front line dispatches said.

The new offensive abruptly ended a week of see-saw fighting along tie 400-mile Allied front from Holland to the Belfort Gap.

It took guts for T/Sgt Fred Leno, of Salem, N.J., to call for artillery fire to strike in the area occupied jointly by his platoon and a company of German infantrymen.

His platoon had been caught In an exposed position, pinned down and isolated by the German company. The Germans were looking down the throats of Leno's platoon on three sides and there was nothing other American outfits in the vicinity could do for them.  "Dig deep," Leno ordered as he called for his own artillery.

The artillery poured into the area and when it lifted Leno and his men charged out of their holes in an attack

They killed 12 Germans and captured 32. The rest retreated. Leno's company commander, Capt. George Sibbald, of Cleveland, Ohio, said that action was instrumental in his company's part of smashing the Siegfred Line.

STARS AND STRIPES

Malmedy, Belgium. Dec. 21 (Delayed) (A.P.). - American infantrymen of the 30th Division, who from 4 A. M. until well into this afternoon were fighting German tanks close at hand heard on the radio the other day that the First Army had retaken Malmedy. They think that's queer - because they'd never lost it.

The unit was commanded by Lieut. Col. Howard Greer of Baltimore. His adjutant, Capt. Charles Pritchard of Nelsonville, Ohio, told how troops under Capt. Joseph Reaser, Gettysburg, Pa., assisted by an antitank platoon under Lieut. Roy N. King, Lexington, Ky., fought to a standstill a superior German force whose tanks at one point fired at point blank range.

The Germans launched the attack well before dawn and found the going heavier than they had expected. They rolled off and swung into line again.

Making the most of dense mist and gad fog they wheeled tanks up for direct fire and finally forced the anti-tank platoon, which was the only link between the town and the troops, to pull back to high ground.

For six to eight hours Reaser's troops fought, although cut off from the rest of the unit. Germans infiltrated through their lines at a few points and three of four tanks managed to bust through and overrun their 3inch tank destroyers and some 57millimeter anti-tank guns.

Kept Germans Away.

But King's anti-tank gunners, though their main weapons were lost, kept the Germans away-at the same time firing at enemy armor with bazookas. From batteries on the eastern side of town artillery liaison officer Captain Richard Trouth, Cincinnati, Ohio. called for an available supporting fire.

At the moment of greatest tension when it appeared the Germans would crash into Malmedy Itself, Pritchard mustered headquarters clerks-communications platoon men from the message center, and others --and marched them down to take up frontline positions.

From the New York Journal-American, Friday, December 29, 1944.
By FRANK CONNIFF, International News Service Staff Correspondent.

WITH AMERICAN INFANTRY AT LA GLEIZE, Belgium. Dec. 29. - The shadow of every storied place In American history where our fighting men have drawn a line and said "thus far, and no farther" hovered today over this little town cradled on gently-flowing Belgian hills.

In that Valhalla where all good warriors go, the men of the Alamo, of Bunker Hill and Gettysburg must have prepared a special welcome for the gallant young initiates who joined their valiant fraternity during the past week.

They took their positions among the crooked contours of the Belgian hillside in an hour of utmost urgency. They were hopelessly outnumbered, and they knew it. The sacrifice they were to make would be unsung and unrecorded. They knew that, too.

But the kinship that links patriotism of the past with deeds of the present boasts a continuity that scoffs at the caprice of passing years, a pliant strength that no sophistication ever will really sever.

La Gleize today is ours again. In this pocket we ultimately destroyed tons of Nazi material and annihilated thousands of Hitler's best soldiers. The lightning rapier of Field Marshal von Rundstedt became a blunt and rusty sword as it probed for a soft spot that simply did not exist.

The men responsible died to do it. They were men who battled till the last breath, the last bullet, before the Nazi tide.

They were men of the 30th Division.

By Earl Maw, Stars and Stripes Staff Writer

WITH AN INFANTRY DIVISION, Aug. 7 (Delayed) - Several determined Nazi tank-infantry combat teams, some of battalion strength, broke through a number of points in this division's sector early today and cawed some anxious moments for American troops until they were pinched off and obliterated this afternoon.

Captured German troops said the action was a reconnaissance-in-force in preparation for a general Nazi attack in this area.

The fighting which was preceded by all night Luftwaffe activity and became heated at 0500 hours when a massed German tank attack drove several units of American doughboys out of an important town which they had captured some time before.

One of the first signs of the seriousness of the break-through came at dawn when French civilians frantically stopped every American they could find and screamed "Bon-he, deux kilometres" or "Boche ici."  Meanwhile, the fighting went on furiously in pockets all over the sector. One regimental command Fort, on the verge of being cut off, mustered every available man - mechanics, clerks. cooks - to stave off the attack Lt. Col. Walter M. Johnson, substituting for his regimental commander who is in a hospital, remained at his command post with one officer when it was cut off and almost overrun. Throughout the action, he commanded his unit from this position.

Lt. A. P. Adams, of Savannah. Ga., a regimental liaison officer, was almost hit a couple of times by a German tank. He had the satisfaction of seeing that tank knocked outs by rocket-firing RAP Typhoons.

Aircraft came to the assists of bazooka-firing doughboys at about noon when the mist that hung over the area all morning began to lift. Later the artillery went into action.

Aug 9, 1944

By HAROLD DENNY, (By Wireless to The New York Times)
ON THE NORTHERN PLANK of the Belgian Bulge, Jan. 6-American First Army troops, slugging their way forward at the same slow, dogged pace again today, broke out tonight onto ground that threatens the Germans in the pocket with disaster.
Two of the greatest armored divisions of this or any other army, with fine experienced infantry divisions cooperating with them. struck down close to the La Roche-St. Vith highway, which is one of the only two east-west highways through the gap. At two points the Third Armored Division drove passable roads near its crossing with the highway running southeast from Aywaille and Manhay to Houffalize, important communications center on the Germans' only other escape route eastward. Farther west the Second Armored Division took the long-resisting villages of Devantave, three miles from the LaRoche-St. Vith road, and Odeigne, two and a half miles from this road. We also are getting onto higher ground in this area

Thus our forces are now within edgy shelling distance of one of the Germans' only two life lines in this pocket. Our guns are shelling it now. At the moment the weather is still so bad we have no aerial observation to direct our artillery on specific targets as they roll along the road and no air support. Front-line commanders are praying for clear weather to let our airplanes work. If our fighter-bombers can go into action on German concentrations and convoys on the roads, ground commanders believe they might turn this packet Into another Falaise Gap,' with our aircraft pounding the trapped German divisions to pieces.

For this pocket is beginning to look like a trap now, with the jaws slowly but inexorably closing on the Germans who fought today harder than ever to hold the north and south shoulders open.

Forces on both sides include many of their elite divisions. It can be revealed now that much of the bunt of this offensive is being carried by the United States Seventh Army Corps. It was this corps, under the command then, as now. of Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins, that cut the Cotentin Peninsula, captured Cherbourgh and later spearheaded tine race across the Seine up through France and across Belgium into the Siegfried Line through Aachen to the Roer River. The Eighteenth Airborne Corps. containing some of the finest and most experienced troops, is playing a big role in this battle.

Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgeway. who is famous for carrying his command past "in his hat" and moving his headquarters and his forces at incredible speed, is in command of this corps.

The infantry divisions now in action include the Thirtieth, commanded by Maj. Gen. L. S. Hobbs, Eighty-third. Eighty-fourth and Eighty-second Airborne, all with exceptional battle records. All these tine units, and others that cannot be named yet, are fighting with a skill and valor worthy of their past histories and so, it must be confessed axe some of the German divisions whose gamble has gone bad but who are still throwing in good troops after the lost ones.

On the left part of the line on which our offensive is moving, two great divisions distinguished themselves today. They were the Eighty-second Airborne, which took Nijmegen and important bridges in the Netherlands last September after many earlier exploits in Sicily, Italy and Normandy. and the Thirtieth Infantry Division.

The Thirtieth Division played one of the most dramatic roles in checking the German surprise offensive. Rushed up in the night when the Germans broke through, it arrived just in time to block the Germans' path through Malmedy and Stavelot on the road to Spa and Liege.

In the first three days of the present battle the Eighty-second has advanced seven miles, has retaken eight towns, has captured 1,449 prisoners and has killed approximately 1 880 Germans.

This morning the Thirtieth Division jumped off west of Trots Ponts, crossed the Ambleve River and moved onto high ground overlooking Stavelot - which the Germans have been shelling heavily - and the Salm River.

By Frank Conniff, International News Service Writer
WITH AMERICAN INFANTRY in Ardennes Forest, Jan. 12. - Using GI scissors for a scalpel and sometimes lying on the floor while he worked, a 20-year-old sergeant amputated legs of three Belgian women trapped, in a destroyed air-raid shelter during an attack on Malmedy.

Sgt. Frank Palco, of Roth, Va., a medical aid man, with the 30th Infantry Division, performed the operations as the only way to extricate the victims after deciding their legs were crushed beyond saving by a falling beam.

The women remained conscious throughout the ordeal and urged Palco to perform the necessary amputations. Two recovered but the third, resistance weakened by advanced age, succumbed after being rushed to a nearby hospital in jeeps.

Palco never studied medicine. His sole previous experience besides field work at aid stations has been hygiene courses in high school and at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
'I don't remember how long the operations required;' he said. "I just kept working without thinking of time. I saw their condition was critical and that I'd have to work fast."

Palco was approached on the street by a young girl who begged him to help rescue the women. The girl was the granddaughter of the woman who later died.

"The oldest woman was in the worst shape but she begged me to work on the others first," Palco said. 'I only had scissors but the legs were crushed so badly it was sharp enough to cut through.

"I gave them morphine injections to reduce pain but they still must have been in agony. I only amputated one leg of one woman but the others lost both"

Although he volunteered as a "medic," Palco has no post-war ambitions to become a surgeon.
THE STARS AND S17JM
Jan. 13, 1944

By Kenneth L. Dixon Associated Press Staff Writer

Beyond Stavelot, Belgium, Dec. 21 (AP) - A lot of courageous guys who perished while attacking across rivers all the way from the Volturno in Italy to the Moselle have been avenged here on the bloody banks of a fast flowing mountain stream named L'Ambleve.
All along this northern flank of the enemy's armored thrust into Belgium, the Yanks of the 30th Infantry Division are doing more than holding the line to keep it from spreading. Fighting through fog, snow and mud, they are cutting down crack German tanks and infantrymen by the hundreds and are braced to cut down more.

But the river crossing gave them a chance to reverse the old story of such crossings throughout the war. This time they waited on the opposite bank and literally slaughtered the attackers while they still were plashing in midstream.

"Good hunting," was the grim report of a battalion sent back to headquarters after more than 24 hours of using every type of ammunition available. And good hunting it was.

"Always before they laid on the other side and cut us down," said Major Warren C. Giles of Athens, Tern. "This time we laid and waited. it was like shooting ducks off a pond."

L'Ambleve runs between Stavelot and Malmedy and the cold, clear stream still forms the front tonight on this little sector of the German flank. The only enemy troops on this side of that cold river, some 20 to 50 yards wide are dead, wounded or captured Germans.

It was the night before last when crack enemy troops first tried to storm across the stream.  On the opposite bank lay a unit which made bloody crossings of such streams as the Vire, Seine, Maas and he Wurm since coming overseas.

Up there where. Capt Robert L. Spiler, of Morgantown, W. Va.. had Company B poised waiting, it was not quite that simple. Fog lay heavy on the river banks so the boys hugged the water's edge and waited. The first thrust came at Company B.

They started firing before the Germans reached midstream. More than 50 per cent of the attackers never reached this side. Those that did soon were disposed of.

The enemy tried a new trick of striking farther down but once again' was thrown back. It was daylight then and Capt. Spiker-"A rugged little guy." according to Lt. Grover C. Twiner of Natchez, Miss., pulled Company B back from the bank to give them a wider sweep for their weapons.

Again and again through yesterday and last night the enemy diehards tried crossings. But Company B boys - the same gang that cracked a heavily defended sector of the Siegfried Line Oct. 3 - did not intend to give ground.

They pulled heavy weapons up to a point overlooking the crossing site. Underfoot there was deep mud and snow. Sometimes the fog dimmed targets down below but then the riflemen handled the situation alone. They weed most of their carbine ammunition and yelled for more. Until it came they fitted grenade throwers to their rifle barrels and hurled grenades in the midst of the attacking Germans.

By HAL BOYLE, La Glelze, Belgium, Dec. 28 delayed (AP)- There were nine men in the tiny cellar - five captured American officers and four German guards.  The cellar was nine feet long and four feet wide. It was the first shelter they could find when American guns opened upon a Nazi force trapped in a small town in this sector.

The German guards were frightened. They began to sing to keep up their spirits. They sang the Nazi soldier's favorite sentimental song "Lili Marlene."

They were finishing up one chorus when the first shell hit the shelter. It crashed directly through the wall with a tremendous explosion-and all the singing stopped.

"All four German guards were either killed or badly wounded," said Lt. Scott Youmans of St. Paul, Minn., one of the American prisoners. "We tried to give them first aid as well as we could.

"While one of the 30th Div. officers was trying to patch up one wounded man he himself was killed, when a second shell hit the cellar. We were caught in the middle of a barrage by our own guns. I never knew anything could be that bad in my life.

"In the next 30 seconds, three more 105 millimeter shells struck the cellar or right next to it, rocking the whole area. One of the wounded Nazis began screaming and tried to crawl across me, but he died in a couple of seconds. I could feel his blood running over me, warm in that cold room - but I was afraid to move - his body was some shelter against flying fragments."

The drumbeat of gunfire continued without letup for hours. Youmans lost track of time, living in fear that each second would be his last.  And then Allied planes began to bomb the area with great crunching bursts.  "It got so bad we gave up hope" he recalled. "We felt it was impossible to come out of that hell alive. It kept up for two full days. We hoped at the last for a bomb or hell to hit us and end our misery to set out of that perpetual suspense."

At the end of the two days, the remaining Nazi troops in the village bumped or blew up their vehicles and fled across the Ambleve R!ver. The next morning American tanks and Doughboys came in, freeing Youmans and 21 other Americans imprisoned in other cellars.

"That was the best present I ever received," said Youmans, who, despite his ordeal, promptly returned to duty.

The Yanks threw everything down on the Germans - mortars, machine gun fire and they even called in a near by artillery unit.  If the fog sometimes impaired aim it also concealed them from the river crossers -- as It did for the luckless 36th Division boys at the Rap'do River in Italy almost a year ago.

"We burned out machine guns on them, even some rifles," said Lt. Twiner, "but still some got across the river. They piled up on this side. During pauses the boys mopped out areas where a few managed to get across. Then they got set for the next time."

By WES GALLAGHER
WITH THE UNITED STATES NINTH ARMY IN GERMANY, Nov. 2S (AP).-Three veteran American divisions spearheaded the Ninth Army's present offensive into Germany.
The old "hell on wheels" Second Armored Division, veterans of North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Prance, Belgium. Holland and now Germany, is commanded by Maj. Gen. Ernest Harmon. the scrappy, caustic veteran of Sicily and Italy. The Twenty-ninth Infantry Division fought through three countries under Maj. Gen. Charles Hunter Gerhardt to get in Germany.

The Thirtieth Infantry Division, veterans of St. Lo, who held the vital Avranches elbow under the massive German tank assault near Mortain, is commanded by Maj. Gen. Leland S. Hobbs.

All three divisions jumped off shortly before turn 10 days ago in opening the drive on the Roer Valley.

Took Initial Objectives.

The Second Armored Division, plunging into heavy minefields and fortified positions east of Geilenkirchen captured the initial objectives of Immendorf and Floverich and entered Puffendorf on schedule the first day.

The Germans laid down a heavy artillery barrage and brought up tiger tanks but they failed to halt the Second Armored drive.

On the Second's southern flank the Twenty-ninth moved on Siersdorf and then swung toward Setterich a heavily mined and strongly defended Nazi bastion. The attack had been postponed five days because of bad weather but on the jump-off day the weather was good and the battle troops were heavily supported by thousands of American and British battle planes.

The Twenty-ninth encountered fierce going and measured its progress in bloody inches during the first few hours.

Street Battle In Wurselen.

South of the Twenty-ninth was the Thirtieth which slugged its way forward into the town of Euchen and at the same time started a street battle to oust the Germans completely from Wurselen.

The entire operation was under the veteran Nineteenth Army Corps and its new commander, Maj. Gen. Raymond B. McLain, who formerly commended the Ninetieth Infantry Division.

The Nineteenth Corps had been fighting in Europe under the First Army since eight days after D-day and played a major part in the lost: through France, Belgium and Holland and through the Siegfried line.  When the Ninth Army was se from Brest to Holland the Nineteenth Corps was detached prom the First Army and given to the Ninth to form a veteran unit around which to build the new army.

It was also disclosed that the 102nd Infantry Division, commanded by Brig. Gen. Frank A. Keating, supported the Ninth Army drive.