In Memory of Edward R. Radzwich
This geocache is placed to honour the memory of Edward Richard Radzwich (January 11, 1915 - July 9, 2011) who was the commanding officer of I Company, 101st Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge.
The area of the cache shows you the combat zone and the foxholes where Captain Radzwich and his men from I Company were dug in around December 30, 1944 during the fierce battle for Hill 490 of the Maison Schumann crossroads. For further information, refer to the booklet "Schumanns Eck 1944-1945" and take a look at the combat zone map below with annotations from Lieutenant-Colonel James N. Peale.
Be conscious that you move on a former battlefield and that ordnance is still unearthed these days.
Edward R. Radzwich retired from military service in March 1961 as a Lieutenant-Colonel with 25 years of service. He received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal, the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Presidential Unit Citation.
In May 1997, he wrote the following article for the Bulge Bugle, the quarterly publication of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge:
(extracts)
“A Birthday ... of Sorts
Sleep was impossible, regardless of how tired I was. No shelter except a foxhole with two blankets. I would half sleep for fear of falling into deep sleep and not wake up in the morning. When I felt that I was going into a deep sleep, I would jerk myself to stay awake and lay in a half sleep waiting and hoping for daylight, so I could get up and stamp my feet so as to get the blood circulating. It seemed that daylight never came.
As company commander, I made it a practice to visit as many of my company members as possible, especially the new replacements.
This pratice of visiting the company members required trudging through the deep snow and was very tiring. After a while I lost track of dates and days of the week. One day was as bad as the rest. There appeared to be no relief in sight.
During the first one and a half weeks of January 1945, I had only two good nights of sleep. Once I was called back to battalion commander’s tent which was heated. The battalion commander had hot C rations which were the first that I had had in a week.
On or about the 10th, 11th or 12th of January, 1945 (my 30th birthday was 11 January, 1945) we had a bizarre incident. I was limping along with Lieutenant-Colonel Peale, the battalion commander, and his forward command post. There were six or seven in the group. I know that one was his radio operator and orderly. It was getting late in the afternoon. We were tired and cold and I was walking like a zombie. We hadn’t slept in a shelter for heaven knows how long, when we came to this little village seeking shelter. However, the village was totally destroyed. The house on the right as we entered the village was burned down to the first floor. Somebody found a trap door that we thought would be a cellar. It turned out that it was a small root cellar and appeared to be filled with German bodies. It was getting late so we decided to evict the Germans and take over their tomb.
This was not an easy task since the cellar ceiling was only five and a half or six foot high and about six foot square. The bodies were frozen stiff and as a result hard to maneuver up the ladder to the small trap door to get them out. I noticed that there were no wounds or blood. They were laid out in a row on the street, perpendicular to the house. We managed to get six of them but the seventh one was very tall. Being stiff and having the low cellar ceiling, try as we did we could not get him out. It was suggested that we cut him in half but we had no axe. Since it was getting very late, the body was laid face down against the earthen wall and used as a bench. The bodies were those of German paratroopers as we had been fighting the German 5th Paratroop Division.
Now all got into the cellar sitting against the walls. Two or three had no choice, but to sit on the back and buttocks of the tall German. A candle came out of nowhere and we proceeded to eat our K rations.
After the hot coffee and rations in my stomach, I began to feel comfortable and drowsy. A heavy snow fell that night and sealed us in good. I started dozing off and I am sure the others did the same. I was dreaming or having hallucinations.
Suddenly there was loud rapid fire out on the street. When the trap door was lifted lots of snow fell in and there was a rush of cold fresh air which revived me. The firing stopped and we had a better look. The heavy snow during the night had covered the bodies of the dead Germans that we had laid out on the street. The regimental commander, 101st Infantry Regiment, Colonel Scott with his body guards who were armed with Thompson sub-machine guns, had come looking for us. The jeep he was riding in had run over the toes of the snow-covered German bodies and they began to pop up.
The body guards, fearing the colonel was being ambushed, began to fire rapidly at these bodies that had popped up. The colonel was white as a ghost. He gave Lieutenant-Colonel Peale hell for not giving the Germans a decent burial. Hell, we just slept in their cellar tomb.
After this incident we were very busy and I had no time to reflect on it. Later I started thinking about it and having flash backs and came to the conclusion that the arrival of Colonel Scott may have saved my life. I could have been dying of carbon monoxide poisoning and asphyxiating myself in that root cellar which was probably the fate of the dead Germans that we found there before us. They were probably in the cellar when the house burned down over their heads and asphyxiated them. We could have just traded places with them and been the next victims.
The battle was going on at such a rapid pace and we were nearing our main objective, the city of Wiltz. I forgot about the incident, but I would get flash backs and I would think that maybe it was a dream or that my imagination was playing tricks on me. Now that I have started writing my memoirs, I had to be sure. I called the only surviving member, Lieutenant-Colonel Peale, and asked him if it really happenend.
He said, “You’re damned right it happened. You were the crazy nut who suggested cutting the big one in half and the name of the village was Tarchamps.” “
Bulge Bugle, May 1997: www.veteransofthebattleofthebulge.org
Copyright 2011 Battle of the Bulge Memories: www.battleofthebulgememories.be
Lest we forget...
Logs in English please and go around the field to enter the woods. As always in geocaching: respect your environment!