On 31st December the Germans launched a new offensive ‘Operation Nordwind’ against the Allies in Alsace-Lorraine. Aimed at the thinly stretched front line held by US 7th Army (which had sent re-inforcements north to support Patton’s 3rd Army in the Ardennes) the attack was not successful in reaching Strasbourg but inflicted considerable damage on the defending US forces, who suffered a large number of casualties. It also created another ‘bulge’ in the Allied lines around Colmar, south of Strasbourg.
In the Ardennes the Americans held Rochefort (between Dinant and Saint Hubert) again by the 31st December but 61st Recce were also located there according to Don Aiken.
With different units operating so close to each other special precautions had to be taken to avoid ‘friendly fire’:
“The weather … had improved so much that the 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.”
(Extract republished from 'From the Breakout to the Rhine' by kind permission of Don Aiken.)
However, 31st December still brought another loss to the regiment. 61st Recce Roll of Honour includes the following who died on this day in 1944:
Corporal Douglas Mackintosh (age 27) of Torquay, Devon
who is laid to rest in Adegem War Cemetery between Bruges and Gent, north-west of Brussels. A number of isolated graves from various communal cemeteries and churchyards in Belgium have been brought into this cemetery since the end of the war.
(See 61st Recce Roll of Honour, courtesy of Recce Mitch.)
We will remember them.
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