103rd Cactus Division

DONALD T. MCGREGOR

DON VOLUNTERRED FOR THE ARMY IN NOV. 1942.  HE JOINED THE ENLISTED RESERVE

CORPS  AS PART OF THE ARMY SPECIALIZED TRAINING PROGRAM (ASTP) TO GUARANTEE

COMPLETION OF HIS SOPHOMORE YEAR OF COLLEGE. HE WAS IN PRE-ENGINEERING

STUDIES AT TEXAS A&I IN KINGSVILLE, TX. 

HE TOOK HIS ASTP BASIC TRAINING AT CAMP MAXEY IN TEXAS.  AS PLANS FOR THE

INVASION OF EUROPE WERE DEVELOPED, THE ASTP PROGRAM WAS DISBANDED. 

IN OTHER WORDS, UNCLE SAM NEEDED INFANTRY.  THE ENTIRE TEXAS A&I, ASTP

STUDENT BODY REPORTED TO CAMP HOWZE, TEXAS IN THE SPRING OF 1944.   DON WAS

 ASSIGNED TO COMPANY D, 409TH INFANTRY REGIMENT, 103RD DIVISION, A HEAVY

MACHINE GUN UNIT.  DON WAS THE 1^ST GUNNER IN THE 1^st PLATOON, 1^st SECTION.

 HIS SQUAD LEADER WAS SGT ARLIE GRAY, HIS SECTION LEADER WAS S/SGT LOUIE

MICHALSKI AND HIS PLATOON SGT WAS T/SGT CHUCK CERONSKY WHEN THEY

ARRIVED IN MARSEILLE, FRANCE ON OCTOBER 20, 1944 VIA THE USS MONTICELLO. 

HE SERVED IN RHINELAND AND ALSACE BEFORE HE WAS WOUNDED AND CAPTURED

AT SELESTAT, FRANCE ON 12/02/44.   DON SPENT THE REMAINDER OF THE WAR AS A POW

IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA. 

(In the words of Don McGregor)

The 1^st Casualty

 

At the staging area outside Marseille, near Calas, there were numerous poles about 90 feet tall that had been

installed to thwart German intelligence efforts in some way.  The poles were not placed very deeply in the ground

and were secured by guy wires on four sides.

 

We set up our tents in accepted military fashion, row on row.  In the next row over from mine, a couple of men

found that a guy wire was in their way, so they cut it.  During the night, I heard a loud boom and the ground shook.

I thought the Germans had broken through and we were being attacked.

 

I crawled out of my tent and found that the pole had fallen across the tent next to mine.  When the pole hit the

ground, it broke a leg of one soldier and killed another.  The pole also hit the box that was holding my machine

gun and destroyed it. 

 

Not only had I witnessed my first American casualty, I was about to go to war without a weapon.

 

Don’s remembrance of  Selestat.

 

The 409th approached Selestat from the northwest on December 1^st, 1944.  1^st Battalion

(Companies A, B, C & D) stopped beyond the Giessen River Bridge leading into Selestat.  We were told we

would stay there to prevent any German units from coming out in our direction.  The schedule was to wait until

the next day, Dec. 2, and three divisions would attack Selestat.  They were the 103rd, 36th, and the 14th armored.

I was secure in my own little foxhole beneath the pavement in the road leading into Selestat. 

 

All of a sudden we heard rifle fire and bazooka ammo going off. A rifle company, Co. B, didn't wait until the next

day.  They were ordered to enter Selestat on the night of Dec. 1^st to take some houses on the outskirts.  That was contrary to the orders we’d been given.

 

Capt. Dempsey’s Company B, Rifle Company, took six houses.  About 9 o'clock, we were ordered to join the

rifle company.  Our Platoon Leader, Lt. Louis Daloisio, insisted on it.  We were about half way across the bridge

when our section Sgt (Michalski) showed up. "Where in the Hell are you going," he demanded. We were blessed

by having some pretty good sergeants leading us. He told us to get back in the foxholes where we belonged. 

Here came Daloisio, "Where are you going?"  We replied, "We are going back to the foxholes."  The Lt. said,

 "Get into those houses."  Michalski objected to this order but, as all good soldiers do, bowed to the Lt’s rank

and followed the order. 

 

1st Lt. Withum was our D Company Commander, though he played no part in this.

My D-Company - 1st platoon had to tag along with company B. (The machine gun platoons were at the mercy of

the rifle company commanders. We attached to them.) So much for feeling secure in my foxhole! 

 

The rifle company used up their entire bazooka (anti tank) ammo taking the houses.  They had found that bazooka

ammo was as good for taking houses as it was for tanks.

 

I was in the first house on the right hand side. We wouldn’t have any tanks until the next morning.  We were all

right for six hours.  Then we heard some tanks fire up.  We didn't have any bazooka ammo.  We were

defenseless against tanks.  The tanks came down the street and parked in front of the houses.  The first thing the

lead tank did was blow up the bridge. We were trapped!

 

After they blew up the bridge, they turned their .88 millimeter guns to the houses.  They were sitting point-blank

at curbside and we were ‘sitting ducks’.  I thought I had drawn my last breath.  The tanks were supporting

600 to 800 German infantry.  Therefore, the tanks first targets were the Heavy Machine Guns. .OURS!

 

The first shot from the tanks blew apart my machine gun.  The second shot blew a hole in the back of the house. 

Then the tanks blew some timbers from the roof.  I was dazed and wounded by shrapnel.  After I came to, I

looked for a way to get out of the house.  I noticed the hole in the back wall toward the river. Four others of my

squad jumped out the hole and made it to the river.  I jumped out the hole and was intending to run for the river,

but I was too late.  German infantry were already standing there with automatic weapons. Being a 1^st gunner, I

carried only a .45 pistol. Though it seemed like an eternity, the one-sided battle couldn’t have lasted more than

a few minutes.  Just like that, I was a POW!

 

As a result of that night's action, Co. B counted 98 missing in action, 1 killed in action, and 2 wounded in action. 

Co. D bore the brunt.  We counted 18 missing in action, 9 wounded in action and 3 killed in action.

 

My combat days were over, but the fight for survival was to become more intense! 

 

POW

 

We were herded across the Rhine and forced to dig trench emplacements for the defense of a German position. 

This, of course, was contrary to the Geneva Convention, but we were in no position to protest.  Eventually, we

were placed in box cars and made a long trip to a POW camp in Limburg, Germany (Stalag XIIA).  Our diet

consisted of what we called grass soup.  The rumor was that when we got to a permanent camp, the diet would

improve.  That never happened.

 

Our next train ride placed us in a camp near Muhlberg (Stalag IV-B) for Christmas.  On January 2, 1945,

I arrived at my new home.  We arrived at Kamnitz, Czechoslovakia in the Sudeten Mountains.    

(After the Germans were defeated, the Czech’s changed the name from Kamnitz to Ceska Kamenice) By this time,

there was only Ted Jenkins left with me from my outfit.  They’d managed to scatter us out pretty good.  At this

location, we were stripped of our olive drab clothing.  Our winter protective clothing was replaced with clothing

that was inadequate, to say the least, for winters in the mountains.  Many of us suffered from frostbite.

 

We were placed in work crews and were forced to dig tunnels in the mountainside.  They were attempting to

construct an underground aircraft factory that would be impervious to allied bombing.

Six days a week (Sundays off), we were marched to our work site several miles away.  We worked 8 to 10

hours and then marched back to the camp, arriving about dark.  We never received lunch and received only a

piece of bread and some kohlrabi (a sort of cabbage) soup for our efforts.

 

Finally, on May 8^th, our German guards opened the camp gates and told us we were free to go.  There were

no American liberators in site.  We were told that we were on our own to get back to our lines, or we could

wait and be liberated by the Russians.  No Thanks!  By this time, we were all weakened by the hard labor and

sparse nourishment.  I had gone from 130 pounds to under 100.  However, we left the camp on May 9^th and

spent the next 9 days getting back into American hands.  We would have never made it had it not been for the German/Czech civilians who would come out of their houses to feed us.  Of the 200 of us that originally arrived

at the camp, only 175 survived.

 

In 2000, Don returned to the house where he

was captured in Selestat, France on 12/02/44.

 

He says that this is the first house on the right

after they crossed the Giessen River Bridge

 

Don is standing in front of the house. 

(56 years after his capture)