To My Soldier Brother:

A soldier has gone to camp again,
A soldier boy so dear,
A lad whose country needs him,
A boy who has no fear.

We’re proud of our soldier brother,
A star’s in our window for him,
And we know there are many soldiers,
like our own dear darling Jim.

May God watch o’er him in service;
Our loving brother so dear,
We pray that he’ll be with us,
Before this time next year.

The 26th watched from North Carolina with the rest of the Country while the troops fought their way ashore on D Day. The Division waited, with the rest of the country, while the beachhead was secured and the Allied armies solidified their hold on Normandy and broke out on their drive to Paris. Orders finally came and six days after Paris was liberated on August 25th the 26th Division climbed aboard the troop ships headed for the front. The division would not stop in England but sailed directly for the Allied ports in France.

They landed at the artificial Mulberry Harbor on Utah Beach and the port at Cherbourg on September 7th 1944. The next month would be used up while the 26th got itself organized and moved up to join Patton’s Third Army, relieving the 4th Armored Division in the defensive positions along the Rhine-Marne canal. The Third Army went on the offensive on November 8th. The 26th Division took Dieuze on November 20th and then drove on to the Saar River, crossed and in bitter house to house street fighting took the German strong point at Saar Union on December 2nd where the division paused to regroup. On December 6th the Division resumed the advance by December 10th its headquarters were at Achen. The weather was turning foul and cold.

The 26th was pulled out of the line and sent to Metz for rest and to train replacements attached now to III Corps. Reaching the re-supply camp on December 14th, after 67 days in the field and 30 days of continuous fighting the 26th needed the rest. 2500 replacements had to be trained and fitted into the fighting units to bring the regiments up to strength. Billeted in the relatively comfortable barracks given up by the German surrender of the city and its forts the men looked forward to an extended period of rest. The fighting had been tough and costly.

The war had been going well and the commanders at SHAEF believed that the enemy had been so punished that it could no longer mount offensive operations. Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery said as much in a news conference at his headquarters in Belgium. He, and the high command, were very wrong. When dawn broke on the 16th of December the Germans launched a counter-offensive through the Ardennes that became known as the Battle of the Bulge. The surprise was almost complete. By the 19th the Germans had pushed deep into Allied territory. The 101st Airborne and elements of the 9th and 10th Armored Divisions were surrounded and besieged at Bastogne.

Patton was ordered to halt his advance to the Rhine and send his III Corps against the German southern flank. The 4th Armored and the 26th Infantry would lead the counter-attack. The orders reached 26th Division headquarters the night of December 19th with the direction to be on the snow covered road by dawn on the 20th. The 26th slammed into the enemy flank on December 22.

At home President Roosevelt told the nation, “We can best help the Christmas season of our fighting men if we carry on our respective tasks, doing those things which will contribute to winning the war at the earliest possible moment. Therefore, I urge that each of us resolve to keep on the job and maintain the steady output of supplies needed by our men on the fighting fronts.” The War Production Board announced a cut of the output of tires for the civilian market by 25%.

The III Corps attack continued on the 23rd with the Division in a sharp fight to break the German flank at Grosbous, Luxembourg. The division artillery was essential to the Division’s success. After the war the division commander would say that the forward observers directing the artillery support constantly broke up the enemy concentrations, defeating German counter-attacks before they could be launched. The 263rd lost two forward observers that day. Pfc. Wantford D Sween, a boy from Maryland, was killed outright. Corporal James Oliver Thomas was badly wounded and evacuated to the Division Aid Station at Arlon, Belgium where he died on Christmas Eve, three days before his 21st Birthday. The family replaced the Blue Star in its banner with a Gold one. James Oliver Thomas had joined the parade that went marching on and on.