Post by connie on Oct 4, 2021 18:06:12 GMT -5
Cavender, Charles C, Col, Commander 423rd Infantry Regiment, POW XIII-B
Discussion Board Notes on Oflag XIII-B 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5023/thread
History of the 423rd Infantry Regiment by Colonel Cavender: www.106thinfdivassn.org/the423.html
Thumbnail History of Cavender 106thinfantry-part2.webs.com/charlescavender.htm
Notes from Loy Dean Lawler, Pfc. 423 E, 1st platoon: www.ericsiegmund.com/fireant/2017/06/170608-loysstory.html
At the time of our capture I was with Captain Crews near the dugout that I supposed could be called the Regimental Headquarters. I can still see the anguish and tears on Colonel [Charles C.] Cavender's face when he came out and said we were going to surrender. I can truthfully say nobody around me wanted to surrender.
Tribute to Colonel Charles Cavender by Richard Peterson I Co 423rd www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%2064%20Schubin/CharlesCavender/CharlesCavender.htm
In December 1944, Colonel Charles Cavender, Texan, West Point graduate, former World War I private, came back to Germany as the commander of the regiment he created and trained. With him into the Ardennes forests he brought men like me, physically tough, individually capable and ready for combat.
Only a few knew Cavender's innermost concerns about the overstretched positions of his beloved 423rd in the Division line when we replaced the 2nd Division. Forty years later in his notes to Charles MacDonald he expressed dissatisfaction with the task assigned. Wide gaps in the defensive line resulted from the blindness of the High Command and its refusal to acknowledge the dangers in the Ardennes. Cavender's thinly stretched regiment was forced to defend without Armor and its reserve battalion. "Good Luck," said the one commander who could help. "If they come, just slug it out with what you have " as he left a frustrated Cavender standing alone in the eleven mile wide Losheim Gap.
A massive and vicious German attack did come through that indefensible Gap. Ordered to attack the German and fight his way out of the noose they had drawn around him Cavender's regiment fought alone. Promised help and supplies never came. With one battalion totally destroyed, he Mopped the charge of his last remaining battalion against overwhelming odds. The 423rd and its sister regiment the 422nd held off the best the German Army could throw at them for three bloody days. Their struggle would only be properly acknowledged by the German whose sensitive timetable of battle was destroyed by the defeated regiments. As he surveyed wounded men needing aid, riflemen without ammunition, and a total loss of communication with Division, he accepted the abhorrent decision to surrender his command.
It meant putting his Army career on the line. The General's star he would probably earn in his second war was not an acceptable trade for more lives of his men. Cavender was a casualty of the battle in the Ardennes as surely as if a German bullet had struck him. The sacrifice he made for his comrades was heroic and unselfish.
Few know of his valiant efforts to alleviate the suffering of his men in the Stalags. The records of his personal battles with the Germans commanders are buried in still classified records. He argued, he demanded, he bargained to little avail. But he never gave up.
How many would have died on that hill outside Schoenberg if Cavender had not the courage to surrender? I know I live today because of him. His example and training served me in battle, in captivity and in the later competition of civilian life. I am alive because he cared.
Not until forty years after I first saw Colonel Cavender did I meet him personally. He was a major influence in my life, and he will always be. Charles Cavender, for the joys of my life I thank you. As an old Sergeant, I salute you.
Richard Peterson, I Co. 423rd Infantry
Legion of Merit Award valor.militarytimes.com/hero/97542
DATE OF BIRTH: October 2, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH: Texas
Charles Cavender graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1923. He retired as a U.S. Army Colonel
Colonel (Infantry) Charles Carlton Cavender (ASN: 0-15307), United States Army, was awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States as Commanding Officer of the 423d Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, from 1943 to 1944.
War Department Notes on Oflag XIII B : oflag64.us/ewExternalFiles/american_pows_in_germany-mis_docs.pdf
US PERSONNEL:
Upon opening the camp, Col Charles C Cavender became the SAO,and he appointed Maj. Albert L. Bemdt as the SMO. There were no other officers appointed to hold definite offices. However when the evacuated officers of Oflag 6y arrived at the compound, Col. Paul R Good became the SAO and organized the camp on the same basis as the compound at Schubin, Poland. He used the Oflag 64 staff but retained Maj. Berndt as the SMO.
STRENGTH
Approximately 300 American officers opened the camp on 11 January 1944, and by the time the Protecting Power visited the camp on 23 January 1945, the strength had increased to 453 officers, 12 noncommissioned officers and 18 privates. All of these men were captured on the Western Front between the 15th and 22nd of December 1944. By 24 March1945, the strength had increased to 1291 officers and 127 enlisted men which included the 423 officers and 67 enlisted men who arrived from Oflag 64 at Schubin, Poland
Discussion Board Notes on Oflag XIII-B 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5023/thread
History of the 423rd Infantry Regiment by Colonel Cavender: www.106thinfdivassn.org/the423.html
Thumbnail History of Cavender 106thinfantry-part2.webs.com/charlescavender.htm
Notes from Loy Dean Lawler, Pfc. 423 E, 1st platoon: www.ericsiegmund.com/fireant/2017/06/170608-loysstory.html
At the time of our capture I was with Captain Crews near the dugout that I supposed could be called the Regimental Headquarters. I can still see the anguish and tears on Colonel [Charles C.] Cavender's face when he came out and said we were going to surrender. I can truthfully say nobody around me wanted to surrender.
Tribute to Colonel Charles Cavender by Richard Peterson I Co 423rd www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%2064%20Schubin/CharlesCavender/CharlesCavender.htm
In December 1944, Colonel Charles Cavender, Texan, West Point graduate, former World War I private, came back to Germany as the commander of the regiment he created and trained. With him into the Ardennes forests he brought men like me, physically tough, individually capable and ready for combat.
Only a few knew Cavender's innermost concerns about the overstretched positions of his beloved 423rd in the Division line when we replaced the 2nd Division. Forty years later in his notes to Charles MacDonald he expressed dissatisfaction with the task assigned. Wide gaps in the defensive line resulted from the blindness of the High Command and its refusal to acknowledge the dangers in the Ardennes. Cavender's thinly stretched regiment was forced to defend without Armor and its reserve battalion. "Good Luck," said the one commander who could help. "If they come, just slug it out with what you have " as he left a frustrated Cavender standing alone in the eleven mile wide Losheim Gap.
A massive and vicious German attack did come through that indefensible Gap. Ordered to attack the German and fight his way out of the noose they had drawn around him Cavender's regiment fought alone. Promised help and supplies never came. With one battalion totally destroyed, he Mopped the charge of his last remaining battalion against overwhelming odds. The 423rd and its sister regiment the 422nd held off the best the German Army could throw at them for three bloody days. Their struggle would only be properly acknowledged by the German whose sensitive timetable of battle was destroyed by the defeated regiments. As he surveyed wounded men needing aid, riflemen without ammunition, and a total loss of communication with Division, he accepted the abhorrent decision to surrender his command.
It meant putting his Army career on the line. The General's star he would probably earn in his second war was not an acceptable trade for more lives of his men. Cavender was a casualty of the battle in the Ardennes as surely as if a German bullet had struck him. The sacrifice he made for his comrades was heroic and unselfish.
Few know of his valiant efforts to alleviate the suffering of his men in the Stalags. The records of his personal battles with the Germans commanders are buried in still classified records. He argued, he demanded, he bargained to little avail. But he never gave up.
How many would have died on that hill outside Schoenberg if Cavender had not the courage to surrender? I know I live today because of him. His example and training served me in battle, in captivity and in the later competition of civilian life. I am alive because he cared.
Not until forty years after I first saw Colonel Cavender did I meet him personally. He was a major influence in my life, and he will always be. Charles Cavender, for the joys of my life I thank you. As an old Sergeant, I salute you.
Richard Peterson, I Co. 423rd Infantry
Legion of Merit Award valor.militarytimes.com/hero/97542
DATE OF BIRTH: October 2, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH: Texas
Charles Cavender graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1923. He retired as a U.S. Army Colonel
Colonel (Infantry) Charles Carlton Cavender (ASN: 0-15307), United States Army, was awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States as Commanding Officer of the 423d Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, from 1943 to 1944.
War Department Notes on Oflag XIII B : oflag64.us/ewExternalFiles/american_pows_in_germany-mis_docs.pdf
US PERSONNEL:
Upon opening the camp, Col Charles C Cavender became the SAO,and he appointed Maj. Albert L. Bemdt as the SMO. There were no other officers appointed to hold definite offices. However when the evacuated officers of Oflag 6y arrived at the compound, Col. Paul R Good became the SAO and organized the camp on the same basis as the compound at Schubin, Poland. He used the Oflag 64 staff but retained Maj. Berndt as the SMO.
STRENGTH
Approximately 300 American officers opened the camp on 11 January 1944, and by the time the Protecting Power visited the camp on 23 January 1945, the strength had increased to 453 officers, 12 noncommissioned officers and 18 privates. All of these men were captured on the Western Front between the 15th and 22nd of December 1944. By 24 March1945, the strength had increased to 1291 officers and 127 enlisted men which included the 423 officers and 67 enlisted men who arrived from Oflag 64 at Schubin, Poland