Dark December

Larry,

I'm glad that you and Diane brought this one up. The book with a 1947 copyright is here beside me thanks to my older brother who handed this (and A Time For Trumpets) to me last year --- both from Dad's collection. Dark December was on our family's bookshelves all my life, and I never picked it up or knew what it was. My brother knew. And, he said Dad had read it many times. I'm in the middle of at least 3 books right now. So, I haven't read this one yet and will be interested in what you have to say when you finish it. But, I can attest to the fact that this was available early on and read by probably more than one man from the 106th as he tried to piece together the larger picture of the war he had experienced.

You all have talked me into it. I found a used copy on Amazon.com for $10.00 and looking forward to reading it as soon as it arrives.

Frank Grant

I have just finished reading Dark December and it was as well written and informative as I had hoped. While I am more interested in the on the ground personal experiences of the soldiers, this book did make the bigger picture more understandable. It describes the timeline of events of both the American and German armies in logistical perspective without getting caught up in the fine details. It also highlights the problems that both armies had in capturing the momentum that would lead to victory. In terms of the 106th, I feel that the author described the untenable position of the Division quite fairly and emphasized the confusion and conflicting rumors in the higher echelon that led to rupture of the Schnee Eifel by the Germans. His emphasis on the battle for St. Vith being the most important event, instead of the battle for Bastogne, is something that most historians overlook and that alone makes the book an important addition to a BoB library.

I like the fact that conversations go on here while the print in a book remains fixed and stagnant. Frank mentioned that he saw some flaws in this early, well-written book. He referred to the "wrong headded" attitudes about the fall of some units. These attitudes were there early on but changed as more facts came to light. Sadly, as something enters print it is preserved for reference.

This AM I was reading a section on 422 Unit History in the Division Association's The Cub of the Golden Lion Passes in Review (out of print; still available occasionally. Since this book is a compilation of many things from earlier Cub Magazines, I am thinking that the content I was reading may be available on the Indiana Military site. I'll try to check this out later. Right now that site appears to be down.

Anyway, in Unit Histories under Company H 422, by Lewis R Walker 2nd Lt. it says, "The author explains that one of his main purposes in writing the history of his company is to refute the aspersions cast on the 422 in Robert Merriam's "Dark December."

I'm hoping that the "June July 1948 notation under the author's name indicated the issue of the Cub in which this history appears. And I am hoping that the Indiana Military Site includes this edition. This would be a good reference for anyone wishing to see more of the picture.

Connie

Hello Connie:

Here is my two cents worth about the B.O.B..

Rifle Companies were allowed just 48 rounds per man. Ammunition was rationed. The Schnee Eifle area was a ghost front. Nothing major had happened there for over six weeks. Ammunition supplies went to areas where the war was more active.

G Company men were instructed to shoot at the Germans once in a while just to let them know that we were present. It was so quiet that our Company Commander ordered an inspection at 0600 hours on the morning of 12/16/44. We were ordered to be fresh shaved by that time and have our weapons “spotless clean”. Our C.O. was cheated out of his inspection by ten minutes. We were all spruced up for something else. At 05:50 A.M. the Battle of the Bulge began. At that precise moment all hell broke loose up and down the front.

When I was there (Belgium) in Sep 2010, I saw first hand the 2,000 yard gap that existed between the 424th Regiment & 423rd Regiment.

On the evening of the 2nd day of the B.O.B. I stood in a foxhole and witnessed a German Armored Column advance straight at me, then abruptly, less that 100 yard from my position, make a turn to their right and proceed right through that Gap. At that precise moment the 423rd Regiment was being surrounded.

Some of our foxholes were as much as fifty yards apart. The width of the entire battle area was eighty miles. Four-hundred-thousand German Soldiers were pitted against eighty-thousand American troops. Because of very foggy, misty, weather there was no Air support for German or American Soldiers. The Army Table of Organization called for an Infantry Division to cover five miles of front line. The 106th Division was spread out for twenty-seven miles. The other four American divisions covering that region were scattered over the terrain the same number of miles, or further than the 106th Division was.

Yes, some American Soldiers fled in face of the German onslaught, however they were Division and Regimental Headquarters personnel. Their posts were being over-run by the blitz krieg (lightning war) of the fast moving German Army. Front line troops did the fighting. Headquarters people were armed with typewriters, radios, paper clips and rubber bands and not weapons with bullets in them.

The German Army disrupted American supply lines to the point were it was difficult, for supply people, to provide rations to troops on the front lines. By the way, at this point in the Battle of the Bulge, the front lines were whatever direction an American Soldier faced. Some soldiers endured two and three days at a time without rations. Between skirmishes, with the enemy, he ate whatever he could get his hands on; too often that was little, or nothing.

German Soldiers swarmed all over our positions. They behaved as though they didn’t care if they lived, or died.

It was during that campaign that many of us learned what it was like to hike so many miles (fifty) that we went to sleep while walking, stand in a foxhole for hours at a time in twenty-five degree below zero temperatures and endure two or three days at a time without nourishment. To quench our thirst occasionally snow, when it was available, became a substitute for fresh water.

I learned from a high ranking officer that the Army estimated they had a Division on the front lines, a Division going to the hospital, a Division in the Hospital, a Division coming back from the hospital and a Division in the grave. Other statistics that I learned, from informed sources, were that the Army was losing fifteenhundred men a day up front.

A front line Soldiers fantasy was go get a million dollar wound (not life threading) so he could be hospitalized for a while. Then he would have a warm bed and something to eat everyday.

Sometimes dying seemed to be more acceptable than living in the miserable circumstances that troops were existing in.

To supply the troops of the 422nd and 423rd Regiments would require an airdrop of food and ammunition. Weather conditions totally prohibited those plans.

The Officers who surrendered those two Regiments did a very compassionate thing for their Soldiers. To do otherwise would have been wholesale slaughter for the men of those Regiments.
Soldiers don’t fight armored vehicles with snowballs and live to tell about it. As an alternative they went to German P.O.W. Camps for the remainder of the War. At least the majority of those Soldiers lived to tell about their experience.

Generals and their associate officers place Army Divisions where they believe they are critically needed. The German Generals assembled an Army of four-hundred-thousand men, in absolute silence (no radio communication) and got away with it. Only they knew that they were there. Our General Staff was hoodwinked by those tactics. The results seduced Adolph Hitler into launching the largest battle, The Battle of the Bulge, ever fought and won by the American Army. The calculated risk was a gamble by American Generals nevertheless, it hastened the end of the war. The final results were that Hitler lost everything; including his life.

Volumes of books have been written about that battle and in the course of time more will probably be written regarding that affair.

Multitudes of Soldiers who took part in that campaign have left the stage of life. Still there are a few left to describe it like they witnessed it. I feel blessed to be one of those who were there and vividly remember that conflict and communicate those reminiscences to this website.

Floyd