CONNECTICUT MEN of the 87th - Acorn - Division AUGUST 1945 87th DIVISION FACTS Combat Highlights: In mid-November, imposed a golden acorn. The acorn is 1944, the 87th arrived on the continent symbolic of strength. and came into the Metz area on the Overseas Training: Division left this Third Army front. Original plans had country November 4, 1944 for European been for the division to relieve another Theater of Operations and moved into unit here and receive its baptism of fire the combat area with great speed, being on this diminishing front. The Nazi in the Metz sector about November 20, offensive in December, however, 1944. changed these plans and the 87th was Component Units: 345th, 346th, 347th one of the divisions that Gen. Patton Infantry Regiments; 334th, 336th, took with him to help smash Von Rund- 912th (L) Field Artillery Battalions stedt's drive. and 335th (M) Field Artillery Battalion. In early February, 1945, the winter- Slogan: Stalwart and Strong. tried 87th helped to spearhead another smashing Third Army drive. Under heavy barrages of the enemy the divi• SERVICEMEN'S sion forced a crossing of the Our River COMMEMORATIVE BOOKLET and began the drive toward Luxem• VOL. I AUGUST 25, 1945 No. 7 bourg. During February the division CARLETON B. CLYMA, Editor fought well into Belgium and the follow• This booklet on the Acorn Division's ing month consolidated gains. In return from the European war was pre• pared for the men of the 87th by the Office March, 1945, the division prepared to of the Governor of Connecticut. It is land decisive blows against the German believed that it will make a welcome ad• Army. dition to the souvenirs and memorabilia of those who participated in the defeat of Early in April, 1945, the 87th crossed the once great German Wehrmacht. the Moselle River with great speed and The courtesies and assistance of public in a lightning move took Coblenz. relations officers, at the Ports and at Taking of Coblenz was the start of Fort Devens Reception Station, greatly facilitated the gathering of the material another great Third Army drive into for this booklet. Pictures are from U. S. the Rhineland. Crossing of the Rhine Army Signal Corps, Press Association and by the 87th was accomplished by sheer New York Daily News. The divisional grit and courage. As the first wave of facts were prepared by the Office of Tech• nical Information, A. G. F. The summary troops moved across the river the enemy of the Division in action was prepared by threw up flares. By that light the Ger• Lt. C. G. Davenport, Division P. R. O. mans brought to bear heavy and accu• A limited number of copies are avail• rate mortar fire. Despite the casualties, able for distribution, to members of the however, the 87th pressed ahead and by Division in Connecticut only. They can be secured by written request to the Office the war's end had blasted its way deep of the Governor, State Capitol, Hartford, into Germany. Connecticut. Reproduction of original material is per• Shoulder Patch: A circular patch with a missible only with written authorization. rich field of green on which is super• 2 87th DIVISION STORIES Editor's Note: Memories of the European war will blur with the pass• ing of years. Clarity, accuracy, and detail will diminish. To record, in black and white here and now, the mood, the impressions, the exciting events of those days is the purpose of these stories. Connecticut men of the 87th were asked for their own stories in their own words, and they are here so recorded: Apuzzo, Louis P., Pfc, Hdq. Co., 2nd be amazed and stunned. As they realized Bn., 346th Inf., West Haven: what had happened their fear was obvious. "My closest shave was near Roth in After that they would start to loosen up Germany last January. We were sweeping and offer you anything they had. On one a road to clear out the mines when the occasion, when we went into a house a Germans opened up with a stiff barrage. man stood in the hallway and spoke in I took cover in a hole and one shell landed broken English. He told me to kill him if less than ten feet from the hole but I would leave his wife and children alone. nothing touched me." They took for granted the German propa• Beebe, Fred W., Pfc, Co. E, 345th Inf., ganda that the American soldiers would Groton: kill them. But, on the other hand, they "The race across Germany gave us the did not accept the propaganda that called opportunity to see the German people. upon civilians to fight the Americans, at The thing that sticks in my mind is their least not to the extent of doing anything reaction to their defeat. They appear to about that." 3 on the edges of the city still standing — they will never forget it." Christophy, Paul, Pfc, Co. K, 347th Inf., Terryville: "When I saw the Germans they were on the run. They couldn't hold ground, and they were retreating faster than we could keep up with them." Ciraldi, Anthony L., Sgt., Co. E, 346th Inf., Waterbury: "We attacked up a steep hill in the Berry, William T., Pfc, Co. I, 345th heavy rain in April just across the Inf., East Hartford: Rhine. The Germans were in good posi• "It took a letter from home to give me tions on the hilltop. They had ack-ack the news that one of my own close rela• guns and used them just like small arms. tives had been fighting for months in our We were pinned down for long spells and own heavy weapons company. He was in it took us three hours before we took the the same combat team with me and he hill. Captured about thirty Germans and was wounded in an action we both took found twenty of them dead there. They part in. After he was wounded, he walked were the toughest hours I put in in Ger• right by the spot where I was, but I many." didn't know anything about it until I got a letter from home. Then, six weeks after• Cole, George A., Pfc, Co. I, 345th Inf., wards, I saw him in the hospital." Middletown: "The biggest kick I got out of the whole Brown, Edward E., T/4, Co. F, 345th show was when we went into a town to Inf., New Haven: take it. The civilians would come out, "Our outfit, I think, got over there at a crying, falling all over you, thinking that good time. The Jerries were about ready we were going to kill them. That must to give up; they knew it was a losing have showed how effective the German battle. We sweated out the Moselle propaganda was. I saw the Buchenwald crossing but we enjoyed Coblenz where, camps. You don't like Germans after when we got there, there was lots of that." champagne laying around loose. But, what I really got a kick out of, was watch• Connolly, John P., Pfc, Co. E, 346th ing those high German officers, the Jerry Inf., Bristol: 'brass-hats', surrendering." "For my money our Army of Occupation is treating the Germans too damned easy. Carrubba, Frank P., Pfc, Co. C, 347th One week they were shooting at us and Inf., Bridgeport: the next week trying to get on our good "What struck me going through Ger• side. We were in there when the German many was the way every building was soldiers who were our prisoners were living knocked down. Plaum, a city as big as in billets in barracks and the G. I.s were Boston, had only a few buildings away out out in the rain and mud in pup tents." 4 Corrado, Anthony J., Pfc, Co. M., sleep for a long time. The Germans used 345th Inf., Hartford: them like we use a rifle, they trained them "This whole war is no good." on a single man. They are as accurate as rifle fire. It seemed to me as if the Ger• Croft, Walter H., T/5, Co. E, 345th mans were sighting them from their Inf., West Hartford: shoulders." "I am a mail orderly. What continues to amaze me is the effect that a bundle of Dorso, Joseph A., Pfc, Co. A, 346th mail from home has on a man who has Inf., Waterbury: just rejoined his company after a month "I saw the real thing at Dachau. It was or six weeks in the hospital where he re• unbelievable. I mean you really have to ceived no mail. Another amazing thing is see it yourself to believe that such atroci• the number of times any one man can ask ties were committed. I saw 300 naked the mail orderly for mail in one day even bodies piled up in that camp like cord when he knows there is none." wood. They didn't look human. And the Germans who committed those atrocities Czarzasty, Walter J., Pfc, Co. A, 346th are not human either." Inf., Union City: "I was born in Union City and my father Duds, Theodore A., Pfc, Co. A, 346th took me back to Poland when I was five Inf., New Milford: years old, and I lived there almost twenty "Even around the time of the Battle of years coming back to this country in the Bulge we were billetted under cover 1938. In 1940 I was drafted into the U. S. and out of the rain.