1 (US) Infantry Division in the Netherlands

Hello everyone,

As some of you might know I'm trying to figure out how my birth-region was liberated in 1944. Yesterday I was reading a book which said that a tiny part of my country was liberated by the 1st US Infantry Division. The book only specifies the general area of operations being Wittem - Wahlwiller - Nyswiller - Lemiers and Vijlen. With operations on 14 and 15 September 1944. The book describes three axis of advance which could be either 3 coys or 3 battalions.

I haven't been able to find any war diary or aar of the 1st infantry division which details these actions. A small booklet about the division mentions briefly that the division had a small outpost in 'Holland', that's about it.

Because they are talking about an outpost I would assume that this was nothing more than a battalion but who knows.

Does anyone have war diaries or after action reviews for the September 1944 period at divisional or regimental level?

Regards,

Remi

 

Have you consulted Charles B. McDonald's "The Siegfried Line Campaign"? A digital version is available on the website of the US Army Center of Military History.

 

stolpi yes I had a look at it but it didn't cover the part of the battle that I'm interested in sadly enough.

 

I am not aware of the 1st ID being involved with the liberation of any part of Nederlands, but given that the 1st ID was to the immediate south of the 30th ID when they (30th) entered Maastricht and crossed the Nederlands/Belgian border around Noorbeek, it is possible that the 1st ID crossed into Nederlands east of Epen and liberated the areas west of Aachen. Given the proximity of that part Nederlands to Aachen, it is not an unexpected possibility.

I will see what I can find, but as my interest is in the 30th ID, I have very little info on the 1st ID.

 

Slipdigit yes the 1st only liberated a very small part. Seems a bit like a blocking position on the aachen-vaals-maastricht road.

Regards,

Remi

 

Probably not any help, but the 'Order of Battle' of US Divisions in the ETO (Dec 1945) lists the location of 1st Inf Div command post at -

11 Sep 44 - Lalouxe, Namur (Bel)
14 Sep 44 - Henri Chapelle (1.5km N), Liege (Bel)
15 Sep 44 - Hauset (7km S of Aachen), Liege (Bel)

There are no specific entries for the Netherlands in the admittedly broad listing for CP locations. It might be you would need to find the Regimental histories for an account of a brief spell spent across the border from Belgium into the Netherlands.

Gary

 

Gary Kennedy thank you for the help Henri Chappele is just across the Dutch-Belgian border close to my area of interest. Yes it would be best to find those regimental histories but it seems near to impossible to find them at all.

Regards,

Remi

 

Strange, the maps inside MacDonald's book indicate that the south-eastern tip of the Dutch Province of Limburg was within the boundary of VII US Corps (operating with - from north to south: 1st US Infantry Division, 3rd Armored Division and 9th US Infantry Division) in September 1944. Operations of VII US Corps focused on the "Stolberg Gap' to the south of Aachen. See map below:



The map inside the text also indicates that the left wing formation of the VII US Corps, the 1st US Infantry Division, was responsible for the SE-tip of Limburg the general area around Vaals,. I haven't read the text, but from the above map I guess that the 18th Infantry (Regiment) was in the Vaals area in September 1944:



Link to digital version of MacDonald's book (page 66 and onwards deal with the VII US Corps actions in September 1944): https://history.army.mil/Portals/143/Images/Publications/Publication By Title Images/S PDF/CMH_Pub_7-7-1.pdf?ver=n0VpY-YoDQBuDbZ9whLlwQ==

" ... the 18th Infantry moved up on the far left ... ", page 75 (left text-column);

"... In reality, the 1st Division commander, General Huebner, had no intention of becoming involved among the streets and bomb-gutted buildings of Aachen. He was trying to build a wall of infantry defenses on the southwest, south, southeast, and east of the city while awaiting arrival of the XIX Corps to assist in encircling the city. It was no easy assignment, for the 1St Division's left flank was dangling, and the defensive line eventually encompassed some eight miles of front. As the 16th Infantry tried on 13 and 14 September to get through the Scharnhorst Line and advance alongside the 3d Armored Division, the 18th Infantry moved up west of the Liege-Aachen highway to push through the Aachen Municipal Forest southwest of Aachen. Before digging in on high ground in the forest, the 18th Infantry penetrated the Scharnhorst Line. A gap between the regiment's left flank and cavalry of the XIX Corps was patrolled by the 1st Division Reconnaissance Troop ... ", page 81, left text-column;

"... By the evening of 15 September, the basic form of the wall about Aachen had set, a half-moon arc extending from the 18th Infantry's positions southwest of the city to the 16th Infantry's advanced hold at Eilendorf ...", page 81, left text-column.

Hope this is of help. You probably have to consult the 1st US Inf. Division reports and histories. As far as I know the situation at Vaals was 'touch and go' for several weeks, until the village was finally taken by the Americans in mid-October.

 

stolpi yes but it is really terrible to find war diaries or AAR's for American army units... I believe I'm kind of spoiled by the availability of Canadian WD's. I came across a site for the 16th US army infantry regiment. It contains a couple of maps which help a little bit.




These two maps suggest that it wasn't the 16th IR. As the crossing point trough the Westwall is about 8km from Lemiers. So the search remains...

Regards,

Remi

 

Have you looked through the documents at this site?

First Division Museum - Image Viewer

 

Buck-Compton - search for the 18th Infantry & 1st Division Recce Troop. The former 'was deployed as left flank infantry element of the 1st US Division as it approached Aachen, while the latter patrolled the area on the extreme left of the division, up to the boundary with the XIX.US Corps. Note that there was a growing gap on the VII.US Corps' left, as the XIX.US Corps lagged behind, due to shortages of gasoline and the transfer of one of its infantry division (79th US Inf.Division) to the Third US Army in Lorraine. The XIX US Corps with only two divisions, the 2nd US Armored and the 30 US Infantry Division, at the time was responsible for an increasing frontline, as it also had to remain in contact with the British 2nd Army, moving north.

 

Great find EKB! It contains a detailed report of the battle for Aachen:

First Division Museum - Image Viewer

 

EKB very great find I found a disposition map for the 15th September 20:00 hours so it is a matter of finding the corresponding map somewhere in my collection of maps.

First Division Museum - Image Viewer

Page 277 is what i believe is the answer to my question.

Regards,

Remi

 

EKB and stolpi I have found the GSGS maps and cut and pasted them togheter in photoshop. I put the overlay which shows the situation of 152000B sep 44 over it and played around with the layer settings which resulted in this:



So the conclusion is that 2nd platoon 1st Reconnaissance Troop was in the area of Vijlen, 3rd platoon 1st Reconnaissance Troop in the area of Lemiers and 3rd Battalion 18th Infantry regiment in Vaals.

I have never known that the encirclement of Aachen and the breaktrough of the West Wall commenced this early in the war. I always was under the impression that the assault around Rimburg Castle in October was the first breach of the West Wall.

Thank you for the help so far in this matter.

I do wonder if these reconnaissance troops had any battalion or regimental lineage to which they belonged? I have tried to read about it but I cant find a definite answer to it.

Regards,

Remi

 

Buck-Compton - AFAIK these Recce Troops fell directly under divisional control. Each US Infantry Regiment had its own I&R Platoon. A US Battalion had no separate recce unit. At Corps level you had Cavalry Groups. XIX US Corps, for example, used the 113th Cavalry Group, which also saw action in Limburg.

The first attempt to breach the Siegfried Line in the Aachen area almost coincided with Market-Garden ... I often wonder what might have happened if all of the Parachute forces deployed in Market-Garden instead had been used to support First US Army in the breakthrough of the Siegfried Line and advance to the Rhine. 'Operation Grenade' but then in the autumn of 1944.

 

stolpi thank you for the explanation. I was just curious if the organization of these scout units where similar as those of the Canadians always connected to a regiment. Or the HQ protection units such as the Lorne Scots.

Yeah the month of September was full of what if choices. I know there was an alternative plan attacking Wesel instead of Arnhem. Not sure if this attack was planned to start in the Aachen region or over the Venlo axis. I always had a very hard time to understand why the allies never went for the extra miles in Antwerp and try to cut off the 15th army. This came to bite them during Market Garden.

Regards,

Remi

 

The first of many V-2 rockets hit England on 8th September 1944. That was followed by political pressure put on Field Marshall Montgomery to eliminate the missile launch sites. That point was brought up at his next meeting with General Eisenhower and probably was the most significant reason why Arnhem was suddenly moved up higher on the priority list, over Wesel and Antwerp.

 

I have completed a good bit of of research on the 30th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mech) (30th ID) and it consisted of 151 men divided into 4 platoons (HQ and 3 maneuver platoons).
At various times, it was deployed as platoons attached to regiments and other times platoons and/or parts of platoons were attached to ad hoc task forces.
After landing in Normandy, the troop mainly conducted recon under direction of the division, and screened divisional flanks.
Following the breakout from Normandy, each maneuver platoon screened ahead of the regiments on the drive to the Belgian border and beyond.
Prior to that (Mortain) 1st Platoon was part of a task force with a tank and infantry platoon from the 1st AD in an attempt to relieve a trapped battalion at Barrenton.
During the reduction of Aachen, the troop mainly spent its time screening divisional flanks.
Prior to the crossing of the Roer & Rhine, it conducted dismounted recon on the east bank under direction from Divisional command.
Finally, in the drive across Germany in 1945, each platoon was in the vanguard of a specific regiment.

A final note, 3 armored cars from the troop HQ and the field kitchen troops were attached to the Division HQ as HQ guards for the duration of the European campaign.

 

CAVALRY RECONNAISSANCE TROOP, MECHANIZED

War Department Field Manual FM 2-20 (February 1944)
https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/FM/PDFs/FM2-20.pdf

Table of Organization and Equipment No. 2-27 (July 1943)
http://www.militaryresearch.org/2-27 15Jul43.pdf

 

The reconnaissance troops were formed as part of the structure of triangular infantry divisions. The latter was the division structure the U.S. Army was adopting when the USA joined the war.

They had no "battalion lineage" that I am aware of. IIRC, the reconnaissance troops were formed from existing cavalry units but I may be mistaken.

Kind Regards--