423rd Regiment L Company- Charles Helwig

[sofasurfer]

I'm trying to find information specifically on the company (L) my father was with. He was Charles Helwig.

He was wounded and taken prisoner on 12/21. He never said much about it but he did say that an ammo truck or a convoy was hit on the road they were walking down. There were hills on each side and thus, no where really to go.

Is it possible that anyone out there would know of this specific event?

Is there a listing of all members of the 106th Infantry Division or the 423rd Regiment or L Company?

Note from Connie: for related post see 106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=60&page=1#177

[Carl W.]

I might have something better for you:

One of your father's dogtags was for sale on ebay about a week and a half ago. I believe it sold for 300 USD!!
The seller's name was super-noemie, he might have the buyer's ID so you can contact him. The seller stated that the tag was found by use of a metal detector near Schönberg, Belgium. This was the area where many of the 423rd Regt surrendered.



A list of 423/L personnel can be found on www.indianamilitary.org and under "roster", "423/L".

All the best,
Carl

[sofasurfer]

I am very aware. It was a miracle that this occurred.

A man called me to notify me of the auction.
I contacted the seller since he stated in his auction that he searched for the family. He claimed 3 other people said they were family. Thats the last I heard from him.

I was the high bidder. At the last second super-noemie cancelled my bids and sold to another bidder.

I have contacted the buyer and he says that he may sell me the tag when he gets it.

My father lost that tag, I assume, when he was wounded. He was taken prisoner from there to Stalag XIII-D.

Since learning of the tag I have a renewed interest in finding out all I can about my dads days in Belgium. He never talked about it except for a couple little tid-bits.

Thanks for responding.

[Carl W.]

I hope you get will get the dogtag. After all, you're the only one who it really should belong to.

Best,
Carl

[sofasurfer]

Thank you for your support.
I found the 423/L Roster. Question... Is this the entire Company or just those who can be remembered or names that are submitted? I count 193 names. That seems like a odd number if that is the entire Company.

Is it proper to try to contact some of these people or would that be rude and stir up a lot of unwanted memories? Whats the etiquette?

[iceboxboy]

I am interviewing men from my father's company. I send a letter or email with my phone number and address explaining what I am doing. They respond to me if they want to talk. The majority have responded and had no problems speaking with me.

Craig

[Carl W.]

Most of the 106th Division rosters were lost in time. The full division roster currently available (thanks to the effort of Jim West in particular) is a reconstruction, using publications and unit rosters that were able to be located as a source. There are always names that are missing, but hopefully, one day, the roster will be complete.

I would send the men a letter or email with your intentions. Mention your father was one of their former comrades in arms and you will probably get a reply very soon.

Best of luck with your search!

Regards,
Carl

Apr 12, 2008 4:06:48 GMT -5 sofasurfer said:

Thank you for your support.
I found the 423/L Roster. Question... Is this the entire Company or just those who can be remembered or names that are submitted? I count 193 names. That seems like a odd number if that is the entire Company.

Is it proper to try to contact some of these people or would that be rude and stir up a lot of unwanted memories? Whats the etiquette?

[daryl]

Since it has been a couple years since I started this thread I though I would check back in to see if anyone has stumbled on any information.

I have learned that the 423rd was pretty much distroyed by Dec. 19th and any survivors then surrendered. However, my dad was wounded on the 20th and captured on the 21st. All he told me was that they were walking along a road, with hills on each side, when an ammo truck was bombed and there was no place to run and this is how he was severly wounded. He lay there afraid to move because he did not know if his arms would fall off. This must have been on the 20th. Then Germans were around and one German lowered his rifle, with one arm, to my dad as if to shoot him. A near by medic shouted in German, "wounded, wounded" and the German walked away. This must have been on the 21st.

Heres a question or 2.
Almost EVERYONE was killed or captured by Dec. 19th. Who was he with? A couple people or many people? Remnants of his unit or remnants of many units? I assume it was their ammo truck that got bombed and not the enemies. If so, was he with quite a few people and vehicles?

Regarding the dog tag mentioned above, I did aquire it. It is a very prized possession.The guy said it was found in the woods in the schnee eifel.

So I am thinking that my dad was one of the very last holdouts. Someone MUST have some knowledge of this event.

Thanks for all you do for us.

[floydragsdale]

Hello:

Your father's Company (L) was a Heavy Weapons Company. Thus he was either assigned to a 60mm Mortor Platoon, or a 50 Cal. Machine Gun Platoon.

This isn't much help, yet every piece of data adds to the picture.

Floyd
424th Regiment

[Carl W.]

He could have been with the group called 'the lost 500' who held out at the 422nd Regimental motor pool at Hill 576 near Laudesfeld. Survivors of various units gathered there and formed a static defense until they were forced to surrender on Dec 21.

I'll look into it!
Carl

[daryl]

Floyd.
My dad never mentioned any weapon that I can recall. I assumed he had a rifle. He talked about being in the fox hole and hearing the screaming meamies. Drove him crazy he said. Also talked about how the wool overcoat itched so bad he couldn't stand it. He never ever said the words machine gun, mortor or anti aircraft gun. But here is a photo that says on the back, "Chuck Helwigs anti aircraft gun". As his name was stated in full, I am thinking someone else sent my mom this picture. I just kinda assumed that the anti aircraft gun was something he trained with in an earlier unit but then got transferred to the unit that went to Belgium. How confusing.

Carl.
As stated in my earlier post, I don't think they were gathered anywhere. They were walking down a road and a conyoy (theirs or ours?) was bombed and an ammo truck blew up. But thanks for your dedication and for any information you can find.

Daryl.

Attachments:

[daryl]

I just found my dads POW record on the NARA site. It shows his Parent Unit Number as 0423 which I was aware of. But it also says his Parent Unit Type was 06. What does this mean?

[floydragsdale]

Hello Dayrl:

The 106th Div. was covering 27 miles of front line when the B.O.B. started. Usually an Infantry Div. was supposed to be responsible for five miles of front line.

So, there were thousands of yards between the 106th Regiments. In some cases, foxholes were as much as 50 to 100 yards apart. Regimental Headquarters were miles from their Companies.

It is very likely, when Regimental Hqtrs. surrenderd, they gave options to Companies spread out so thin to "do as they saw fit."

I think L Company decided to make a run for it to get out of the trap they were in. However, they were "over-run by the Germans. Being a Heavy Weapons Company, I think the Amo Truck belonged to L Company. It was most likely hit by a German "88" artillery shell.

I base my opinion on having been there, and my knowledge of the situation. When that battle began, there were five U.S. Army Infantry Divisions covering eighty miles of fron line. That's about 75,000 Soldiers fighting against 500,000 Germans. To say the least about the situation, we were out numbered and out gunned.

They came at us all day; wave after wave of them. As they were "mowed down" by deadly fire from our guns, more waves of them took the place of the first ones. In a sense, it was wholesale slaughter; yet, when our troops ran out of amunition we couldn't stop the Germans with snowballs.

The 424th was very fortunate to escape the trap and, we got out by the "skin of our teeth."

I hope this makes some sense to you.

By the way, the gun in the picture was not standard equipment for a Heavy Weapons Company.

Floyd

[Carl W.]

Apr 14, 2010 4:54:32 GMT -5 daryl said:

I just found my dads POW record on the NARA site. It shows his Parent Unit Number as 0423 which I was aware of. But it also says his Parent Unit Type was 06. What does this mean?

Daryl,

I believe the NARA code 06 stands for "Infantry regiment", thus the 423rd Infantry Regiment.

About the gun:
I noticed that, in the picture of your father's items you posted in the "How to read a uniform"topic, there is also a Specialisation Badge (small cast metal badge) which suspends a tag "Coastal Artillery". Well, the gun in the picture you posted is a 40mm Bofors Anti -Aircraft Gun, a weapon commonly used by the Coastal Artillery branch. Your father was probably in the coastal artillery before he was assigned to the 106th since many men from various branches of the Army (Air Corps, Artillery, ROTC etc) were assigned to the division after it had been stripped for Normandy replacements.

This may be something interesting to look into.

Greetings
Carl

Note from Connie: Here's a link to the photo of the medals posted under "How to Read a Uniform." 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/1108/thread

And here's the link to the post a few messages before this one where you can see the photo of the weapon: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/1107/thread