Patton's Pawns: The 94th US Infantry Division at the Siegfried Line

2. The Division Goes into Action

The 94th Infantry Division settled into its new role by sending out probing patrols to learn something of the terrain in which it was to operate. It had yet to receive any winter warfare clothing to counter the bitter cold, and the men had to improvise snowsuits from sheets and tablecloths taken from German homes.1 Robert Adair of the 2nd Platoon, I Company, 376th Infantry Regiment, described how he survived the conditions: Like the rest of the company, we lost men to the savage conditions. During this time, the temperature ranged from as low as zero one night to as much as 40 degrees during the day. At times we faced rain and wet snow in our face from the north. With the constant shell¤re, we were forced to stay in the trenches where the low spots were always ¤lled with water, iced over sometimes during the day and always at night. However, I made out rather well. I gathered pine boughs and ¤lled the bottom of my six feet or so of trench with the boughs and stood and slept insulated a bit from the ice and frozen earth. By then I had begun the procedures I practiced until the end of my infantry career. I carried extra socks stuffed under my shirt[,] and regularly, I took off my shoes, took off the three—later more—pairs of socks, and replaced the innermost layer with a warm dry set from my chest store. When possible, I tried to dry my shoes over tiny ¤res of paraf¤n tablets given us to heat our C-rations. Since we had to be prepared for 2 The Division Goes into Action an attack at any time, we couldn’t remove our shoes to sleep. I also was dressed warmly, and differently than many, as I wore ¤ve sets of winter underwear tops—later seven!—almost like light sweat shirts, below my wool OD [olive drab] shirt, a heavy sweater, and my quilted¤eld jacket, and I kept a warm knitted cap on my head. I used my overcoat only as a mattress, the warmth-to-weight ratio for the overcoat was inadequate. So I was only mildly miserable when others suffered severely—particularly with trench foot.2 Col. Earle A. Johnson’s 302nd Infantry Regiment, as corps reserve, reconnoitered the whole of the corps sector against the possibility of a German attack, and even prepared ¤ve lines of defense in the rear of the 94th Division’s sector to meet such an eventuality. Mine¤elds were laid across possible tank approach routes, bridges were prepared for demolition, and trees were dropped across roads to act as barriers.3 Manning the Germans’ Orscholz Switch defenses opposite the 94th was Lt. Gen. Kurt P®ieger’s 416th Infantry Division, with its headquarters in Mettlach-Keuchingen, the suburb on the west bank of the Saar. The division consisted of Lieutenant Colonel Hoelscher’s Grenadier Regiment 712, Colonel Hachenberger’s Grenadier Regiment 713, Major Kraft’s Field Training and Replacement Battalion 416, Fusilier Company 416, and Major Albrecht ’s Artillery Regiment 416, which had been brought up to 60 percent effective strength at the beginning of January by the transfer of Luftwaffe personnel into its ranks. Only its engineer, assault gun, and antiaircraft units were at full strength. However, as a result of having been employed on garrison duty in Denmark for most of the war, the divisional components were rated by their superior LXXXII Corps as only “conditionally ¤t for combat.” The average age for the men was between thirty-two and thirtyfour , and many of them were convalescents or subject to stomach complaints . Upon arrival in the Triangle at the beginning of October 1944, the 416th Infantry Division was reinforced by Major Knadt’s Grenadier Regiment 714, consisting of a Luftwaffe parachute battalion, Major Friedrich’s Fortress Infantry Battalion “Merzig,” and Fortress Artillery Battalions 1024 and 1025, bringing the division’s total strength to nine thousand men. Division Goes into Action / 15 In taking over this sector of the Westwall, the 416th Infantry Division had to man a predetermined system of defense that failed to match either its structure or some of its weaponry. The east bank of the Orscholz Switch was securely based on the sheer cliffs of the Saar River at the Saarschleuse bend. However, the west ®ank, on the Moselle River opposite Luxembourg, was already out®anked...