13 December 1944

Another platoon of tanks were attached and reported in at 0730. These were medium tanks from Co B, 774th Tk Bn, and were given to the 2nd Bn.

The attack towards the ROER River was continued by the 329th Inf Regt, 1st and 2nd Bns jumping off at 0800, 3rd Bn at 0830.

2nd Bn, still on the left, attacked with F and G Cos, G Co making the main effort on the right. The terrain to the front of G Go was still partly wooded, all the way to the town of GURZENICH. G Co moved fast, did not meet heavy resistance, and entered the outskirts of GURZENICH at 1330. F Co swung to the right and followed G Co. E Co followed F Co. The left sector of the Bn, which was flat and open, was covered by observation and fire. It was not necessary to go over the ground physically. By 1700, G Co was half through GURZENICH. E Co had passed through F Co and had come up on the left flank of G Go. 2nd Bn prepared to hold these positions for the night.

1st Bn, still to the right of 2nd Bn, attacked at 0800 with A and B Cos, A on the right. The sectors of both companies were wooded. This, plus resistance, made movement slow, but by 1700, A and B Cos had come through the woods to the edge of GURZENICH, slightly to the right of the point where 2nd Bn had entered the town. 1st Bn prepared to hold these positions for the night.

3rd Bn attacked at 083O with L Co. L Co soon contacted the enemy and eliminated some resistance, but due to the difficulty of maintaining proper direction in dense woods, was soon pressing the right flank of the 1st Bn. L Co was held in place while I Co passed around to the right of L Co. The two companies then advanced a few hundred yards but ran into heavy resistance. By this time it was late in the day, so L and I Cos pulled back and prepared positions for the night.

Clearing of the main supply road, the only possible route in the sector, progressed slowly. During the afternoon, one medium tank attempted to go forward from HOF HARDT but was knocked out by a mine. The Engrs continued to sweep the road during the night so that the tanks could get up to the 2nd Bn by early morning.

During this rapid and spectacular advance by the 2nd Bn, few casualties had been suffered. The enemy apparently had defensive arty fires planned for a belt of several hundred yards depth W of GURZENICH, and the 2nd Bn advanced to the E of this zone of fires before they were laid. After the 2nd Bn had entered GURZENICH, and throughout the night, the enemy laid very heavy arty and mortar fire on this belt. Apparently the enemy was not fully aware that the bulk of our troops had already entered the town. The advance of the 2nd Bn for the day was about 3 kilometers.

At 1800, the remainder of Co A, 629th TD Bn, was attached, along with a rcn platoon from the same Bn.

14 December 1944

During the night, the road from HOF HARDT to GURZENICH was cleared by the Engrs, and by daylight the 2nd Bn had been able to get the tanks and TDs forward into GURZENICH. At 0945, 2nd Bn started off again, tanks and infantry, to clear out remainder of GURZENICH. The combination clicked, and a large number of Germans were taken prisoner from the cellars. By 1315, E and G Cos, E on the left, had cleared all of GURZENICH except, a small section at the NE end of the town. At 1700 2nd Bn reported a counter-attack by enemy tanks and infantry. B Co was sent forward from the SW end of GURZENICH to be attached to the 2nd Bn and protect the right flank of the 2nd Bn, for E and G Cos were at least 1500 yards forward of the 1st Bn. With the help of B Co, B and F Cos were able to protect the right and rear of E and G Cos. The enemy counterattack was repulsed.

Except for the attachment of B Co to 2nd Bn, the only other changes in 1st Bn positions were that A Co moved over to take position which had been occupied by B Co, and C Co moved forward to take over position vacated by A Co.

3rd Bn was given the mission of taking the town of BIRGEL. The Marauder platoon went out first as an advance guard. The area between 3rd Bn and BIRGEL was wooded to within 500 yards of BIRGEL. It was felt that due to rapid advance of 2nd and 1st Bns on the left the day before, perhaps all or part of the enemy had withdrawn from the immediate front of the 3rd Bn. This assumption proved to be correct, and no resistance was encountered while advancing to the edge of the woods before BIRGEL. A couple of days later, these woods were combed more thoroughly by the 83rd Rcn Troop, aided by our Marauder platoon, and another 30 or 40 prisoners were flushed out of the sector.

At 1430, the 3rd Bn jumped off from the woods. At the sane time the town was smoked. I and K Cos mads the attack, L Co remaining in the woods in reserve. The attacking companies advanced using marching fire, and although they met s/a and mortar fire they were in BIRGEL in twenty minutes time. Peculiarly enough, L Co, sitting back in the woods in reserve, received about as many casualties as the attacking companies, due to tree bursts. I and K Cos continued through the town, and in a short while had taken 60 prisoners.At 1530, when 75% of the town was in our hands, the enemy launched a counter-attack with 6 tanks and a small number of infantry. The enemy tanks were not able to get into the town, although the 3rd Bn had not yet gotten up their TDs. At 1745, the tanks gave up the counter-attack and left town. 3rd Bn then was able to get up the TDs and AT guns, and they occupied all of BIRGEL except a few buildings at the S edge of town.

The operations of this day had gotten the remainder of the regt out of the woods, into the towns and open fields. Our advance out of the woods had been rapid, and casualties had not been heavy. A separate and more detailed account of our fighting in the woods is given in Incl #1.

An Assault Gun platoon of the 774th Tk Bn was attached. The platoon leader was told to have his platoon in HOF HARDT by 0800 on the following day. From that position the platoon could be moved quickly either to 2nd or 3rd Bn.

15 December 1944

2nd and 3rd Bns both spent the day consolidating their positions and reducing enemy pockets in their sectors. A small part of the N end of GURZENICH was still occupied by the enemy, but 2nd Bn worked forward another 100 yards or so.There was still enemy in the S end of BIRGEL, but 3rd Bn reduced the size of this pocket.

The Assault Gun platoon of the 774th Tk Bn, which reported in at HOF HARDT in the morning, was attached to the 3rd Bn and sent to BIRGEL. A platoon of medium tanks from B Co, 774th Tk Bn, were attached, and were to report in the next morning. They were given to the 1st Bn for use in an attack which was being planned against the town of ROLSDORF, our next obstacle.

16 December 1944

All morning the enemy launched counter-attacks against GURZENICH and BIRGEL. Both tanks and infantry were used, supported by heavy arty and mortar fire. In both towns the enemy was able to infiltrate to some extent, but all of the attacks were successfully repulsed. During this fighting the 2nd Bn had three of their own tanks put out of action, while accounting for three enemy tanks. The 3rd Bn lost two of their assault guns and one TD, but accounted for one enemy tank and two enemy weapons carriers. Also, 3rd Bn succeeded in cleaning out the S end of BIRGEL.

2nd Bn was in the Northern end of GURZENICH, and the 3rd Bn was in BIRGEL. This left a considerable space between our flanks, but the 1st Bn, which was in the southern end of GURZENICH, was able to control the central sector, between GURZENICH and BIRGEL, by fire in the daytime and patrols at night.

The town of ROLSDORF formed a triangle with the above mentioned two towns, lying 3/4 mile SE of GURZENICH and 1 mile NE of BIRGEL. This triangle was open, flat ground.
It might be said that the Germans did not put up a stubborn defense for GURZENICH and BIRGEL, but the speedy and aggressive manner in which the 2nd and 3rd Bns attacked these towns made the job look easy. The several hundred prisoners taken during these operations are proof that the enemy did intend to put up a fight for the two towns. However, the enemy MLR also extended through the "triangle", where over 200 enemy were entrenched. The Germans probably thought that if they did lose GURZENICH and BIRGEL, we would follow with a frontal attack across the "triangle" to ROLSDORF, and they would make it costly for us.

Colonel Crabill had other plans.

17 December 1944

It was about 1000 yds from the N end of GURZENICH E. to the ROER River, the VII Corps objective. An E-W road ran from the N end of GURZENICH to the ROER, where it met a bridge. This road was lined with buildings and met several crossroads. In fact, it was an extension of the city of GURZENICH. The main N-S road running through ROLSDORF intersected this road midway between GURZENICH and the ROER.

At 0740, E and F Cos attacked from the N end of GURZENICH East towards the ROER along the E-W road. E Co was astride the road, F Co on the left of the road. 10 minutes later, 1st Bn, which had moved up before daylight from the S end of GURZENICH to the N end of GURZENICH, followed behind E Co with C Co. The intersection with the N-S road from ROLSDORF was soon reached, and C Go swung S to attack ROLSDORF. As Co C jumped off in the new direction, B Co, which had been waiting in the northern half of GURZENICH, with a platoon of tanks, started SE across the northern part of the triangle. Infantry rode on the tanks. Some small arms fire was received by them, but they moved quickly across the fields, flanking the N end of the German entrenchments, and joining C Co in the N end of ROLSDORF. Together they cleaned up the N end of ROLSDORF, while A Co followed up by the same route C Co had taken. A Co swung to the left, or East, after entering town, to protect the left flank of B and C Cos.

While this action had been going on in the N part of ROLSDORF, 3rd Bn jumped off with K Co at 0730 from BIRGEL, attacking NE along the road towards the S end of ROLSDORF. K Co was pinned down by fire from the entrenched Germans in the "triangle", and also by the fire from some direct fire weapons. They were not able to advance any farther until B Co, with the tanks, came back out of ROLSDORF to attack the entrenched Germans in the "triangle" from the rear. Over 200 Germans were routed out of the trenches. By nightfall, all of ROLSDORF had been occupied except a small section at the SE end.

The progress of E and F Cos in their drive towards the ROER along the E-W road from the N end of GURZENICH to the ROER was slowed down by heavy small arms and mortar fire. At the end of the day they were still 600 yards short of the ROER River.

Provisional plat, 774th Tk Bn, was attached.

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