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7th Infantry Regiment,
3rd Division, Germany
Chiltern Open Air Museum, March
2009
As part of the weekend event,
groups large and small and a few individuals came together
to portray the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
just prior to the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945.
This late war scenario saw the reenactors representing
Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company, elements of
the 81mm Mortar Platoon, Battalion Aid Post and maintenance
sections deployed in and around a farm complex shortly
before crossing the Rhine towards the end of March 1945.
Although open to the public, this was a 2 day Living History
event with access to Village and forest areas.
The text below is taken from the the Division's History and highlights
the detail of what the Regiment the group portrayed was
doing and where the scenario fitted into History:
By the end of Febuary 1945
the official status of the Division was now SHAEF reserve,
but there were few who doubted that recommitment to combat
would long be delayed.
Effective March 12 the Division became a part of XV Corps,
under the command of Maj. Gen. Wade H. Haislip, and plans
were formulated for a forthcoming operation. Although plans
for the operation were secret, oldtimers with the faculty of
sensing preparations for reentry into combat, knew an
operation was scheduled. This time no one doubted the
destination or purpose. As one of the very few United States
divisions which had fought against Germany almost
continuously since July 10, 1943, what was more logical than
action in the homeland of the enemy himself? Germany it was
to be, and before the war ran its course the 3d Infantry
Division was to have the distinction of playing a prominent
part in seizing the very place in which Naziism had first
arisen to plague the world.
On March 13 the Division began moving to assembly areas near
Etting, Schmittviller, and Bining. The move was entirely
secret. Numbers on vehicle bumpers were covered over.
Shoulder patches were blotted out with strips of adhesive,
as were the blue-and-white diagonal patches which decorated
either side of each steel helmet. The Division was poised on
the Franco-German border, awaiting the signal for attack. It
was not long coming. The date was set-March 15. The
hour-0100.
In a special, last-minute briefing, Iron Mike told his
regimental commanders: "Within one hour after the jumpoff
you will be in Germany." Events proved him right. The 3d
Infantry Division reached the fringe of its long-sought goal
exactly thirty-one minutes after its leading elements
crossed the line of departure.
The path into Germany was necessarily a thorny one. For the
third push to the Rhine River also marked the third time
that the division had been assigned to a highly-fortified
area and given the task of reducing all obstacles that lay
in the path. The two other times were against the "iron
ring" of Anzio and the "frozencrust" of the Colmar Pocket.
Other United States units had faced the enemy in this area
for more than two months. Shortly following the beginning of
the German Ardennes-Eiffel offensive in the north there had
been an attack against the Seventh Army. When this push was
stopped, no further offensives were mounted in this area by
either side. Stalemate developed. As usual, the Germans
promptly mined every possible spot accessible to their
engineers; fortified their lines by digging zig-zag fire
trenches and siting their weapons with the expert eye to
terrain for which they were noted.
Elements of the crack German l7th SS Panzer Division
occupied a major portion of the sector through which lay our
zone of advance at the time of our attack. Although morale
of the average German soldier. was ,not, on the average,
high, that of the NCOs and officers was still unbroken, and
the over-all fighting ability of enemy troops could still be
termed no less than "excellent."
The ground was gummy, sticky, following recent rains.
Promptly at 0100, March 15, the 1st and 2d Battalions of the
7th Infantry and 1st and 3d Battalions of the 30th Infantry
pushed off; the 7th from Rimling and the 30th from the
vicinity of Schmittviller, passing through elements of the
44th Infantry Division. Division Artillery simultaneously
opened fire with ten battalions, plus an additional six
battalions of XV Corps artillery supporting. The initial
barrage lasted twenty minutes. Advancing on the left flank
of the regiment the 1st Battalion of the 7th Infantry,
commanded by Lt. Col. Kenneth W. Wallace, moved northward
rapidly and aggressively, overcoming small-arms resistance
which was supported by mortar and artillery defensive fire.'
At 0135 Company B 7th Infantry led the 3d Infantry Division
into Germany about one mile south of Utweiler. First Scout
Pfc. Wayne T. Alderson was the first man across. Minus
Company A, the battalion crossed the Bickenalbe stream and
seized crossroads 304, one kilometer east of Baumbusch
woods. By noon, despite increasing enemy resistance, Company
C was in the eastern edge of the woods, while Company B had
pushed through moderate resistance to occupy Erching.
Company A, which had swung left after progressing about one
and one-half miles from the line of departure, stormed
Guiderkirch from the north and had it cleared by 0400,
taking sixty-one prisoners.
The 1st and 3d Battalions, 30th Infantry, also encountered
intensely-sown schu-minefields from the outset and in
addition 1st Battalion drew automatic fire from
pillboxes.-The 3d reported a stream of smallarms fire on the
narrow gaps in minefields and extremely heavy,
casualty-inflicting self-propelled gunfire. Because of their
maneuverability and the ease with which they crossed
antipersonnel minefields, tanks of the 756th Battalion were
employed to great advantage by the 30th both in smashing
pillboxes and evacuating wounded.
A tank-infantry attack, led by 1st Lt. Richard Rosebury of
the regimental raider platoon attached to the 3d Battalion,
was outstandingly successful in securing the dominating
crest of a hill whose possession was absolutely essential to
the battalion.
While the 1st and 3d Battalions of the 30th were rolling up
the field defenses, the 2d was in "reserve" near Volmunster,
if such can be called the role of a unit which found it
necessary in a 26-hour period to clean out at least fifty
pillboxes in an adjacent division's area, rather than endure
a hail of fire from these positions.
The 7th Infantry's 3d Battalion, under Maj. Ralph J. Flynn,
was committed at 0400. It pulled up behind the 2d Battalion
and formed an arc around Utweiler running south to east.
Companies I and L, and AT Company (organized as a bazooka
unit), supported by fifteen pieces of armor, launched a
counterattack on Utweiler behind an artillery preparation.
By 1540 assault elements of Company I had penetrated enemy
defenses and entered the town. Armor of the task force
destroyed seven enemy tanks and tank destroyers and all four
of the enemy's Flakwagons. Fighting in Utweiler ,continued
until 1800 hours, that first day before the town was ours.
The 1st and 3d Battalions, 7th Infantry, resumed the attack
to the north and east toward the Siegfried Line at 0130.
Against scattered but determined rear guard resistance,
Company I took Hill 370 while Company L pushed into the
Dackerwald woods. The 1st Battalion infiltrated into
Medelsheim against stubborn enemy delaying action during the
hours of darkness and during the early hours of daylight
cleared the town, taking many prisoners.
At 1400 March 16, the 1st and 3d Battalions, 7th Infantry,
resumed the attack in their zone. Troops of the 1st
Battalion broke into Neu-Altheim and engaged the enemy in a
bitter small-arms fight. In slightly more than an hour,
despite furious attempts on the part of two enemy tanks or
self-propelled guns to stem the assault, the town was
cleared. The 3d Battalion, in an aggressive attack, seized
Riesweiler, closed in and took the Nasserwald and
Grosserwald woods and by 1700 advanced to a road junction
and patch of woods a mile east of Altheim. At 0020, March
17, 1st Battalion pushed out again in the attack, while the
3d Battalion dispatched patrols. Altheim fell without
resistance to the 1st Battalion. Companies K and L attacked
Stuppacheshof and occupied it within three-quarters of an
hour. Patrols moved into Mittelbach unopposed but found the
town heavily mined, and boobytrapped with 75mm shells.
The 3d Infantry Division was now at the first fortifications
of the vaunted Siegfried Line.
A task force consisting of a rifle platoon from 1st
Battalion, 7th Infantry, a bazooka platoon from the
regimental Antitank Company, and five light tanks from the
756th Tank Battalion set out for Mittelbach from Altheim.
During the night of March 17-18 a small, carefullybriefed
patrol from 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, was sent out to
the first row of the Siegfried Line's "dragon's teeth," and
drew small-arms, artillery, and self-propelled-gun fire,
indicating that the sector was extremely sensitive.
Maj. Gen. John W. O'Daniel at this time ordered a
two-regiment attack against the Siegfried Line, 7th and
15th, with the 15th on the right, to breach the line, push
rapidly to the Schwarzbach River, secure two bridges and the
high ground immediately to the north; then mop up from the
flank and rear of the Siegfried defenses east of the breach.
H-hour was set for 0545, March 18.
The 7th Infantry moved to an assembly area in the vicinity
of Althornbach during the night of March 17-18 and the 15th
likewise completed its operations.
The 30th Infantry was still in reserve. Assault battalion
was the 1st in each of the regiments.
At 0545, following a strong artillery preparation, the two
battalions jumped off. The 1st Battalion, 7th Infantry,
penetrated the first three belts of dragon's teeth,
by-passing many enemy groups in pillboxes, each of which
thereafter became an objective of its own, to reach the
Muhlthalderhof Ferme, about a mile-and-a-half southeast of
Zweibrucken, at 0630, where the battalion was engaged in a
fire fight by the enemy.
The 7th Infantry, at 0730, committed the 3d Battalion, which
initially was without armor because the engineers had been
unable to blow the dragon's teeth sufficiently for tanks of
the 756th and tank destroyers of the 601st to operate. At
0930 Company 1, assault company of the battalion,
encountered stiff resistance from by-passed enemy groups 500
yards south of the 1st Battalion. The balance of the 3d
Battalion further south also engaged formidable enemy
elements bypassed by the 1st. The 2d Battalion meanwhile
mopped up and secured the flanks of the advance.
Company B, 15th Infantry, passed through the weary Company C
and pressed the attack with renewed force. Fierce fighting
raged the length of the Division front. At about 1906 a
reinforced company of enemy infantry counterattacked the 1st
Battalion, 7th Infantry, the brunt of which was taken and
repulsed by Company A. The battalion in turn launched
counterthrusts that drove the enemy back with many losses.
By the end of the day the 7th Infantry had driven a thin
wedge 1500 yards in depth through the first and second rows
of dragon's teeth and was within sight of Zweibrikken,
fighting the enemy on three sides. Shortly after midnight,
March 18, Company I repulsed a determined counterattack at
Wallerscheid. By this time the 1st Battalion had almost
exhausted its ammunition and supplies. Armor was held up by
the antitank ditches and one tank was stuck in the "teeth."
A task force, consisting of Company 1. and engineers
commanded by the 3d Battalion S-3, Captain Harold Wigetman,
succeeded in supplying the 1st Battalion during the night,
although the task force received and repulsed a strong
counterattack from the northeast just before it contacted
rear elements of the 1st.
The 3d Battalion, 7th Infantry, had moved north at 0800 to
contact advance elements (1st Battalion) of the regiment,
despite enemy-manned pillboxes on both flanks of the line of
advance which tried vainly to break up the operation. The
grinding, slashing, grueling fight continued that whole day
of March 19. The Germans had provided obstacles by
demolishing every bridge in the path of advance. The line
was a maze of reinforced concrete pillboxes with
interlocking fields of fire, barbed-wire entanglements,
entrenchments and deep antitank ditches, in addition to the
omnipresent dragon's teeth.
The enemy facing Seventh Army was rapidly being cut off in
the rear by elements of the advancing Third Army at this
time, but this was nowhere apparent in the quality and
ferocity of opposition offered the 3d Infantry Division. The
crackup, however, was not far away. General O'Daniel,
sensing this, ordered the attack ruthlessly pressed. It went
on through the night.
At 0230 Company E, 7th Infantry, seized and occupied a
pillbox 300 yards south of the Muhlthalderhof Ferme. An hour
later 3d Battalion had cleaned out six pillboxes. The
enemy's defense began to dissolve and patrols quickly pushed
out to the front.
By noon the 7th Infantry was engaged in mopping-up
operations.
The deed was done. The Siegfried Line, not engaged until
March 18, was breached in the 3d Division zone in three
days-start to finish. Despite the fact that the Third Army
was threatening the German rear, the enemy defenders
seemingly were not affected by the menace, and the
resistance offered to our attack was as tenacious as that
encountered anywhere.
During the late afternoon of March 21 the 7th Infantry moved
to an assembly area in the vicinity of Contwig, and at 2100
attacked to the northeast. Without firing a shot the 1st
Battalion cleared the towns and Villages of Battweiler,
Schmittenhausen, Coam, Reifenberg, Herschberg, Schauer-Berg,
and Hoheinod, capturing more than a hundred prisoners in the
process.
Operating in the right half of the regimental sector, the 3d
Battalion cleared Thalischweiler after a hard fight against
automatic weapons and small-arms resistance. The 3d
Battalion seized more than fifty prisoners, two antitank
guns and one Flakwagon.
The 7th Infantry, after resting made an administrative move
to the vicinity of Carlsberg, and during the night of March
24-25 moved to the Frankenthal area in preparation for the
crossing of the Rhine.
The senario being followed saw the Battalion command
post set up in the small village of Coam prior to its move
to Carlsburg.
Advance elements of the
Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company arrive at
the farm complex south of the Village of Coam. The
previous night the village and farm was secured by elements
of Battalions Reconnaissance and Intelligence section and
attached Motormen of the Heavy Weapon Company:
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