thedrifter
12-17-04, 07:10 AM
12-16-2004
By Nathaniel R. Helms
Guy Liston Helms was an 18-year-old infantry replacement on Christmas Eve 1944 when a German torpedo smashed into the side of his troopship to sink it within sight of France. He was one of 2,235 GIs from the 66th “Panther” Division packed aboard the rusting Belgian liner SS Leopoldville, reinforcements destined for the rolling hills of the Ardennes Forest in Belgium as part of the Allies’ desperate effort to stop the lunging German army from breaking through bulging Allied lines.
Within sight of land at the entrance to Cherbourg Harbor, Helms and his desperate shipmates waited in vain for help to arrive. For 2½ hours, Helms said he stayed on board the listing vessel while it filled with 48-degree water pouring in from the English Channel to slowly drown hundreds of trapped soldiers in the holds below deck.
By the time he was rescued, 516 soldiers were missing and presumed drowned, and another 248 died of injuries received in the torpedo explosion, by drowning or hypothermia. Eventually 1,471 soldiers, including Helms, were put ashore to await a destiny that was just slightly less desperate than the situation they found themselves in on board the sinking ship.
Two weeks later, in early January 1945, without a weapon, clothes, paperwork or boots, Helms found himself in an infantry company in the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, a friendless, scared replacement destined for a barren foxhole in the Ardennes to be a solemn witness to the carnage that was already known as the “Battle of the Bulge.”
It had been a far different situation just two months before. The Allied armies poised on the German border in Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France in early December 1944 were heady with optimism. The terrible battles in the dense woods of the Huertgen Forest that had mauled seven U.S. infantry divisions and caused 33,000 casualties in an area 20 miles long and 10 miles wide during the wet fall were over.
Allied reports in Stars & Stripes, Yank, on Allied radio, and in newspapers from home were all predicting the Germans were finished. The most optimistic among the troops were telling themselves they just might be home for Christmas. But it was not to be.
While Helms was staging in New York for his trip across the Atlantic the day before Thanksgiving, the 30th ID had been making a name for itself killing Krauts almost as fast as it could find them. It came ashore across Omaha Beach on D-Day+4. The next day the division’s 120th Infantry Regiment found itself in action, capturing Montmartin-en-Graigenes by nightfall. From there, it never stopped moving forward, checking the strong German counter-attack along the Hauts-Vents Highway and capturing Pont Hebert by July 14, 1944.
After Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley’s Operation COBRA, his brilliant initiative to use strategic bombers to break through German lines, the 30th fought the bitter Battle for Avranches, again broke out, and pounded east. By Sept. 2,it was inside Belgium and two weeks later in the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands. After a brief rest and a few days of celebration, the 30th went back into the lines to attack the vaunted West Wall north of Aachen, Germany. On Nov. 20, the 30th ID, including the 120th, was in the French city of Altkirch, an Alsatian city with historical allegiances to both Germany and France.
It was holding the line there when the Germans counterattacked along a 60-mile front extending from the German border town of Monschau in the north to Echternach in tiny Luxembourg to the south, where only six American divisions were deployed. Hitler himself had chosen the battlefield. He reasoned that if he could split the Allied armies and drive to Antwerp, he could demand a separate peace with the Allies and concentrate his forces against the Soviet Union relentlessly closing on Germany in the East.
In response, Eisenhower took personal control of the battle, shifting his divisions around the theater like a master chessman. The 30th Division, which was in a relatively static position, was rushed to the Malmedy-Stavelot sector of Belgium on Dec. 17; five days after Helms and the 66th had landed in England to await shipment to the front. The 30th held Stavelot against intense German pressure, aided by the “damned engineers” who blew the bridges over the Ambleve River, preventing German armor from crossing and capturing the millions of gallons of gasoline sitting virtually unattended on the other side.
It was near there that S.S. Panzer Lt. Col. Jochen Peiper’s 1 SS Panzer Korps massacred 86 captured American soldiers in an incident called the “Malmedy Massacre” that steeled the hearts of the Americans fighting in the Ardennes.
During Dec. 19-22, the 30th ID fought a pitched battle over the village of Stavelot, losing it to the Germans and then taking it back. When Helms arrived at the 120th Regiment around Jan. 6, the unit was fighting a fierce battle against slowly retreating Germans to regain the contested region north and east of Stavelot and Trois Point.
He was issued an M-1 Garand rifle, 60 rounds of ammunition, two grenades, a woolen overcoat, rubber overshoes to cover his dress shoes, and then taken by a filthy, grizzled sergeant to an empty hole in the line. Its former occupant had died sometime before, leaving behind a bloody scab in the snow to mark his passing. Helms fought without respite for two weeks, earning a Bronze Star for gallantry, an achievement he denied deserving until the day he died.
On Jan. 26, Helms was abruptly taken out of the line and shipped back to the 66th Division. His transfer to the Ardennes had been a mistake, a typical “snafu” in the vernacular of the times. But during his stay he had participated in the fiercest battle fought in the European Campaign. By the time it was over with American troops suffered 81,000 casualties, including 19,000 deaths, in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The German army suffered 70,000 casualties with 20,000 dead.
The Battle of the Bulge was the largest combat action in the history of the American military; for 40 days the men fought in the bitter cold of the worst winter weather in 20 years, not even stopping for Christmas Day. When it was over, the German Army in the West was broken. There would be plenty of hard fighting before Hitler put a bullet in his head and ended it once and for all; but without the stalwart bravery of the American soldiers who suddenly found themselves in the midst of the largest battle on the Western front, it might have gone another way.
This story is of deep personal significance to me above and beyond its historical importance. Guy Liston Helms was my stepfather, and a professional soldier who proudly served his country until he died a premature death.
Contributing Editor Nathaniel R. “Nat” Helms is a Vietnam veteran, former police officer, long-time journalist and war correspondent living in Missouri. He is the author of two books, Numba One – Numba Ten and Journey Into Madness: A Hitchhiker’s Account of the Bosnian Civil War, both available at www.ebooks-online.com. He can be reached at natshouse1@charter.net. Send Feedback responses to* dwfeedback@yahoo.com.
Ellie
By Nathaniel R. Helms
Guy Liston Helms was an 18-year-old infantry replacement on Christmas Eve 1944 when a German torpedo smashed into the side of his troopship to sink it within sight of France. He was one of 2,235 GIs from the 66th “Panther” Division packed aboard the rusting Belgian liner SS Leopoldville, reinforcements destined for the rolling hills of the Ardennes Forest in Belgium as part of the Allies’ desperate effort to stop the lunging German army from breaking through bulging Allied lines.
Within sight of land at the entrance to Cherbourg Harbor, Helms and his desperate shipmates waited in vain for help to arrive. For 2½ hours, Helms said he stayed on board the listing vessel while it filled with 48-degree water pouring in from the English Channel to slowly drown hundreds of trapped soldiers in the holds below deck.
By the time he was rescued, 516 soldiers were missing and presumed drowned, and another 248 died of injuries received in the torpedo explosion, by drowning or hypothermia. Eventually 1,471 soldiers, including Helms, were put ashore to await a destiny that was just slightly less desperate than the situation they found themselves in on board the sinking ship.
Two weeks later, in early January 1945, without a weapon, clothes, paperwork or boots, Helms found himself in an infantry company in the 2nd Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, a friendless, scared replacement destined for a barren foxhole in the Ardennes to be a solemn witness to the carnage that was already known as the “Battle of the Bulge.”
It had been a far different situation just two months before. The Allied armies poised on the German border in Belgium, Luxembourg and northern France in early December 1944 were heady with optimism. The terrible battles in the dense woods of the Huertgen Forest that had mauled seven U.S. infantry divisions and caused 33,000 casualties in an area 20 miles long and 10 miles wide during the wet fall were over.
Allied reports in Stars & Stripes, Yank, on Allied radio, and in newspapers from home were all predicting the Germans were finished. The most optimistic among the troops were telling themselves they just might be home for Christmas. But it was not to be.
While Helms was staging in New York for his trip across the Atlantic the day before Thanksgiving, the 30th ID had been making a name for itself killing Krauts almost as fast as it could find them. It came ashore across Omaha Beach on D-Day+4. The next day the division’s 120th Infantry Regiment found itself in action, capturing Montmartin-en-Graigenes by nightfall. From there, it never stopped moving forward, checking the strong German counter-attack along the Hauts-Vents Highway and capturing Pont Hebert by July 14, 1944.
After Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley’s Operation COBRA, his brilliant initiative to use strategic bombers to break through German lines, the 30th fought the bitter Battle for Avranches, again broke out, and pounded east. By Sept. 2,it was inside Belgium and two weeks later in the city of Maastricht, the Netherlands. After a brief rest and a few days of celebration, the 30th went back into the lines to attack the vaunted West Wall north of Aachen, Germany. On Nov. 20, the 30th ID, including the 120th, was in the French city of Altkirch, an Alsatian city with historical allegiances to both Germany and France.
It was holding the line there when the Germans counterattacked along a 60-mile front extending from the German border town of Monschau in the north to Echternach in tiny Luxembourg to the south, where only six American divisions were deployed. Hitler himself had chosen the battlefield. He reasoned that if he could split the Allied armies and drive to Antwerp, he could demand a separate peace with the Allies and concentrate his forces against the Soviet Union relentlessly closing on Germany in the East.
In response, Eisenhower took personal control of the battle, shifting his divisions around the theater like a master chessman. The 30th Division, which was in a relatively static position, was rushed to the Malmedy-Stavelot sector of Belgium on Dec. 17; five days after Helms and the 66th had landed in England to await shipment to the front. The 30th held Stavelot against intense German pressure, aided by the “damned engineers” who blew the bridges over the Ambleve River, preventing German armor from crossing and capturing the millions of gallons of gasoline sitting virtually unattended on the other side.
It was near there that S.S. Panzer Lt. Col. Jochen Peiper’s 1 SS Panzer Korps massacred 86 captured American soldiers in an incident called the “Malmedy Massacre” that steeled the hearts of the Americans fighting in the Ardennes.
During Dec. 19-22, the 30th ID fought a pitched battle over the village of Stavelot, losing it to the Germans and then taking it back. When Helms arrived at the 120th Regiment around Jan. 6, the unit was fighting a fierce battle against slowly retreating Germans to regain the contested region north and east of Stavelot and Trois Point.
He was issued an M-1 Garand rifle, 60 rounds of ammunition, two grenades, a woolen overcoat, rubber overshoes to cover his dress shoes, and then taken by a filthy, grizzled sergeant to an empty hole in the line. Its former occupant had died sometime before, leaving behind a bloody scab in the snow to mark his passing. Helms fought without respite for two weeks, earning a Bronze Star for gallantry, an achievement he denied deserving until the day he died.
On Jan. 26, Helms was abruptly taken out of the line and shipped back to the 66th Division. His transfer to the Ardennes had been a mistake, a typical “snafu” in the vernacular of the times. But during his stay he had participated in the fiercest battle fought in the European Campaign. By the time it was over with American troops suffered 81,000 casualties, including 19,000 deaths, in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. The German army suffered 70,000 casualties with 20,000 dead.
The Battle of the Bulge was the largest combat action in the history of the American military; for 40 days the men fought in the bitter cold of the worst winter weather in 20 years, not even stopping for Christmas Day. When it was over, the German Army in the West was broken. There would be plenty of hard fighting before Hitler put a bullet in his head and ended it once and for all; but without the stalwart bravery of the American soldiers who suddenly found themselves in the midst of the largest battle on the Western front, it might have gone another way.
This story is of deep personal significance to me above and beyond its historical importance. Guy Liston Helms was my stepfather, and a professional soldier who proudly served his country until he died a premature death.
Contributing Editor Nathaniel R. “Nat” Helms is a Vietnam veteran, former police officer, long-time journalist and war correspondent living in Missouri. He is the author of two books, Numba One – Numba Ten and Journey Into Madness: A Hitchhiker’s Account of the Bosnian Civil War, both available at www.ebooks-online.com. He can be reached at natshouse1@charter.net. Send Feedback responses to* dwfeedback@yahoo.com.
Ellie