Norman Igo: Platoon Leader, Company C
35th Engineer (Combat) Battalion
Northern France - Rhineland - Ardennes/Alsace - Central Europe
Reminiscences of My Duty in World War II
We arrived on the Normandy beaches in mid-July 1944 (D-Day was June 6th) and immediately moved inland approximately five miles to a bivouac area for our first night in France. It's most memorable because we had to wear ties with our O.D. uniform as prescribed by General George S. Patton, the Third Army commander. We all felt this was a silly idea if we were going into combat, as we didn't feel it necessary to have ties on. This was born out, in our opinion, when in about three days the Germans came over and strafed us. We of course jumped in trenches and ditches, and when we got out, our ties and uniforms were all dirty and muddy. So we all decided to take the ties off, and suffer the consequences, if a high ranking officer ever came around and called us up.
We were assigned to the VIII Corps, Third Army, as corps engineers. Our job was to assist in moving the ground forces forward at all times. This consisted of removing mines, booby traps, abatis that blocked a roadway, and installing bridges or repairing them. A major drive was just begun by all of the Allied Forces to push the Germans out of Normandy, with the Third Army to break thru at St. Lo and to swing around the right end of the German lines and to encircle the German army. We then drove down the western edge of the peninsula to St. Malo, where we received some prisoners, which we turned over to the S-2. From here I was sent on and exploring mission to see if the roads were clear and if we would run into any of the enemy. This was to Nantz, on the southwest part of France. We had to use our blackout lights at night, for fear of German air attack. We didn't encounter any problems or any Germans either. On returning to our unit, we all took off for Brest, where we were assigned to support a task force of tank destroyers, with our unit acting as the infantry to assist them. This was on a small peninsula just to the south of the city of Brest. The VIII Corps was assigned the mission of attacking the city of Brest and eliminating all of the German forces that had been retreating from the Brittany Peninsula to Brest to form a strong point. There were some 30,000 of them and they were going to cause the US forces a lot of trouble.
The tank destroyers were to serve as our artillery and the cavalry was to supplement us as infantry. On our first mission, we had all of our trucks with orange panels on the hoods of the trucks so the air force could identify us as friendly forces. Then the air force came over with a flight of approximately eight B-17's and dropped their bombs right in the middle of the small village where the cavalry was assembled to begin the attack. Our unit, Company C, was just about 300 yards to the east of the village, waiting on the attack by the cavalry to begin. The attack was to begin after the bomb runs had been completed. Captain Stark [Company C commander] and Captain Levine [battalion dentist] knew the air force had made a mistake and had bombed the wrong village, so they jumped in their jeep and with the jeep driver, rushed down to the village thinking they could be of some help. But just as they got there, a flight of P-47's came over, strafing everything in their sights. They killed all three of the Company C people. Then another flight of B-17's came over, after the P-47's made their run. With this, the attack was called off for that day. Lt. Rickertsen was assigned to take over the company command.
We continued to support the tank destroyers and the cavalry on additional missions throughout the campaign, which lasted for about 30 days. On the surrender of Brest, the German units on the peninsula surrendered also. With the prisoners we took, we just sent them back to headquarters with a guard. They were mostly naval personnel. [Lieutenant Bob] Skinner wanted to go back into the city of Brest to see what we could find. He was interested to find some film for his camera, so he wanted me to go with him. I consented to do so. On one occasion, while he was in a building, I was outside in a tomato patch eating tomatoes. He came out and never let me forget that I could have been with him "looting through" the photography shop, instead of being out there eating tomatoes. While we were gone, all the battalion officers assembled to have pictures taken. Skinner and I were the only officers missing. Lieutenant Colonel Symbol was not happy with either one of us.
With the completion of the campaign on the Brittany Peninsula, we headed east to the front lines in Luxembourg. With the whole battalion, we went through Paris, but only stopped long enough to see the Seine River. We arrived in Luxembourg about mid-September 1944 and camped out in the woods near Fauvelliers in the western part of Luxembourg. Soon they began to break up the battalion into companies, with Company C assigned to Mersch, a village a few miles north of Luxembourg City. We found an old castle that was not being used, so we set up our company headquarters in it, with rooms for all of the men.
About the second night, Lt. Rickertson called an officers meeting to explain what we would be doing. Basically, it was to run a sawmill, to repair all of the bridges that the Germans had destroyed as they had retreated. We would also run a rock quarry to crush rock into gravel and haul it to the roads in the vicinity to have the gravel to repair the roads when winter weather came and the military traffic would pound the roads to a pulp. He also cautioned the officers not to go to Luxembourg City, as it was in another Army District. Also, he cautioned us about the Germans coming across the front lines and capturing American jeeps and killing American soldiers. We had no more than got back to our rooms that [Lieutenant Frank] Rush and Skinner began to talk about going to Luxembourg City to see a Gary Cooper movie. I said, "Guys, didn't you hear what the CO just said not more than ten minutes ago; ie., not go to Luxembourg City?" They said he would never know about it because we each had our own jeep and we could go where we wanted to. They insisted on going, but I declined and stayed in the company headquarters.
The next morning we began to try to locate them, but to no avail. We continued searching around to other units, MP reports, etc. After about three days the company CO said to bring their personal effects to the office to be sent back home and to report them missing. With this, the other officers in the company began to divide up the stuff that could not be sent back, like Luger and P-38 pistols, German cameras, binoculars, and other items that were considered loot. Well, in about three more days, Skinner came walking in and wanted to know where all of his stuff was at. He and Rush had run off of a bridge and into the river; both nearly drowned. Of course, all of the other officers had to 'fess up how we had divided it up. He was really mad and upset, so he began to try to get it back. Of course we all complied, happy just to see him back in the company. But Colonel Symbol wasn't so happy. He transferred Rush to Headquarters Company and Skinner to Company A. I think he was just trying to break up a clique he saw developing in Company C.
Our work went well in Mersch. We began repairing and rebuilding the bridges that the Germans had destroyed. We started running the rock quarry and hauling the gravel and stock piling it along the side of the roads for use during the winter months. The sawmill was operating very well until the saw blade we were using was used up. At that point no one seemed to know what to do as new ones weren't available. The mayor of the village said he had a friend in Brussels that he thought could help us out. So the mayor and I and my jeep driver took off for Brussels. The mayor's friend was an import/export trader, so we thought this possible that he could help us. When we got there, the mayor's friend was most gracious and hospitable. He invited all three of us to his home, where he entertained us very graciously. He had a lovely home and in the living room was a painting of a very beautiful woman posing in the nude. Being a country boy, I had never seen anything like that. Shortly, the lady of the house came into the liming room, and the painting was of her. I wanted to keep looking at the painting then at her, but I guess I was too embarrassed to do so. But the gentleman gave all of us a bottle of Chanel #5, a most expensive perfume. Oh yes, he located a saw blade for us. With that, we loaded up in the jeep and headed back to Mersch. This concluded our trip and we got the sawmill back into operation.
On the morning of December 16th, the Germans made a surprise attack all across the front lines in the VIII Corps area. We had no warning that an attack was imminent and none of the higher commands had been alerted or had any hint that an attack was possible. We first heard about it with a phone call about 9 a.m. with orders to abandon all operations and to load up all of our men and equipment onto our trucks and report to VIII Corps headquarters in Bastogne as soon as possible. We entrucked in about an hour and were on our way. The distance was about 40 miles, but there was so much traffic on the roads due to the 10th Armored and 9th Armored Divisions and their tanks that we didn't make much headway. We finally got to Bastogne about 6 p.m. and Captain Rickertsen was able to get thru to the headquarters to get our orders. We were to go to Marvie, a little village approximately two miles southeast of the city, to set up a defense for Bastogne.
We arrived in Marvie at approximately midnite and proceeded to find quarters for the men and the company headquarters. The next morning, we set out to establish a defense line. It was decided to put a bazooka team out on the road to the east, one to the south road and put a machine gun with some riflemen in the field in between the two bazooka teams. This would give us some protection to the south. We would tie in with Company A to the west of our position. This was the best we could figure to do. The Germans kept up a constant sound to the east of small arms fire, including machine guns and artillery fire. So we knew an attack was imminent. On one occasion when I was going around to inspect the three positions, a mortar round came in and hit the tree where the men had a fire going and where I was standing. We all moved quickly and set up the bazooka at another location.
Fortunately for us, the 101st Airborne Division came in at midnight the night of the [18th and 19th] to relieve us. We formed up and marched back to Bastogne on foot. The next morning we received orders to go to a village approximately ten miles southwest of Bastogne and set up a road block at that location. I took my platoon about three quarters of a mile north of Jenneville at a site called Pironpre, which included only three or four buildings. We placed a bazooka team to the east to cover the road there and one to the north. I set up the machine gun on the jeep to cover the bridge that crossed the stream that ran along south of the east-west road. At this point in time all we could do was sit and wait to see if anything happened. And it began to happen the next morning at about 8 a.m. The Germans attacked down the road from the east with three tanks, a halftrack, and a truck with soldiers. The bazooka team on the road to the east pulled a daisy chain of mines across the road. The tanks pulled up to the line of mines and stopped, which we expected them to do. Then the bazooka team cut loose with anti tank rockets on two of the tanks. This rendered them immobile, but they still had the ability to fire their main gun and their machine guns, which they started to do. Thus they injured two of our men.
At this point, I went back to the company headquarters to get the company commander to see what he wanted to do. We came back to a small knoll that overlooked the site where the tanks and Germans had congregated and we tried to determine our next move. We took a few pot shots at the German tanks, but knew they were pointless as a rifle shot doesn't have any effect on a tank. They would occasionally take a tank shot at random because they didn't know where we were.
When the Germans first arrived at the site they began to fire in every direction and at anything that moved. I saw a small boy of only six or seven years old run across the street. The German machine gunner cut loose with a burst of fire. I saw the little boy fall down and I was sure he had been hit. Forty years later my friend and our wives were touring Europe and sites we remembered for the 40th anniversary of D-Day. So I wanted to go to this site to try to see if the little boy had survived the war. Sure enough, we found him. He still lived in the farm house that we saw forty years ago. He was a farmer of about 46 or so years of age. He had three daughters, age of about 8, 12, and 16. He couldn't speak English and we couldn't speak much French, but one of the daughters could converse very well with us. It was a happy occasion for all of us. Particularly for me to know the little boy I saw fall down wasn't shot.
In the meantime, Col. Symbol came up to the site to see what was going on. He was upset with Capt. Rickertsen because he had told him to blow up the bridge that crossed the stream. Capt. Rickertsen told him he didn't have any explosives to do so. The colonel said he would get some sent up and for us to blow the bridge. Capt. Rickertsen said there was no way we could now get demolitions on the bridge to blow it up since the Germans now had tanks on the road to the east looking right down on the bridge. The colonel said no matter, he was sending up the explosives to blow it up and he was ordering the captain to do so. Capt. Rickertsen said it would be sure suicide for anyone to go onto the bridge with the German tanks not more than 200 yards down the road. He said he would not order any of his men to go onto the bridge to set the explosives, but he would go himself if that is what the colonel wanted. With that, the colonel left, saying he was sending the explosives. But he never did, so the crisis passed. About 5 p.m., we received word to fall back down the road to Neufchateau, blowing the trees to form an abatis as we went. Colonel Symbol got in the truck with me as we were the last truck to go down the road, picking up the engineers as they pulled the fuse that lit the explosives to blow the trees.
