The Cold

[robdon]

My dad use to talk about how bad the weather was and the cold.When over run they did without food for a couple of days until they came apon a unit serving hotdogs. I can remember him saying they offered them one hot dog per man. He said it was the best hot dog he ever ate. Near Christmas time every year I think of what it must have been like being cold,hungry,and the
not knowing what the next day will bring. He survived WWll and the Battle of the Bulge and returned home all before his 21st birthday. He is gone but I will pass down the stories to my children so no one ever forgets the struggle of the 106th. He was Les Newnam 589th FABN Battery B

[connie]

The cold, the snow, and the mud... I think that those remaining could tell us a bit about their experiences with each. I know that the fellows from the Field Artillery had not had a lot of experience with warmth since they hit the damp, chilly, quarters in England. Then, there was the mud of France, the cold road trip, the bivouac in a snow filled fir forest (with mud beneath the deep snow) before going into position... Some had it better for a few days before the Bulge. But, I don't know about those in the firing batteries. I do know that straw was purchased for warm bedding. For some this may have lined trenches. Did your Dad speak of where he slept during the few days in line before the bulge?

(anyone else want to comment on the cold, bivouac conditions, or things like trench foot?)

Connie

[Carl W.]

Three days after the battalion landed in France they were in a bivouac area 4 kilometers east of St. Vith in the area around Wallerode. They commenced the occupation and took over the 2nd Div's positions on December 9th. One of the men's main concerns was improving their shelters and dugouts. This would be well needed in the days to come. 1944 was one of Belgium's coldest winters in years with temperatures going as low as -25 degrees Centigrade. The area they were in was very unfavorable and although the US Army in 1944 was the best equiped army in the world, the uniforms were just not suitable. As a veteran once told me: "They were hot in summer and cold in winter!".

Snow was lying kneedeep at some places and the roads leading to the battery firing positions were turned into an icy muck due to overloaded ammunition trucks. O so needed overshoes weren't delivered until December 12, which caused 8 men of the battalion to fall victim to trenchfoot in the first three days on the line.

Being able to visualise those places by living here in Belgium and knowing the stories of what the men of the 589th and the rest of the 106th went through it only makes me think of them with more and more respect.

Here's a picture of A-Battery positions, B-Battery was located behind me on the other side of the Radscheid-Auw road.



Carl

[floydragsdale]

I certainly remember the frigid weather.

One night, in Dec., my fox-hole had several inches if ice-water in it. Near that same time, the Germans almost had us completely surrounded & we needed to get out.

We began hiking early in the morning and trudged all day over roads, cross country, forest & mine-fields. until near midnight. Officers told us we hiked 45 miles that day. After that long march we were ordered to take our shoes & socks off for foot inspection, which we did. We lost 50% of our company, right there, because of trench foot, and frost-bite. We never saw any of those men again.

At one point that day we were only 50 yards from the German lines. Hand signals were used to move us through a forest full of mine fields. One asset for us was a heavy fog that helped to conceal us from the Germans. The coldest temperature I remember was (I believe) was twenty degrees below zero.

Floyd, Co. G. 424th Regiment.

[connie]

An earlier post under equipment (firing battery tractors) includes an account of the effect of the ice on the firing battery tractors -- and the communications lines.

To zip to this account just click on:
106thdivision.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=equipment&action=display&thread=43

[gemcmeg]

Carl & Floyd, dad always talked about the cold, but i had no idea it was THAT cold. I lived in Chicago for 20 years and one winter we had 25ish below (then add the windchill). The more i learn the more i so find it so remarkable that any of these men made it out alive.

[Carl W.]

Headline in the Belgian newspapers today is the fact that the snow record of the winter of 1944-1945 has been broken. December 1944 had 16 full days of snow. Conditions in the Ardennes (weather-wise) are equal to those during the Battle of the Bulge.

Respect to the men who fought battles in this kind of weather. I'm glad to enjoy a warm drink inside four walls.

Carl

[connie]

Carl,

Glad you are enjoying indoor warmth on this snowy Belgian day. It's fun to connect to the weather there and do know they're still talking about the winter of 44. I've heard mention of record cold and/ or snow at the time but did not know any details. Have you already had that many days of snow this season? Or are they counting measured snow fall depth so far?

Connie

[Carl W.]

Hi Connie

The records are apparently based on the number of days of snowfall. December 1944 had 16 and we're already facing nr. 18. This indicates that it had never snown so much so early in the year. Except for the higher elevated areas of Belgium and Germany, such as the Eifel, most of the country saw the first snow on December 21st in 1944.

Carl