Chapter 4
Endnotes
1. VII Corps Opns Memo 91, 11 Sep 44, VII Corps Opns Memos file, Sep 44; FO 11, 13 Sep 44, VII Corps G-3 FO's file, Sep 44.
2. Interv by the author with Gen Collins, Washington, 23 Jan 54; Ltr, Maj Gen Clarence R. Huebner (former CG 1st Div) to OCMH, 3 Sep 53, OCMH.
3. VII Corps Opns Memo 92, 13 Sep 44, VII Corps Opns Memos file, Sep 44; VII Corps FO 11, 13 Sep 44.
4. See 3d Armd, 1st, and 9th Div AARs, Sep 44.
5. VII Corps, Annex 2 to FO 11, 13 Sep 44.
6. 9th Div G-2 Per Rpts 58, 59, and 60, 12-14 Sep 44.
7. VII Corps, Annex 2 to FO 11.
8. Greater detail on the Germans in the Aachen sector may be found in Lucian Heichler, The Germans Opposite VII Corps in September 1944, manuscript prepared to complement this volume, filed in OCMH.
9. MS # B-730 (Brandenberger).
10. ETHINT-18 (Generalleutnant Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, comdr of the 116th Pz Div); Order, Seventh Army to all corps, 9 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Anlagen, Befehle: Heeresgruppe, Armee, usw., 5.VIII.-21.X.44 (hereafter cited as LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle: Heeresgruppe, Armee, usw.).
11. TWX, 116th Pz Div to LXXXI Corps, 0155, 12 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Anlagen, Meldungen der Divisionen [Div Sitreps], 25.VIII.-1.X.44 (hereafter cited as LXXXI Corps KTB, Meldungen der Div); Tel Conv, LXXXI Corps with 116th Pz Div, 0810, 12 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Anlagen, Kampfverlauf [Operations], 2.VIII.-21.X.44 (hereafter cited as LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; Tel Conv, Seventh Army with LXXXI Corps, 0050, 22 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Anlagen, Befehle an Divisionen [Orders to Divs), 3.VIII.-21.X.44 (hereafter cited as LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle an Div).
12. Order, LXXXI Corps to all divs, 2230, 12 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle an Div; TWX, A Gp B to OB WEST, 2350, 22 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Operationsbefehle; Daily Sitreps, 116th Pz Div, 21 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Anlagen, Tagesmeldungen, 6.VIII.-21.X.44 (hereafter cited as LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen); Tel Conv, LXXXI Corps with 9th Pz Div, 1500, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
13. Order, LXXXI Corps to all divs, 2230, 12 Sep 44; Mng Sitrep, A Gp B, 12 Sep 44, OB WEST KTB (Text).
14. ETHINT-18 (Schwerin).
15. Ibid.; Rpt, Model to OB WEST, 2230, 15 Sep 44, A GP B KTB, Operationsbefehle; Ltr, General der Infanterie Franz Mattenklott (commander of Wehrkreis VI, the military district which included Aachen) to Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Meldungen der Div.
16. Rpt, Model to OB WEST, 2330, 15 Sep 44, A GP B KTB, Operationsbefehle.
17. Interv with Collins, 25 Jan 54.
18. Like the 1st and 2d Armored Divisions, the 3d was activated before adoption of the organization of three combat commands. Instead of three separate tank and armored infantry battalions, these divisions had two tank regiments and an armored infantry regiment. Though usually holding out a portion of the three regiments as a reserve, the divisions had no "CCR" per se. The table of organization strength called for 3,822 more men than the later armored divisions. Nicknamed Spearhead, the 3d Armored entered combat with the XIX Corps in Normandy. The division joined the VII Corps for the breakout of the hedgerows, the Falaise gap operation, and the pursuit. At the instigation of General Rose, the division commander, combat commands in the 3d Armored Division were known by the names of their commanders. CCA, for example, was Combat Command Hickey. To avoid complications, the conventional CCA and CCB are used in this volume.
19. The exploits of the Big Red One, the 1st Division, had become as renowned by this time as any in the American Army. The division's first combat in World War II was in the invasion of North Africa, followed by the invasion of Sicily and D Day at OMAHA Beach.
20. The 3d Armored Division story is from official records, plus an authoritative unit history, Spearhead in the West (Frankfurt-am-Main: Franz Joseph Heurich, 1945).
21. Daily Sitrep, 9th Pz Div, 13 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen; Tel Convs, LXXXI Corps with 9th Pz Div, 1420 and 1830, 13 Sep 44, and LXXXI Corps with 116th Pz Div, 1430, 13 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
22. Rad, LXXXI Corps to 116th Pz Div, 1230, 13 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
23. ETHINT-18 (Schwerin) ; Daily Sitrep, 116th Pz Div, 13 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; Rad, 116th Pz Div to LXXXI Corps, 2235, 13 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Meldungen der Div; Daily Sitrep, A Gp B, 0100, 14 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Tagesmeldungen.
24. Tel Convs, Gen Mueller with LXXXI Corps, 1340, LXXXI Corps with 9th Pz Div, 1730 and 2030, LXXXI Corps with 353d Div, 2040, and LXXXI Corps with 16th Pz Div, 2320, 13 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
25. Rad, 9th Pz Div to LXXXI Corps, 0353, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Meldungen der Div.
26. Tel Convs, LXXXI Corps with 9th Pz Div, 1740, 14 Sep, and 0015 and 1540, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
27. German material from Tel Conv, LXXXI Corps with 9th Pz Div, 1540, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; Evng Sitrep, LXXXI Corps, 1700, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen.
28. TWX, LXXXI Corps to 116 Pz Div, 1718, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle an Div; Daily Sitrep, 116th Pz Div, 2100, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen; Tel Conv, LXXXI Corps with 116th Pz Div, 0915, 15 Sep 44, and Rpt on Situation in Aachen Area, Gen Schack, 2145, 14 Sep 44, both in LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
29. VII Corps FO 11, 13 Sep 44.
30. The 9th Division combat interview file for September 1944 contains a detailed account of this action, Penetration of the Siegfried Line by the 47th Infantry Regiment.
31. Tel Conv, LXXXI Corps with 9th Pz Div, 0925, 15 Sep 44 LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
32. Tel Conv, LXXXI Corps with 9th Pz Div, 1655, 15 Sep 44 LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; Daily Sitrep, 9th Pz Div, 1910, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen.
33. Tel Conv, Seventh Army with LXXXI Corps 2015, 13 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
34. "Combat strength" is a translation of Kampfstaerke, which includes men actually engaged in the fighting or in immediate support forward of a battalion command post. See Gen Order Nr. 1/2000/44 g., 25 Apr 44, OKH/Gen. St.d.H. Org Abt.
35. These strengths are as of 16 September 1944. For a detailed breakdown from contemporary sources, see Heichler, Germans Opposite VII Corps, pp. 41-42.
36. Tel Convs, LXXXI Corps with Schwerin, 0930, and with 116th Pz Div, 2345, 14 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; Rpt, A Gp B to OB WEST, 1200, 14 Sep 44, OB WEST KTB (Text); Rad, 116th Pz Div to LXXXI Corps, 1310, 14 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Meldungen der Div; ETHINT-18 (Schwerin); MS # B-058 (Generalmajor Heinrich Voightsberger, at this time commander of the 116th Pz Div's 60th Pz Gr Regt).
37. Rpt, Model to OB WEST, 2330, 15 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Operationsbefehle; Tel Convs, G-T with G-3, LXXXI Corps, 1045, 16 Sep 44, and Seventh Army with LXXXI Corps, 1943, 17 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps, KTB, Kampfverlauf; 201 file on General von Schwerin, ETHINT-18 (Schwerin).
38. Veteran of the invasions of North Africa and Sicily, the 9th Division had entered combat in Normandy on 14 June 1944. Its octofoil shoulder patch came out of the fifteenth century, a heraldic symbol denoting the ninth son. Official records of the division are supplemented by extensive combat interviews at battalion level.
39. Special units comprised of men with similar physical disabilities were not uncommon along the Western Front during the fall of 1944. All troops of the so-called Stomach Battalions had ailments of the digestive tract.
40. Entry, 1320, 12 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; TWX, A Gp B to OB WEST, 2350 and 2400, 22 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Operationsbefehle; MS # B-563 (Generalleutnant Wolf Trierenberg, comdr of the 347th Div).
41. TWX, A Gp B to OB WEST, 2350 and 2400, 22 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Operationsbefehle; MS # B-793 (Col Hasso Neitzel, CofS, 89th Div).
42. For distribution of German units, see MS B-793 (Neitzel).
43. MS # B-793 (Neitzel).
44. IX FC and IX TAC, Unit History, Sep 44, and FUSA and IX TAC Daily Summaries, Sep 44. A compendious account of tactical air operations during the fall of 1944 may be found in Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate, eds., The Army Air Forces in World War II: Vol. III, Europe: ARGUMENT to V-E Day, January 1944 to May 1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), pp. 600 and 614, (hereafter cited as Craven and Cate, eds., Europe: ARGUMENT to V-E Day).
45. The 3d Armored Division on 18 September had 153 medium tanks, of which only 70 to 75 were actually available for use. See 3d Armd Div AAR, Sep 44, and Combat Interv with 3d Armd Div G-4.
46. Rpt, Brandenberger to A Gp B, 16 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle: Heeresgruppe, Armee, usw. See Heichler, Germans Opposite VII Corps, pp. 42-44, for a detailed breakdown of 9th Panzer Division strength as determined from contemporary German sources.
47. Tel Convs, LXXXI Corps with 353d Inf Div, 2310, 14 Sep, and 1510, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; Daily Sitrep, LXXXI Corps, 2100, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen; Order, Seventh Army to all corps, 16 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle: Heeresgruppe, Armee, usw.
48. These assault guns were similar to the American tank destroyer. See above, p. 27.
49. Rpt, A Gp B, 1335, 14 Sep 44, OB WEST KTB; Tel Conv, Model to Seventh Army, 1350, 16 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; TWX (Weekly Strength Report as of 1200, 16 Sep 44), LXXXI Corps, 22 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle an Div; Daily Sitrep, A Gp B, 0230, 17 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Tagesmeldungen; MS # A-971 (Col Gerhard Engel, comdr, 12th Inf Div).
50. Order, Seventh Army to all corps, 16 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle: Heeresgruppe, Armee, usw.
51. Order, LXXXI Corps to 12th Div, 2300, 15 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle an Div.
52. Tel Convs, LXXXI Corps with 12th Div, 0830 and 1800, and with 116th Pz Div, 2130, 16 Sep 44; Tel Conv, Seventh Army with LXXXI Corps, 1150, 17 Sep 44; Order, LXXXI Corps to 12th Div, 1015, 16 Sep 44; all in LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf, MS # A-971 (Engel).
53. German sources are: Daily and Evng Sitreps, LXXXI Corps, 1620 and 245, 17 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen; Sitrep, 12th Div, 1340, and Tel Conv, LXXXI Corps with 12th Div, 1533 17 Sep 44, both in LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; MS # A-971 (Engel).
54. Daily Sitrep, 12th Div, 22 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen.
55. Evng Sitrep, LXXXI Corps, 1625, 18 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen.
56. MS # A-971 (Engel); Tel Convs, LXXXI Corps with 12th Div, 0400 and 0425, 18 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
57. VII Corps Opns Memo 94, 18 Sep 44, confirming oral orders issued the day before, VII Corps G-3 file, 18 Sep 44.
58. The development of corps plans may be traced in VII Corps Opns Memos 94-97, 18-20 Sep 44.
59. Tel Convs, LXXXI Corps with Engel, 2045, and with 12th Div, 2230, 18 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf.
60. Mng Sitrep, LXXXI Corps, 0525, and Daily Sitreps, LXXXI Corps and 116th Pz Div, 21 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen.
61. Tel Conv, Seventh Army with LXXXI Corps, 1130, 17 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; Daily Sitrep, LXXXI Corps, 22 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Tagesmeldungen; Order, LXXXI Corps to 275th Div, 1730, 22 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle an Div; Order A Gp B to Seventh Army, 1315, 23 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Operationsbefehle.
62. Tel Conv, LXXXI Corps with 353d Div, 1720, 21 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Kampfverlauf; Order, Seventh Army to LXXXI Corps, 1940 21 Sep 44, LXXXI Corps KTB, Befehle: Heeresgruppe, Armee, usw.; Evng Sitrep, A Gp B, 1840, 21 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Letzte Meldung; Daily Sitrep, A Gp B, 0110, 22 Sep 44, A Gp B KTB, Tagesmeldungen.
63. Ltr, Craig to OCMH, 31 Aug 53.
64. Interv with Collins, 21 Jan 54.
65. Interv with Collins, 25 Jan 54.
66. For detailed figures and documentation on enemy strengths, see Heichler, Germans Opposite VII Corps, pp. 84--86.
67. During this period a squad leader in the 18th Infantry, S. Sgt. JoSeph E. Schaefer, earned the Medal of Honor. After helping thwart a local counterattack, Sergeant Schaefer went beyond his lines to overtake a group of withdrawing Germans and liberate an American squad captured earlier in the fighting. The sergeant personally killed between 15 to 20 Germans, wounded as many more, and took 10 prisoners.
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