The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 130

OETIifl The Tampa Tribune, Friday, December 16, 1994 Front lines before the battle Front on the morning of Dm. 16, 1944 Cllf Allies (Germans At 5:30 am. on Dec.16, 1944, the Germans opened fire on the U.S. 1st Army in the sector of the Western Front The Germans, hoping to seize Antwerp, fought 60 miles into the Ardennes before being pushed back by the Allies. The German counteroffensive lasted from Dec.1 6 to its high point on Dec.

24, 1944. Rundstedt's counteroffensive In Ardemiies snow Front line on Dec.16, 1944 cC German attacki- Front line on Dec. 24 and 25 BELGIUM rn i rrX fill Brussels Front line on night of Dec. 20 U.S. Corps and divisions counterattacks 13 I JJ it i Some American unit locations mArmd Dtv.

lAeUSfTNamur The outcome KU raw FRANCE By Jan. 20, 1 945, the German armies were back at their starting point In 34 days of fighting, 100,000 of the original 250,000 German soldiers were killed, wounded or imprisoned. Eight hundred of their tanks and at least 1 ,000 aircraft were destroyed. Of the 600,000 Allied soldiers, 81 ,000 Americans and 1 ,400 British were casualties. Luxembourg To the U.A.

Commander in the encircled town of Bastogne: The fortune of war is changing. This time the U.S.A. forces in and near Bastogne have been encircled by strong German armored units. There is only one possibility to save the encircled V.S.A. troops from total annihilation: that is the honorable surrender of the encircled town.

In order to think it over, a term of two hours will be granted beginning with the presentation of this note. If this proposal should be rejected, one German artillery corps and six heavy A.A. battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S.A. troops in and near Bastogne. The German Commander 22 December 1944 To The German Commander: NUTS! The American Commander By JAMES OTIS JOHNSTON Tribune Staff Writer Brig.

Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, commander of the trapped 101st Airborne's "Screaming Eagles," beamed as he scrawled his response onto the paper. It was so typically American, so in-your-face GI. Col. Joseph H.

Harper, commander of the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, loved it, too. He volunteered to forward the message to their German emissaries ST Eupery I OA WEST commando who had rescued Italy's former II Duce, Benito Mussolini, in September 1943. Many of Skorzen-y's men were dressed as GIs and equipped with a few captured tanks, arms and identification papers. Their job was to seize bridges, commit sabotage and create dismay in the American rear. The units were alerted for movement on Dec.

12. To muffle the sound of traffic, wagon wheels and horses' hooves were padded with straw, and low-flying aircraft zoomed over to drain out engine noises. By Dec. 15, they were ready for the jump-off. Gen.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was in good spirits at his headquarters in Versailles, France, on Dec. 15. That morning he received official word of his promotion to the five-star rank of General of the Army. A few hours later, he received a radio message from British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, who wanted Ike to pay up on the bet they made that the war would be over by Christmas 1944.

In his light-hearted response, Ike told Monty that he would not get his five pounds until Christmas day. Monty also was planning on visiting family in England over the holidays. Ike gave his blessing. Meanwhile, Sgt. Tony Cardinale of Tampa and the rest of the "Old Hickory" 30th Infantry Division were being pulled from the front lines, and moved several miles into the rear.

"My platoon grabbed as many mattresses as we could find, and we lined them up in this big house," he said. "We were going to lay down, rest and listen to some boogie woogie on the piano." At Bastogne, Maj. Gen. Troy Middleton was concerned that the 85-mile front assigned to his VIII Corps in the Ardennes was too thinly held. Gen.

Omar S. Bradley, commander of the 12th Army Group, said, "Don't worry, they won't come through here." On the morning of Dec. 16, three German armies struck through at the Ardennes in the darkness. Cardinale and the 30th were soon back at the front. 20 km 1 5X? rv r.

fr i i ux 4V EJ I 1 1 BvverDomoni LA. ClnevXAf fElj who were under close guard. There was no way the elite, all-volunteer 101st would back down, even though the paratroopers were tired a fourth of the unit had been killed or wounded in Holland three months before. They had spent the last few weeks resting, but the German attack three days earlier forced them back to duty, to support other units already in place and in danger. Bastogne, Belgium, was a crossroads town, a junction of five main McAuliffe FRANCE Source: 2194 Days ot War, An Illustrated Chronology ot tha Second World War.

Consulate General or Belgium; US. Army Center of Miliary History APCarl Fox All along the front, American units were awakened by the thunder of artillery. GIs leaped from sleeping bags, grabbed their weapons and dived for foxholes. When the shelling let up, the morning mists were bathed in an eerie glow as the Germans bounced powerful beams off low-hanging clouds to light up the American positions. Through this "moonlight," the German infantry advanced in white camouflage suits.

Skorzeny's advance units failed to cause the confusion they desired behind the lines although Eisenhower became a virtual prisoner, placed under triple guard after rumors spread there would be an assassination attempt. Also, a few U.S. officers quizzed by sentries were temporarily incarcerated as suspected Germans for not knowing the right information on certain baseball teams. Many of Skorzeny's men eventually faced a firing squad for their deceit. The German armies received greater assistance from the long spell of fog and overcast clouds, which protected them from concentrated air attacks.

The U.S. ground forces responded slowly and the Germans eventually created a salient 50 miles deep, giving the action its name, the Battle of the Bulge. German Gen. Hasso Freiherr von Manteuffel's 5th Panzer Army, which crashed through the U.S. 28th and 106th divisions, enjoyed the greatest success, as his forward units came within six miles of the Meuse.

But he could not go farther; Bastogne was still in enemy hands, By early January 1945, the front line in the Ar-; dennes was almost back to where it was before the German offensive began. It took a month of fighting and about 100,000 Ger-' man casualties before it was over. The Americans lost 81,000 soldiers killed or wounded; the British, in a much smaller role, lost 1,400. Their deaths helped the Western Allies win their; largest battle against the Germans, a major strike to-; ward bringing down the Third Reich. survived and, wounded, made a dash to a nearby wood.

About 12 reached a cafe; the Germans set fire to the building and shot the men as they stumbled out. When the report of the "Malmedy Massacre" reached Allied headquarters, it was at once made public. "After we found out, we were rough on German prisoners, we kicked them in the ass," said Cardinale, who with other men found more than 72 of the frozen bodies near Malmedy on Jan. 1, 1945. "We were all angry, ready to take on the whole German army." When the battle was over, Peiper's men had murdered 353 servicemen and 111 civilians.

(Peiper would have a death sentence commuted after the war, but would be murdered in 1976 by French assassins.) and three secondary highways that was critical to the advancing German armies. As he read the note, German Lt. Helmuth Henke became confused. Nussee were things you cracked. "Is the reply affirmative or negative?" he asked.

"It is decidedly not affirmative," Harper growled amid the snow and biting cold. "If you don't understand what NUTS means, in plain English it is the same as 'go to And I will tell you something else if you continue this attack, we will kill every goddamned German who tries to break into this city." The four Germans saluted stiffly just before they turned toward their lines. "We will kill many Americans," Henke said. "This is war." "On your way, bud," Harper said, "and good luck to you." Harper bit his tongue. He would often wonder why he said that as the Battle of the Bulge continued.

In August 1944, Adolf Hitler's Third Reich was facing almost certain defeat. The Russians had destroyed 25 German divisions in Poland and Romania. In Italy, the Allies were attacking the last German defensive line before the Alps. American and British forces had wiped out two German armies after breaking out of the Normandy beachhead. Suddenly, in early September, all three Allied drives came to a shuddering halt: Their supplies could not keep up with their racing armies.

The Germans took immediate advantage of the respite. The daily briefing for the Fuhrer on Sept. 16, 1944, took place in a high-spirited atmosphere. The Germans had driven back the Americans who had crossed the wooded, mountainous Ardennes region. As the briefer began to describe the action, Hitler sprang to life.

"Stop!" he exclaimed. "I have come to a momentous decision. I shall go to the counterattack!" He pointed at the map. "Here, out of the Ardennes, with the objective Antwerp!" His generals sat stunned. Hitler thought a powerful offensive could break through the Allied lines and race across the Meuse River to capture the Belgian port.

If successful, the thrust would split the American and British armies. It might even cause the Western Allies to sue for peace, enabling Germany to turn its full weight against Russia. The plan required deceit. Suspecting that the Allies had broken German codes, Hitler forbade any radio transmissions connected with the planned offensive. Fictitious armies were conjured up and the real ones, which consisted of more than 250,000 men, were held 12 miles from the front until the final assembly order was given.

To plant more confusion and terror, Hitler organized a tank brigade led by Lt. Col. Otto Skorzeny, the blocking the Germans' main supply route. The spearhead of the German offensive belonged to Lt. Col.

Joachim Peiper's 1st SS Panzer Division. Peiper and his men had served on the Russian front where barbarity knew no bounds. As the division reached a rest area for the U.S. 349th Regiment, a trail of death began. Paratroopers jumped off Peiper's tanks to round up captured GIs; 19 who did not surrender were shot and 'Nobody was going to pass' By PHILIP MORGAN Tribune Staff Writer TAMPA Only one prisoner in the bunch looked like trouble.

"This guy would keep looking at me mean," says Moses Darby, of Tampa, who guarded German soldiers captured during the Battle of the Bulge. Darby, then 19, figures the man was just trying to intimidate him. "I told the prisoner in charge, I said, 'You tell that guy if he starts anything, I'm going to kill 4f I their bodies looted. Peiper then overran an airfield and forced captured soldiers to refuel the tanks. When the task was completed, they were shot.

The advance continued toward Malmedy where a column of Americans, carrying small arms only, was obliged to surrender. "The 1st SS Panzer Division welcomes you to Belgium, gentlemen," a tank crewman said in perfect English. The Germans herded them into a field and machine- 1 Peiper gunned them down. Of the 120 men, 20 miraculously -J, The interpreter, a bit frantic, told the man to cut out the antics or they'd all suffer. "I wasn't going to shoot.

I'm bluffing him like he's bluffing me. We didn't have no trouble out of them." Darby and the other black soldiers in the 3197 Quartermaster Battalion 'I didn't think we could hold out' By Dec. 19, Hitler had expected more from his SS Panzers, who were still a long way from their Dec. 17 goal, the Meuse. Nevertheless, he refused to sanction Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt's request to move part of other commands to lend more power to von Manteuffel's thrust.

The SS 6th Panzer Army, led by Gen. Josef Dietrich, managed to take the crossroads town of St. Vith two days later after a bitter contest. Although St. Vith was In their hands, the U.S.

7th Armored Division and its supporting units had tied up an entire German corps for nearly a week, blocking crucial supply routes and buying time for the Allies to regroup. On Dec. 19, Eisenhower met with his senior generals, wanting to know how they could contend with the offensive. Of the utmost importance was relieving the 101st Airborne (the day before Middleton had withdrawn his headquarters and ordered McAuliffe to defend the town at all costs) and other units at Bastogne, which was about to be surrounded. Lt.

Gen. George S. Patton commander of the U.S. Third Army, shocked the other generals when he said he could attack, "On Dec. 22, with three divisions." Patton was proposing a movement of enormous complexity, to pull his divisions out of line, turn them north and launch an assault in three days.

But Patton had foreseen the attack and drafted plans for such an operation to smash the German flank. "This time the kraut was stuck his head in a meat grinder," Patton said. "And this time I've got the handle." In the next few days as his troops pressed forward, Patton demanded that his chaplain compose a weather prayer asking the Almighty for the horrid conditions to clear. By Dec. 23, the weather broke.

Patton wanted his chaplain decorated; Bastogne started to recover air supply drops. On Christmas Eve, with the weather clearing and the Allies making use of overwhelming air superiority to blast German armored columns, enemy casualties soared. There was little the Luftwaffe could do to stop the rain of bombs, even with its new, jet-propelled Mes-serschmitt fighters. On the afternoon of Dec. 26, the lead units of Patton's 4th Armored Division were just four miles from Bastogne.

As he witnessed a desperate airdrop into the town, Lt Col. Creighton W. Abrams, later Army chief of staff, wanted permission to attack straight north into the town, risking a German flank assault Would Patton approve the attack? he radioed. "I sure as hell will!" came the reply. Sherman tanks burst into Bastogne while U.S.

shells were still falling. Fighting broke out hand-to-hand, but the advance would not be halted. Nearly 12,000 Germans and an estimated 3,900 Americans died in the fight for Bastogne, which was relieved later that day. The Allies had 32 divisions on the front and were at last bringing their superior numbers to bear on the Germans in a string of sharp counterattacks. The Bulge was shrinking and von Rundstedt urged Hitler to allow him to disengage.

On Dec. 27, two days after von Manteuffel's 5th Panzers were defeated and one day after Bastogne was relieved, Hitler reluctantly agreed. By PHILIP MORGAN Tribune Staff Writer SEFFNER Sgt. Robert Johnson realized before the lieutenant actually snapped that the man in command of his platoon wasn't suited for combat. Johnson and the other soldiers of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion were rushing in to defend the vital road junction of Bastogne, Belgium, four days 73" arter tne German army launched the Battle of the Bulge.

That night, the Germans completed the encirclement of Bastogne, trapping the Americans. "On the way in, the lieutenant was supposed to be in the jeep behind where I was walking, and he was so shook up about it he crawled inside one nf the tanks and novpr chnupH The Germans shelled Bastogne continuously. A shrapnel splinter tore a 4-inch gash in Johnson's leg the night he arrived. He was stitched up and went back in line. The 705th, in tandem with the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, fought off pre-dawn German attacks over three consecutive days.

Johnson recalls four German tanks that rumbled within 50 feet of him while he ducked in a foxhole. He was hidden there with a company commander from the 327th, far out in front of the troops, coordinating the fire from tank destroyers 1,000 yards back. Camouflaged with white sheets, the German tanks were hard to pick out in the snow and darkness. But all four tanks were destroyed. Johnson removed a .50 caliber machine gun from one of the wrecked tanks and handed it to the soldiers in the front line.

Tracer bullets from it targeted the German tanks in the attacks the next two mornings, and all were destroyed. But gasoline and ammunition were running low. "I didn't think we were going to hold out." A Christmas gift greeted the besieged Americans on Dec. 25 the clouds lifted and cargo planes were able to drop supplies to them. The next day, tanks from Patton's army broke through the German defenses and rescued Bastogne.

Johnson, 75, was a civilian heavy equipment operator at Air Force bases in Michigan and Illinois before retiring in 1980 and moving to Florida. didn't know what to expect from Adolf Hitler's soldiers, men who supposedly had been robotized into super-racists by the Nazi political machine. As it turned out they all got along very well. Relations warmed further when the war ended the following May. "We'd sit down and talk, and stuff like that.

We became friends. That's the truth." He remembers particularly one heroic act of friendship: A young German burned himself badly while trying to save an American cook, killed when a gas stove exploded. Darby was posted at the last line of defense during the battle Liege, Belgium, the biggest supply depot the Allies had in Europe. His outfit had hurried out of Luxembourg Dec. 26, to the sound of German artillery rumbling near.

"Nobody was going to pass Liegel that's what the word was." The German attack halted before it reached Liege. By the time the Allies drove the enemy back to its original lines, thousands of prisoners were pouring into Liege. "Young boys and old men, that's what they were," says Darby. The last reserves called up for Hitler's last major offensive were happy to be captured, Darby says. He'd watch whole truckloads roll in, each guarded by one American.

"They didn't want to fight no more." Darby, 69, was a postal worker and subway conductor in New York. Having grown up in Tampa, he moved back in 1985. himself," Johnson says. Johnson The lieutenant had joined the battalion during a lull, and had missed the heavy combat that had earned the 705th a fighting reputation from its sweep through France with Lt. Gen.

George Patton's Third Army. "Our platoon leader, as soon as he got in there on December 20th, he pulled his .45 on the battalion colonel, and he says, 'Now, you got me in here. Get me Two other officers grabbed the lieutenant and disarmed him. He was arrested, and Johnson never saw him again..