Grandpa Lee joined his unit (104th Division, 414th Regiment, 2nd Battalion, F Company, 1st Platoon) on November 16, 1944 in Stolberg, Germany. He had no almost no infantry training and was brought on as a replacement for some unnamed G.I. who was injured or killed during the 104th Division's (the Timberwolves') brief campaign in Holland. His new regiment was on division reserve that day, assembling and preparing to jump off on the attack the following day. They were near Busbach, a suburb to the south of Stolberg. Here, Lee was outfitted for combat, given a standard issue M1 rifle, and was given the assignment of platoon runner. His job was to relay messages from the Platoon Leader to the Assistant Platoon Leader (Platoon Sergeant).The active regiments (413th and 415th) attacked on the 16th after the largest air bombardment of World War II. They made almost no progress that first day. The Corps commander, General J. Lawton Collins and U.S. First Army CO, General Courtney Hodges both expressed serious frustration with this relatively green unit's performance. Hodges commented, "The 104th still has a lot to learn." Collins visited the 104th Div. command post in Aachen and told Division Commander General Terry Allen in no uncertain terms to "get moving, and get moving fast."
On the 17th, the 414th was activated and began to advance toward the front line. Lee's company was on the regiment's right flank, fighting alongside the 3rd Armored Division. The battalion was given the assignment of clearing the high ground south and west of Hastenrath, Germany, a small town south of Eschweiler (which was the Division's first main objective).
Frank Perozzi, a member of Lee's platoon that day, remembered: "It was a sunny day of attack. We moved forward through a pine forest. It was very scary not knowing when we would be shot at." The photo at the top of this post was taken by an Army Signal Corps photographer on November 17, 1944. It is of F Company, about 1 mile from the front lines near Hastenrath. Buck Private McBride is one of those men trudging along through ankle-deep mud, approaching the dreaded front. I've wondered what must have been going through his mind at that moment. This move forward took place under intermittent air and artillery fire, which forced the men of the Company to hit the deck to avoid dreaded tree bursts.
F Company's first objective (labeled #18 on the battalion's map overlay) was a crossroads, just outside the small village of Werth. The satellite photo below shows that crossroad, the first (western-most) of two on the Hastenrather road between Albertshof and Werth. As they approached their objective, the began to draw heavy German artillery and mortar fire. As grandpa memorably put it: "I could hear things whizzing by my head and plunking into trees and later found out it was artillery. So you see, I had a great introduction into combat."
Fortunately, the rifle he was carrying had a grenade launcher rather than a bayonet. When came within striking distance of the crossroads, Captain Bowman (F Company CO) ordered a bayonet charge, in which Lee could not participate. At one point during the fighting, an American plane strafed the road and the field to the north of the road with "friendly" fire. This near miss (F Company was dug in the field to the south of the road), prompted Capt. Bowman to use smoke to signal to the planes that they were not enemy troops.
The fight for the crossroads lasted the rest of that day, and most of the 18th. By the end of Lee's second full day, the company had reached objective 19, the crossroads just to the east. They buttoned up for the night on the outskirts of Werth, but were notified very early the next morning that they would be relieved by another unit and redeployed at the front and center of the regiment's attack on Hastenrath and Volkenrath.
As they approached Volkenrath, they were expecting a guide from the company they were relieving who was to show them where to deploy. The guide never arrived and they walked into the wrong part of town and were greeted by a well-entrenched enemy. The battle featured house-to-house fighting and some tank support from the 750th Tank Battalion. One tank almost backed over Jim Allen, one of Lee's good friends in the platoon. They spent the night after this attack lying in mud puddles and shallow foxholes (the ground was too wet to dig a proper hole), hoping they wouldn't get hit by artillery bursts, and listening to the screaming of those who were hit.
F Company edged slowly northward. They crossed the Inde River between Eschweiler and Weisweiler. The 413th Regiment was attempting to attack eastward toward Weisweiler but were being held up by Germans holding a position on a tall hill east of Eschweiler. The dominating German position had observation over the entire valley between the two towns, including the routes of the 413th Reg. and had made good use of this advantage by raining down mortar and machine gun fire on the road.
The hill, which was wooded around the base, was used as a slagpile for several of the many lignite (brown coal) mines in the area and there were tunnels and bunkers cut into the hill. The attack to the east could not continue until several companies of the 414th eliminated that enemy position. They attacked on November 12. Lt. John Light of E Company recalled hearing from some of his friends in F Company who participated in that attack. They threw explosives and grenades into the tunnels and holes, waited for the smoke to clear, and ran in to the flush the enemy out. By the time they seized the hill, all they found were some German civilians who were hiding in the tunnels. Most of the enemy soldiers had retreated.
The morning after this battle, F Company members enjoyed a breathtaking view of the industrial city of Eschweiler, from the top of the hill, looking back to the west. Eschweiler had been almost completely destroyed. There were still a few large buildings standing in the middle of town. Frank Perozzi remembered seeing large red crosses painted on the top of these buildings. Looking to the east, they could see across the valley to Weisweiler, and watched American fighter-bombers strafing German positions there. There were also fired at regularly by German 88mm artillery guns located across the way.
