Mrs. Cordie's Soldier Son: A World War II Saga

Clervaux

CLERVAUX The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is no larger than many of the counties in the United States. It is largely bordered on the east by Germany, on the south by France, and on the west and north by Belgium. When the war in Europe began, Luxembourg, with its fourhundred -man army, declared its neutrality. Unfortunately, Hitler had other plans and “absorbed” it into the Third Reich on May 10, 1940. Overt resistance was not a consideration. In addition to Luxembourg’s token army, Germany required all Luxembourg males born between 1921 and 1927 to join the German army or perform some other approved service for the Reich. Upon joining the Wehrmacht, these men were required to swear an oath to Hitler, not to Germany. A number of these men refused to pledge allegiance to the invading dictator, however, and sixty of them were executed. Many of the young men refused to report for induction and thus became “nonpersons.” Anyone who provided them assistance was subject to the death penalty. Of the Luxembourg men who served in the German army, most served on the Russian front. Approximately twenty-three hundred Luxembourgers serving in the Wehrmacht perished. Luxembourg was liberated by the Allies in September 1944. In the north, D.C.’s civil affairs detachment and the headquarters company of the 110th Regiment of the 28th Division established themselves in Clervaux. Prior to the war, Clervaux was a spa-type resort town where people came in the summer months to relax in the town’s several hotels . The setting was quite picturesque, with tall trees that hugged the sides of the steep hills surrounding the village. Meandering through Clervaux 69 the center of town’s narrow cobblestone streets was the small Clerf (or Clerve) River. On November 2, the 28th Division, including most of the 110th Infantry Regiment, went to the Hürtgen Forest of Luxembourg to force the enemy farther east into Germany. Not unexpectedly, D.C. never Luxembourg, 1944. 70 Mrs. Cordie’s Soldier Son discussed any of this. His detachment was billeted in nearby Clervaux, in the southern portion of the Ardennes, and did not participate in this action. The Hürtgen Forest is a belt of rolling woodlands about twenty miles long and ten miles deep. German pillboxes were numerous and well hidden. The area’s deep gorges also included icy streams. The Germans had carefully mined foxholes and ditches, places that would later be occupied by unsuspecting Allied personnel moving through the enemy ’s previous positions. In the forest, exploding artillery shells shattered the pine trees and turned them into much smaller, lethal wooden projectiles. These were referred to as “tree bursts.” At the conclusion of this campaign (around November 10), other units of the 28th Division were also sent to Clervaux for a much-needed rest. While the division was resupplied and replacements joined them, the troops hoped that they could wait out the winter (and perhaps the war) here. It had been almost four months since their landing at Normandy . With rest, the Hürtgen Forest and their recent ordeals were put on hold. Clervaux was often known as Clerf and Cliärref. Although the village suffered damage during its liberation in late September 1944, its facilities offered the troops a welcomed respite. Besides, it was winter. The townspeople were friendly, and the setting was relaxed, so D.C. considered his stay in Clervaux a pleasant bonus. However, a war was still raging, and this was the Ardennes. The 28th Division also fought in the Ardennes in the First World War. My maternal grandfather, Claude Reed, by a strange twist of fate, saw combat as a member of the 110th Regiment (Company E) of the 28th Division. The odds of such a coincidence cannot be overstated—that two boys from Texas were assigned to the same regiment (a Pennsylvania National Guard unit) in two different wars. At the end of WWI, my grandfather spent a great deal of time not far from Luxembourg near the old fortress city of Metz, in what is now France. In fact, D.C.’s travels tracked much the same route as my grandfather in the Great War. Unfortunately, since neither man discussed his time in the U.S. Army with the other, this connection was not discovered until a few years ago while I was researching old photographs and letters. The Time...