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54th Armored Infantry Regiment was part of the 10th Armored Division known as "Tiger". The regiment was formed on the 15th of May 1917 and is still in existance today.
The following is a shortened version of my father-in-law's experience as an American soldier during WWII, Sgt. Benjamin B. Barenbrugge (nickname “Boogie”).
In November 1942, I joined Company E of the 54th Armored Infantry Regiment, which was part of the 10th Armored Division. The division then moved to Camp Gordon, Georgia. We had two more months of intensive training and maneuvers, in the mountains of Tennessee. I spent three months at a communications school at Fort Knox, where I was promoted from buck sergeant to technical sergeant and was made the communications sergeant for the company.
On September 11th 1944, the 10th Armored "Tigers" (which had become our nickname) shipped out of New York. We were about 10,000 strong at that time. I was one of the poor souls on the USS General William M. Black troop ship. We landed at Cherbourg, France, on September 23rd 1944.
On October 24th 1944 we were on the move. We had been assigned to General George Patton’s Third Army. We passed through Paris, where the French people greeted us with great joy. They gave us flowers and cider to drink. We gave them cigarettes, and candy for the kids. They were all so happy the Germans were gone. We moved on out of Paris and after that, it was a continuous fight, taking one town after another.
Our first contact with the Germans was November 2nd 1944 at Metz, France, and Fort Driant. Germans had occupied the fort and we exchanged artillery fire for a couple of days, until the fort was reduced to gravel and these particular Germans were no longer a problem. From there on, it was pure hell. We chased those damn Germans from town to town. They shelled us and we shelled them. We both took a lot of casualties. There was no hand to hand combat; all the killing was done by tank fire and artillery. I guess I had a guardian angel riding on each of my shoulders. We ate K rations on the run and slept very little. There was no time to clean up. General Patton’s theory was, "When you have them on the run, keep them on the run!" There was no rest for the weary. It was our job during combat to provide flank protection for the tanks from the enemy infantry. Wherever the tanks went, we went.
On December 17th, we received orders to move north, as the Germans were making a large counterattack. December 18th we arrived in Bastogne, Belgium, and hit the Germans head-on. This had to be the roughest day of my service. We were completely outnumbered and surrounded. We held them off for eight miserable days. On December 26th 1944, the 4th Armored Division broke through the lines to help us. Were we glad to see them! We had run out of tank and artillery ammo. We were also out of fuel for the tanks. We were being supplied from the air by large C-47 transports parachuting in ammo, fuel and food.
I had plenty of winter clothing, so that wasn’t a problem for me. Our main problem was hunger. We had no food. Between artillery barrages, we scrounged through empty houses in Bastogne. The civilians were all gone and we gathered up a lot of home-canned vegetables and meat they had left behind. We built a fire in a wood-burning stove in the kitchen of the house we were in and made a huge pot of stew. This was on Christmas Eve, and the stew was just about ready to eat and then WHAM! The Germans were bombing Bastogne. One bomb hit in our back yard. Luckily, we were in the front part. Needless to say, the stew, along with the back half of the house, was gone. We all grabbed our gear, ran across the street and went into the basement of a large Catholic cathedral. The bombing went on all night and so did our praying. The dawn finally came and the bombing stopped. The cathedral and all its occupants were spared, thank the good Lord! The Germans then dropped parachute troops on the town. There was snow on the ground and all their paratroopers were garbed in white to conceal themselves. Thanks to our crack riflemen, they were quickly eliminated. This was no doubt the worst ordeal of my entire Army career. Hunger, capture and death seemed imminent. Under these circumstances you do some serious praying and think a lot of your loved ones, while you’re following orders to survive. On January 29th 1945, we finally left Bastogne, and the Battle of the Bulge was over.
After having been relieved at Bastogne, we headed back south. Our orders were to push the Germans further back into Germany. The Army engineers literally built our bridges as we moved. They got a good workout. The Germans blew every bridge across each river we had to cross. Our engineers built new bridges made of large rubber pontoons, lashed together and anchored to the riverbed. They placed steel grid channels across the pontoons; spaced far enough apart to accommodate our tank tracks. I really felt sorry for these engineers, as this was a hard and dangerous job. German artillery would blow these bridges up as fast as they built them. Then our artillery had to go to work and knock out their artillery. Sometimes this went on for days. When we could, we would rest up in some little nearby town. We made three major river crossings: the Saar, Rhine and Danube. We took over 150 towns and cities. Some of the major ones were Trier, Kaiserlautern and Mannheim.
Our company commander, Capt. Omar Billet, was killed in action April 1st 1945, at Crailsheim. Our column had come under artillery fire and the captain and his jeep driver had gone up ahead to a little white church with a tall steeple. They climbed up in the steeple, hoping to locate the enemy fire. The Germans spotted them and they laid an artillery round right on the steeple and they were both killed instantly. Their bodies were placed on doors off the church and brought back to camp on the hoods of jeeps. Capt. Billet was without a doubt the best officer we had. We all missed him very much. He was the most fearless and kindest man I ever met. I remember one night we were in foxholes on the side of a muddy hill. It was cold and pouring rain. The Germans were shelling us. The Captain was walking through our area checking to see if everyone was okay. My buddy and I were in a hole together. When the Captain came by, he asked us how we were doing. We said we were doing okay, but we were cold. He took off his trench coat and threw it over us. He said, "Maybe this will help a little," and walked on. Our battalion commander, Lt. Col. J. J. Richardson, was killed by artillery fire near Kirchen, Germany. He was well liked by all the troops and was a good leader. The word was he had the biggest pair of field glasses in the division, but he never kept them in their case. He kept two fifths of Scotch in the case, to ward off the chills. Ha!
We proceeded on through Germany and into Austria. The Germans had blown the road off the side of the mountain, so we had to stop. We pulled back to Murnau, Germany. It was May 1945, and thank God, the War was over!
I was transferred from company headquarters to battalion headquarters and assigned to S-2 intelligence. Our job was to round up any Germans still hiding in the mountains or woods. Willie Messerschmidt, the designer of the German fighter plane, was among those we captured. Our division took over 6,000 prisoners of war. Most of these were taken toward the end of the war. They would come running out of the fields and woods to our tank column, waving white flags and yelling "Kamerad!" We would send them to the back of the column, where the foot soldiers would escort them to prisoner-of-war camps.
We liberated a concentration camp holding several thousand Polish soldiers. We gave them all of the extra candy and cigarettes we had. Boy, were they happy! We never saw any American soldiers in camps in our area. Most of the homeowners had migrated ahead of our columns, deeper into Germany, out of harm’s way. When we reached Murnau, we received some well-deserved rest and relaxation.
Photographs
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List of those who served with the 54th Armored Infantry Regiment during the Second World War.
- Benjamin B. "Boogie" Barenbrugge. Read his Story.
- Capt. Omar Billet. (d.1st April 1945) Read his Story.
- Lt. Col. J. J. Richardson Read his Story.
If you have any names to add to this list, or any recollections or photos of those listed, please get in touch.
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