Mr. Baird
continues: "After being wounded in Southern
France, he had a personal grudge against the
Germans.
He had been married just a few weeks before
leaving the USA and he was absolutely certain he
would make it home to his new bride, but it
wasn't to be."
Early February
1945, the 517th RCT found themselves on the
frontline near Bergstein in the Huertgen forest
and ready to attack. The area of Schmidt,
Vossenach, Bergstein and Kommerscheidt was
heavily fought over for many months, with
horrendous casualties to both the American and
German forces. Objectives were the Roer Dams
that, if blown, would inundate the Roer valley
and severely hamper the American advance into
the Rhineland.
The
initial attack was beaten off by the Germans
with incredible casualties to the US forces. On
February 6th, the
517th was to make a divisionary attack, in
support of the main assault.
A
unit history states: "On the 4th of February
Colonel Graves received orders to move the 517th
from Stavelot to Germany, and to join the 82nd
Airborne Division near Honfeld and Hesheim. Two
days later, the Regiment was attached to the
78th Division. The column moved out by truck
convoy, and within a few hours had passed the
idle tank traps and shattered pill boxes of the
Siegfried Line into Rotgen, and through the
Hurtgen Forest en route to Bergstein.
The Second and
Third Battalions moved out of Bergstein at 2400
hours of the 6th against a high ridge east of
the Roer River defended by the German First
Parachute Army. The 517th's mission was to
occupy this ridge cutting off the enemy's escape
route from Schmidt.
Numerous obstacles
had been thrown up to prevent the crossing of
the river and to help repel attacks. The Germans
had had six weeks in which to prepare their
positions and had made the most of them by
building reinforced cement emplacements, and
laying one of the largest mine fields ever seen
in Europe. The 596th Parachute Engineers worked
heroically while under heavy artillery fire
removing the mines, and clearing a path for the
517th.
The battle grew in
intensity and by twilight of the second day had
reached a violent pitch. An artillery duel was
being waged by both sides with the men in the
fox holes always on the receiving end. The cross
roads that had ,been in an insignificant sector
turned, over night, into the most hotly
contested area on the western front. The attack
continued with "A" Company assaulting Zerkall
and on the 8th, the Second Battalion cut through
a net work of trip wires to push almost to the
river where mortar and small arms fire halted
their advance."
Mr. Martel, a
517th trooper in E Company that was in the same
battle, writes:
"We went through
the some pretty rough battles in E company and I
still thank my lucky stars. But on the last day
of the Battle of the Bulge, for us, February
8th. in Germany, they sent us on a suicide
mission though we didn't know it at the time.
And I still don't really know what we were
supposed to be doing. I read it in one of the
books, that in one instant, one of our officers
refused to lead his men into what he considered
certain death and got court-martialed.
Everything is two units in front, and one in
reserve. The first and second battalion were in
front and the third battalion was in reserve. I
don't know about the first but the second
battalion had E & F company in front and D
company in reserve. Somehow, the first battalion
was getting too much fire and requested a
withdrawal to plan a new attack. That left E & F
companies holding the entire regimental front.
We had gone into the Bulge with almost two
hundred men. The Colonel writes in his memoirs,
"the companies that had gone into Bergstein with
40 men were now down to 20." We were getting
intense machine gun and mortar fire in our
sector.
Usually you dig a hole and as long as you are
under the ground level you are pretty safe.
Anthony Manley was radio man and runner for
Sergeant Bender (at the time with battlefield
commission of Lieutenant). They were in the same
hole and as luck would have it the mortar fell
in the hole.
We were relieved later that day and I sure was
glad to get the hell out of there. Going through
the "Battle of the Bulge" was the most traumatic
experience of my life. I got back from the line
and I almost expected to have headquarters
waiting with coffee and doughnuts. I met up with
Alex who I was trying to avoid. He got to me and
told me how everyone had been on the radios and
they wanted to see what was left of E & F
companies."
Shortly after Pfc Baney was killed, the town of Schmidt was taken by the
78th Infantry Division and the 517th was
relieved by the 508th Parachute Infantry
Regiment. The 517th were taken off the line and
to France to recover from the battles of recent
weeks and did not see combat again. The regiment
had lost over 200 men killed, wounded and
missing, about a third of their strength.
'Bergstein' would live on in the memory of all
those who fought there.
Mr. Baird
continues: "After I came back home in 1945, I
tried to forget the war, but in 1985 I joined a
Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division
Association in Tucson, AZ and then started
trying to remember things. its hard after all
those years.
Baney was not only a good soldier, he was a good
man. He was one the few that was faithful to his
wife all the time we were over there. He was
killed the last day the outfit was in combat so
the last time I saw him would have been in
January 1945. I was evacuated from the Battle of
the Bulge with frozen feet and didn't get back
to the outfit until June 1945. I was in hospital
in England at the time and had sent James a
letter asking him to take care of my duffel bag
while I was away, and the letter came back with
(deceased) written on it. He had gotten married
just a few days before shipping out and was just
as certain he was coming home as I was that I
wouldn't.
I'm sorry that I didn't get in touch with his
family then, but after arriving home to the
mountains of New Mexico, it was a completely
different world."
Private James
Baney
is buried at Margraten American Military
Cemetery, Plot C Row 21 Grave 9.
