897th and 3562nd Ordnance HAM Companies, 1941-1945

This account established through a few official records (the most vital of which are the accounts of company officers William Kemnitz and William E. Lake that the 3562nd Ordnance HAM Co. was activated in late January, 1944 (five months before the D-Day Invasion at Normandy).

The 3562nd reported to Camp Polk, Louisiana, and received training at Camp Forest, Tennessee that spring – being re-designated from a Medium Maintenance Company to “Heavy Automotive Maintenance Company” or Ham Co (responsible for light and heavy vehicle repair). On July 6 the Company moved to Camp Shelby, Mississippi. They were alerted for oversees action October 31; shipped out by rail to the East Coast on December 23 while the Ardennes Counteroffensive (aka Battle of the Bulge) had been raging for a week.

On January 1, 1945 the 3562nd arrived in Camp Kilmer, NJ and then Brooklyn, NY. The Company boarded Liberty Ship Sea Robin and set sail for Europe January 3. They arrived and docked at South Hampton, England January 16, then sailed to Le Havre, France on the same day. They left Camp Lucky Strike (Janville, France) on March 1st for Luxembourg, which had been liberated from German control in the fall of 1944 (though total allied control was not established until February).

I believe that the 3562nd was to support the right flank (most southern) of General George Patton’s 3rd Army as they drove east across Central Germany – Operation Lumberjack. Patton’s Army had already helped liberate Paris, and now had punched a hole in the German lines turning back the German advance in the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945. Patton was decisive and aggressive and didn’t like sharing the glory spotlight with other commanders. He would try to make history by being the first to cross the beloved Rhine River, which ran south to north in the western interior of Germany. The Allied troops regrouped, resupplied and amassed on the western border of Germany beyond the Moselle-Sauer Rivers. In early March the Allied Armies crossed the Siegfried Line (heavily fortified western border of Germany) and began invasion of Germany.

It was at this time that the 3562nd saw its first “action” as they crossed the Sauer River from Luxembourg into enemy territory traveling and setting up safely behind the fighting divisions to service the light and heavy vehicles of the 3rd Army. The first location where the 3562nd “set up shop” was the captured town of Trier, Germany a few miles from the Luxembourg border on March 14, and remained there for about a week. Meanwhile, the US 3rd and 7th Armies were advancing north and east over rugged terrain in order to reach the broad river valley of the Rhine. There is an interesting account written by an artillery gunner Robert F. Gallagher in his memoir “Scratch One Messerschmitt” https://gallagherstory.com/ww2/index.html where he writes about what he and his anti-aircraft Company experience during World War 2. Chapters 16-20 describe locations and events that were just few miles from the 3562nd and for the identical time frame as Roger’s action in Germany! Chapter 16 is a brief account of their time in Luxembourg in preparation for the invasion – the same staging location as the 3562nd. Chapter 17 focuses on action in Alzey, Germany (just 10 miles southeast of where the 3562nd was repairing vehicles) to support a daring river crossing. In chapter 18 Gallagher’s unit is assigned to Saint Goar northwest of Frankfurt to support a second river crossing. When they leave the location, the unit’s transport truck breaks down on a remote road and they have to spend the night alone waiting for an Army tow truck. I wonder if Roger worked on that vehicle. Gallagher writes, “Moving through war-torn Germany was like observing a major catastrophe close up with the grieving and mourning survivors attending a prolonged funeral… Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England, said "Germany has been ground to powder." We observed that was only a slight exaggeration. ”The memoir is the best I have found to date to paint a picture of the setting and events that Roger must have experienced that spring. I highly recommend you navigate to it (entire book online) and read starting from chapter 16 - the description of the setting and events in Luxembourg before crossing the Siegfried Line. In chapter 17, Gallagher’s anti-aircraft squad is heading for a destination in southwest Germany. Gallagher writes, “Soon we began to hear artillery fire. At first, it was like distant rolling thunder. Then it got louder and we could pick out individual volleys. We were headed toward the town of Alzey.” They weren’t told the nature of why they were commanded to position there, but soon it became clear. They were there to defend a cache of equipment and supplies to engineer the Rhine River crossing at Oppenheim, just south of Mainz – protecting it from the Luftwaffe that were active in the area. Gallagher describes that they could hear the guns of a major battle taking place to the northeast as the Army was attempting to secure this spot on the Rhine where army engineers would construct a temporary (pontoon) bridge.

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Roger B. Seiple’s combat action Spring 1945 and military/historical context Compiled by Robert Seiple (son of Roger), January 2023

Roger B. Seiple’s combat action Spring 1945 and military/historical context
Compiled by Robert Seiple (son of Roger), January 2023