Counterattack on Schmidt 

By Mathias Hutmacher

  Who fought and lived the battle

 Reported and translated by Ron van Rijt

    I'm standing today at the edge of the Huertgen Forest and staring down the road that leads to the town of Schmidt. Sixty years ago at this spot, I was part of an attack group consisting of three StuG Assault vehicles and accompanying infantrymen. This battle would last for several days and I would be the first German soldier to return to Schmidt in its recapture, pushing into the edge of the town in my armored vehicle. Sixty years later, I remember it well for Schmidt was the town where I was born and raised.

    My name is Mathias Hutmacher and I was born in 1924 becoming a soldier in 1942 at the age of seventeen. When I made it back to my old home town in November of 1944, I had reached the age of twenty and had fought across the expanse of Russia including the Caucasus, the Crimea, and in the area around Vitsebsk, Russia. At Vitsebsk we were in full retreat and our losses were staggering. At that time I was attached to one of the 88 anti-tank gun crews and was in line to become part of the StuG-crews that were being established.

    From there, those still alive in my group were transferred somewhere near the Rhur, but I can't remember the exact location. After that, I was sent back to my old unit for a while since, although I was trained to operate a StuG assault vehicle, none were available at that time. This would would change when I was transferred to the Huertgen Forest battleground, I would finally get my own StuG.

 

The StuG Assault Vehicle

     Well, the battle to retake Schmidt in November of 1944 would be our last attack using the StuGs. I would remember this as one of the most terrible battles I experienced. During the first attack, we lost about 200 men within an hour. The losses on the American side weren't any less. Bodies were lying everywhere, in fact I never saw that many dead soldiers before, except during our battle at Kursk where we faced over 2000 Russian tanks with only 1200 (mostly old) tanks. When the battle was over, we just had nothing left.

    Well anyway, before we arrived at Schmidt I think we came from Jacobswuellersheim or maybe it was Frauwuellersheim since this is where were received our StuGs. From there we went to Kreuzau, then to Maubach and finally to Brandenberg since we had been told that we would attack Vossenack. But at Brandenberg they said that we would go to Schmidt because the Americans had broken through at Schmidt.  It must have been the 3rd or 4th of November, it's 60 years ago so I can't remember exactly. But I know that we had three of those great StuGs. 

   

    So from our position at the edge of the forest (a) (check map below) we started our attack. We drove through the fields on the left side of the road until we reached the first houses of Schmidt. (b). I drove on behind the houses and turned right to enter the main road, at least in 1944 it was the main road. This is where we met the first resistance (c). It came from Americans who were firing their Bazookas from the gardens behind the houses.

 

(Forest Map with letters showing the various locations)

    We couldn't get through at that location because we had only a few infantrymen to protect our StuGs, and the Bazooka was a terrible weapon at a short distance. Our front armor could take it, but on the sides it would go straight through. This is how I lost 3 tanks in Russia.

 

    Now I heard that some people say that the American defenders of Schmidt retreated just like that, but I can tell you that this is definitely not true. Anyone who says this didn't have to fight against them. Maybe they had to retreat after a while, but they fought very hard.

 

    It is also said that we retreated from the higher part of the village but we only retreated to the edge of the village. We just couldn't hold our position, the Americans were too strong.  We mustn't forget that the infantry of both sides took tremendous losses. We only supported our troops but they were the ones that had to do the fighting. I think the 112th/28th ID lost over 2000 men in their attack. It really was such a senseless attack when you look at it now. At that moment though, I didn't think about these things. A soldier doesn't think.  I had already experienced 70 or 80 battles in Russia and I just did what I thought was right. Sure you were still afraid, but you got used to it after a while and once the battle started, you were too busy to be afraid.

 

    Well, back to the battle for Schmidt:  After we received the resistance at the bend in the road (c), we moved on along the main road until the resistance became too strong so we turned left and tried to drive around the village through the fields. The resistance from the Americans at Schmidt was too heavy.

    Below here in the fields I met the group of Bernhard Mass (d), a very brave man who indeed would manage to break through along the main road with only a handful of men. Again I tried to turn right to get into the village but it just couldn't be done. So I kept moving and tried again, but the Americans were defending from the gardens and houses with their Bazookas from both sides of the road. I pulled back and went up the steep road that leads to the main road that is coming from Heimbach (e). Again I turned right to try to use the main road into Schmidt but I hardly drove 20 yards when I had to pull back again. (f).

 

    I decided to try it from the higher part of the village so I drove behind the houses, (remember that only few houses were standing there) and went around the village (g). The artillery kept coming in from both sides, but I still say that it was the Bazookas that saved the Americans at Schmidt. This was a very dangerous weapon and we had great respect for it.

 

    I drove behind the houses and I saw some Americans, but they weren't shooting at us. At the high ground at the edge of Schmidt I turned right (h). There were no houses over there so we didn't have to fear the Bazookas. I decided to take a position behind a hedge so I could support the infantry from this high ground. Later a group of our infantrymen came from the direction of Heimbach where they had be clearing the village of the remaining Americans.

 

    We pushed forward a little bit but we didn't want to take the risk of driving into the village with our 3 StuGs since we didn't know if the Americans had tanks or anti-tank guns. The losses among the infantry on both sides were unbelievable. The Americans were fighting very bravely and they kept defending the area.(j)

 

    These are some of the impressions I still can remember very clearly; - it must have been on the 7th when we attacked Kommerscheidt. We also had some Panzers for this attack but we lost 3 or 4 of them.

But again I want to say that we were only supporting the infantry, they did the fighting. There were some American tanks but they retreated into the village. We still had our 3 StuGs and when we reached the fork of the road at Kommerscheidt, we turned left (k). In 1944 there were only very few houses in the town.

 

    All the artillery was focused on Kommerscheidt and that was lucky for us as we spread out through the fields in front of the village and we managed to take shelter behind some bushes (l) (still there today). From this position we saw a tank battle taking place between the Shermans and our Panzers  in and around Kommerscheidt as we drove forward into the village.  American and German tanks firing between the remains of what once were houses, totally destroyed the town. By afternoon though we had Kommerscheidt in our hands.

    The Panzers fought to retake the Kall Trail but we took no part in that operation, instead we got into position at the edge of Kommerscheidt and fired into Vossenack. (m) When I look back at it now I think that if the Americans would have managed to open the Kall Trail and get more tanks and supplies to Kommerscheidt, we wouldn't have succeeded in taking back the town. But the American soldiers had been fighting on their own for several days already.

 

    I do want to say that when I look back at it now, even after 60 years, the StuG was a terrific machine.

After our actions at Schmidt and Kommerscheidt we got a few days rest and went back to our unit which was at Lucherberg at that time. There we had to leave our tanks behind. I don't know what happened with them and we didn't even care. Well, and what did we accomplish at the end ? ... nothing.

 

    After that, it must have been around December 10, they prepared us for the battle of the Bulge.

But that didn't turn out as planned, we were at Muerrigen, Krinkelt and we were supposed to take the Elsenborn Ridge, but we never got that far, the artillery on top of the ridge was too heavy.

 

    From there we were send to Hungary, where we were supposed to fight our way to some surrounded SS troops at Budapest. But we couldn't get through, we just hadn't anything left anymore. From Hungary we retreated to Austria and at Steyr I was taken prisoner. We had to fight off the Russians until we reached the river Ems, where we were taken prisoner by the Americans. I am glad that I was taken prisoner by the Americans and not by the Russians.

 

                                                                                              Mathias Hutmacher;  09/09/2004

 

Note:

The Sturmgeschütz III self-propelled assault gun is one of the best-known and most successful anti-tank weapons of World War II. A turretless superstructure with a 7.5 cm cannon was built onto the chassis of the tried and tested Panzerkampfwagen III. Vehicles of the later type were based on the chassis of the Pzkpfw III type M, armed with the KwK 40 L/48. In addition they had an MG 42 operated from inside mounted on the roof of the combat compartment and also a device for use with close defense weapons. Originally the self-propelled assault gun was developed and used as an artillery weapon. Towards the end of World War II, for cost reasons, it was also used in tank units instead of battle tanks. Many anti-tank units were fully equipped with self-propelled assault guns. Driven by a V 12 Maybach HL 120 TRM petrol engine that developed 300 hp, the StuG 40 could reach a maximum road speed of 40 kph. It had a combat weight of 24,000 kg and a 4-man crew.
 

Hutmacher story

Date:9/28/2004 5:47 PM                                                                                                                                                                                                 From: Ron VanRijt

Yo Ernie.

 

    You can correct my translation to make it more readable Ernie. - Hey, it was a helluva lot of work to translate the Hutmacher story from my videotape, .... now it's your turn to check it and eventually correct my bumpy English. Maybe my translation is not terrific, but the details in this story for sure were never published or even written before, this is Huertgen Forest history on the square yard !!! That's why I hope that you also will use the map with the story, ..... that will make it not only "a story to read", but a story to study. and I can tell you that this Tanker-story with the war-dated map is truly a great study-object.

 

    Some of your readers might want to compare the map with the situation of today; - Schmidt has become 5 times as big in the last 60 years, but the old roads (and even the few houses that were there in 1944) still can be found. I'll try to translate that other Tanker story soon.           

  take care;     Ron