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WWII History: This is part three of a written memory of WWII. These words were written down to paper in 1994 by Eldon R. Trenary, a veteran of the American 80th "Blue Ridge" Division who fought at the Battle of the Bulge. They appear here courtesy of Mr. Trenary, and provided by Dave Laws of the 3rd Para Bde. This third part of the interview continues with Pte Trenary's unit taking part in the general counter-attack against the Germans on the edges of the 'Bulge'. Movement in the snow had been confusing, and sleep and cold hindered the soldiers' ability to fight. Trenary's unit had attempted to move forward when they came under a heavy mortar barrage which caused numerous casualties and killed most of the company's officers. The company withdrew with their wounded. |
Eldon R. Trenary
Co. F 317th Infantry
80th Infantry Division
Sometime along towards morning we stopped and I backed up to an evergreen tree of some sort and leaned up against it to take the weight of my pack and ammunition off my shoulders. The next thing I remember I was laying flat on my back in the snow. Some guy was yanking on my arms and saying, "Get up, we're moving out." I had gone to sleep standing up, hadn't even woke when I fell over. Now this episode wouldn't make a very good John Wayne movie.
The only small arms shooting that was done all day was E Company shooting at us. Then four of us fired at a mortar platoon for less than a minute. Then the Germans retreated and so did we. We lost a lot of men. I think the reason we retreated was because we had no officers. A bunch of men with no officers is just that, a bunch of men. I think there were six officers there that got killed from that one shell, which was pretty unusual. I think it must have been something more than a mortar. This must have taken place around the middle of January.
We kept advancing, we would run into small arms fire and artillery occasionally, but it wouldn't last long. We mostly moved forward, with not too much resistance. We didn't know it at the time but us (the 80th Division) and the 26th Division and the 4th Armored were moving in on Bastogne (of battered bastard fame). That's where the 101st Airborne Division was holed up. Anyway, we cut through the German lines, and relieved those guys.
About the 31st of January they fell us out in a big field and told us there had been a breakthrough and a "Bulge" in the German lines, and that we had succeeded in cutting them off. This is the first I had heard of the Battle of the Bulge, and I had gone through the whole thing from start to finish. However, I was on the flank and didn't see the worst of it by any means. I learned more about what actually took place by reading about it after the war was over. I can remember standing around in the snow one night discussing whether we were in Belgium or Luxembourg or where we were. About all we ever got told was move out, dig in, or get down you damn fool. Anyway, they fell us out in this field and told us what we had accomplished and told us we were going to get some rest. As near as I can remember during all this time from December 16th until January 31st I had taken one bath standing beside a wood stove with a pint of hot water and I also shaved at the same time. And that was it. I had hair so long it was clear over my ears and that takes a lot of hair.
They hauled us into a little town in Belgium pronounced "Crutchten". We moved into the houses there. I got a sleeping bag somewhere and I slept on the floor in that bag and got three hot meals per day. Luxury I guess? While we were there they hauled us somewhere that had showers rigged up and we got our hair cut and cleaned up. While we were there the snow melted, it all went off in one night, and it never got cold again, not like it had been.
Now here's a strange one. After the snow melted but while we were still in this town, they issued us snow PAKs (a cold weather boot) and they issued us wool-lined leather faced mittens that came clear to our elbows and had trigger fingers in them. All during the coldest weather all we had for our hands was little light wool gloves which were better than nothing but very inadequate to say the least. Most of us had those old black four buckle overshoes. I wouldn't say most of us really, maybe half of us. I had a pair which I had found laying alongside the road somewhere in France. It wasn't even cold yet, something told me I was going to need them and I did.
Years later I read an article by Jimmy Roosevelt saying that this was done deliberately to slow General Patton down because he was stealing from Montgomery all the thunder and glory, which he should be getting. He stated that they deliberately stopped his fuel supplies and held up his winter clothes. I wish this wasn't true, but I know it is. The British Tommy was a tough customer, but Montgomery was a pain in the posterior. All he knew how to do was "retreat and tidy up his lines" (his words). Patton may have been glory hungry, but he knew how to whip Krauts.
Anyway, we left Crutchten and went to Luxembourg and there we were told we were going to hit the Siegfried Line. There would be lot of pillboxes and we would blow them open with pole charges. We done some practicing there with pole charges, then we moved out and went to the Saar River which separates Luxembourg and Germany. At this point in time we were transferred to the 319th Infantry Regiment (we were 317th). I didn't find this out until 1996 when my wife bought me a book entitled "A History of the 80th Division".
There was the remains of a bridge there, there was also some engineers there. They were going to put a Bailey Bridge across, so they could get tanks across. We were to cross the river at night in assault boats and run the Germans off, who were dug in on the other side, and then hold there while the engineers built their bridge. We crossed the river that night all right. We were supposed to be quiet and get over to the Germans' side unknowns to them.
The first thing that happened, some guy had a hand grenade hooked to the lapel on his overcoat - by the handle he had pulled the pin on it some time or other, then replaced it but it wasn't crimped good having been pulled out, so it pulled out and fell on the ground at his feet. It blew up of course, injured him badly - I don't remember if he done any yelling but he probably did. He didn't have to, there was enough other racket, we all thought the Krauts threw something at us.
Pte. Trenary stateside
Anyway, we loaded into rubber boats and paddled our way across (maybe the engineers done the paddling, I don't recall). The water was extremely swift, and we went down stream a long way from where we took off. I was sure we would be blown out of the water, after all that racket, but they never fired a shot. They must not have realized what was going on cause we all got across, and were dug in by daylight.
The Germans were dug in on a hill overlooking the river. The hill they were on was real steep. A lot like the terrain here in the Pacific Northwest. It was decided by the CO (I guess) that Lt. Beckerman was to lead the 1st Platoon and attack up the west slope of the hill. The 1st and 2nd Platoon was all that crossed the river. Anyway, Sgt. Flanagan was to move east the same direction Beckerman was attacking, only instead of going up the hill we were to skirt around the bottom, and at a signal from Beckerman via walkie talkie we was supposed to turn right and attack up the hill in a southerly direction and flank the Germans.
Directly in front of this hill was a fenced in area, which had a big sign hanging on it which said 'ACHTUNG MINEN', which meant the area was mined. There was several guys got blew up in this minefield that morning before we attacked. One fellow got his foot blew off above his ankle, he then took off running and fell on another one. Anyway, Beckerman took off up the hill with the 1st Platoon, and we took off like we were supposed to. We skirted around the left side of the minefield and Beckerman 'apparently' went around the right side.
Pte. Trenary's Company in Germany, 1945
He hadn't got far up the hill and all hell broke loose (small arms fire) over on the 1st Platoon side. We kept moving slowly, I had the job of first scout that day which meant I was out front with a second scout right behind me and the Platoon Leader behind him. Flanagan kept frantically calling Beckerman as to when to turn and come up the hill. No answer.
Finally I was moving slowly over a small rise with my rifle slung, when a Kraut shot me in the right wrist, only it just went through all my clothes and didn't touch me. I turned around real fast, and for some reason Flanagan was about three feet from me and I said, "look at that", and held my wrist up. He said move out you damn fool, before I could move he nailed me again, this time through my left sleeve, right through all my clothes again, and never touched me. This time I "moved out", I ran down the hill and jumped a barbwire fence and took cover behind some rocks and watched the rest of the guys follow suit.
A kid by the name of Greg from Enid, Oklahoma came across that fence at the same spot I did and he got shot right through his head - it looked like. The bullet went in the front of his helmet and came out the back and never touched him, yet when he put that helmet on (afterwards) you would swear there was no way that bullet could get through that helmet without also going through his head.
We were pretty well under cover in these big rocks so we stayed there a while. Flanagan still couldn't get Beckerman on the radio so he says to me, "Do you think you can make your way over there see what that idiot is doing?" I think the shooting had kind of died down. I looked it over and it looked like I could stay under cover pretty good - rocks, depressions, etc. So I said, "OK." Hopkins, the second scout, said, "I'll go too."
So we slunk and sneaked and otherwise inched our way over where the 1st Platoon was halted, and lo and behold Lt. Beckerman had taken about three Germans who had surrendered and beat it back down the hill and was standing down there waving his arms and hollering, "Fire and maneuver and retreat." That's why Flanagan couldn't get a hold of him. He was busy retreating all by himself, he left his men laying up there on the hillside.
So Hopkins and I retreated with the 1st Platoon. We got down there and Beckerman was talking to the CO who was on the other side of the river via radio. (There was this small building there the medics were using it for an aid station.) Anyway, Beckerman was on the verge of tears, he was telling the captain, "Sir, we were slaughtered", and a bunch of other stuff. One of his own sergeants told him, "You made a big mistake running off and ordering us to retreat, we've got to do it all over again." Beckerman was looking pretty subdued along about then.
Now comes something I can't explain any reason for, but Beckerman asked me if I could get back over there and contact Sergeant Flanagan. What for I can't remember. He said you don't have to go I'm not ordering you to. I had to either expose myself to Kraut guns or go through the minefield. Now this minefield had a small stream running through it. About six feet wide and two or three inches deep. I had been in the upper end of it already when I was making my way to the 1st Platoon. I told Lt. Beckerman I don't believe that stream is mined, I already been in it once. Hopkins says if you don't care I won't go with you. That was OK by me, I didn't see how he'd be any help.
So I took off wading up the middle of that stream and got up to where Sergeant Flanagan was and told him whatever the lieutenant wanted me to. Sgt. Flanagan blew his cork and said can you get back down there? I says I'm sure I can, I'll step in my tracks, the water was so shallow you could see them. He says go tell that stupid so and so to bring his men and get up here. So I did, I got back down there and told Beckerman that Sgt. Flanagan said to come up there and join him. I told him follow my tracks in the creek. You had to cross a road to get into the creek, you had to cross fast cause it was exposed to German fire. So I took off first and then the lieutenant. They all crossed the road one at a time, and everyone made it OK.
I slogged on up the creek stepping in my own tracks and I got up there and sat down and was eating a C ration, a can of cheese, I'll never forget that. All of a sudden there was two or three explosions in the creek - I thought that they were mortars. Pretty quick here comes the lieutenant out of the brush, rushed up to me all blustery and said that you told me that creek wasn't mined. That's all he got said. Bob Flanagan lit right in the middle of him. He called him a coward and 90-day wonder, and idiot, and a few other choice names. His final words were, "How in the hell would Trenary know if that creek was mined."
What I did was through sheer stupidity. I don't know why I thought that creek wouldn't be mined, but in my excitement I guess it seemed logical. I don't think Beckerman even told his men to come up the creek single file and to stay in my tracks. Anyway, after that we joined forces, old Bob Flanagan took charge, and we went up the north side of the hill and we ran the Krauts off. They did not put up much resistance however, they had shot their wad that morning.
We came back down the hill and dug in about 100 yards from the river and sat there while the engineers put their Bailey Bridge across. Chris Schlegle was there all the while this was going on. He was a medic in the engineers. He went from a day or two after D-Day through the whole works.
There was some old bridge there that they anchored their Bailey to, and the Krauts had some artillery zeroed in on these abutments. They would lob in a shell once in a while, which would skim right over the hill top we were dug in on and hit a bridge abutment every time, sometimes they would knock an engineer in the water. They had some kind of a boat there, with a big inboard of some sort in it, they would take off down stream and pick up the injured guy and back up the river they'd come. That water was really swift. It was about like the Snake up in Hells Canyon. I don't know why they couldn't have got a plane in there or some artillery and knocked those Kraut pieces out, but they never did.| Private Trenary's story as told in his own words will be continued in next quarter's NWHA newsletter. |
