My great-grandfather was in the war, but he would always carefully change the subject if we ever brought it up. Most of us learned more at his funeral than he told us during his life, he was a decorated combat medic. A few years ago I found his discharge papers, which put him in the 137th Infantry Regiment. It was Europe, then. We don’t know which company, or even which battalion he was in, so when I pulled all of this together in 2012 for his son, my grandfather, the descriptions were a bit vague. But at least we could name the towns and we had a timeline. And so here that is, a glimpse into that unit’s history, and where he was, in the thick of it.

So, then, for Jan. 02:

The 137th Infantry continued to attack the defenses about the town of Villers-la-Bonne-Eau as the 1st Battalion cleaned out the woods west of the town and then assisted Company F in clearing the enemy from the woods south of the enemy-held road junction west of Villers. Company E, pressing from the south, cleared enemy points. The 3rd Battalion assembled in the vicinity of Livarchamps, and Company I took over the roadblocks on the Regiment’s front. Company G remained in the Surre Woods. The enemy opposition continued to be strong. The weather was bitter cold.

The Division ordered operations to halt at 1755, the forward elements of the 137th dug-in and sent patrols to the front during the night. Regimental Headquarters was located at Honville, along with the 2nd Battalion CP, while the 1st and 3rd Battalion CP’s were in Livarchamps.

This information is derived from the unit history, found here and here and from this unit overview. These markers are rough estimates and are meant to be illustrative. Any errors are mine alone.

I’m revisiting my great-grandfather’s time in Europe through this map of his unit’s movements. This was 70 years ago today and it was hard going for the 137th Infantry Regiment in Belgium in the last week of the Battle of the Bulge. We don’t know which company, or even which battalion he was in, so this is only a regimental overview with some movements down to the company level.

So, then, for Jan. 01:

The 137th Infantry was facing the toughest opposition it had yet met in its combat experience. Elements of K and L Companies were still cut-off in Villers-la-Bonne-Eau. The 1st Battalion was in position south of Villers, while the 2nd Battalion had Companies E and F west and southwest of the Belgian town, and Company G, on the Regiment’s right flank, in Luxembourg. German prisoners had stated that the SS Adolph Hitler Division and the 339th Nazi Infantry Regiment were on the 137th’s front.

The 137th jumped off on an attack toward Villers. A large number of enemy faced Companies E and F and a bitter fight ensued. Company F had nearly completed cleaning out the woods, and in the Surre Woods, Company G had beaten off several counterattacks. The Regiment was ordered to halt its advance at 1810. In Villers, Companies K and L were slowly being cut to pieces by tank fire and flame throwers.

This information is derived from the unit history, found here and here and from this unit overview. These markers are rough estimates and are meant only to be illustrative. Any errors are mine alone.

I’d guess you don’t really celebrate the new year when you’re enduring a historic Belgian winter and trying to not get shot at. That’s more or less what my great-grandfather was doing seven decades ago as a World War II combat medic. We don’t know about his individual time in the 137th Infantry Regiment, we didn’t even know that was his unit until years after he passed away, but I’ve pulled the unit history to get a glimpse of what he might have been going through. We don’t know which company, or even which battalion he was in, he never talked about it, so this is an educated glimpse of a guess.

So, then, for Dec. 31:

Company I was counterattacked by the enemy, who had positions in the woods to their front.

The 1st Battalion jumped off for the town of Villers-la-Bonne-Eau. Companies B and C entered the town and occupied some of the buildings. Two enemy tanks started shelling them. Men from the companies fired bazookas at them, but the tanks kept just out of range, and although several hit the tanks, they did not knock them out. The elements of the two companies were forced to withdraw to the cover of the woods.

At 1700 the Regiment was ordered to dig in for the night and continue operations the following morning.

The 2nd Battalion, less Company G, pulled back to the town of Surre and moved to north of Livarchamps.

Two hundred thirty-five men were reported as missing from Companies K and L. The majority of these men were believed to have been captured in the town of Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, where they had been cut off for two days by enemy tanks and infantry.

Sounds pretty grim for those two companies, indeed. This update — if you look in the map below and scroll a bit to the north and west into Belgium — includes a photograph from that part of the conflict. Scroll around in the rest of the map and click some of the pins for other days to follow along in the 137th’s fight.

This information is derived from the unit history, found here and here and from this unit overview. These markers are rough estimates and are meant only to be illustrative. Any errors are mine alone.

This is the 70th anniversary of my great-grandfather’s service in Europe, so we’re revisiting the map I made of his time as a combat medic. Tonice was attached to some element of the 137th Infantry Regiment, in the famed 35th Division. We don’t know which company, or even which battalion, so this is only a regimental overview with some movements down to the company level.

So, then, for Dec. 30:

The snow that had fallen the previous day had frozen over, and the ground and roads were extremely slippery. Harlange and Villers-la-Bonne-Eau remained the points of enemy resistance. The 3rd Battalion was operating southwest of Villers and the 1st Battalion assembled at Livarchamps, with Company A manning roadblocks to the east, in the gap between the 3rd and 2nd Battalions. The 2nd Battalion had two companies on the edge of the Surre Woods, meeting heavy enemy fire from the vicinity of Harlange and Betlange.

Company E advanced with moderate resistance until it reached a position within 400 yards of Harlange, when it received severe machine gun and mortar fire, which pinned it down. Company E withdrew from the open field under a protective barrage, moved up a draw on the left flank of the enemy to outflank the enemy position, and ran into tough opposition near Betlange.

The 3rd Battalion held four buildings in Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, and the enemy activity and resistance in the town increased considerably. Enemy assault guns and SS troops moved into the town in the morning to reinforce the enemy garrison, and the armored guns moved in and around the town shooting into the houses occupied by elements of the 3rd Battalion. Two of these guns were knocked out by bazooka fire. Heavy fighting continued all during the day in the town, until Companies K and L were considered cut off from the rest of the Battalion.

Scroll through the map — look a bit to the northwest, into Belgium, for today — and click on some of the other pins to see other days in the story.

This information is derived from the unit history, found here and here and from this unit overview. Any errors are mine alone.

It has been 70 years since the war in Europe, seven decades since my great-grandfather was there. But I have this map, and during this anniversary of Tonice’s time as a combat medic, I’m revisiting of what the 137th Infantry Regiment did. (He’d disapprove of all of this, I’ve no doubt.) He was a very humble and modest man in general who went out of his way to not discuss the war. We don’t know which company, or even which battalion, he was in. This is only a regimental overview with some movements down to the company level.

So, then, for Dec. 29:

The 137th Infantry attacked again in the Surre Woods against bitter machine gun and tank fire. The Regiment attacked to the northeast in its zone, bounded by the 134th Infantry on the left and the 320th on the right.

The 2nd Battalion met heavy tank and self-propelled gun fire. The 1st Battalion jumped off at 0810 and ran into heavy fire also. Companies C and A led the attacking troops and advanced toward the town of Villers-la-Bonne-Eau. The 2nd Battalion had Companies E and G forward, with Company E in Surre. The CO of the 3rd Battalion estimated that he had knocked out at least nine heavy machine gun emplacements during the day.

Enemy artillery fire was very heavy in the Regimental area during the night, with the Regimental CP area receiving several barrages of rockets.

You can scroll around and click all of the pins in the map below to see more of the unit’s day-by-day notes.

This information is derived from the unit history, found here and here and from this unit overview. Any errors are mine alone.