Ed Nicholson’s Account of His Experiences in August 1944
With the 167th Combat Army Engineering
It was nearly midnight August 3, 1944 when the 167th Engineering Battalion boarded an LST, but we did not sail for France until the 5th. The two American beaches were called Omaha and Utah and are still known by that name to the troops who landed there.
We arrived at Utah Beach before noon and pulled as close to shore as we could until the ships grounded on sand. We waited until the tide went out, which left us sitting high and dry. The front ramp was let down and we drove off the boat onto the sand, then to the beach, then to a road built by other engineers and then to the regular highway. Didn’t even have a chance to get my feet wet!
We went through Valognes to Bricquebec, where we spent our first night. We made a big jump one night to Fourgeres, leaving at 10:30pm in the dark and drove to about 10:30 am the next morning where we reached our bivouac area. We went through Lessay, Countenance, Granville and Avarnanches. The Germans were bombing Avaraches when we arrived, so we had to detour around it. Some bitter fighting took place there and the town changed hands a couple of times.
It was from Forgeres that I began doing reconnaissance work. Our assignment was to follow along behind the trucks hauling troops, supplies and like, check on damage to roads and bridges and determine what was needed to make repairs. I believe this was the second time Newlin and I had been together on reconnaissance and we were told that this would be a permanent assignment. From Fourgeres, we covered the road from Laval to Vitra to Rennes. At night, all vehicles drove with only their marker lights on, which meant the driver was staring ahead to be sure he could see the back of the vehicle ahead of him and also be sure he didn't drive off the road. I think it was in Rennes in late evening, we decided to pull out of the convoy and stretch our legs. We stopped at a crossroads in town with an MP directing traffic. Suddenly a light shone in an upstairs window of a building. The MP didn't hesitate just swung his carbine and began firing. The light when out and blackout was enforced!
On Saturday, August 12, while we were bivouacked in woods near Laval, Lt. Cote told Newlin and I that the company was moving to a new area. He needed our jeep and driver. Lt. Ziegler would be in charge now and would use his own jeep and driver, Ron Baker. Lt. Ziegler had the map of an area to be checked out and the location of our new camp.
It was a strange morning. We drove through the small towns of Evron, Sille-Le-Guillame, St. Martins and we were the first American troops in town. We also saw two or three French civilians walking along the road with Sten machine guns slung over their shoulder and intermittently heard German tanks in the distance. The last area we had to check out was Villanines la Juhel. We sat in a jeep at a crossroads looking toward the town. We can see the road had been mined, but Baker said he could get around them as it was obvious where they were placed. We decided while it was an uneasy morning we hadn't encountered any Germans so we would proceed and complete our mission. We went up the road and were about a kilometer from the village, when the German infantry who were dug in along the opposite side of the road opened fire. While some of the bullets went through the windshield and over us, no one was hit. Baker slammed on the brakes and Ziegler said “Hit the ground!” Three of us rolled out and into the ditch and prepared to fire. I noticed that the jeep was backing into a telephone pole and Baker was still in it. I called out that I would check on Baker but Ziegler said to cover him as he was close. When Lt. Ziegler rose from the ditch to look into the jeep, the Germans began throwing hand grenades from the other side of the road. Ziegler was struck by shrapnel. He pulled out a handkerchief waved it and told us all to surrender. The Germans took our rifles and Ziegler’s pistol, and I took my first-aid kit and bandaged Lieutenant Ziegler's wounds.
The Germans then marched us down the road a few yard hundred yards, where they were camped. The jeep was also brought to the farm and officer asked Newland and me a few questions and then told us we were to bury Baker. We were handed shovels and marched to an open area where his body was lying. We dug grave placed Baker's body and its Newland said a prayer. Then we filled in the grave and Newland got a piece of wood, shoved it in the ground and placed Baker's helmet on it. (The next day American troops saw the grave and had Baker's body moved to an American Cemetery.) In the afternoon we were taken to a château about a half mile from Carrouges. It was there that the three of us were separately interrogated. There weren't SS troops so we really weren't threatened for not talking. The only threat, if you could call it that was that Lt. Ziegler, who was obviously in a great deal of pain would not be taken to a hospital until we answered their questions. (Comment: Lieutenant Ziegler was taken to a hospital, later to a prisoner of war camp and remained there until the war was over.)
When our interrogation was finished, Newlin and I were told that in the morning we would be taken to a prisoner of war camp. We were then taken to the top floor of the chateau where a guard stationed outside a locked door. We were surprised when we entered the room to find four infantrymen from the First Division. Also prisoners. We had quite a discussion.
In the morning we could look out our window and see a wide area of the country. Then some American planes came over and we heard rifle fire. No one came to take us downstairs and the morning dragged on. Finally, in the late morning, we notice the Germans were lining up trucks just off the road alongside the trees so they couldn’t be seen from the air. Some guards came and marched us down to the road and ordered us to sit down across from the trucks. We could hear a lot of gunfire both German and American. The sergeant in charge swung up onto the lead truck and said, “Alf Wiedersehen,” and the trucks pulled out -- and we were headed for the woods thankful we hadn’t been shot.
We had a problem. We were in uniform, but we had no weapons to defend ourselves. So, we headed further into the woods and laid down. After a while, we saw individual German infantry at the edge of the woods, retreating. We could hear rifle fire but saw no Allied infantry. In the morning we saw some Free French tanks come up the road but they turned back. Next some American planes came over and the Germans (who had set up an anti-aircraft gun alongside the château, so they would not be readily seen from the air) opened fire. Soon some of our planes came over and dropped bombs. They got the anti-aircraft gun but also set the château on fire, which was ultimately destroyed. We saw more German troops retreating. Later in the morning, more tanks came up the road and one of the men I think it was Jackson said “they've got to be our guys,” and he ran onto the road. They turned out to be the Free French Armored and they marched us into town and turned us over to an American officer. We were given a quick interrogation then taken back to near St. Lo, where we were cleared through IS9 (part of Supreme headquarters). They were checking to see if were we really prisoners or were we deserters, who got swept up in the fighting?
I think now is a good time to digress. The American and British armies had decided to conduct a pincer movement to trap the Germans. It is generally referred to as the Argentan/Falaise Gap. Unfortunately, the British couldn't move as fast as the Americans, and when the Germans realized how many of their troops could be trapped, they ordered them out at all costs. Had the pincer movement worked, the war would have ended much sooner than it did. Apparently the troops who had captured us got orders to get out, and they had to do it fast. They probably didn't want prisoners with them. When I think about it I landed in France on Saturday, August 5, was captured on Saturday, August 12 (just a week after landing), was released on August 13 and back in American hands by Monday, August 14. With regards to our situation this is some of what I learned after I rejoined the company. The third armored had gone through Villanine-la-Juhel, which was listed as cleared, so we were given orders to check the roads and bridges area. The armored went through that town and turned right. The Germans moved out, but when our infantry didn't arrive immediately, which was impossible to do in every town, they moved back and prepared to mine the road. The Germans wanted to do what ever damage they could before being driven back out for good. This has happened many times, but so many lives were saved by the armored driving through and forcing the enemy out that the few cases where the Germans moved back, it was more than offset.
I think about the fortunes of war. Lt. Ziegler and his driver would not normally have been with us. But they were. Baker was killed. Ziegler became a POW and remained one until the war ended nine months later. Newland, and I were temporary POWs, but because our captors had to evacuate in a hurry we were released; the “breaks” came in our favor.
Now back to when we were returned to the American army. IS9 cleared us and sent us to the Third Replacement Depot to be returned to our Companies. For Newlin and I, the catch was that this Depot was in the First Army and our moves with them kept taking us further and further from the Third Army. Besides, this replacement Depot did not have our records. In addition, the officer in charge felt that we should not go back on the line there, but either should be sent back to the states or to the war in the Pacific. For those reasons he didn't seem to be in a hurry to transfer us back to the Third Army.
When we didn't return from our recon mission on August 12, the Army was notified and they sent a telegram to my wife, Vi. It said I was missing in action, which of course was very unsettling. Then shortly thereafter, she received another telegram saying I was captured by the enemy.
In the meantime, Newlin and I were both writing home saying, we were temporarily away from the company. Somehow the Army wasn't getting the information that we were back. I guess we hadn't thought of the Army reporting us missing and felt they would know of our return before any telegrams were sent. We were wrong. The result? Vi was getting my letters dated after August 13 when I was supposed to be a POW. She was in turn telegraphing the War Department and writing my platoon commander, Lt. Hurkbutt. Vi was very upset trying to make heads and tails out of telegrams and letters. Over time it got straightened out.