Bitche3 - The George C. Marshall Foundation

• Keeping vital roads passable was a full-time job for the
engineers. Right, refugees returning to Rohrbach after the
town was liberated by Centurymen.
nose of hill south of Rimling and pointing southwest
toward Gros Rederching. The maintenance and kitchen
installations of the 374th F A Battalion moved south
to Rahling to get them away from enemy shell fire.
The reason for these changes in position was that
the 44th Div. had been forced back to lines south of
Gros Rederching so that the flank of the 397th Inf.
was unprotected for about 5000 yards south of Schleitzen
Hill. Coming through the gap between the 100th
and the 44th, the enemy had pushed 150 men and
four tanks into the town of Achen where two battalions
of the 255th Inf. 63rd Div. had been holding secondary
defense positions along the Maginot Line.
Though without artillery support, the battalions counterattacked
and retook the town thereby ending the
German threat to turn the flanks of both the 100th
and the 44th Divisions.
Although the enemy main effort on the fourth day
of his offensive was directed against the 44th Div.
to the west of our lines, he also tried and failed to
drive Co. G. of the 397th from the hill south of
Schlietzen. On our eastern flank, the Germans attempted
to push Co. A of the 399th from high ground
but elsewhere on the regimental front was content to
hold the forward slopes of the hills whose reverse
slopes were occupied by the 3rd Battalion of the
399th.
In the most thrilling action of the day, Co. K of the
255th Inf. sent a 26-man patrol from near Lambach
out to Reyersviller and killed 30 enemy with the loss
of a single man.
On this day, also, Col. Andrew C. Tychsen was offi-
— 113 —
cially appointed Assistant Division Commander.
During the next two days, 5 and 6 January, the
division made a number of changes in its lines. The
1st and 3rd Battalions of the 398th effected a double
relief with the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 255th;
which means, in military terminology, that the units
changed places with each other. The 1st Battalion of
the 398th took up west flank positions for the division
to the northwest of Achen, and the 3rd Battalion
moved to the east of Achen. The 2nd Battalion of the
398th was attached to the 399th and took the reserve
positions of the 3rd Battalion of the 255th Inf. around
Lambach, allowing the latter battalion to move to the
area east of Petit Rederching, in reserve positions for
its own regiment.
In the 397th Sector, the 2nd Battalion took over
from the 3rd Battalion though Co. L remained in its
lines to the east of Rimling. In the relief, Cos. E and
F moved to Schlietzen Hill and the area just south of
it to the west of Rimling, and Cos. K and I moved
back to the vicinity of Rohrbach and Bining for a rest.
Only the 2nd Platoon of Co. E had trouble moving
into these new positions. The platoon was preceded
up the slope by three light tanks whose fire drove the
enemy from the knob the platoon was to occupy. The
riflemen went into foxholes and the tanks withdrew
to the reverse slope of the hill for the night. The
enemy attacked, apparently thinking that the tanks
had gone. The attack was beaten off, as were three
more during the night though one of them was preceded
by an artillery preparation. Because of this
heavy night fighting, the wounded could not be taken
back for medical care.
Germans who had infiltrated to the northeast, or
right rear of the platoon, kept the men pinned down