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This little history is a tribute to my father, Sidney David “Chick” Leader, who, as part of the “greatest generation,” saw combat with the US Army during WW II, and helped liberate Europe in 1944 and 1945. Dad was drafted in 1943, and served in the 26th Infantry Division, 328th Infantry Regiment, Company M. The 26th was known as the “Yankee Division” (YD), because of its New England roots. Discharged on January 4, 1946, he finished the war as a corporal; earned a Bronze Star medal and the combat infantry badge. Dad passed away in 1971.
Dad was drafted and ordered to report for induction on July 29, 1943. However, he was able to delay induction until August 15th, convincing his draft board that he needed a little extra time at home because of my birth in early July. He then went Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for eight weeks of basic training. More advanced infantry training at Ft. Jackson, SC starting in late 1943 was next on Dad’s menu. It was at Ft. Jackson that Dad first became acquainted with the 81mm mortar, the weapon he operated during his combat days in Europe. He also participated in the Tennessee Maneuvers in February 1944.
In August of 1944 the 26th Division got orders to ship out. With the Normandy beaches secured, Paris liberated on August 25th, and Allied troops driving through Northern France, the liberation of Europe was well underway.
The 26th boarded trains in Columbia, SC and headed for Camp Shanks, in Orangeburg, NY, on the west shore of the Hudson River, just 30 miles north of New York City. Known as “last stop USA,” Camp Shanks was one of several staging bases for shipping US troops to Europe.
On August 26th, the “Yankee” division departed for Europe as part of the first convoy to go directly from the US to France. The 328th Infantry Regiment, Dad’s unit, landed at Utah Beach (Normandy) thirteen days later on 7 September 1944. It was almost exactly 3 months (D+90) after the initial Normandy landings, a date Dad shared with me when he talked about his wartime experiences.
In the first week of October, 1944, according to the official division history, the 26th Division was ordered from Normandy to the Third Army front in Lorraine in eastern France, and went into the line on the right flank of XII Corps as part of Patton’s Third Army. Dad’s regiment had gone in ahead of the rest of the division in relief of a regiment of the 80th Infantry on October 5th.
The 26th Division’s first action, on October 22, 1944, was to seize the Moncourt Woods from the German 11th Panzers. The attack was led by the 104th Infrantry regiment. The 328th followed and occupied the towns of Moncourt and Bezange. On November 8th, the 26th Division participated in a large-scale 3rd Army offensive led by Gen. George Patton, and on 20 November captured the town of Dieuze. The Divison then advanced across the Saar River and captured Saar Union on December 2nd.
By December 13, 1944, after 66 days of intense combat, the26th Division was relieved by the 87th Infantry Division, and moved into the liberated town of Metz for some well deserved “R and R”
A major German offensive that became known as the “Battle of the Bulge,” and the Battle of the Ardennes, began on December 16, 1944 and brought an end to the YD’s well- deserved rest.
Within days, despite the bitterly cold winter weather, twenty-five German armor and infantry divisions had surprised six divisions of the US First Army and penetrated deeply into Belgium and Luxembourg, overrunning many US units. Allied aircraft were unable to fly due to bad weather. The German objective was to split US and British forces and capture the port of Antwerp, Belgium.
By 20 December, General Patton ordered three of his best divisions, the 4th Armored, the 80th Infantry and the 26th Infantry (III Corps), to turn 90 degrees to the north and move as quickly as possible into position in Luxembourg to stop the German advance and free American forces encircled in the town of Bastogne. On 22 December, Patton ordered these three divisions to counterattack against the southern flank of the German salient.
On the night of December 19th, the Corps Chief of Staff alerted the 26th Division, telling them “Get ready to move north the first thing in the morning. And move they did, reaching their new assembly area in 24 hours.
The 26th attacked the towns of Rambrouch and Grosbous on 22 December, beat off strong German counterattacks, captured Arsdorf on Christmas Day after heavy fighting, attacked toward the Wiltz River, passing through but was forced to withdraw in the face of determined German resistance.
After regrouping on 5–8 January 1945, the “YD” attacked again, crossing the Wiltz River on 20 January, with the 328th on the left of the Division front. The division continued its advance, taking Grumelscheid on 21 January, and crossed the Clerf River on 24 January. By late January, the Battle of the Bulge was coming to an end. The “last gasp” Nazi offensive had been stopped at great cost and German forces were withdrawing into Germany.
On 27 January 1945, the commanding officer of the 328th regiment praised the unit’s efforts in a regiment newsletter: “It doesn’t take a newspaper article or some war correspondent to sing the wonders of your work…its undoubtedly gone a long way to finish the Germans…”
Following reassignment to XX Corps, the 328th Infantry Regiment and the 101st Regiment were relieved by other units and shifted to defensive positions on the east bank of the Saar River (Saarlautern area) where they remained from 29 January until 6 March 1945.
On 17 March, the 328th Regiment captured the important town of Merzig. As the advance continued, the 328th protected the southern flank of the Division.
On 26 March, Dad’s regiment was attached to the 4th Armored Division for the crossing of the Rhine and the drive deep into Germany. A bridgehead had been established on 22-23 March by the 5th Infantry Division and other units, including the 26th, followed soon after.
German resistance was beginning to falter and the advance into Germany moved rapidly, although heavy fighting was by no means over.
In late March, the 328th engaged in house to house fighting against stiff German resistance in the town of Hanau on the river Main. The city was taken on 28 March.
The advance continued northeast through Fulda before turning east and then southeast along the Czech border, towards the Danube and Austria in April. The 328th and parts of the 11th Armored captured the town of Linz, Austria on May 4.
Following the capture of Linz, the Division hooked left into Czechoslovakia. The surrender of German forces and the end of the war on 8 May 1945 found Dad’s unit in Czechoslovakia, in defensive positions opposite Russian forces which had been advancing from the East.
One day after the end of the war, units of the 26th Division, along with the 11th Armored, overran the Gusen Concentration camp, liberating it from German forces. There, American troops discovered an elaborate underground tunnel system, built by slave labor.
Dad remained in Europe until December 1945 when he was shipped home. He was discharged at Ft. Dix, NJ, in January 1946. |
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