Holland and Belgium.

Hi All,

Just posting a few pictures of one of the busiest days of my life. A morning of work in Maastricht in Holland under midday, followed by trying to cram battlefield sites from Holland and Belgium into one day! We didn't do too badly, and managed to visit quite a few places.

The first place we visited was Margraten Military Cemetery in Holland, which is literally just 6/7km outside of Maastricht where we were staying. Maastricht is in the far bottom right corner of Holland tucked into a little outcrop of land trapped between the German and Belgian borders. The place was absolutely littered with forward Airbases of the 8th and 9th Airforce, none of which exist anymore, but there were plenty of memorials marking their locations and the locations of downed planes. 8,301 Americans killed in action in Holland are buried at Margraten, including a large number of 82nd and 101st troopers.


Probably one of the most famous graves at Margraten is that of Lt.Col Robert G Cole. I don't need to tell anyone here what Cole was famous for, but i'd always wanted to see this mans grave, and was pretty choked up when I was actually stood over it. I've got a massive respect for Cole, not only because of his Medal Of Honor but also because he was massively liked by his men, was clearly a brilliant commander and the Circumstances of his death just don't seem worthy of the man. The fact his men ripped to pieces the house from which his killer fired from shows how desperate they were to avenge his death. The house from which the Sniper fired still stands, albeit repaired and has no sign of combat. I visited it last year, but was not able to this time as Eindhoven was too far north.

The Cemetery has the usual maps that US Cemeteries usually have and was beautifully looked after. I remember reading somewhere that all the graves are adopted by local school children who maintain them and lay flowers on the anniversary of their Soldiers death.

We then headed south across the Belgian border, through Cheneux cleared by the 504th PIR during the Bulge and on into La Gleize to see the mighty King Tiger.


La Gleize was another town liberated by the 504th PIR. The King Tiger stands probably only 100 yards from the spot where it was abandoned and the marks on the front are evidence of the 504ths efforts to see how their weaponary worked against its frontal armour. No penetration.

From there was headed South-East to the Baugnez Crossroads, the site of the Malmedy Massacre. Its not actually in Malmedy, but a few KM outside, and is an utter bastard to find, but was again quite a somber place to be.

This is the field where the bodies were found covered in a few days covering of Snow. Some of the dead, it was found, had actually avoided being shot but had died in the cold whilst pretending to be dead as Germans still hung around the area.

The memorial at the Massacre site has a wall sporting the names of all the dead, and also this monument where it was good to see that current day RAF personnel had been to pay their respects.

From there it was the breakout into 517th country, and the areas so expertly cleared by the Battling Buzzards. As we headed further south we were actually going back in time from areas fought for towards the end of the bulge and ending in areas initially fought for by the 517th when first committed. We headed through Stavelot where 460th had pounded the shit out of the Germans and the 517th had knocked out two King Tigers. From there was passed through Trois Ponts, so desperately defended by the 505th PIR before being ordered to withdraw, the town was recaptured by the 517th PIR. From there we headed to St Jacques, to see the 517th and 505th PIR memorial at the Church and to drive into the woods and see the original 517th foxholes.



The foxholes are so well preserved and its planned to keep their locations within the group, there are more foxholes round the woods near Bergeval dug by the 517th and its planned for us to return and investigate them properly.

The above picture shows the courtyard in which Ben Barrett of the 517th was wounded in Action whilst taking Bergeval.

More to come!

Bez

Carrying on, we then travelled down through Bra where Gavin had his 82nd Airborne Division HQ set up, and continued on down through Vaux Chevanne and into Manhay.

But before i mention that, just after Manhay we travelled about another 2 miles south to Parkers Crossroads where elements of the 106th Inf Div and 82nd Airborne Division attempted to hold back the main spearhead of the 2nd SS Panzer Division and prevent them from entering Manhay where the 7th Armored had set up defenses. They held for a number of days but were eventually overwhelmed, with only F.Company of the 325th GIR, 82nd Airborne being able to retreat through friendly lines. Panthers of the 2nd SS Panzers rolled straight through the crossroads (where an Artillery battalion of the 106th Inf Div had used 105mm howitzers firing at a flat trajectory against infantry and tanks) and had a free ride to Manhay.


Two pics of the nice memorial at the crossroads which sports 3 plaques in memory of the different units who fought there. The 105mm Howitzer was found in the area but no one knows if it was actually one of the guns used in the defense of the crossroads. The guns breach had a date of 1941 on it.

After taking the crossroads the Panthers hit Manhay hard and the 7th Armored Division defenses crumbled. In only a matter of Minutes Manhay was in German hands, a town that to the area was almost as strategically important as Bastogne. Ridgeway ordered it's immediate recapture and the Job fell to the 3rd Battalion of the 517th PIR. Major Paxton, 3rd Battalion CO, set up HQ on the North-West side of Vaux Chevanne where we drove, and positioned himself at the window of a building over looking the open ground his men would cross to Manhay. Me and Will found there to be only a few with such a view. The 3rd Battalion crossed over around a mile of open terrain behind a rolling Artillery Barrage that on two occasions landed short and hit the 517th, causing numerous casualties. Paxton considered haulting his men but given the open terrain knew they oughta keep moving. The 517th eventually re-captured the town in under an hour, knocking out most of the Panthers and forcing others to withdraw north where they were trapped and eventually destroyed. The 7th Armored moved back into town and helped the 517th set up defenses, removing the bow mounted .30cals from their tanks to give to the Paras as extra firepower. The 7th Armored had abandoned their posts once, and Major Paxton threatened to shoot anyone who attempted to do the same again. The Germans in fact never again tried to re-enter Manhay, and attempted to wheel round it instead drawing C.Company of the 517th into a single company action to stop them, in which the company was nearly entirely destroyed, something they would go on to win an award for. C.Companys stand at Lamormenil west of Manhay stopped the Germans dead.

A picture of the small 517th Memorial on the side of the old school house, a building they would use as an Aid Station. Paxtons HQ was in a house opposite that was nearly destroyed in the fighting. After its capture the 517th were subject to some serious artillery, and were also hit by friendly airpower. The 517th suffered more casualties as a result of blue on blue than they did at the hands of the enemy when retaking Manhay. The 3rd Battalion held its position for a week, before being relieved and re-joined the remainder of the 517th in preperation for the January counter-offensive along the Salm river.

And as an added bonus, some pics of the memorial at Bastogne.