LAMM TESTIMONY (2)

"After we returned to my Company headquarters, Lt. Rockwell left me and went back to his company on my left. "At midnight, the Germans attacked unexpectedly. It was a bitter battle. We fought hard and held them back but they came at us in droves, screaming and shouting. Lt Rockwell had a B.A.R. gun. There was no moon that night, but the stars shone very brightly, the ground was covered with snow, and I could see across to Lt. Rockwell's position. At one time I saw a man crawl out from the B.A.R. gun position and pull German bodies out from in front of the B.A.R. gun. German bodies were piled up so that they could not fire the gun anymore. They had to clear the bodies away. If anything, the fighting in front of "B" Company was more severe than it was in front of my company, "A" Company. "Shortly after 12:00 o'clock it became apparent to me that we were going to be wiped out unless we could get some help. I sent my other Lieutenant and a runner back to Battalion Headquarters with the request for permission to withdraw or for more help. I told my Lieutenant to tell the Battalion Commander that there would be nothing left of us by 3:00 A.M. My lieutenant never reached Battalion Headquarters, neither did the runner. I never saw either of them again. Actually Battalion Head-quarters sent word up to us to withdraw but we never received the message. I stayed there until 3:00 A.M. and then started back to the rendezvous point which had been previously agreed upon. The Germans had filtered through and had gotten around behind us. When we reached the rendezvous point it was held by the Germans and we could not rendezvous at that point. Germans were marching through the little village which was our rendezvous point, in a column of squads, and we could throw hand grenades from a high point right down into their roads and we killed a lot of them, right at the rendezvous point. It is my recollection that Lt. Rockwell and his men stayed at their positions until 3:00 A.M.. They were still firing when I withdrew, I was the only officer left with my company and I had only ten men left out of thirty nine. All the rest were killed or wounded. "Lt. Rockwell's Company Commander was Capt. Woodrow Wilson Millsaps who hails from Atlanta, Georgia. Capt. Millsaps had gone back to the rear with the main body of Company "B". He had left Lt. Rockwell in command of the platoon which was holding the line in the rear guard action described. We got a write-up in the division history, in the nature of a citation, for Company "B" and Company "A", entitled "Rear Guard Action at Vielsam on December 24 and December 25." It appears in the official report for the Division. I believe the real title is "Rear Guard Action at Rencheaux" and the whole story is about the rear guard platoon, Rockwell's platoon and my platoon, which conducted this action.