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Medical Support of the Fifth Division in World War II-Part 3

May 8, 2022 by Jim Potter 4 Comments

http://jimpotterauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Medical-Support-of-the-Fifth-Div-in-WWII-part3.mp3

Medical Support of the Fifth Division in World War II (Part 3)

By Harold L. Potter (1998); Presented to the Sojourners group, near Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Edited and audio recording by Jim Potter

Lt. Harold L. Potter

Harold L. Potter, 1st Lt., Fifth Inf. Div., Third army, medical department supervisor of evacuation of combat casualties in the European theater. Overseas March 1944, serving in Normandy, northern France, Ardennes, and Rhineland campaigns, battle of Metz, Third army’s crossing of Rhine, the battles of Bulge and Ruhr pocket, and action in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. Formerly with 35th Div. Was Pvt., in medical detachment, 130th F. A. when it mobilized in Hutchinson, Dec. 1940. With 35th Division at Camp Robinson, AR, and in CA. To Europe from Camp Grant, IL, with hospital train, serving as a combat medic in ETO in five campaigns. In service five years, Dec. 23, 1940 to Dec. 8, 1945.
Army Medical Service Corps officer insignia lapel pin

Army Medical Service Corps officer insignia lapel pin

We went across France south of Paris. We went through Fountainebleau, Rheims, and Verdun. Paris was saved from bombing by the Air Corps more than any other city that I know of. Paris was given special treatment by the Americans. They wanted to let the Germans continue to feed the French people for a while but the F.F.I. (Free Forces of the Interior) was in a hurry to get started to make the Germans pay! In any event, the Germans did not give much resistance in Paris—they surrendered the city on August 25, 1944.

We were finally stopped at the Moselle River near Metz. Actually, we ran out of gas.* There was a political fight going on between Bradley and Patton on one side and Montgomery on the other. Ike had his hands full trying to keep peace in that family. Bradley was commander of the U.S. 12th Army Group. Patton was under Bradley but head of the 3rd Army. Monty was head of the British 2nd Army and the Canadian First Army up north of the American forces in Belgium. Montgomery, a good military man, was very confident and he felt he was entitled to be in charge of the whole operation. General Bradley, especially, was irked when Monty was temporarily assigned first Army for logistical reasons. Another American Army which was prominent at this time, was the 9th under General Simpson. Also at this time, Adolph Hitler had sent the majority of his troops to face the Russians in the east, thereby becoming less effective in his offensive performances in the west.

When we ran out of gas at the Moselle River, the Germans stopped their retreat and reestablished their defensive position at Metz, a fortified city of 85,000 people. It had never been taken by storm and was protected by about 75 forts. The cement walls were about ten feet thick, and the soldiers were able to extend their guns out of the fort for the purpose of firing, then mechanically bring the guns back inside. The 11th Infantry Combat Team, fortified by the many successes over the previous two or three months, attempted to cross the Moselle on or about September 4, 1944.

American soldiers, men of the 378th Infantry Regt., entering the outskirts of Metz, Germany on Nov. 17, 1944, in pursuit of the enemy. Public Domain.

The battle continued for about a week and was the roughest I’d seen, as the Americans attempted to cross the river into the forts upon much higher ground. One company of the 3rd Battalion of our Division had a 100% replacement that week. Of course, that didn’t mean they had lost all of their men. They were constantly receiving replacements. This was known at the Battle of Dornot and, in no way, received the publicity warranted. General Patton did not like to publicize his defeats. After a week, we had a strategic withdrawal and crossed the river later at Pont a Mosson ten miles south. Metz was finally taken November 20th and we headed for the Sauer River and Germany—our first day was at St. Avold.

“St. Avold, France, Dec. 4, 1944. “When we moved into this building it was whole. When the building was inspected, the explosives were discovered. We moved before the building blew up.”–Lt. Potter

When the federal building at Oklahoma City was blown up on April 19, 1995, I immediately thought of a building at St. Avold. We had temporarily set up there without having the engineers make their usual check to see if the building was wired for time bombs. They checked later and found that it was wired through the heating systems. We were able to evacuate the building before any bombs went off. As I recall, there were explosions shortly thereafter. That was the last time we didn’t have the building properly checked before entering.

Lt. Harold Potter, December 1944, Lauterbach, Germany.

The month from mid-December to mid-January 1945, covered a period which started with German victories in the Battle of the Bulge. This took place mostly in Belgium. It did not take the Americans long to reverse the early German victories which exploited a temporary advantage of American weaknesses.

The Fifth Division had just crossed the Sauer River and was starting to make headway on German soil. This change in direction did slow down our advance and we had to enter Germany through Luxembourg and Trier instead of the Sauer basin.

After the Battle of the Bulge was decided, it was clear who the winner would be. The Germans still managed to put up some opposition. It was enough to continue the war until the eventual surrender in May 1945.

Lt. Alexander G. Forbes & Lt. Harold L. Potter, Jan. 5, 1945, at Kristnach, Luxembourg.

In the meantime, our Division was leading the Third Army in the race to the Rhine. We had been hearing about the Rhine River for months. Knowing how much larger it was than the other rivers across France and Germany, which had been most difficult, the Rhine sounded “impossible.” It was about noon on March 22nd (1945) and we still hadn’t reached the west bank of the Rhine when the word came to us that General Patton was ordering the Fifth Division to cross the Rhine that night. It was like electricity going through the troops, however, they were confident and certainly ready.

Collecting Company “C”, 5th Medical Battalion, Crossing Rhine River, March 24, 1945.

The Rhine River travels 820 miles before draining into the North Sea. Germany’s primary defense barrier west of the Rhine is the concrete dragon’s teeth tank obstacles, which they began constructing in about 1940. It stretches 400 miles to the Dutch frontier and proved to be a formidable barrier. This defense of the West Wall is also known as the Siegfried Line and consists of concrete dragoon’s teeth two to five feet high. The Germans had neglected the maintenance of the West Wall since 1940 until 1944 when they resumed the maintenance work. The Rhine had become a very important military supply route and important in the overall defense of the Reich, but for Ike the need to take the Rhine was as urgent as Germany’s need to hold on to it.

General George Patton, 1945. By Robert F. Cranston, Lee Elkins, & Harry Warnecke, color carbon print from National Portrait Gallery. Public Domain.

The reason General Patton wanted us to cross that night is because he knew that the First Army was going to attempt a crossing the next night (on the 23rd) and he wanted to be first. Without benefit of the usual artillery or aerial bombing, at 10 p.m. we made a surprise crossing of the Rhine. The Germans couldn’t have known about it because we didn’t even know. We crossed at Oppenheim which is about 10-15 miles south of Mainz in grape vineyard country. We crossed with assault boats and rafts. It was such a surprise that we found only one platoon of Krauts guarding the east bank, so the landing was very simple. Of course, the Luftwaffe showed up in force the next day. By that time the Engineers had some bridges working for us. While we were located on Oppenheim, I was part of a little incident which I will relate to you.

*”It was about here that I broke my glasses. Being from Kansas, I wasn’t familiar with bottled wine. So when I opened a bottle, I had my face over the bottle and caught the cork right in my glasses and broke them. I had to use my gas mask glasses until I received the replacements from home.”–Hal Potter 

– TO BE CONTINUED –

Harold L. Potter was born near Rolla, Kansas, in 1920, the son of Clarence and Cleo Crandall Potter. He lived in the center of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s and moved to Hutchinson with his family in 1934. Potter graduated from Hutchinson Junior College prior to his military service, and earned a BSBA degree from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1947. He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II. He entered active duty as a private in December 1940 and transferred to the reserves after the end of World War II. He was discharged as a major in 1964. 
While stationed in Illinois at Mayo General Hospital in 1943, “Hal” met Nell Armstrong of Galesburg. She was a civilian employee in medical supply. Hal and Nell married in July 1945 after Victory in Europe (VE Day), prior to Lt. Potter being trained for the Pacific theater, including the invasion of Japan. 

Happy writing and reading,

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: 130th Field Artillery Regiment, 35th Division, 37th Battalion headquarters, Ambulance Platoon leader, Army Fifth Division, Battle of Dornot, C Collecting Company, Clarence Potter, Clearing Station, Cleo Potter, Combat Team, European Theater, Fifth Army Red Diamond Division, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Fort Custer Michigan, Fort McClennan Alabama, General Patton, General Pershing, Harold L Potter, Hutchinson Junior College, Hutchinson Kansas, Jim Potter, Kansas Authors Club, Kansas National Guard, Lauterbach Germany, Lt. Alexander G. Forbes, Lt. Harold Potter, Mayo General Hospital, Medical Detachment 130th Field Artillery Regiment, Metz France, Moselle River, Nell Armstrong, Normandy France, Red Diamond Division, Reno County Kansas, Rolla Kansas, St. Avold, Sulva, VE Day, World War II

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alex says

    May 9, 2022 at 10:32 am

    Good cliffhanger!!! Stay tuned!
    And excellent reading.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      May 10, 2022 at 9:12 am

      Thanks. The next episode will conclude this series.

      Reply
  2. Marilyn Bolton says

    May 10, 2022 at 10:45 am

    Fascinating–like reading a thriller!!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      May 10, 2022 at 7:02 pm

      Thanks, I’ve always wondered how dad survived. So many didn’t.

      Reply

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Recent Blog Posts

  • Medical Support of the Fifth Division in World War II-Part 4 May 17, 2022
  • Medical Support of the Fifth Division in World War II-Part 3 May 8, 2022
  • Medical Support of the Fifth Division in World War II-Part 2 May 3, 2022
  • Medical Support of the Fifth Division in World War II-Part 1 April 29, 2022
  • Upcoming Book Release: “Deputy Jennings Meets the Amish” April 22, 2022

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What People Are Saying

Denise Low, author of Jackalope (Red Mountain Press)

Jim Potter is a cop, retired, but he brings deep understanding of this job to his novel Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery. This layered novel has literary dimensions as characters explore crisis situations. Congratulations to this fine writer for his debut novel.

Rebecca from Proud Police Wife

Taking Back the Bullet is an emotional, yet captivating novel. Jim Potter does a superb job of intertwining each character and putting their individual identities on display. All law enforcement storylines are a true reflection of Potter’s years as a police officer because they are realistic and relatable. This is a book I highly recommend.

Dennis Perrin, educator

Masterful storytelling, exquisite character development, so real as to HURT and HOPE, a real page turner. Begs for stage, screenwriters, and visual episodic development a.k.a. TV series . . . Thanks Jim Potter for telling it like it is AND providing us visions of how it could be. Well done!

Rebecca Schillaci

As a former law enforcement officer, I found the story very relatable as it details the life of a law enforcement officer and the struggles some face throughout their careers. . . Taking Back the Bullet is a journey of understanding, respect, and forgiveness . . .

Sheryl Remar

I enjoyed the different stories of this book because Tom, James, and Suanna, the three main characters, represent in their own way the different struggles with themselves and society’s idea of what is normal.

John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement

I enjoyed your book. When I am looking for a new read, I always read the first page, last page and choose a random page somewhere in the middle before I decide to buy it. You had me on all three pages. I also like reading a book where you can relate to the characters and the settings in which they live and work. It makes a story more realistic if you can say, I am familiar with the area; I know where that town is or I have traveled that street. It was easy to relate to the characters. In one way or another, I have met them all somewhere in my journeys.

Judy Hawk

. . . I was impressed with the Native American information as well as the depth of character development . . . .

Wynona Winn, PhD, retired school superintendent

Three main characters walk different paths but with the same destination – each coping with his or her self-discovery, self-identity, and self-realization. Much like their earlier counterparts – Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield – their journeys are often joyous, often tedious and often tragic.

Diana Dester

Good story line, building the characters along the way. Great job!

Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist

Jim Potter has done it again! After his book, Cop in the Classroom: Lessons I’ve Learned, Tales I’ve Told, Jim has written another great work. In Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, Jim Potter takes us on an insightful journey into the lives and relationships of numerous characters. Jim is such a talented storyteller that the reader quickly becomes immersed and has a ‘bonding experience’ with each of the characters, feeling their joy, fear, passion and pain. Jim’s novel speaks to the empowerment of persistence with the characters as they work through their trials. As a therapist, I appreciated the heartfelt struggles from each of the characters and their diversity. I also found value in the novel’s understanding of society’s misunderstanding of both mental health and other conditions in which people struggle. The novel contains rich exposure to various realities that many of us do not know about . . . but should. When I finished this captivating novel, I was wanting to read the sequel! It was an honor and a wonderful, mesmerizing experience reading this book. Congratulations, Jim!

Jane Holzrichter

I finished it last night around midnight. What a great piece of work. It kept me intrigued all the way to the end.

Sean McArdle, Winchester, England

Retired police officer Potter’s novel centres on very disparate characters and through the tried and tested means of gradually introducing each one, builds a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen to them. This often used methodology is not easy to do well but is superbly handled by Potter who knows how to give enough detail to bring the characters to life, yet not too much so as to slow down the pace of the developing story. A climactic event affects the main characters and it is at this point Potter’s deep knowledge of people and police procedures really hits home; page by page we read how a seemingly simple, though terrible occurrence, can have huge consequences. To Potter’s credit the story does not have a completely conclusive or simplistic ending. Instead it leaves the reader thinking about how the events of a single minute can affect lives forever. I would whole heartedly recommend this book not as a crime novel or even as a novel about crime but as a beautiful and positive affirmation about what it is to be human and how ultimately it is relationships which matter more than events.

Morgan Penner

Taking Back the Bullet is a novel that provides the reader with a window into the world of law enforcement. As the novel unfolds, the reader is able to see how split-second decisions alter the lives of the main characters in the story. Taking Back the Bullet also explores how humanity is impacted by mental illness. One of my favorite quotes from Taking Back the Bullet is “We’re all just a critical moment from being disabled or mentally ill, and we don’t want to think about it.” The novel also provides the reader an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how mental illness impacts the individuals, their family, friends, and society. Taking Back the Bullet is a story of forgiveness and overcoming life’s struggles and tragedies.

Steve Becker

I’m impressed. It was an excellent read. . . . I hope you continue with more projects in the future.

Larry Kruckman, anthropologist

Jim Potter displays ethnographic skills in Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, creating vivid scenes and fascinating characters. The Greeks had a word for subcultures and people’s behavior: ‘ethos,’ or ‘ways of being.’ In colorful, sometimes marvelous detail, this novel captures various people and settings . . . the ethos of rural Kansas: a jail, art fair, powwow, rehab center, courtroom, albinos, and even someone in the throes of postpartum depression. So detailed are the descriptions that they must be drawn from the author’s personal experience. Besides the artfully created characters such as the struggling jailer and husband Tom Jennings, local artist Jesse Thomas, and Native American Joe Morningcloud, there is a tight story line that grabs your attention and won’t let go. Human tensions, love, conflict, joys and sorrows are all there. Magically, all the many pieces come together in a final crescendo, giving hope that even when we find ourselves in big trouble we can survive. This is a novel I highly recommend!

Larry Kruckman
Anthropologist
Karleen Wilson-Moon

Terrific story relevant to today’s social issues . . . well written . . . likable characters . . . insightful perspective from an insider in law enforcement.

Karleen Wilson-Moon

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