[SIZE=medium]THE BRIDGE AT FLAVIGNY, AN INFERNO[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Edward A. Farris, distilled spirits administrator for the Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, was a 22 year-old sergeant in Gen. George Patton’s Third Army as it raced across France in 1944.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] On Sept. 10, 1969, the 25th[/SIZE] anniversary of a battle in which Farris’ infantry battalion was virtually destroyed after taking a bridge at Flavigny (France), Farris wrote an account of the battle and sent it to his commanding officer. Here is the account of that battle and the replies he received from two retired generals who had a part in the fighting. [SIZE=medium] Farris, an Adair County native, entered the Army in 1942 from the University of Kentucky, where he had been a member of the Enlisted Reserve Corps. He and 1,000 other recruits from UK, and the then-Eastern and Western state colleges were sent to Camp Walters, Texas for training. In 1944, Farris sailed to Scotland on the Queen Elizabeth and within a few weeks after D-Day, landed on Omaha Beach where he was assigned to the 134th[/SIZE] Infantry Regiment near St. Lo. [SIZE=medium] Farris says he has never been able to determine the exact number of killed and wounded at the Flavigny Bridge. “The battalion was decimated and it took massive replacements before it could go back into combat,” he says. An infantry battalion in World War II had 800 – 1,000 men.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Because the 35th[/SIZE] Division was President Harris S. Truman’s division in World War I, the secretary of the division association has asked Farris to provide his account of the battle at Flavigny Bridge to the Truman Library at Independence, Missouri. [SIZE=medium]---[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]Dear General Miltonberger:[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]I am a former member of Company G – 134th[/SIZE] Inf. Reg. I joined the unit as a replacement in the Normandy hedgerow country in late July, 1944, and fought across France until a mortar knocked me out on a cold November day in our difficult and bloody fight to take that tough little French village, Anchain. [SIZE=medium] On September 10, 1944, our unit was moving across somewhat open and rolling countryside and, as I recall, we were occasionally hit with mortar fire, and long-range machine gun fire held us up several times during the day. We waded a small creek or two during the date and late in the afternoon we approached a high bluff overlooking the Moselle River.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] A highway with bridge intact crossed the river at this point. I was standing near our company commander, Capt. John Creech, and heard his report to battalion and the various conversations that preceded the order to move across the bridge. A very spectacular artillery barrage was directed across the river, raking the bluffs and bottom land on the far side. It was late enough in the afternoon dusk and the shadows of the bluff to make the barrage look like a real inferno.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] We were sure nothing could survive at the far side of the river to impede our crossing the bridge. However, as it was so often the case, the Germans were still able to fight back. As the first platoon started across the bridge, after we had descended a rather high cliff, an enemy machine gun began to inflict casualties. Dead and wounded were on the bridge and the sparks from ricocheting bullets made this a ghostly place.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] But, finally we got across and moved up the road on each side of the embankment for several hundred yards. In due time a loud explosion or two occurred back at the bridge and soon heavy artillery rounds began to hit in the bridge vicinity. Soon, ahead several hundred yards, we began to hear Germans talking and moving toward us. I judge it was near midnight, and we started to retreat toward the mouth of the bridge and behind the protection of the canal bank.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] The Germans began talking loudly out in front of us. It seemed they were taking a roll call, though I knew no German and am only surmising. But they were out there in force and began to move toward us.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] We opened fire, with each shot clearly visible in the pitch blackness. Soon, they had wounded screaming for help and the fire fight lessened. Then, they seemed to regroup and come at us again. They were repulsed for the second time. Soon we heard tanks and slowly they approached the bridge. Bright flares were being sent up and the tanks and – or artillery began to hit nearby, almost jarring us into the canal. We could not reach anyone via walkie-talkie, and with the tanks and German troops almost on top of us, I remember hearing Capt. Creech loudly shout, “Every man for himself.” With this, I recall, Sgt. Hoover, who spoke German fluently, indicated to the nearby enemy that we were attempting to surrender.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Needless to say, total confusion existed. I was torn between risking capture and trying to escape. I probably would have attempted surrendering, but by bending down very low, I got a little protection from what I thought was the river bank. One of the flares went up again, and I noticed that it was a narrow canal in which I was partially standing. I immediately threw my rifle in, ripped my leggings off, took my field jacket off, threw my steel helmet away and with my helmet liner in hand jumped into the water and began to swim.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Men were trying to surrender, some were being hit by machine gun fire, some were jumping into the water and calling for help, others being fired upon while attempting to swim across. I made it by sheer luck and will power, by getting my chest on my helmet liner and using the buoyancy it offered. Just as I thought I was going to go under from total exhaustion, an overhanging tree limb came within reach and I struggled to the far bank. I ran a short distance and fell into a clump of tall weeds and underbrush.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] As I recall, we had been on K rations for days, and on that particular day we had a box of K rations for lunch and this was 14 hours or more later. Seldom out of contact with the enemy and his mortar fire, soaked from head to foot in the chill of a September night, capped off with one of the truly nightmarish experiences of the war, I think I spent the remainder of the night – guessing it to be two or three hours until dawn – in a state of shock and violent shivers.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] The Moselle River was only a short distance and I knew I had to get across it to make my escape secure. Also, I knew I had to find the most favorable place to cross or I would not make it in my weakened condition. As I walked quietly, I heard low voices just around a slight bend in the river and immediately recognized that two Americans were in my same predicament. I made my presence known; we found a shallow rapids and succeeded in getting safely across.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Setting out on a course we believed to have been roughly in the direction from which we had come the day before, we walked until about noon and come upon an outfit that had heard about the disaster. They gave us hot food and put us in a jeep bound for CP (Command Post). When we arrived, you had the three of us come into your CP. As I recall, you were dug in a short distance in front of well camouflaged and dug-in artillery pieces. You asked for a report on just what happened, saw that we got dry clothes and that night, we were back with the remnants of our companies.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] During those long weeks and months of combat, there were many close calls and weird and fantastic experiences, but none that equaled this in scope, numbers of men involved in a limited area and what seemed to be such total destruction in such a short time.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Col. Miltonberger, I admired you leadership and I can also say that you had a lot of brave and willing young men.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] The foregoing is my personal recollection of what happened and what I did in surviving. It is as factual and free of any kind of exaggeration as I can make it. I would appreciate and be ever grateful for you comments, or resume, or a kind of wrap-up explanation of this event as seen from your vantage point. For instance, I never knew the battalion’s losses. I have attended two 35th[/SIZE] Division reunions but have never seen anyone who was taken prisoner that night and have often wondered how many of them survived the war. [SIZE=medium] Your comments will always be among my most highly-cherished memories.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Edward A. Farris[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]Dear Edward:[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Your well-written letter and your almost total recall was one of the most interesting I have received over the years. I have had a great many men write me as to their interesting combat experiences, but I am sure yours is one of the best.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Your details of the events leading up to and the resulting capture and loss of the bridge at Flavigny is excellent. You mention you would like to hear of some of the details preceding the action at the bridge. We had approached the Moselle River with battalions abreast with your 2nd[/SIZE] in the center and the 1[SIZE=small]st[/SIZE] on your left. [SIZE=medium] Your battalion CO was Lt. Col, (then Major) Frederick C. Roecker Jr., a young West Pointer – age 25 –and an excellent officer. He called me that afternoon as he sited the bridge and town from the high ground above the river. I told him to make his plan and I would call him as soon as I could check with CG 35th[/SIZE] Division. [SIZE=medium] I quickly got the go-ahead and told Roecker to get going. You have described the events as seen by you at the bridge. The crossing itself was highly successful, but I was unable to get support to you in time to hold the bridge head our battalion had captured. Meanwhile, Col. Roecker was seriously wounded and the bridge was blown by the Germans and so, that was that.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] I am well aware that the return of the officers and men back from the bridge head was every man for himself, and I was greatly concerned that anyone would make it back. When we assembled the remnants of the battalion the next day, there were a pitiful few who were left. It became necessary to withdraw the battalion and completely reconstitute it.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] As further information, later I was called to General Patton’s CP where the general gave the regiment high praise for the action – we had drawn the Germans into rushing all available help from along the river and that made it possible to cross the other regiments of the division with little opposition.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Incidentally, there is an official war department picture of the 2nd[/SIZE] Battalion 134 crossing the Madon River on that same morning. It is published in the official history of the 134[SIZE=small]th[/SIZE] Infantry Regiment as is also a full account of the action at the bridge at Flavigny. [SIZE=medium] Maj. Gen.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Butler B. Miltonberger (Ret.)[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] North Platte, Nebraska[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]Dear Ed:[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] General Miltonberger just sent me a copy of the letter you wrote on the Flavigny Bridge affair. I enjoyed reading it very much and it brought back memories of a bitter fight but also of a grand outfit – the 2nd[/SIZE] Battalion, 134[SIZE=small]th[/SIZE] Infantry. [SIZE=medium] I was the battalion commander that night until wounded and evacuated. Someday I may write my memories of that evening. I remember it well. I do know that the 2nd[/SIZE] Battalion soldiers were the best. All we really needed that night were the reinforcements that were supposed to come but didn’t. [SIZE=medium] Again, my sincere thanks for the privilege of reading your account of the battle. I am now retired, but like all old soldiers, enjoy thinking back![/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Brig. Gen.[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Frederick C. Roecker (Ret.)[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium] Ventura, Calif.[/SIZE]
