Charles Newton "Newt" Schenck III

[Loey]

I am writing my graduate thesis on my grandfather's experience in the Battle of the Bulge and later as a pow. 

Here is what I know: He was a second lieutenant, forward observer of the 590th Field Artillery, Battery C Battery B (Thank you Jim Wentz)  He was captured on December 19th and eventually ended up in Oflag 13B, where he was recovering from pneumonia when Task Force Baum arrived and the Himmelburg disaster occurred. He escaped, riding on top of a tank, but was too weak and eventually hid in a ditch. He and other men spent the night on a German farm but were returned to the camp the next day. 

An excerpt I found online: Lt Donaldson and LT Charles N. Schenck, III, radio operators T/4 Eugene Womack, T/5 Akey and driver Donald Sheehy directed fire throughout 12/16/1944. Their Jeep had two punctured tires and riddled with holes.

My grandfather died when I was twenty, at the age of 78, succumbing to lifelong illnesses that were a result of his time as a pow. I regret that I never knew him as an adult and am trying to trace his steps to tell his story, both for him and for my grandmother, who has been keeping his memory and experience alive. 

Thank you to any and everyone who can provide any help. 

[jrwentz]

Hello Loey,

Welcome to the board and it is good to hear about your project. The 590th FAB was supporting the 423rd Regiment where my father was with Company M (Heavy Weapons) of the Third Battalion. My father had saved his Military Diaries, letters, orders, photos, etc. and we visited the battlefield in October of 2000.

One place to start is with the book "St. Vith - Lion in the Way". You can view, search, and download this book online at the Internet Archive, www.archive.org. This link should take you to the book, with a search for "590th" and links to the results in the left hand column. With this you can figure out the locations and movements of the 590th during the battle.

archive.org/details/StVithLionInTheWay/page/n105/mode/2up?q=590th

I can send you more links via this board, but I also have a large collection of letters about the 106th's FABs where authors such as Charles MacDonald (A Time for Trumpets) were discussing details in more depth to get at the truth. I can share the ones that discuss the 590th but we will need to use email because the file sizes are larger than the 1MB limit on this board. I will send you an email from an iCloud address and copy Connie on this email, since she has a lot of knowledge about the FABs and also enjoys helping people searching for information.

Jim Wentz

[jrwentz]

Loey,

This is another book available for free download or online searching.

Many of the older books, such as this, can be downloaded in various formats. I use the PDF downloads so I can use them anytime, even if my ISP is down or the power is off.

Most of the newer books available at the Archive are owned by libraries and available for borrowing for an hour at a time. If no one else is waiting to borrow the book it alerts you and lets you have another hour. I have never had an occasion where someone else was waiting for a Bulge book or paper.

If you go all the way to the end of this book you will find a number of detailed maps about the Battle of the Bulge. There is a good one for the attack on the 106th.

archive.org/details/CMHPub781TheArdennesBattleOfTheBulge

CMH Pub 7-8-1 The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge by Hugh M. Cole. First published 1965.
"The German winter counteroffensive of December 1944-January 1945 with a detailed description of German plans and Allied efforts to eliminate the bulge in their lines."
GPO number: 008-029-00529-8
Digitized by the U.S. Army Center of Military History: www.history.army.mil

[jrwentz]

This is a link to "A Time for Trumpets" and can be borrowed for an hour at a time. This book corrected a lot of information found in earlier books. In my opinion this is the most thoroughly researched book available. You may be able to purchase a copy at Amazon, but the book itself is expensive. However, the Kindle version cost me $3.95 or thereabouts. My Dad left me a lot of Bulge books, including this one, but for research purposes it is hard to beat the Kindle version. It will save you a LOT of time vs. a hard copy. The book is well-indexed but I sometimes find references in a search that do not show up in the index.

archive.org/details/timefortrumpetsu00macd/page/n3/mode/2up?q=590th

Historian
His first book, Company Commander, was published in 1947, while his wartime experiences were fresh in his mind. Charles B. MacDonald was the author of The Siegfried Line Campaign and co-author of Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt, both in the official series United States Army in World War II. He supervised the preparation of other volumes in the European and Mediterranean theater military history subseries and contributed to Command Decisions and American Military History. He authored Company Commander (Washington: 1947), The Battle of the Huertgen Forest (Philadelphia: 1963), The Mighty Endeavor (New York: 1969), and Airborne (New York: 1970).

In 1957 he received a Secretary of the Army Research and Study Fellowship and spent a year studying the interrelationship of terrain, weapons, and tactics on European battlefields.[1] He wrote the final volume of the Green Series on the European Theatre, The Last Offensive. He retired as Deputy Chief Historian, United States Army Center of Military History in 1979.

After his retirement, MacDonald wrote A Time for Trumpets, his last book, a personal history of the Ardennes Offensive which concentrates on the first two weeks of the battle, which he spent five years researching.

MacDonald became ill with cancer and lung disease, and died on December 4, 1990 at his home in Arlington, Virginia, at the age of 68.[2] 

[jrwentz]

Loey,

The 590th used 105-mm Howitzers, towed by Prime Movers, a treaded vehicle. The 106th and supporting units were forced to replace the 2nd Division position by position.The 106th and Field Artillery commanders considered their positions "indefensible" and wanted to move their line back. This was refused by VIII Corps Commander General Middleton. However, Middleton had asked to move the lines to more defensible positions, but Bradley and Eisenhower refused to allow any changes, apparently because they were planning to start a major attack against the Germans on December 19th and they wanted the 106th in position to move off the Eifel after Patton attacked from the south and Montgomery attacked from the north. It was a terrible mistake.

The Corps (nine FABs) and the Division (4 FABs) wanted to withdraw all the FABs back on the first day. Communications failed and the 590th never got the order until the next day, and then it was too late. The 423rd's 2nd Battalion has moved in the first night to protect the 590th and assist with the withdrawal, but both units had only one path open on the 2nd morning, and that was back to the 423rd's HQ which was being moved to the 423rd's 3rd Battalion command post on the Eifel.

If the defense had been organized in accordance with the Army's Field Manuals the FABs would have been well behind the front lines, since they are vulnerable to infantry attacks. Some of the manuals below are available for download. The Tactical Manual is available here: www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/FM/index.html

Generally, the units replacing the 2nd Division units had to turn over their new "guns" (Howitzers). In some cases, these had been dug in, and in others, they had been embedded as the result of daily firing for registration purposes. Both sides exchanged artillery greetings every day, even though it was still considered a "quiet" sector. Other problems were shortages of ammo for the Howitzers, and "mixed lots" - leftovers, which affected accuracy. At this point I do not know how many rounds the 590th had on hand the first day, but they were down to about 300 rounds by nightfall. This shortage is because of earlier mistakes by the SHAEF command, for failure to Capture and hold the port at Antwerp and the lengthy estuary to get to the port. More on that if you need it.

You may be able to get other Field Manuals from an Army Library via interlibrary loan if they are not at the link. Thinking you may want the Observation manual to fully understand what your grandfather was doing before the 2nd day of the battle.


Field Artillery Field Manuals:
* FM 6-5 Organization and Drill (1939)
* FM 6-20 Tactical Employment
* FM 6-40 Firing (1939)
* FM 6-50 Service of the Piece--75-mm Gun, M1897 and M1897-A4, Horse-drawn and Truck-drawn (1939)
* FM 6-55 Service of the Piece--75-mm Gun, M2, Horse-drawn and Truck-drawn (1939)
FM 6-56 Service of the Piece--75-mm Gun, M2A3, Truck-drawn and Horse-drawn
FM 6-60 Service of the Piece--75-mm Gun, M1916 and M1916-A1, Horse-drawn and Truck-drawn
* FM 6-65 Service of the Piece--75-mm Gun, M1917A1, Truck-drawn (1939)
* FM 6-70 Service of the Piece--75-mm Howitzer, Horse- and Truck-drawn (1939)
FM 6-74 Service of the Piece--105-mm Howitzer, Motor Carriage M-7
* FM 6-75 Service of the Piece--105-mm Howitzer, M2, Truck-drawn (1941)
FM 6-77 Service of the Piece--4.5-Inch Gun M1
FM 6-80 Service of the Piece--155-mm Howitzer, M1918A1, Truck-drawn
FM 6-81 Service of the Piece--155-mm Howitzer, M1
FM 6-85 Service of the Piece--155-mm Gun, M1918
FM 6-86 Service of the Piece--155-mm Gun, Self-propelled
FM 6-90 Service of the Piece--155-mm Gun, M1
FM 6-91 8-Inch Howitzer
FM 6-95 Service of the Piece--240-mm Howitzer, M1918
FM 6-100 Tactics and Technique of Division Artillery and Higher Artillery Echelons
FM 6-101 Tactics and Technique, Battalion and Battery, Motorized
FM 6-105 Armored Division, Artillery
FM 6-110 Pack Artillery
FM 6-120 The Observation Battalion
FM 6-125 Examination of Gunners
FM 6-135 Forward Observation
* FM 6-150 Organic Field Artillery Air Observation (1944)
www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/FM/index.html

[connie]

Hi, Loey, & welcome to the discussion board!

I appreciate your thesis work on your grandfather.

Jim Wentz has a lot of amazing sources in his father's papers and in the other research he has done.

As he noted, I am involved in researching and writing, too... working on the context around my father's time in the 106th. The parallels to your grandfather's experience is that stateside during winter maneuvers dad was a 2nd Lt. in a firing battery of the 590th (his Battery A; your grandfather's Battery B).

A complex story led to the fact that by the time the Field Artillery and other special forces shipped out, Dad was the Battery Motor Officer assigned to the Service Battery of the 590th-- about 7 miles west of the rest of the Battalion on December 16. I have seen both his location and the location of the firing batteries. Don't know how far you've gotten on your research... But I can visualize the field where the firing batteries were on the 16th of December...

My understanding of what happened to the 590th lines up with what Jim Wentz described. Three of the division's 4 field artillery battalions were served by the same road network. The 590th continued to hold their position on the night of December 16th while the 592nd and the 589th moved out. By the time the 590th received their orders to move out, it was too late.

I have a different take than Jim on one small detail. It is my understanding that the weapons carriers that Jim described were used by the 592nd Field Artillery Battalion with their larger guns (155 mm howitzers). You can check this out, but I believe that the three field artillery battalions firing 105mm howitzers (the 589th, 590th, and 591st) had a more stable vehicle to pull their howitzers: known as a "weapons carrier." Wish I had a photo of an actual 590th weapons carrier headed for the front. But here's a photo of the configuration: a 2 1/2 ton weapons carrier pulling a 105 mm howitzer.



(click to enlarge)

Also See Oflag XIII-B106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5023/thread
Just added your grandfather's name to the 106th connections there

PS. Schenck...That last name looks awfully familiar to me. As a fellow officer in the 590th, my father is likely to have known your grandfather. I will keep my eyes open as I review letters Dad sent to Mom. The context in which I saw the name could very well be during the time when wives were looking for MIA / POW answers and exchanging info. I'll let you know if and when I locate the name...

[jrwentz]

There are several mentions of the 590th in this document)

Operations of the 423D Infantry (106th Infantry Division) in the vicinity of Schonberg during the Battle of the Ardennes, 16-19 December 1944 (Ardennes-Alsace Campaign) (personal experience of a battalion operations officer).

cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4013coll8/id/3408


Collection
World War II Operational Documents
Title
Operations of the 423D Infantry (106th Infantry Division) in the vicinity of Schonberg during the Battle of the Ardennes, 16-19 December 1944 (Ardennes-Alsace Campaign) (personal experience of a battalion operations officer).
Author
Jones, Jr., Alan W. (This is the son of General Alan W. Jones, who was with the 423rd on the Eifel - Jim W)
Abstract
Describes an infantry regiment defending, surrounded and attempting to break out during the Battle of the Ardennes. Provides lessons learned. Digitized by the Military History Institute.
Keyword
World War, 1939-1945
World War Two
WWII
Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945
German Armed Forces
Logistics
Infantry division
Infantry battalion
Personal account
Battalion staff
Date, Digital
1999-08-11
Resource Type
Textual
Format
PDF; Adobe Acrobat Reader required; 35 p.; 2.68 MB.
Language
eng
Release statement
Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited.
Repository
Combined Arms Research Library
Library
Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library
Date created
2011-01-28

[jrwentz]

You are correct Connie. Ralph Hill refers to this in one of his letters where he mentioned one of the units borrowed a Prime Mover from the 592nd when they were having trouble getting a 105 Howitzer's trails out of the ground. The trails had been buried and over time as the gun was fired it dug in deeper. Somewhere I read trails would be dug in if they needed to gain more range. Makes it tough to move out in a hurry tho. Thanks for catching this!

I have a different take than Jim on one small detail. It is my understanding that the weapons carriers that Jim described were used by the 592nd Field Artillery Battalion with their larger guns (155 mm howitzers). You can check this out, but I believe that the three field artillery battalions firing 105mm howitzers (the 589th, 590th, and 591st) had a more stable vehicle to pull their howitzers: known as a "weapons carrier." Wish I had a photo of an actual 590th weapons carrier headed for the front.

[jrwentz]

Link to Forward Observation Training Manual

archive.org/details/FM6-135/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater

[Loey]

Thank you Jim and Connie, thank you so much for your help and all of the links to research.

[Loey]

Aug 25, 2022 8:18:06 GMT -5 jrwentz said:

This is a link to "A Time for Trumpets" and can be borrowed for an hour at a time. This book corrected a lot of information found in earlier books. In my opinion this is the most thoroughly researched book available. You may be able to purchase a copy at Amazon, but the book itself is expensive. However, the Kindle version cost me $3.95 or thereabouts. My Dad left me a lot of Bulge books, including this one, but for research purposes it is hard to beat the Kindle version. It will save you a LOT of time vs. a hard copy. The book is well-indexed but I sometimes find references in a search that do not show up in the index.

archive.org/details/timefortrumpetsu00macd/page/n3/mode/2up?q=590th

Historian
His first book, Company Commander, was published in 1947, while his wartime experiences were fresh in his mind. Charles B. MacDonald was the author of The Siegfried Line Campaign and co-author of Three Battles: Arnaville, Altuzzo, and Schmidt, both in the official series United States Army in World War II. He supervised the preparation of other volumes in the European and Mediterranean theater military history subseries and contributed to Command Decisions and American Military History. He authored Company Commander (Washington: 1947), The Battle of the Huertgen Forest (Philadelphia: 1963), The Mighty Endeavor (New York: 1969), and Airborne (New York: 1970).

In 1957 he received a Secretary of the Army Research and Study Fellowship and spent a year studying the interrelationship of terrain, weapons, and tactics on European battlefields.[1] He wrote the final volume of the Green Series on the European Theatre, The Last Offensive. He retired as Deputy Chief Historian, United States Army Center of Military History in 1979.

After his retirement, MacDonald wrote A Time for Trumpets, his last book, a personal history of the Ardennes Offensive which concentrates on the first two weeks of the battle, which he spent five years researching.

MacDonald became ill with cancer and lung disease, and died on December 4, 1990 at his home in Arlington, Virginia, at the age of 68.[2] 

Thank you so much for this book recommendation. I work at Dartmouth College's Baker Berry Library and was able to look to see if we have it and we do, looking forward to reading it, thank you!

[connie]

I am glad that Jim mentioned A Time for Trumpets and pleased to know that you have a great source for books.
Thanks of the bit of history on the author, too. I've linked this Discussion board's notes on that book to the above post so that others looking up the book can find these notes too.
I'll also make a link here to the discussions of that book: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/387/thread

[connie]

Unit History for the 590th Field Artillery Battalion
For convenience, here is that link, taking you directly to the 590th Field Artillery Battalion history written by Richard Hartman: www.indianamilitary.org/106ID/Publications/CubInReview/04-UnitHistory.htm#590th_Field_Artillery_Battalion_

For future reference, at the top of each thread under this discussion Board's "Site Soldier Index" you will find a link to the Unit Histories (on the Indiana Military Site)


You Will find Charles Newton Schenck's name appears several times in this account.
The first time he is mentioned is under the heading "Successful Missions:"

Speaking of action on December 16, Hartman notes...
"Lts. Zane Donaldson and Charles N. Schenck III, radio operators T/4 Eugene Womack and T/5 Akey, and driver Pfc, Donald Sheehy, all of B Battery, directed fire for this mission. After its recapture they returned to Bleialf with the infantry and continued to observe for the Battalion."

Several paragraphs beyond Hartman mentions:
"Lt. Donaldson, T/4 Womack and Pfc, Sheehy were recommended for the Silver Star, and Lt. Schenck and T/S Akey for the Bronze Star, To my knowledge, Lt. Schenck alone was decorated."



PS. Note there are several minor corrections that you might want to know if you use elements of this account in your research paper. Hartman worked to be accurate & these are not glaring errors.

1) Early in the account (under the title" Left Behind"), Hartman tells of the departure from England to cross the channel. He refers to the departure location as "Portland Bill," Actually Portland Bill is a point at the south end of the Isle of Portland. Portland Harbor, from which the 590th left England, is actually at the north end of the Isle of Portland.

2) At some point Hartman mentions the Service Battery of the 590th being located in St. Vith. It was in that direction from where Hartman was located, but it was actually 6 miles or so east of St. Vith and about a mile west of Schönberg on the road between those two places. It was in the small rural village of Heuem. (This is probably not a vital detail for you, but since my father was in the Service Battery of the 590th at the time, it was an important detail to me.)

3) Just a paragraph above the title " Left Behind Again" Hartman states: "Early the evening of the 16th the ammunition train which had been sent to St. Vith for a full load that morning returned with but one day's allowance. This was the last supply the Battalion received. It was learned that the larger supply had been refused."

Elements of this statement are accurate, but I have more info on this subject.

First, note that the Ammunition Train from the 590th Service Battery (based in Heuem) made a daily (90 mile round trip) runto an ammunition dump near Liége to pick up ammunition and deposit it in their own hilltop ammunition dump. They had begun these runs even before taking their position in Heuem. So, I believe the Heuem Ammo dump had several days-worth of supplies. But shortly after they took their position they were informed that they were using too much ammunition, and they were indeed rationed in what they were allowed to pick up.

These men from the Service Battery's Ammunition train did not normally deliver ammo to the firing batteries. Their counterparts from that forward position in Germany came to the Service Battery's Ammunition dump daily to pick up their day's supply. Certainly they had been informed that this was now a rationed amount.

Likely the Service Battery's forward counterparts picked up this daily supply in the morning and delivered it to the firing batteries, though the limited route between Heuem and the front had its problems off and on during the day of December 16th.

There was a reason for what seems like duplicate teams. I am told that the pick up by the forward team was a part of the system to prevent miscommunication. Since firing battery locations could be moved on short notice the men from the forward positions would be aware if this happened.

Throughout the day of December 16th, the men back in the Service Battery in Heuem were aware of the continuous firing by the Firing Batteries. They knew that the daily rationed ammo supply already procured would not last. So, at 4PM on the 16th of December the Service Battery Ammunition Train Commander (Griswold Smith) back in Heuem asked for volunteers from that Ammunition train to make a run to the forward positions to deliver another load of ammunition.

Four drivers volunteered. Three drivers and their trucks made it through. The others didn't know what had happened to the 4th. He had been grabbed from the end of the line of trucks by enemy troops.

The road was not safe for the Service Battery drivers to return to Heuem that night, and the 3 drivers stayed out with the men of C Battery of the 590th...

So, unless the men from the forward positions encountered problems along their route in their pick up that day, there was a second ammo run that day. But it would be the last ammo re-supply that the 590th would receive.

Note: I haven't carefully reviewed the details of Hartman's notes beyond this point. My source for info on the 590th Field Artillery's Service Battery is notes from my father Lt. Gerald Pratt who was the Battery Motor Officer (for the 590th Field Artillery Service Battery) at the time.