Page Two
"SCRAP BOOK"
FEBRUARY 1945

ARTILLERY AIDS 30TH's DRIVE

(Reprinted from New York Times) WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE, July 10 (AP) 

Hard driving American troops including the 30th Infantry Division, broke out of the bottleneck on the western side of the Cherbourg Peninsula today with the backing of one of the greatest continuous artillery barrages of this war.

Guns crashed and thundered all night and day and German prisoners taken from muddy foxholes were shaken and numbed by tons of explosives.  The greatest advances were made on the eastern and western ends of the twenty-five-mile front running from the Vire River to the sea. The Americans opened a broad exit in driving south of La Haye du Puits along the road toward Lessay.  There was quiet at last around the much-shelled bridge at Carentan, which had been the major link between the western and central beachheads, as the advance put the bridge out of range of enemy guns.

All along the American line from the Vire to the sea the Yanks were smashing at the Germans in a cold drizzle. Fog hung over the marshy lowlands.  In the shelling there rarely was a time when 100 rounds a minute could not be counted.  Guns, trucks and armor rolled along the muddy roads, churning up a brown ooze. The long columns caused one to marvel at the mass of equipment concentrated in Normandy, which a short time ago was only a beachhead.

South of St. Jean de Daye 30th troops were supported by tanks and armored vehicles, which patrolled roads and lanes, guns spraying the enemy's hiding places in trees and hedgerows.

The fighting moved south of Cavigny in this sector after the Americans yesterday beat back a German counter-attack in which twenty enemy tanks were used.

Pinned in Foxhole Mud

"Our artillery kept the Germans in muddy foxholes for three weeks and they were rarely able to get out," said a 30th Division Officer "They say they never experienced anything like our artillery fire, which keeps pouring in day and night."
Prisoners said they had been able to get only one hot meal a day and that that was delivered at night from kitchens in the rear.

One fanatic prisoner from an Elite SS unit boasted that the Germans would win the war. "But he changed his tune when he got to the rear areas and saw our equipment and supplies along the road," said Capt. John Carbin of 389 Communipaw Avenue Jersey City N. J. "He began wilting and became more dejected every mile. I never saw a man change so fast."

A 30th Division Officer said the Germans not only were booby-trapping bodies of the dead but "even booby-trapped the body of one German that wasn't dead. When the Americans approached he raised up and showed them the booby trap wire which would have blown him up if anyone had moved him."

'Lefty' Gambles And Nazi Loses

Sgt. Kenneth L. Skaggs. 30th Div. soldier from Clinton, Mo., staked his life on the hunch that he could shoot better left-handed than a German sniper could right-handed. Cornered in a doorway, Skaggs decided to shoot lefty so that as little of his body as possible would be exposed.

"I knew the German was using a bolt action rifle and that if he missed on his first shot I'd have time to get one in before he fired again." Skaggs said "Sure enough, he missed, and the one I squeezed off was all right. His helmet flew one way, his rifle another and he fell dead."
THE STARS AND STRIPES

30TH PRAISED BY GENERAL

Special to The Stars and Stripes WITH THE 30TH INFANTRY DIVISION

After 49 consecutive days of contact with the enemy, the commander of this division told his men they had met "face to fare and licked the best the Germans had to offer."
The 30th, known since World War I as the "Old Hickory" Division, made one of the wedges that brought on the breakthrough above St. Lo and resulted in the current successes all along the American lines in France.

Previously the 30th had crossed the Vire River in a spectacular night move that brought infantry, engineers and artillery together in a closer coordination than was ever thought possible.

The commander, in talking to his men, pointed out that despite as many as three vicious German counter-attacks at times in one day, the 30th had moved forward "and only forward from the day we went into action."

The Old Hickory, originally a Carolinas and Tennessee division won battle honors throughout the first World War, received 12 of the 78 Congressional Medals awarded in that war, and served as a spearhead in breaking the Hindenburg Line.

100 Belgians Are Murdered
Stavelot, Belgium - (Delayed) -(AP)

Army officers estimate that fanatical Nazis SS (Elite Guard) troops slaughtered without provocation at least 100 Belgian civilians during the first few days of the recent German breakthrough.

Acting mostly under direct orders from German officers to kill all civilians encountered, Hitler's pampered troops clubbed, shot and burned to death men, women and children without cause.

As the American Army began to contain the sudden offensive, however, trapped enemy columns were kept so busy fighting for their lives they had neither leisure nor ammunition for murdering civilians.  "But we know positively of 63 Belgian civilians they killed in the Stavelot area," said Capt. Melvin H. Handville, former state trooper from Syracuse, N. Y., and a 30th Division officer, who investigated German atrocities in this area. "We have confirmed reports of similar killings in other sectors."

"Their S.S. troops have been more cruel here than anywhere else. We heard of many instances in other places where they shot down Belgian unarmed men for no reason,
but this is the first place I have known them to kill women and children."

The Germans practiced similar excesses in this area in August, 1914, when they matched across Belgium. In addition to atrocities against civilians in the Stavelot area, German troops probably massacred more than 150 American troops.

The State Department has officially protested the slaughter of 135 out of 150 American unarmed soldiers lined up in a field and machine gunned near Malmedy. In other cases American truck drivers, trapped by fast moving panzers, were pulled from vehicles, disarmed and ruthlessly shot.

ST. LO FALL RESULT OF 30TH ACTION
By Hal Boyle (Reprinted from Nashville Tennessean)
WITH THE AMERICAN TROOPS IN NORMANDY, July 21 - (AP) 

The 30th Infantry Division - "Old Hickory" - of World War I fame shared in the glory of the capture of St. Lo, hardest American clash with the Germans in the battle of France.

Troops of the 29th Division did the actual storming, but men of the 30th made the attack possible by a spectacular and smoothly executed dawn crossing of the River Vire to anchor the American right flank and tie up strong German forces west of St. Lo.

This predominantly southern outfit - it originally was drawn from North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee but now numbers men from every section in the union moved directly from the beach to battle.

Elements of the division which participated in three Allied drives in the last war and helped crack the Hindenburg Line, smashed against the Germans June 15 south of Isigny, and on the second day commanded the Canal de Vire et Taute.

For the next three weeks they held a static battle line.  Then July 7 under cover of heavy barrage, they forded the Vire in small rubber boats at dawn and bayoneted shell-terrified Germans in foxholes on the other side.

Cracking through stiffening resistance by the Germans, the 30th advanced steadily through tricky hedgerows, taking successively St. Jean de Daye, Cavigny, Pont Hebert and Mesnil-Durand.

In the latter stages of the battle for St. Lo the 30th threw back a series of bitter tank and infantry counterattacks by the Nazis.  The grim, determined fighters of the 30th Division, who shared in the glory and victory that accompanied the capture of St. Lo, have live up to the motto, "Break Through,' which appears on the regimental insignia of the 117th regiment of the historic infantry division.

Approximately 2,000 Tennessee National Guardsmen were called into service under the colors of the 30th Division when the guard was mobilized into the regular army in September, 1940.

The Tennesseans were hardened in Precision infantry tactics at Fort Benning, Ga., after their mobilization.  Its first chief distinction came on Sept. 22, 1918, with a smash through the famed Hindenburg Line. So attached were the men to the unit that after its disbandment following World War I most of the men enlisted under its colors in the National Guard and carried its enviable tradition through the beginning of the present emergency.

HEROES APLENTY PROVE SELVES IN 30th's TANK BATTALION
THE 'RED HOT' 743RD

By Earl Mazo
Stars and Stripes Staff Writer WITH THE 30TH INFANTRY DIVISION, Aug. 11 

Independent units, some of them the hottest in the American Army, are being lost to public notice in the shuffle of mighty divisions and corps.

Typical of these is the 30th's attached 743rd tank battalion made up almost entirely of north westerners and commanded by Lt. Col. William D. Duncan, of Sioux Falls, S.D.
This unit fought its way ashore 10 minutes before IT hour on D-Day, received a Presidential citation for subsequent operations, and since has "rested" altogether about 5 days.

A regular hell - for-thunder outfit which has developed tank operations in support of doughboys to a fine art, the men of this battalion point to four sergeants who were given battlefield commissions, a mass of DSCs and Silver Stars and well over 50 German tanks and self-propelled guns knocked out as proof they're good.

And they talk with pride about men like T/4 William A. Paulhamus, a mechanic from Williamsport, Pa., who worked under the worst hell of enemy fire imaginable on the beaches to put five knocked-out tanks back into the battle; and Pvt. Irvin H. Reddish, of Lincoln, Neb., a tank dozer driver whose vehicle was the only one of six left ashore on D-Day.  Reddish's dozer commander was wounded in the landing, so Reddish dragged him from the tank turret under fire to comparative safety 125 yards away, then returned to take command of his vehicle and lead it in every fight from then on.

Orlyn H Folkstad, a youngster from Clinton, Minn, is one of the battlefield commission men. When his platoon leader was killed on D-Day, Folkstad took over. He also took command of his entire company when the company commander was wounded.

Gerard B. Peterson, of Perley, Minn., Floyd M. Jenkins, of Jamaica, Iowa, and Millard A Glantz, of Melbourne, Iowa, have won battlefield commissions by similar actions.

During a recent fight near Tessy, Lt. Harry F. Hansen's company. which had only five tanks left of. the number it started with, was pinned in an "unhealthy" position by terrain and a couple of heavy German tanks up ahead. The Baltimore, Md., officer crawled from his tank and, with two bazooka-firing doughboys, sneaked into an empty building behind the German vehicles. Accurate bazooka fire knocked out both of them, but as Hansen and the doughboys headed back they noticed a concealed German 105mm self-propelled gun. The Germans spotted Hansen and started shooting with everything they had. He stuck, though, and directed artillery fire that wiped out the German gun.

Stories like that are a dime a dozen in the battalion.

Lt. Col. Duncan, originally the battalion's operations officer, took over on the beach after his CO was hit by shell fragments. In the next 12 days his unit fought in support of five different American regiments from the British sector to Carentan.
THE STARS AND STRIPES
Aug. 12, 1944

30TH FIGHTS IN A CASTLE
WITH THE 30TH INFANTRY DIVISION

After prodding 59 Germans out of a Siegfried Line bunker, S/Sgt. Raymond Ross, of Bristol. Conn., and another man of his squad topped off a nightmarish two days of fighting by holding the bunker while counter-attacking Nazis ranged outside the entire night.

Following a hazardous river crossing and a hand-to-hand battle in the rooms of a fortified castle, Ross's squad, part of E company of the 119th Infantry, attacked the bunker.

The squad members crawled over 250 yards of open ground through falling shrapnel and machine-gun fire. They hacked their way through the bunker's barbed wire entanglements, crawled across a deep ditch surrounding it and went in on the bunker's flank,

Forced Nazis to Yield

Pitting their M1s against light and heavy machine guns and 37mm antiaircraft guns depressed to command the open ground in front of the strongpoint, the eight men forced the surrender of the Nazis manning the bunker.

While six of the Yanks took the prisoners back, Ross and Pvt. Michael Drotter, of Haven, Pa., remained to hold the objective and fight off enemy counter-blows.

Germans manning the Siegfried Line in the vicinity of Windhausen probably were amazed at the uncanny accuracy of the artillery fire which their every movement produced.

The 30th Infantry Division attributes a great part of the unerring shooting to the activity of an I and R platoon of the 117th Infantry. which for five days operated an OP inside the German lines.

The sharp-eyed soldiers, who put the finger on every enemy movement, worked in two teams of six men each. Under cover of darkness, the Yanks moved in and out of the OP, which was 1,200 yards in front of their own lines.

Watched Nazis Eat

Only about 300 yards in the rear of the American OP, the Nazis had three OPs of their own, according to Lt. George S. McClanahan, platoon leader from Ashland KY.
"We could see everything the Jerries did," said Sgt. Harold V. Sterling, of Berkley, West Va. "We could see them eating, sleeping hauling ammunition and moving from one pillbox to another."

Other members of the teams were S/Sgt. Thomas Colosanto, Richmond, N.Y.: Sgt. Robert Cooper, Syracuse' N.Y-: Cpl. Robert Schrage, Parkersburg, Iowa and Sgt Philip Schultz, of Pittsburgh.
STARS AND STRIPES

In These Days It's No Bargain

S/Sgt V. D. Woodward, of Rector, Ark., has found that American cigarettes can be swapped for almost anything. While the 30th Infantry Division's 119th Regiment was slugging its way through the Siegfried Line, Woodward's squad captured a German. In a mood to barter, the Jerry offered to trade three more Nazis for three cigarettes. "It's a deal," Woodward said. Then the German disappeared and soon returned with three soldiers, one of them his first sergeant.

HEROES IN LIFE'S BIG GAMBLE
By HAROLD V. BOYLE.
With the U.S. 30th Infantry Division, Belgium, Jan. 8 [AP-Delayed in Transmission]

Two American officers, both heroes who had gambled for life and death on the battlefield, stood tensely over a deck of playing cards.

Now they were pitted against each other in another great gamble-for home leave.
Both Major Ralph Kerley, of Houston, Texas, and Capt. Joe Reaser, of Gettysburg, Pa., were entitled on the records to a 30-day leave in the United States-the goal of every fighting man in this man's army but there was transportation space for only one.

Colonel Tries To Decide

Realizing his responsibility, Col. Branner P. Purdue, of Fayetteville, Ark., commander of the 120th Infantry Regiment, carefully checked each officer's record.

He found each. had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart.

Each had fought in the famous St. Lo breakthrough last July 25, each had served in the 120th's "Lost Battalion" at Mortain, France; each was in the line when the 30th cracked the Siegfried Line north of Aachen. Each fought in the Roer River offensive that opened November 16. Each sped to MaImedy on December 17 to help halt Field Marshal von Rundstedt's winter drive.

"Cut The Cards"

"I can't choose between you," said Purdue. "Cut the cards." So the two young heroes leaned tensely over the cards. They cut.  Kerley turned up the ace of spades, the top card in the deck. "I have always been lucky," he said, looking regretfully at Reaser.
on one other occasion Kerley was decidedly lucky. That was at Mortain, when the German commander demanded the surrender of the 120th "Lost Battalion."

His Answer Curt

"You go to hell," Kerley told him. "I wouldn't surrender if our last round of ammunition was fired and our last bayonet broken off in a Jerry belly."

A MIX-UP BUT 30TH WINS
By Marrow Davis
Stars and Stripes Staff Writer. 

The boys in a company commanded by Capt. Edward E. McBride, of Somerset, Ky., like to tell about a little argument which grew out of a misunderstanding, flowered in confusion and resulted in loss to the Wehrmacht of two officers and 38 EM replacements, plus some new equipment up Bardenberg.

This situation developed at night after the company was cut off during an advance. McBride was forced to establish his company in a tight little knot and await relief.
At one position, with a light machine gun covering the road, was posted Sgt. Joseph E. Price, of Augusta, Ga. He heard people approaching and a voice call. "Surrender, comrade." Price answered, repeating. "Surrender, comrade." The German group hove into sight, led by a Captain and a lieutenant.  The latter spoke English.

Price stepped aside and motioned the Jerry to precede him,  "You go first," said the lieutenant.  "We'll treat you nice."  Right there PRice realized each side believed the other was surrendering.  And then the fun began.

Price killed the German Captin with his pistol.  The light machine gun began to chatter.  Next morning there were eight dead Jerries in the road, the aid station was filled with German wounded and the remainder were prisoners.

30th MAKES OWN BOOTS

With the 30th Inf Div
Boots made of salvaged blankets, toboggans of discarded lumber and sheet metal and snow suits of "requisitioned" materials are aiding infantrymen in beating the knee deep snow in the Belgian hills south of Malmedy.

All supplies and wounded, form company back to battalion, are being carried on make shift toboggans pulled by soldiers.

The Toboggan-Transport is the brainchild of Capt. Thomas Hooper, Brewster Mass., 120th Regt. Asst. S3, who spent the last two winters training in Northern Michigan.  Capt. Hooper is working on a plan to use sleighs and sleds pulled by weasels - small wide-tracked vehicles especially designed for work in the snow.

Col. B. P. Purdue, of Fayettsville, Ark., the regimental commander, designed the boot.  It is made of three thicknesses of blankets and is worn in foxholes and dugouts.  Frostbite and trenchfoot have been cut down considerably.
STARS AND STRIPES
JANUARY 30, 1945

119th PATROL CHECKS CRIME
WITH THE UNITED STATES 1ST ARMY SOUTH OF MALMEDY, Jan. 13 (AP)

The frozen, bullet- shattered bodies of more than 100 Americans who were captured and then slaughtered in cold blood by the Germans, were found today in a snow-carpeted field near the village of Geremont, a mile south of Malmedy.

The wanton slaughter, which was first disclosed by a handful of survivors, was confirmed by an infantry patrol which went out at night, located the field and dug into the snow. There the bodies were found, many still with their hands over their heads.
The bodies of the American, members of an artillery observation battalion, had lain in the field since they were mowed down after being captured by Germans who over-an positions in the breakthrough of Dec. 16.

The American infantry patrol, from the 119th Regiment of the 30th Division, counted more than 100 bodies. Because they were working in the dark, they were unable to give a more exact figure.

The enemy outrage was attributed by Lt. Col. Harold Hassenfelt of Oconto, Wis., to an armored reconnaissance outfit of the 1st SS Panzer Division. That is the same unit which has been charged with numerous unprovoked murders of Belgian civilians.

Note: The article concerning the 119th Infantry 30th Division in the scrapbook section entitled  "119th Patrol Checks Crime" is incorrect. The men who found the massacre at Malmedy were from CO B of the  120th Infantry Regiment on a patrol of some 70 men to find a prisoner to interrogate. To verify this contact Frank Towers at TowersFW@aol.com who is Executive Secretary of the 30th Division Association or checkout the "History of the 120th Infantry Regiment" on page 137.  My husband Paul E. Winson was on that patrol as a Combat Medic and I am Editor of the Co B 120th Infantry 30th Division Newsletter. Thank you. Marlene Winson

30th Pinches Nazi Bulge

PARIS-(AP)-A general assault by the U. S. First army broke Jan. 13, all along the 30-mile northern flank of the Ardennes in a great bid to cut off from the Reich the German armies that evaded disaster this week with a lightning withdrawal to the center of their Belgian bulge.

In initial gains of up to two miles, the First struck from a new sector toward St. Vith-next logical enemy rallying ground-and tanks to the southwest reached a village only a mile from what once was the center of the salient.

As tanks and infantry battered south through the treacherous, snowbound Belgian forests, clearing weather turned loose Allied air might for heavy blows at communications and fleeing enemy transport spotted east of St. Vith, four miles from the German frontier.

Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges' general attack struck the Germans before dawn.
The 30th Infantry Division charged out from positions between Stavelot and Malmedy, 10 miles northwest of St. Vith, and swung south nearly a mile without encountering resistance, a front dispatch reported.

This was a brand new drive aimed at the easternmost German position inside Belgium.