November Footnote 4: "shelling"

" . . . the 2nd Battalion, bothered but little by enemy artillery the first night in its Vossenack Ridge positions, retained its defensive role. The men noticed an increase in enemy shelling on 3 November, and those on the forward slopes of the exposed ridge discovered they could not move from their holes in daylight without drawing the fury of enemy artillery and mortars. The ridge became more and more pock-marked with the eruption of shells . . and the building housing the battalion command post was hit several times. Night brought intermittent relief from the shelling and became a period of almost frantic resupply." Charles MacDonald, Three Battles, 285-6

" . . . Germans began concentrating mortar and artillery fire on successive individual foxholes, firing round after round at each one until they killed its inhabitants. Then they shifted fire to the next hole and began the process over again. It was a cold-blooded, nerve-shattering, and extremely effective device. Defenders knew they would continue to face imminent death every hour they remained on the Vossenack Ridge." Cecil B. Curry, Follow Me and Die: The Destruction of an American Division in WW2, 112.

Return to HQ Company: 112th Infantry: November 1944