UNKNOWN SOLDIERS: Reliving WWII in Europe

more in each pile. There were also many hundreds dead along the route we marched— killed by our artillery.”²⁷

That night the Krauts attacked again, captured an F Company platoon and H Company’s crews and heavy mortars, and liberated German prisoners.

At two o’clock in the afternoon of February 23, as the remnants of our Second Battalion began their withdrawal from the Caves—the walking wounded and guys with trench foot dragging themselves along in the rear—the Germans opened up on the retreating column, as it filed through the draws and ditches, with savage and prolonged machine-gun fire. Most of the men of G and F Companies in the lead were able to crawl along on their bellies and make their way back to safety, but the handful that remained of E and H under Captain Sparks, under heavy fire from close range, were killed or captured. Of E Company, only Sparks got away with what was left of the Battalion; he was joined two days later by Sergeant Leon “Doc” Siehr, who had fought forty-eight hours with the British after the broken unit was relieved. Captain Peter Graffagnino and his medics refused to leave the Caves and were captured with their wounded.

By February 23 the German command knew they couldn’t break the Beachhead. The 157th moved back into Division reserve to reorganize and train replacements. General Lucas was officially relieved of the Sixth Corps to his relief and replaced with his deputy, Lucian Truscott, the former commander of the Third Division <!-- who was, as Blumenson put it wryly, “unlike Patton, sufficiently junior in rank to be no threat to Clark.” -->[This portion of the page contains copyrighted material and is available in the print edition, but is not available online.]²⁸

Of the 713 enlisted men and 38 officers of Second Battalion, 551 and 23 respectively had been killed, wounded or captured or were otherwise unaccounted for. The counter - attack cost the 45th about 400 killed, 1,000 missing in action and 2,000 wounded—a total of 3,400 men.

In the first month of the Beachhead the Division’s casualties were calculated at 5,709 men. The Allied forces lost 2,000 killed, 8,500 missing and 8,500 wounded. Enemy losses gaining a 1,000-yard bulge of drained marsh were believed to be comparable. Division artillery fired 129,732 rounds.²⁹

On February 29, perhaps because it was Leap Year, the Germans attacked again, this time on the Third Division front, but were out-gunned, manifestly weaker, and repulsed. On March 4 General Mackensen’s 14th Army assumed the defensive.

Back in hospital with time on his hands, Jerry Waldron answered a letter from my father received just before he went on the OP:

I lost my steadfast belief that I was immune to German steel, receiving a couple of “Whistling Willie” gifts in the shin and under the arm . . . The hospital has been wonderful, both in rest and treatment, and they are even going to let me carry two small pieces in my leg to prove that I have been hit (allowing shrapnel to remain if small enough is a common practice of this war).

Joe is the life of the platoon, and I think, if he was a very quiet boy before Army days as he says, you will find a changed man. He is, as you know, a natural mimic, and he kids everyone. The only guys who ever get mad are the guys who can’t take it, and since you can count them on your ears, you don’t care about them. Joe says that