John P. Dimeglio 424/I Dec. 20 toDec 30
The weather turned freezing cold. Two men and myself were picked to man a 50 caliber machine gun. We had never fired a 50 caliber machine gun. The machine gun was located up front. It was located in a makeshift position, in a hole about 18” deep. A soldier placed my hand on the trigger and then left saying he had to go back. It was a dark night, we heard and saw the outline of Germans in front of us but dared not fire the gun. Our relief was to come in the morning. We waited a few hours after daylight, now we had no choice but to leave the heavy gun there and move back in search of our company. We then started back through the woods.
Dec. 21 We found a road and started again to move back. A tank from the 7th Armored moving back asked us to climb on top of the tank. They started moving fast because now we were under artillery fire. On the first fast turn I was thrown off the tank onto the road. I laid unconscious for a short time. A Belgium civilian helped me to my feet. He gave me an apple, looked at my face, then fled. I was now alone. I started walking back on the side of the road. Men on an American M8 vehicle spotted me and ordered me to put my hands up. After some questions, they told me to hop on for a lift back
Dec. 22 I left the M8 vehicle and joined a group of men moving back on foot through the woods. That night we fell under intense artillery fire. All we could do was lie down on the ground and pray. We huddled in groups trying to get some protection from the terrain. Men were moaning and praying from fear. We could see the fires in the town of St. Vith. We talked about surrendering, I guess our prayers held us together.
Dec. 23 I found my way back to my own unit Co. “I” 424 Infantry. The cold and wind was unbearable. Three enlisted men and myself were ordered into a foxhole overlooking the Our River. (I am guessing this is the Our River.) Lt. Joseph had a command post in a farm building behind us, on the other side of the road. An armored half track drove over a bridge that was between our foxhole and his command post, and racked the foxholes with machine gun fire. The half track was an American vehicle manned by German soldiers. I could still see the White Star on the armored plating. That night in that foxhole one man shot himself, he blew off some of his toes. I called for the medics and they took him back to the First Aid station. On another day another man went crazy, I again called the medics and they took him back to the Aid Station. This all was going on in the freezing cold... we had no blankets and very little food... we were slowing freezing to death. We abandoned this position to move back on foot once again
Dec. 25 My boots were starting to fall apart. My hands and feet were frozen. My body was bruised and cut from the tank fall. It was Christmas night, we had not eaten a hot meal in all the time we were in the Bulge. Lt. Joseph made some kind of an arrangement for the platoon to sleep in the home of a Belgium. We had a hot bowl of soup from the Belgium civilians. It was hot and good. We all laid down on the floor almost in a heap, fully clothed with all our equipment on. This was the first time we slept indoors.
Dec. 26 We again pulled back on foot. Now there were long lines of frozen men retreating down this road. The wind and cold was terrible. As we marched back men began to fall like frozen tree branches with too much ice on them. We stepped over the men that fell - and prayed that a truck behind the long column would pick them up. That night again we all slept on the frozen ground. My hands and feet were swollen from the cold - my body could not stop shaking. We moved to a position on a small hill and were told to dig in. We had no entrenching tools so we stacked stones in front of our position and waited for the end. We now saw a long German column coming up the road.
It was a freezing clear cold day, suddenly American planes came down and strafed and bombed the German columns time-after-time. After many attacks, the planes left leaving horses and men dead - trucks and armored equipment burning. At last hope was near.
Dec. 28 I was assigned to help with a half track unit that was laying mines on roads. We set mines during the day, at night we slept under the half track in the freezing cold. The driver gave us some K-rations to eat. In January I returned to my own unit.

Milton J. Schober, 424/H , Dec 22 - Dec 30
On the 22nd we continued our retreat until late afternoon when we came to a village where we were told to set up a perimeter defense. I had long wondered the name of this village, and thought it was either BRAUNLAUF or CROMBACH. It wasn't until my CRIBA friend, Joseph Dejardin, furnished me with a number of interviews with 106th Division people that I found one with Lt. Robert Logan, S-3 of 2nd Bn. stating the perimeter defenses were set up by E Company around ALDRINGEN, F Company around MALDINGEN and G Company west of BRAUNLAUF. So now I knew it was MALDINGEN that we were defending on the morning of December 23. At a very early hour on this date there was a bumper-to-bumper assembly of tanks, half-tracks, jeeps, you name it. Where they had all come from I had no idea, but they were all lined up on the road out of MALDINGEN. Someone yelled “Get on board” and in short order most of F Company was clinging to some form of transport. I climbed on a half-track. About this time our Company Captain protested to the Armored Officer that his orders were to defend the village, to which the response was, “You can stay if you want to, Captain, but were getting out of here!”

It seemed an eternity for the column to move as the troops sat unprotected while some German shells landed in the vicinity, with wounds resulting. I remember seeing men with the 28th Division's Bloody Bucket shoulder patch placing charges on trees to create a road block. Finally, to our immense relief, we began moving, and speed picked up when we reached the hard surfaced road running through BEHO and toward SALMCHATEAU. We passed a handful of Belgian civilians, some on bicycles, most with luggage, moving in our direction. It certainly wasn't a moral builder for them to see us pulling back, but I know I felt exhilarated in getting out of what seemed a hopeless situation. I had the impression that we were putting miles between us and the Germans but in reality we were running parallel to their thrust. I donut know where we crossed the Salm River, but we came to one point where a bridge had already been blown, probably at SALMCHATEAU. When we did dismount we were in the midst of 82nd Airborne troops and we felt we were in good hands. Now we commenced a march to an unknown destination. The air was frigid and once the sun disappeared temperatures plummeted. I remember that the water in my canteen was frozen in a solid block when we reached our destination north of Manhay in the WERBOMONT area.

We had a peaceful day on Christmas Eve watching heavy bomber formations flying east. I've written previously about our disastrous attack Christmas Day at Manhay. F Company suffered many casualties from German tank machine gun fire and apparently our own artillery. We maintained a defensive posture in the Manhay-Grandmenil area until December 30, when we were trucked back to the small Belgian village of WARZEE, billeted in the warm homes of residents until January 7. Rumors had us going on line near Stavelot when we started our move. However, heavy snows were falling making driving treacherous, which probably was the reason for stopping in LA REID were we stayed several days as the snow stacked up. Our rest came to an end when the snow stopped and the temperature had a deep freeze feel. We trucked to the small community of AISOMONT, a short distance east of TROIS PONTS, on January 10 where we joined the rest of the 2nd Battalion as regimental reserve. I remembered unattended cattle roaming about in areas where strings of American antitank mines were placed; I flinched when cattle hoofs came ever so close to sending them to eternity, but I never saw it happen. However there were frozen dead cattle, artillery victims lying about, and one enterprising soul chopped beef off the hindquarter of one and warmed it in his mess kit. It may not have been a medically sound decision, but it tasted a lot better than the “’C” rations we had. Buildings in AISOMONT were badly torn up by shells and provided us no protection from the extreme cold. Several dead German soldiers were lying about, one near where we had set up sleeping space. I remember staring at the wax like face and speculating on the background of this unfortunate soul. . ###- Schober
 

Battle casualties:
At the end of the first three weeks of combat for the regiment, the casualty figures as of 1 January, 1945, stood:

Officers 17
Enlisted Men 233
KIA
Officers 3
EM 9
Battle and Non Combat
Officers 28
EM 534
MIA
Officers 14
Enlisted Men 502

Total Losses Officers 62
Enlisted Men 1,054

The three officers officially listed killed were: Captain Oscar G. Krieger, Dental Surgeon, 20 December; 1st Lt. Leslie C. Struble, 3rd Battalion S-2, 21 December; and 1st Lt. Harry B. Stokes, executive officer, Co. F. 28 December, all by artillery fire.

The date of this report was January 1, after many days of sustained battle and movements. It is assumed that the large number of Missing in Action (MIA) was due to separation of units. Undoubtedly these numbers diminished on later reports.