** Moment of Remembrance **

“The Losheim Gap, A Bridge & Onion Soup”

8th Global Venture Exchange
Antwerp 6 March 2020
“75th Remembrance Anniversary of Peace in Europe”

A dedication to:

• Fernand & Thérèse Boufflette of Villers-l'Evêque and their extended Family

• 28 engineers who secured bridges in dangerous times

• 20 veterans of the US 106th Infantry who returned to St. Vith last December, and the Polish, Canadian, British, Belgian, Dutch, French with them in the Benelux

• & Major Lawrence Smith of Michigan & German heritage, S3 Operations Officer with US 14th Mechanized Cavalry (Ardennes, “Ludendorff Bridge”)

addendum to program
arranged by Chris, Co-chair
Est reading time: 28 minutes
(pintje or glass of wine recommended for Readers)

PROLOGUE & WELCOME

Welcome to entrepreneurs, industry leaders and investors from many countries to Antwerp today for our 9th Global Venture Exchange, as we pivot our gravity from California to the Benelux.

GVX is a network of leaders exchanging knowledge of tactics, tools and networks for transformation and growth using data science, AI and the cloud. We started in 2013 with the help of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, iMinds from Ghent and six Berkeley MBAs (from France, Italy, Belgium and Spain).

Those traveling by train arrive at Antwerpen Centraal, a station with volume (speaking of which, Le Royale Cafe on the top floor has good Belgian bier). Our gathering in Antwerp extends globally via video stream. Speakers meet peers, sharpen their ideas and meet AI-related entrepreneurs and investors. With the world in a spin, we try not to “slow down” too much.

But how does one go about speaking up for a 75th Anniversary of peace in Europe? What does a forum in Antwerp have to do with the past and lessons about future technology?

• There are practical answers: Sharing practices from the recent past helps everyone improve. But that doesn’t go back too far

• There are sober facts: When applying new technology people can get carried away. Antwerp station was nearly destroyed by V-2 Rockets, with each the equivalent of “fifty locomotives, each weighing a hundred tons, impacting the ground at 60 mph” — as one German General described the 3,000 kpm impact. 8,000 of the Antwerp’s houses were damaged and there were 6,000 casualties in the late Fall and Early Spring if 1944/45

[But the GVX blueprint of connecting Europe & US started in 2007 thanks to Hewlett Packard & the Northern California Chapter of the Netherland America Foundation. It was that year that a few of us in the Dutch-American community organized a Tribute to prolific Dutch entrepreneur Alfred Peet - founder of Peet’s Coffee - who passed away earlier that year. Jerry Baldwin, co-founder of Starbucks & Laureate Jan de Vries (author of “The First Modern Economy: Success, Failures and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy 1500 to 1815”) agreed to join this first Exchange gathering.

In 2008 we did “Digital & Green Future” then “Sustainability & Water Management” at DLA Piper with help of IBM video conferencing between the World Trade Center in Amsterdam Zuid and DLA’s Palo Alto office.

This GVX8 in Antwerp is the first ‘look in the rear view mirror’ since 2007 (see past GVX activities) & the Reader should know we don’t look backwards much. But given the circumstance of 75 years we’ll do it today.

How does one go about speaking up for a 75th Anniversary of peace in Europe? Words like liberation, anniversary, remembrance and reconciliation are each used in Europe to different effect. What does a tech talk in Antwerp have to do with the past?

• Maybe the past has some lessons to our present circumstances?

• Or can we learn ‘what to avoid’ with new tech by seeing the full lifecycle of a use case? V-2 Rockets are certainly an example; 6,000 casualties of Antwerp Citizens were felt in Winter of 1944/45 as V2s rockets - each equivalent to “fifty locomotives…impacting the ground” nearly destroyed the city. ]

We live in a time in search of it’s future. Some see AI and societies’ reliance on digital technology, the business subject of our gathering, as a clear and present danger.

And since I ask something of the Reader — namely to help me draw a line to a collective future (and move from the places we are sitting ducks) — it would be courteous for the story to have a few new facts. And even better if it used a few metaphors like “Cloud” and “Fog” used in the past but still popular today in tech circles.

I’ll try to oblige.

Much of the story described below was unknown to me until recently.

With 2019 Winter holiday approaching — I decided to unwind my Grandfather’s Europe Tour in the Ardennes from 75 years ago. My two daughters and son are getting older and are more easily bored. So a four-day road trip through Belgium, Germany and France re-discovering their Great Grandpa Larry’s Tour seemed perfect.

I was fond of Grandpa Larry. My brother and I visited the extended Smith family most summers when we were growing up. In addition to all the usual stuff a Grandpa might do — head to the dunes near Lake Michigan or teach us to ride a horse - he’d tell my brother and me stories of an “ambush” and of getting shot in Europe (he wasn’t, he’d grin, it was just a bit of brick dislodged from the bullet). Sadly Grandpa died when I was 15 of a cancerous brain tumor and the stories went with him.

I wrote relatives asking what they knew. And spent time behind my computer, Ctrl F-ing books and rifling through boxes. My Aunt - one of the cute girls in the picture sitting on Larry’s lap with a decidedly “European looking” scarf she holds around her head - re-connected me with the Boufflettes. The Boufflettes are a longstanding Belgian family that hosted Larry for a few weeks at their home near Liège in the Winter of ‘44.

The Boufflettes’ quick reply and invitation to drop by en route to the Ardennes began the slippery slope that is this Narrative.

Most people in our family probably know what is a pretty normal American history back then:

• Larry was in ROTC with the cavalry - he liked riding horses, as did my grandmother - at Michigan State and graduated just before the war in 1938

• That after Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941), Larry was called back into active service. He trained at Camp Hood in Texas with a tank destroyer unit

• That his wife Bennie, our gleaming-eyed Irish-American Grandmother, accompanied him to Texas with one baby in tow and left with two by the time he was deployed

So imagine taking a touristy Winter road trip in the Ardennes with kids — three Dutch-American Gen Zers. And having the disjointed fragments of their family heirloom snap into place at a crossroads of history. One that connects directly to Antwerp, where we stand today, and with the Benelux.

Today on 6 March 2020 we face different challenges than in 1944. Most of us are focused on transformations of some digital kind. And we meet with elbow bumps not handshakes since CoronaVirus is on the offense (Italy banned gatherings last week but our physical group is small and many people join remote). Forgive the references to war which shouldn’t be glorified and are anyway.

I hope the Reader can track this to the end. Maybe over a couple of sittings as we hunker down in the coming weeks. Then once "worked into the situation” as one Old Dog from Remagen put it, decide what action we should take. Paralysis is not an option.

And then read it once more for fun, preferably on a cold night in December. When there is snow falling to the ground. And with a couple of Belgian biers at the ready.

So as a British or Polish cryptanalyst might say, “Let’s crack on with it”.

The setting begins on a Walloon farm in Belgium during the first world war.

Then lands with a thud in the Fall of 1944.

In Good Faith

— Chris. Co-chair

******

PART 1: BELGIAN HEARTS

Fernand Boufflette and his wife Thérèse PIER lived on a farm near Liège as had their forebearers for several hundred years. Liège existed from before Roman times (500s), was the apparent birthplace of Charlemagne and in 1914 was site of the first battle of WW1. Fernand joined the military and later that year survived an explosion at Fort Loncin which killed 350 of 550 resident soldiers.

Fernand became prisoner and was taken to Camp Parchim in eastern Germany to work until returning home at the end of the war. He was well treated and good at his work since the ground and farmlands were quite similar to his home. While gone, his parents and one of his sisters had died. He rebuilt the farm and Thérèse gave birth to three children Joseph, Paul and Palmyre. 

In 1941 Liège was again occupied but this time the local German commander knew Fernand. Fernand had worked as a farm hand while at Camp Parchim and by chance the Commander grew up in Parchim. As a boy he had known Fernand well. This history and Fernand’s flawless German made survival easier for the family during the occupation of Liège. 

After Normandy in June 1944 the Allies battled their way South and also East. In early September, the Witte Brigade (White Brigade) of the Belgian resistance managed to seize the port of Antwerp before it could be scuttled and 90% of the port remained in tact.

PART 2: EMBATTLED PORT

On September 4 1944 Antwerp was liberated, though it was far from free or functional. On September 8 Liège saw a more palpable liberation including the nearby village Villers-l'Evêque where the Boufflette’s lived. That same day Belgian Prime Minister Pierlot returned to Brussels after four years in London, making Belgium the first in Europe with a restored constitutional government.

But fighting in Belgium persisted — along the West Scheldt the 1st Polish Armoured Division advanced northeast from Ghent (by September 20), as Canadian and British covered their flanks and moved northward in their respective battle zones.

And to the East scheming persisted — Hitler began his plans for the Ardennes Counteroffensive to retake the port, even as the Allies were sending exhausted units and new ones to the Ardennes which was considered the “Honeymoon sector”.

The next two months were volatile with German positions dug in for defense. The controversially delayed Battle of the Scheldt lasted from 2 October to 8 November Allies including British, Canadian, Polish driving together across this waterlogged Polder.

On November 6, the Royal Scots made an amphibious landing on the beaches of Middelburg (capital of Dutch province Zeeland) in “Buffaloes”, forcing an end to all German resistance around Antwerp on November 8. 

It was not until 29 November when mines had been cleared that the first Allied supplies were able to unload at the Port of Antwerp. There was controversy over the prioritization of Market Garden in mid September and unknown to the Allies, at the time they first took Antwerp they were opposed further North by only a single German division.

PART 3: THE ARDENNES

The 14th Cavalry Group with Major Smith sailed for Europe aboard the Queen Elizabeth on 28 August 1944. After brief training in the UK, they landed on Omaha Beach 30 September three months after the initial June landings of Normandy. Most of France had been liberated by September so the 14th Cavalry Group, comprised of the 18th and 32nd squadrons with roughly a thousand men and 150 vehicles each pressed East.

The Allies main force had split north towards The Netherlands and another pushing towards Germany along a 100 kilometer front in the beautiful but infamous Ardennes forest. By the end of 1944 the war appeared to be coming to an inevitable conclusion.

Bastogne is etched in the collective imagination of any American who knows his or her history. A US commander replied ‘nuts’ when told to surrender in an endeared American-as-rebel moment. The 101st Airborne of HBO “Band of Brothers” fame were there. General Patton made his legendary 90 degree pivot and sprint to Bastogne to save the day there.

But an hour drive northeast of Bastogne slinks a lesser known corridor called the “Losheim Gap” (near Prum). In 1914 the Germans had used the 8 kilometer gap to attack Liège, one hour away through St. Vith.

The Losheim Gap was used again in 1940 to sow confusion in Benelux when the Germans attacked and attracted more than a million French soldiers to the North. This northern thrust towards Holland by the French allowed the German army along the southern flank to encircle and capture the more than a million French soldiers in one of history’s lopsided outcomes given the military superiority and preparations of the French leading up to the war.

By early October the 14th Cavalry Group’s 18th Squadron arrived in Ettelbruck Luxembourg. By mid October they arrived in the Ardennes and began to familiarize themselves with a ten kilometer front which included the Losheim gap. Colonel Devine was Senior 1 as overall leader. Larry was S3 (operations) and the lowest ranking of the four, with colonels serving in positions of S2 (for intelligence gathering) and S4 (for supply).

The 32nd Mechanized Cavalry squadron re-joined the 18th by 11 December. The two squadron 14th Cavalry group was attached to the US 106th Infantry Division to the south and southwest. This made for a combined 30 kilometer line.

To the north of the cavalry, after a 3 kilometer break, was the 99th infantry with similar responsibilities and connected with the 14th for mechanized support. Neither 106th or 99th had seen much fighting and the area was considered unlikely to see any action so good for training new arrivals.

As the “S3” in his division, Larry was supposed to write operating procedures to help them deal with situations that “might come up during combat”. Thezones covered by the cavalry and by association the 99th and 106th comprised around 12,000 to 14,000.

PART 4: THIRD TIME AT THE GAP

General Joachim Peiper was a model son of the SS who had built his reputation in the battle of France, in Poland and the Soviet Union. He had joined the scouts in 1926 at 18 along with his older brother and before he reached his 30s became a prodigy General leading the 1st SS Panzer Division.

The furor’s infatuation with woods, Norse legend and fog is well known. The fog was the decisive factor since it made the air superiority of the Allies irrelevant and forecasts said 10 days. Two weeks before the first mortars top commanders were informed of a counteroffensive to retake Antwerp. Peiper would be given the main task as battering ram and blitzer. The Losheim Gap had shown its utility in 1914 and 1940. And Peiper was expected to deliver again.

Peiper was assigned over 21,000 SS and 124 Panther and Tiger tanks (plus dozens of armored cars and artillery), whose military objective was Antwerp through St. Vith area and Liège (though likely politically motivated). The 12th SS Panzer division was a bit north and behind them with 20,000. 60% of these men had less than 8 weeks of training though on average they were slightly older than the Allied soldiers they faced.

That December nearly a half-million interlopers made preparations in Germany, just across the Belgian border from Major Smith and his fellows. The Germans made time for light training in snow. Many of the conscripts were worn down, old or young. Scouts prepared the surprise by mapping out each foxhole. They planned each step to compromise communications lines once combat began. All this went on while facing American lines without being noticed even with the heavy armament (with layers of hay tied on to dim the noise) and many men being dragged into position.

By mid December Major Smith had been in the Ardennes for six weeks. He’d had time to get to know the land and any ‘high ground’. He was managing communications and security, coordinating the telephone lines which inter-connected the extended group. He coordinated training and as such was aware that complacency could be a problem. Supreme US commanders saw terrain to the south and north of St. Vith (up the way about an hour, closer to Cologne) more suitable to enter Germany. The Losheim area was considered less strategic and build ups were done elsewhere.

PART 5: EUROPEANS IN THE HEARTLAND

To appreciate the rigor of personalities behind the Allies in the Ardennes in 1944/45 one can look to the families and years leading up to the war.

Every entrepreneur-at-heart loves to take lessons from history like the introduction of a new technology — the rail lines or a new communications platform — or a historical figure who against the odds built something fitting and successful in the age they lived.

Johan Schmidt, grandfather of Major Smith, immigrated to Michigan with two brothers from Stuttgart Germany in the 1850s. The brothers settled not far from Grand Rapids (where many Dutch settled during the 1840s and 50s) and arrived with little more than their work ethic and wit.

Agriculture saw incredible industrialization from the mid 1800s to mid 1900s, not only from production but developments in mobility like roads, rail and air and new business that were derived from and built upon that industrialized base.

But to an individual such opportunity can seem a lifetime away. The Schmidt father who remained in Germany wrote asking the boys to send money but with winter approaching they wrote a long and sober note. They had nothing they could offer him and must be frugal in the event one of them were to get sick. They were apologetic, but direct. And promised to work hard and not drink.

The Civil War had ended in 1865 and there was a shortage of labor. Johan’s America-born son David was seven at that point and lived on the family farm.

“They had felled trees, burned them and farmed between the stumps”, said Larry about his Grandfather Johan and Father David. “David became a carpenter”; and when the newly minted railroads crisscrossed Michigan and the US in 1880s, he “asked his father to save a piece of ground along side the right-of-way (rail lines) and subsequently built an elevator at Woodbury.”

Many entrepreneurs and investors rushed into the rail business with highly varying results but once the lines were in place another wave of startups piggy backed on the new infrastructure.

David’s brother George joined him as they started out using a “horse powered sweep to drive the machinery.” Along the way they added cousin Coates, who worked at the local Farmers and Merchants Bank in town and could access capital.

Together, Johan’s sons and their cousin expanded the business. Their logistics and trade business ‘Smith Bros’ grew to connect the farmers in the Grand Rapids-Lansing area with Chicago commodity markets. For three generations (all with a Smith brother David, and two with a Lawrence and George), this family would help a farmer lock in a market price and do the physical work of collecting the crops in grain elevators along the rail line. As the trains rolled through they would stop and load wagons full of crops, and Smith Bros ensured things got safely to the buyer. The Smith brothers were competent guys and rooted in their community.

Third generation Larry described his Father: “I could talk for long periods about him — his morality, Christian principals, liberal ideals, etc…that’s how the company got started. Smith Bros has a long history of dedicated, moral, community-involved service. It is our intension to continue such service.”

This is the American family in which third generation Larry Smith and his older brothers George and David grew up, as did their father David and his own brother George. Across America, entrepreneurial and civic leadership in towns and cities across the country would draw from a growing pool of European immigrants.

After graduating from college, Larry jumped on an executive career job for a young University grad with Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Ann Arbor. He and his wife Bennie had plans. She had started graduate school at Moser Business School with Larry driving down to see her on weekends, and after a month of this they decided to marry.

Then, in February 1942 he received a letter to report to Fort Riley, Kansas. With Bennie and their baby Terry, Larry drove from Michigan to Fort Riley. After a month, young family moved again to Temple Texas for Tank Destroyer Tactical and Firing Center. Larry would spend two years as Colonel George Beatty’s adjutant Captain at the Academic Regiment of Tank Destroyer Command School.

In this writing, I take liberties to explore the backgrounds and contributions of two Majors, one from each world war. One obviously my grandfather who I have tried to share from personal pov. The other Major (who would attain 5-star status just before the Ardennes battle).

Both had ‘stuff’ that made them useful in the battle in the Ardennes, this ultimate testing ground mixing old technologies and new.

PART 6: AMERICAN INNOVATOR IN MOBILITY

Around the same time that Larry was born in 1916, another descendent of immigrants Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated in 1915 from military university.

Dwight came from a family of mostly Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry and some German. His 3rd great-grandfather Hans Nicholas Eisenhauer and his 2nd great-grandfather Johann Peter immigrated to America in 1741 from Germany on the ship Europa.

The same leaps in industrial technology and mobility which allowed agricultural industry and the Smiths to flourish with their hard work and wit, made mass production of mechanized mobility a huge new development. It was inexpensive to maintain a tank, replenish armored cars and integrate 50 caliber machine guns into lots of platforms.

Young captain Eisenhower saw this evolution in front of his eyes. Having remained State-side he ended the first war in 1918 leading an Infantry Battalion that trained young tank crews.

In early 1918 Eisenhower got his first command at Camp Colt in Gettysburg National Military Park. This would be the first place where American soldiers trained to use tanks. This spot, known as Cemetery Hill, was also infamous site of Picket’s Charge during the last gasp of the Civil War (Americans are working through that Remembrance as well).

At that time in 1918 the US did not have a single tank and it had only been two years since the first ones had been used in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. After four months of basic training at Camp Colt and getting organized, the Renault FT arrived in June 1918.

The things learned by Eisehower and his staff at Camp Colt would find their way into the manuals Larry read in Texas in 1944. The training mixed old and new technology to get inside the “decision cycle” of an opponent. Taking the initiative and extending to an objective with guns blazing before the other person could react.

But in September 1918, the "Spanish flu" epidemic which started at a US military camp 11 March in Kansas arrived at Camp Colt, ultimately killing 175 and infecting many of the roughly 10,000 men under his command.  Eisenhower was under duress and the daily routines were impossible, even as they codified tactics, his men suffered. When he learned the Armistice of 11 November was signed, ending the land, air and sea war between the Allies and Germany he considered what to do. Meanwhile, President Woodrow Wilson contracted the virus during the initial signing of the Versailles Peace treaty in mid 1919 becoming one of 20 to 50 million who died of the virus.

In 1919 Eisenhower was an observer for a mobile convoy across the country with the Transcontinental Motor Convoy (TMC). The trip from Washington DC to the Bay Area was meant to help raise awareness of the quality of roads, leadership and mobility.

The 5,000 kilometer TMC journey took four months consisting of 81 vehicles, including 31 heavy cargo trucks, 4 kitchen trailers, a wrecker, 4 motorcycles and 5 ambulances – and it did not go well.

They experienced:

• 230 road incidents and nine vehicles broke down 

• 21 injuries from the 300 person convoy (people not completing the trip)

• The convoy broke or needed to shore up 88 wooden bridges

By the time the Transcontinental Motor Convoy reached Oakland, California, it was seven days behind schedule, ferrying the next morning on the last travel day.

And though signed in the mid-1919, there were three delays, the Treaty of Versailles finally took effect in January of 1920.

In the 1920s and 30s, Eisenhower served under generals like Fox Conner, John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall. He had learned to work with some of the Americas strongest personalities (like MacArthur with whom he had major philosophical difference on what made good leadership).

He was acknowledged for his administrative and operational experience. But he had not had an active command above battalion. When the war started, Eisenhower was brought to Washington and was involved with developing plans to defeat Japan and Germany.

There was a sense of inevitability, and he’d end up in Europe as the Allied Commander for the European theater.

PART 7: ALL IS FAIR

As Christmas approached there was 8” to 18” inches of loose snow and a dense Fog slithering through the Ardennes. Fox holes peppered the ground. The 106th Infantry Division had arrived on December 11th and the 99th not long before.

Major Smith and the 14th Cavalry command post was moved to Manderfeld a few kilometers from the Losheim Gap. He had been in Europe little more than three months and was missing his girls and wife back home in Michigan. Larry and Bennie’s birthdays (Bennie was three days older then him) both fell the week before Christmas and he planned to write her a letter.

Preparations were made but as rotations of new divisions came the advice from the vets to the new guys was how lucky they were to be in the sleepy Ardennes. Guys mostly in their 20s from an ocean away tried to stay warm. The Fog and low temperatures were expected to last another ten days.

At 5:30am on 16 December 1944 the battle was on. I still hold a letter Larry wrote to my Grandmother explains the initial reaction to cut communications lines that morning in Manderfeld, just a few kilometers from the German border and the Losheim Gap.

Excerpts from letter Larry wrote to his wife about that 16th December morning:

“The day before your birthday (i.e., December 16 1944) about 5:30am I was awakened by a terrific bunch of explosions. It was evident we were being shelled, and after 15 or 20 minutes, I couldn’t go back to sleep (also decided something was up), I got up and walked downstairs.

The damn shelling didn’t let up. In fact kept on going for about an hour and a half. Me…I’d never been through a heavy one before, so didn’t know whether it was tough or not. Our Ex had been here since D Day, though, and claims he had seen some heavy barrages: and that ours on the 16th was the heaviest he’d seen.

Well, later I went up to get my clothes and put them on. Good thing I had gotten up. The room was covered with plaster, windows out, etc. So dressed and back down to report more happenings to higher headquarters.

Our phone lines to the lower units were out soon after the thing started and we didn’t know what was going on at the front; so someone had to go down to the Sq. to find out….So we started out…the Colonel, 2 EM and myself; to establish communications, get a few shell fragments or shot. Well, as I’ve told you several times, I’ll always come back…so we ducked and hit the ditches several times and got through.

Got closer to the front, and found that the front line positions were in tact, but receiving the same thing, so went back to the Command Post and got the wire men to lay wire again.

Day break found [Jerry] coming through our front lines with tanks and large numbers of men. Our particular part of the line consisted of occupying, holding and defending towns (they’re closer together over here). He paid extremely heavy though in coming through; but he was apparently ready and willing…sent more right into the spots where he lost the first, and then repeated and repeated the process.

Now that we look back, we can see little things, extremely little, that show us how carefully and minutely the [Boshe] may have been planning the thing.

It was a hazy day, and so the “air” couldn’t do much to help. About noon I packed most of my stuff, got it on the trailer, and sometime during the afternoon, we withdrew.” (Larry Smith)

Around them would revolve the large remainder of Nazi reserves with four hundred ten thousand soldiers committed at the start of the campaign.

A whirlpool of mechanization was turning around the Losheim Gap like a clock. 100% mechanized units made traffic jams dangerous when Peiper’s Panther and Tiger tanks would blaze down roads forcing the horses and people stand aside or be run over. Time was of the essence.

Meanwhile, Larry’s letter to Bennie he described the front line of this attack:

“Everything was vague…by that I mean we couldn’t find out what the situation was on our flanks, or what the general picture was.

As it turned out, the big picture was an attack, on a grand, all-out scale. We were in a town called Monderfield…about 10 miles east of St. Vith.

One interesting thing; We had some troops in a dinky berg who were about cut off; so, we sent a tank platoon down to help them out. 5 minutes after they evacuated the town, it just plain disappeared. [Jerry] put a TOT on it. “TOT” means “time on target” in which several artillery battalions shell a point and figure their data so that the shells hit at the same time. Well, we crossed that settlement off the map. I guess [Jerry] wanted us out of it…we were!” (Larry Smith)

Mechanized platforms and artillery brought speed and carnage as they came through Losheim. Another observation of the first barrage by a German commander:

“The earth seemed to break open. A hurricane of iron and fire went down on the enemy positions with a deafening noise. We old soldiers had seen many a heavy barrage, but never before anything like this.” — Major Günther Holz, the commander of the 12. Volksgrenadier-Division’s Panzerjäger-Abteilung 12, afterwards described 0530 hrs on 16 December.

On the American side, Staff Sergeant John Hillard of 394th Infantry Regiment describes the psychological effect of this massive artillery fire, “Several of our men went mad and left their shelters in order to get killed or mutilated.”

This third incursion through the corridor in such numbers brought grid lock and devastation both ways. “Surprise and numbers” went up against “familiarity with the terrain and dug in positions”. Throughout the night of the 16/17 Germans poured through the Losheim Gap.

Major Smith got little rest and described that “bright and early the next AM the front line units started catching it again.”

Meanwhile the unfortunate top American field commander for the Ardennes General Bradley was in Paris to celebrate his classmate Eisenhower’s promotion to 5-stars and initially discounted the reports (Eisenhower’s quick analysis enabled Bastogne and Losheim to receive timely defense by Patton and Limburg-stationed reinforcements).

Even though Peiper got through Losheim, they had instant problems. For example, a minefields left by retreating Germans two months before had not been cleared. It destroyed some of the heaviest Royal Tiger tanks which were left by the side of the road. The muddy one lane roads were not suitable for using the 45 Tigers, more than any other commander had been allocated. By the 2nd day 17 December General Peiper’s mad Panzer dash had already fallen 16 hours behind schedule due more to self-inflicted wounds.

But still the 1st SS Panzer group took a series of towns with the opposition in completely in disarray. Lack of clarity regarding Allied strength as they got deeper meant commanders hesitated, frustrating Peiper as he challenged older veterans who’d lost their nerve.

Increasingly frustrated and having rarely failed to achieve his mission, Peiper kept things in high gear and the Americans were in utter disarray. In interest of saving time Peiper, after having capturing and having them refuel his vehicles, Peiper would have 84 US POWs abruptly shot in what would become known as the Malmedy Massacre. This was first reported by the Colonel leading the 291st engineers, whose engineers would later scuttle tiny but vital bridges just in front of Peiper’s division. Top Generals on both sides would later share their disbelief at playing traffic cop in those first days.

Meanwhile both lived by the old adage “all is fair in love and war” with the Americans using brutal new explosives and Germans parading around in costumes.

Germans with American uniforms, accents and vehicles prompted Allies to arrest one another and spontaneously ask questions about “the nickname of athlete or baseball team XYZ”.

Letter excerpt from Major Larry to his wife Bennie:

“…we picked up 2…who were positively identified as Jerry spies. Should have shot them, but I don’t think we did. There was a lot of that going on…1940 all over again. Germans in civilian clothing, right in the stream of civilians going to the rear. When they got to their appointed place, they took their uniform out of their bag, and went to work. or they stopped in at a particular house, and put on their pre-arranged for American uniform.

It was that day that I saw the first Germans in American uniforms. We didn’t realize it until too late….one house we searched showed no German soldiers, but later again, sure enough, we were fired on from it…once again, [Jerry] in good old US ODs.

It was here I lost all my stuff. It was packed in my Val-Pak and bed roll in a trailer. The trailer was on a vehicle that eventually ended up just around a corner from an enemy tank. And around that corner was the only way for a vehicle to get out. Well, one just doesn’t drive a command car in front of a tank.”

Residents lowered American flags, removed their pictures of Roosevelt on the mantel and in one case released German conspirators who had been held to that point.

Resistance began to firm up north of Manderfeld where 40+ German tanks from the 12th were destroyed. North of St. Vith the 1st SS Panzers had done roughly 20 kilometers in two days but now their own communications lines were being jammed and Peiper did not know whether the his colleagues in the 12th or 18th, expected to cover his flanks, were making progress. They were not. The afternoon on 18 December a slight break in the clouds allowed individual sorties from the air and 291st Engineering battalion managed to blow up two key bridges.

According to a popular story, after seeing the second small bridge scuttled just before they’d reached it, Peiper sank down on his knees and hammered his fist against one knee (or threw his officer’s cap in the ground) and cursed over and over, ‘diese verdammten Ingenieure!’ ’Those damned engineers!’.

The 1st Panzer began to stumble across veteran opposition like 1st Infantry Division. New POZIT air grenades, a secret new weapon, had their brutal effect. Trip wire mines, flares and other pyrotechniques were laid and made fatal fireworks displays in the night.

The antagonist Peiper, just 29 years old but used to success, worried about fuel. He found his rear turning into a battlefield. He dispatched two convoys of troop carriers to find a route.

PART 8: AMBUSH NEAR POTEAU (& ROAR FROM HOLLAND)

On the 2nd day of fighting 17 December things were not easing up. The 14th Cavalry had used Poteau to rotate and replenish whatever squadron had been on the front. Colonel Devine got his three senior officers including Major Smith into a jeep and armored escort from St. Vith area to ascertain status of the 99th with whom they had lost contact. This is the same day of the Malmedy Massacre.

After making their way north and hitting a brick wall, they turned around. It was after dusk as the two vehicles navigated a dark wooded road. A convoy of armored cars was on the same road coming towards them. It was 6pm.

Excerpts from letters Major Smith wrote to his wife Bennie. Bennie’s birthday was on 17th of December and she was three days older than Larry.

“…on your birthday, we moved a couple of times. So that kept us busy. The Colonel and staff started out late in the afternoon for [the 99th infantry] division but couldn’t get through due to [some…] machine guns. So we came back. It was dark by that time. 

All of the sudden the armored car up ahead (I was in a jeep with the Col right behind it) stopped!

Somebody walked up to [the armored car], a pistol shot rang out, and the battle was on. It seemed pretty hot and heavy to me, so the old man and I hit the ditch, skinned through a barbed wire fence, and started a little creeping and crawling with the prayers.

What happened was the officers in [our] first car recognized the man...so he was killed. Then [the 14th armored car] turned on their headlights to see what was up, and lo and behold, there was a G-reconnaissance patrol (about 4 armored cars). 

Well, we opened up with our 50 cal mg, and kept [them] stunned for about 30 seconds. [Our guys] backed the car up (it’s an awkward thing), and finally turned around and took off. 

They tried to pick the Col and me up, but couldn’t locate us, so…

I got my compass out, decided which way we wanted to go, grabbed the Col by the arm, and started out. Well…[they were] fully awake by that time and decided to find some of us. So [they] threw up some flares, searched the ground with machine gun fire and some mortar. The firing didn’t last long, but the flares did. Each time a flare with up, we hit the ground.

Well, to shorten this up a bit, with my compass, we walked about seven miles back to our outfit and were okay. That night I was up the whole night, and the next day was a bad one again, but I guess that’ll have to wait.” (Larry Smith)

By using his compass and then following railroad tracks, Larry got them back to Poteau.

Whether or not the Germans had mistaken these night-time marauders as their comrades dressed as Americans will never be known. But the 14th Cavalry and the 1st SS Panzer reconnaissance patrol ambushed each other that night.

Upon getting back around midnight, Colonel Devine went immediately to bed saying “You take over Patsy”. (Patsy was nickname of one of the other senior officers).

Colonel Dugan assumed command of the 14th from Colonel Devine at Vielsalm by 2am.

With 28% casualties and 35% of the 14th Cavalry vehicles missing from the two original squadrons, they were combined into one. Dugan directed two task forces, one sent to “seize the high ground” at Born, the other to move the command post to Petit-Their from Poteau, which by that time had again lost telephone communications. At Petit-Their, the 7th Armored Division — in The Netherlands earlier that day — was taking up defensive positions and developing a horseshoe of a several kilometers revolving around St. Vith. St. Vith was considered important given all seven or eight roads in the area intersected there.

The general direction of the 14th Cavalry, was a chaotic delaying action, as appendages were slowly cut off and ground down.

The group tasked with heading up ground for Born immediately ran into three regiments and found themselves defending Poteau itself. During a break in the fighting, a six person group was sent up the road to investigate. A group of presumed Americans huddled around a Ford-made M8 armored car. Meyers got an affirmative after calling out to see if they were American. 20 meters from the vehicle someone from the 14th noticed German weapons and boots and shouted a warning; they all hit the ground.

The firefight which broke out on the outskirts of Poteau paused when a cavalry mortarman had a “one in a million” shot and his mortar round landed in the open turret of the captured US vehicle. The six men fell back to rejoin their task force for a last stand in Poteau.

By the time they retreated to rejoin the other elements of the 14th group in Petit-Thier, they were down to a single light tank, three scout cars and a jeep. The first defense line of Manderfeld and second of Poteau were over-run later that day. St. Vith would fall on 21 December a day after Larry’s 28th birthday. Between 1pm and 11pm that day 200 of the original 650 men were standing.

There was no time for reflection. Large formations had “roared out of Holland” and the newly arrived 7th Armored division assumed control of the group.

Any grand strategy or unified approach between the cavalry and the 99th to the North and 106th to the South gave way to localized action. American and German generals were out on roads directing traffic down muddy single lane roads as the main German wave extended itself.

The Battle of the Bulge became the bloodiest single battle for the Americans of the war with over 19,000 killed in 6-weeks.

The tales before more reinforcements arrived strike like ice. A sergeant sending his fellows away as he stays behind to slow an approach. Guys from the 14th cavalry in first hours of the attack repelling the first foray through Losheim near Prum, hearing a haunting “we’ll be back for you in ten minutes” followed through with precision and being pulverized. Men across the entire field going days without sleep or a proper meal. Frostbitten feet out-swelling boots.

In those initial days the cut off 99th Infantry Division to the north while green would demonstrate heroism in the field which would also be published widely later on. Especially for what they achieved at the Battle for Elsenborn Ridge. And the colorful characters like the legendary “Viking Battalion” - a group of conscripts of Norwegian descent whose officers had a humorous disdain for their European interlopers and were lethal in their zone.

From 16 to 24 December Peiper would pace a 40 kilometer line like a polar bear armed with a machete.

And the pack of stubborn but disjoined wolves did their work, including the “Vikings” of the 99th, Verdammten Ingenieure (‘damn engineers’) from the 291st, 2 British typhoons and 34 US thunderbolt ’Hell Hawks’ from an air base near Brussels (at Chièvres).

In what is considered a turning point, Major George Brooking’s Thunderbolt, aptly named ’The Fickle Finger’, broke through the Fog & Clouds a few feet from the ground. For the next two hours, “Peiper’s Charge” paid at Amblève as individual sorties chipped at the extended line of SS Panzers.

On the 23rd of December at 1700 hrs a full moon had broken through and the sky was clear. That did not bode well for the furor’s Norse mysticism, but more importantly the air advantage sealed the fate.

Layers of reinforcements, like the veteran 7th Armored Division stationed 80 kilometers north in Holland, folded over the area like nets but remained on their heels. The remnants of the 14th would play a role with the 7th Armored division on 23 December securing the southern flank of the perimeter, allowing friendly troops to withdraw to safety. This was an important cushion.

And in the woods not far away, General Peiper the prodigy was ordered to break out and join the campaign. Out of gas, he and 800 soldiers abandoned 150 vehicles and walked thirty six hours east through foggy woods from whence they came. They arrived cold and hungry at the spot where they began — at the Losheim Gap. For the first time Peiper was stumped.

It was December 24th, the Night Before Christmas. No “visions of sugar plumbs” would dance but the 1832 English St. Nicholas poem seems strangely correct:

“More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and VIXEN!
On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONNER and BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

- Clement C. Moore's poem 
A Visit from St. Nicholas (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas) (1823)

Then just like Picket (who confederate nostalgists glorify to this day), Peiper petered out. Ironically just a few kilometers to the north of the spot sat 3 million gallons of gas at a town called Spa, enough fuel to make a trip with 150 heavy vehicles to Antwerp and back to Losheim 75 times (a nice round number for this 75th anniversary).

On Christmas Eve 1944 with “new-fallen snow”, Peiper finally saw the light and his comrades in tanks from other divisions reached their high water mark as well with their 100 kilometer bulge at Celles, southeast of Liège.

That day back home in America a Bing Crosby song “Don’t fence me in” hit #1 on the Billboard singles charts. [click to play]. It is not hard to imagine a soldier on either side slipping into a daydream:

“Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don't fence me in.
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
Don't fence me in.
Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze,
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
Send me off forever but I ask you please,
Don't fence me in.

Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western skies.”
— “Don’t Fence me In”, Bing Crosby & Andrews Sisters 1944

Perhaps Peiper’s Icarus-wings of iron doomed him from the start.

But in 1949, after being found guilty of War Crimes in Nuremberg, Peiper would receive odd political air cover from American Senator Joseph McCarthy of “Red Scare” notoriety and offending veterans of the war including the American Legion. McCarthy would be a thorn in the side of American patriots going so far as labeling one of Eisenhower’s mentors, George C. Marshall the architect of the Marshall Plan and a guy who helped fast track the Pershing tank into the European theater as a traitor to the country. Politics were a brutal game back then, too, it is clear.

Then, on French Bastille Day (14 July) in 1976, while living hidden away in France, Peiper's cover was blown. His home was set ablaze and he did not survive. A group calling itself "The Avengers" claimed responsibility but no one ever discovered who did it. Those deprived in 1944 of stopping this cyborg cold — the Norwegian-Americans of the 99th “Vikings”, Major Brooking and the rest of Santa’s Reindeer could finally rest. Peiper met his Forseti in the end.

Controversy later surrounded the Cavalry and 106th Infantry and whether they had made correct decisions, particularly after much of the 106th which had been thrust on their first combat of the war into the mouth of the beast — and which the 14th had been assigned to support — was encircled and taken prisoner.

These good guys who were dealt a tough hand would go home hearing of the heroes of Bastogne and Iwo Jima, and that they finally were recognized in December 2019 with a war memorial was a long time coming. Hats off to them, particularly for taking the time to fly over for the 75th Remembrance as they did.

And Colonel Devine, the S1 of the 14th Cavalry at 2:30am on the 18th December— after five hours behind enemy lines — reached some boiling point of hysteria. Devine left the area via medical evacuation channels and would be criticized later in most literature one finds. But his foray with Major Smith those pre-dawn hours of the battle,his attempts to get a handle on the onslaught while facing Devil’s gate those first 48 hours, and his clear instructions as he went to be — perhaps he did exactly what was necessary.

As the Grandson of Devine’s S3 Larry, I can only say selfishly that it worked out. The opposition had planned well, gotten inside the decision cycle and brought overwhelming force. But I imagine anyone who lost a loved one or who suffered for it would disagree.

Later it was discovered that on no other part of the American front would the enemy so outnumber the defenders at the start of the Ardennes counteroffensive. 3 to 1 advantage with 300 tanks comprised an avalanche on 16 December against the boys of the 14th Cavalry Group and their fellows from the 106th and 99th Infantry Divisions.

PART 9: HOW DOES A PHOENIX RISE?

How does a person recover from trauma.

As a world city Antwerp pre-dates Beijing, New York, London and even Amsterdam. But as a focal point of the 80 years war between the Spanish and the Dutch struggle for independence in the 16th and 17th centuries, Antwerp’s streets had already seen more carnage than most cities ever will. The strategic location has meant a millennium of repeated encroachments and anguish.

Eight weeks after Antwerp was recovered in tact by Belgian freedom fighters, the port began to pump critical fuel and supplies like the Pershing tank into the grinding war front.

But the Allies desperate December action to the Ardennes left The Netherlands exposed.

If you ever attend a Liberation Day 5 May ceremony in Holland they are somber. Winter 1944/45 is deep in the consciousness. A Lion-spirit and scars were evident in 2014 when the Dutch honored 283 people (193 Dutch) who lost their lives on flight MH17 17. The conduct of The Netherlands in that ceremony, the harpist in our local church and regard for justice - how they carried themselves and showed a regard for humanity — it made me glad to live in The Netherlands.

And September 1944 had begun with such great promise for the Dutch.

Eindhoven, Oss, Nijmegen and Terneuzen were liberated that month.

And the 7th Armored division, after a vigorous month in France under General Patton, had been assigned to The Netherlands to protect the right flank of Operation Market Garden. But Arnhem’s all important Rhine-crossing — with its normally relaxed river overlook lined with cafes — proved an agonizing “Bridge Too Far”.

By October North Brabant in the south of The Netherlands, fighting began to resemble trench warfare from the first war. But still with the British and Americans tag-team operation, Overloon was won outright and Allies made steady progress against counterattacks liberating Breda, Tholen, Tilberg, Den Bosch, Breskens and in November Middelburg.

Still, this was only 20% of The Netherlands.

The 7th had became a bulwark for the supply lines from the port of Antwerp but needed a month to retrain and refit near Maastricht in the southern province of Limburg. They actually planned to march toward Germany when on 16 December the Ardennes Counteroffensive began.

Limburg had been liberated four days after Liège on 12 September.

But everything changed at 5:30am on the 16 December. The 7th high tailed it south to St. Vith for defense, and it was vital.

It would take until March 1945, nearly six months of wounded delay, to get Allies moving northward into The Netherlands again (see map in appendix).

An estimated 20,000 Dutch citizens perished during that “Hunger Winter”.

During that traumatic pause of Winter 1944/45, many sacrificed. Desperation was at a peak across most of the Benelux. At long last Spring did come:

• Venlo was retaken (end of March)

• In April Wageningen, Arnhem north to Leeuwarden

• Finally by 5 May the “Randstad” (major cities Rotterdam, Den Haag, Amsterdam, Utrecht)

5 May is considered liberation day in The Netherlands, and in 1945 it stood again full bodied except two northern islands of Ameland and Schiermonnikoog (Historie, No.2 2020).

Those who survived the ordeal in the Ardennes left shell-shocked and Larry was one. Alert in the opening shots, defending bergs and each other, making a last stand in Poteau and covering the flank on the 23rd until the 7th could extricate troops from the area. They looked Losheim in the eye but paid that Peiper and I imagine some mystic ferryman. After 23 December they were carried halfway to Antwerp and dropped in a knot at this deceivingly “sleepy” spot.

Larry spent three to four weeks with the Boufflettes regaining himself.

Fernand Boufflette and his wife Therese showed great generosity by opening their Walloon farm near Liège to Major Smith and two other American service members.

These hosts had seen the first battle of WW1. And Belgium killing fields would lay more than 50 nations soldiers to rest. Fernand had been a prisoner in 1916 Germany at the time Larry was born. The Boufflettes had the awkward moment of knowing intimately the Nazi officer assigned to Liège. Yet when the occupiers finally left, this family chose to entangle themselves yet again. They had compassion. It’s pretty remarkable.

The people of Villers-l'Evêque showed a light in those dark months through their benevolence. Those months of alchemy forged Europe — particularly the Allies from this war — into the defender of human values we know today as a distinct character and fault line of the European Union. These were the months when a new Phoenix was born for the rest of us to cherish. And we all earned the right — not just Europeans — to stubbornly safeguard it.

Christmas was celebrated at the Boufflette’s farm, across the road from an old town square with a tall church.

In those days of rejuvenation Larry was held in the bosom of Belgium’s heartland and reaped what his grandfather Johan and his father David sowed an ocean away. Larry was taken into the family, also by the Boufflette children Joseph, Paul and youngest daughter Palmyre.

Incidentally, I met Palmyre ten years ago with my parents and children. She sat at the head of the table, a chin up Matriarch with her grown family and the eldest stateswoman in the room. It was touching to see her eyes light up when talking about our Grandfather from a time when she had been a girl and he had been on the mend.

Palmyre passed away not long thereafter, but it was clear she handed down the warmth towards Larry from that most difficult Winter to her posterity.

In January 1945, Major Smith left the Boufflettes and Villers-l'Evêque to rejoin his unit. In the photos I’ve seen there is some bravado in his posture. By February the 14th Cavalry Group was back at it, pushing through the Hertgon Forest and Roer River into the Rhineland.

In veteran Antwerp to the West and The Netherlands the North, the Phoenix was getting up.

And six-weeks after a uninvited 5:30am wake up call, on 25 January, the Battle of the Bulge was done. Two days earlier, the 7th Armored division retook St. Vith, since it is hard to keep a dogged bird down.

PART 10: MIRACLE AT REMAGEN

January saw a late Christmas gift care of the Port of Antwerp and a certain Major General Barnes head of the army’s R&D service: 20 Pershing M26 tanks were unloaded and training scheduled for the 9th and 3rd Armored divisions.

Though late, the upgrade evangelized by Barnes and supported by Marshall against many contrarians, gave a boost to moral. And would prove decisive in Remagen when every second counted.

Sherman tanks (see Brad Pitt in Fury) had gained a reputation at D-day and in the Ardennes for having shells that “bounced off the (Tigers) like ping pong balls”. Tanks at Normandy saw 32 percent casualties vs. anticipated 7 percent.

The media called the Bulge battle the “costliest in American history” and began to criticize American leadership. NY Times journalist Hanson Baldwin said our “men who are fighting…against much heavier, better armored and more powerfully armed…monsters…. It is high time that Congress got to the bottom of a situation that does no credit to the War Department.”

Then on 7 March history converged on the Rhine. The 14th Tank Battalion (a sibling to the 14th Cavalry also at St. Vith) under the 9th Armored Division unexpectedly captured the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen.

With a surge of initiative, four of the Pershing tanks from Company A (for host city “Antwerp”) of the 14th Tank Battalion covered a group of infantry (now immortalized in pop culture video games like Call of Duty), one facing back to defend and three facing forward towards the bluffs across the water. With a moment of timidity, they egged one another on, rushed and then crossed the 1300 foot bridge span just before 4pm on the 7th.

If one takes a single glance at the terrain, flaunting the ‘high ground’ on the other embankment, it is miraculous what they did.

The last unscuttled bridge crossing the Rhine, scheduled to be blown at 4pm, was taken with 10 minutes to spare. In fact, a faulty fuse and backup fuse failed to deploy by defenders desperate to slow the tide that now flowed against them from the forest three months before. (Julius Caesar’s army did manage to burn their bridge across this same area in 55 BC).

On 10 March the 14th Cavalry rode in to support their friends. They stationed nearby in Bodendorf and were told to take on security to guard the bridge (ground, water and air) and control traffic. The 14th Cavalry took up positions on both river banks at the bridgeheads.

Trained suicide teams of saboteurs continually attempted to demolish the bridge over the next several days. Steps were taken to “frustrate [those] efforts” in “the most thorough and complete” way:

“…log, and net booms were constructed across the river to intercept water-borne objects; depth charges were dropped…an average of 12 per hour each night to discourage under­water swimmers and submarines; radar was employed to detect underwater craft; river patrols were maintained; shore patrols were on the alert 24 hours per day; at night, power­ful lights illuminated the surface of the river while high velocity guns were trained on all objects floating downstream; coordination was effected between adjacent corps, who were assisted by river and shore patrols.”

In a last ditch attempt, 17 March Hitler V-2 bombs launched from Holland for months now targeted Remagen. A thousand rockets had landed in Antwerp (see map in appendix). Now 11 V-2 rockets were turned to Ludendorff 200 km away. The V-2s had a range of 300 kilometers.

The first rocket came in at it’s usual 3,000 kph, going through the roof of a house belonging to Christian Schutzeichel.

The warhead split off and landed around 9:54am in the backyard of a farmer named Herman Joseph Lange, a kilometer from the bridge (this would be the closest and deadliest strike).

The Lange family was hosting a dozen servicemen in their home. Three of those men were killed instantly. The next three V-2s landed near two churches and in another berg 8 km away - injuring 31 and killing three.

But this Losheim Gap would be thoroughly defended. It became known as the “Miracle in Remagen”.

During the 12-day period, 16-28 March, a total of 58,262 vehicles crossed over all three pontoon bridges, or an average of 4,855 per day. Later, it was noted that across the many groups involved converging on this point that “each echelon of command did something positive… demonstrating…initia­tive but also the flexibility of mind…toward which all armies strive but which they too rarely attain.”

Two hours to the north in The Netherlands a Spring thaw began.

And by April, Major Smith and the 14th Cavalry would journey another 400 kilometers East to Nuremberg and Furth into the Old Country. This was just two hours from the Schmidt’s ancestral home and his great grandfather’s resting place in Stuttgart, Germany.

The 14th Cavalry ended their tour in Austria. In November 1945 Larry returned home to his wife Bennie and two girls in Lake ‘O.

Major Smith was discharged on 1 April 1953.

After he got home, Larry and Bennie moved into a cottage on the Lake. That winter, the cottage flooded with a foot of water and ice on the ground floor. They got through it. And had three more kids, all boys. Two boys with Smith family first names who ran Smith Bros when Larry retired, converting to a more digital service. And another who moved to NY and started a design agency for children’s books. Both girls blossomed into business women and civic leaders. Texas seedlings before Larry had deployed in 1943/44 grew to role models for me and my kids, as well as a bunch of our friends where we grew up.

31 December 1938, after Larry had married his Irish-American college sweetheart Bennie, he joined the Catholic church. Each summer that my brother and I stayed with them on those warm Michigan nights, we ‘coastal’ kids of a more secular generation, would repeat after my grandparents as they’d recite the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, 
Thy will be done
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

I think I understand better now why those evening prayers meant so much to them as we readied for bed. These were the same prayers answered on one eternal night on his wife’s birthday. A foggy and cold one. A night when Cowboys of the 14th cavalry galloped unwittingly into the 1st SS Panzer Division then had to find the way home in the dark.

And his prayers got answered a second time while defending a bridge across the enduring Rhine River.

I still find myself chuckling how Grandpa would pop his head into the bedroom a few minutes after such solemn prayers, and launch a bunch of mangled and humorous ‘goodnights’ in French (“Or Vore”), Dutch and German to his Grandkids.

Larry was an ambidextrous guy. He would pray to God but still trusted a compass.
And he’d defend an ideal. But the next minute, he’d have you in stitches.

PART 11: CHOCOLATE CREPES IN PARIS

My kids and I needed two full days to cover the first 200 kilometer leg from Utrecht to the Ludendorff Bridge. Driving through the winding, sunny hills of the Ardennes and into the Rhineland we unpacked family stories of legendary absurdity. I reflected on my own life and choices. And a golden hue washed over equally stunning Belgian and then German country sides.

We stopped the stereotypical American mini-van next to the bridge head at the edge of the Rhine. We painted (a relaxing thing even a teenager might try on a meandering European holiday) the reinforced abutments of Remagen stood like dark sentries on either shore, blackish-blue water snaking still between massive hills. We bid farewell to imaginary figures standing up top on the far side of the river. They ambled away as Odysseus might knowing he was emblazoned already to history.

Ten days after this bridge was crossed and almost six months to the day since Arnhem was not, Ludendorff collapsed. 28 engineers of the 276th Engineer Battalion and 1058th Bridge Group fell while hanging from rafters they had one mind to strengthen.

Engineer John Morgado of the 16th Armored Division remembers “I looked down to see the men, several of whom I knew, trying to keep their heads above water, but because they had on heavy gear and the river was flowing so swiftly they couldn’t.”

Sergeant Alfred W. Enlow, in command of a 30-man platoon from the 32nd squadron said, “At the time the bridge started to collapse I was looking at it, and right in the midst of shaving. I never saw such a sensational sight in my life. There was no shell fire nor were there any explosions. the bridge just trembled and shook and in a mighty cloud of dust fell into the river.”

There was no Ludendorff Bridge for us to cross.

After a worthy pause, with the agility of a mini-van (neatly named Odyssey), we made a 90 degree pivot to Paris.

532 kilometers and six hours later we stood beneath the Eiffel Tower.

We ordered extra large chocolate crepes, captured our “Winter Lights” pics on iPhones and watched the water surge down the Siene reflecting the Christmas lights. Sweet spoils for three lucky Dutch-American kids whose holiday was ambushed in the Ardennes and who nibbled an edge of history.

PART 12: THE EASY STUFF: 8th GVX GATHERING

With a new sense of purpose and with Parisian pastries accounted for it was time to secure all this to our 8th Global Venture Exchange.

But what bridge connects a family history journal and a cross-Atlantic business event. I contacted “Belgium Remembers”, “Europe Remembers”…but knew not what to ask for. Should we ask a WW2 veteran to attend as our Guest? Thankfully such ideas sank in the mud.

Then two weeks ago, a break in the Clouds. I left a voicemail of my predicament with the Mayor of St. Vith who I’d found online. Not five hours later, I received a 10pm call (on a week night in Holland i.e., not “normal”).

After friendly greetings Mayor Grommes got to the point. “You want someone who knows about the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge, then Carl’s your man.” he told me efficiently. “Carl lives in Antwerp and really the memorial was his idea.” The St. Vith Memorial to 106th was inaugurated on 16 December 2019.

Carl is the Liaison to the 106th Infantry Division Association and did not hesitate. Carl will share what he knows and relate it to what he hears (once we have requisite Pintjes in hand).

Nearly all the countries represented in the room today were in Belgium in 1944. British, Belgian, Dutch and French, Polish, Americans (and Canadians who are not in the room today) took the brunt of the Ardennes Counteroffensive. Germany has been “on the home team” for 75 years, as Carl puts it, and Turkey remains a partner through NATO — after the 30 year war of Europe from 1914 to 1945 had broken us in two. It is great to have everyone here building relationships.

And the Losheim Gap? You don’t need an English Lit degree to be shot by a metaphor.

It was not difficult to fill a room with experts in the new frontier of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence. Or be inspired to act in a market expected to happen 10x faster than industrial revolution at 300x scale with 3,000x the impact (according to guys who generate numbers at McKinsey Global Institute).

What is hard having the instinct to take initiative in the moment. But getting a “clear mental picture of a situation as it exists”, and the historical data, can help you be better prepared.

PART 13: ONION SOUP & CHRISTMAS

Late December 2019 at the Boufflettes, Christmas lights were draped on the tree in a high ceiling living room. Fire burned in the hearth of Fernand’s family farm rebuilt a century before and renovated by his grandson Denis. And we grandchildren and our children sat together eating Wallonia Onion Soup sharing stories. Now that is ‘gezellig’.

We passed around a square patch of parachute. Through the nylon were stitched signatures of the Americans who had recovered themselves here in Villers-l'Evêque during the six week Battle of the Bulge.

The Boufflette’s feat of reconciliation at the crossroads of two major wars is Epic. And their farm would make a perfect set for a Spielberg film if it had to be real.

I am not surprised to learn that when put in a tough situation, Larry did well. He was a “what you see is what you get” sort of man. He could be stern but was quick with a joke. He knew how to ride horses as well as commodity markets and fix tanks and tractors. His customers trusted their livelihood with his fathers and sons for three generations. But he was also a family man, a civic leader and active in his kids’ schools. He was humble and helped his neighbors. And he must have felt every day was a gift and especially our Grandma Bennie’s birthday despite the tragedies and horrors that people experienced those 6 weeks.

Major Smith never mention receiving a Bronze star for how he helped to extricate his fellows from encirclement in the first pre-dawn moments of the battle and later during an ambush near Poteau. And I know this action was one of thousands made by individuals who doubted themselves but still did what they could where they stood.

And where a monument stands today in slight disrepair but steadfast, imploring us to stay vigilant and keep watch for ghosts of Losheim Gap’s Future.

FINALE: MIND THE GAP

Today there is new technology all around us, and most of society is going through this rapid 4th industrial revolution McKinsey’s multiples referred to. As we seek new frontiers we see our flanks exposed.

One of member of our Global steering panel noted recently in Las Vegas (CES) that of 4,000 startups only 13% claim to do something related to Artificial Intelligence. That means 87% of the startup population is just getting started with it.

And meanwhile our vulnerabilities seem like groundhog day regarding our elections, our health or more paralyzing “what to invest or save today” to ensure well-being of our Future Selves.

We turn to straight-talk historian Carl, Liaison to the 106th Infantry Division Association, who offers some parting thoughts.

I paraphrase and directly quote below:

1. Bottom-up thinking: Small unit actions are important. Individual and low level initiative is key. Don’t expect reinforcements or a unified plan at the start

2. Cooperate and have contingency plans: Coordinated action works to defend a Losheim Gap. But be prepared for when the shooting starts and communications lines (telephone and radio), signal instructions and networks are likely compromised

3. Mix in new technologies and old: But take the time to re-rethink things. Mobility, intelligence, scenario planning, training, supply were fundamental to the new Mechanized Cavalry introduced by “re-thinkers” like Eisenhower

4. Reconciliation: Acknowledge our mutual interests to preserve a peaceful and healthy society (and tech community). A foe on the field can become “the home team” and a leader in the pack

5. Complacency: Allies believed there was no fight left. Units were unprepared and had a false sense of security and even the Supreme Leaders did not see what was in front of them

Tomorrow 7 March is the date the 14th cavalry would reach the Rhine in 1945. Today I am certain they smile on us as we sit together and talk business. I am sure Carl would say Major Smith was “one of a thousand points of light” and could offer many more from his friends and colleagues in the 106th. Ten weeks ago 20 of just these sorts of guys from the 106th Infantry came to St. Vith for the 75th Remembrance. One was indeed 100 years old.

• But what would these veterans say about a fog that encircles us, like the Spanish flu did Camp Colt in 1918?

• How would they say to find and defend a Losheim Gap, as mortar and bullets zip around us?

• Would they see us as less able than they were to meet the challenges we face with AI, Coronavirus or climate change?

One thing I do remember is that Larry and Bennie had big plans to move to the City. But Larry’s Dad passed away while he was in the Ardennes and his older brothers were already practicing medicine and were his seniors. So he took a crash course in agriculture that summer. In the end, Larry did the same thing as Fernand had in Belgium after the 1st War. He spent the next many years applying his energies to things he thought mattered and was steadfast to his community:

“Our democracy is cumbersome — slow to act and move, seemingly unresponsive to many of the needs…” he wrote a couple of years before retiring.“…however the system works. There are always forces at work to “throw the B______s out”, to change the system…but until someone can show me something better, for All the people, I’m going to continue to be involved…at the local level - here is where it all starts.”

Larry remained true to things he fought for those Winter days in the Ardennes.

And as for Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower, everyone knows what he went off and did after WW2. But even more fascinating to me is that in 1919, in the months after loosing nearly 200 of his 10,000 soldiers at Camp Colt to the Spanish flu, Eisenhower took a convoy from one ocean to the other (technically it was Wash DC to Oakland).

Eisenhower took the year of a pandemic to get stronger, building support for investments to secure the future. And while I’m not sure a physical world convoy during a pandemic was a great idea — he managed to trouble shoot for the cavalry by driving 5,000 kilometers at an average speed of 8kph to see what broke. Then made sure it did not happen the next time.

In the 1950s, after his experience with supply and the Autobahn in Europe, got a final nudge towards the Interstate Highway System — which to me was his capstone civic achievement to the future security and trade for the US and enabled America to be a mutual partner to Europe for many years that followed.

A few things said with certainty:

“We raise a Pintje to Antwerp for rising to the occassion, and for the sustenance and fuel they brought for Centuries but especially the last one. To people like the Boufflette’s and Larry and their families. To the 2020s (28 engineers of Remagen and 20 veterans of St. Vith’s 106th Infantry). To new friends and preserving old ones for our collective future.”

Vigilance and cooperation are good words to keep!

With Warmth & Gratitude,

Christopher Smith Mott (aka, Che)

Larry’s eldest grandson
On behalf of the Smiths & Boufflettes
Steering group lead, Global Venture Exchange

Note: Thanks to Carl Wouters, historian Liaison for 106th Infantry Division Association and Mayor Grommes from St. Vith. Most sources can be found online or through primary research. Any trespasses are unintentional. Pls send any counter points or additions to chris@globalventure.com.

Post Script to the 75th Remembrance

I hope this writeup using Major Smith (aka Grandpa Larry) as the protagonist gives Readers a new view of the end of the last year of the war. And a modest bridge to connect the future and past. It was sure fun to write.

The story of Major Smith and many others - whose actions nearly slipped through my fingers - is meant to recognize people and places for sacrifices made. Especially the Europeans who are one of humanity’s North Stars at this time. The advocacy of human values in Europe may indeed come in part from the painful memories of hardships endured, some self-inflicted, in the Winter of 1944/45. I also hope this conveyed the quality of American values and their robustness — sometimes even my closest friends forget that. These nations can make great partners for a long time to come.

The process of writing this has taught me a lot. And if it provoked just one person to take an extra step to secure a bridge to our collective future - even better to reach out to someone and do it together (while still complying with the 1.5 meter rule until 1 June!) - then the objective was achieved.

If I had to sum up, I like the final observation of how to foster leadership and risk-taking, made by the Major General from the 9th Armored Division, responsible for capturing the bridge at Remagen. (excerpt from Armored School used as a case study to teach young future leaders):

When a reporter asked Sergeant Drabick, the first soldier across the bridge, "Was the seizing of the bridge planned?" "I don't know about that, all I know is that we took it," was his reply.

This sums it up in a nutshell. So much for the operation.

It might be well for future value to surmise what would have happened if the opera­tion had failed. Assume for this purpose that 24 or 36 hours after the initial troops crossed, the bridge had gone down from delayed time bombs or from air bombing or the direct artillery fire, which was extremely accurate the first few days. It actually did collapse on 17 March.

Those troops already across would have been lost.

Would the commanders who made the decisions have been severely criticized? My purpose in this question is to create discussion. My hope is that your thinking will result in the answer that they would not.

Commanders must have confidence not only in those under their command but also in those under whom they serve. In this specific case we had this confidence.

JOHN W. LEONARD
Major General, USA
Formerly Commander, 9th Armd Div

Post Script related to Family (not so interesting to others)

Family research into one side of the family can leave one feeling off kilter. “23 and Me” is a good counterweight. We confirmed on the Motts a lot of Dutch, Polish & British roots. But learned some new things — we have some French, Ahkenazi Jew and more German & Irish which explains the bier references throughout.

If there remains any question as to the serendipity of bringing the past to light….the last 10 minutes of 12 weeks of research a final twist was revealed.

In a Liberty University Masters Thesis in 2018, student Robert Hanger noted that a Mott was one of the first engineers to make it across Ludendorff, with cover fire from the four Pershing tanks on the near-side embankment.

Lt. Eugene Mott, of B Company 9th Armored Engineering Battalion was given the task:

“…to check the demolition charges remaining on the bridge. Even as infantrymen still moved across, Mott swept the bridge for explosives, finding unexploded TNT whose initiators had detonated but failed to ignite their main charges.”

“Lt. Mott led B Company in the hasty bridge repairs that allowed the first nine Sherman tanks to gingerly creep across the bridge at 2200 and begin securing the bridgehead.

Whether or not Eugene is a relative, he fits the mold for this Remembrance — which should give examples of individual contribution to the broader whole — to the tee.

Now I know the why Major Smith had such a soft spot for his future Mott son-in-law. Mazel Tov, Dad!

Germany

Benelux

France

Bastogne on 27 December 2019, 75 years to the day after

Biography Major Larry Smith