*****

Sgt. John Anglin, from Atwood, was a squad leader during World War II with the Cannon Company of the 311th Infantry Division.

A veteran of the Hertgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge, Anglin also fought for Allied control of the Schwammanauel Dam at Schmitt, Germany, and provided cover for the troops crossing the bridge at Remagen, one of the last great battles of the war.

Anglin, 82, has a slim combat journal chronicling the 311th's service. Pictures of their travels, their members, their decorations and their dead are detailed.

Pressing forward under the Timberwolf banner Jamais Trop Tard (Never Too Late), the Cannon Company fired 11,618 rounds of 105 mm M3 Howitzers during their campaign.

Anglin, as squad leader, transferred coordinates from forward observers on the cannon and directed the other five members of the team.

His job was to set the elevation and direction of the gun. Four men prepared charges, loaded the gun, received the empty casing and had another shell at the ready.

The gunner fired upon orders.

The 48-inch-long cartridges had a maximum range of three miles.

"We were committed to action Dec. 10, 1944, dropped off in the Hertgen Forest, relieving different units, I'm sure," Anglin said. "On Dec. 16 we fired all day. Our captain said the Germans were 30 miles behind us. They missed coming through our positions by two miles."

During the winter of 1944, Anglin's sleeping arrangements were no different than any other troops. It wasn't unusual for the Army's soldiers to occupy foxholes and slit trenches the Germans had already used.

"When you're in combat, you bed down by digging a foxhole or slit trench. They had to be deep enough for protection.

"My first night in Hertgen we, two other guys and myself, were in a hole three feet deep and four feet wide, with logs, brush and dirt over the top. You lived in any kind of shelter you could find. It didn't make a difference if it had been used before.

"One night I was on guard duty and tried to wake the person who would relieve me. A German 88 shell had nestled in underneath him and he couldn't be woke up. He was gone. It's hard to say, but he only had a shallow slit trench. If he'd had more protection, he might have survived it, I don't know."

On Dec. 27, 1944, Anglin received word from home that his brother, William, had been killed in action. William was 2-1/2 years older than John. He joined the Army in September 1942 and served as a medic.

In mid-January Anglin visited the Belgium cemetery where his brother's body was interred. There he learned William had been killed by shrapnel from a "tree burst" in the Huertgen Forest.

"At the graves registration I learned that he had been killed at the exact same location where we set up 20 days later. He was a medic. I've read different books that medics, in many cases, didn't expect to survive. Regardless of how intense the conflict was, if somebody needed help, they were trained to assist them. I learned later William was in the same regiment as Bob Gast."

(Gast of Warsaw was a second lieutenant with the Army's Fourth Infantry Division, 12th Infantry Regiment, Company B, 2nd Rifle Platoon.)

The 311th was attached to the 78th "Lightning" Infantry Division, recognized as being the first to cross the Rhine River. There was plenty of property to secure before reaching the river goal, however.

"As we were approaching the Rhine River, around mid-February 1945, our forward units were able to take the little town of Schmidt at the Schwammanauel dam. It held back a reservoir on the Roer River.

"Our forward units had been fighting for control of Schmidt since October. They'd taken it twice and were pushed back. We were finally able to get control of Schmidt. It was important because as long as it was in the Germans' control, they could blow up the reservoir and flood that area of the Cologne Plain. That would have prevented the Allied forces from advancing until it dried up."

When the Americans secured Schmidt, they moved across the Cologne Plain and pressed on to the Rhine River, the Germans' last natural line of defense.

Shockingly, one bridge still stood. Up and down the mighty river, 47 bridges were blown as the German army pulled back. Where the Rhine ran 800 feet wide, deep and fast - at Remagen - one bridge remained.

The Remagen bridge was charged with explosives that didn't go off for one reason or another. That error was a boon to the Allied advance.

"The taking of a bridge across the Rhine was worse to the Germans than losing any battle," Anglin said. "They prided themselves on being good soldiers. They prided themselves as not making mistakes."

Leaving the bridge stand at Remagen was a big mistake.

Anglin and a lieutenant scouted out gun positions by taking a river road north.

"We found ourselves exposed to direct fire from across the river. About a mile north of Remagen was the little town of Unkelbach, set away from the river by 400 to 500 yards."

The tiny village seemed deserted. There was no resistance, no one in sight until three elderly men approached the jeep.

"One spoke good English and his first question was, 'What do you want us to do?' We told them to stay in their houses and that we would inspect their homes for radios. We had to make sure they weren't radioing firing positions.

"The same fellow said, 'We had been told the Americans would shoot anyone they saw here. But I knew that wasn't true because I used to live in Detroit.'

"So we set up gun positions there, started firing and fired for two days constantly with very little rest. We supported the bridgehead our troops had established on the east side of the Rhine River."

The first soldiers crossed the bridge at 4 p.m. March 7, 1945. Ten days later, the Remagen bridge did fall, taking many American engineers with it.

"The capture of that bridge saved at least 15,000 lives and shortened the war by who knows how long," Anglin said.

Anglin said the Germans were surrendering by company after the division moved into the Ruhr Valley. "We would tell them to go on back, back to the military police. They would be marching down the road and surrender.

"There might be 5,000 prisoners with a light barbed wire fence encircling this great bunch of men. They would be right out in the open. There would be no shelter for them there, no tents. They were just herded into an big open area."

The 311th stayed in Germany as part of the army of occupation.

Anglin returned home in January 1946, back to his wife, Bette, and first son.

After driving a milk route for five years, Anglin and his brothers founded the Clunette Elevator in 1951. [[In-content Ad]]