The 687th Field Artillery Battalion in the ETO.

oldarmy94 · Mar 9, 2021

My grandfather, Sgt Ed Stewart, was in the 687th and was captured on 12.19.44 in Luxembourg. He was released when the Red Army liberated his Stalag.

Sadly, I was only 6 months old when he died, so I never got to talk with him. But, the internet has opened up so much information and I am thankful for sites like this where we can learn. Attached is the only photo I have of my grandpa in uniform:

FinClan · Sep 25, 2022

Didn't realize i had posted already lol

Leigh Montillot · Jan 24, 2024

SKYLINEDRIVE said: ↑

Autumn in Luxembourg

In Luxembourg the 687th FA Bn was still under the command of Troy Middleton’s VIII Corps, which was responsible for the 85 mile sector running from Losheim, Germany, on the northern flank, down to the village of Schengen, Luxembourg, where the Moselle River crosses the French-German border.

The battaion's mission was to support the 8th ID, being attached to the division from the 4th of October till the 19th of November. The 8th ID covered a front running from Grosskampenberg in Germany down to the point where the borders of Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany meet, then following the river Our and the German-Luxembourg border to the confluent of the Our and Sûre rivers, following the Sûre to the town of Echternach.

As this was a huge sector to be covered by one single division, the divisional artillery of the 8th ID had been substantially reinforced. The 8th ID's organic divisional artillery consisted of four FA battalions, the 43rd, the 45th, the 56th, all equipped with truck drawn 105 mm howitzers and the 28th FA battalion which was equipped with 155 mm tractor drawn howitzers. These were reinforced by two more Field Artillery Battalions on attachment. In addition to the 687th FA Bn, another tractor drawn, 155 mm howitzer FA Bn was attached to the 8th ID, the 969th FA Bn, located at Beiler, on the northern tip of Luxembourg.

The 8th Infantry Division's artillery in Luxembourg.

On the 3rd of October, in cold and foggy weather, the Battalion officers ran reconnaissance around the towns of Diekirch and Ettelbruck, the sector they had been assigned from Division. It was decided to move the unit to Brandenburg where the Battalion Headquarters would have been located in the schoolhouse. However at the end of the day, after Lt. Col. Billingsley had visited the HQ of the neighbouring 45th FA Bn, the orders were cancelled. The reconnaissance parties returned to the Schumann Crossroads, to spend another night in the bivouac.

The next day the 687th finally settled down when the Battalion moved about 29 miles to their position area.

HQ & HQ Battery went to the “Hotel zur Mühle”, the Mill Hotel, at Bourscheid-Moulin down in the Sûre river valley, a few miles to the north of Ettelbrück. (Coord. P 817-472).

(N.B. the original name of the hotel was “Hôtel du Moulin”, but under the German occupation and annexation every French name had to be changed into German, this went as well for person’s names as for the names of shops of businesses. Apparently by the time the 687th took over, the owner did not have had the time to change the name back to the original French version).

The locations of HQ, B and C batteries.

“A” Battery went to the vicinity of Erpeldange (Coord. P 837-437)
“A” OP was at the vicinity of Longsdorf (Coord. P 903-458)

The location of A battery.

“B” Battery was positioned near of Michelau (Coord. P 821-467)
“B” OP was in a barn in Fouhren (Coord. P 894-468)

A and B batteries Observation Posts.

“C” Battery took up firing positions to the north-east of Lipperscheid (Coord. P 811-481)
“C” OP was in the village of Weiler (Coord. P 843-528)

C battery Observation Post.

“Sv” Battery installed itself in the town of Diekirch (Coord. P 868-424)

SV battery in the town of Diekirch.

On the 16th of December the Battalion airstrip was in between the villages of Holzthum and Consthum (Coord. P 803-547) I don’t know if the Piper Cubs had been there since the Battalions arrival in early October or if the location was changed when the 687th came under the command of the 28th ID.

The battalion airstrip was half way in between the two villages, to the south of the road.

Overview of the battalions positions.

On the 5th of October the men of the 687th went straight to work: preparing the firing positions, camouflaging the guns and surveying the new positions. The officers also were busy, on the 5th of October the CO and S3 had a first meeting with Divisional artillery at Wiltz, the liaison officer went to see the 8th Reconnaissance Troop Mecz. CP.

In the afternoon the CO, together with Captain Turner, the battalion S2, left again this time it was their turn to drop in at the 8th Reconnaissance Troop’s CP located in Wiltz.

The same day officers of the three batteries left for the first reconnaissance with patrols of the 8t RT, Lt Mueller from A-Battery with a patrol of the 1st platoon, Lt Nelson from C-Battery and Lt Haughney from B-Battery with a recce patrol from the 2nd platoon.

The next day Brigadier General Pickering, the artillery commander of the 8th ID paid the Battalion CP a visit and soon the men of the 687th fell into a quiet and calm routine.

An 8th ID patch that belonged to Captain Turner.

The men of HQ and HQ Battery called the hotel “Fort zur Mühle”, as it seems their quarters were quite comfortable, the officers had rooms on the second floor, with running water, sinks, electricity and comfortable beds. The kitchen was installed in the hotel’s basement where Mr. Kremer, the owner of the hotel, helped the cooks prepare the meals! Apparently “Gebootschte Gromperen”, a traditional local recipe to prepare browned potatoes, left quite an impression on the 687th Staff. In the mess, that was located on the first floor, the owner’s wife and the hotel maid helped waiting on the officers. Lt. Eames, in charge of the 687th‘s Army Diary even emphasizes the fact that the officers mess had beer taps!

The fire directing center had been installed in the hotel’s big dining room and the smaller room adjacent to it housed the battalion first aid post.

Living conditions in the firing positions of the three batteries were in stark contrast to those HQ company’s quarters. The cold and wet autumn weather made the life of the artillerymen miserable, the more so as the unit had not been issued adequate winter uniforms. Food in the firing positions only consisted of cold rations. When the weather got even worse the men on duty in the firing positions were kept to a strict minimum crew, necessary to fire the guns. The rest of the personnel were quartered in houses in the villages of Erpeldange, Michelau and Lipperscheid.

On the 30th of october Capt. Turner had his picture taken, to send it back home to his wife Emily. I was quite sure that the picture had either been taken in Diekirch or in the neighbouring town of Ettelbruck. A few days back when I visited the National Military History Museum in Diekirch I had my "guess" confirmed!!! There were at least thirty pictures of GIs all taken by Mister Jules Ferry, the local photographer in Diekirch during the forties. The tiles on the floor, that you can see in the picture, made it possible to identify the location with a 100% certainty.

As, during these months, the allied suffered from acute logistical problems the amount of ammo allocated to each battery was extremely low. So all the 687th could do was fire a few rounds of observed fire onto the bunkers of the Siegfriedline during the daytime and some more rounds of harassing fire during the nights. The rest of the time was spent with training and lectures in order to keep the men busy.

One of these was a “Non-Fraternization” lecture, held out by the guns in the battery positions.

Another task at the hands of the officers was the preparation, as well as the voting operations themselves, of the upcoming presidential elections of the 7th of November.

On the 19th of November 1944 the 8th and the 28th Infantry Divisions switched their front sectors, so the 687th came under the command of the 28th ID.
Click to expand...

January 24, 2024: I am very interested in your photo as I have a similar one of my grandfather, William Henry "Bud" Cleland, where you can see the same tiled floor.

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The 687th Field Artillery Battalion in the ETO.

oldarmy94 New Member

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FinClan New Member

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