Chapter 6 Sélestat: A Hard Nut to Crack Nov. 27 - Dec. 5, 1944

November 27, 1944


After a short rest at Lalaye, orders came down for the 409th infantry to continue east to Sélestat - the end point of what we 21st century 409 groupies called the First Push.  This push started with the Meurthe River crossing, the mopping up of the enemy forces in St. Dié, the long hard dangerous winter slog over the Vosges Mountains, and the battles for every village where the German army fiercely clung to its western front.

Another well-loved and oft-unfolded map with view looking west from the Rhine River to the snow-capped ridgeline in the background. Far left snow-capped peak is the Grand Ballon, tallest Vosges mountain. The Rhine River is in the foreground, and the cities of Colmar (left) and Sélestat (right) are on the Plain of Alsace between the foothills and the Rhine.

Now it was time to push the enemy further east, back over the Rhine River.  


First into the fray was the 3rd Battalion. They were to secure anti-tank positions above the main road from Villé to Ramstein by taking the villages on the flank of Frankenbourg Mountain. 


This detail (right) from the Route des Vins map shows the Frankenbourg Mountain and the main roads that follow the waterways downhill through the valleys on each side of the mountain.


The villages of Dieffenbach-au-Val, Neuve Église, Hirtzelbach, and Breitenau were above the Villé-to-Ramstein road up on small country lanes.


At 1600 hours, "L" Company led the 3rd Battalion to Dieffenbach (letter D on map below) where they began firing on enemy positions. "The attack proper began at 1800 hours and by 1830 part of the town had fallen." The troops held their positions for the night, wth orders to take the rest of the town in the morning.


November 28, 1944







At 0600 the next morning, "I" Company, 3rd Battalion attacked the town of Neuve Église (letter A) where they took 51 prisoners, including 2 officers. Then "I" company moved on to take the town of Hirtzelbach (letter C)  at 1600 hours.

Meanwhile "L" Company, which included Charles Meagher Sr. (Madonna's Dad) was dug in for a tough fight at Dieffenbach. In one of the letters from his buddy Tom Bracket, Charles, known as "Moose", is described as "never much for profanity". But Tom goes on to say, imitating Charles' eastern Massachusetts accent, that to him all the bad people were 'bastids'. Tom describes a night in Dieffenbach when their group of soldiers had taken shelter in a house for the night.  "Shells were coming in & your Dad was on guard at the front door. One shell dropped outside the door and the concussion blew the door in & a chunk of shrapnel took most of the door casing off. Your Dad came running into our room & said he was thru with watching at the door - that the 'bastids' were mad at us. I got a good laugh out of that. The fact that they were shelling us real good was one thing, but it never occurred to me that they might be 'mad at us'!!!"


November 29, 1944


Reinforcements came to "L" company when "I" company joined them in the attack on remaining German positions in Dieffenbach. The town was in American hands by 1400 hours. "I" Company moved on to Breitenau (letter B on map above) which was occupied by 2000 hours.


November 30, 1944


In the meantime, the 1st Battalion had been marching east  along a northern route to Dambach-la-Ville which they attacked on November 30.  (Green line below) 


"After a day of bitter fighting, the town fell with the exception of a few isolated pockets. By 2400 all of the town had been cleared and roadblocks and outposts established. The road to Sélestat was being cleared!" 


"The month of November came to an end for the 409th Infantry. The men knew what combat was now. They had won victories. For them they had paid with the lives of 36 of their buddies killed in action, 56 slightly wounded in action, 20 seriously wounded in action, 23 injured in action,  17 missing in action and 4 dead of wounds.


But there were "even worse days in the way of casualties and fighting awaiting them in December."


December 1, 1944


The campaign to capture Sélestat continues. With the 3rd Battalion held in reserve in St. Maurice, the 1st and 2nd battalions moved on toward the city. They had support on their left flank from the 410th, 411th Infantries and the 14th Armored Division.


"The little town of Scherwiller was occupied early in the afternoon and the force moved on. Mist in the zone of operations was heavy, obscuring targets and making the artillery missions difficult, if not impossible. The rain of the Vosges Mountains was left behind; the snow and cold of the open plains lay ahead."

Battalion routes to Sélestat

December 2, 1944

Before midnight, the 1st Battalion had advanced as far as the railroad tracks in the northern part of Sélestat.  In the very early hours, "B" company launched an attack across the river and captured the first six houses of the town. "Little did they realize at the time the catastophe that was about to overtake their temporary success."

"At 0330 hours, three Jerry tanks rumbled down the road and without further warning, opened up at point-blank range on the buildings .... pouring round after round into them." Behind the tanks was a large force of enemy infantry, who quickly forced the Americans to surrender. The result of this action was 98 men captured, 1 killed, and 2 injured.

Several American troops holed up in another house ran out the back door of their billet, but the Germans were so close they managed to capture the last one fleeing. The others ran into an adjoining building where they overpowered three Germans. A small group of soldiers hiding in a fourth house remained quiet, hoping they would escape detection until reinforcements could arrive. This proved to be true, as another patrol joined them at 1000 hours.

In yet another house, a group of soldiers was attacked by two tanks and enemy infantry.  They attempted to surrender, but that was disregarded and the enemy renewed fire. Eight of them escaped out the back of the building through a hole made by one of the tank guns. As they ran away,  they saw the Germans capture the rest of the men attempting to escape. The eight managed to make it back to Dambach-la-Ville.

Meanwhile the Germans put a captured American medic and an aid man in charge of tending the injured, while the prisoners and walking wounded were marched away. At daylight, the medic spotted American tanks across the stream and snuck away to get help. Then he returned and remained with the casualties until  Sunday morning Dec. 3. Only 15 of the men of the 1st Battalion who had crossed the river, managed to escape.

Map from the The 409th Infantry Journal

The 2nd Battalion, coming from the west, arrived at the outskirts of Sélestat. Marching with them, they had the support of a Tank Battalion and a Tank Destroyer Battalion. They too encountered "stiff resistance in the form of armor, artillery, mortar, automatic weapons and roadblocks that were heavily protected by high concentrations of enemy fire power and troops."

December 3, 1944

" The fight for Sélestat continued with the infantry forced to battle alone...because the armor could not cross the stream. Tank destroyers entered the town in the afternoon and the 409th Infantry was assigned the task of protecting them from antitank fire."

The battle was still raging when at 1715 hours "Task Force Sélestat was created for the specific purpose of capturing Sélestat." There were companies of infantry, a medical battalion, an engineer battalion, a tank battalion, a tank destroyer  battalion, and a chemical battalion. These were organized into assault teams which proved to be very effective. 

"For four years the city had been a German supply and evacuation depot and Jerry didn't want to give the city up without a fight. Sélestat was a "defending machine gunner's or mortarman's dream" because it was situated like a "pancake on a griddle". "Around the town, as an outer defensive ring, the Krauts had deeply dug in machine-gun emplacements. It took a lot of pounding to get them out. The town divulged ponderous six-foot-thick roadblocks, heavily mined and effectively covered by sniper fire." 

"But all of this was gone now, taken away from the Germans by the 409th and its accompanying forces, 'veterans' of less than a month in warfare."  The city was taken by the end of the day.  

Modern road sign announcing the city boundary. Town name is in French with the Alsatian form underneath.

December 3, 1944 was liberation day in Sélestat.  To this day, the road leading into the city from the west, the one taken by the 2nd Battalion of the 409th, is called la Route de la Libération. On that Sunday,"the pealing of the church bells mingled with the last nerve-shattering sounds of warfare."

The citizens of Sélestat came out to greet the American soldiers. "Though they spoke German [Note: the Alsatian language is one of many German dialects], they had no love for Jerry. He took their meat, their milk, their wine, their sons and daughters. In return, he gave them Ersatz food to eat, Ersatz  clothes to wear, and materials manufactured from wood, coal and glass."

"People in the city were hilariously happy." "A tiny girl stood beside the body of a dead Jerry and smiled at the American doughboys. An old woman waved a tattered French flag which she had hidden for four years. She was crying."

"One girl told troops that her brother was taken by German soldiers only five days ago and ordered to fight against the Americans coming into the city. A 19-year-old boy related how he hid in a vineyard four days to escape the same fate. A middle-aged worman with tears in her eyes told of her husband who was forced to fight in the German Army. Another told the troops of how the Germans had made plans to take civilians from France to Germany to work in the factories. The labor situation was only one of the Nazis' headaches. But the Americans had come too fast. Yes, it is Sunday in Sélestat. There was war here too, but there is happiness again. The city is once more free."

For their role in the Vosges Mountain campaign, all soldiers of the 409th Infantry were awarded the French Legion of Merit Medal. Those involved in the liberation of Dieffenbach were awarded the French Liberty Medal.

* NOTES on sources of information:

1)  Chapter titles are taken from the infantry journal entitled  The 409th Infantry in World War II published by the Washington Infantry Journal Press in 1947.

2) The above account, as well as all accounts of the 409th Infantry Regiment in this blog, are taken from  the above-mentioned Journal,  featured in our first blog post.  Madonna has the copy which belonged to her Dad, Charles Leo Meagher. He fought with the Regiment in the 3rd Battalion, "L" Company and survived the war to return home to southeastern Massachusetts. Sadly, he died very suddenly on Thanksgiving Day in 1957 at the age of 37, leaving his wife Terry, and his young children Charles Jr (age 6),  Jim (age 4) and my friend Madonna (age 2).

3) Some anecdotes and descriptions are taken from the letters of other veterans who served with Charles Meagher in the 409th Regiment, 3rd Battalion, "L" Company.  In this account,  I have quoted from the letters of Tom Bracket, an army buddy of Charles Meagher, which were written to Charles' son Jim Meagher from Oct. 1992 until Tom's death in 1994.  Quotes taken from those letters are so attributed in the text. We hope to eventually have all of Tom's letters posted on this site for those interested in first person reminiscences about the 409th Regiment's experiences as related 50 years later.

Chapter 5B: Lots of little villages

September 27, 2011:

Fortified by the excellent breakfast at the Hotel du Haut Koenigsbourg (See photos, Chapter 4B post of Jan.6), our trio set out from Thannenkirch, guide books and many maps in hands, to explore WW2 history in the vicinity.  We intended to head south along the Route des Vins ( the Wine Road) to see the sites described by Rick Steves in his guidebook France 2011.

And our first excitement of the day was seeing this symbol of Alsace - live and in the feather!

A real live stork - our good luck charm for the day!










My fellow travelers were not happy with the angle of this photo however - they wanted to see his face and beak, not his backside. So, there was some car maneuvering and jumping in and out of the car to arrive at this shot.

He or she seems to be posing for me. Both stork parents do nest duty.

Storks were once common as summer residents in Alsace. They fed in the wetlands associated with the Rhine River, and all the other small rivers and streams there.

It was considered good luck to have a nesting pair on  top of your chimney. But in the late 1800's and early 1900's, water management projects reduced those wetlands which had provided food for the storks and their nestlings. All that remained of that population when I was a student there in 1965 was the signature sound of stork chatter as the signal call on the Strasbourg radio station.

Reintroduction efforts in recent decades have been successful in luring the birds back from their winter quarters in Morocco and the Middle East.







The destinations that we had in mind for this day were the towns of Hunawihr, Sigolsheim, Kientzheim, the memorial and cemetery on top of Bloody Hill, and the Colmar Pocket Museum in Turckheim These were not places on the route of the 409th infantry, but scenes of intense fighting in the battle for the Colmar Region during January 1945.

We intended to drive down the mountain from our hotel in Thannenkirch to Bergheim and then turn south on the Route des Vins (appropriately colored wine-red on the map below - way below). However, my home-made map is a simplified version of what is actually on the ground. It does not show the dense network of sentiers viticoles - service roads for the vineyards which weave in an out of all the little towns and are rarely marked. Very scenic though. And we wandered through them for some time trying to head in the right direction.

Luckily Madonna has a fine sense of direction so we eventually saw this in the distance and hoped it was the fortified church of Hunawihr.

Feeling the need for fortification ourselves, we grabbed some grapes - for some reason the clusters on the lower branches of the vines had not been harvested. Left for hungry tourists?

The Center for the Re-introduction of Storks is located in Hunawihr. For tourists there is also a Parc des Cigognes (Stork Park) with over 150 storks and other animals and a greenhouse butterfly exhibit.  We did not visit either of those, but greatly appreciated their successful efforts in bringing back the stork population.



Instead we headed for the center of the village and the fortified church.

In the main square (which is called a  place in French and is never square) we parked near the ancient lavoir.

Lavoir means laundry, or washing place.

These beautiful old structures cover basins which were filled with water from the fountain and used by women of the village to do the washing in pre-indoor plumbing days.

On their way to do the wash, the women would bring a terra cotta casserole filled with leftover meat from Sunday (and the previous week), potatoes, and white wine. This they dropped off at the baker's oven, which was still hot from making the morning bread, to bake slowly until the laundry was finished. And Voilà! The midday meal was ready to pick up on the way home. This traditional dish is called  baeckehoffe and is readily available in restaurants.  And really, really good.

YUM.

 Or as they say in French, "miam, miam".








I should tell you at this point that most Alsatian villages, and many other villages in France, are rated according to their beauty.

Hunawihr was a three flower town. And very pretty indeed.  Some think too pretty.  Rick Steves called it a "bit of wine-soaked Alsatian cuteness".

This rating system exists in tourist areas of France, and while Alsace does not attract a lot of American tourists, it is very popular with French, German, and other European tourists.

In fact, the number one industry in France is tourism. And France is the number one tourist destination in the world based on the number of tourist visits yearly.



While this flower rating system does encourage beautification, it can occasionally be scary. Here is a building that made me run for my sunglasses.

Charlie decided he did not want to be seen in anything less than a three-flower town. I, on the other hand, feared the day we would unsuspectingly drive into a four-flower town.



Having parked our 'Picasso' Citroên by the lavoir, we headed off to find the fortified church. And passed some colorful houses.





Lots of folks were airing their bedding in the September sunshine, as on the right.








Notice the Euro blue color of that house tucked in back below. Nice contrast with the red geraniums.

At right are old houses with poutres apparentes, or 'beams that show'. This traditional style of building uses a structure of beams with stucco walls. It's called half-timber construction in English.

The beams of very old houses are huge and hand-hewn.

There aren't wooden buildings in France as are common here (especially New England). The old, endless European forests turned out not to be so endless. They are protected now, and no longer lumbered. Stucco and stone are the common materials.

In the distance we finally saw the fortified Church of St. James. Notice the wall around it.

The church once contained relics of St. Huna who lived in the mid-600's. She was a nobleman's wife - a devout woman who spent her life sheltering and feeding the poor, as well as personally washing their clothes and nursing their ills. She made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in Campostela, hence the name of the church in Hunawihr where her saintly relics were kept until disbursed during the Protestant Reformation.

Single entrance into the church enclosure

The constuction of the octagonal wall fortifications dates from the 14th century. That turned out to be a really great idea as the next couple of hundred years brought the brutal repression of the peasants who revolted against taxation so severe that entire villages were impoverished. Then came the Thirty Years War which unleashed bands of violent, armed men in the vicinity. A plague epidemic in 1610 compounded the horrors lived by the populaton which seemed to suffer the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times."


The end of the war came in 1648, with Alsace coming under the rule of the French king Louis XIV.  The Protestant Alsatians were guaranteed religious freedom under the Treaty of Westphalia. But in 1672, a local ruler sympathitic to the religion of King Louis decreed that any town with 7 Catholic families had to have Catholic services - so both religions took turns holding services in the single church of Hunawihr! Considering that this closely followed a century of religious wars in France, I find that amazing.

Naturally there were some "issues" with this, as we say today (read "pitched battles"), but the system of sharing has gone on peacefully for the past couple hundred years.

The ever-present memorial to "our victims of wars" is placed in the fortification wall.

In Alsace, these memorials do not say, as elsewhere in France, "Morts pour la France"  (Died for France). That is because Alsatian soldiers fought first in the French army against the Germans.  After the German occupation in 1940 all Alsatian males between the ages of 17 and 37 were drafted into the German army. Most were sent to the deadly eastern front to fight the Russians.

They were called the Malgré Nous - "in spite of ourselves", meaning they fought for Germany against their will. Should they think otherwise, their families residing in "German" Alsace were the guarantee.

As we walked back to our car through this lovely town, we saw more beautiful houses and bountiful gardens.

Notice the ancient red tile roof.

The lady of the house on the left came up to us as we took photos to offer each of us one of those gorgeous, HUGE apples.

Her little poodle was named Canelle (cinnamon) for his dusty reddish-brown coat.

As we were driving out of town toward the correct road (finally) we saw more storks.

There were 3 pairs posing on this restaurant roof!

Once again en route we headed south towards Sigolsheim (letter B on the map below), Bloody Hill (marked with the green triangle), and Kientzheim (letter C).

These towns, and hill, were scenes of vicious fighting in January 1945, There are no ancient red tile rooves, only the modern gray tile ones, because the towns were mostly demolished in the deadly back 'n forth struggle of the battle for the Colmar region.

This is a very simplified version of the area of Central Alsace. There are many more small roads criss-crossing the foothills and the Plain of Alsace, as well as many smaller rivers flowing from the mountains eastward to the Rhine.

Above Sigolsheim, on the summit of the Bloody Hill, is a French cemetery and memorial, and a memorial to the American Divisions that fought in Alsace.

This hilltop so soaked in blood is the final resting place for 1684 French soldiers - from continental France as well as from the African colonies, mostly Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Senegal.

"On these slopes of the Vosges in the plain of Alsace, in deep snows and -20 degree weather, soldiers from France, Africa, and America united with the First French Army under the command of General De Lattre de Tassigny and wrested victory in the bitter fighting of the Battle of Colmar    January 20 - February 9, 1945"

Charlie and Jeanne at the American Memorial. You can see the white crosses of the French cemetery beyond the trees in the background.

At the base of the American flag:
"Grateful Alsace
From the Veterans of the 1st French Army of the Rhine and Danube to their American comrades in the liberation of Alsace    1944 - 1945"

Charlie & Madonna

On the walls of the memorial are the medallions of the various American Divisions.

While Madonna and Charlie's Dad's Division (the 409th Infantry of the 7th Army) did not participate in the Colmar campaign, the symbol of the Division, known as the Cactus Division was on the memorial wall.

Close-up below.

Symbol of the" Cactus Division" -  the 409th Infantry of the 7th American Army

We hiked uphill to the French Cemetery at the very top of "Bloody Hill"  to see a vast field of crosses and Islamic steles,

as well as a few tombs with Jewish Stars of David.

The emotional impact of this vast field of graves is very powerful.

There is a French film Days of Glory which recounts a story of North African soldiers in the Vosges campaign. The final scene shows this cemetery from the air . One can see the entire hilltop covered with graves.

So what we see below circles the entire hilltop.

Especially affecting are the rows of tombs with no names, just Inconnu - Unknown.

Panoramic table looking out east over the plain. Blue line on the table indicates the Rhine River.

Looking down at the town of Sigolsheim

Next, a quick stop in Kientzheim, where there is an American-made tank that had belonged to the French Fifth Armored Division. It was parked in the main square.....

Renard means Fox

 ...along with a plaque honoring the participation of American forces in the  liberation of Kientzheim.

Then we were on our way to Turckheim and the Colmar Pocket Museum.  As we drove we saw another war memorial outside a simple village church.....













and more of those beautiful Alsatian buildings.

In Turckheim, Madonna and Charlie got into the  Alsatian spirit. Here they pose in traditional garb.

Charlie is holding a bottle of Alsatian Riesling (not as sweet as German Riesling, and very good - even to this confirmed red wine drinker). Madonna is holding a kougelhopf, a sort of coffee cake in bundt form which contains raisins, almonds and a splash of kirschwasser ("cherry water" in Alsatian German). This latter ingredient is a form of white lightening made of fermented and distilled cherries.

One can have a shot of kirsch (pronounced keersh) during a big meal to create the "Alsatian hole". Meaning that you down a glass to create more room for food. Dare I suggest, the draino principle?

For photos and info about Alsatian cooking which is "based on locally-grown crops, farm-raised animals, and wild game" (to quote the site), check out this link:
http://europeantraveler.net/archives/taste-of-europe/alsatian_cuisine.php

At left is the bell tower and patterned tile roof of the town hall, where we found the Colmar Pocket Museum.

The museum houses artifacts from the bitter campaign of January - February, 1945 for the area known as the "Colmar Pocket".

Once the German defenses in the Vosges Mountains had collapsed,  the German army fell back to their  bridgehead around the region of Colmar. Because Alsace was considered part of Germany, Hitler decided that it would be as strongly defended as any other piece of German soil.

The battle to defeat the Germans here was fought mostly by the U.S. 6th Army and the French First Army, with a few onther divisions from other groups.



Exhibits there show equipment used by both German and Allied forces. There are scenes showing soldiers in accurate detail, wearing the approprate uniforms and with the arms they would have had.

A mortarman, like Charles Meagher Sr.

The image we don't have, and thought we did (Sorry, Madonna! I really don't.) is a picture of the soldiers in winter uniform. They were issued lightweight long white coats with hoods as camouflage in the snow.

Well, we'll just have to go back and get that picture. Darn.

The poster says "Between the hammer (Allied armies) and the anvil (the Resistance)"

The double-barred cross is called the "Cross of Lorraine" and was used as a symbol by the French Resistance, particularly those groups supporting, and supported by,  Charles De Gaulle's government in exile.

To see more photos of artifacts in this museum, see the blog post of Dec. 10, Chapter 4 "Jerry Catches Hell" where I used them to illustrate the soldiers' lives in the field.

After a long day of history and rural beauty, we headed home, stopping to enjoy a few more handfuls of those delicious grapes. Before enjoying them in liquid form along with a hearty Alsatian dinner.

PS As always, we love to read your comments. If you have difficulties leaving them on this site, you are invited to send them via email to mcdorf@gmail.com. Short notes, phone calls and conversations in the grocery store are also welcome.

À bientôt!