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Tetelrath
INTERVIEW
1st Lt. Bert L. Reinhardt, CO, Company A, 7th Armored Infantry Battalion, 1400 hours,
16 March 1945, Oirlich, Germany to Capt. Vasta.
When Company A moved out, it was in with the main body of the column. They were ordered to join the advance guard. At that time, 1st Lt. Martin M, Hammerschmidt was in command of the company. (Just before getting to Tetelrath, a road-block was encountered.) Lt. Hammerschmidt got orders to form a bridgehead above the AT ditch to allow the engineers to remove the road-block. Two platoons were to form the bridgehead to neutralize small-arms fire. As soon as they got to the ditch they were pinned down by small-arms fire. They had to dig in right there.
Just about that time (1330 hours), mortar and artillery fire began to fall in the town of Merbeck and the approaches to the road-block. Despite this, the engineers were able to remove the road-block and remove and explode all the AT mines they could reach. The automatic and small-arms fire were getting very heavy. Another platoon was sent up to reinforce the company.
In the plan for taking the town of Tetelrath, Company B was to move through the woods along the west side of the town and attack east into the enemy's right flank. The artillery was to support with a 15-minute concentration on the south edge of town and on the area to the right front (vie 958883) where automatic weapons were known to be and which could not be reached by tank fire. The entire action was to start on a flare signal from Company B (7th AIB) when they were in position west of the town. Company B was unable to reach the position as planned because of heavy enemy resistance. At 1445 hours the order was given for the artillery concentration and the attack to start.
Company A (7th AIB) was successful in taking the houses along the south edge of the town. Under the supporting fire from the tanks, they moved ahead and secured the rest of the town. The tanks were able to move through the town and occupy the high ground (vic 958884) to the north without further resistance. The third platoon of Company A moved out to this high ground north of Tetelrath and stayed there until the following afternoon when they moved out toward Waldniel. As they moved out, Company A reverted or moved back into the main body of the column.
This concluded all the action seen by Company A during the campaign. In this brief action they took approximately 60 prisoners, four pillboxes and destroyed two 88 mm guns. 28 of their own men were wounded and had to be evacuated.
Dorsten
See also 18th Tank Bn - Dorsten
Unit: Company A, 7th Armd Inf Bn (TF Goodrich)
Source: 2d Lt Donald H. Pickett, Plt Ldr; T/Sgt Stanley Gasecki; T/Sgt Carl A. Jurgens.
Interviewer: Capt Joseph Vasta
Place and Date of Interview: 12 May 1945, St. Andreasburg, Germany
On the night of 28 March we were moving along the road leading southwest. The formation was tanks, tracks, etc. We reached some buildings in the vicinity of 443394, about 2300 hours and set up outposts and local security. The attack order came about 0200 and then it was changed to 0300. The reason for the change in time was due to failure of the infantry to show up.
At 0400 hours we left and headed for 45402 and upon arriving there, dismounted to await the artillery barrage of 15,000 rounds for 15 minutes. The artillery barrage began at 0600 hours and ended at 0615. Immediately afterwards, the company jumped off. The company was disposed along the right of the road. The mission was to get to 461404 and then turn and head directly east to the railroad tracks. Then, the railroad tracks were to be cleaned up from the bridge to as far south as they could go and still maintain contact.
There was too much uncoordinated fire to hinder the advance. The three platoons got to 461404 meeting just a small amount of small arms fire coming from the basements. The third platoon went east, then turned southeast to get to the railroad tracks. They received some artillery fire from some self-propelled 88mm guns. After reaching the railroad, two men were posted at each road coming into the railroad. Then, from the vicinity of the underpass, Lt. Pickett thought he saw some Germans in the vicinity of 474392. He took his remaining five men and went along the tracks to that area. They observed several Germans in the passageway under the roof and promptly fired at them. Then they ran around the house to flank them. They killed several Germans and took six prisoners. They noticed some more Krauts coming up the road and let them have it also.
The second and third platoons went into the town along the road and got as far as about four blocks. The Germans still hadn't come out of their cellars yet. The first platoon on the extreme right flank caught some machine gun fire. After firing several rifle grenades, the machine gun fire was silenced. They found a trench with about 20 men in it. More prisoners were taken just emerging from an air raid shelter.
The streets were worked by squads. A squad would go down the street and check each cellar. They would call down the cellar and if no answer was forthcoming, a hand grenade was dropped down. In this manner they managed to clear about ten blocks before they were pinned down by our own artillery fire.
About 0830 hours the company commander stopped the second platoon to try to reorganize the company. Everyone had taken off in different directions. It was about 1130 hours when the company was finally reorganized.
A great deal of the confusion in this attack was due to the lack of communication. The tanks had jumped off with the infantry but were held up by a blown bridge at the edge of the town.
At about 1030 or 1100 hours, T/Sgt Jurgens took off to contact elements of Task Force Poinier to see if they couldn't stop the fire. He made contact with B Company 7th AIB and told them about the artillery fire. Finally, the firing was stopped.
After the company was reorganized, an outpost line was set up on the railroad tracks from the railroad station to the bridge. They remained there until the 49th Armd Inf Bn came in to relieve them. They moved out about 1700 hours.
Unna
On the night of 10 April, the company was outposting Task Force Van Houten's tanks and were spread out to expect a counterattack from the 116th Panzer Grenadier Division. At 0625 hours they received the first word about an attack that was to be made at 0630. Hastily gathering the company together (so hastily in fact that one platoon had to leave a squad behind and another a machine gun and mortar squad), they were briefed on the plan of attack as they marched up to the line of departure.
The first platoon moved out and headed for some buildings in the vicinity of 975238, walking up in a platoon of squad columns. The enemy was dug in right in front of the buildings on a vise and had 15 machine guns. They allowed our troops to walk up until we were nearly on top of them before they opened up. The men hit the ground. Then, from the flank, burp guns and rifles opened up. We had to get out because enemy artillery was beginning to fall in on us. We set up a base of fire with the machine gun squad and the rifle squad while the rest of the platoon moved forward by fire.
The reason that the enemy didn't take us completely by surprise was because one of their machine gunners thought that his gun was loaded and when he began to fire, the gun clicked and gave away their positions.
We fired at the building where the Krauts were thought to be firing tracers. When the building caught fire, the enemy began running out to us to surrender. Instead of allowing these prisoners to lie down, they were told to stand. It is believed that this is what saved the day for us.
We finally got into the house. In the meanwhile, the Germans reorganized and prepared for a counterattack. The next house was about 40 yards south. There was a low wall about two feet high and the enemy were crawling up to this wall. They must have had contact with their tanks because they could be heard getting ready. About that time, They started to wave a white flag to surrender and also took off their helmets. One of the trigger happy men shot the guy waving the flag. The Germans reconsidered then, and were ready to attack when some P-47's flew overhead and attacked their armor. This caused the Germans to begin retreating. Just then, the tanks came down the main road (north-south) through the town. They got many of the retreating Germans. The tankers stayed there while we went up the road toward Unna. It was about 1030 hours then.
The second and third platoons jumped off abreast. They had gone about 100 yards when the first small arms fire hit them. It was open ground and a man couldn't move without drawing fire. They didn't get any further than that. They needed medics and tanks and couldn't get either. Communications were no good. They dressed their own wounded for about an hour. Lt. Pickett went back and ran into Col. Poinier and explained the situation to him. The colonel said that a medic halftrack would be sent up. He then went back to get some mortar fire laid on the SS headquarters in the vicinity of 976254. About 0900 hours the tanks were brought up. After we got the tanks, we were able to move forward. We moved right along between the tanks and got very little fire.
About 20 minutes after the tanks came into town, we also got assistance from Poles and Russians in locating the enemy. The men took off and checked each block. A little sniper fire was encountered in the town. The town was cleared by early afternoon. The company assembled in the vicinity of 960255 and at about 1700 hours moved out to take another town.
Donald H. Pickett,
2d Lt, Plt Ldr,
Company A, 7th Armd Inf Bn.
Stanley Gasecki,
T/Sgt.
Carl A. Jurgens
T/Sgt.
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