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DEATH CAME FROM EVERYWHERE
The World War II History
by THOMAS W. HUGHES,
#39 621 672, Tech Sergeant,
U. S. Ninth Army, 29th Division, 116th Infantry Regiment,
3rd Battalion, Company L.
Page 1
FOREWORD AND THANKS
For 55 years I have worked to forget the happening in World War II. Brother Bob recently remarked that some one, sometime might be interested in my story of World War Two. He agreed to put it together and write it for me. After a tremendous amount of work it is complete. I want to thank him and also my wife Darlene for her searching for and bringing back the mementos and old memories of the past. Also, a big thanks to Stephen Ambrose and Bill Arendt for their great books about the war; that brought back so many memories, and motivated many of us old citizen soldiers to break our silence. Thomas W. Hughes, July, 1999 .
Tom's story not only is of interest to his family, it is an important addition to our Hughes family genealogy. Dave Hughes's records show that Tom is the first and only Hughes in our direct bloodline to have been engaged in "hot" front line combat since our ancestors landed in Pennsylvania, July 17th, 1698. I sincerely hope this reconstruction gives a sense of what he experienced; and how his service fits into World War II history. I could not have put his story together without background gleaned from the books Citizen Soldiers, by Stephen E. Ambrose, and Midnight of the Soul, by William F. Arendt. I also want to thank those two great writers.
Lieutenant William Arendt and Tech Sergeant Thomas Hughes served as Platoon and Squad Leaders in the same regiment. Their experiences were parallel and strikingly similar for the first two months of combat. Arendt's "on the ground" depiction is a professional journalist's graphic recounting of experience in the bloody mess and trauma that they both survived. You really need to read it.I don't know how to thank everybody responsible for the unlimited information about World War II available on the World Wide Web, but if you see this - Thank You Very Much. R. R. Hughes, July, 1999
ON FURLOUGH, AT THE HOME RANCH, PROBABLY LATE AUGUST, 1945
INTRODUCTION
The four months that I was in almost constant combat involved two major campaigns. These were the campaigns in Northern France, on the Brittany Peninsula, to capture the seaport town of Brest; and the Rhineland advance toward Cologne through France, Belgium, and Germany. The only memoranda I was able to bring back with me is a fragile, well worn, sometimes illegible, little note pad in which I had scribbled a few dates and names. It was in my wallet when I was wounded. The following chronicle of events is based on those notes plus what I remember about what was happening. We have added certain background information from other sources in order to correlate where I was and what I was doing in relation to the overall war situation.
Death Came From Everywhere
is the title of my own choosing, because that's the way it was.
Thomas W. Hughes, July, 1999
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Campaign Ribbon, above
I was also awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge. It has a special meaning to me, not conveyed by any of the other medals and ribbons that I received for military service. The Combat Infantryman's Badge is a soldier's merit award. You didn't get it because some politician wanted his picture in the paper giving out medals. You earned it, under combat, in the battlefield. World War II Veterans respect the Combat Infantryman's Badge. It meant that you had served in front line combat and knew the real meaning of "fire fight", and that mopping up a town was done with guns and bullets and grenades. And that the top of your head might get blown off when you stuck it through the next hedgerow. How it felt to realize that the next mortar shell could drop in your foxhole. Death could come from every where. And it often did, more times than one wants to remember.
Combat Infantryman's Badge
INDUCTION AND TRAINING, JANUARY 4TH, JULY 19TH, 1944
The U. S. Government Selective Service Office was a department organized to be responsible for what we called the draft. All males, 18 years old or older, had to register with this office. Local Boards were organized for each community and a few well known citizens volunteered their services as Board members; and were responsible for determining who would be inducted into the military and exactly when that would happen. Deferments from induction were granted due to age, physical impairments, and hardship to family, or whether one's vocation was important to the war effort. Young men in good health and not essential in a vital war industry faced certain induction sooner or later. Many joined various branches of the military ahead of being drafted so as to have a choice of service.
Waiting to be drafted meant that you would go into the type of service and to the area of direst need. That is how I ended up in the European Theater of Operations, 9th Army, 29th Division, 116th Infantry Regiment, Company L.
At the time the war started and through the first part of it, I was at home in the Madison Valley area, McAllister, Montana, ranching with my father. Later on when induction started, Dad asked me if I wanted to go. Since that would not leave anybody at home to help with the ranch, I said, "Well, I'll wait until I get inducted and then I'll go."
My induction notice arrived in due course, and I was ordered to go by bus to Fort Douglas, Utah, which I did, along with some others from the valley. We were inducted into the Army on January 4th, 1944. After a three-week inactive period granted for the purpose of getting affairs in order and tending to personal requirements of that nature, I entered into active service on the 26th of January, 1944.
CAMP WHEELER
JUNE, 1944
Page 2
At Fort Douglas we were separated and sent to different areas. I was sent to Camp Wheeler, Georgia, where I took my basic training, qualifying as Sharpshooter, Rifle, in March. I'm not sure how long I was there, but it consisted of rifle training, weapons training, lots of physical conditioning, and lectures on various wartime situations. When I came out of there I was probably in the best physical shape that I have ever been in. I was granted a furlough and I came home for a short stay before going overseas. I can't remember the names of the two boys with me in thebasic training picture, page 1 (I'm in the middle). We didn't seem to form close attachments either in basic training or afterwards. I guess, even in basic, we subconsciously realized that the hurt would be less if the dead guy lying alongside you was not your best friend.
I think there were about seven of us that went from the Madison Valley at that time, I only remember two; one of them was Jack Clark, son of Oscar Clark, the other was Chuck Aaberg. After the war he ran the Sun Ranch. I can't think of who else went, although I do know that more of the boys from the Valley did go.
BATTLEFIELD NOTES
(All dates, 1944)
Following is an exact copy of the notes from the little notebook that I kept, starting when I was sent overseas. It was in my wallet when I was wounded.
#1. July 18 sailed from N.Y.
#2. July 29 landed in Glasgow.
#3. Aug. 4 crossed the channel, landed on Omaha Beach.
#4. Aug. 16, moved to 2 miles from front, Joined 29th there.
#5. August 21 moved up. Started drive on Gulories.
#6. August 25 we took Gulories.
#7. Sept. 4 moved back for repl. 30 men left in L Co. Lost men on hill 103
#8. Sept. 5 moved to Peninsula.
#9. (No date) Took Recouverence
#10. Sept. 14 started drive on Brest
#11. Sept. 20 moved into Rest Area
#12. Sept. 24, went to Holland (started for Liege, Belgium)
#13. Oct. 5, went through Siegfried Line
#14. Oct. 7, set up in Baesweiler(Suburb district north Aachen)
#15: List of Names
The narrative in the following pages was constructed using my notes as basis. The dates I recorded for events occurring during my first two months of combat are corroborated in Lieutenant Arendt's book Midnight of the Soul.
0VERSEAS, JULY 18th, 1944
Note#1: July 18 sailed from N.Y.
Immediately after my furlough, I was sent to Camp Tillmore, New Jersey, and from Camp Tillmore we boarded the boat to cross the Atlantic to England.
The ship I sailed on from New York was loaded with troops destined to be replacements for the heavy casualties suffered on D Day and in the subsequent fierce fighting going on in the hedgerow country inland from Normandy Beach. We sailed from New York on the 18th July,1944; destination the European-African Middle Eastern theater of operations.
It was not an enjoyable voyage. We were shipped overseas in an English boat. It was dirty, it wasn't very big, and it wasn't very comfortable, and the food was lousy. I remember having boiled liver for breakfast one morning, and to a Montana boy, used to bacon and eggs and hotcakes that was pretty tough pickin's. I still don't like liver.
A lot of us got seasick, and quietly got up on the top deck and stayed there for the balance of the journey. We had bunks down below but they were stinky and didn't seem too appetizing. The hold had turnips, and cabbages, and carrots and such stuff in it, and we swiped enough of them to eat on the way over. We slept out on the open deck for the rest of the journey, which as I remember, took about 10 days.
Note #2: July 29 landed in Glasgow
I remember we knew at the time that we were going to England, but we did not know our route or how. As I remember it, we landed at Glasgow, Scotland, and went down to somewhere in England to camp, a soldier's camp, but I don't remember what the name of it was, or where it was. We were at this camp in England for, I would say, from 5 days to a week, regrouping, being issued clothing, ammunition, weapons, having lectures and so forth.
Note #3: August 4 crossed the channel, landed on Omaha Beach
On August 4th we crossed the English Channel to Normandy, landing on Omaha Beach and using the same route to go inland that had been fought for and cleared for us earlier by the 116th Infantry Regiment. The crossing was made in an LCI, Landing Craft Infantry, loaded with replacement troops for the116th which had been fighting through the hedgerows since D Day to the town of St. Lo, and was now in the final phase of capturing it.
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, outstanding 1996 movie, featured the famous 29th Division.
First Wave at Omaha: The Ordeal of the Blue and Gray: OMAHA BEACH, D-DAY, JUNE 6, 1944
From the Heritage series of paintings depicting the National Guard in military action.
Behind them was a great invasion armada and the powerful sinews of war. But in the first wave of assault troops of the 29th (Blue and Gray) Infantry Division, it was four rifle companies landing on a hostile shore at H-hour, D-Day-- 6:30 a.m., on June 6, 1944. The long-awaited liberation of France was underway. After long months in England, National Guardsmen from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia found themselves in the vanguard of the Allied attack. In those early hours on the fire-swept beach the 116th Infantry Combat Team, the old Stonewall Brigade of Virginia, clawed its way through Les Moulins draw toward its objective, Vierville-sur-Mer. It was during the movement from Les Moulins that the battered but gallant 2d Battalion broke loose from the beach, clambered over the embankment, and a small party, led by the battalion commander, fought its way to a farmhouse which became its first Command post in France. The 116th suffered more than 800 casualties this day -- a day which will long be remembered as the beginning of the Allies' "Great Crusade" to rekindle the lamp of liberty and freedom on the continent of Europe.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sfd/omaha.htm
Eventually, when the war was over, the 29th was to suffer a total of 20,111 battlefield casualties, exceeded only by the 4th, with 22,454 battlefield casualties.
Data from: Citizen Soldiers, Stephen Ambrose, page 281
When we landed, Omaha Beach was mess of battlefield debris, not yet entirely cleaned up even though the Invasion had been almost two months earlier. As I remember, there was pretty much a steady stream of LCI boats loaded with replacement soldiers going across the Channel on the day we crossed. The beach was still littered with the steel barriers placed by the Germans to hinder the landing craft.
We were taken to a rest area just outside of St. Lo for unit assignment and for more drilling and learning practice. I think we were supposed to learn all about hedgerow combat but the realistic significance of what we were up against didn't sink in until later.
Lieutenant William Arendt described hedgerow combat in his book Midnight of the Soul. "In my opinion, hedgerow fighting is the toughest in the world, with the possible exception of close contact, jungle warfare. Traditionally, the attacker needs a 3 to l advantage; the Germans showed they could defend successfully in the Normandy bocage country against a 5 to 1 ratio, and the reasons are simple; Each hedgerow is easily defended; hedgerows running at right angles to line of attack offer good retreating shelter to where another defense line can be set up, sometimes even at the next hedgerow; heavy equipment, such as tanks, are virtually useless and artillery is handicapped because of the closeness of the fighting troops. We were fighting for 100 yards at a time." (P. 60)
INTO ACTION
Note #4: Aug. 16, (Wednesday) moved to 2 miles from front, Joined 29th there
August 16th (Wednesday) I was sent to the front with my group and joined the 116th Infantry, just outside of St. Lo. The 29th Division itself, after establishing a beachhead at Normandy, had been ordered to advance inland and take the town of St. Lo. This meant fighting through the difficult hedge row country. After the exhausting battle on D Day, now the 29th had to fight its way inland with no let up or rest.
Our platoon - a platoon consists of 40 men, a squad was 10 men in that platoon, a company had 4 platoons, this is approximate. From then on I don't remember exactly about the balance of the division-how it was made up. I think I was in Squad 3.
From: Citizen Soldiers, Stephan Ambrose. "The Invasion and subsequent hedgerow fighting caused far greater casualties than had been anticipated, especially in rifle companies. By late July the 29th Division had suffered nearly 400 percent turnover in its infantry regiments causing a situation where everybody from cook to clerk picked up a weapon and became a rifleman."
The 29th took five weeks to reach St. Lo, only a few miles inland from Normandy Beach. The 116th Infantry again played a major role in capturing the city. All I remember of St.Lo was that it must have been a very tough town to take. The buildings were almost all blown down. They were stone and brick buildings and the town looked like a huge pile of stone and brick. The town had been under bombing and shelling since July 11th, but even so, the 116th encountered diehard resistance and suffered many casualties.
Page 3
THE CAMPAIGN FOR BREST
August, September, 1944
The Allies' need for ports to sustain the invasion led to the 29th's next assignment. Trucks shifted the division south to Brest where a bypassed German garrison was stubbornly fighting to protect a submarine base. Siege operations reminiscent of the battles of Yorktown and Petersburg started on 24 August and ran until 18 September when the battered garrison finally surrendered." http://www.29thinfantrydivision.com/history/1941-1945
What I remember is that we went by truck from where I joined the 29th, just outside St Lo, to the front line just north of Brest. From then on we fought on foot all the way, and much of it was hedgerow fighting, which was the toughest kind until we learned about it. We lost many men in the hedgerow fighting.
Brest was an important seaport and submarine base at the tip of the Brittany Peninsula, heavily fortified and protected by German forces. Even though cut off and isolated by the Allied drive across and south through the middle of Brittany, Brest was one of the main outfitting and supply bases for German U Boats preying on convoys bringing supplies from America. Also, the Allies desperately needed a deep-water seaport; they decided that Brest had to be taken at all costs.
Allied forces had established frontline positions near the outskirts of Brest, August 7th, but at that point the advance was halted. The drive eastward was to start under General Patton and replacements and supplies had failed to keep pace; stiff resistance had been met from very determined and competent German protectors. Help was needed; the 29th Division was among those detached from the 9th Army and assigned to complete the task of conquering Brest.
MAP FROM MIDNIGHT OF THE SOUL, BY: WILLIAM F. ARENDT
NOTE #5. August 21 (Monday) moved up. Started drive on Gulories (Guilers)
From: Midnight of the Soul, William Arendt (G Company)
August 22nd, Tuesday, P. 70: "The 116th moved several thousand yards to near the town of Guilers, less than four miles from the Brest city limits. The Second Battalion, mine, was last in line, in reserve, and the Third Battalion led the assault. It began meeting heavy resistance towards darkness."(Note: Tom was in the 3rd Battalion, L Company.)
August 23rd,Wednesday, remained in position.
August 24, Friday, same
August 25th Friday, same
Note #6. August 25 (Friday),We took Gulories
From: Midnight of the Soul, By: William F. Arendt
August 26th (Saturday) "By Saturday night, two days later, the Division had decided on an end around play for the 116th. We left our portion of the front to the 115th and swung around to the coastal road on the right of the 175th to attack down the main Le Conquet-Brest Highway, a natural ridge line paralleling the coast and leading directly to Recouvrance, a Brest suburb just north of the submarine pens". p. 73
Note #7: September 4th, (Monday) moved back for replacements. 30 men left in L Co. Lost men on hill 103.
The days were all mixed up at this point; we were exhausted from advancing through the hedgerow country under artillery bombardment, machine gun fire and mortars. At my level, the bottom, we didn't know much about the grand strategy or where we were, let alone where we were supposed to be going. Our concern was getting through the next hedgerow without getting shot in the gut by a German sniper or getting our heads blown off by a mortar shell.
Hedgerow fighting was tough. The hedgerows in the Brest area were especially difficult for us. Solid earthen dikes running crosswise to each other, up to 8 feet high in places, 3 to 5 feet thick, with small alder or brush of some sort growing on top. Sometimes there would be a tunnel like road between two hedgerows. There was no way to see through, and trying to scramble up and over, with all our gear, was next to impossible in some places. We never knew when the Germans were waiting quietly, out of sight on the other side, ready to hit us with machine guns and mortars. We were sitting ducks if caught diving over the hedgerow or trying to scramble through. When the tank dozers (tanks with bull dozer blades on front) were available, that made it a lot easier as they could push a hole for us to run through.
I'm not sure what day it was, I think the next day after we took a little town named Guilers, there was an episode, or whatever you want to call it, which doesn't seem to be mentioned in any of the books. My platoon had just gone up on a little rise, which I think was known as Hill 103. Perhaps I have the wrong number on the hill, I'm not sure of this anymore. But I can describe what happened.
We did not have sense enough, or experience enough, at that time in the hedgerows, to dig fox holes. By the time you had traveled all day, on foot, in the stress of combat, you were tired at night, you didn't feel like digging. So this one night on top of this rise, small hill really, we all just lay down, on our blankets and went to sleep alongside a hedgerow.
In the middle of the night the Germans counter attacked. They moved up very quietly, we heard some motorized equipment but thought nothing of it, thinking that it was our own. All at once all hell broke loose. 88s fired on us, mortars dropped in on us, the big artillery cut loose, and, frankly, we ran like hell to get out of there. There was no cover whatsoever. My rear end caught a little piece of shrapnel which barely required 1st Aid. Nothing to worry about; but a purple heart, the first of two, was sent home to my mother, without explanation, and as I found out later, she was sure I was badly wounded, lying in a hospital somewhere, unable to write.
Down below, after we got out of there, I got together with some other men, who were dazed and disoriented, wondering what to do, and which way to go, so I said we better go see if we could find our army. There were six of us altogether. We went on back until we found some semblance of our company headquarters
PURPLE HEART MEDAL
I don't know how many men were in the platoon at that time, we were considerably down in strength, so there was probably not more than 30. The lieutenant was wounded but returned later to duty in the Aachen area. The only other survivors that I know of were the 5 guys I brought out with me. After we got together with our company commander we were put together with some other units. When asked who led them out, the guys who came out with me all said that I did. That was when I was promoted to Tech Sergeant; although it took about two months to go through channels . In the meantime, I was either squad leader or platoon leader, I don't know which, because we never got up to full strength in numbers.
The next day, or maybe it was two days, I'm not sure, we went back and we took hill 103. And from then on we knew enough to dig in when we stopped at night, no matter how damn tired we were.
This is the way it went most all the way to Brest. We fought through the little towns in the outskirts that I made note of, but I never knew how to spell the names or how to pronounce them for sure.
September 5th, Midnight of the Soul, William Arendt Started night attack, went through La Trinite. Lt Arendt was wounded in this engagement, (page.95). He returned to duty in December in the Koslar area of Germany, one week after Tom was wounded in the same area.
Note #8: Sept. 5, Tuesday, moved to Peninsula. (. This apparently refers to the end around movement described in the quote from Arendt's book. See page 14)
Midnight of the Soul, By: William Arendt, September16th "Fort Montebarey fell on Sept.16. It took flame throwing tanks and combat engineer explosives to penetrate that moated, multi-pillbox fort. After that happened the 116th found itself fighting house to house in Recouvrance, the Brest suburb near the submarine pens. Two days later Brest surrendered."
Note #9: (No date) Took Recouverence
I can't remember that taking Recouverance was any big deal for us. Maybe we had been held back, I don't know. It seems like we only had a little mopping up to do in our particular section of responsibility. The entire area had been under heavy attack, both from the air and ground, and there wasn't much left except rubble. Some of the 116th had to battle house to house, but our company seemed to be in an area that wasn't too bad.
Fort Montbarey was a different story, I think it held out for several days but I can't remember seeing it at all, so I don't think our company came close to it.
Note #10, Sept. 14, Thursday, started drive on Brest.
Taking Brest was a new ball game. We had learned the hard way about hedgerow fighting. Now we had to learn about machine guns and mortars hidden in bombed out buildings and piles of rubble. The town was a mess from heavy aerial and ground bombardment. Even though that had done a lot of the dirty work, it seemed like every house and pile of rubble in our sector had to be cleaned out one by one. We spent several days mopping up. The German defenders were backed up as far as they could go; they either had to surrender or die. Most of them chose to die. It was not pleasant or pretty. Fifty five years later, watching the last battle in the movie, Saving Private Ryan, reminded me all too realistically of how we fought in the ruined town of Brest. The horrible scenes in that movie of a wounded soldier, screaming, with his insides spilling out, are not a movie director's fancy. I saw those things. I don't want to talk about it.
I can't remember ever seeing the water or the port, so my outfit probably never got near the submarine pens.
The seven week siege cost the Americans 10,000 casualties. The city was surrendered on September 19th. The victors marched into a smoking ruin. Seven thousand of Brest's 16,500 homes were destroyed and 5000 were so badly damaged they had to be demolished. German troops on the Crozon peninsula on the far shore of Brest harbor surrendered later that day. German resistance in Brittany outside the Lorient and Saint Nazaire pockets came to a conclusion. The U-boat war was also at an end. The last submarine left Brest on September 4th, 1944. http://members.aol.com/super6th2/cmbtbhist/cmbtbrtny.htm
AMERICAN SOLDIER'S CEMETERY AT BREST
Note #11: Sept.20th, Wednesday, moved into Rest Area.
A rest area could be anything. A rest area could be anyplace, almost. But this particular rest area, I do remember to some extent. It was in an open field and we were able to set up our tents, our little shelter tents, and have dry blankets, and clean socks. At that time we didn't have sleeping bags yet. And we had hot food! The kitchen came up and we had hot food! We dug trench latrines and everything was sanitary there. We did very little, listened to lectures on combat and did quite a little close order rifle drill. However, at that time the officers were pretty easy on us and we did a lot of just laying around doing nothing, perhaps reading a little, letters from home. I think I wrote Mom a letter from there.
We didn't know it at the time, of course, although we had seen the last of the hated and feared hedgerow country, we would soon see more deadly house to house combat in the German town of Aachen. We also soon were going to learn a whole bunch of new combat techniques - like how to become invisible in a cabbage patch.
The men of the Blue and Gray deserved a rest, but after only six days they moved by train across France and Belgium to a part of Holland near the German border. http://www.29thinfantrydivision.com./history/1941-1945.html
The "V" letter on this page caught up with me later on, and I almost wore it out carrying it in my wallet. I only vaguely remember this particular incident of helping a wounded fellow soldier out of a hedgerow and getting him into the hands of the medics. Incidents of that nature were so commonplace in the hedgerows that I was surprised that anybody had been resourceful enough, and thoughtful enough, to take down my name and number; and even more surprised that I received the letter at all.
THE RHINELAND CAMPAIGN
October, November, 1944
Note #12: Sept. 24, (Sunday), went to Holland.
We were shipped to rejoin the Ninth army. I remember a long ride in a cattle or horse car. I also remember going through Paris at night on those same cars. That was all I saw of Paris. Those cars were called 40s or 10. That meant 40 men or 10 horses per car. Wasn't a fun trip. France did not impress me as a place I ever wanted to go back to, and I haven't.
I'm not sure whether we got off the train in Holland, or maybe at Liege, Belgium. But anyway we went immediately to the Ninth Army's sector of the front. I remember an exhaustive all day and all night march at about this time. Trucks usually showed up if we had any distance to go but there must have been too many of us so we walked.
I think the First and Third Armies were to the south of us and Montgomery's troops were to the north. The boundaries between were inconclusive and overlapped, especially at places heavily defended by the Germans, such as Aachen..
Note #13: Oct. 5, (Thursday) went through Siegfried Line
About going through the Siegfied Line, as I remember, it was a real easy deal for us. Some of the other companies, divisions, ran into pure hell, but where we went through, the German's had already deserted it. We were quite well equipped by this time and we rested a little. We held up, I remember, one day before we went through the Siegfied Line.
I have in my little outline that we went through the Siegfried line on Oct. 5th. I remember this very well because of an incident that happened, not an incident but the order I got. We were camped probably a mile from it and I was ordered that night to take a night patrol through the line to see what we were going to be up against. I took three men with me and we patrolled the line for about a mile on our front. Other places had had a bad time getting through it. It was heavily fortified and quite a little fighting but through our good luck the Germans had left, had pulled out and left our end of the line so we went through the pill boxes at night, looked everything over pretty well and couldn't find a single German soldier. So the next morning we went through; just walked through it without any problems.
Page 148, Citizen Soldiers, Ambrose, "by Oct.7th, the Americans had made a clean break through the Siegfried Line north of Aachen. They linked up, surrounding Aachen, with the 1st Army on Oct. 10th. The 1st Army cleaned out downtown Aachen Oct.21st."
Note #14: October 7th, (Saturday) set up at Baesweiller
My official promotion to Tech Sergeant finally came through here. I had received a battlefield promotion back at Brest and had been an acting Platoon leader or Squad leader ever since, depending on how many men were available and whether or not we had a Lieutenant. We didn't have one most of the time; they seemed to be the target of choice for the Germans. The Lieutenant we had at the beginning of the Brest campaign was wounded in the hedgerow country. His replacement only lasted a few days, and our original Lieutenant was wounded again almost as soon as he rejoined the outfit.
Baesweiller was actually a part of Aachen. We had been fighting in Aachen and it was a bad one, too. We were held up there several weeks, I don't know how long; due to a gasoline and supply shortage, I think, and maybe waiting to see how the fighting south of us came out. During that time we set up platoon headquarters, my lieutenant and I, and stayed there. We had our troops set up in foxholes or whatever good shelter they could find in outskirts around the platoon headquarters.
Our platoon headquarters were in the basement of a house and the German family lived upstairs. They were friendly and did not treat us as enemies. I thought they were really good people. I enjoyed them, they were nice folks, even though Germans.
Note #15: List of Names
(The last note in my little book was this list of names. They were the members of my squad in Aachen and up until the time I was wounded.)
Lubinskwe, William, 33765051 Gr.(Gr. Indicates grenade launcher).
Newell, Arthur R., 36780194 B.A.R. (B.A.R. indicates Browning Automatic Rifle)
McReath (McRreath-?) Harrison 39_48165 Ass. B.A.R (3rd number illegible)
Mason, Albert D. 35874833
Retzer, Richard R. 33494132(Lined out)
Sgt. Hatley, Ben A.34891125, (wounded later, Koslar engagement)
Epstein, Theodore, 32027085, (see text below)
Culley, Merle K. 13086562 Gr. (lined out)
Hopkins, Roland B. Jr. 33873861
Zumbehl, Clarence, 37137679
Szabanowski, Anthony, 31386542 Gr.
Two of the names, Retzer and Culley, had a line drawn through them, they had either been wounded or killed. Sgt. Ben Hatley's name appears in the wounded on the same casualty list as my name did, so he was wounded in the same engagement and about the same time that I was.
On the 16th of November the Allies began the biggest air assault of World War II (2,400 bombers) in the area south of Aachen. The 1st Army launched an assault on the pill boxes and other fortifications of the Siegfried Line, clawed it's way past Hill 287, and through the heavily defended fortress towns and cities to the banks of the Roer River opposite Duren. North of Aachen the 9th Army was keeping steady pressure on its sector of the front and pushing towards the Roer River and Cologne. See Koslar area map.
It was my duty as Squad Leader to take patrols as necessary to scout the front line to see what was going on. I might make one little mention here about patrols. They were dangerous - survival depended on complete alertness and caution. You never knew where a hidden machine gun would be, or maybe an enemy patrol out doing the same thing you were. I felt sorry for most of the city raised kids that found themselves involved, with very little training, in a thing like this. At least I had had some experience stalking game in the Montana mountains, and knew how to move without making noise, take advantage of cover, and above all, to see what I was looking at. Maybe I owe my life to that.
Regarding patrol duty, I want to say something about Theodore Epstein. I can't remember for sure where he was from, around Chicago, I think. He was a tall, slim, man, probably 6 foot 4, and not too heavy, a school teacher where he came from, and he wasn't the type of a man you would think would be in combat at all. I tried some of the other boys on a couple of patrols and they didn't work out too well. I thought, well, I'll take Theodore with me. He turned out to be one of the best men in combat I was ever with. Never faltered, was never behind you, it was amazing and very gratifying to have a person like him with me.
As a side note, I might mention that we preferred to carry the German P38, Semi Automatic pistol. It used the 9mm cartridge, same as the Luger. This was a good reliable, lightweight gun and we could pick up ammunition almost anywhere on the battlefield. The one I had, as well as my backpack, was lost when I was wounded. I carried a 30 M1 carbine, which shot the 30 carbine cartridge, a much shorter and lighter arm than the M1 Garand, 30-06, which we were issued. The carbine was against regulations for me to carry, but being lazy, I didn't carry any more weight than I had to, and over there nobody was checking the arms we were carrying. The Army finally woke up and now the infantry carries a light-weight rifle in 223 caliber.
At night we would set up outposts, out beyond our foxholes and line of defense, as a first warning, depending on the terrain and where the enemy was. The last of my notes show that we were operating one and two man outposts. One of the notes indicates that I and Mick Brown took Outpost #1 from 1 am to 3 am. and that I had Outpost #2 from 3 am to 5 am in the morning by myself. We were now advancing towards the Roer River and Cologne. It was in the area north of Aachen, out towards Koslar, where I was wounded
"Sitting in front line fox holes was bad, being on Out Post was worse, going on combat patrol was worse than that. Battalion commanders on both sides ordered patrols, sometimes to take prisoners for interrogation, often just to give the men something to do. Such patrols proved that the commanders were aggressive. Company commanders and platoon leaders - not to mention the men - hated night patrols."Stephen Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, p.267
It must have been about this time, in the drive towards Cologne, that I was involved in an unreal, almost comical, incident. Our outfit was halted for a rest and K ration snack, and while everybody was relaxing I wandered over to a deserted farmhouse and looked in a window. To my amazement, inside were 5 German soldiers sitting around a table playing cards, completely oblivious to our presence.
Now what? If I yelled to alert the company, it would warn the German's and all hell would break loose. My chances of getting out of there were not so good. On impulse, I side armed a grenade through the window and hunkered down to see what next. To my amazement, all 5 Germans, unhurt, came piling out with their hands up, scared to death, faces white as a sheet. The Company Commander, Captain somebody or other, I've forgotten his name, said "Good job, Tom", and went on back to whatever he was doing.
KOSLAR AREA ENGAGEMENT, NOVEMBER 23rd, NOVEMBER 28th, 1945
WOUNDED, November 23, 1944
We were about 20 Kilometers (12.5 miles) northeast of Aachen when we got into a battle that the casualty lists called the Koslar and vicinity engagement. As I remember we were proceeding through an agricultural district with field after field of produce of different kinds. I remember cabbages and sugar beets especially. We didn't seem to be really expecting an ambush but all at once a machine gun opened up from somewhere and I went down along with others. I think this was the beginning of a fierce fire-fight that went on for several days and resulted in many casualties. I'm not sure of the outcome really, because I was out of it.
Excerpt from: Midnight of the Soul: " ..........the northern flank of the Ninth Army (the 29th Division) which on November 16th had commenced a major offensive in the Aachen sector (Ed. note, actually it was a bit north of Aachen, in the flatlands leading to the Roer River) but failed to make a breakthrough."
One or two things that I do remember after I was wounded. I looked down at my leg, where I was hit. One, the right leg I could see just a hole through it, above the knee, on the other I could see flesh, blood, and bone, and everything sticking out. The pain wasn't too bad, and I can remember at the time, I thought, and this was a relief, really, I won't have to go up to the front again now, I'm through. Thank God. That was my feeling about it. I had seen this feeling on the faces of so many wounded soldiers and I understood it completely. I couldn't help it. I was so relieved because I knew I would not have to go back to the front again.
I laid there in the cabbage field, or whatever the hell it was, maybe sugar beets, for about an hour, and finally a medic came. One came alone, on foot, first, and gave me first aid, the pain was pretty bad, but the feeling of relief was so overpowering that pain was secondary. He moved on to help other wounded soldiers and told me to lay quiet and he would be back. I never saw him again. About that time mortars opened up and shrapnel started flying around and he may have gone down too, I don't know. While I was lying there completely without cover, I got hit with two pieces of shrapnel, one piece is still in my chest. A doctor asked me years and years later, after taking x-rays, if I knew I had a piece of metal in my body. I told him, "Yeah, I know it."
The front had moved on a little ways, I could hear machine guns and mortars going full blast. Finally more medics came with a jeep. The Jeep had a stretcher strapped on each front fender. They put me on one of the stretchers, another boy on the other one, and took us out.
Koslar area engagement, November 23rd to November 28th, 1944.
Tom was wounded on the very first day of this battle which lasted for several days and resulted in many casualties. His name appears on the casualty list for November 23rd. The division fought ahead to the banks of the Roer River but had to hold up and not attempt a crossing until the next spring. The Battle of the Bulge started in mid December and effectively halted front line progress until February, 1945.
I don't know where we went or exactly how we were transported or shipped from the battlefield. I do remember being on a stretcher train and going through Ireland and Scotland on our way to Glasgow. It seemed like almost all of the 29th was shipped from and came back to Glasgow.
From Glasgow, we shipped across, I can't remember what kind of a boat, to England. In England I was put in a hospital and stayed there for maybe two weeks, more or less, where they gave me rough surgery, straightened my leg out a little bit, and put a cast on it. After that, I don't remember the date, we were loaded on the Queen Mary, which had been converted to a hospital ship, and shipped to New York.
I landed some where in New York, I don't remember where, or the name of the camp we were put in. I was in the hospital for a short time and while there I was glad to see a familiar face when an old friend of my folks, Ben Brinton, who lived in New York, came to see me. I don't remember how long I was there.
MONTANA STANDARD, BUTTE, MONTANA, SUNDAY JANUARY 21, 1945
IN HOSPITAL -- T/Sgt. Thomas W. Hughes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas S. Hughes of Ennis, has been returned to the United States from the European War Theater. He is a patient in Halloran general hospital, Staten Island, N. Y., receiving treatment for wounds received in action. Before entering service Sgt. Hughes had been engaged in the cattle business with his father. He entered service in Feb. 1944. Overseas he served in England, France and Germany and is the holder of the Purple Heart medal with one oak leaf cluster.
The Battle of the Bulge started in mid-December. The 29th was not primarily in the battle of the Bulge; it had met fierce resistance at the Ruer River only a few days after Tom was wounded and had to hold position. It's function then was to keep pressure on its section of the front to keep as many of the German soldiers as possible from going south and joining in the Battle of the Bulge. In the spring of 1945 the Division broke through to Cologne, capturing thousands of prisoners, and was in a favorable position to advance on Berlin when the order came hold up and wait for the Russians who were advancing on Berlin from the east.
The first stage for the Allied armies, after the Germans had been driven back from the Bulge, was to reach the Rhine River. To accomplish that, they had to break through the west wall in the south and cross the Ruhr (Dutch Roer) River on the north. The Germans had flooded the Ruhr Valley by opening dams and the Allied armies had to wait for the water to subside. The U.S. Ninth and First armies finally crossed the Ruhr on February 23rd.
I spent a little time in NY being reassigned and then, in January, they sent me to Barnes General Hospital in Washington State, right on the Oregon border, near Portland. I was there until about the 1st of August. I don't have the exact dates for that information. They operated on my left leg at Barnes and let me heal up until I was in quite good shape. The bullet hole through the right leg had healed right away and never did bother me much.
The shrapnel hits were minor and I had already forgotten about them.
I remember a very poignant moment in the train trip when they shipped me from New York through Butte, Montana, out to Barnes General Hospital. There I was, 90 miles from home and I couldn't stop. But anyway, not too long after that, as soon as I got able to walk with a walking cast, I was allowed a furlough and got to go home for a short time.
Some family friends from the Valley, Maurice and Myrtle McDowell were working in Portland at that time and they came to see me. I could take the bus to Portland and visited with them quite often. Bob and Naomi came to see me from San Francisco where they were living. All in all, Barnes was good to the wounded soldiers; we were pretty much allowed to come and go as we chose. Those of us who were able could take the bus to Portland for a night on the town. A friendly taxi driver was always available if we couldn't make it to the bus to come home.
After spending my healing up period of time at Barnes General Hospital, I was shipped to Santa Barbara, California, to a resort for rehabilitation. I think I was allowed to stay there for two weeks and then they were going to reassign me to a new area. However, the Army seemed much laxer and easier to get along with now, and I talked to a Captain in the reassignment center at Santa Barbara and I told him I would like to be reassigned to Fort Douglas, Utah, so I could be closer to home. Sure 'nuff, in two or three days my orders came through to be shipped to Fort Douglas.
I was reassigned to the section that took care of the boys that were coming home from overseas. Reassignment Center it was called. There I handled the paper work for them. This was a nice assignment for me because I could come home on a three-day pass on the train. I had to use a little extra time but nobody ever complained. cared.䀏
After the assignment there, it didn't seem like I was doing too much and Dad kinda wanted me to come home so I could help with the ranch. He arranged a furlough somehow, maybe through the draft board. I don't know how this happened exactly, to come home, but I was discharged from the Army at Fort Douglas and I came home for good.
THE REST OF THE STORY
The next important event in my life was that I married the red headed Darlene Harris, who was a little girl when I left, but now was grown up. We took over the home ranch, allowing my folks a well deserved retirement. We spent the first 15 years of our married life ranching in Madison Valley, in which we had both grown up, and starting our family. In1969 we moved onto 240 acres in the Bitterroot Valley of Western Montana, near the River and Mountains. Our family all live nearby, including our kids, their kids, and their kid's kids.
Lots of times, back there in 1944, I thought that my chances of seeing great grandchildren were nil. A Combat Infantryman did not have much of a future. The next bullet or piece of shrapnel might not whistle on past. The next hedgerow or deserted house could blow up in your face. Death did come from everywhere - for whatever reason, it missed me!
TOM AND DARLENE HUGHES
My mother said at the end of her autobiography for Pioneer Trails,
"........I hope everybody realizes that I did my best".
Is there a better ending for anybody's story?
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ADDENDUM
Tom's war experiences booklet, DEATH CAME FROM EVERYWHERE, has been accepted by the Eisenhower Center for Amrican Studies, New Orleans, September 1999.
A brick in his honor is in in the Ennis, Montana, Veteran's Memorial
ENNIS VETERAN'S MEMORIAL BRICK