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Helpmate
Ready
The
After Action Reports of the 284th Field Artillery Battalion during World
War II
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[p.II]
Dedicated to those brave comrades who accompanied
us to the far shores and who gave their lives that the principles of
free peoples might continue to live.
Foreword
As a lieutenant colonel of Field Artillery
in 1944, it was my great privilege to be assigned to command the 284th
Field Artillery Battalion through the period of travel to Europe and
combat across Germany. Never in my experience, have I worked with a group
of men who gave so unstintingly of their energies, and in some case of
their lives, to provide the infantry in front of them with ready and
accurate artillery fire. There is no way of estimating the number of infantrymen
who returned to this country after the war as a direct result of the
fire which the 284th Field Artillery Battalion so accurately laid down
in front of them. That the battalion did perform its mission with valor
and gallantry is attested by the fine commendations received from some
of the hard-fighting units which the battalion supported. I consider that
I was honored in the fact that I was permitted to command this unit throughout
the trying days of 1944 and 1945. The fondest memories of my career will
ever remain those days of association with the men of Helpmate.
Horace L. Sanders
Colonel, Artillery
United States Army.
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[…] [p.1]
Chapter 1
The Birth of the 284th Field Artillery Battalion
The 284th Field Artillery Battalion was formally
activated on 25 June, 1943, at Camp Rucker, Alabama.
[…]
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[p.31]
Chapter 8
From Normandy Beaches to the
Moselle
As the ships of the convoy bearing the battalion slipped into the immense
artificial harbor off the coast of Normandy, officers and men were impressed
with the tremendous number of ships concentrated along that short stretch
of coast. Boats — hundreds of them — as far as the eye could reach, all
were there for one identical purpose. All of them were not on the surface,
however. Scattered about in the roadstead were hulks of ships which had
been brought from England and sunk to form the artificial harbor and others
which had not survived the initial days of fighting. The ships bearing the
battalion anchored just off Utah Beach, the beach made famous by the men
who had died there sixty-eight days earlier gaining a foothold upon the
continent of Europe. Indications of the fierce fighting which had taken
place on the beach and along its exits were easily seen from the ships anchored
offshore.
Early in the morning of 14 August, lighters
and LCTs (Landing craft, tank) moved in alongside the Wolcott to take
off the load of men and equipment. The men went over the side on landing
nets, and crawled down into the waiting craft. The trucks went over the
side in slings lowered from the booms of the ship. Lighters and the LCTs
then made the trip in to the beach where they unloaded across the beach,
lighters using small steel piers and the LCTs running up onto the beach
and opening their doors to disgorge their cargo of men and vehicles. From
the beach, the batteries were led to assigned assembly areas south of the
beach exits.
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Not so fortunate were the other two ships carrying the battalion. By
the time that the lighters were ready to work the other ships, a storm
had come up, making the seas too rough for the small craft to come alongside
the Victory ships. High seas continued until the 17th of August when lightering
was resumed and the rest of the battalion came ashore.
The first night that the entire battalion
spent ashore in France was spent in the assembly area just in rear of
Utah Beach, not far from the town of Ste. Mere Eglise, made famous by
the airborne soldiers of the D-day invasion. Here, the men of the batteries
saw the first evidence of the power of the landmines used by the enemy.
In the center of one of the battery areas was the hulk
[p.32] of an American ammunition truck which had run across a Teller
mine, and had been destroyed. That night, few men slept; the newness of
being in the combat zone was too strong. Later, the men of the 284th were
to become accustomed to sleeping through anything but a direct hit; however,
on those first few nights, not many men slept well. Because of the fact
that they were all awake, practically every man of the battalion received
his first introduction to “Bedcheck Charlie” that night. Bedcheck Charlie
was a Nazi plane which made almost a nightly reconnaissance over the American
lines, looking for targets. He flew high overhead, watching for a light
to show on the ground but, needless to say, light discipline was excellent.
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On 18 August, the battalion moved from the transient assembly area to
the forward staging area in the vicinity of Landivy. On this march, the
battalion passed through the area of the famous Saint Lo Breakthrough.
The roads through the town of Carentan were still impassable and it was
necessary to detour the town. The destruction had been terrific and repairs
had not yet been made. Coutance, Granville and Avranches were similarly damaged.
Buildings had been knocked down into the streets and cattle wandered aimlessly
through the outskirts of the towns. The villagers were standing along the
sides of the roads watching the American troops pouring forward toward
the battle.
The roads were dusty and goggles made
little or no difference. Men and equipment were covered by a deep film
of dust before the column had progressed five miles. Shortly after noon,
the battalion closed in the assembly area south of Landivy and settled
down to await orders. While in the assembly area, the men had their first
glimpse of the enemy they had come to destroy; several thousand prisoners
of war passed the bivouac on their way to the POW camps. It was also in
this area that the non-coms and the officers saw for the first time positions
which had been occupied by an artillery battalion in combat. All of them
were taken on a tour of a battalion area which had been occupied by the
915th Field Artillery Battalion of the 90th Infantry Division during the
days immediately following the Saint Lo Breakthrough.
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Through the Outpost Lines and Back
On the afternoon of the 19th of August,
orders were received which were to start the battalion off on what was
probably the oddest introduction to combat experienced by an artillery
battalion during the war. The events set in motion by these orders were
to take up the next forty hours or so, and were to bring the battalion closer
to actual close combat than it was to experience as a unit through the
rest of combat in Europe.
About three o’clock, Colonel Sanders
and Captain Sparra were called back to the assembly area headquarters
to receive the orders for the battalion. They returned in a short time
and the Colonel immediately called for the battery commanders. It was
at that meeting that he issued his first combat order of the war. The essence
of the instructions were that the Colonel and Captain Sparra were to leave
at once to report to the command post of the XX Corps Artillery which
was located in Chartres. The battalion, under command
[p.33] of
the Battalion Executive, Major Williams, would march at 0600, 20 August,
preceded by a route-marking party, to a rendezvous point near Courville,
a town about fifteen miles west of Chartres. There the Colonel would meet
the battalion with definite orders as to positions and missions. The 284th
Field Artillery Battalion was out to catch up with the swiftly-moving
war.
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Colonel Sanders, Captain Sparra, Sergeant Alloway and Corporal Hunter
left in the Colonel’s command car as soon as the orders had been given.
Their experience that evening was interesting and gave them their first
encounter with the “fog of war”’. The orders required the Colonel to report
to the XX Corps Artillery CP in the city of Chartres. However, nightfall
caught them just short of Courville, still fifteen miles from Chartres,
and the Colonel decided to stop off at the first CP they came to and stay
there for the night, rather than go dashing about in the combat zone after
dark. The did encounter a CP (command post) guard on the road and turned
in to find out what unit was going to play host to them that night. Imagine
their surprise to learn that they had accidentally stumbled onto the XX
Corps Artillery CP and that, if they had gone on to Chartres, they would
have found themselves right in the middle of the hot fight then going on
for that city.
The next morning, after getting their
orders, the Colonel and Captain Sparra left XX Corps Artillery CP and
went in search of the CP of the 193rd Field Artillery Group to which the
battalion was now attached. This CP they located near a small village called
Gasville, just northeast of Chartres. There, the Colonel received orders
to the effect that he was to meet the battalion and lead it to an assembly
area near Gasville. However, the Group Commander stressed the fact that
the group was then under orders to displace to the east and, if the Group
Commander did not meet the Colonel at the crossroad in Gasville when the
battalion arrived, the 284th was to march through a succession of towns which
the Group Commander designated until it caught up with the group. The Colonel
then left to go to meet the battalion at Courville as had been previously
arranged.
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Meanwhile, the battalion had departed the assembly area at Landivy as
scheduled and had marched steadily across France. Meals had been eaten
“on the fly”, K-rations washed down with cider, which the French farm people
had tossed into the trucks as the column went down the road. At about 1700,
the column closed on the route-marking party which the Colonel had met and
stopped. A new marker party was quickly assembled and the column started
on for the Gasville assembly area. Upon arriving at the Gasville crossroad,
no representative of the group was there to meet the battalion so the Battalion
Commander ordered a thirty minute halt to eat another K-ration and to distribute
new maps inasmuch as the battalion had marched completely off the maps
which had been issued in Normandy.
The battalion reconnaissance party,
including battery parties, left immediately ahead of the battalion column
and traveling at thirty miles an hour while the battalion marched at
twenty, gained a considerable distance on the main column. As the 284th
moved eastward along the designated route, interesting sights of battle
greeted the newcomers. Off to the right of the road, the men of
[p.34] the 284th watched
some American tanks engage in a spirited fight with a small German unit
in some woods. Then the tank fight was behind the battalion and the numbers
of American soldiers became fewer and fewer. The welcome from the French
became more and more hysterical as the numbers of American soldiers decreased.
The 284th did not realize it but it was off on a “liberation spree”. As
one town after another gave the battalion a tearful welcome, the Colonel
became more and more concerned about the situation. Something had to be
wrong. The definite orders had been to march along the specified route until
met by the group; to turn back, was to risk having the unit branded as afraid
of its shadow on its first day on the battlefield; to go forward, was to
run the risk of a disaster. Finally, the Colonel decided
that one more town was all that the battalion would pass though without
gaining more definite information. In that next town, Captain MacPartland
located a Frenchwoman who could speak English and she was interrogated to
find out where the Germans were.
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She was delighted to give us information about the enemy whom she hoped
we would drive out of France that very night. As a matter of fact, she
could almost point out the enemy to the Colonel. He learned from her that
the German forces had withdrawn from that town to the next town, Etampes, fifteen kilometres away (nine short
American miles). There, the enemy had a force estimated to be two Panzer
Grenadier Regiments. More disturbing, however, was the fact that a heavy
patrol, reinforced by tanks and self-propelled 88’s would be along at
any minute.
Things moved fast after that. The Colonel
ordered Battery “A” to put two guns into action immediately to cover
a turn-around by the battalion. The column looped out into a field and
started its way westward with no qualms about turning its back on the enemy.
That was no place for a brand new artillery outfit which was merely trying
to find the war. Just after completing the turn-around maneuver, a messenger
from group arrived and told the Colonel that the 284th was to return to
the American lines and stay behind the infantry thereafter. The Colonel’s
“horse-drawn artillery vocabulary” came into full play as he told the group
staff officer what he thought of the group staff. The battalion moved out
at a brisk pace, heading for those outpost lines which were twenty-five
miles away. The poor French people could not understand what had happened;
they had been liberated and now they were being “de-liberated” and all by
the same soldiers.
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Just as darkness fell, it began to rain; it rained as only French skies
can rain. Visibility was reduced to slightly more than the radiator
of the vehicles and the rate of march was cut to a snail’s pace. The Colonel
led the column, hoping that he could get the vehicles in through the outpost
line without having a trigger-happy infantryman decide to shoot first
and challenge later. In the storm, the Colonel lost radio contact with
the battalion but continued on until he reached the Gasville area. Then,
to his utter chagrin and complete disgust, he found that all that he had
behind him was the battalion reconnaissance and battery reconnaissance
parties. With the coming of the storm, and the increase in tension on the
drivers, the fatigue of the long march made itself felt. Major Williams,
realizing that soon there might be a number of vehicles go into the
[p.35] ditch, decided to pull the column
off the road and spend the night. A field was selected east of Santeuil
and the battalion went into “hedgehog” defensive positions. Next morning,
at daybreak, the battalion started westward to rejoin the American forces.
At Santeuil, the major put the battalion into defensive firing positions
and the battalion sat down to wait for the war to catch up with them.
Shortly after daylight on the 21st of
August, the advance guard of the 11th Infantry began its advance to the
east from the area of Chartres. After a march of several miles, during
which the advance guard carefully sought out the enemy and was alert to
any possible ambush, the surprised infantrymen discovered the 284th casually
awaiting their arrival. It has been reliably reported that there were many
expression of profane disgust by the doughboys who were later to become
the favorites of the men of the battalion. Certain wits of the 284th promptly
coined a new descriptive name for the unit, and some mail went out from
the batteries with return addresses indicating that the writers were members
of the “284th Artillery-Reconnaissance Battalion.”
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So ended the first two days of action by the battalion.
The subject of names for the battalion
now turns to the official name which the 284th was to bear throughout
the war and one which became the watch-word of every man who was ever
carried on the rolls of the battalion. Upon arrival in Normandy, the new
Third Army Signal Operating Instructions was distributed. From it, it was
learned that the telephone code name for the 284th was “Helpmate.” The basic
intent of telephone code names was to provide a semi-secret phonetic means
of quickly identifying unit in telephone conversation. They had no relation
to the mission of the unit; for example, XX Corps Artillery Headquarters
was “Coffee”, the 5th Infantry Division was “Dynamite”, the 19th Field
Artillery Battalion was “Dreamer”, and the 204th Field Artillery Group
Headquarters was “Highpockets.” However, through the accident of Fate,
the 284th was assigned a code name which typified the normal mission of
a corps light artillery battalion and it came to signify the attitude and
reputation of the 284th Field Artillery Battalion. From the firing of
the first round, it became a matter of pride that the cry “Helpmate Ready”
must lead all others as artillery battalions reported ready to fire a
TOT (time on target) mission. From the first days of combat, the expression
“Helpmate Ready” was to signify the willingness of the officers and men
of the 284th to assume any burden and to undertake any task, however dangerous,
in order to hasten the end of the war.
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Montereau,
Chateau Thierry, Verdun and Gorze
After recovering from its unorthodox
introduction to the battlefield, the battalion joined the column of
the 193rd Field Artillery Group. On the evening of the 21st, firing positions
were occupied just west of Sanville. No rounds were fired from these
positions but a wild night wondering what was causing all of the indiscriminate
carbine fire in the area of the 282nd Field Artillery Battalion, which was
in position alongside the 284th. It was learned in the morning that the
men of the 282nd had spent the night in combat with shadows. From that
[p.36] experience, the men of the 284th took another valuable lesson
— that indiscriminate firing by trigger — happy artillerymen would win
no battles.
Late the next day, the battalion moved
to Maisse, closing in an assembly area at 0045 hours, 23 August. On
the move to Maisse, the column marched through the city of Etampes. At the outskirts of the city, all
personnel saw the debris of battle, the wrecked vehicles, blood-soaked
bandages, and for the first time, the German midget remote-controlled tank
which carried only explosives and was directed toward the American positions
where it was exploded by remote control. Here was seen indications of what
the battalion would have run into two nights earlier if Lady Luck had not
called off the excursion of the battalion beyond the American outpost line.
From Maisse, the battalion moved to
firing positions in the vicinity of Macherin, closing in the new area at
approximately 2050 hours on the 23rd. So far, the battalion had tried mightily
to get into the fight, but had not fired a round and had not as yet been
fired upon. Those conditions were soon to change, however.
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During the late afternoon of 24 August, the Battalion Commander, with
the Battery Commanders, left the Macherin area to report to the 5th Infantry
Division Artillery command post for orders. Instructions were obtained
to the effect that the battalion was to reinforce the fires of the 46th
Field Artillery Battalion which was the combat-team partner of the 10th
Infantry regiment. The 10th Infantry was to attack across the Seine River
at Montereau in order to open the way for the eastward drive of the Third
Army in this particular sector. By the time that the reconnaissance party
had arrived at the command post of the 46th Field Artillery Battalion,
dusk had already fallen. Survey parties of the 46th, however, had already
extended survey control into the general area which the battalion was
to occupy. By the time that the Colonel had received enough information
to start the reconnaissance for battery positions, night had arrived. The
battery commanders had their first experience in organizing a combat position
in complete darkness. It was a new, and entirely different, experience to
huddle under a raincoat with a hooded flashlight to study maps and determine
where each installation of batteries would go. This time it was a far greater
enemy facing the offcers and men of the battalion than the umpires who had
checked on light discipline in the maneuver area. By midnight, all of the
preliminary work in the position area had been completed and the reconnaissance
parties awaited the arrival of the firing batteries.
At 0300 on the 25th, the batteries began
their march from the Macherin area. The movement of the column was smoothly
handled and finally, the waiting guides was trucks rolling ghostlike
out of the moonlit fog. Fortunately, a full moon shown upon the fog and
made it fairly easy to march along the narrow, winding French roads. By
early morning, an hour or so before daylight, the 284th was in position
for its first action of the war. From the vicinity of the village of Villecerf,
the battalion was to fire only some 60 rounds at the enemy but it was the
start. The first firing was the signal for most of the men in the battalion
to hit their slit trenches; it was to be some little time before everyone
was to be able to tell whether a round was “incoming mail” or was on the
way out. However, despite the initial nervousness, the men of the battalion
[p.37] established in the modest engagement
the meaning of the report “Helpmate Ready.”
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It was here that the battalion took its first losses. Lieutenant Leon
L. Lambach, the forward observer of Battery “A” was severely wounded
and his assistant, Sergeant Vincent Manno, was slightly wounded. Lieutenant
Lambach was evacuated to England and never did rejoin the battalion.
Sergeant Manno was evacuated to the rear but returned later and eventually
earned the Bronze Star for meritorious service and added an Oak Leaf cluster
to his Purple Heart. On the 25th of August, the battalion was relieved
from attachment to the 193rd FA Group and was attached to the 5th Infantry
Division. This was to be the beginning of a close association with the
Red Diamond Division and one which was to end with the officers and men
of the battalion feeling that they were an integral part of the division.
Under the guidance of the 5th Division Artillery, the battalion was soon
to receive its real baptism of fire and before its attachment was terminated,
it was to be rated on of the best battalions in the XX Corps Artillery.
However, such developments were still far in the future, and the battalion
turned its hand to the mission of reinforcing the fires of the organic
battalions of the 5th Infantry Division wherever needed.
Immediately upon begin attached to the
division, orders were received to march to the vicinity of Fontainbleu
to join the 19th Field Artillery Battalion in support of the 11th Infantry
regiment. The battalion crossed the Seine River at the northern outskirts
of Fontainbleu and took up firing positions just east of the river. Here
70 rounds were fired in support of a flank attack upon the city of Paris.
From the position area, many were the glances sent northward, as the men
of the battalion tried in vain to see some portion of the skyline of the
famous city which they were by-passing.
[...]
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Travelogue
1 July to 13th July 1944 - at sea HMS Dominion Monarch
14 July to 10 August, 1944 - Abergavenny, Wales
12 August to 14 August, 1944 - SS Mark Hopkins
16 August to 17 August, 1944 - Utah Beach, France
18 August to 19 August, 1944 - Landivy, France
20 August, 1944 - Santeuil, France
21 August, 1944 - Sanville, France
22 August,
1944 - Maisse, France
23 & 24 August, 1944 - Macherin, France
25 August, 1944 - Hericy, France
26 August, 1944 - Montereau, France (first firing)
27 August, 1944 - Nangis, France
28 August, 1944 - Chateau Thierry, France
29 August, 1944 - Pontavert, France
30 August, 1944 - Taissy, France
31 August, 1944 - Regret, France
1 September, 1944 - Verdun, France (bombed first time)
2 September, 1944 - Fort du Rozellier, France
3 & 4 September, 1944 - Ronvoux, France
5 & 6 September, 1944 - St. Hillaire, France
7 September, 1944 - Buxieres, France
8 to 17 September, 1944 - Gorze, France
18 to 29 September, 1944 - la Lobe (near Arry) , France
30 September to 21 October, 1944 - Gorze, France
22 October to 14 November, 1944 - la Lobe (near Arry), France
15 to 23 November, 1944 - Coin-les-Cuvry, France
24 November, 1944 - Servigny-les-Raville, France
25 & 26 November, 1944 - Halling, France
27 & 28 November, 1944 - Dalem, France
29 November to 3 December, 1944 - Berweiler, France
4 to 21 December, 1944 - Pikard, Germany
22 December,1944 to 27 January, 1945 - Apach, France
28 January to 20 February, 1945 - Besch, Germany
21 to 25 February, 1945 - Freudenburg, Germany
26 February, 1945 - Hamm, Germany
27 February to 14 March, 1945 - Serrig, Germany
15 March, 1945 - Gramith, Germany
16 March, 1945 - Britten, Germany
17 March, 1945 - Bachen, Germany
18 March, 1945 - Gudesweiler, Germany
19 March, 1945 - Kusel, Germany
20 March, 1945 - Mehlingen, Germany
21 to 23 March, 1945 - Ungstein, Germany
24 & 25 March, 1945 - Kronenberg, Germany
26 March, 1945 - Horrweiler, Germany
27 March, 1945 - Gonsenheim, Germany
28 March, 1945 - Mombach, Germany
29 to 31 March, 1945 - Erbenheim, Germany
1 & 2 April, 1945 - Dissen, Germany
3 April, 1945 - Rosengarten, Germany
4 April, 1945 - Dornberg, Germany
5 April, 1945 - Niedervellmar, Germany
6 & 7 April, 1945 - Guxhagen, Germany
8 April, 1945 - Kammerbach, Germany
9 April, 1945 - Bad Sooden, Germany
10 April, 1945 - Hausen, Germany
11 to 14 April, 1945 - Walschleben, Germany
15 to 20 April, 1945 - Eisenberg, Germany
21 April, 1945 - Diepersdorf, Germany
22 April, 1945 - Neumarkt, Germany
23 April, 1945 - Schwarze, Germany
24 April, 1945 - Endorf, Germany
25 to 28 April, 1945 - Saxburg, Germany
29 April, 1945 - Peising, Germany
30 April, 1945 - Forst, Germany
1 May, 1945 - Geratsberg, Germany
2 May, 1945 - Gangkofen, Germany
3 May, 1945 - Kirchberg, Germany
4 to 12 May, 1945 - Burghol, Germany (End of War)
13 to 16 May, 1945 - Ebenhausen, Germany
17 May to 5 June, 1945 - Welluch, Germany
6 June, 1945 - Munich, Germany
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| Source: http://members.aol.com/FABn284/helpmate-noidx.pdf, en ligne en 2003. |