utm fk

dad’s luger | February 2020 g&a 63
For reasons unknown, the
pistol was carried in a swiss
holster with the muzzle end
trimmed off rather than the
usual hardshell german holster.
This left the muzzle unprotected,
but makes the ensemble all the
more interesting.
The “s/42” mark indicates manufacture
at the Mauser factory in Oberndorf. The
1937 date is correct with the excellent
prewar finish having straw colors and
bright blue parts. The gun was likely in
storage for years before being issued.
We were charging out of some woods when
we were attacked by the Panzer, but one of
our bazooka teams hit the Panzer. I ran up
to the tank and jumped on it.
You know that’s what the procedure
was. After you hit one with a bazooka you
were supposed to jump on the tank and throw grenades in the
hatch. I noticed that the hatch was partially open and I pulled it
open to throw a grenade in.
It looked like a side of meat hanging there, it didn’t look like
a person. He hadn’t just been hit in the head, his head was gone,
his lungs had been sucked out and you could see his rib cage. I
thought, Wow! I didn’t see anybody else moving in the tank. Then
I noticed he was wearing a Luger. I just cut his belt off and took
the belt with the holster and put it in my musette bag.”
My father had given me his 1945 506th PIR (Parachute Infantry
Regiment) scrapbook with very detailed maps of the major
actions involving the 506th. There were also detailed maps of
the actions at Bastogne, day by day. It also contained a period
topographic map of the Bastogne area that showed where woods
were. From these maps, I was able to locate where and when the
action my father described had to have taken place.
Gen. George Patton’s Third Army broke the siege of Bastogne
on Christmas Day, 1945. The 101st and attached units began
being resupplied by ground on December 27th. Rather than being
relieved, the 101st was ordered to hold and then lead the counterattack
to push the Germans back.
A part of this effort to push the
Germans back was the attack and capture
of Foy by 506 PIR E and I companies on
January 13 and 14, 1945. At the end of this combat,
I Company was down to less than a platoon: 21 men. This is the
engagement my father was talking about when he said he captured
the Luger after Foy. I Company and the rest of 3rd Battalion
were then withdrawn and held in reserve in the woods north of
Bastogne near Lake Fazone, which is no longer there.
I Company was not in combat again until January 16, when it
participated in a regimental attack that pushed the Germans east
of the small town of Wicourt. There were only two wooded areas
along I Company’s line of advance. There were woods northwest of
Noville, but this area had been taken by 1st Battalion 506th on January
15. In addition, 3rd Battalion’s line-of-advance was just north
of Vaux, which would have taken them north of these woods.
There were also woods southwest of Wicourt that I Company
had to have advanced through. The action my father described in
which he captured the Luger occurred on January 16, 1945, and
had to have taken place just north of the woods, southwest of
Wicourt, Belgium.