43rd Field Artillery Battalion   (A Short History from the 8th Division Artillery 'Blue Book' printed in 1945.)

June 1, 1941 marks the birthday of the 43rd. Field Artillery Battalion.  On that date, the Battalion was activated, with the cadre drawn from the 28th Field Artillery Battalion.  Fort Jackson S. C. was the location.  Men started to come in to fill the ranks from all parts of the country, and a training period was entered upon, which lasted three years, taking us all over the United States and Northern Ireland

Carolina maneuvers, Fort Jackson for a rest, duty along the Atlantic Coast line in the early days of the war, guarding against enemy infiltration.  Again a short rest at Fort Jackson, and then on to Fort Sill Ok., as school troops.  From there to Tennessee maneuvers, ending at Camp Forest Tenn.., which was but a stepping stone for our trip to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo..  And out  of the cold winter, we left for Desert maneuvers in the Arizona - California desert, in the vicinity of Yuma Az..  Back east again to Camp Forest Tenn., and finally to Camp Kilmer, N.J. and the N.Y. Port of Embarkation.  Our sea voyage started on December 5, 1943, and to the regret of many victims of the ocean,  took until December 16 , when our  “beloved”  U.S.S. Excelsior, debarked us at Belfast, N. I. , United Kingdom.  Camp Aughentaine in County Tyrone was home to us for six months.  This was a period of very intensive training and inspections for readiness for combat.

June 6th.. and the invasion, finds us there, ready for action; which was not long in coming.  Leaving from Belfast on June 27, we arrived off Omaha Beach in the early hours of July 4th.. celebrating the day with the customary fireworks.  Only this time instead of fire crackers, they were tracers, fired at German planes trying to bomb the ships in the harbor.  At  0645, July 4, 1944, the first elements of the battalion set foot on the continent.  Our training period was over.

Three years had been spent preparing us for combat, and now we were ready for it.  In those years we trained for the hard task ahead of us.  We had fired demonstrations for Mr. Churchill, Lord Mountbatten, Generals Marshall, Eisenhower, Lear and many others.  Now we were ready to demonstrate to the German Army what we had learned.

At Omaha Beach, we saw,  for the first time the effect of modern warfare.  Ruined houses and shell craters, smashed vehicles and German Pillboxes;  “Minen”  markers were all over, and only narrow lanes were clear for us, marked by narrow white tape.  Dropping our duffel bags we marched by  to an assembly area where during the rest of the day the whole Battalion arrived.  Next step was to go to a bivouac area, well within hearing distance of the front.  There near Montebourg, France, we spent our first night with the sound of artillery in our ears.  We were to come to know the sound very well, during the next ten months.

Next day, the Division Artillery was attached to the 90th Infantry Division to support their effort to drive forward, off the Cotetin  Peninsula.  There for the first time, we were familiarized with “incoming mail.”  a very familiar sound, but not a welcome one in the days to come.  And here too, we fired for the first time at the enemy.  Being new at the job and in the general confusion no one noticed weather Battery A or Battery C fired the first round.  Up to the day of this writing, the argument has not been settled, and from time to time we still argued over it.

Division control was assumed July 9 and the Division moved forward, taking La Haye de Puits.  The battalion dug in and for about 12 days stayed in one place, getting ready for the big attack.

July 25th dawned a beautiful, cloudless sky was over us.  But it was not an empty sky;  thousands and thousands of planes, Liberators, Flying Forts, and fighter planes roared over our heads; and under us the ground trembled from the tons of bombs that were dropped on the German lines.  Artillery all over the land opened up, tanks revved  up their motors; the first big drive was on.

Attached to the Forth Armored Division, the 13th Combat Team moved down the Cotentin Peninsula at a breakneck speed;  the battalion, jumping from position to position, always trying to be within range of the enemy.  Coutances, Avranches, on toward Rennes, capital of Normandy.  The eve of August 3 found us just a few miles outside of this city, preparing to fire a preparation for the Infantry, prior to entering it.  But just a few minutes before H-hour, word came that the Germans had evacuated, and hard on the heels of tanks and infantry we moved to the biggest city to fall to the United States Army in France up to that day.  Never will any of us forget the delirious reception the people gave us;  we were showered with flowers, girls jumped on the vehicles to kiss the liberating solders, wine and Calvados flowed freely.  But what was the best to us, was the large German arsenal we found;  what souvenirs!

The Germans having retreated before the Sixth Armored Division, the Eighth Division was left at Rennes to defend the city in case of a surprise attack.  And there we remained 12 restful days.  We needed them, too, to relax, to clean up equipment and ourselves.

In the meantime, the enemy occupied Brest, and dug in.  Estimated at about 30,000 strong, three divisions were detailed to clean this so important port in a short time.  The Second Division on the left, the 8th Division in the center, 29th Division on the right.  But as warfare never follows plans exactly,  it took a full month to reduce Brest, claimed as the strongest fortified position on the continent.  Never will we forget the efforts to take Hill 88, and the sacrifices it cost us.  But, try as they did, it didn’t avail the Germans any, and we advanced until our sector was so small that we were pinched out.  Orders came down to pull out, and go over to the Crozon Peninsula where strong groups of Germans, under General Ramcke, were dug in, in pillboxes under 40 feet of concrete, determined to make a strong last ditch stand on direct order from Hitler.

To Combat Team 13 fell the task to clean up.  The 43rd took control of all the artillery units in the vicinity and synchronized barrages from five battalions of artillery followed  each other rapidly moving up ahead of the infantry.  It was too much for the Krauts,and September 19 brought surrender and victory, thus ending the “Northern France Campaign” for us.

A short period of recuperation followed by a long four day drive through liberated France.  We had our first glimpse of Paris, went through the Maginot Line at Sedan; Belgium, Luxembourg, on into the Ardennes, where we assumed a position of defense in preparation for winter.  A very peculiar position it was;  three firing batteries on German soil,  Headquarters Battery in Belgium, and Service Battery in Luxembourg.

Relieving the 28th Infantry Division, we took over our sector, and Battery A, at 1545, 2 October 1944, fired the first round , from German soil onto German soil.  The Rineland Campaign had begun.

Six more or less uneventful weeks followed.  We shot routine fire-missions hampered by a vary of small allotment of ammunition, but always on the alert against possible German counter-attacks.  Winter overtook us, plenty of snow fell, and game being plentiful in the forest we supplemented our rations with deer meat.

On the 16th of November, we again moved north this time, crossing the Siegfried Line, to take position in front of Schmidt, Germany in the vicinity of the large Roer River Dams.  This was the Hurtgen Forest and there is no need to tell of the hardships we underwent there, for they are known as among the hardest in the battles of Europe.

December 17 and the breakthrough of the Germans in the Ardennes found us living in log huts in the middle of the forest: and we remained in this position, protecting the flank against counter-attacks.  Daily air attacks were part of our routine schedule, and Hitler promised the highest military honors to the German Commander who’d succeeded in breaking our lines.  But to no avail.  We held fast, until the enemy was thrown back, and we were ready to cross the Roer River.

In order to accomplish this, the Battalion took position opposite the town of Duren; and the Germans knowing what was about to happen, shelled us continuously.  Jet planes tried to strafe and bomb us.  But, the attack was planned, and after one of the most potent artillery preparations of the war, the Infantry crossed the river.  The object: the Rhineland and Cologne.  The date 23 Feb. 1945.

In support of the 121st Infantry Regiment we moved forward day and night against strong German resistance.  Neither plane nor tanks, artillery or infantry could stop us.  And finally Cologne fell,  the Rhine had been reached.

Relieving the First Infantry Division, we took up position between Cologne and Bonn for a short period, moving back into the out-skirts of Cologne on the 20th of March.  The front lines;  The Rhine. It was quite a period for us.  Further south, however at Remagen the Rhine had been crossed, and we knew it was just a matter of days until we too, would cross this formidable barrier into the heart of  Germany.  And we did, on March 28.  This part of our fighting came to be known as the “Rineland Campaign.”

Crossing the Rhine, our initial objective was to take position along the line of the Sieg River, and then to cross the river driving north until contact could be made with the forces driving down to meet us.  The Germans, however, had different ideas,  and tried the best to convert us to their way of thinking.  It didn’t help them though.

Reaching the river, plans were made for crossing it, in order to take the city of Siegen itself.  And here, the enemy tried every trick in the book to stop us. Continuous counter-attacks, and infiltration of SS men into our lines were unsuccessful, however, and once again we started on one of our races, leapfrog jumping by Battery all the time, clearing our positions of snipers, and taking more prisoners than we could handle.  There was no way of stopping us, that the Germans knew, and the link-up with the northern forces was finally effected.

A completely new type of problem faced us, one we had not been trained for: Occupational Duty.  We came to know slave labor camps, and the way Hitler treated the underdog.  We didn’t like it and proved it to the population of Germany by forcing them to give up their hordes of food in favor of the starved prisoners.  The Germans didn’t like that but obeyed.

To us, however, it was more or less a peaceful period, with plenty of sleep, hot water and clean clothes.

Again we were relived, and another long trip brought us to the location of what was to be our last battle against the almost defeated Germany.  Our commander: Field Marshall Montgomery, of the British Second Army, to which the XVIII Corps, Airborne, with us under its command, was attached.

Position was taken up along the Elbe River on April 29, so close to the river that the building housing our command post served as the Battalion observation post at the same time.  We were in direct support of the 505th Parachute Regiment, a component of the 82nd Airborne Division.  The infantry crossed the river in assault boats and as soon as the engineers had completed the bridge, we crossed;  on the first day of May, 1945.  After two rapid displacements, in support of the 13th Infantry Regiment, we reached the position from which we fired our last rounds in combat.  It was fired by Battery C at 1930 hours of the same day.

The enemy defense crumbled, and located in the vicinity of Vietz,  Northern Germany, we established roadblocks, and took countless prisoners, herding them into a stockade on the grounds of a German airport nearby.  And there it was that  V-E Day overtook us.  The Battle of Central Europe was over, Germany defeated.

Occupational duties followed, but not too strenuous; plenty of rest, USO shows, movies and entertainment was available to us.  we moved to comfortable quarters in Hagenow, and took life easy.  For the first time in ten months.

Relived by the British, we moved to a new  location in the vicinity of Kassel, Central Germany.  And from there on June 14, 1945, we left for La Harve, Port of Embarkation.

This time getting ready for another sea voyage was a pleasure.  For the goal was home and a 30-day furlough.  Our boat, the “General Squier,” left port on the 30th day of June and on July 8, we sighted land.  God’s country had been reached.  The rest is easily told.  Hampton Road Port of Embarkation near Norfork, Va., Camp Patrick Henry and home!  Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., was assigned to us as a re-assembly Station.  But, V-J Day came, and with it discharge started.

It was a long trek, and a very costly one.  A total of 127,399 rounds of 105-mm. Howitzer ammunition was fired.  Out of 512 Officers and Enlisted Men, 51 received the Purple Heart, 11 of them posthumously.  Nine members of the battalion received the Silver Star, 19 Air Medals and 85 Bronze Star Medals were awarded.  Most men wore four Bronze Battle Participation Stars on their E.T.O. ribbons.

Every man did the best he could and the memory of those unable to share the joy of victory with us, will forever remain in our hearts.

  The Future?  Quo Fata Vocat.