FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. –
“The 28th Division has performed one of the greatest feats in the history of the American Army ... Against nine divisions it has held so firmly that the German timetable has been thrown of completely." - Morely Cassidy, New York Times/CBS Radio.
Despite months of near constant fighting in late 1944, the spirit of the 28th Infantry Division was not broken. The repeated assaults on the Siegfried Line and the "Green Hell" of the Hurtgen Forest had drained its ranks of experienced officers and men. Still, the division endured, and new men were incorporated into its ranks to fill the gaps left by the fallen.
By mid-November, the battle-hardened remnants of the division filed out of the Hurtgen Forest and made their way to the VIII Corps sector, assuming a 25-mile defensive line from Bollendorf to Sevenig along the Our River and north to Lutzkampen.
The sector was intended to allow the units of the division to recuperate, train replacements and shuffle leadership worn by months of fighting through difficult objectives. At first, the positions served their purpose, allowing a light schedule of patrolling, stationary guard and time to integrate replacements.
That would change dramatically in the early hours of Dec. 16, 1944.
In the quiet of the European winter, Keystone Division soldiers noticed a change on the battlefield. German patrols became less frequent, the sounds of tracked vehicles could be heard behind German lines and strangely large spotlights began to search the American lines, illuminating the pitch black of the night.
In his book “G.I. Tom Myers,” Cpl. Tom Myers of the 110th Infantry recalled: "About 5:45 a.m. I was jarred awake by an artillery shell exploding outside my window. I jumped out of bed, slipped into my overcoat, got into my harness that had my ammunition and belt with bayonet, canteen, and first aid kit on it, grabbed my rifle, and bounded down the stairway to join the rest of my squad. The artillery began to rain on my beautiful little village, we knew that an attack by the German Infantry would follow."
The division’s recuperation ended violently as elements of Gerd von Rundstedt's Army smashed into the 25-mile front held by the Keystone Division. Across the entire front of the 28th Division, German forces attacked with ferocity.
Pfc. Alexander Hadden of the 112th Infantry described the attack on his position where in his book “Not Me: The World War II Memoir of a Reluctant Rifleman.”
“At 0600 hours the Germans struck outpost 88, knocked it out and stormed the 1st and 3rd Platoon CPs,” Hadden wrote. “Captain Stanley Dec, the company commander, was killed in the first few minutes of fighting. In the ensuing battle, some of it hand to hand, the Germans lost 150 men, with 73 captured. Baker Company lost 95 men killed, captured, or missing.”
The division made stands wherever they could as waves of German armor and infantry advanced.
J.J. Kuhn, a platoon sergeant in the 110th Infantry, fought from his unit’s outpost in Marnach hotel for two days, calling fire in from the attached Cannon Company, knocking out enemy halftracks, and directing machine guns until a “German Tiger tank smashed through the hotel’s front door and German troops poured into the lobby. I and my men were prisoners.”
In Ouren, Reuler and Hosingen, towns whose names would forever be remembered by veterans of the division, men fought with tenacity. With overcoats caked in snow and ice and bare frozen hands, with bandoleers of ammo and a few anti-tank rounds, the "Men of Iron" made proud of the legacy earned by the division in the last war.
Lt. Col. James Rosborough, commander of the 107th Field Artillery, earned a Distinguished Service Cross for leading infantry counterattacks to retake artillery positions overrun by the German assault. The 109th Infantry expended 280,000 rounds of small arms, 5,000 mortars, 3,000 grenades and 300 bazooka rounds in just three days of fighting near Diekirch.
Even members of the 28th Division Band pitched in, trading their instruments for Bazookas and Carbines and helping to form a provisional defense battalion near Wiltz. All across the line, there was no shortage of acts of bravery.
Despite this fierce resistance, there was only so much the division's men could do to slow a force that, in some sectors, outnumbered them 10-to-1. Lines collapsed and positions broke, but the men fought on.
In his book “World War II As I Lived It,” Robert Bradicich of the 110th Infantry recalled, “Our small group consisted of a Lieutenant, the Captain, and four of us soldiers. While the Captain contemplated the next move, I thought ‘this was not just a small German patrol and we were spread out too thin to stop a large German attack, what are we going to do?’ The Captain told us we would have to try and get back to our lines, or surrender. He got a unanimous ‘No,’ we did not want to surrender."
Patrols like Bradicich’s fought fiercely as small independent units harassing the German attackers as they filtered back to second line defenses. By Dec. 20, the Keystone Division had been pushed back from their initial positions and was scattered across a new defensive line. Their delay had been costly, but it had allowed reinforcements like the 101st Airborne Division to arrive and secure the critical junction at Bastogne.
The story of the 101st in Bastogne has taken on a life of its own and is remembered as one of the most crucial actions of the war. The "Battle of the Bulge" narrative recalls that heroic stand but often forgets the five days of brutal fighting endured by a Pennsylvania division promised "a quiet sector."
To the 28th Infantry Division’s veterans of the battle, the Ardennes would mark a dark time in the war and the loss of hundreds of brave comrades. To Guardsmen of today, it serves as a reminder that on a battlefield wrought with chaos and destruction, the soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division stood firm, and destroyed the German army’s last chance for victory.
(Editor’s note: Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Heft is a former platoon sergeant with 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard. He is currently the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Army National Guard Leader Development Program in Arlington, Va.)