European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 16, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                V yank army weekly 1945 in the hotel de la paix and in the buildings which commanded the Road branching off to the East where enemy armoured attacks might be meanwhile the people of Hotton readied them selves for a siege of their with the men unable to work in the Sawmill and the children unable to go to whole families moved into cellars to sit out the War that had come during the the medics decided to evacuate their mortar shells were dropping All around the treatment station set up in the Village two ambulances and two surgical All plainly marked with red Cross pulled out on the Road and headed North toward the american As the medical vehicles reached the open Road beyond Copeland North the germans on the Ridge opened up on them with a massed mortar at the same enemy machine less than 100 Yards from the opened direct fire on the both ambulances careened into a their wounded occupants had to run Back into the Village under mortar and machine gun All the patients managed to escape but one ambulance Driver was wounded the germans continued pouring massed mortars into the Village during the scoring hits on the theater where the treatment station was located and severely damaging several other buildings and the yanks defending the Sawmill area had to take shelter behind piles of lumber to escape the intense mortar the other defenders of the outposts around the Village traded Small arms fire with the but the attack which the americans expected momentarily failed to it was Learned later from pcs that the germans had sent Back a hurried Call for reinforcements when their four tanks and company of infantry failed to overrun the Hundred Odd american rear Echelon when they finally made their big bid for Hotton the next they had a full battalion of infantry plus 14 tanks and supporting t4 Copeland Force on the North outpost had been increased to 24 men and he had two More set up in the houses flanking his the Jerries on the Ridge pounded his sector inces Santly with mortars and Small arms scoring two mortar hits on his the fight was so hot that night that Copeland and Hendrick had no time for their usual after dinner argument about the relative merits of Ohio state and Wisconsin football fact they didst even have time for the out flanking movement they expected didst come that the Only one who saw action was t5 Harry Headquarters from capes noticed a form approaching him in the he shouted the form kept capes sprayed it with his at Daybreak he went out to Check on his it was a almost decapitated by the my next morning the Village defenders were rein forced by a platoon of 81mm mortars and four medium tanks which came in from the division Forward the tanks set up Road blocks on a Road East of the the most Likely route for a German armoured during the the signal corps had Laid a wire net to All the strongholds for constant intr defense a mortar of was set up in the schoolhouse under the direction of 1st Clarence Mcdonald of Long Mcdonald is an Eugi from new Yorks famed fighting Irish 69th who happened to be around Only because he was in the treatment station suffering from a mild Case of pneumonia when the Jerries first he didst stay in bed when things got it knocked the pneumonia right out of Mcdonald somebody had to direct that mortar so i took i used to be in a line the mortar platoon had Only 150 rounds and the men had to make every one the of was located on the top floor of the the roof of which had been ripped off by mortar it was but Mcdonald stayed there All Day directing the use of the few precious All Day Long signal corps maintenance men moved from one stronghold to the next to keep the phone net in despite mortar fire and my fire which frequently pinned them to the Max Troha of and Stanley Presgrave of kept the phones one mortar burst landed in the Ourthe River Only 15 feet from where they were repairing a broken they were unhurt by the but several swimming were killed by the fragments from the same mortar riddled the roof of the Village bandstand in the Middle of a Little Isle in the where the people of Hotton gathered on summer nights to hear weekly con certs by the Village at Copeland outpost that a head quarters company Cook set up his my out in the Field to cover Jerry troops he saw massing at the Woods a sniper up on the Ridge got inflicting a flesh wound in the the Cook stayed at his gun for 15 until Copeland discovered his wound and ordered him the Cook insisted on walking alone to the treatment station a Quarter of a mile late that afternoon a Jerry mortar sailed through an open window of the mortar of in this German was defending a House in Hotton against the yanks before a Shell hit him and the in the school it Mcdonald was knocked 15 feet across the room and suffered minor Abra Sions of the legs and he was returned to the treatment station he had left just a few hours another officer took Over the mor tar about 1600 t4 Copeland phoned in from his North outpost and asked for flares Over the Fields to the East of his our mortars dropped Luminous flares which revealed German troops massing for an Copeland called again theres a hell of a lot of Jerry troops in that get some mortars on them the mortar Section had just a few rounds left by that they dropped five of them in the Middle of the Jerry then they sweated out the return of 1st William Mcintosh of and to Hugh Dramer of who had driven their jeep through a Gauntlet of German fire on the North Road to get Back to the division up for More an hour later the germans launched a heavy identified As a full battalion in the americans defending the Sawmill and lumber Denver Calhoun had 35 men armed with a few machine guns and Small the attackers overran part of the position and started infiltrating into the houses on the outskirts of the that split the defending Force in leaving Copeland 23 men Cut off in the North then the Jerries on the Ridge brought their newly arrived artillery into action for the first they scored three hits on Cottons main Industrial levelled the Sawmill and set fire to some of the lumber two of the Ameri cans were killed and three others wounded in the fic Fessen ordered Calhoun to with draw his forces to the Railroad tracks and told t4 Copeland to Cut Back to the West and try to get around the Jerry spearhead set up around the an hour later the special service noncom brought his 23 including two and ail equipment Back to Fickessen he had swung 300 Yards then infiltrated through gaps in the Jerry positions without the loss of a single Man or setting up their line along the Railroad the re consolidated Force of clerks and mechanics awaited the next enemy it came about 0200 next morning with an estimated Force of two Jerry companies driving against the defenders this time the Cooks and clerks held after their second failure in trying to overrun the Hotton the germans withdrew to houses on the outskirts of the just before Dawn five medium tanks with infantry support rolled into Hotton from division head quarters and More came in later in the the clerks and company Barber had combat support at although they remained at their positions for the next two Cottons original defenders had finished their it included the destruction of four Mark in tanks and five Mark plus More than 100 German their own casualties were very they pulled out of Hotton on Christmas Day to rejoin the 3d armoured division Headquarters which had left them behind in this Safe place while it went Forward to meet the the american Relief forces drove the germans from the houses of Hotton and gradually forced them to first to the Ridge and then on East deep into the but enemy Artil even while backing continued to pour destruction on the Village of the theater was levelled followed in relentless Succes Sion by the the the the Little cafe named fanfare Roy the Small shops and stores on the main the sturdily built Homes and finally the hotel whose name had been changed to the hotel de la the Only building in Hotton that was left relatively undamaged was the Village bandstand on the Little Isle in the Middle of the Ourthe a riddled roof was evidence of the War that came to the Little Crossroads Village of the people of Hotton Are still in their cellars because they have no other place to Many Trees from the ardennes must be Cut and planed before the reconstruction of Hotton can but All that is left of the where most of Cottons men is twisted machinery and crumbled