Yves J. Bellanger
THE 5TH INFANTRY DIVISION
"RED DIAMOND"
ACTION AT ANGERS
Briefly, the action at Angers was this:
The 11th regimental I&R platoon
(Intelligence and Reconnaisance Platoon) and division reconnaissance
troop led the 60-mile march. After meeting enemy resistance four
miles west of Angers, the I& R platoon began a fire fight
which the 2nd Bn advance guard took over the night of 7 August.
Hollywood Nazis of the Organization Todt in black boots, swastika
arm bands and surly looks came zooming up from St Nazaire in a
staff car and bus to find Red Diamonds in possession of the crossroads
at La Roche.
The 2nd Bn attacked Angers frontally,
towards the east. The 1st Bn made a night march of seven miles
to get into position to attack from the left flank. As the two
battalions came up against an anti-tank ditch and determined resistance,
the 3rd battalion moved south 3,000 yards to capture a railway
bridge intact across the Maine. The bridge contained mines and
explosives ready to be detonated and was under fire from 88 mm,
20 mm and 40 mm fire as well as machine gun and mortar fire but
the battalion used the bridge to cross the night of the 8th, Company
L leading *. L Company advanced 700 yards, was counterattacked,
fell back 200 yards and held behind a hedgerow as Company K crossed
at 0300 hours and at 0330 hours German infantry again counterattacked,
striving desperately to get to the bridge and blow it. The Germans
would run downhill toward the bridge, firing machine pistols and
rifles. Yank riflemen fired at the flashes of flame and as nearly
every German was hit, explosives he was carrying around his waist
and shoulders for the purpose of blowing up the bridge would detonate
and he would blow up, screaming his life away. Germans were killed
just 15 yards from the end of the bridge but none reached it.
Company E crossed as the counterattack was at its height and helped
repulse it. Company I was protecting the south flank on the west
side of the river.
Germans counterattacked again about
daylight but were repulsed, an, although Company K suffered losses,
the Battalion attacked and seized the first high ground east of
the bridge, as tank destroyers of C Company, 818th TD Bn an antitank
gun knocked out two German SP guns, one machine gun nest and an
enemy OP (Observation Post, it was a tower built by the meteorologist
Albert Cheux). Meanwhile, the 1st and 2nd Bns were pushing slowly
forward, clearing out woods with tank-infantry attacks and artillery
concentrations by the 19th Field Artillery Bn and the regimental
cannon company. On the afternoon of the 9th, the 10th Infantry
arrived and crossed the 2nd and 3rd Bns through the 3rd Bn, 11th
Infantry to attack straight east and secure a chateau (Château
du Fresne) and ridge south of Angers. In securing the ridge the
10th made a bayonet assault which took the Germans by surprise.
On the morning of the 10th, the 3rd
Bn, 11th Infantry, and the 10th Infantry jumped off together northward
toward Angers. Supporting fire of the 19th FA had been augmented
by this time by fire from the 21st , 46th and 50th Field Artillery
Bns. The 3rd Bn, 11th cleaned out nine 20 mm gun emplacements
in its advance, capturing only two prisoners and being forced
to kill the rest of the crews.
During all this, the 1st and 2nd Bns,
11th pressed the attack and converged in the outskirts of Angers.
The Maine river splits the city into two, like the Seine splits
Paris of the Mississipi splits St Paul and Minneapolis. The Germans
blew the two northern bridges but were not given time enough to
properly blow the south bridge and their hasty charge only blew
a seven-foot hole in it. As a lull in enemy fire came about 1600
hours, Pfc Ferdinand Butzlaff of F Company dashed over the bridge,
followed by the rest of F Company, which secured the bridge. The
3rd Bn, pushing up from the south on the east bank, contacted
the 2nd Bn at the bridge and the Germans went into headlong retreat
east along the road paralleling the Loire river. The 21st FA pursued
them by fire and the city and two bridges were the division's
by the night of the 10th; the result of quick, aggressive, three-day
battle action.
At Angers, troops discovered the Germans
did have one good attribute. They liked to drink and they kept
good wine stocks, which they couldn't always take with them when
they retreated. So on the 11th and for a few day thereafter, company
kitchen issued a bottle of champagne with K-ration -- cheese,
crackers and champagne, which led many to believe that an army
travels, not on its stomach as Napoleon said, but in spite of
it.
* In fact, it is L Company, sent to find a crossing
site on the Maine river, which discovered the bridge intact, captured
it with the 3rd platoon, and asked order to cross it.
Pages 11, 12 and 13 of the History
booklet of the 5th Infantry Division, published at Metz, France,
in December 1944.
Comments in parenthesis are from me.
The story continues in Battle
of Chartres page.
East Ward Ho
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All rights reserved, Yves J. Bellanger
Created in July 2001
Updated July 18, 2001 by Yves
J. Bellanger