Aachen: The U.S. Army's Battle for Charlemagne's City in World War II (54 page)

He was an inadvertent spokesman for the confused loyalties which motivate many of the German officers now passing through our POW cages. As a soldier of 28 years’ experience and discipline, he obeyed orders from higher echelons without question of default. On the other hand he was aware of the military futility of many of these orders and appreciated the dismal situation of the German army today as a product of the rattle-brained strategy of his Commander-in-chief, Hitler. The climax of this conflict came when the Colonel, after two hours of interrogation at the prisoner of war cage, broke into tears while discussing the present position of Germany in the war.
⁵⁰

In spite of his weakened emotional state, Wilck refused to reveal the location, nor the identification or composition of other German units outside of Aachen. But he was perfectly willing to discuss his own defense of the city. The American's use of the 155 SP guns provoked “considerable consternation.” Wilck told his captors “a shell from one of them pierced three houses completely before exploding and wrecking a fourth.” He then revealed that he had taken command right after the ultimatum to surrender was delivered back on 10 October. When he was asked why he had not surrendered the city at the time, Wilck sternly replied that his “conscience, plus the prospect of a generalship, forbade it.” This begged another question. Asked why he had declined to inform his superiors of Aachen's surrender, he explained that with no word from him, Corps
would presume he was killed in action, and therefore not responsible for the defection. “I wish I had been killed,” Wilck said. “It is difficult for a German officer of 28 years’ service to end up in a prisoner cage.”

It was while discussing the dissimilar situations of the American and German armies that the emotional catharsis overtook the Colonel. The fabric of the German army, he said, is disintegrating at an ever-increasing rate. The most critical shortage exists in officer material. Not only do present organizations suffer from this lack of troops, but there is no prospect of improvement. As for the quality of troops, the Colonel pointed out that one only had to consider the 689th Regiment of his division, all of which was physically unfit for combat.
⁵¹

Asked if the overall German soldier's tolerance for fighting was at a low, Wilck gave a surprising answer. “Even if you surround them in pockets, the German soldier will fight to the end to carry out the Führer's orders.” Silenced followed, for Wilck had certainly not done this himself; moments later he added, “The only cement which holds many German officers in place is fear, not only for their own lives, but of reprisals against their families at Himmler's hands.”

Then, perhaps thinking of his own wife and children,
Oberst
Wilck's final gesture was to look directly at his captors and say softly, “Only America can save us now, as I don't believe in miracles anymore.”
⁵²

C
asualties during the battle for Aachen were about equal. German divisions suffered approximately 5,000 killed or wounded. An estimated 5,600 others were taken prisoner in and around Aachen; 3,500 either surrendered or were captured in the city. U.S. losses exceeded 3,000 in the 30th Infantry Division alone. The 1st Infantry placed their casualties at 1,350; 150 were confirmed as killed. The total number of Americans who lost their lives during the five-week period approached 1,000, including those reported by the 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions.

In “The Battle of Aachen in Memory of the City: From Capitulation to the Liberation (1944–2014),” Dr. Peter M. Quadflieg, a current-day Aachen historian, traces the way the people of Germany have interpreted the end of World War II. He points out that over the past seventy years a “reinterpretation” has evolved of the problems Germans have had with the historical date and the public discourse that has since led to seeing the cessation of hostilities in early May 1945 “as a day of liberation from war and Nazi dictatorship. In parallel with these patterns a regionally shaped culture of remembrance developed in Aachen. The surrender of the city on October 21st, 1944 has been reframed as an act of liberation.”

Americans always saw it as such. The solemn words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, sent to the mothers and fathers of U.S. soldiers who lost their lives during the Aachen fight, framed their losses some seventy years ago:

He stands in an unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die
That freedom might live, and grow, and increase its blessings.
Freedom lives, and through it, he lives—
In a way that humbles the undertakings of most men.

A
s in my previous book, I have relied heavily on primary source material that was recorded immediately following the Aachen fight. Other reliable sources included monographs written by U.S. officer participants when they conducted Advanced Infantry courses at Fort Benning, Georgia, right after the war. Unit histories written during the same period, often necessarily sentimental, were culled for quotes that materially contributed to a better understanding of the content about the actions described in this work.

Identification of German units came from several primary sources: reliable translations of Corps and division-level after-action reports; interrogations conducted with prisoners of war at the time they were captured and their American translators; and interrogations of German generals who participated in the Aachen battles, conducted when they were taken into captivity near or at the end of the war. Most reliable were accounts written by Hans Gunther Guderian, 1st General Staff Officer of the 116th Panzer Division, after May 1944 in his later book
From Normandy to the Ruhr
. Any errors in German unit identification found in this book were either misstated in U.S. reports or mine.

In describing topography in the city of Aachen and surrounding towns, I used what was found in primary source material. Some of this may seem difficult to follow, as the Aachen area today is much different than it was in 1944. I made every attempt to remain faithful to how it was seen through the eyes of the combatants at the time. Such was the case in identifying street names, particularly in Aachen proper. Some do not exist today, but I used the same map relied upon by American commanders in 1944 to identify their unit locations and the streets they attacked through. Again, any errors are solely mine.

Finally—names. Wherever possible, I provided the full name of combatants, both American and German, when they are introduced in the book. Much effort was made to confirm spellings, often in error or inconsistent in after-action and other reports written in 1944. Here again, if a name is misstated, it was my error.

Abbreviations

Following is a list of abbreviations used to identify the archival repositories from which records were retrieved, as well as military units, words, and other phrases.

CHAPTER 1

1
.  3rd Armored Division History, Roetgen, Germany and the Siegfried Line; www.3ad.com/memoirs.pages (accessed November 2007).

2
.  3rd Armored Division History, Chapter III Rhineland; www.3ad.com/history (accessed November 2007).

3
.  Situation Report for Reserve Grenadier Battalion 328 to LXXXI
ArmeeKorps
, 12 September 1944, Feldgrau postings March 2006 from feldgrau.net, provided to author 27 March 2006 by Mark J. Reardon, CMH.

4
.  William A. Castille,
Siegfried Line—Task Force 1 (Lovelady) 12–25 September 1944
, Documents on CCB, 3rd Armored Division 1943–45, including manuscripts compiled by Capt. William Long entitled:
War Diary, Combat Command B, 3rd Armored Division
; USAMI, July 1980, 2–4.

5
.  Lt. Fred L. Hadsel,
Engineers in the Siegfried Line Penetration, Combat Command B 3rd Armored Division, 12–22 September 1944
, 2nd Information and Historical Service, 1st U.S. Army, C-1-264-407-427 Box 24089, NA, 4. In describing engineering operations author also relied on
Engineer Operations by the VII Corps in the European Theater, Volume IV, Pursuit into Germany
, Office of the Chief Military History General Reference Branch, provided to author by Mark J. Reardon, CMH.

6
.  Hadsel, 5–7.

7
.  
Generalmajor
Paul Wilhelm Mueller,
Account of the Deployment of the 9 PZ Division for 11–19 September 1944
, Historical Division, Foreign Military Studies B-345, USAMHI, 1945, 1–2.

8
.  Ibid., 6.

9
.  
First United States Army Report of Operations
, 1 August 1944–22 February 1945, The Battle of Germany 10 July 1946, CMH, 51–52

10
. Samuel W. Mitcham,
The Siegfried Line, The German Defense of the Westwall, September–December 1944
(Stackpole Military History Series; Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2009), 48.

11
.
General der Infantrie
a.D. Friedrich August Schack,
LXXXI Corps 4–21 September 1944
, Historical Division, Foreign Military Studies B-816, USAMHI, 1946, 19–20.

12
. Mueller, 5.

13
.
Generalleutnant
Paul Mahlmann,
353 Infantry Division, 9–18 September 1944
, Historical Division, Foreign Military Studies B-232, USAMHI, 46–47.

14
. Major Murray H. Fowler,
Spearhead in the West
, Supplement, G-3 Official Record of Combat, History of the 3rd Armored Division in World War II, 1946, www.3ad.com/history/wwII/spearhead.west (accessed November 2007).

15
. Mueller, 7–9.

16
. Lt. Fred L. Hadsel,
Siegfried Line, 3rd Armored Division, Combat Command B, Task Force 1 (Lovelady), 12–25 September 1944
, Interviews with: Lt. Col. William B. Lovelady; Capt. George Stalling; Lt. V. L. McCord, CO Company E 36th Armored Infantry Regiment; Lt. J. L. Haldeman, CO Recon Company, 33rd Armored Regiment; Lt. J. W. Wilson, 1st Platoon, Recon Company, 33rd Armored Regiment, NA, 4–6.

17
. Interview with Lieutenant Robert M. Ells,
Engineers in the Siegfried Line Penetration, Combat Command B, 3rd Armored Division, 12–22 September 1944
, NA, 9.

18
. Ibid.

19
. Interview with Lt. G. W. Burkett and Lt. Heril L. Brown,
Siegfried Line 12–25 September, B Company, 703rd Tank Destroyer Battalion
, Dorsey, T/4 R.C., Breinig, Germany, NA, 1.

20
. Schack, 17.

21
. Warren C. Giles, Company B, 117th Infantry, 30th Infantry Division—Tennessee National Guard, www.30thinfantry.org/unit_history_117 (accessed November 2007).

22
. Elements of the German Seventh and Fifteenth Armies suffered approximately two thousand killed and thirty thousand captured around Mons Belgium in early September of 1944 when the 3rd Armored and 1st Infantry Divisions came through the area. Gen. Omar Bradley maintained that “this collision at Mons cost the enemy his last reserves…it was this little-known victory at Mons that enabled First Army to break through the Siegfried Line and within six weeks take the city of Aachen.” Omar N. Bradley,
A Soldier's Story
(New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1951), 408.

23
.
Generalleutnant
Hans Schmidt,
275th Infantry Division (5–14 September 1944)
, Historical Division, Foreign Military History Studies B-372, USAMHI, 1945–1954, 1–2.

24
. Ibid., 4.

25
. Ibid., 7–9.

26
.
After Action Reports, Headquarters 119th Infantry, 1 October 1944
, 330-INF, NA, 2–3.

27
. Schmidt, 9.

28
. Lieutenant David F. Knox,
Journal of David F. Knox, Company L—119th Infantry Regiment, 20 August 1944 to 08 May 1945
, 9–10.

29
. Schack, 18.

30
.
Generalleutnant
Gerhard Engel,
12th Infantry Division, First Battle of Aachen, 16–22 September 1944
, Historical Division, Foreign Military Studies A-971, Translated from German by F. Lederer, 27 March 1946, USAMHI, 21.

31
. Ibid., 18–19.

32
. Ibid., 1–4.

33
. Heinz Gunther Guderian,
From Normandy to the Ruhr with the 116th Panzer Division in World War II
(Bedford, PA: The Aberjona Press, 2001), 141.

34
. Ibid., 142.

35
. H. R. Knickerbocker, et al,
Danger Forward: The Story of the First Division in World War II
(Atlanta: Albert Love Enterprises, 1947), 257. According to a Company D account, “Charlie Company men were the first foot troops to cross the German-Belgian border on 12 September 1944 at 1515 hours,” letter, Eric Gillespie to Harley Reynolds, 3 February 1998, MRC.

36
. H. D. Condron,
Penetration of the Siegfried Line by the 16th Infantry Regiment 8–22 October 1944
, 2nd Information and Historical Service, 407-427-Box 24012, WWII Operations Reports, Combat Interviews, NA, 2.

37
. Guderian, 130–31. Lt. Col. Edmund F. Driscoll received the Silver Star for gallantry in action 12–23 September 1944.

CHAPTER 2

1
.  Guderian, 142.

2
.  Translation of Evacuation Order—District KOLN Aachen—
Instructions for Evacuation of Residential Sections
, ANNEX to Periodic Report #122, Headquarters First Army, Office of AG of S, G-2, APO 230, 10 October 1944, 1.

3
.  Guderian, 142–43.

4
.  Ibid., 143.

5
.  Ibid., 132.

6
.  Hadsel, based on interview with V. L. McCord, 7.

7
.  Interview with Lt. George E. Conley,
Engineers in the Siegfried Line Penetration, Combat Command B, 3rd Armored division, 12–22 September 1944
, C1 264-407-427-24089, NA, 1.

8
.  Ibid., 5

9
.  Lt. Fred L. Hadsel,
Siegfried Line, 3rd Armored division, Combat Command B, Task Force 1 (Lovelady), 12–25 September 1944
, 7–9.

10
. Castille, Siegfried Line—
Task Force 2 (King) to 14 September
, 2–4.

11
. Interview with Lt. Robert M. Eells, Company B 23rd Armored Engineers, and Sergeant E. C. Henagan, Engineers in the Siegfried Line Penetration, CCB 3rd Armored Division, NA, 10.

12
. Ibid., 11.

13
. Lt. Fred L. Hadsel,
Siegfried Line, Combat Command B, Task Force 2
, Commander: Lt. Col. R. H. King to 14 September, NA, 6.

14
. Hadsel,
Task Force Lovelady
, 9–11.

15
. AAR,
67th Group, Armored Field Artillery, 3rd Armored Division
, September 1944, C1-264-467-427-24089, NA, 9.

16
. Lt. Fred L. Hadsel,
Notes on Enemy Order of Battle
, Siegfried Line 12–25 September 1944, Combat Command A 3rd Armored Division, C1-264-407-427-24089, NA, 1.

17
. Mueller, 10.

18
.
Cracking the Siegfried Line
, Task Force Doan, Combat Command A, Third Armored Division, 13–19 September 1944, Interviews with Col. L. L. Doan and Lt. Col. William R. Orr, NA, 2–3.

19
. T/4 R. C. Dorsey,
Interview with Lt. Ralph L. Henderson
, 1st Platoon, A Company 703rd TD Battalion, Task Force X, CCA, 3rd Armored Division, 2nd Information and Historical Service, VII Corps Team, First US Army, C1-264-407-427-24089, NA, 2.

20
.
Cracking the Siegfried Line
, 2.

21
. LTC Andrew Barr,
Spearhead in the West
, Breaching the Siegfried Line, www.3ad.com/history/wwII/spearhead.west (accessed November 2007).

22
. Doan Interview,
Cracking the Siegfried Line
, 3.

23
. Vic Damon and Dan Fong, Clarence Smoyer, E Co., 32nd A.R., 3rd Armored Division,
My Combat Story
, www.3ad.com/history/wwII/memoirs.pages/smoyer.pages (accessed November 2007).

24
. Doan Interview,
Cracking the Siegfried Line
, 3.

25
. Ibid., 4.

26
. Capt. Armand R. Levasseur,
The Operations of the 1st Battalion 26th Infantry 1st Infantry Division during the Initial Penetration of the Siegfried Line in the Vicinity of Nutheim, Germany, 13–20 September 1944
, Advanced Infantry Officers Course 1947–1948, TISFBG, 13.

27
.
Stolberg—Penetrating the Westwall
, 1st Battalion 26th Infantry Regiment 13–22 September 1944, 26th Infantry Regimental Association, 1999, MRC, 12.

28
. Henderson Interview, 4.

29
.
Stolberg—Penetrating the Westwall
, 12.

30
.
Spearhead in the West, Breaching the Siegfried Line
, www.3ad.com/history/wwII/spearhead.west (accessed November 2007).

31
. Schack, 26.

32
. Mahlmann, 48–49.

33
. Mueller, 10.

34
. Ibid., 12.

35
. Lt. H. D. Condron,
Penetration of the Siegfried Line by the 16th Infantry Regiment 8–22 October 1944
, WWII Operations Reports, 2nd Historical Division, 407-42-24012, NA, 3.

36
.
Journal, 3rd Battalion 18th Infantry Regiment
, 13 September 1944 entry, MRC.

37
. Guderian, 134.

38
. Lt. John Baumgartner, 1st Sgt. Al De Poto, Sgt. William Fraccio, Cpl. Sammy Fuller,
16th Infantry Regiment 1861–1946
(Millennium Edition; Du Quoin, IL: Cricket Press, 1999, MRC), 116.

39
.
Generalleutnant
Hans Schmidt,
275th Infantry Division 5–14 September 1944
, Historical Division, Headquarters US Army, Europe, Foreign Military Studies Branch, MS B-372, USAMHI, 10.