The feeling was universal. The GI’s fighting to liberate Europe felt in their hearts that the coming New Year would be the last year of the war.[1]

Sergeant Murray Soskil wrote:

I spent New Year’s Eve at a foxhole in the Vosges Mountains. No drinks, no hot food, just our C-rations. Come nightfall, we started digging foxholes.

Digging foxholes in freezing weather was not a simple task. We were exhausted before we started. Digging cost you to perspire in with the wind and freezing cold temperatures, the sweat froze and made you feel worse.

There were two men to a hole. Each man took turns watching out for the enemy or catching some Zs. Looking out into the darkness, hearing all kinds of frightening sounds, was nerve-racking. Two hours on watch and two hours of sleep did not allow you much rest.

After a strenuous day of fighting, you had to resist falling asleep on guard duty because falling asleep on guard duty was the most serious offense in the Army.

For New Year’s Eve, our artillery gave the enemy a tremendous bombardment.[2]

~~~~~

On New Year’s Eve, 1944, Corp. Paul-Arthur Zeihe of the German 11th Panzer Division was on the front line near Trier. He said:

Just before midnight the shootings stopped almost entirely as the clock struck twelve.

The Americans began with their fireworks, sending an illuminated rockets into the air.

Suddenly, by the light of their rockets, we saw the Americans getting out of their holes, clutching their rifles and pistols, jumping, skipping around, shooting their weapons and lighting up the whole valley.

I can still see them before me today, caught against the light of the rockets, prancing around on a background of fresh snow.

It did not take long before we were doing the same thing, firing off illuminated rockets, shooting our weapons.

It lasted about five, maybe six minutes. It slowed, then stopped.

We disappeared back into our holes, and so did they.

It was one of the most beautiful experiences I had during my service. We had allowed our humanity to rise that once.[3]

~~~~~

After the brief celebration, the war continued through the freezing dark. Soskil added:

We spent the night hugging one another to keep warm. We tucked newspapers under our uniforms to insulate our bodies and keep out the wind, and we put leaves on top of us to act as blankets.

Looking up from the foxhole at night after the snow stopped, I saw a full moon[4] and the sky filled with stars.

It warmed my heart a little to know that this same sky was looking down over my loved ones, and my mind kept drifting homeward.

Even so I had a hard time sleeping myself. My clothes were wet and I was shivering and shaking with cold. We already had quite a lot of snow but at night we got a little more to add to our misery.

In the foxhole we got little interrupted sleep because of the threat of enemy patrols sneaking up on us. Every sound made us jumpy. Strange noises and imaginary shadows added to our fears. There was no smoking or talking allowed because sound and light traveled quite a distance.

As we lay there freezing, we were startled by the noise of our won booby traps exploding. For the rest of the night we held our weapons at the ready, expecting an attack.

In the morning, however, to our relief we discovered it had been a false alarm. Rabbits had triggered the traps and their dead bodies lay sprawled on the ground, frozen fragments of flesh and fur.[2]

~~~~~

Maj. John Harrison wrote:

I have seen quite a few New Years, including the Times Square one, but I never saw one like last night. Just before 2400 the artillery all along the front opened up throwing everything in the book at the Kraut, and on the stroke of midnight the AA began firing everything from 50 cals to 90mm’s filling the sky with lead poison for any Lamplight Charlie [a lone German bomber that came over at night to do some harassing].

Believe me it was some spectacle from where I watched it some ten miles away. You could see the big guns belch flames and also the flash that a few seconds later filled the sky. The noise was a rumble. It was truly a New Year’s greeting but the Krauts out in front will not forget. Too, it is no doubt the loneliness and coldest New Year’s Eve that many Americans have ever spent.[5]

~~~~~

As the year 1944 ended enemy patrols and artillery fire became particularly heavy, causing numerous casualties. By the end of 31 December, it was clear that the battle to reduce the Colmar pocket was stalemated.

Phil’s 30th Infantry Regiment was now extended thinly over a wide front with the mission of holding an MLR extending two thousand meters east of Sigolsheim to the heart of the Bois Communal de Kayeseberg east of Kayserberg.[6]

The task ahead would be daunting, to say the least.

~~~~~

[1] Ambrose. Citizen Soldiers, 370.

[2] Soskil, From The Bronx to Berchtesgaden, 111-112.

[3] Paul-Arthur Zeihe interview by Hugh Ambrose, EC. Quoted in: Ambrose: Citizen Soldiers, 369-370.

[4] The full moon was actually Friday, 29 December 1944.

[5] John Harrison letters, EC. Quoted in: Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, 370.

[6] Prohme. 298.

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