Posted by Allan Wilford Howerton "It was 10 o'clock that night, November 18. The 334th's 1st Battalion was dug in on the western side of Prummern. Another hill, this one almost midway between Prummern and Beeck, had to be taken before the night was over. Company B of the 1st Battalion and Company F of the 2nd Battalion was chosen for the job. A patrol was sent out to reconnoiter, to find a route to the new objective. "The patrol came back about 2 in the morning. It brought back important news, more important than a route. Six enemy tanks were just north of Prummern and moving into the town. A half-hour later, at 2:30, the blow fell. From Beeck, from Lindern, and farther back, German artillery began to pour steel into the village. The tanks raked the streets. The place was bedlam. The effect was weird, shells exploding, houses burning, flashes streaking. The barrage lasted a half-hour. Then the tanks moved in. "It was a well-conceived, determined, large-scale counterattack by two companies of the 10th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and the 2nd Battalion of the 33rd Tank Regiment, units of the 9th Panzer Division. All that night Prummern was a no-man's land. From the northern end the enemy's tanks made the whole village unhealthy." The MIAs, approximately 70-80 (about 19 from the Anti-tank Company, 37 from Company C, 16 from Company F, plus several from other units) most likely occurred during this action. Prummern was reoccupied by 84th units by the end of the day, November 20th, and later was the site of Division Headquarters as the drive toward the Roer continued. On November 29, 1944 the village of Lindern, the key high-ground objective, was taken by my unit, Company K, 335th Infantry, and one platoon of Company I-335. But the cost in casualties was high, including even larger numbers of MIAs than in the offensive action around Prummern. Cracking the Siegfried Line exacted a high price. As to the circumstances pertaining to the death of your great uncle, you might want to contact an archivist at the Suitland, Maryland facility of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to see if anything may be found among the division and regimental records. However, it is doubtful if there is further information beyond that in General Bolling's letter to William McGinley's wife. In the research for my Company K-335 memoir, I found little in the records beyond brief notations relating to accidental deaths of this nature. These events are not usually found in after-action reports which deal primarily with battle-action activities. The battle for Lindern and related action in this area, from the viewpoint of Company K and the 3rd Battalion, 335th Infantry, is reported in detail in my memoir, "Dear Captain, et al.: the Agonies and the Ecstasies of War and Memory." Link: "Dear Captain, et al."
on July 3, 2007, 3:59 pm, in reply to "Re: 11-NOV-1944"
152.163.100.77
The MIAs on November 18/19, 1944 occurred during the 84th Division's first and second day of offensive action as part of an Allied effort to break through German defenses along the Siegfried Line in the vicinity of Geilenkirchen, Germany. The objective was to take and hold high ground occupied by a string of villages protecting the approaches to the Roer River. The First Battalion of the 334th Infantry supported by the regiment's Anti-tank Company captured the village of Pummern, one of the major objectives, in the early afternoon of November 18. During the night of November 18/19 the Germans counterattacked in force. The following is from the division history, "The 84th Infantry Division in the Battle of Germany" by Lt. Theodore Draper (pages 20-21):
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