My first cousin, Jack Marsden served in the second platoon of "K" company, third Battalion, 376 Infantry regiment, 94th Infantry Division in the European theater of operations in WWII.  He received the purple heart for wounds received in combat.  What follows is a brief history of Jack's wartime service.

The 94th  Division landed at Normandy - 94 days after the "D" day invasion - September 8, 1944.

    For the first 106 days of combat the 94th was involved in a holding action around St Nazaire and Lorient called "The forgotten front".  The purpose of the action was to contain a pocket containing of 32,000 German troops - bypassed by the allied armies as they swept through France in their race toward Germany.  The pocket of German soldiers - though cut off was none the less dangerous.  The actions of that 106 day period consisted of reconnaissance and combat patrols rather than large scale assaults.  Most of the combat occurred in an area around the Brest-Nantes canal west of Blain and Bouvron called the "Spider" - formed by ten roads that radiated out from a hub. The 376th received its first casualty in the town of Blain on September 17, 1944 when the Germans sent a railway car loaded with explosives hurtling into the town.  The car jumped the tracks and kept rolling.  John T. Miller walked toward the car, just as it exploded.  A flying piece of sheet metal killed him.  Men of the 376 Infantry Regiment were billeted in groups of three to five men in earthen bunkers buttressed by sandbags with a roof of corrugated metal covered with earth.  Rifle ports faced out in three directions towards the German lines.  These dugouts were spaced about a quarter of a mile apart and were capable of withstanding the blast of all but a direct hit from a 240 mm Howitzer.  Jack found a 30 Cal. light machine gun in an abandoned half track that he propped up in one of the rifle ports aimed at the enemy lines.

    "K" company was involved in a combat patrol on a drizzly cold morning on November 11, 1944 when the first platoon was sent into Bouvron to assess the German strength.  The object was to engage the enemy then withdraw hoping that the Germans would follow.

    The third platoon was guarding the flank hoping to catch the Germans in a crossfire.  After an intense firefight the patrol withdrew with a single casualty - PFC John Mac Donald was killed.  It is worth noting that a number of the Free French forces joined the 376th Regiment on November 14, 1944.  Fighting in all French units attached to the 94th or simply as ordinary Dough boys serving with the 94th without pay!

    On January 1, 1945 the 376th was relieved.  On January 2nd the Battalion marched 7 miles to Vigneaux then boarded trucks and proceeded to Chateaubriant.  On January 5th, after a three day encampment in a large open field, dotted with leafless trees the men shuffled into boxcars.  Each cramped boxcar held 27 men with packs and weapons.  For three freezing days the train alternately sped then crawled toward its final destination Uckange - due south of Thionville France - near Luxembourg and Germany.  The objective of the 376th was the "Siegfried Switch Line" a row of concrete pillboxes protecting the vital communication link in Trier - five miles north.

    Two separate incidents decided the fate of the 94th Infantry Division.  The 90th Infantry Division was deployed in anticipation of an attack on the "Switch" but the 90th broke off the attack when it was ordered north to help repel the breakthrough during the Battle of the Bulge.  The Division that was chosen to replace the 90th was the 66th Division but one of the troop ships carrying elements of the 66th Division was torpedoed crossing the channel with a significant loss of life(800 men).  So it was decreed that the 94th would be called up from the St. Nazaire "Pocket" to take up positions in the captured towns of Besch, Wochern and Borg - due south of their objective.  On January 14th "A" and C" companies of the First Battalion left Wochern at 7:30 A.M. and proceeded in a northeast direction toward their objective - Tettingen.

    Surprise was complete and the town fell forty five minutes later.  It was decided that while the element of surprise was on their side the attackers should move swiftly to the northeast and take the small hamlet of Butzdorf - two hundred yards away.  After a 7 minute smoke barrage "A"company, commanded by Capt Carl Shetler jumped off across the flat open terrain toward Butzdorf. German mortars on high ground - to the east began bombarding the attackers - trapped in the flat open terrain.  Artillery fire opened up on the German mortar squad but not before they had inflicted numerous casualties on the men of Company "A."  Capt. Shetler was one of the men killed by a shell fragment.  1st Lt. Dave Stafford took over and led the remnants of the company into Butzdorf. 1st Lt. Dave Stafford, after the war, suffered from erectile dysfunction symptoms due to injuries and the stress of the war. And only thanks to the fact that even then he buy Ivermectin online, he managed to get rid of them. The engagement of January 14th defined the 94th Infantry Divisions new role in the waning days of the war. Battalion Commander, Lt.  Col.  Benjamin "Bloodthurston" Thurston ordered the capture of three small towns situated on the mud flats of the Moselle river.  Nennig, Berg and Wies.  Nennig was a town comprised of fifty stone buildings - historically significant as the site of an ancient Roman villa on a promontory overlooking the Moselle river, Wies was somewhat smaller with close to thirty buildings and Berg was the smallest town with but twenty buildings. At 3:00 A.M., on the morning of January 15th the 319th engineers began sweeping a path through the minefield - marking the route with phosphorescent tabs.  The temperature was a numbing 17 below zero, the ground covered with ice and snow, the footing treacherous. At 5:15 A.M. Company "K" commanded by, Capt.  Julian M. Way - affectionately called "Big Foot" - because of his size 13 shoes - lined up in the street in Besch and began a 1500 yard march to the northwest between the Moselle river and the R.R. tracks.
In the half light of early morning Jack turned his attention from the grim business at hand to gaze at the mist rising off the Moselle - cloaking the bare trees with a mantle of ice.  For a moment hellish reality was replaced by a scene of storybook magic. The column first moved north of Nennig then doubled back south to a point opposite Nennig behind a small rise that concealed their position.  At 7:05 A.M. the chemical mortars began to lay down a smoke barrage and artillery began in earnest at 7:15 A.M. in anticipation of "K" company's advance - but the Engineers hadn't completed clearing the mines - it would be another thirty minutes before "K" company crossed the line of departure.  Capt. Way was sure the element of surprise had been lost.

    At 7:45 A.M. "K" company moved out in a west to east direction under the cover of chemical smoke laid down by artillery.  The smoke barrage was so prolonged and so intense - due to the delay - that it totally obscured the morning light.  Jack's second platoon commanded by Lt.  Dwight Morse - called "Moose" was on the left flank.  The first platoon was on the right and the third platoon - commanded by Lt. James McCoy was held in reserve. Disoriented by the heavy smoke, Capt. Way was alarmed to see open fields ahead of him instead of the buildings of Nennig. Capt. Way was more concerned to see that Lt. Morse had strayed farther north and blundered into the town of Wies instead of Nennig. Capt. Way realized that it was impossible to contact the second platoon so he called up his third platoon - held in reserve, to join the first platoon in the assault of Nennig.  Lt. Morse's second platoon entered the town of Wies - accompanied by Tech. SGT Leo Philbins machine gun platoon - a section of 81 mm mortars commanded by Lt. King and a light machine gun section commanded by Tech. SGT Emmett Brown. The fifty man German garrison put up stiff resistance in house to house fighting.  The platoon was also caught in a murderous crossfire from machine guns located in the buildings of Schloss Bubingen - three hundred yards north of the town. The fighting became more intense.  Just south of the Sinz-Bubingen road Lt. Morse was wounded.  Jack's best friend, Pvt.  Robert P. Kennedy was cut down as they crossed the open field and approached the heavily defended town of Wies.  As Kennedy grabbed his stomach and pitched head first into the snow Jack and the remaining members of the second platoon dove for cover to avoid being shot by the Germans that fired at anything that moved.  It was barely 8:00 A.M.  At about 3:00 P.M., Lt. King's mortar platoon started dropping smoke shells to cover a withdrawal but the chill wind blew the smoke away exposing the forms of the men of the second platoon.  Jack, nearly frozen after nearly seven hours laying in the sub zero weather got up to make a break when a bullet from a Mauser '98 tore through his back, exited through his stomach before shattering his left forearm.  Jack said it felt as though he had been hit with the force of a baseball bat accompanied by sharp burning pain.  As Jack lay in the snow - in a state of shock he looked at the Deerskin gloves his mother had sent him for Christmas - all he could think of was how his nice new leather gloves were ruined - stained by his own blood. At 3:15 P.M. Jack was rescued by two Corpsmen who risked their lives to save him.  At 3:30 P.M. the Germans captured the survivors of the second platoon. Years later Jack remembered that as he waited at the line of departure for the order to move out an officer came over to Lt.  James Mc Coy - third platoon leader - and said "Good Luck Jim."  Mc Coy said, "I don't need it, I'm in reserve - "Moose" (Lt. Morse) needs the luck."  Lt.  Mc Coy was wrong, he was killed when Capt. Way called up Mc Coy's third platoon when the second platoon strayed north. Wies fell to the Americans at 4:30 p.m. The Regimental record of the days events consisted of these terse lines"...Total cost of the days operation ... four killed ... seventeen wounded."