Bazooka Antics

Pictured above (courtesy of Peter van de Wal)

Bob Lott pointing to his foxhole during the Battle of the Bulge.

This is a story is partially copied from Vanguard of the Crusade By Mark Bando

Acton at Flamierge

One of the first concerted German efforts to break into Bastogne from the west fell against the lines of the 101st Airborne. Robert D. Lott of C /401st described his role in repulsing this powerful enemy thrust. On the 23rdof December 1944 at an outpost of the roadblock set up near Flamierge, Belgium. I awoke that morning to find it was so cold that my M-! Garand rifle had frozen shut since I had last pulled my turn at guard during the night. The ejector was frozen shut, so I urinated on the metal parts,which was a sure way of thawing the rifle so it would be ready to use when needed.

Later that morning, I left my foxhole to go in to a farmhouse that was situated right behind our

Hole. There I stripped my rifle down, including the trigger group; cleaned and oiled all the parts; and reassembled the weapon. I cocked it to make sure I had assembled the gun Properly.

I returned to my foxhole and then all Hell broke loose.

I jumped up and ran out to my foxhole and noticed a group of tanks across the open field. I thought General Patton had broken thru, until I noticed the type of tanks and knew we were in trouble. The tank crews and Infantry following the tanks didn’t seem to spot our outpost. With me at the outpost, was Sergeant Bowers with a Thompson submachine gun; our BAR man, Horkay and Jack Gresh and my self equipped with M-1 rifles. Automatic weapons were not desirable for this situation. Our M-1's would work out best against the white–clad Jerry infantry.

We could now see 12 tanks and never did estimate the number on foot. For awhile Jack and I used our Mi-1s to the best of our ability and tried to put as many of the troops out of commission as possible, without giving away our position and also conserving our ammunition.

For this one battle, I was given a citation for killing 22 of the enemy. I don’t know who did the counting, but Jack Gresh should have credit for his share.

As we were picking off the enemy, I spotted near my hole an abandon bazooka and one shell that was half buried in the ground. I dug the shell out, straightened the fins and wired it up to the bazooka, taking a guess at the range. I set the sights at 350 yards, hoping hit in the general area of the tanks, assuming the shell ever left the tubeof the bazooka. I knew the bazooka would draw fire from the tanks and give away our position, but I also knew that tanks didn’t like to cope with bazooka fire. It was possible this shot could delay their attack and allow us to get back to our Company or get some help.

When I fired the bazooka, the shell lobbed thru air and looked as a sure miss. To our surpise the shell hit a Mark 4 tank in its rear bogey wheel and it crippled the tank. It also wounded or killed a soldier walking behind the tank. The tank tried to get out of the way, but would only go into a circle.

All hell broke loose again!

They spotted where the bazzoka shell came from and they fired every thing they had. The four of us kept down and it felt like the end of the world had come.