December 21, 2024: Footsteps

Today Rob and I met with Jean-Phillippe (JP) Speder, Jean-Louis Seel (Lou) and Marc Marique who helped retrace my Dad’s whereabouts in Bulligen at the start of the Battle of the Bulge. They try to find MIAs from WWII and have been supported by the 99th division. Dad called them “The Diggers.” They knew my father well and wanted to honor him by spending time with me.

JP, Lou, and Marc have to be careful because there are a lot of unexploded ordinances. The Belgians find 250 TONS of bombs each year, every year.

Here is their website: http://www.miaproject.net/about-us/

They cleared up some questions that I had and gave some meaning and context to his time in Belgium.

The German cities of Malmedy, St Vith, and Eupen became part of Belgium in the aftermath of World War I. This region, which had formerly been part of the German Empire, was allocated to Belgium by the Treaty of Versailles. It was formally annexed after a controversial referendum in 1920, becoming part of Liège Province in 1925.

The Belgians never really thought that these former German citizens were true to Belgium. And when Nazi Germany brought their fight into Belgium, their suspicions were founded as some people were glad and welcomed the opportunity to be German again. Others did not welcome Nazism.

When Nazi Germany invaded Belgium, the Belgian soldiers were defeated and taken to POW camps. However, when Germany declared that Belgium was now Germany, all the POWs were set free as they were now Germans due to re-annexation. So then these Belgian soldiers were now German soldiers.

So they slapped German uniforms on the soldiers and sent them to fight on the Russian front because they didn’t trust them. Most of the Belgian soldiers never returned home. Can you imagine fighting against Hitler and then dying as a German soldier?? After World War II this area was returned to Belgium in 1945.

Lou’s grandmother was born in Büllingen. She spoke German as did most everyone then and still today. It must have been a crazy time for her. She said one mother sewed her son’s Belgian record into his coat so that he could tell the Russians that he wasn’t German. He was Belgian. He was never heard from again.

Elsenborn camp was built in 1895 and was a German army training camp specializing in artillery after the Prussian War. The wind always blows in Elsenborn and is known as the coldest place in Belgium.

Here is where the 99th Division was fighting to hold the northern shoulder. Most historical scholars will say that the Battle of the Bulge was won on the northern shoulder of Elsenborn Ridge. They sent so many deafening shells that the sky was black. The Germans were not able to take it.

Stewart’s outfit reorganized but remained part of the 99th division. He spent most of the early days of the offensive in Viviers. Viviers was a supply depot. Stewart was likely shuttling ammo and food nonstop to the front. The First Army needed 1,000 tons of support per day. And that is just the First Army. Germany was out resourced!!

Stewart was a jeep driver so he had the benefit of knowing where places were. An infantry man only knows his foxhole. Based on Stewart’s notes, he didn’t have a hot meal for 17 days which meant he was likely freezing in a foxhole.

Jeeps were not helpful during the winter snow and mud. Certainly, he ferried supplies by driving other winter hardy vehicles.

Stewart was in the 99th Division which was part of the First Army. Spa was the headquarters of the 1st Army. In March the 99th Division was attached to the Third Army with Patton.

Reconstructing a Pictorial Path of December 17, 1944

Panzer tanks came rolling into the town of Büllingen on this road from Honsfeld. POW’s from Stewart’s unit remember that they were required to march down this road back toward Honsfeld over the tops of dead US soldiers.

Bernie Pappel was shot and killed on this spot by Josef Diefenthal: SS-
Stadtkommandant. Josef Diefenthal was tried for this war crime. He appeared on German newsreels and was known to wear a specific coat. That is how he was identified.

Grant Yeager ran to this thin hedgerow and fired a bazooka. Grant did not have a sight and just looked down the barrel and shot. It disabled the tank and took it off its track. It was blocking the road which delayed their advance.

Stewart mentioned hedgerow fighting as he crossed France en route to Büllingen. Hedgerows in Normandy were thick and provided cover for the fighting men. The hedgerows in Büllingen were thin offering no protection.

This is the road coming from Honsfeld into Büllingen that would be the view from the German tanks .

The brown building is likely built over the marshy area through which Stewart escaped. The bridge probably was where the crosswalk is.

Roger Foehringer, another 924th Field Artillery Service Battery soldier, was in this exact house the at fork in the road. The road on the left is the path of the tanks. Roger was then taken prisoner.

The next pictures are the path that the tanks took as they entered Büllingen. #1

It was suggested that this might be the road that the trailers were parked next to the house where Stewart was billeted.

The house that he was in no longer exists but based on his hand drawn map several days after his escape this house was built on the spot.

The children’s playground is where the fuel was stored in Bullingen.

Stewart may have come across this field on the left and then crossed the road. Again the airstrip of Piper Cubs from the 2nd Division was located beyond the field.

Stewart didn’t mention a gully but this gully would have been his route of escape before crossing the road.

He may have run through here. He mentions crossing a field and pausing at a barn and a house. This old barn on the right COULD be a possibility.

This is an old barn. Perhaps the one in Stewart’s drawing.

Our day was full of could be here and might have been there but the bottom line is that these men were here and unknowingly WERE the front line. They only had two bazookas and one machine gun. Each man had a M-1 rifle and everyone was a war fighter that day. The cook grabbed the bazooka but didn’t know that he was pointing it the wrong way.

These men and others along the sparsely defended lines caused delays which were significant in slowing the German advance.

After the war ended in Europe, VE Day, Stewart then became part of the Army of Occupation by being part of the 1st Division.

December 21, 2024: Footsteps

Reconstructing a Pictorial Path of December 17, 1944

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