Le Roumiere Hill Photo taken August 2004 Robert Anderson Soy to Werpin Road

From all accounts Lawrence Anderson was assigned to the 290th Infantry, Company L, 2nd Platoon and was with Wallace on the Christmas Eve attack of La Roumiere Hill.

After 55 years Wallace vividly recalled Lawrence from Camp Breckenridge and from playing cards in the Castle St. Donat’s while they were in England awaiting transfer to France in November of 1944. The following story recalls the events of that fatefull evening.

These are my remembrances of the experiences on the attack of La Roumiere Hill by the 75th Infantry Division, 290th Regiment, Companies K and L during the Battle of the Bulge in the Belgium forest, December 1944. I was a BAR man with the 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, L Rife Company, 3rd Battalion.

As I remember, while we were at the tent camp in La Havre, France, we didn’t do much of anything - just hurry up and wait. Through out the time we were there, U.S. aircraft continually flew low over us and we guessed that they were flying casualties back to England. While we were there, some of our guys went into a nearby town and purchased some French bread and brought it back to camp. I recall that it was very fresh and tasted great compared to what we had been eating. We later heard that the Germans had broken through the defense line in the Ardennes forest in Belgium.

MOVING OUT

On the Night of 22 December we were ordered to move out. We were loaded into 40 - and 8 boxcars and headed for Belgium. We arrived somewhere in Belgium at 0200 and then loaded in deuce-and-a-halves for an exhausting 8 hour ride. We passed through the outskirts of Liege, Belgium, and I noticed a lot of the women were crying. We didn’t know why.

On 23 December at 1000 hours, the trucks stopped somewhere in between the small towns of Soy and Hotten in Belgium, were we camped for the night. The following day was Christmas Eve. We received our light packs and were issued ammo and donned on our overcoats and overshoes. At 0900 we were given the order to move out and marched throughout the day until we arrived at the small Belgian town of Ny at 2100 hours, it had been a long day. The chow line was set up and we were to receive a hot meal. As we were hurriedly being served, a division officer drove up in a jeep and ordered the food put away as we were about to go on an important mission. Some of us didn’t even get to eat.

Companies K and L were orded to move out at five-foot intervals along an old logging road, still without any idea of what our mission was. As we marched along the road we came across a dead German soldier lying face up; this was the first time we had ever seen a German soldier, dead or alive, and it was quite a shock to most of us. We marched up this trail for two hours and finally reached the line of departure. As I recall, there were two officers standing near a small steep hill and, as we passed by, one of them said “Boys, it’s only a mop up.”

I remember thinking to myself “Here it is 2130 hours, how in the hell can a unit attack a defensive line at this time of night.”

At 2400 we moved across the line of departure and came to a small hill that we had to slide down and at the bottom was a small steam (Lisbelle Rau). After crossing the stream we came upon a cow pasture; this is where L Company split up. The 1st Platoon went to the right of the pasture, the 3rd Platoon to the left, and the 2nd Platoon got the pasture itself! By 0300 we had moved across the pasture into position near the wood line and prepared for a flank attack. We had no idea that we were within 20 feet of the German’s defense line and that they could see and hear us coming.

All hell broke loose and the Gemans opened up on us; their bullets rained down on us like fire. Within a minute 16 members of our platoon became casualties. The rest of us hugged the ground until the firing stopped. Our platoon sergeant and a second lieutenant, along with four others, crawled off the hill to seek cover. We stayed in that position for two hours, all the while we could hear cries for help from our buddies who lay in agonizing pain; there was nothing we could do to help, it was frustrating.

The second lieutenant and sergeant debated on what to do. We had no idea where the Germans were, it was pitch black and we couldn’t see anything. As we got up on our knees, the Germans spotted our position and opened up with machine gun fire over our backs. Our 105s didn’t help us either. We were unable to fire off any shots and didn’t cause any casualities among the Germans. After the firing stopped we made our way further down La Roumiere hill and into an old barn that we stayed in for the rest of the night. We later learned that the 1st and 3rd Platoons referred to us as the “lost platoon.”

CHRISTMAS DAY

At about 0600 Christmas Day, Companies K and L were given the order to attack and take La Roumiere hill again; something we were unable to do. We reassembled to prepare for another assualt on the hill. At 1300 there were 125 of us gathered on an embankment looking out 300 yards at the German defense line. Fortunately for us, the Germans didn’t have any big guns with them-what a relief.

I was so exhausted when I arrived because I hadn’t eaten anything in the last 18 hours. I grabbed a box of K-rations, sat down and ate. Boy, was it good, too! While I was sitting there eating, a shot rang out from a German sniper and a lieutenant from our company’s 4th Platoon was hit in the buttocks. A major from our platoon spotted the sniper and fired six rounds at him with his .45 side arm; he never bothered us again.

It was now 1500 hours and our major was pacing. I heard some of the guys say “Let’s go.” We were finally given the order to move out and over the embankment. While running through the pasture I was able to fire off about 40 rounds from my BAR at the German defensive position and a few rounds came at me, fortunately none had my name on it. About halfway through the pasture the Germans got out of their foxholes so they could better fire at us as we made our way up the hill. We were finally able to reach our objective, the top of the hill.

A lot of Germans who defended the position were able to retreat, but some never made it out of their foxholes. Another buddy and I climbed a steep hill and fired our weapons at some small bushes. As we were firing a burst of machine gun rounds rained down at us. We slid back down the hill and had a difficult time trying to climb back up as bullets flew over our heads. The 4th Platoon fired off a couple of 60mm mortars at the German machine gun nests and silenced them forever.

My buddy and I began to take rifles and bayonets and drove them into the ground next to where our 2nd Platoon casualties had fallen, but it was beginning to get dark and we had to stop. Along the La Roumiere hill wood line were several casulties from our platoon along with some from company K that littered the pasture. It took two days for the litter bearers to remove all the bodies. We later moved North to a small secure Belgian town named Ny, where we stayed in the home of some really nice people who fed us some great cuts of beef.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, our initial attack on La Roumiere hill was quite chaotic and the lack of planning by the upper command got a lot of our guys killed. It should also be noted that we had a shortage of ammunition for our weapons. Looking back on the battle, the men in our company were all green soldiers and this was our baptism of fire.

As a result of his actions on the 24 December 1944 Lawrence Anderson spent the night in freezing conditions, wounded, trapped and hiding. Christmas Day companies L and K of the 290th Infantry made another attack on the hill and Lawrence was rescued. After being rescued, Lawrence was take to the first aid station and transfered to the 24th General Field Hospital where he was awarded the Purple Heart. From the field hospital he was flown back to England for additonal treatment of leg wounds and back injuries.

Copyright © Wallace Duffney

unless noted otherwise Copyright © 2004 - 2012 Robert Anderson