The Blitzkrieg Defense: The Battle of Mook
The Blitzkrieg Defense: The Battle of Mook
Part 1 - Shaping the Battle
The Blitzkrieg Defense follows the men of a glider regiment in the 82nd Airborne Division during the Allied liberation of Holland. It is a series of four-parts, each of which are an 8-10 minute read. If you haven’t checked out the previous segments, we have you covered:
September 23, 1944 dawned beautifully over the Dutch countryside. It was a calm, peaceful day as Staff Sergeant Ervin Kitchenmaster stood in the middle of an expansive blue-green farm field. If it were not for the abandoned parachutes littering the field around him, one would hardly know there was a war on. For Kitchenmaster, since parachuting onto Dutch soil six days ago, his experience in the airborne invasion of Holland had thus far consisted of drinking a few glasses of beer, watching dogfights high in the sky, and utilizing his “invasion guilders” to purchase mashed potatoes and unsweetened applesauce from a Dutch lady.
At an instant, the peacefulness surrounding Kitchenmaster was disrupted by an armada of airplanes which materialized out of the horizon. Kitchenmaster stood by with smoke grenades to guide in the pilots onto the correct field. Suddenly, gliders made of plywood and metal tubing, and wrapped like a Christmas present in olive drab canvas, slowly banked in the air above as they glided down towards Dutch soil. With great commotion, which shattered the stillness of the countryside, these junior aircraft skidded across the ground in semi-controlled crash landings, sending up large puffs of dirt and dust in their wake. As more and more gliders crashed to a halt, the once still field turned into a beehive of activity as man and material piled out of the canvas crafts and crisscrossed in every direction. Scarcely an hour ago there was hardly a soldier in sight, but the war had, once again, become clearly on display in this small corner of the world as an entire infantry regiment, thousands strong, materialized from the sky to advance a war effort stretching the entire globe.
Immediately after landing on the farm field, the commanders of the newly arrived 325th Glider Regiment were instructed to prepare to commit their men into the melee which had been occurring for the past six days at Mook. American paratroopers and the Germans were interlocked in combat around the Dutch village and the wooded high ground to the north.
After getting assembled off the landing zone, a column of the 325th began immediately moving on the village of Mook, a six-and-a-half mile march. As darkness began to set in, the men could see quick flashes of light in the distance from falling artillery. It was like walking into a thunderstorm. The glidermen moving toward the village were under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Teddy Sanford. Colonel Sanford was a native Oklahoman who had enlisted in the National Guard when he was just 15-years-old. As war loomed on the horizon, he was commissioned into active service in 1940 and had already been with the 82nd Division when it was designated as the first airborne division on August 15, 1942. That same night, Colonel Sanford’s first child was born - making them the first “airborne” baby.
We circled around a house on the outskirts of Mook and found a few 505th boys dug in, in the orchard. There was some junk lying around and a couple American helmets with some mighty big holes in them which gave my stomach a sick feeling.
By daybreak on September 24, Sanford’s men were moving into the village and continuing south to the lines in contact with the Germans. Leonard O’Brian remembered, “About daybreak, we moved into the town of Mook… A few houses were still blazing. There were freshly dug foxholes along the deserted tree-lined street. This was the end of the line. At the head of the column we heard a couple of shots and we all dived for the nearest holes. Then came an order for our squad to move up. We discovered ‘Big OB’ had shot a Jerry sniper. We circled around a house on the outskirts of Mook and found a few 505th boys dug in, in the orchard. There was some junk lying around and a couple American helmets with some mighty big holes in them which gave my stomach a sick feeling. We were told to stay out of sight behind the hedgerow and dig in. The Krauts were about 500 yards away. This was the front and I didn’t like it.” Sergeant Ervin Kitchenmaster rejoined his squad after guiding in the rest of the gliders to the landing zone, and they dug in with three very dead Germans. Kitchenmaster had his men dig shallow graves, put bayonets on the German rifles and spear them into the dirt as grave markers.
Upon landing, while Colonel Sanford’s men were moving into foxholes south of Mook, the rest of the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment was dispatched to the scene of battle on the 82nd Airborne’s defensive perimeter. The men of the 325th fanned out in a four-and-a-half mile arc stretching from the bank of the Maas River at Mook to the small hamlet of De Horst which sat near the Dutch-German border east of Groesbeek. The 325th Regiment breathed new life into the defensive power of the 82nd, which the Germans had been challenging through sharp counterattacks. The 325th’s positions formed the east and southeast defensive perimeter of the 82nd Airborne Division - and they were the most vital portions, protecting the division’s line of communication—its lifeline.
While the positions at Mook occupied by Sanford’s battalion formed one extreme of the 325th defensive line, the other extreme was occupied by the 325th Glider Infantry’s 3rd Battalion in the areas around Breedeweg and De Horst. They, too, were responsible for a large swatch of flat farmland. They established roadblocks far forward their main line, which drew the attention of the Germans, and patrolled the small villages. Private Robert Eschbaugh remembered, “There was a large church and nunnery that we had to patrol around at night. Standing against a tree, behind a fence row across from this church one day, I heard what sounded like a bee flying by my ear. I stepped aside and saw that a bullet had hit the tree I was leaning against. One of our machine gunners in front of me thought that he saw something in the low ground between us and the church. I told him those bullets came from the church steeple. He opened fire at what he thought he saw and in return got shot in the stomach. After a lot of arguing, we finally got the word to blow the steeple off.”
Just past the villages lay the Reichswald Forest, where the glidermen also sent patrols.
The forested areas on the eastern flank of the 82nd Airborne Division’s defensive ring - the Reichswald Forest and the Kiekberg Wood - were becoming a place of justified paranoia for Brigadier General James Gavin, the division commander. Both were in the 325th’s area of responsibility. Underneath the tree canopies, German divisions could be massing without observation, and Gavin was concerned of a German counterstroke originating out of the forests. The Reichswald was too large and too far to the east to occupy. The Kiekberg, however, was a different story.
Lieutenant Colonel Sanford’s 1st Battalion in Mook sat in a sunken floodplain; the village sat directly on the bank of the Maas River and to the south opened up into a broad, flat floodplain bounded by the river on the right and a moderate ridge line, dubbed, “Finger Ridge,” on the left. On the other side of Finger Ridge was a jungle-like patch of woods known as the Kiekberg Wood. Not only did Finger Ridge dominate a portion of the floodplain which Sanford’s men were covering, but it also dominated the western edge of the Kiekberg Wood. On this most vital position, E Company of the 325th’s 2nd Battalion dug in. The rest of the 2nd Battalion was posted on the northeast and east side of the Kiekberg.
The Kiekberg stuck out into the defensive ring like a sore thumb. The biggest thing checking the German threat from the Kiekberg was the positions of E Company on top of Finger Ridge, which got its name because on a topographical map it looked like a long crooked finger jutting out. The Germans wanted this strategic position, as it would split the 325th’s position in two and allow them to attack out from the woods. They began the first of several onslaughts against the American glidermen occupying Finger Ridge on September 24, shortly after their arrival. Private Lewis Wilson had been separated from the company on their march from the assembly area:
When we finally reached the company, they were under assault and were just holding on by the skin of their teeth. I placed my ammo on a pile and was told to find or dig a hole.
Corporal Woods was on a machine gun that had been left behind by the troops we relieved. He had a wonderful field of fire with the gun located at the top of a 500 foot incline. About 200 yards in front of his position was a highway. Cpl. Woods told me to get in the hole with him because he needed an assistant gunner…
About noon we saw a German solider across the highway and fired at him. He disappeared. An artillery forward observer with us called for fire on the woods where we last saw the German. Immediately after the artillery ceased, two Germans came out at the far side of the woods. The distance was about 1500/1700 yards. Cpl. Woods fired almost a box of .30 caliber ammunition at these two who by this time were running ‘hell bent for election!’ Woods did not hit them but he gave them one hell of a scare! This must have been an isolated patrol action for watch as we did, we saw no more activity in that area.
The corporal and I cleaned and oiled the machine gun, then sat and waited. About dusk we were attacked by infantry backed up by a mobile gun. This mobile gun was either a small tank or an armored weapons carrier.
This vehicle came up a farm road or cow path that separated our front and rear positions. Lt. Robert Worley of our 2nd Platoon called for a bazooka. Someone brought one up. The lieutenant then said, I need someone to load this thing. I must have been out of my head for I said, “I will!”
We had to stand in the middle of the road to get a clear shot. German machine gun bullets from the vehicle were going over our heads and zipping all around us. I loaded, tapped the lieutenant and he fired. We hit the ground at the side of the road. I remember saying, “Well, they ain’t hit us yet.” The Kraut vehicle was still firing and moving toward us. I had two shells and we got up in the middle of the road again, I loaded and the lieutenant fired. This time we scored a hit!
We fired our machine gun to help stop this attack, then moved in to another position. That night the Germans got a flame thrower close enough to set a house on fire. This house was near our company CP in about the center of our position.
Their encounter with the German flamethrower was purportedly the very first in the division’s history. E Company was able to repulse the Germans, but they were teasing the Americans in one of the places they were most paranoid. The decision was made to have the 325th attack and clear out the Kiekberg Wood.
Upcoming posts:
The Blitzkrieg Defense: The Battle of Mook Part 2 - The Kiekberg Drama
Ridgway’s Notes: “A Series on Theory” - Short Hits on Airborne Warfare