61st Reconnaissance Regiment in the 'Battle of the Bulge'
Winter in the Ardennes at Vallée les Etoiles
FLANDERS
In the mid-December 1944 the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment, having landed in France on D Day, fought throughout the Battle of Normandy, led the British Army into Belgium, crossed and defended the Belgian canals, assisted the 'Garden' (ground) element of Market Garden and the survivors of British First Airborne and then spent three cold and wet months on the frontline in the Netherlands were now waiting for disbandment in the little Belgium town of Izegem. Their famous Division, the 50th (Northumberland) Infantry had been sent back to Blighty and the regiment had lost so many men it was no longer viable. They were to be dispersed to other reconnaissance units and their trusty vehicles, ammunition and fuel had been been dumped in nearby Roeselare, while their stores were in a barn. They still had an HQ and a cook-house, in the railway goods yard, but the men were billeted round the town with local people and making the most of their first proper rest period together since D Day back in June.
Lt. Richard (Dick) Williams had arranged the billets and found himself a very attractive fin-de-siècle building in the Rue de Pélichy, as it was then called, with the prosperous Sintobin-Anne family.
" For once in a while I’m living in luxury – I had all the billeting to do in this place so naturally I picked myself a first-class place. The family – (father, mother, four daughters and three sons) do everything possible to make me feel at home. Being people of considerable intelligence they all speak English, French, Flemish and German, so life here is quite an education in itself.
They have also a very fine collection of records – all the piano concertos and several operatic records. The oldest daughter (20) plays Chopin rather well – but she’s engaged to a bloke in the Belgian Embassy…
We’re having a real holiday while we may – and the old beer certainly flows here." (Letter to his sweetheart, Chotie)
No 6 Rue de Pélichy / Baron de Pelichystraat, Iseghem / Izegem
Some of his troop were not quite so comfortable. Bren gunner Tony Rampling was in a bakery, with the driver from his armoured car crew, and bemused by the stale iced cakes with strong coffee they were given for breakfast. Consolation came in the form of Georgette, the first love of Tony's long life, who he met in Izegem. "Everybody found a Belgian belle."
Corporal Eric Postles of B Squadron's 10 Troop (which had lost more than half its original members in France) was in the west end of town. "Corporal Martindale and I were put with the Deschermaker family at Hondstrat 10. They were shoemakers doing the cutting and
stitching at home and had a factory for assembly work. There was mother and father, André, who had been in the Belgian Army during the 1940 fighting; Simone, Paula and Jeanne (the three girls) and Renee who was about ten. We slept for the first time in a proper bed, drew our rations and handed them to the family, who we ate with. After an initial day or so we became accepted members of the family. No guard duties, no ‘stand to’, peace and quiet."
The men sat about in Izegem cafés and went to dances - they were looking forward to drowning their sorrows in Christmas feasting there. However, as Don Aiken of B Squadron's 12 Troop put it: "We hadn't reckoned on the Germans. They had realised that the defensive strength of the US Army in the Belgian Ardennes forest was not good, with only four divisions holding a front of 80 miles long….”
Hitler had been secretly assembling the Sixth Panzer Army in the Eiffel Forest area, with the Fifth and Seventh Panzer Armies just to the south. On 16th December they began their surprise advance into the Ardennes (Belgium and Luxembourg's forested uplands) against a US First Army frontline held by the inexperienced 99th Division with the newly arrived 106th Division and on the US Third Army front, the 28th and 4th Infantry Divisions, sent to rest in the south Ardennes - 'a quiet paradise for weary troops' after the horrors of battle in Germany's Hürtgen Forest. 80,000 Americans faced 200,000 Germans.
Hondstraat 10, Izegem
By 17th December the Allies had realised the danger and ordered in 82nd and 101st US Airborne. The heroes of Market Garden were recuperating from an extended period on the Netherlands' waterlogged frontline (where 61st Recce had worked alongside the 101st). News of the attack rapidly spread - a poor excuse but perhaps that's why Lt. Williams had a traffic accident that day? He was driving a car in central Izegem, by the Grote Markt, and knocked Elza Lammertyn off her bike so she broke three ribs.
Certainly by 19th December Montgomery, the British commander, had given XXX Corps orders to secure crossings over the River Meuse, at the north and west edges of the Ardennes. The 61st Reconnaissance Regiment 'bombed-up, tanked up, loaded up and drove into the night' with only 5 minutes rest every four hours.
The corner of Marktstraat and Grote Markt, Izegem, where Lt. Williams had his traffic accident on 17th December
THE ARDENNES
The Meuse
By noon on 21st December the the vital Meuse crossings at Liège, Huy, Namur and Givet were guarded only by a communications regiment, two anti-aircraft battalions and the 300 men of 61st Reconnaissance Regiment. (The official order for 61st Recce to move south was received at 11am on 21st December, when Eisenhower had given Montgomery command of all Allied units north of the Ardennes because the German attack had split US 12th Army Group forces led by The Amercan general Omar Bradley).
Trooper Don Aiken of B Squadron was at Namur where he witnessed the panic of retreating US troops. On 19th December c.8,000 men from the 106th Infantry Division had been surrounded by German Fifth Army forces and had to surrender. Although the US First Army successfully blocked the progress of German Sixth Panzer Army at the Elsenborn Ridge (near the German border) and at the critical crossroads town of St Vith, the 1st SS Panzer-Division had advanced between them and were held at La Gleize, south of Liège. This Division was known to have murdered nearly 100 surrendering US troops on 17th December (the Malmédy massacre). German commandos wearing US uniforms had been captured near Liège and German paratroopers had also been dropped behind the US frontline - all movements were now being checked by roadblocks.
On 21st December the US 106th Infantry Division, after holding out for five days, was forced to withdraw from St Vith. 101st Airborne and units from 10th Armored Division were surrounded and under seige at Bastogne, another critical crosswords town near the German border. 4th Armored Division from General Patton's 3rd US Army (ordered north to relieve Bastogne) were still about 15 miles to the south on the 22nd. At last on 23rd December the poor weather that had helped the Germans muster and advance undetected was replaced with clear skies and Allied planes could support the ground forces with reconnaissance and attacks on the enemy.
The old bridge at Jambes and the citadel, Namur
In May 1940 Rommel had crossed the Meuse at Dinant and Houx (slightly to the north) before the Germans advanced west; cutting off the French 1st and 7th Armies with the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium and leading to the evacuation at Dunkirk. Montgomery re-inforced the 61st Recce squadron heading to Dinant with an anti-tank troop and 29th Armoured Brigade's 3rd Royal Tank Regiment. Any flotsam in the river was to blasted with Bren gun fire in case it was enemy frogmen.
On 23rd December a jeep-load of Germans wearing American uniforms drove through a checkpoint at the foot of La Roche-a-Bayard, on the east bank of the Meuse just south of Dinant, and managed to detonate a daisy-chain of mines laid by British soldiers. This point is also the nearest the Germans came to the Meuse, on 24th December 1944 at the peak of their offensive.
Dinant with it's citadel on the east bank of the Meuse
23rd Armoured Brigade now held the bridges at Namur, Dinant (the tip of the German salient) and Givet, with 61st Reconnaissance Regiment ranged along the banks in between.
Eric Postles' 'troop was in a deserted café near one of the bridges. Guard times were shortened and we wore woollen balaclavas and white smocks for camouflage in the snow'.
Sgt Roy Howard of 7 Troop A Squadron, spent Christmas Day on top of a mountain near Dinant and could hear the Germans singing carols in the valley below. Lt Bill Cunningham's 16 Troop, B Squadron, were at Dinant on Boxing Day and then ordered south towards the bridge at Givet.
Corporal Eric Postles of 10 Troop, B Squadron, 61st Reconnaissance Regiment Memorial marking the limit of the German advance at La Roche-Bayard (above), near Dinant
Some troopers found themselves in slightly more salubrious surroundings: B Squadron's Max Murphy was at the château at Wépion (just south of Namur) on Christmas Day, looking across the Meuse at the royal Château Dave. Christmas trees at HQ were decorated with the aluminium foil strips used by the airforce for radar jamming.
Left: The Château at Wépion on the west bank of the Meuse
Right: Château Dave on the east bank
After 25th December 29th Armoured Brigade's forces were released from guarding the Meuse bridges by the British 6th Airborne Division, who had moved into place by 26th December.
Although 6th Panzer Army had led the German advance into the Ardennes, it was Fifth Panzer Army's 2nd Panzer Division that almost reached the Meuse. The spearhead led by their 116th Panzer Division attacked north towards Hotton on 21st December but the town was successfully defended by the US 82nd Airborne. (Roy Howard mentions that 61st Recce were also at Hotton, about 25 miles east of Dinant, on 21st December.)
Although the Germans never succeeded in re-taking Hotton every building in the town was damaged by their artillery before they withdrew in response to the 1st US Army counter-offensive in early January.
Right: War Memorial by the River Ourthe in Hotton. A plaque commemorating the role of the Airborne troops can be seen at the base of the memorial.
Celles, Sorinne and Foy-Notre-Dame
29th Armoured's 3rd Royal Tank Regiment had crossed the river at Dinant and gone forward to protect all approaches to the town. Just two or three miles east of Dinant they clashed with 2nd Panzer Division by the villages of Sorinnes and Foy-Notre-Dame. The owner of the chateau at Sorinnes, Baron Jacques de Villenfange, was in the Chasseurs Ardennais (infantry who had fought fiercely against the German invaders in 1940) and led the local Belgian resistance. Walking through the freezing snow (it was below minus 15 degrees) on the night of 23rd December the Baron and his friend identified the German positions around Foy-Notre-Dame for the Allies. They then persuaded 29th Armoured's artillery to spare the church, a sacred pilgrimage destination, in their subsequent attack on the village.
Also that night the leading tank of 2nd Panzer Division's spearhead column exploded in the nearby village of Celles. Madame Marthe Monrique, interviewed by the unit's commander, told him that Americans had mined the road all the way to Dinant! Her lie successfully stalled the column's advance and the remains of the Panther tank can still be seen outside her restaurant.
61st Reconnaissance Regiment were at Celles on 27th December, probably part of the 'mopping up' operation following a successful attack by American forces with the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment. About 1,200 Germans were taken prisoner here with c.2,500 killed or wounded - many Germans were shot as commandos because they were wearing items of American clothing to keep out the cold. The countryside was "a vast cemetery of vehicles, destroyed or abandoned, and of equipment half buried in the snow" (Baron de Villenfagne)
Remains of the Panther tank at Celles (left) and sign telling the story (above)
On 30th December British 6th Airborne took over the line south-west from Celles to free US VII Corps for the new Allied offensive.
Into the Forest
61st Reconnaissance Regiment investigated German positions further east from the Meuse. B Squadron's Corporal John Mulcahy (later awarded the Military Medal) was patrolling about 20 miles from the river, behind enemy lines and encountering the enemy every day, from 22nd to 29th December; .
Sandy Handley, the other light armoured car gunner in Lt. Williams' No 5 Troop, remembered: "We had our Recce Patrols, the usual formation, our light car leading two heavy cars and one light car trailing...pretty nerve racking, creeping around some of the smaller roads, some of which were no more than a narrow lane, and the endless trees – we thought at any moment the enemy would jump out and attack us." Just after shooting at two Germans, spotted in a ditch by the road, the engine of their armoured car packed up. They were out of fuel. The corporal, Dan Polden, said something unprintable and the driver got out into the snow and refueled from the spare jerry can. "Although it was very cold in the Ardennes I think we were all sweating while this was going on. Soon we were reversing away from danger – I thought the further away the better."
In his first letter to Chotie from the Ardennes Lt. Williams described his Christmas:
"Xmas was just another day. I had an indifferent breakfast and a worse meal about 10 pm when I got back from patrol. It’s bitterly cold in armoured cars as the engine is in the rear and you get no protection from the wind.
We shot another three Boche on Xmas Eve (one nearly shot me first) and another five on Boxing Day, which puts my troop in the lead again. What a gruesome business!"
Above: A Humber Scout Car Mark 1 in the Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset (Sandy's Humber was a Mark 3)
"On Xmas Day the Squadron Leader (Major Frank Harding, awarded the Military Cross for his leadership in France and Belgium) had a terrific crash in his jeep whilst out visiting the various troops. They carted him off with severe concussion and he’s expected to be in hospital for at least a month. So much the worse as he’s a very able Commander." ‘He never spared himself and his cheerfulness in any difficulty or danger has been a great inspiration to his Squadron’ (from citation by Major Phillip Brownrigg). Although he fractured his forehead he made a good recovery and later wrote a book of poetry 'War Echoes over Thirty Years' based on his memories of 61st Reconnaissance Regiment.
Don Aiken recalled: “Christmas Day saw the peak of the German advance, and I remember that on that day, returning to base after a bitter cold day of patrolling through the snowy forests, we were all handed a Christmas celebratory bottle of beer. When I opened my bottle and tried to drink from it - nothing came out - the beer was frozen solid! The only solution was to break the bottle and lick the beer like an iced-lolly.
We spent the next few days in patrolling the hills and woods of the Ardennes, amongst the thick snow and ice which often made the forest trees look like fairyland.”
It was so cold that one man lost the skin from the palm of his hand through touching the bare metal of his vehicle without gloves.
Left: Trooper Don Aiken of 12 Troop, B Squadron
At last, on 26th December, the seige of Bastogne was relieved by the US 3rd Army's 4th Armored Division forcing a way through from the south. Hitler's plan to cross the Meuse appeared to have been abandoned but German forces were still focused on taking the key town of Bastogne and the road routes and fuel that would enable them to get there.
With the clear weather "Allied air forces were able to seek out and attack the enemy at will. We had been issued with yellow sheets to display on the upper surface of our cars in order to identify ourselves to our airmen as we patrolled no-man's land. This proved to be a very fortunate forethought on several occasions as we were buzzed spitefully by US planes; forcing us to dive into frozen ditches to gain some protection from the overhead threat. Thankfully, the recognition sheets did their job and we managed to avoid being shot up" (Don Aiken).
The River Lesse
61st Reconnaissance Regiment were active along the River Lesse, a tributary of the river Meuse flowing from south of Saint Hubert to near Dinant. On 24th December it was Corporal Mulcahy's armoured car, which went forward from the American position at Beauraing with the urgent message that the Lesse bridge 10 miles to the east should be blown. The Americans only had jeeps but Mulcahy drove at 40 mph and accomplished his mission despite being fired on by an enemy tank.
Right: The River Lesse at Belvaux, about 10 miles east of Beauraing
Below: Villers-sur-Lesse. Far Left: the River Lesse by Villers-sur-Lesse with view of the Château royal de Ciergon (later used as the HQ for the British 6th Airborne Division). Below: the village.
Sgt William Hollingworth also earned his Military Medal in the Ardennes. On 27th December he investigated the blown bridge near Villers-sur-Lesse on foot, detected a German patrol and, returning to his armoured car, successfully eliminated it.
On 29th December he was acting as wireless link for a Belgian SAS patrol who encountered the enemy in Hans-sur-Lesse and with skill, courage and initiative saved them from serious casualties.
Right: the bridge at Hans-sur-Lesse
The River Lomme and Hatrival
C Squadron were checking out German positions along the river Lomme (a tributary of the Lesse west of St Hubert), on 28th December. To ascertain the their strength in Val de Poix, Lt. Patrick Laing removed a roadblock and went forward on foot under mortar fire.
The next day snow and mist descended again and ground reconnaissance was the only way to find the enemy. C Squadron were ordered to recce the river and railway crossings and the village of Hatrival. Finding the river crossings strongly held, Lt. Michael Urban-Smith and Sergeant Kenneth Moorehouse crossed the river on foot and, under machine gun fire and 10 miles in front of the Allied forces, successfully located the enemy positions in Hatrival. (They were awarded the Military Cross and Military medal respectively.)
Left: Hatrival from the west
Tellin and Wellin
Meanwhile B Squadron, working with the Belgian SAS under 6th Airborne Division, were instructed to make offensive patrols along a line from Halma and Chanly (east of Wellin) through Tellin and towards Bure.
In Tellin on 29th December the armoured cars of Corporal Mulcahy and his officer, Lt. Eric Macey, deliberately drew fire (including from an anti-tank gun) to locate enemy positions. Lt. Macey earned his Military Cross for this action.
Right: Tellin church and war memorial
Left and below: WW2 signboard in Tellin with British Reconnaissance Corps emblem
Right: Wellin Town Hall has a memorial plaque to British 6th Airborne Division and 29th Armoured Brigade
Honnay
On 30th and 31st December Lts. Williams and Macey had two days rest in Honnay (west of Wellin), the first for nearly a fortnight.
"As we were ‘working’ over Xmas, we had to postphone our Xmas dinner, and we are now looking forward to it tonight. I’ve managed to get two bottles of whisky for about 22 shillings so we won’t go short of a wee nip, as all the other officers have the same ration...
Eric (Schoolmaster) Macey and I share a room in a café in this little village (their hosts were la famille Desonnioux). The people are very good to us here – we had lunch with them today, a glorious meal comprising soup with toast, a dish consisting of every conceivable vegetable mayonnaised with eggs and salmon, followed by boiled chicken, white sauce and mashed potatoes à la crème. The meal went on for hours and hours ending with coffee and cigars. Having then assisted each other to rise from the table we had our photos taken in the snow outside. I'm now resting preparatory to another bout at six-thirty tonight..."
Right above: Lts. Eric Macey and Richard Williams with Justin, Esther, Lucienne and Victorine Desonnioux in Honnay
Right below: Honnay church - the road on the right is where the armoured car was parked in photo above.
New Year's Eve was marred by some bad news, however: "my mate Geoff Winzer (The Dooke) was rather badly wounded yesterday when doing a patrol that I had previously done some few days ago – Xmas Day I believe. I haven’t seen him since – he’s miles back now of course – so I can’t say exactly how bad he is, but it’s reckoned he’ll be in dock for at least six to eight weeks." (Letter to Chotie).
Lt. Geoffrey Winzer's troop was on reconnaissance near Bure when the leading armoured car was shot up by an anti-tank gun. Then Lt. Winzer's car received a broadside and caught fire. Winzer and his radio operator, Garrod, although wounded managed to get out but his driver, Richard Collingwood, was killed as well as the driver of the other car, whose crew were posted as missing.
There are two 61st Reconnaissance Regiment graves in the war cemetery at Hotton for men killed on the 30th December (and two for similar dates at Adegem War Cemetery near Ghent).
Above: the graves of Troopers Richard Collingwood and Dennis Carter in Hotton War Cemetery and remains of a 61st Reconnaissance Regiment armoured car between Tellin and Bure
Rochefort, Marche-en-Famenne and Houffalize
Rochefort, a small city east of Givet, had been taken by the Panzer Lehr (an elite division in Fifth Panzer Army) after ferocious fighting on the night of 23rd/24th December. 61st Recce were sent in to patrol the area after the Germans withdrew on 30th December, though their artillery continued to shell the city. (Luckily the townsfolk were already sheltering in nearby caves to avoid American shelling.) By 31st December Allied forces occupied the town and 61st Reconnaissance, with Belgian and French SAS, were sent into the large area of forest and bog south of Rochefort and Marche-en-Famenne to find the Panzer Lehr and remnants of 2nd Panzer Division.
Right: Rochefort memorial in Square Crépin with plaque commemorating the 6th Airborne Division
Marche-en-Famenne, between Rochefort and Hotton, had been successfully defended by US First Army's VII Corps, holding the line to Hotton. On 30th December XXX Corps' 53rd (Welsh) Division moved up to release VII Corps for a counter-strike from the north towards Houffalize, the heart of the German salient. According to Don Aiken some elements of 61st Recce were already operating near Houffalize on 30th and 31st December. Working with their comrades from the Netherlands frontline, the 101st US Airborne (still based at Bastogne), they met fierce resistance from Fifth Panzer Army forces. Montgomery's plan for a January counter-offensive involved his forces from the north meeting up with the Americans from the south at Houffalize.
Croix de Renkin and Chapelle Notre-dame de Haurt, Bure
Following the C Squadron patrols by 61st Recce, 6th Airborne Division were charged with carrying out offensive operations along the Givet to St Hubert axis from 30th December. They also moved forward to occupy a line between Houyet (near Givet) and Celles and prepared for a major offensive on Bure and Grupont.
Croix de Renkin, on the high ground south of Bure, marks the spot where on 31st December three Belgian SAS were killed. Lt. Paul Renkin, Claude de Villermont and Emile Lorphèvre were on patrol from Tellin with three other SAS jeeps when, investigating the German position they came under fire from a Panzer Lehr anti-tank gun. Their bodies had to be left in the snow until villagers could reach them in mid-January.
Far Left: Croix de Renkin memorial
Left: detail from Croix de Renkin memorial
Below: extract from memorial signboard at Croix de Renkin
La Chapell Notre-dame de Haurt stands on high ground which, in 1944, commanded good views of Bure, Wavreille and the roads connecting them to Tellin (the woods have grown up since).
On 31st December a Belgian SAS patrol captured the six German soldiers who were using the chapel as shelter for an observation post.
La Chapelle de Notre-Dame de Haurt
Above: the German soldiers captured at La Chapelle de Haurt by the Belgian SAS arrive in Tellin
Centre: Extract from signboard the Battle of Bure
With Montgomery's counter-offensive planned for early January it was obvious that Allied forces should capture the chapel - the area between here and Bure was to become the scene of fierce clashes with the enemy in the Battle of Bure.
Part 2 'Reconnaissance Remembrance The Ardennes January 1945' will follow...
A wide range of sources have been used to inform and verify this account but particularly 'Ardennes 1944' by Anthony Beevor, Penguin 2015; 'Only the Enemy in Front' by Richard Doherty, Tom Donovan Publishing Ltd 1994, 'Beaten Paths are Safest' by Roy Howard, Brewin Books Ltd 2004 and 'From One Learn All' by Dave Dennis, 2017.
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