Phil and his new company were back at war. Daily the entire 30th Infantry Regiment maintained active and deep patrolling, improving defensive positions by clearing fields of fire, laying mines, and installing tactical and protective wire. Secondary defensive positions were developed by Phil’s 3rd Battalion on the high ground north of Kayersberg.[1]

Night lasted so long in those northern latitudes. Dusk began to come on around 1600 or 1615. By 1645 if was full dark. First light didn’t come up for sixteen hours.  It was bitterly cold, even for the GIs from Montana or North Dakota. If was frequently below zero and generally damp, with low clouds blowing in from the North Sea and a fog that penetrated everywhere—when it wasn’t snowing. Then the wind blew like a gale, driving the pellets of snow into their faces. It was Northern Europe’s coldest winter in forty years.[2]

~~~~~

Col. Ralph Ingersoll was an intelligence officer. He described the cold: “Riding [in a jeep] through the Ardennes, I wore woolen underwear, a woolen uniform, armored force combat overalls, a sweater, an armored force field jacket with elastic cuffs, a muffler, a heavy lined trenchcoat, two pairs of heavy woolen sock, and combat boots with galoshes over them—and I cannot remember ever being warm.”[3]

~~~~~

Ingersoll was lucky. Although it was windy in an open jeep, it was dry, and he was much better dressed for the cold than any GI on the line. The infantrymen’s clothing was woefully, even criminally inadequate.[2]

This was because of an unfortunate command decision General Omar Bradley had made in September.

He had decided to keep weapons, ammunition, food, and replacements moving forward at the expense of winter clothing, betting that the campaign would be over before December.[4]

As a consequence, the men in the holes had few of the items Ingersoll wore.[2]

Their footwear—leather combat boots—were almost worse than useless. Whenever the temperature went above freezing, they were standing in two to twenty inches of water, which the leather soaked up.[5]

~~~~~

War wan’t just miserable for the men in the Colmar Pocket, it was a frozen hell.

~~~~~

[1] Prohme, 297.

[2] Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, 258.

[3] Ingersol, Top Secret, 111.

[4] Cowdrey, Fighting for Life, 259.

[5] Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, 259.

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