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 "Your magnificent performance, your first battle, has materially shortened the road that leads to Victory."

General Harry L. Twaddle, commander of the 95th Infantry Division

Northern France    Rhineland    Ardennes-Alsace    Central Europe

  RECEPTION

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  The Battles

  The bridgehead at Uckange

  The Chateau Brieux

  The liberation of Woippy

  The Bridge of the Savage

  The South-Western Forts of Metz


  The newspapers of the battle for Metz

The Chateau Brieux
Date : Night of November 8th,  1944
Location of the action : Maizières-lès-Metz, France
Unit in the area : Company "I", 377th Inf. Reg.

The Battles of George S. Patton's Lowest Ranks - Fourth Edition.

  The newcomers from the 3rd battalion du 377th Infantry Regiment found that there was still some unfinished business to tackle at the southern and of Maizières-lès-Metz: an area of woods including the Chateau Brieux. This objective had to be cleared of the enemy before the road to Metz could be opened. The soldier Stephen Bodnar was in the unit that attacked the Chateau during the night of November 8th, 1944. Wounded during the assault, he had his lower leg amputated because of gangrene setting in. This attack, all in all, was a costly if gallant failure. Here is Bodnar's story of the operation:

The I / 377 in the assault of the Chateau Brieux, story of Private First Class Stephen J. Bodnar. Company "I", 377th Infantry Regiment.

« I company 377th Infantry Regiment 95th Infantry Division relieved a company of the 90th Infantry Division on November 1st 1944. The unit took up positions in the last street on the edge of the town of Maizières-lès-Metz.

  The 1st Platoon took up positions near a school. Our squad, the Third, occupied a building next to the school. The mortar section of the fourth platoon was set up in the yard behind the school.

  During the week preceding the attack on Chateau Brieux, the Third Squad sent our patrols each night to locate enemy positions and locate mines. One night it joined with other elements of the First platoon on a combat patrol to capture prisoners. All First platoon men returned safely. The next night, the first platoon leader, 1st Lieutenant James Cain, was severely wounded and PFC Jay Stone was slightly wounded in another patrol action. 2nd Lieutenant Peterson Cavert replaced Lieutenant Cain.

  The weather turned nasty. It was already cold and wet, about 6 or 7°C ( about 43° F). On November 7th, it began to rain. It was also election day in the USA and President Franklin Roosevelt was running for a fourth term. On reflection, it is my opinion that no major actions in our sector were to be conducted so that news from the front with possible heavy casualties would not interfere with President Roosevelt's re-election.

 

During the day of November 8th 1944, Lieutenant Cavert told our squad of Company I's plan to attack Chateau Brieux at 2100 hours, The attack would be preceded by an artillery barrage the same night. Our platoon, the first, would attack the Chateau by advancing down the left side of the road that led to the Chateau gate, bypass the chateau, and dig in. The Third platoon would attack by advancing down the right side of the road, bypass the chateau, and dig in. These two platoons would then isolate the Chateau and present German counter attacks while the second platoon seized the Chateau. Lieutenant Cavert asked our squad if anyone had any comments about the plan. For a while no one spoke. Finally Lieutenant Cavert said that it was OK to speak our mind. As a nineteen year-old Private with nothing to lose but my life (and I was extremely confident that I was immortal), I spoke up. Although I do not remember my exact words, I said that it was a lousy plan. The Company had never made a company sized attack in the daylight. We had not trained for night combat as a company unit since I had joined the outfit in February 1944. Most of the men had not even taken part in the patrol actions at night. It was also raining and very dark at night. I said that the attack was doomed to fail, and we would get clobbered. After a brief period of quiet, Lieutenant Cavert asked if anyone else had anything to say. No one did, and we prepared for the attack.

  Extra ammunition and hand grenades were issued. I took two bandoliers of rifle ammunition, several extra M-1 clips for my pants pockets and four hand grenades for the slash pockets of my old style field jacket. We were only to take light combat packs, raincoat and some K-rations. I had some extra goodies stored, candy and small cans of fruit, which I shared with George Bauer and others in the squad. Then I made sure my rifle was working properly, and I was ready for whatever lay ahead.

  Lieutenant Cavert had asked if any one knew how to fire a bazooka (shoulder fired anti-tank rocket). PFC George Bauer quickly replied that he had fired a bazooka once in basic training. Lieutenant Cavert assigned Bauer as bazooka man with PVT John Ahern and PVT Harold Kellog as loader and ammunition carriers. This was the first time that Bauer and I were separated on a combat assignment. I also thought that Bauer had made a mistake mentioning that he fired a bazooka once in training. George Bauer was wounded and Ahern and Kellogg were killed during the night attack on the Chateau.

  Because it was so dark, every man had tied a piece of white sheet to each arm and the back of his pack to minimize any casualties from friendly fire. The artillery barrage began about 2045 with 105mm and 15mm artillery pieces. Lieutenant Cavert told us that XX Corps considered also using 240mm cannon, but we were too close to the enemy for that. However, the Germans had, a few days earlier fired about 20 rounds from their 240mm guns at us for zeroing in purposes. Although several houses were blown down and an anti-tank half-track was buried, there were no casualties.

  

Then we began walking toward the Chateau with arms extended and holding hands with the men on either side so that some type of a skirmish line could be maintained.

  Part way toward the chateau we had dropped hands, unslung our weapons, and prepared to engage the enemy. The German artillery and mortars began firing when the American artillery started creeping toward the areas behind the Chateau. As we advanced, I stumbled into a shell hole, partially filled with water. For a very brief moment I thought of staying there, not through fear, but the thought that the attack was foolish and wasn't going to succeed. However, I believed it was loyalty to my fellow soldiers that made me quickly rejoin the attack. I called out for someone to help me get out because I was up to my knees in mud. I don't remember who helped me out, because I could not see him. I warned him not to come too close and to extend his hand. We made hand contact, and I was able to get out of the shell hole.

  As I approached the barbed wire obstacles in front of the German outposts, a German machine gun was firing at my platoon mates off to my right. I stopped and fired three quick rounds from my hip. The gun was turned toward me and fired. I was then hit in my lower right leg. It felt like someone hit my leg with a baseball bat, and I fell. "Son of a bitch" I said, more surprised than hurt. Where had my immortality gone? There was continual rifle and machine gun fire from both sides, shouting, flares burning, and German artillery and mortar rounds falling all over. Mines were going off. In the periods of light from the flares, I thought my leg was shot too. I panicked a little, and began calling for a medic. None came. I believe the medic attached to our platoon was either wounded or killed in the night attack. However, there were many wounded. George Bauer heard me calling for the medic, came by, and told me to be quiet, that I wasn't hurt. It was about 15 years after the war that we talked about the incident. With all the noise going on and the darkness, the remark he made to me seems ridiculous, but it made me realize that no medic was going to help me and I had to take care of myself. I decided to crawl back toward the American lines and look for the medics. Reluctantly, I decided to abandon my rifle because it would hinder my crawling. Part way back, Staff Sergeant Robert Lauderbaugh and PFC John Weiss, from the machine gun section, supporting the first platoon, came by, picked me up between them, and assisted me.

  Every time a German shell went off, we hit the ground. When the German barrage intensified, they took cover in a shell hole. I asked them to leave me outside because I thought they might not be able to get me out, but we finally made it to the outskirts of Maizières. Finally, a litter bearer team picked me up, loaded me on a jeep hood, and after a while one of the litter bearers found the driver and ordered  him, who had been hiding from the German barrage, to drive me to the battalion and aid station. After a slow bumpy, eerie, ride in complete blackness, we arrived safely at the aid station. Captain Joseph Herbert, aid station surgeon, asked me if I had any ammunition. When I said "Yes", I was relieved of a few hand grenades and M-1 clips from my field jacket and pants pockets. My bandoliers and ammunition belt had been removed before I saw the surgeon. He gave me a shot of brandy, refused my request for a second, said I was in good shape, no shock, and sent me on my way to the field hospital after giving me first aid.

  Only elements of the First platoon had reached its objective and were digging in within the German positions unaware that the Third battalion attack had failed and all elements had withdrawn to the American lines. Company I's withdrawal had been covered by the Fourth platoon's mortar section, which fired about 900 rounds. The Third platoon's attack was repulsed and the Second platoon's attack was called off.

The Second platoon leader, First Lieutenant W. Lawrence Krueger, volunteered to lead a patrol which contacted Lt. Cavert and elements of the First platoon and led them back safely to Maizieres.

  The next day at 1545 hours, I company 377 Infantry Regiment again assaulted Chateau Brieux. This time was it was successful.  

Above : Remainders of the Chateau Brieux in Maizières-lès-Metz.

  

During these two attacks, I Company lost about half its strength in killed and wounded - about 90 men were casualties.

  On November 11, Armistice Day, my lower right leg was amputated because gangrene had set in. I was very ill, and it was necessary to amputate my leg in order to save my life.

  There were several men from our squad in the same ward in the field hospital: PFC George Bauer, PFC Charles Coleman, and PFC Robert Ross… I remember all of them talking to me as I progressively got more ill. Charles Coleman was very cheerful and upbeat about his "million dollar wound", a broken leg. However, he later developed an infection and died in a hospital in England. I also remember our squad leader S/SGT Harold Griese who came by to see me after my leg was amputated.

  I was sent back to the USA to a hospital in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There I met the Second platoon leader,  Lieutenant Krueger. We discussed the attacks on Chateau Brieux. I expressed my opinion that the night attack on the Chateau was a bad mistake and very poor tactics. Lieutenant Krueger told me that the 95th Division had protested the night attack to XX Corps and asked for a postponement until daylight on November 9th, 1944. XX Corps then requested a delay, but Lt. Krueger said that Gen. Patton refused. He was tired of delays and excuses. Patton wanted action now. He got it, and I Company and 3rd Battalion 377 Infantry paid the price…

On the left : Monument to honor the soldiers of the Company I, 377th Infantry Regiment for their heroic actions.

My special thanks to Stephen J. Bodnar for his beautiful testimony :"I Company 377 Infantry 95 Division attacks Chateau Brieux."