103rd Cactus Division

 

Letter from Lionel Dyck Jr

5 page typed note with notation on the back of page 5 to "Please keep for me"
On the evening of Oct 5/44 we marched from our barracks in Camp Shanks, N.Y. to the railroad station
where we boarded the trains for the piers. At the river, we boarded a river boat which took us to the ocean
piers where we board the liner U.S.S. Monticelle, a former luxury Italian line, at 0030 Oct 6/44. The liner
pulled out of New York harbor at 0030 6 Oct 44, and a few of us were lucky enough to get a glimpse of
the Statue of Liberty, and the rest had to be satisfied with the skyline of New York City.
The liner, at first, took a north and east course and soon a east course than a south east one. The trip was
smooth and outside of the heat of the ship and two meals aday and salt water to wash with it wasn’t a bad
journey at all. On the way we spotted another convoy, several burning tankers and Oct 18/44 we crossed
the straights of Gibraltar and again half of us were lucky enough to see only the Rock and the rest of us
looked at Africa. The next day we passed by Oran and say several mast heads from the French Fleet that
the British sank in Jul 40 to stop the Germans from taking them over. We docked in Marseilles the evening
of Oct 20/44 and had a very long and tiring march, mostly uphill, to our staging area where we set up a
formal bivouac in our own tent city.
While at the Marseilles staging area, all our equipment was uncrated and the fellows got a general
indoctrination of what there was to come. We had passes to the city of Marseilles, which had some
damage in it but not as much as we were to see later. While in the staging area we also visited some
small spots like Cass, Marietta, Grenoble.
On Nov 5/44 the 409th Combat Team was the first of the division to start to move up to battle. We had
good weather and as usual convoys are long and slow, but this time we saw a bit of the people and picked
up quite a bit of wine and bread and apples the people so generously gave to us as we drove along: we in
turn thru out some cigarettes and part of our rations that didn’t appeal to us. The first evening on our
northern march we bivouac at St. Marcel, France which is below Lyons, France. We bivouac over nite in
our tents on the open fields. The next day we again proceeded thru the narrow winding streets of the cities
and fair country roads along wich we once in awhile saw some wrecked German vehicles. The weather was
damp and some rain, but that didn’t halt the general happy atmosphere of going into the unknown and for
some to meet their fate. The second evening Nov 1/44 we bivouaced at DiJon, France, just south of Epinal.
We new that this day we would move within distance of the enemy, but we still proceeded at the same pace
with little care of air protection, etc., which we trained for. This day was rainy as the devil and the convoy
moved slower than usual and in the evening we pulled into a wooded area and it was raining so hard that we
all slept where we were whether in an ambulance or in a jeep with utter disregard for comfort with just a desire
to sleep and be dry-this was at Docelles France. The next morning we set up our tents and aid station and
the officers went up to see the 3rd and 3th division installations; since we were to take their place in this sector.
That evening we built bonfires, etc., which previously we were told we were not to since we were within so
called calling distance of the enemy. The next day the company moved up to join the 309th Inf Regt as it
entered combat 9 Nov 44 and I returned to Eloyes France were the Clearing station had just moved in to
wait until the Rear Eshelon of the Division moved in. At noon Nov 9/44 all of us clerks and the officer-
T/Sgt George E. DeBoer, Tech 4 George Griech, Mayerhoefer ,Tec 5 Dudley Earl Watkins, Cpls Martin,
Flaig, Sweeney and yours truly, W6JG Erwin A Hankamer and Pfc Sam Mangano moved to Bruyeres
where the Division Rear Echelon first setup in operation. My Collecting Company was unknowingly at
that time at Brouveliers only ½ mile away.
At Bruyers, France we were billeted in an old French house that had suffered from the repercussions of
bombs in the immediate vicinity. There were no windows so we took our gas mask capes and used the
transparent cellose for the windows. The Engineer personnel section shared the room with us but they
soon moved out. We all slept in the office, and when we were all bedded down there were scarcely
any room to move around. Our artillery was located to our rear, and we were always hearing the shells
flying over never knowing in which direction they were going. We didn’t have too much work to start out
with, except to familiarize ourselves with ETOUSA procedures instead of home procedures in the states.
As the division was moving forward they took the big city of St. Die, which was rebuilt with American
money in the last war; it was also the home of the geographer who first used the word America for us. Our
rear echelon moved into St. Die while the town was still hot and over some of our engineers hastily
constructed bridges. We set up in the Catholic Seminary which the Germans had used as a hospital. It was
one of the few buildings standing in the city. All the other buildings in the city had been completely leveled
by our artillery and the Germans dynamite. They had tried to dynamite a 1400 yr old church, but
fortunately the dynamite didn’t go off and most of the church was spared. The Germans told the French
it was our dynamite, but the dynamite was and proved to be beyond doubt German origin. At St. Die we
 each had a nice room to ourselves, we had to furnish our own bunks tho, and a very nice light office to
work in. We were also fortunate in having a messhall to eat in which we didn’t have at Bruyeres. At Bruyeres
we had to eat outside whether in the rain or snow. While at St. Die, I took my first trip up to see the
boys in the company while in combat. First I went up to Clearing at LaHowald and from there I took an
ambulance driven by Elmer Phillips and James Hough and we went to Diefenthal, France. The boys had
just moved into the town and the town was still being clear of mines by the engineers. It was here that
my buddy Wilbert Weier got his foot blown off and lost an eye while trying to save the life of a civilian.
On the way to Diefenthal, just outside of Selestadt, we drove thru Dambach where the division forward
CP was at the time; it was here also where the civilians shot at the Americans as they pulled out to stop a
German advance in the Alsace (northern).
The division moved into an area north of Strasboug in preparation to take Hagenau and eventually go into
Germany. The rear echelon moved into Mannheim just (Dec 7) North and West of Strausbourg. It was
our first German speaking town and the first town where the boys were billeted down in different houses
with the people. Mangano, Martin, Flaig, DeBoer and myself slept in one room-they on a bed (I was too
big for one) and I on a mattress on the floor. Our office was very small to work in and I think we had to
do more work there than we had to do any other time. Mr Hankamer and Watkins slept at the office.
Just after the division took Hagenau and was preparing an immense artillery barrage to clear the
Hagenaus wood in preparation to taking the plain to Germany. We moved up to Woerth, France
13 Dec 44 and were surprised to find that tho they spoke french and german there and was very close
to Germany it was a French town at heart. While at this town I visited the company at Mertzwiller,
a town that our own artillery had levelled and also visited the company at Rott France and visited the
station in Schweign German Dec 18/44. We were the first and only part of the Seventh Army to enter
Germany in Dec 44.
Near the end of December the Germans made their last big drive in the Ardennes sector, and to reinforce
them we pulled out of our position and moved to an area north and east of the Metz to hold the entire
seventh army flank near the third army against the Germans. Ours was mostly a holding action. We left
Woertn at Dec 23 and rode on truck all evening and finally put up in a barn over nite at the Frankeldorf
not far from the Metz. We were supposed to go to Metz, but the Third Army said no dice. This barn
was smelly and uncomfortable and we were unable to do any work there; so we all left our equipment
out in the open field were some of it was damaged by the big bulls and cows.
On Christmas morning we moved into the military academy at Morhange, just north and east of Metz. We
had a big office which we shared with the engineer personnel section, and we all again had rooms to
ourselves. Here we had our first tast of cold weather and snow. Every morning your truly would go out
and exercise a bit by chopping wood and loading coal for the office and his room. In his room slept
Sweeny and Mayerhoefer.. We had a perfect messhall and tho we moved into that place Xmas morning
at noon time we all enjoyed a nice Chicken dinner. Also some of our Xmas packages started to arrive
which came in very handy. While at Morhange I often visited the company up at HosteBas which
wasn’t too far from the front, and often there they had attacks by enemy planes. The town at nite was
lite up by the bright moon on the snow. We stayed in that spot until the German breakthru fizzled out
and we were called upon to go to Lorraine to stop the German attempted breakthru down there.
The division on 18 Jan 45 stopped the big German drive in Lorraine, and then started a holding action
that lasted until we jumped off into Germany in March. The rear echelon moved into the peaceful little
town of Lutzelbourg, which is between Saarburg and Saverne. Here we stayed for two months, very
happy months in the middle of the vosges of Lorraine. Sweeney and I were billeted in a nice home along
with Homrich and Gacioch two engineer clerks. Here in Lutzelbourg every afternoon we’d take an hour
or two walk over the mountains to some neighboring hamlet and observe the picturesque old spots that
all had. We were on one side of town and the messhall on the other side. It was here that I visited the
company first at Kirweiler and then at Bouxwiller, where the boys had nice setups both times and were
very happy. Mar 13 I was fortunately lucky enough to get a 5 day pass to Nancy along with my buddies
Herb McMahon, David Rusch, Andy Nobliski, Harold Diegel, Ray Pirtle, and James Hough and
Harold McGrogan. In Nancy we stayed at the VI Corps Rest Center and slept on cots and had dinner
in a messhall were music always played and we were served all the food we wanted by fair maidens (french),
We also changed in our clothes for new ones. Nancy was a very picturesque and definitly french town.
Returned from Nancy in time to help to pack to move p again to Woerth, (Mar 19) where we stayed a
second time in the same room. This time the Division juped all the way thru the Siggfreid line to the
Rhine River. We were the only Division to go all the way thru the others started and then took our road.
The second time in Woerth was a revelation, because the retreating Germans had left the place very
direty and most of the girls diseased. The people there think we are shock troops because in December
we chased the Boches out and then when we moved out other Americans came in but the Germans
chased them out, but when we came back and chased the Germans they think the Cactus division was
tops in America and went all out with the little they had to make our short stay very comfortable.
Naturally we all knew our next move was to Germany and the evening of Mar 24/45 we took off and
our first view of Germany was the Siegfried line blown up in sections and then whole towns still burning
which lite up the whole evening sky and we also drove thru towns which had the white flag flying from
all the houses signifying surrender. This was also a revelation. My former student clerk, Carl Onischuk,
who joined us in March to take Flaig’s place, say a German looking out of the window against orders
and flicked his cigar butt in the window and the window was promptly shut. We arrive in the town of
Wollemsheim in the wee hours of dawn 0530 Mar 25/45.
In Wollemsheim Germany our sections for the first time took over whole homes and had plenty room to
spare. We took over a nice home and built a volley ball court in the driveway. The house was typically
German and most of the people in town really resented us. They had a nice wine cellar which the boys
gave quite a business to in the rear of our house. Our mess hall was two buildings away; so we brought
our chow to the house. We played most of the sections volleyball there. Here I visited our company at Silz.
On the way up the first time, we came across an egineer who leg was broken by a fragment of a pillbox he
blew up and we gave him aid and evacuated him in a B company ambulance. On the road to Silz we cam
across countless wreck German vehicles and carts, plenty of their ammunition and arms and their horses
were on the loose. In the town where the company was they had the German people removing the big
road blocks and doing a bit of dirty work. It was also our first experience with the Russians and other
displaced persons. All the boys were sending home their loot and souvenirs from this place. Also quite a
few boys picked up some very good cameras there.
Since our Division had been in continuous combat with the enemy since Nov 9/44 they were sent into
rest by ETOUSA. We were in Corp, Army and SHAEF reserve.
Mar 26 my fraternity brother Kurty Meyer, with G "2" of the 10th Armored Div gave me a surprise visit
just before we left Wollemsheim.
We moved into a very very modern home in Schifferstadt Mar 28/45. Schiffenstadt is located between
Speyer and Ludwigshaven. All the sections moved into what was up to that time their best set up and as
usual all the boys picked up a bit or two of loot. I was no exception. It was here also that the movie star
Marlen Dietrich gave us a surprise visit and put on several shows for this division. I visited the company
several times at Oggersheim where they were set up in an old College building. We had our Passover
services in Schifferstadt and they were swell. We needed wine so a couple of us went over to an old barn
and brought over several cases of Vermouth. We had plenty of matzos and wine. It was the first Jewish
services in Germany since Hitler took over.
The French took over our area of occupation and we made a long move to Newstadt where our office
was in a big school building and our personnel section had a very nice big apartment with a bath tub and
stove in it for us. It was here also where we got our first liquor ration of two bottles of champagne to
the man and I got a bit pyeeyed. There weren’t beds enough for all, but I was lucky in the draw and
got a bed. The company was located on the Rhine at Worms and I saw them there; they had taken over
several beautiful houses for the boys. Worms was almost levelled by our bombers so our company took
the houses on the outskirts of the city.
As our armies we advanced faster, the need to occupation divisions closer to the front was very apparent
so on Apr 8/45 we moved to Lorech Germany across the Rhine River. It was over a 200 mile ride and on
the way we passed thru quite a few leveled towns and the big cities of Ludwigshaven and Mannheim were
really lowered to the ground by our bombers. Lorach is only 25 kilometers from Mannheim. We took over
a needle store and their nice home in the rear. In this building we each had a room to ourselves. Our office
was in the store and the windows were always open and the people (especailly girls) were always looking in.
Tho no fraternization was allowed every section but ours went out in tihe evenings.and did their bit of fraternization-Hankamer kept us in tow very well, doggone it! My company was up at Steinau some
100 miles away, near Fulda and I was up to see them a couple time there. They had a nice place and that’s
where all the boys were busy sending home plenty of guns; I got a 22 cal but I gave it to Onischuk instead
of taking it home with me. At Lorsch we again we lucky enough in having a bathtub and inside lavatory.
Everyafternoon we played volleyball with the engineer section in the runaway between two very old churches.
Around Apr 20/45 the Division moved southward into Bavaria and entered combat again and they moved
so fast that they could not spar any transportation for us to move; so as a result we were over 225 miles to
the rear by the time transportation came and we moved to Mindelheim. There we had positively our best setup.
We were all very happy there and the ‘souvenirs’ that the house offered was plenty. We were off with the
engineers (they had their own building) in this section of town. In the house was a bike and we were always
riding around in it. When we were there I visited Clearing at Oberamague and then the company at
Garmisch Partikeken. When there they were starting on Task Force Innsbruck and Capt Donal asked me
If I’d liket o go along and like a dumb cluck I said yes. Martin also visited his company in Sarmisch and also
planned to go on their task force Brenner P ass. Both of us were disappointed however when we were
forced to return, because a task force was ‘too dangerous’ for us.
We left Mindelheim and arrived in Innsbruck Austria on Kay’s birthday May 5/45. Our section and the
engineers each had half an apartment building together. Sweeney and I stayed in the first apartment; but I
was seldom there since I visited the company at Hall almost every other nite and when I was there he was
at his company. From our windows we looked out and say the snowcapped alps and to tell the truth it’s
about the most beautiful spot in the world (but there’s still no place like home).
Since the war officially ended 2400 May 8;45 there was no further use for the combat set up so on
May 18/45 the rear echelon broke up and we moved to the Clearing station which was set up in a big
school building a mile from the rear echelon. Near clearing was B & C Company. I messed at C company
with Martin, and once in awhile with Onischuk who had since replace Flaig as their clerk. In Innsbruck
there’s still no fraternization, but one could hardly tell since the officers mix and then the men mix; so
everything goes and anything. The company stayed at Hall as long as they could because they had the run
of the town to themselves and they had a big baseball field and a very modern swimming pool all to themselves.
Also there was plenty of fraternization also. Passes were being let for Italy, Switzerland and Bercheagartdn.
The fellows were disappointed in Berchesgarten because all they could see was damage and the best part
the subterranean caverns were only open to officers.
On Jun 17/44 the division sent out about 3,000 of it’s best men to form sort of a cadre of the over 85 points
division the 5th. From our office Mangano and DeBoer went and from the company went most of the
old stalwarts like Bartelt, Alverson, Seyfert, Langford, Zemel, Frese, Fredeenburg, Vogt, Roseborough
altogether we lost 33 good men and in return got back a group of rated men awaiting their discharge for
over 85 points. They had a long wait as we shall see.