Hello,

Today is May 2. Reunion is June 2.

Thanks to all who gave us information about John Lissner. It was a personal request by a member so I have not had the replies in "Mail Call"

Ben

Website---www.517prct.org

Mail Call--Ben517@aol.com
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From our website.
,
Books and References about the 517th
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Subj: Re: MAIL CALL NO. 470 517TH PRCT 
Date: 4/29/2003 10:38:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: WALTERWS

Dear Ben et al;
       in re Mailcall 470, This brings back memories very vivid in my grizzled head.  I was in the Bn. CP in Belgium when relatively newly 'field  promoted'  Lt. Bob Steele brought LTC Wild Bill Boyle into the CP.  It was just as others described, LTC Boyle was seriously wounded and Lt. Bob Steele was verbally chasting his wounded charge.  It was really impressive and thoroughly understood that Lt. Steele was challenging LTC Boyle to save himself.  It worked!  I've always had nothing but respect for LTC Boyle's leadership but I also developed new respect for a young 'shavetail' Lieutenant, Lt. Bob Steele.  Unfortunately, after the Belgian experience, and with the war ended, Lt. Bob Steele seemed to get lost somewhere in the USA.  I asked LTC Boyle at a time in the 1980's, I believe, when we were in one of our former CPs in France (Roseline?)  if he knew where Lt. Steele was at that time.  He proceeded to tell me that he owed his life to Lt. Steele.  Similar to his email to the Mailcall 470.  His answer was that so far he couldn't locate him.  And, yes, His relation was the way it happened.  I saw the receiving end at the CP.  Walt W Smith
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Entry of May 01, 2003 at 23:57 [EST]
Name: Patti Johanson (nee Cartmell)
Unit:
EMail: pattimj@aol.com
How I found the 517th page: Other
Comments: I was delighted to find out about this webpage from my brother in law, Josh Maresca. My father was Joseph X. Cartmell, a very proud member of the 5l7th. In fact, he and I went to the reunion about four years ago this month at Ft. Benning, Georgia. It was a wonderful experience for both of us. My family and I are going to Nice in June, a place my father hoped to visit but never did. Is there any particular place I could visit that involved the 5l7th during WWII? Any people? Patti Johanson
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Subj: Manhay--Eddy Monfort 
Date: 5/1/2003 8:41:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: hhensleigh@earthlink.net

Dear Ben:  I will try to send the letter I wrote answering Eddy's questions sent through email.  Since it is in word perfect, I can't guarantee how it will arrive and in what format.
 
May 1, 2003Mr. Eddy Monfort15,Rue de la GotteB 6960 Manhay, BELGIUMDear Eddy:This letter will respond to a number of your e-mail questions. We had been rushed into the Bulge by truck shortly after the attack on December 16, along with all other elements of ridgway"s 18th Airborne Corps. The 517th Regimental Combat Team, was composed of the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the 460th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion and the 596th Combat Engineer Company. During most of the Bulge the 517th fought as separate battalions to stop and turn back the Germans, rather than fighting with combat Team objectives. The first and second battalions were engaged before we were. We were moved constantly from one expected hot spot to another, but no actual combat resulted, until the Manhay attack. Here is what I wrote about the 25th of December."25 Dec. We loaded onto trucks again and started down towards Manhay. We stayed all night in a small Belgian town where the CT (Combat Team) had its Hq. (Headquarters) and got a good night’s sleep. Capt. Hooper and I made a reconnaissance the next day to the South in case we had to move. This had been our Christmas, but we were in it and it didn’t seem to make much difference, although we did a lot of thinking about what the folks at home were doing and remembering many of the good old time Christmases. We did move that night..............." (the account continues with the text you already have) Now, nearly sixty years later, I vividly remember that on the 26th of December we came upon a deserted house in the woods. The family had obviously left in a great hurry. A large Christmas cake adorned the dining room table. We sliced off pieces with our bayonets and then moved on thanking the family for a touch of Christmas and hoping for their safe return. The Third Battalion spent the 26th of December 1944, getting ready for the attack on Manhay. Although we were rushed into the Bulge without many of the items we needed, like the 101st at Bastogne, we had full loads of ammunition, weapons and winter clothing by that time. Joe Calder, our Supply Officer, always found a way to get supplies. Nothing, however, could really protect us from the bitter cold of that winter. We moved by truck to an assembly point. Starting with Tennessee maneuvers, I had earned the reputation of knowing where we were and how to get where we were going, so I led the convoy to a safe point behind our line of departure for the attack. We met Captain Albin Dearing, the Combat Team Intelligence Officer, who had been looking over the terrain surrounding Manhay. Since I was the Battalion S-2, we knew each other well and had patrolled together in Southern France. He and I discussed the enemy situation briefly. Meanwhile Lt. Col. Paxton received an attack order, which came directly from Lt. General ridgway. We were ordered to take and hold Manhay at all costs. Paxton and Kelly, his jeep driver, then made a reconnaissance, which was limited and interrupted by artillery and small arms fire from Manhay and its surroundings. As related in my diary, they had several close calls, but were not injured. Although I do not have maps of the area, I am sure that you are correct in stating that we approached Manhay from the north. Our assembly area was probably a couple of miles, and the line of departure for the attack not more than fifteen hundred yards, from the perimeter of the town. Our line of departure was not in a village, but in open fields. I think we drove the Germans south out of the town. We attacked in a column of companies with I Company and Lt. Stott’s platoon in the lead. H and Headquarters 3rd followed. The machine gun and bazooka sections of Headquarters Company were attached to the rifle companies. We were ready to go at 0200. The attack was to jump off at 0225. We always followed the artillery very closely and fired bazooka rounds at the objective after it lifted. The entire battalion took off at a dead run at 0225. After we had gone several hundred yards, the big guns started firing again and caught Lt. Stott’s platoon, killing Stott and eleven of his men; twenty more were seriously wounded, virtually wiping out the platoon. We ran on through this carnage into the attack, leaving the medics to care for the wounded. This "friendly fire" was not only late, but it was also short of the town by several hundred yards.I remember the CP and the Aid Station, but in both cases we were in the basements and were upstairs only on the way to and from the basements. As I recall, there was a large pile of potatoes in the CP basement. I slept on that pile of potatoes. There were no tanks supporting our attack. After we took the town and until we left on January 1, 1945, only one tank came into the town. It made a hasty retreat after its commander was killed standing up in the turret by a German anti-tank round.I was twenty-four years old during the winter of 1944-45. My job was the third battalion intelligence officer, or S-2. I was a first lieutenant at that time. Later in the battle near Bergstein, Germany Lt. Col. Paxton made me the S-3, plans, operations and training officer, a job I held until November 10, 1945 when I separated from the service at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. After finishing Law School at the University of Iowa, I served in the National Guard and Army Reserves until retiring in September 1973 as a colonel. As a civilian, I served as an international lawyer for the Secretary of Defense, including two years in Paris as the Legal Advisor for the US Mission to NATO. Very truly yours,Howard E. Hensleigh
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Howard Hensleigh told us about the attack on Manhay from an intelligence officer's viewpoint.He had an idea about the big picture. and knew what was involved.

I would like to tell about the attack as  an infantry man  in a rifle squad.. I did not have a clue as to what was involved. The Battle of The Bulge was fought on an eighty mile front but all I was concerned about was the eight yards on either side of me and what I could see in front.of my position.

We had just returned from Malmedy and was about to bivouac for the night when orders came down to prepare for an attack . We were told that there would be an artillery barrage at 2:AM  preceeding out attack.. We were deployed in a field close to our objective. (Manhay ) The barrage came in as scheduled and the ground around us rumbled from the intensity.. I believe the artillery stoped for a very brief time and we advanced closer to the  our target and stoped. A second barrage came in but one  battery apparently did not raise its guns so that the shells fell on top of us. "I " company which was in front of us ("H" company ) had about 17 KIAs' and many more wounded..We could hear the screams and cursing  from the wounded but as soon as the artillery stoped we advanced  over them having to ignore the wounded.
  We took Manhay  with out much trouble because of the fierce artillery barrage and being so close to our objective. We captured germans mostly by throwing grenades into cellars. We then prepared a line of defense but did not have to dig fox holes in the frozen ground because there were plently of shell holes which we occupied. We inproved on them making them deeper especially after  enemy artillery  came in .

The batallion had men killed and wounded because of so called "friendly fire". If this happen today with the media in the area and communications now available there would be a cry to stop the war and a demand for a congressional investigation but at that time no one outside of the regiment knew about it or gave a dam. Many soldiers were being killed or wounded every day ( 80,000 ) in the Battle of The Bulge.

The media still don't understand about "friendly fire". During the attack on Manhay, we could have had our line of departure fifty or so yards  further back from our target and we would have not lost any men because of "friendly fire" However , without the second barrage the germans may have recoverd enough to set up just one machine gun which could have wiped out probably fifty to a hundred of our underman force and the attacked could have failed. Later in Manhay we lost more men from being bombed by our own airplanes. I'll tell more about this later. Things happen in war. It's not just a game-Ben
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Subj: D Day? 
Date: 5/2/2003 8:26:07 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: LiddellDesigns@cs.com

       Good morning Mr. Barrett.
       I have a question that I've always wanted to ask but I've been too embarassed.  What does the "D" in "D-Day" stand for?  Every show that I've watched on the History channel about "D Day", never says what the "D" stands for..  To someone that was alive at that time, it's probablly a silly question but every show that I've watched and/or every book that I've read, they just assume that you know what it stands for I guess because they never say anything about it.  I've always thought that maybe it stands for Day of Defeat but that wouldn't be totally true because it wasn't the last battle w/ Germany, it was just the day that the tides were turned. 
        THanks in advance for your assistance.
        Chris Liddell

D-DAY....The unnamed date or day upon which an operation is to commence.

H-HOUR...the unspecified hour at which said operation is to commence.