Three weeks living in a Sherman tank on the Kall Trail deep in the Hurtgen Forest November 1944.
By Fritz Tillmanns, 3rd Company, Regiment 1056, 89th Inf. Div.
Reported and typed by Ron van Rijt / Heerlen / Holland
On the 13th of April 1942, I was drafted into the Wehrmacht. I was trained at Osnabrück as a member of the Replacement Battalion 58. After a short training, it was July 8th, I was transported to Russia to an area about 200 km in front of Moskau. On the 24th of August I was wounded by shrapnel. I went to the hospital in East-Prussia and later to Konstanz at the Boden Lake.
In 1943 I was transported for the second time to Russia . I went to an area near Smolensk where we built defensive positions. Later I was involved in the "Operation Zitadelle" at Orel (the battle of Kursk). After the attack I got wounded again by shrapnel on the 30th of August. In January 1944 I was supposed to go for the third time to Russia, but I became ill and I went into the hospital for several months. When I was healthy enough to leave the hospital, it was the 14th of September. I was sent to the West front to defend the West wall.
First we went to a defensive position at Monschau. This is where I fought for the first time against American soldiers. The Americans had taken Monschau and we were defending the pillboxes at Menzerath on the hills above the town.
On November 5th we went out of that area and were ordered North by way of Kesternich and Strauch to Gerstenhof near Schmidt. From there we went to the East slope of the Kall Valley during the night from the 6th to the 7th of November. On the 7th of November we could see from a distance how the Americans attacked Kommerscheidt with tanks and infantry. Later I found out that this was the last American attack on Kommerscheidt.
We could see how most of the American tanks were destroyed and how the infantry retreated from Kommerscheidt to the woods line at the Kall Valley where they were digging in. On November 8th our Company was to attack the American positions at this woods line. The first 200 yards were open field. Our Company had a strength of about 30 to 40 men and this gave us serious doubts about our attack, because we had seen the number of Americans digging in on the woods line the day before.
But our attack didn't meet any resistance because the Americans had probably left their positions at the woods line already and we reached the forest road on the other side of the open field without any losses. There was also a week-end house along this forest road. On this forest road we took some Americans prisoners and we found 3 Sherman tanks standing on this road. Their guns were pointing downhill as if they were planned to drive back to the Kall bridge at the Mestrenger Mill at the bottom of the valley. In the 89 ID's "Division-Mirror" of November 9, it was written that NCO Anton Südhausen from the 7th Company Gren. Regt 1056 and his tank-destroyer team managed to capture 3 American tanks near the Mestrenger Mill and that they killed one of these tanks with a Panzerfaust. Südhausen received the Iron Cross 1st class for this action. This must have been the same 3 tanks that we found.
We received orders to push our attack further along the East-side of the KallValleyto the direction of Zweifallshammer. The first few hundred yards went fine, but then we received artillery fire and we had our first casualties. One of my best friends was severely wounded and he died later at the first aid station at Mariawald. We retreated again to where the 3 Sherman tanks were standing. The first night we spent in the first tank; Our Company-leader, our Company group leader and me as a runner.
The next day we moved to the third tank. Somehow we felt a bit safer in that one because we thought that maybe the Americans saw us at the first tank and would start to shoot at it. There was also a Weasel standing near the 3 tanks. It had slipped halfway off the trail and probably got stuck. I remember a dead American soldier lying under one of the tracks of the Weasel but I don't know how he came there. We placed our wounded comrades in the week-end house, which was marked with a Red Cross. There was no fighting in the area anymore after we came in on November 8th so we also went into the week-end house to play cards with our wounded comrades.
From the week-end house we took some blankets that we used to keep warm in our tank. I was also wearing an American coat and an American tanker helmet. Of course we searched the tanks for rations and cigarettes. The shells and all the rest that we couldn't use were simply thrown out of the tank. In the afternoon of November 8th, our soldiers started to search the East slope of the Kall Valley for the things that the Americans had left. As a Company runner I had to wait till late afternoon before I also had the chance to search the slope of the Kall-Valley for American rations and cigarettes. I found all kinds of stuff; American cigarettes and rations and some of that wonderful American soap.
While I was uphill searching the American foxholes for rations, I suddenly heard mortar fire coming from Vossenack. They must have seen me. Immediately I jumped in one of the foxholes, .... right on top of a dead American soldier. It scared the hell out of me and I jumped out again and started to run back downhill to where the 3 tanks were standing. I never went back uphill there again.
So we made our Company command post inside on the third tank. The second tank was also occupied by some of our men, and two NCO's and a artillery observer from a different unit took the first tank. We were pretty safe in our tank. It only was a bit damp inside, especially in the morning when we woke up. Suddenly I found a compartment in the tank. The lid was bent and I couldn't get it open. But I was very curious what would be inside so I searched for tools in the tank. With these tools I cut the hinges off the lid so I could open the compartment. I found all kinds of stuff; Candy, cigarettes, rations ..... and a little tin can.
Something was written on this can but none of us could read it. We decided to open it and we truly were amazed to find peanuts inside !!! Of course we ate them. I went to the other two tanks and told the men to check that compartment. They found even more stuff than we did !!! On these American rations we lived for several days.
After a few days the guys in the second tank managed to start the engine of their tank. Message was sent to Kommerscheidt and the next morning two German tankers came to try to drive the Sherman uphill to Kommerscheidt. They could turn the tank but then it got stuck and they had to leave the tank behind. When I was released as a POW in 1947, I came back to the Kall-Trail. The first and the third tank and the Weasel were gone, but the second tank that got stuck was still standing on the same spot.
Our defensive positions consisted of several foxholes along the East-slope of the Kall Valley and as Company-runner I often had to bring orders and messages in the middle of the night when it was pitch-black. I can remember that I had to walk the Kall Trail very carefully because I couldn't see a thing. There were some dead Americans lying on the Kall Trail. They were wearing bandages and I suppose that they had to be left behind when the Americans retreated to the West slope of the Kall Valley. In the dark I walked the trail until my feet would touch the dead Americans; then I knew that I had to climb uphill to reach one of our defensive positions. We stayed in this position till we were relieved on the 27th of November. From there we went to the area at Hürtgen. We had several losses because of artillery on our way to Hürtgen.
The village of Hürtgen was taken on November 28th, but we were lying in the woods on the edge of the village. That is where I got wounded again by shrapnel on November 30th. I went to the hospital at Bonn , and when I came back I found the remains of my Company back near Zülpich. Not far from there I was taken prisoner; It was March 1945.
I was a POW for two years in France where I worked at a huge bakery of the American Army. The track of the second tank is still lying on the Kall Trail today. Since 1947, I have returned to the area every few weeks. Long after the war I learned that these 3 tanks were Sherman tanks from the 707th Tank Battalion that were sent from the Kommerscheidt area to the Kall Valley for some repairs.
