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| American soldiers of the 289th Infantry Regiment march along the snow-covered road on their way to cut off the Saint Vith-Houffalize road in Belgium on 24 January 1945. |
by August A. Stellwag
Christmas Eve, 1944: For many of the green, young foot-soldiers of the 289th Regimental Combat Team, this would be their first Christmas away from home. Just a short two months ago they had been boarding troopships on the Hudson River at Camp Shanks, New York. Now they found themselves marching along a rutted dirt road leading to the small village of Grandmenil, Belgium. Grandmenil, at this time, had been momentarily raised from obscurity to become a pivotal point on the northern perimeter of what would soon be described in Stateside newspapers as the "Battle of the Bulge." The 289th was one of two regiments of the recently arrived 75th Infantry Division which had been hastily detached and assigned to the 3rd Armored Div. in an attempt to stem the German advance now reaching its zenith. Despite a jolting rail trip of 250 miles in French boxcars, cold rations, and dampness portending more snow, the troops were n good spirits, laughing and joking with the resiliency of youth.
For one of the young soldiers of Company M, 3rd Battalion, of the 289th Regimental Combat Team, Pvt. James Foley, the memory of his last visit home was still fresh. He lived with his parents on a quiet street in the northwest corner of New York City, an area of the city that in the 1940s still had a suburban atmosphere. His home was only 20 miles south of Camp Shanks and on the night before the 75th Division's debarkation, his platoon sergeant, Durward B. Stroud, had bent the rules a bit and given Jim Foley permission to spend this last night at home.
Had the young men of the 289th RCT realized what lay ahead of them, their spirits would have been as damp as the weather. Chaos still ruled over most of the American defensive positions. The town of Grandmenil lay in the path of the fanatical and battle-hardened 2nd SS Panzer Division. Advance elements of this division had captured Manhay, one mile to the west, had passed through Grandmenil, and were now pursuing the battered elements of the U.S. 3rd and 7th Armored Divisions.
At dusk on Christmas Eve, the 3rd Battalion of the 289th RCT was moving into its final assembly area in the woods west of Grandmenil, preparatory to starting its initial action of the war—to attack at 0800 hours, 25 December, and take the high ground west of Grandmenil. Because of inexperience, the battalion was not in a staggered battle formation, but rather in a solid column of two's on either side of the narrow road. They had gone only about a mile toward their objective when the fateful contact was made. The young foot soldiers gave little notice to the Sherman tank that had come over the crest of the hill or to the other silhouettes behind it. Scattered elements of the 3rd Armored Division had been passing them since they had moved out. They had no way of knowing that the Sherman was a captured tank manned by Germans and that the silhouettes behind it were those of eight Royal Tiger tanks of the 2nd SS Panzer Division. Indeed, this was the same column that had moved through several 3rd Armored road blocks by the same ruse.
The lead Sherman opened up with machine guns on the columns of Americans. The two columns split and tried to take cover in the forest of small fir trees on either side of the road. The 3rd Battalion jeeps were run over by the Sherman and knocked to the side of the road. Meanwhile, the column of Tigers moved up, turned on their spotlights and raked the woods with their machine guns and 88 mm cannon. Finally, they moved down the road leaving behind the shattered 3rd Battalion. As Sgt. Durward Stroud tried to regroup his platoon, one of his men told him that Pvt. Jim Foley had somehow managed to reach the high ground. Stroud took two men and found Foley alone and mortally wounded. He died within a few minutes after asking his companions to say the Lord's Prayer with him. Durward Stroud's thoughts went back to that last night at Camp Shanks and to the overnight pass that he had given to Jim Foley. He knew then that he had bent the rules in the right direction.
The surviving members of the 3rd Battalion became instant veterans. The column of Tiger tanks did not get much farther. A man from Co. K, whose identity is still not known to this day, succeeded in putting a bazooka shell directly into the lead Tiger at a narrow part of the road between a cliff and a ravine. Although he paid with his life, his action blocked the road and prevented the column from advancing. The German tanks withdrew to Grandmenil.
Despite this devastating initial engagement, the 3rd Battalion and its two sister battalions of the 289th RCT were able to regroup, and by 26 December had captured the village of Grandmenil. Within two days, the green Americans had become seasoned fighters. But the price had been high—the 3rd Battalion alone had shown losses of 130 enlisted men and seven officers for the two-day period.
The 75th Division continued to battle its way across Europe, its activities culminating in mid-April 1945 with the clearing of the Ruhr Valley. But for many veterans of the division, like Durward Stroud, now enjoying retirement in California, the most vivid memory will always be that of the surprise attack on a Christmas Eve over fifty years ago.
Bibliography
Cole, Hugh M. U.S. Army in World War II: The European Theater of Operations: The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge. OCMH, Dept. of the Army, Washington, D.C., 1965.
Runte, Walter G. The Operations of the 289th Infantry Regiment (75th Infantry Division) in the Grandmenil-Erezee, Belgium Sector, 25 December 1944-6 January 1945 (Ardennes Alsace Campaign). The Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, 1950.
The 75th Infantry Division in Combat. N.p., 1945.
Stroud, Durward B. Personal recollections, 27 April 1977.
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| Sgt. Robert McHaney, 289th Regiment. |
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| 289th Regimental Crest. The mule reflects the Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, heritage of the Regiment. |
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