59th
Signal Battalion in World War II
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In a recent letter
to the Commander of 59th Signal Battalion, a Ms. Carol R.
Trainer wrote us to enquire about possible battles her Dad,
Tech Sergeant Norbert A. Rawert,
would have participated in as a member of the 59th Signal
Battalion in WWII. The
first reminder of the history is the five battle streamers the
59th was awarded for service in WWII: Normandy 1944;
Ardennes-France 1944-1945; Northern France 1944; Rhineland
1944-1945; Central Europe 1945.
But what did our historical band of brothers do during
those campaigns? What
battles and what ground did the 59th Signal Battalion Guidon
once participate in?
The battalion was
constituted on 11 May 1942, activated 28 October 1942 at Camp
Crowder, Missouri, and then inactivated 24 Nov 1945 at Camp
Kilmer, New Jersey. Sometime
in late 1943 or early 1944, the 59th Signal Battalion
transferred to England to prepare for Operation Overlord. 59th Signal
Battalion did not participate in the 6 June 1944 Normandy
Landing; but was brought ashore later in the week, and on 15
June 1944 started their combat action with the operational
standup of VIII Corps, led by MG Troy H. Middleton.
As a small support
unit, 59th Signal Battalion has not garnered the recognition
we might think it deserves.
The history books are more concerned with Infantry,
Armor, and Field Artillery, but even then, barely going below
battalion level, unless it is a small tactical engagement
analysis. I could
only find three references to 59th Signal Battalion from here
in Alaska. The
first is from "The Signal Corps:
The Outcome", a Center of Military History WWII series
book. On page
125, it refers to 59th Signal Battalion, as a part of VIII
Corps during the attack in Brittany, France, being responsible
for wire communications to three divisions, an extensive fire
direction net, the radio co-ordination for naval bombardment
of the city, and the maintenance of radio link contact to two
armies, an army group, and a tactical air force. Our Signal battalion
was also responsible for rehabilitating over 7,250 miles of
existing open wire and underground cable in four weeks. Now that would be a
job for today's DCO shop!
The second reference I found about 59th Signal
Battalion was on the University of Texas webpage, a project to
archive information about U.S. Latinos and Latinas & World
War II. A Jose
"Joe" Eriberto Adame was assigned to 59th Signal Battalion in
the U.S., and then moved over to 86th Chemical Mortar
Battalion while in England.
The third and final reference to 59th Signal Battalion
was on a webpage dedicated to the 33rd Signal Construction
Battalion Reenactors. One
officer and 34 enlisted men (four crews) from Company B were
dispatched to VIII Corps on July 14, equipped with two line
trucks (K-43), to 2 ½ ton 6x6 trucks, and one ¼ ton truck. Their mission was to
maintain communications between the VIII Corps and First Army,
and they joined the VIII Corps in a bivouac area near La Haye
do Puits, being attached to Company C, 59th Signal Battalion. What is especially
interesting about this support is it is likely that these
Soldiers from 33rd Signal Construction are specifically the
reason the 59th Signal Battalion was able to provide the Corps
level support described in "The Outcome."
The remaining
documented history of 59th Signal Battalion is likely buried
within thick tomes of military orders and deep shelves of
dedicated military libraries at Fort Leavenworth and Fort
Gordon. However,
as a support unit for VIII Corps, their battles are our
battles, as we provided the communication...
I offered to go TDY
to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for a few days to do additional
research, but MAJ McPherson asked about how this supports
Active Directory, so I had to let it slide. The next best thing
to do is describing some of the engagements VIII Corps
participated in, and imagine laying wire and raising antennas
during it.
The immediate
mission of VIII Corps was the organization of defensive
positions from Carentan (France) west across the peninsula. As the beachhead
continued to expand, VIII Corps was charged with guarding the
security of VII Corps southern flank, as VII Corps prepared to
move west and clear the French peninsula through the city of
Cherbourg of all German resistance. On 29 June 1944, VII
Corps conquered the city of Cherbourg, but only after the port
facilities were completely destroyed by the remaining German
troops.
July
1944 started with plans for a major offensive, starting with
VIII Corps. On 3
July, VIII Corps (Maj. Gen. Troy H. Middleton) opened the
First Army offensive. Three divisions jumped off abreast in a
downpour of rain that not only nullified air attacks but
prevented artillery observation.
Enemy resistance was heavy, and the 82d Airborne
Division scored the only notable advance. During the next
three days, slow progress was made in hard fighting under
adverse weather. The
corps struck the enemy's MLR (main line of resistance) along
the line le Plessis-Mont-Castre
Forest-la Haye-du-Puits, and enemy counterattacks stiffened by
armor helped to slow down the VIII Corps. Though la
Haye-du-Puits was nearly surrounded, average gains for the
three-day period were under 6,000 yards on the corps front,
and, contrary to expectations, the enemy had clearly shown his
intentions of defending in place whatever the cost.
The
slugging match continued through 11 July in both VII and VIII
Corps zones.
The hard battles of VIII Corps finally
produced their fruits in mid-July. As the three
attacking divisions broke past the rough la
Haye-du-Puits-Mont-Castre hills,
where they had cracked the enemy's MLR, they found resistance
less and less tenacious.
On 14 July, VIII Corps came up to the line of the Ay
River; it had reached the initial objectives prescribed in its
attack order, a gain of 12,000 yards in 12 days of battle. But the corps was
still far short of its assigned ultimate objectives when
orders from First Army stopped the
attack at the positions then reached. Though hard fought,
the two Corps, VII and VIII, stopped to solidify their
positions and prepare for Operation Cobra. XIX Corps continued
to fight through June 19th, as it battled south to St-Lo,
France.
Following
the action in July, VIII Corps continued to attack along the
west coast of the French peninsula as part of Operation Cobra,
launched on 25 July 1944 in order to break the stalemate
following the Normandy beachhead. As the Third Army
continued to move East through France towards Belgium and
Germany, VIII Corps continued to attack toward Brest,
capturing the vital port city on 18 September 1944. Unfortunately, this
left the VIII Corps well behind its higher headquarters, which
resulted in VIII Corps being reassigned to the Ninth Army.
Following
the taking of the Brest Peninsula, VIII Corps was moved into a
supporting position, covering the southern flank of the Third
Army, as they pushed into Belgium through the fall.
As
the winter started, the battle lines were reorganized
throughout the Ardennes Forest, and VIII Corps moved into the
Northern portion. The
strongest fighting was occurring in the south, still with
Third and First Army, so VIII Corps became the place for
divisions to reorganize, and new divisions to be placed to get
their first experience in combat, as the VIII Corps portion of
the western line was relatively sedate compared to the
southern portion.
The
fighting in the fall was fierce and slow, as the Germans
fought for every inch, as the Allies pushed them closer and
closer to their homeland.
By 15 December, the Allies had almost completely
recovered whole of France and Belgium, through Operation
Market Garden. The
setting in December 1944 is represented below. Both Armies were in
static positions, with the rivers separating France and
Germany as the main obstacles.
Directly
from the CMH book "Battle of the Bulge"; here is what happened
on December 16th.
"Maj.
Gen. Troy H. Middleton's VIII Corps on First Army's right
flank had no part in the Allied attacks of early December. Two of Middleton's
infantry divisions were weary and casualty-ridden
from the intense fighting of the November
push to the Roer. The
third was newly arrived from the United States. The corps mission,
then, was to train, rest, re-equip, and observe the enemy. Nonetheless this was
no Blighty, a haven for second-rate troops and bumbling
commanders. The
28th Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Norman D. Cota) and the 4th
Infantry Division (Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton) had
distinguished themselves in the bloody battles of the Hurtgen
Forest.
The
veterans of this fight were well equipped to train and hearten
the replacements for some 9,000 battle casualties the two
divisions had sustained.
General Middleton himself had a fine combat record
reaching from World War I through Sicily, Normandy, and
Brittany. Deliberate
and calm but tenacious, he was regarded by Bradley and Patton
as one of the best tacticians in the U.S. Army.
As
the result of the relief of the 83d Infantry Division, en route to the VII Corps, the
deployment of the VIII Corps (as it would meet the German
attack) took final form on the 13th. The 4th Infantry
Division abutted on the Third Army at the Luxembourg-French
frontier and followed the Moselle and Sauer Rivers, marking
the German border, as far north as Bollendorf. A combat command of
the 9th Armored Division, as yet inexperienced, had taken over
a narrow sector to the left of the 4th on 10 December. The second combat
command of this division, earlier comprising the corps
reserve, was assigned to V Corps and started its march north
on 13 December. The
veteran 28th Infantry Division held the corps center, fronting
on the Our River. The
newly arrived and green 106th Infantry Division had completed
the relief of the 2d Infantry Division in the Schnee Eifel
sector on 12 December. Here
the German West Wall turned northeastward following the Schnee
Eifel crest. In
the Losheim Gap, at the northern
terminus of the Schnee Eifel, a light task force of the 14th
Cavalry Group maintained a screening position between the
106th and 99th Infantry Divisions. It should be noted
that this was the seam between the VIII and V Corps.
Although
the VIII Corps forward area possessed many terrain features
favoring the defender, notably the Schnee Eifel on the left
wing and the river sequence fronting the corps center and
right, there were numerous points of entry for an attack
moving east to west. The three infantry divisions under
Middleton's command were responsible for a front of about
eighty-five miles, a distance approximately three times that
normally assigned an equivalent defending
force by U.S. service school teaching and
tactical doctrine. On the morning of 16 December the total
assigned strength of the VIII Corps was 68,822 officers and
men. Immediately after the Battle of the Bulge, the tag "a
calculated risk" would be applied to the attenuated VIII Corps
front as it existed on 16 December. Middleton was well aware
of the risk--indeed he had made this clear in discussions with
his superiors. Somewhat after the event General Eisenhower
wrote General of the Army George C. Marshall (on 10 January
1945) that in early November he and Bradley had discussed the
possibility of a German counteroffensive in the Ardennes but
had agreed that such a move would be unprofitable to the
enemy. The line of reasoning, as set before Marshall, was
this: the "Volkssturm" would be no
good in offensive operations, winter in the Ardennes would
render continuous logistic support impossible, and Allied
strength was so great that the Germans could not push far
enough to reach really vital objectives."
Without
going in to depth about the Battle of the Bulge, the VIII
Corps took the heaviest brunt of the Germany counterattack,
having to dislodge their headquarters from Bastogne, leaving
the city to 101st Airborne Division, which led to their
historical defense, and famous line by Gen McAuliffe in
regards to the German demand of surrender "Nuts!" The Third Army,
which absorbed the remnants of VIII Corps, pushed back into
Bastogne, and relieved 101st Airborne. By January 18th, the
German counterattack was defeated, and the battle lines were
restored. The
Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last serious attack, and 4
months later, once the Allies and Russian Armies met in
Saxony, Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945.
While
a majority of this information is about VIII Corps, a
non-divisional support unit like 59th Signal Battalion would
have been spread throughout the battlefield. When GEN Middleton
moved his headquarters from Bastogne to Neufchateau
on 18 December, it is likely that the 59th moved also.
Works Cited:
Cole, Hugh M. The Ardennes: Battle Of
The Bulge. Washington,
D.C.: Center of Military History, 1965
<http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/7-8/7-8_cont.htm>
Trejo, Frank.
U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History
Project. 8
July 2004
<http://www.utexas.edu/projects/latinoarchives/index.html>
Phillips, Ed. 33rd Signal Construction
Battalion Reenactors.
8 July 2004 <http://members.tripod.com/33rdscb/>
Harris, Dixie H., and Thompson, G.R. The
Signal Corps: The Outcome.
Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, 1966.
Voice of the Arctic, a monthly publication of the 59
th
Signal Battalion, Fort Richardson, Alaska, is published for
members of the 59
th Signal Battalion.
Contents of
Voice of
the Arctic are not necessarily the official views of, or
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For information on submitting story ideas, articles, or
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th Signal S1 (907) 384-0103 or
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This publication is
produced by CPT Earl Zortman, 59
th Signal Battalion,
S1.