INTERVIEW
Unit: Hq 58 Armd Inf Bn - CCR
Source: Major Arthur Harris, Exec Officer, 58th Armd Inf Bn.
T/Sgt Alden Sigeworth, S-2 Section.
Interviewer: Capt. Joseph Vasta.
Place and Date of Interview: 24-25-26 April 45, Seesen, Germany.
At 2006 26 March 58th Armored Infantry Battalion left Grefrath, Germany. They arrived at an assembly area at Bruckhausen (322348). The assembly area was in the woods in the vicinity of Bruckhausen. The assembly was left at 0600 on the morning of the 28th and the units moved out in a column of task forces so as to pass through the 120th Infantry Regiment. They were to jump off from Kirchellen and their mission was to cut the Hamm-Soest highway within their zone of action.
B Company was leading Task Force Artman and had to fight its way into Kirchellen. They got into the town but had trouble getting out. There was quite a bit of small arms, artillery, mortar and 88mm fire on the eastern edge of Kirchellen. Tanks were seen going into Feldhausen (470353) and air was requested to get them out. The air was received at 1500 that afternoon. In addition to air, artillery was placed on the town of Feldausen.
C Company passed thru B Company and secured and occupied the high ground (455342) east of Kirchellen (436343). C Company occupied the forward slope of the hill. They were held up there for the remainder of the day. At 0630 on the morning of the 29th, C Company jumped off to continue the mission. They moved off thru Feldausen and went in shooting plenty. Only small arms and burp gun fire were encountered in the town and the town was completely secured by 0830 hours. Then, the task force moved south into Zwecke (468330) and from there on to Kolscholven (503333) where C Company took a big synthetic petroleum refinery. This was in the afternoon. They moved about 300 yards forward of the factory in the open ground toward Buerhassel (525343) where they received small arms, automatic and artillery fire. The battalion halted and deployed there for the night.
During the night patrols were sent to the canal on the left (N) front, because the bridge across to Buerhassal had been blown. The mission of the patrol was to determine the fordability of the canal. The patrol found the banks of the canal about 20 feet high and very steep and only a mere trickle of water in it. Actually, upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a drainage ditch.
The next morning (30 March) it was planned for B Company to cross the canal and form a bridgehead so that the engineers could put up a treadway. Then, they were to proceed to take Buerhassal. This was coordinated attack by CCR with TF Walker on the right (N) and TF Artman on the left (S). TF Walker could not get to its line of departure and consequently did not figure in the action until very late in the day, when they were able to follow TF Artman's column on the treadway put up by the engineers. When TF Walker saw that it could not get to its line of departure, they requested permission to cross in front of TF Artman and get across the canal in TF Artman's zone. Permission was refused them because Colonel Artman's plan was to make a silent attack to cross the canal before the Krauts knew what was up and had permission been given TF Walker to cross in front of them, the noise of the tanks would have warned the enemy of the impending attack.
B Company jumped off on schedule, crossed the open ground and also the canal; that is, the second and third platoon crossed the canal and the open ground while the first platoon was pinned down on the open ground by machine gun fire. The two platoons that crossed the canal got into the edge of Buerhassal. Opposition came mostly from small arms and heavy weapons and mortar fire. (The engineer platoon under Lt. Burch did a beautiful job in putting up a treadway in 44 minutes, and it was ready for any type of vehicle upon completion.) B Company fought its way thru Buerhassal up to a road junction about the center of town (524343) where they turned southeast. When B Company got to this point, C Company succeeded in getting across the canal and fighting its way to the northeast section of the town. They saw two tiger tanks there and spent quite some time trying to corner them but the tanks got away and went to Kol Bertlich (542352). Air was requested at 1110 against these tanks and was received about an hour and a half later. The air reported 1 tank knocked out and 1 probable in the vicinity of Kol Bertlich.
C Company fought to the north and east sides of the town. B Company which had received small arms, direct, and some artillery fire from the woods to their southeast front, were advancing slowly against these woods when they were ordered to withdraw and clear the roads west of Buerhassal to enable TF Walker to come thru and proceed with their mission.
TF Artman occupied the northeast potion of Buerhassal for the night.
The plan for the morning of the 31st was for the infantry to take and clear Kol Bertlich at which time, C Company followed by the balance of the battalion was to pass thru them and continue the mission. The attack went off according to schedule. The rifle company (1st Battalion, 290th Inf) attached jumped off at 0300 hours and took the town and cleared it. C Company passed thru and moved to Westerholt (557338) where they met elements of the American 75th Infantry Division. They went thru Westerholt and took the southern road between the towns of Westerholt and Langenbochum (350570). C Company ran into resistance all the way to and past Langenbochum. By 1300 hours, they were astride the road just east of Langenbochum (the road running between Rieth (578368) to Backum (589342)). Throughout the day, all the troops east of Westerholt continued to receive artillery and mortar fire. This mortar fire was heavy and well directed.
TF Artman remained in place for the night. The next morning (1 April) they were relieved in place by the 290th Infantry Regiment. Upon relief, they went to an assembly area in the vicinity of Selm (A8245).
Task Force Artman remained in reserve until 3 April when they moved out of Thule and Scharmere that afternoon. They passed thru Lippstadt with C Co in the lead and went on to capture Weckinghausen in a dismounted action.
At 0630 the next morning, C Co jumped off in an attack on Stirpe. Their initial resistance consisted mostly of AT fire. A plat of TDs was called in to overcome the fire. The infantry entered the town at 1215 and the town was cleared by 1245. A great deal of the fire was coming from AT guns and a Tiger tank situated in the woods in vic of 390370. This fire had stopped our vehicles just south of Weckinghausen. An artillery concentration of approximately 20 min duration was placed on these woods and at 1450, B Co moved out to clear the woods. While B Co was busily engaged in cleaning out these woods, C Co sent a dismounted patrol to Vollinghausen to determine whether or not the town was occupied and to maintain contact with the enemy. The town was found to be occupied. B Co jumped off on an attack into town at 1800 that evening and the town was completely cleared of the enemy by 1900 hours. After this mission had been accomplished, two combat patrols were sent to reconnoiter Klieve (386307). These patrols took a few prisoners and one platoon occupied the town for the night. The next morning, 5 Apr, the remainder of TF Artman moved into Klieve. That afternoon, TF Artman was relieved by CCB and the battalion reverted to reserve.
On the evening of 6 Apr, the Bn was ordered to move to the area of Bad Sassendorf (3013220 and Weslarn (297360) to contain the enemy (116th Panzer Grenadier). The division had been expecting the enemy to make an attempt to break out of the pocket. Task Force Artman was relieved of the mission at 0800 the next morning.
That afternoon the battalion received the mission of passing thru the southern portion of Soest and attacking south toward Lake Mohne and Talsperre. The attack south was on the two parallel roads leading south out of Soest. The attack jumped off at 1700 hours with B Co on the left and C Co on the right. By 2000 hours B Co had reached Delecke (245217) meeting very little opposition but taking many prisoners. C Co had to fight their way into Gunne. They met plenty of resistance and lost five H/Ts on the high ground northeast of the town. They were receiving a great deal of 88mm fire from guns situated on the high ground across the Mohne River. The town of Gunne was cleared by 2100 that evening and the task force held their position for the night.
The next morning (8 Apr) B Co was relieved by CCA at Delecke. Upon this relief B Co passed around C Co and occupied both Ndr. Ense (181220) and Hoingen (164208). Then the bn was given the mission to keep the enemy south of the Mohne River from Gunne to the junction of the Mohne and Ruhr Rivers. Because of the width of the zone, TF Artman was split into two smaller task forces built around C and B Cos. However, this was only a temporary expedient and the next day, these smaller task forces were dissolved.
During the night TF Artman had received orders to attack to the west. They moved out at 0600 the next morning with B Co leading. When the middle of the column was on the high ground northeast of Waltringen, they received heavy, close range anti-tk and s/a fire from the vic of Waltringen. It was a foggy morning and it was all that prevented us from being wiped out. The fog would lift one in awhile, and then we would hit the ground.
While we were thus engaged, TF Walker came in on our left at about 0830 and contained and later took Waltringen, permitting us to continue to the north of Ovinghausen Vald. We were able to support TFW's move by fire.
At 1100 hrs we were again held up; this time by heavy artillery fire from Schluckingen. We requested and secured arty fire on the town. We were also getting quite a bit of inf weapons fire from the woods vic of 1124. At 1400 hrs a coordinated attack by TF W coming in from the south and TFA attacking from the north, was made on these woods. This was a dismounted action. The two forces made contact at 1430 and then the companies mounted again for an attack on Schluckingen. The opposition was light and consisted of self propelled guns and s/a fire. The town was completely cleared of the enemy by 1700. Then, they moved south toward Wiehagen (082228) and took that town without much difficulty. At this point the bn buttoned up for the night.
It had been planned that the next day (10 Apr) we would attack at 0530 toward Dortmund and meet the forces who were attacking Dortmund from the east. The attack was delayed to 0715 due to the fact that TFW had not yet come abreast. In the attack on Wiehagen the resistance was moderate and consisted principally of mortar and arty fire. During the attack we sighted four enemy tanks and spent some time trying to get them but never succeeded. These tanks would come up into position, fire a few rounds and then withdraw.
By 0945 we had taken the town of Bausanhagen (048232), the next large town west of Wiehagen. At that time we got a report that there were six 88mm guns in the vic of the next town south west (Frondenberg 0319). The four tanks previously mentioned had also withdrawn to that vic. Air support was requested at 1155, to bomb and strafe Frondenberg. The planes were received almost immediately. We resumed our advance but ran into the same tank and AT fire and we requested air again. At that time the planes of which had participated in the previous mission were on their way back and the rest of the air support was out on another mission. After a few hours had elapsed, the planes came back but by that time the tks had withdrawn. However, the planes proceeded to bomb the town again. Actually, the town of Frondenberg was in TFW's zone but the fire coming from that vicinity was being directed at our column. We resumed our advance and by 1430 we had come to within 1000 yds of Fromern (005229). From that point on, resistance was very light. Fromern was captured shortly thereafter and the bn stopped in that vicinity for the night.
The next morning (11 Apr) C Co jumped off at 0700 and continued its attack to the west. The immediate objective was the main road running south out of Unna, toward Langschede. The road was reached by 1000 hrs and at that point, the bn were ordered to hold and dig in.
On the morning of Apr 12, the bn was ordered at 0100 hours to take Billmerich (958228). C Co jumped off in a dismounted action and at 0400 hrs, the town was taken against scattered resistance. In the morning, B Co passed thru C Co with the mission of securing the crossroad at 945277. This objective was secured by 1250 without meeting any resistance and there, the company dug in to await further orders.
The next day TFA was relieved by elements of the 95th Inf Div and the bn moved to a new assembly area in the vic of Dennsdorf (X825097).
ARTHUR HARRIS,
Major,
Exec Officer,
58th Armd Infantry Battalion.
Alden Sigeworth,
T/Sgt,
S-2 Section.
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