The 325th Combat Engineers
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The 325th Combat Engineers
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It Took All Means to Win City of Heilbronn (Sunday Edition of the Beachhead News, July 1, 1945 ) "To all units of the Century and its supporting troops, the Neckar River city of Heilbronn will always mean pure hell. For nine deadly days there--from April 4 to April 12--the fighting teams suffered all combat horrors in the knock-down, drag-out slug fest for this outer position of the German national redoubt. Here in this once industrial city of 100,000, Centurymen faced an enemy braced for defense with zeroed in artillery and perfect observation from ridges overlooking the city from the east. To reach this objective, doughboys had to cross the 100-yard-wide Neckar bordering the city from the west. ...With virually no resistance met up to Heilbronn, the move into the city was a fast change back into action." |
"During the black morning hours of April 8th the 325th Engineers threw a pontoon bridge across the Neckar. At 0800 Sherman tanks and Hellcat TD's thundered across. ...Black crashing 88's saturated the bridgehead area and their roar was magnified in the big hollow factories. Somebody yelled, "here come the Meemies!" and even the Joes in cellars tried to crawl under something. The sky was filled with a metallic shrieking which increased in intensity until the 15 rockets burst like thunder among the factories. The Meemies and 88's punctured the pontoons and the bridge sank. Back to assault boats. room to room fighting, hit and run, run and hit, over dead krauts and under barbed wire, firing, throwing grenades, charging into blazing houses, shooting through floors. Every morning at 1030 the Meemies would come screaming into the bridgehead and the bridge would go. Two tanks sank in the narrow Neckar. The Engineers rigged up a motor propelled assault ferry which carried infantry and armor into the ever expanding bridgehead. PFC Leon Januszewdki of the Medics performed numerous deeds of gallantry around the bridgehead for five days when killed by shelling. Smokescreens turned bright day into eerie night. German civilians crawled out of cellars in the hazy smoke-screen to dig graves for their soldiers while the battle raged aorund them." (399th history) Friday, April 13, 1945, the 399th won four Distinguished Service Crosses, dozens of Silver Stars, and took 270 prisoners--not scared troops anxious to surrender but outbattled SS and Grenadiers. Many 399th men fell that unlucky day. (399th history) |
Beachhead News, July 1, 1945 "The 325th Engineers operate a pontoon ferry across the Neckar. Repeated efforts to build a bridge were stymied by intense artillery fire daily. One count showed a kraut shell was landing once every three minutes throughout the day--and more intense when Century bridge builders went to work. The winning of Heilbronn opened the way for the drive south to Stuttgart." |
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| Dad and Sgt. Manogue found an insignia factory with no roof. They were picking their way through the rubble, looking for what they could find, when the Germans started to lob shells at them. They ran for the jeep and burnt rubber getting out of there--but Dad had a collection of great insignia. Much of it he donated to the local museum in Whitehall, New York. Some he kept. |
| "One morning I got orders to take my squad and check for roadblocks and mines and started around these woods and a scout saw a German at the edge of the woods. We fell in a ditch and let him have it ... we hollered for him to come out. After we emptied our guns ... 19 Germans walked out of the woods with their hands up. We decided the woods were full of Germans. We marched them back and when we got to the lieutenant, he said 'Where in the world did you get them? You wasn't supposed to go up there. We sent someone to catch you and tell you to come back.' And I said, 'Now you're telling me.'" (Carl Blanton, Shelby S.C. Star, August 15, 1985) |
15 April 1945 "Somewhere in Germany, 2345 hours, "Settled down for a bit so I can spend some spare time writing instead of sleeping. This campaign isn't as easy as the papers make it out. I have been running around as Company Commander while Bagley is vacationing in the U.K. How do you like my liberated stationery. These Germans have quite a country here or should I say had and they have lots of things you can't get in the States. The small towns haven't been touched by war unless they choose to make a stand then our artillery comes up and softens things for the doughs. It is impossible to describe the destruction wrought in industrial cities such as Mannheim. There is nothing left. The weather has been very good this spring, leaves are out on the trees and there are flowers galore. This house I am in tonite has all modern conveniences even to a nice little garden with a pagoda, makes it nice to eat meals in. Housing is easy here, just find the best street in town and give the civilians 15 minutes to clear out. In France we had to run around town soliciting quarters. I have slept in some beautiful bedrooms. Headed for my favorite habitat again. (Gordon Morse to Margaret Morse) |
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| 15 April 1945 "Removed and destroyed 10 LPZ mines in the vicinity of Talheim. Also removed two 500 lb aerial bombs from bridge in Talheim. Blew up a German 76 mm anti-tank gun." (daily platoon reports) | Capt. Bagley was on detached service in the United Kingdom 2 April to 21 April 1945, so he missed the bridgehead on the Neckar--that was the "running around" that he was doing--commanding Company C and setting up the motor propelled assault ferry to substitute for the bridges that they built every night and that were blown up every day. By April 15 there was little resistance, just abatis and mines on the race toward Stuttgart. |
The 399th Combat Team moved south through the mines and barriers and sniping and occasional fights, taking prisoners and heading toward Stuttgart. They massed in Eszlingen on the banks of the Neckar and waited. Suddenly, day after day, at the end of April, the reports say "carried out training schedule," waiting for the next battle orders.
April 25th the 100th Division went into 7th Army reserve after 175 consecutive days on line. (399th history)
Copyright © 2003-2006 Patricia Morse. All rights reserved. Reuse of material that appears on the pages of this website is expressly prohibited without written permission of the copyright holder. |