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Battle In The Mud

 

From the Service Company Diary: 4 October;

 

" Continued rain, mud and inactivity.  Everyone is hoping for better weather when the anticipated push starts for Germany.  The first passes to be issued to members of this unit in France were issued today.  A truck was dispatched to Toul and the men spent the day there.  Upon return, information was passed that the town was overcrowded and there wasn't much to do.  T/5 McCall and Private’s Gross and Sloas were arrested and fined in Commercy for being out of uniform.  The good old MP’s are up to their old tricks.  Guess we all had better stay at the front line area!"

 

According to the 80th  Division G-2 report for October:

 

"The beginning of October found the Germans attempting to contain the 80th Infantry Division bridgehead across the Moselle River.  The German lines extended along the east bank of the Seille River to Clemery where they crossed the river to link up with the high ground of Mt. Toulon and Mt. St. Jean.  The 17th SS Division controlling the line on the east bank of the Seille, held the line with the 38th SS Regiment (which had replaced the 49th SS Brigade which had born the brunt of our attack in that sector in September).

 

The remainder of the line was held by the 553rd Division, which had bolstered its strength with miscellaneous combat groups such as Aok I Bn. and the remnants of the 92nd GAF Regiment and 3rd Parachute Training Regiment.  In immediate reserve and occasionally available to the 553rd Division through the LXIII Corps which controlled the sector for local counter-attacks was the 3rd Panzer Grenadier Division.

 

From the 1st of October to the 4th of October, fierce local action was fought for control of the town of Sivry.  The Germans finally committed the 2nd Bn. of the 8th Panzer Grenadier Regiment of the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division to retake this town and then turned it over to the 553rd Division to be held.

 

 

On 8 October, the 80th Division attacked to clear the enemy from the west of the Seille River in the Division zone of action (with the exception of Abaucourt and Letricourt, and the intervening ground formed by the bend of the Seille River to the North).

 

The enemy was caught completely off balance by our attack - by noon all organized enemy resistance was ended:  1264 P.W.'s, almost all from the 553rd Division were captured in this operation.  The enemy was badly disorganized and the remnants of the 553rd Division withdrew from the front of the 80th Division. To re-establish a line the German LXIII Corps rushed all available troops into the area.

 

The 17th SS Recon. Battalion appeared on our left flank, as did the anti-tank company of the 48th Division, while the Fusilier Battalion of the 559th Division withdrew into our right flank.  Local counter-attacks launched on our troops who had advanced to the east edge of the Bois De La Haute De Trappe were repulsed and by the 11th, all aggressive action by the enemy in the Division area had ceased.

 

In the area from Nomeny to Clemery and the 38th SS Regiment moved over to temporarily fill the gap left by the decimated 553rd Division.  The remainder of the month of October was spent by the enemy in reconstituting his forces facing the 80th Division.  The 1431st Fortress Battalion replaced the elements of the 38th SS that had moved down to the Nomeny sector allowing these units to withdraw to their former sector north of Eply.

 

Two regiments of the 48th Division still unrecovered from rough handling it received on the retreat from Paris, had been holding a quiet sector of the Moselle north of Thionville while refitting.  The 128th Regiment of the 48th Division did not appear in the Division zone during the defensive phase of the Seille River action.

 

 

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