Old Hickory Recon, Memories of the 30th Infantry Division 1943-1945 - Marion M. Sanford

glad to hear he is well, hope his condition remains that and a speedy recovery to him.

 

Hello Slipdigit. You wrote about the Lost Battalion for Old Hickory. Thank You, My Dad (120th Infantry) was one of the survivors of Mortain. I have the newspaper article, "The Lost Battalion" I photograph. It's too big to post. I have been posting pictures on the members Gallery under IBBARR from my Dad's Photo Album.
Old Hickory said, "We were attacked. We had the higher ground on one hill [Hill 314]. The 120 Infantry had a battalion on this hill. For 5 ½ days they were surrounded. We kept hearing that we were surrounded. Well, we were on the other side of the hill holding a road block and we didn’t see a German the whole time.

The 120th lost over half their men. There were more than 500 men and more than 300 didn’t walk off of that hill. They did one of the most heroic things. The Germans knew that they could not come up that hill in day time because of our artillery. They were coming at night."
You gave me chills thinking about what my Father went through.
I hope Old Hickory is doing well!
IBBARR

 

Thanks a ton to "Old Hickory". Efforts like his have helped many people understand the human side of service to their country

 

I am glad to hear his health is good, thanks for all the updates you do for us here slip

 

Slipdigit posting for Old Hickory

Old Hickory has gotten well and has been busy reminiscing about his warmtime experiences.

This is Old Hickory coming to you. I haven’t talked to you for a while. I wanted to tell you where we are. We had just crossed the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge on 24th day of March 1945. After crossing the Rhine River, we were waiting for orders to move out.
The Germans started sending artillery shells right on top of us. Three shells landed very near us. They were duds. They buried in the mud but never exploded. We were fortunate that day.

Finally, the 425 mile rat race from the Rhine River to the Elbe River began. This was ideal work for the Old Hickory Recon. Scouting and patrolling, we captured 485 prisoners in one day. We also captured ten 150mm howitzers artillery pieces (guns) that same day. In Reconnoitering, a town close by, the Recon lost 2 armored cars and some men (I don’t know exactly how many) in an ambush. So it was not all fun.

There were a lot of civilians in the road, a lot of German soldiers in small groups. Many were ready to surrender, but many were not. They put up a good fight a lot of times. We got the rats out of Hamelin. You know they got the rats out with the music, [but] we used a different kind of music.

We also captured the city of Brunswick. The Germans wanted to negotiate and General Harrison said that what we wanted was the troops. We didn’t care anything about the city. They refused to surrender so we gave them 30 minutes then we attacked and took the town.

During this trip, the Recon captured an ordinance plant. There were many different objects there of military importance. One was the largest artillery weapon, gun, that I’ve ever seen. I could stand up in the breech of it, turn my head down and stand straight up where the shell went. One end of the barrel was carried by one freight train and the breech and all were carried by another freight train. This was a huge weapon. There was a large box of Longines watches, which was German issue. There were many bags of silk and rayon that they made parachutes with. We saw many parachutes there also.

On this trip, we had a half track that broke down with a brake problem. I had to stay with it. I kept a man with me. We hid the half track in a barn behind a farm house. There was an older lady at the farm house. They left us K Rations for one day, but didn’t come back for 2 days. We were hungry and this German lady knew we were hungry. She killed a pet rabbit and cooked it. That was the best smelling food I’ve ever seen. When she got it cooked, she fixed a plate and handed it to me. I handed it back to her, and told her to eat it first, because I was afraid to take something unless she would eat it too. She laughed and took it and ate it. Then we ate it too. She didn’t give us any trouble and we didn’t give her any trouble.

On the third day, they returned with some food and parts to repair the half track. We repaired it and went in and thanked the German lady for her kindness and she hugged us and wished us well. Then we left.

 

Slipdigit posting for Old Hickory:

This trip at this time was just wild. We were going day in and day out. We traveled over 425 miles. We were crisscrossing and going from one platoon to another. Most of it was really fun.

Old Hickory is still scouting and patrolling. The division moved about 35 or 40 miles this day lead by the Recon. Resistance was light, mostly small arms and panzerfaust. A panzerfaust was a type of weapon that Germans used to knick out armor with.

Most of this was coming from road blocks and most of the towns were not defended. A record number of prisoners was taken this day, 2500 by the division 280 by the Recon.

On this drive, different things happened every day. One night in my section, ten men hid our vehicles behind a large building. We had four German prisoners. We had tied their hands and feet. We heard a number of Germans marching up the road. A trench knife was put to each prisoners’ throat and they were told not to make any noise. They didn’t. The company of Germans marched by. Lying down on the 2nd floor, looking out of a window, I could have spit on them. I didn’t.

One day in a small village, an SS officer put up a white flag, like he was going to surrender, but he didn’t. It was a trick. The Germans captured most of that platoon. Some got away. The whole Recon came back to this village and got out men back and captured the Germans and destroyed the village.

One of my best friends, his name was Harold Works, told me time and time again, that he was going to live to the war was about over, then he was going to get killed. He was killed on April 12, 1945 and the war was over on May 8, 1945. He had a pair of good German binoculars he had taken off a German officer. He said he was going to give them to me. He had them around his neck when he was killed, but I couldn’t take them.

We stopped one evening at a German school house. In this house were 25 young Jewish women, who had run away from a concentration camp. They didn’t have clothes, some had only sacks to cover them. The next morning, we found 2 trailers nearby. The Germans told us they belonged to a circus. We broke them open and one of them was filled with women’s clothing. We turned the Jewish women loose in there and they dressed themselves up!

German soldiers continued to give up. We crossed the Elbe River, but were stopped and ordered to go back to the other side to Magdeburg, where we waited for 8 to 10 days for the Germans. During this time, more Germans wanted to give up before the Russians got there. We also guarded a chocolate factory and a meat storage plant, which was under the ground. There were many stacks of cured hams there. The hams were good but so salty, you had to soak them for many hours before you could cook them to eat them. But, we ate some of them anyway.

The Russians finally got there after we waited for them for 8 to 10 days. The war was over on May 8. There were no celebration where we were. We wondered what was in store for us. I’ll talk to you later about what happened after the war.

 

Please ask Mr. Sanford if he remembers CPL Joe Calabrace (T5). He was my grandfather and served in the 30th Calvary Recon Troop. I'd be delighted to find out that they knew each other. Even if they didn't, I think the interviews you're conducting with Mr. Sanford are fantastic. I did the same with another 30th Recon vet several years ago -- with a gentleman named Joe Robertson, who's since passed away. We became great friends over the seven or so years I was fortunate enough to know him.


You may also ask Mr. Sanford if he remembers:
Wilbur Gaddis
Red Flint
Joe Robertson
and "Dutch"
Kind regards,


Mike Schmid
LT, USN

 

Bless you Old Hickory and best wishes for a quick recovery! Thanks for passing along all the great history as well as the kind of everyday information that makes those days come alive for the rest of us who weren't there. My father served the 113th Cavalry Group-125 Cavalry Reconnaissance that was often attached to the 30th Division. You're all heroes in my book!
I wish I could figure out how to post photos-I have some interesting ones from my father and another 125th veteran. Do you have to upload the photos first to some website, THEN access them by clicking on the "insert image" icon at the top of the message post???

 

.. My Father was 2nd lt Robert Shea , he told me word for word of this exact incident regarding the staff car. He was originally assigned to the 120th infantry reg company f but then volunteered for 30th recon. He was wounded on Christmas Eve after setting up a rear guard action so that the other troops could pull back to a better position. Did you know him, if so I would love to hear from you. Thank you for your heroism.Regards Brendan Shea