It was near the vernal equinox seventy years ago that Technical Sargent Roy Hovel, a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps, moved from Germany to Holland with the 83rd Infantry Division, part of the US Ninth Army. The 83rd was under the command of General Macon, and was one of several divisions to make up the Ninth Army under the command of General William H. Simpson. The 83rd was the first Allied division to reach the Rhine River. Let us begin this story, however, not with Holland, but with what previously occurred while in Germany. As reported in this blog’s post of March 9, 2015, Technical Sargent Roy Hovel would mention, in a letter home dated March 11, 1945, his second close occurrence of his “stay over here.” The first occurrence, I believe, happened about a week before the winter solstice, when he and a companion where traveling back from a trial in Luxembourg and came across Nazi divisions poised to start the Battle of the Bulge. In that event, a bullet went right in front of his eyes, and after jumping out into the road ditch his jeep was destroyed by enemy artillery. The historical record would seem to indicate a few options of where and why a second close occurrence happened on March 10, 1945. We also know while the 83rd reached the Rhine in early March, not all enemy troops had been cleared from the west side of the Rhine River by that time. As the March 9 post noted, the division had left its flanks exposed to a significant degree to reach the river Goebbels said they would never reach. The move to Berlin was anticipated, and the 83rd had yet another river of the Reich in their sights.
I do not desire to be like the “Genealogy Roadshow” on PBS where they often rely only on place and time to speculate that a person’s ancestor was involved in some historical event. We simply may never know what occurred for Roy Hovel’s second close call, as details clearly are lacking in his letter. However, history points to a few options. In a letter home, had noted that his base of operation was with division headquarters. In a 1960’s era letter to a man looking to write a book on CIC involvement in World War II, he makes a statement that his role was often as a troubleshooter, and thus his activities were highly variable, and he was on the move to different areas depending upon incidents that were developing or had occurred. CIC agents were provided with a great amount of independent judgement and movement. In the division’s movement from the Roer to the Rhine, the 83rd covered significant mileage in only a few days, and reached the Rhine in early March. This led to regular movement of division and regimental headquarters to keep up with the troops. The division newspaper, “83rd Spearhead” noted in its March 24, 1945 edition that one regimental command unit had run into heavy cross-fire, and quickly had a battalion front forming to their side, while enemy tanks fired upon them. The regimental command was in no-man’s land--caught between friendly troops and enemy troops. The headquarters would need to travel 60 miles over seven hours going cross country and, as they paper would say: “of out-witting and out-flanking a desperate German counter-attacking column-one of the last pockets of resistance west of the Rhine in the vicinity of Neuss." It was a game of survivor well before Jeff Probst and CBS conjured such a game. No date is given for the event, so we do not know if it occurred on March 10.
A hint at a second possibility may be contained in his letter home of March 19. He writes: “about a week ago I had loads of doughnuts and marvelous coffee right here on the front lines as I had gone down aways (sic) on some work. Of course it wasn't too dangerous with the barrier that is in between.” 330th Regimental daily reports noted continued harassing fire from March 9, until 19 March and that the unit suffered light casualties during that time span. He may have chosen to provide more details of his March 10 guardian angel protection several days later, rather than increasing his mother’s worry through his March 11 letter. Note how he ties his description of being at the front with coffee and doughnuts being available. Perhaps his intended meaning was to say how can it be dangerous with good coffee and doughnuts? His March 11 letter was his first letter to his parents in two weeks (although he had a short letter to his sister on 9 March) and a letter from his parents dated March 13 would have crossed in the mail, and on March 23 he states (likely from a statement in the 13 March letter of his parents to him) that he was “sorry you were concerned again over me.” Obviously his parents were concerned about not having heard from him in two weeks. Of course, a third option exists that the event of March 10 was unrelated to either of the above occurrences.
The March 23 letter is written from Holland, and we know that the 83rd departed for that country on March 20 to begin their preparation for a march further east. Although, Berlin is getting closer, he knows he is unable to put a date on his departure from Germany. His March letters suggest that perhaps his Dad should sell his Buick. He noted that the car had served him well, with little work on it being required. He said he had driven it hard while using it Stateside for official CIC business. His Buick, made of American iron may have held up well, but his current jeep was a mess. He would look to repair the jeep during some down time in Holland.
But for British Field Marshall Montgomery there would have been no downtime for Roy Hovel and the 83rd Infantry Division. During the Rhine Campaign, as for much of the war, Eisenhower, as reported by Geoffrey Perret in his 1991 work There's a War to be Won, commented that he often took US forces for granted and often succumb to pressure from Churchill, who always was whining on behalf of his commanders to Eisenhower. 25 Allied divisions had been allocated for much of this, and previous campaigns, to the small in stature Montgomery. Leaving 39 others to be spread among US armies. This had depleted US forces during the Bulge, and was a sore spot with other U.S. commanders. Simpson, leader of the US Ninth Army, according to Perret thought that Germans were "too demoralized and disorganized to stop him" (p. 438). Accordingly he was planning and assault across the Rhine and so informed Monty. However, Perret notes that "the British were planning a grand-opera Rhine crossing, clambake and media fun fest. Nobody was going to plunder Monty of his moment. The men of the Ninth Army drew up to the Rhine and gazed across, wondering what might of been" (438). Monty would have been a soldier for today's sound byte era.
The departure to Holland, was part of Monty's scheme for crossing the Rhine, but it would allow more time for some relaxation among the training for the division’s next adventure. Hovel notes that he “had been at Neuss as you probably learned from the papers. Just across the river from Dusseldorf where Daddy’s relation from his mother’s side are from.” This would be a reference to his grandmother, Amelia Duscheck, daughter of Josef Duscheck and Rosalie Belenka (aka Belingkas). One of those two families would have had ties to Dusseldorf. He also noted in a letter of March 19, that the newspapers "give a very accurate details in general and now that our division is off the secret list the news comes out in the states about as good as can be expected. In fact, the situation as generally given in the news is more than I'm allowed to write home to you at any time." Closer to home, he comments on the situation of Leonard Miller, a farmer whose home was also in the Town of Bristol, saying in his March 11 letter that “I was not surprised to hear of Leonard Miller being a prisoner, in fact that’s the best that could be expected in those circumstances.” Being a prisoner of war is better than being dead, although neither would be welcomed. On the other hand he asks if they have heard from Edward, his cousin. He notes that he is very near where Edward is, and inquired about him, but, “afraid he’s not with the division he came over with.”
He had received two boxes of cookies in the first part of March, after having requested some cookies in February. He commented that “the cookies are always a good treat and whenever can spare the time, I sure do appreciate having something nice like that from home.” The cookies give him a connection to home, and he admits with Easter approaching he is homesick for home and Luxembourg. Regarding foot, it was a comment on the German farms that is rather striking. After commenting that there is some very nice farmland around here, in his letter from Germany on March 19 (likely Neuss), he says he learned “farmers in the area have more money than they know what to do with. It seems they have profited most in the past few years. At least the greatest percentage of them have a home, generally undamaged, which is more than many city people can claim.” The law of supply and demand benefited more than the industrialist Krupp. Yet, part of his enjoyment of cookies was due to food shortages in the area. A letter from “John” (I am not sure if John is a relative or friend) drew this comment in his March 25 letter: “got a letter from John yesterday and it makes me mad the way he gripes about shortage of food, help, etc. If anyone deserves the meat, vegetables, etc. it’s the fellow over here. No one will starve in the states.” The bounty of the home front may have been less than in earlier years, but it was nowhere near the trepidation and conditions faced by men on the European continent, or on the islands of the Pacific.
While in Holland, letters of 23 and 25 March note that he is working on his jeep, with assistance of some mechanics from the ordinance section. Valve grinding is underway, but he has been fortunate to cobble parts together from destroyed vehicles, and a civilian car. He notes that “together with a paint job I will have almost a completely rebuilt jeep.” He indicates he is fortunate with the condition it was in “in not having had a bad wreck with it falling apart.”
As the 89th was waiting its turn to cross the Rhine River to march on Berlin, British Field Marshall Montgomery had informed Supreme Headquarter Allied Expeditionary Forced or SHAEF (aka General Eisenhower) that with the US Ninth and British Second armies he planned to cross the Rhine and move to the Elbe River. Eisenhower, however, had other plans and, according to Rick Atkinson in his book The Guns at Last Light Eisenhower informed the vainglorious British Field Marshall that once the Ninth Army is joined with US General Omar Bradley’s 112th Army Group near “Kassel-Paderborn area, Ninth United States Army will revert to Bradley’s command.” Bradley was to then move to the Leipzig-Dresdean area “to join hands with the Russians.” Little did Roy Hovel, and other members of Ninth Army know that this decision, made on March 28 at the highest level of command, would change the course of history. Ever since the beginning of Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, Berlin was considered the ultimate objective. Atkinson further noted that Eisenhower had affirmed this in September. But, on that last Wednesday of March 1945 Eisenhower was beginning to change his mind. He would emphasize to Montgomery that “In none of this do I mention Berlin.” (Atkinson p. 578). Montgomery would persist and continue to demand additional troops to advance on Berlin to which Eisenhower would respond that Montgomery’s duty was to protect Bradley’s northern flank.
In the meantime, the training for river crossings for the 83rd in Holland would provide some down-time for Technical Sergeant Roy Hovel to repair his jeep. That vehicle would be needed as the United States 83rd Infantry Division under General Robert Macon would head east with a destination in sight, but one that would become different than they had thought when they entered the main continent of Europe in June 1944, and even when they departed Holland. The 83rd Infantry Division would find itself embroiled in a political squabble that will become a little known part of US history. If the 83rd movement from the Roer River to the Rhine River had turned heads, made the division known on the home front, and made CIC agent Roy Hovel very busy, that would turn out to be little compared to what was to come. For that role, dear reader, you will now have to wait for a future post—or posts as we follow the 83rd Infantry Division into the Belly of the Beast.
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| Lt. General William H Simpson, US Ninth Army He would make the cover of both Time and Life magazines Source: Google images |
I do not desire to be like the “Genealogy Roadshow” on PBS where they often rely only on place and time to speculate that a person’s ancestor was involved in some historical event. We simply may never know what occurred for Roy Hovel’s second close call, as details clearly are lacking in his letter. However, history points to a few options. In a letter home, had noted that his base of operation was with division headquarters. In a 1960’s era letter to a man looking to write a book on CIC involvement in World War II, he makes a statement that his role was often as a troubleshooter, and thus his activities were highly variable, and he was on the move to different areas depending upon incidents that were developing or had occurred. CIC agents were provided with a great amount of independent judgement and movement. In the division’s movement from the Roer to the Rhine, the 83rd covered significant mileage in only a few days, and reached the Rhine in early March. This led to regular movement of division and regimental headquarters to keep up with the troops. The division newspaper, “83rd Spearhead” noted in its March 24, 1945 edition that one regimental command unit had run into heavy cross-fire, and quickly had a battalion front forming to their side, while enemy tanks fired upon them. The regimental command was in no-man’s land--caught between friendly troops and enemy troops. The headquarters would need to travel 60 miles over seven hours going cross country and, as they paper would say: “of out-witting and out-flanking a desperate German counter-attacking column-one of the last pockets of resistance west of the Rhine in the vicinity of Neuss." It was a game of survivor well before Jeff Probst and CBS conjured such a game. No date is given for the event, so we do not know if it occurred on March 10.
 |
| Division news article on Reg. HQ Convoy Source: 3/24/1945 "Spearhead" |
The March 23 letter is written from Holland, and we know that the 83rd departed for that country on March 20 to begin their preparation for a march further east. Although, Berlin is getting closer, he knows he is unable to put a date on his departure from Germany. His March letters suggest that perhaps his Dad should sell his Buick. He noted that the car had served him well, with little work on it being required. He said he had driven it hard while using it Stateside for official CIC business. His Buick, made of American iron may have held up well, but his current jeep was a mess. He would look to repair the jeep during some down time in Holland.
 |
| German Saboteur about to be executed Source: Rick Atkinson, Liberation trilogy |
But for British Field Marshall Montgomery there would have been no downtime for Roy Hovel and the 83rd Infantry Division. During the Rhine Campaign, as for much of the war, Eisenhower, as reported by Geoffrey Perret in his 1991 work There's a War to be Won, commented that he often took US forces for granted and often succumb to pressure from Churchill, who always was whining on behalf of his commanders to Eisenhower. 25 Allied divisions had been allocated for much of this, and previous campaigns, to the small in stature Montgomery. Leaving 39 others to be spread among US armies. This had depleted US forces during the Bulge, and was a sore spot with other U.S. commanders. Simpson, leader of the US Ninth Army, according to Perret thought that Germans were "too demoralized and disorganized to stop him" (p. 438). Accordingly he was planning and assault across the Rhine and so informed Monty. However, Perret notes that "the British were planning a grand-opera Rhine crossing, clambake and media fun fest. Nobody was going to plunder Monty of his moment. The men of the Ninth Army drew up to the Rhine and gazed across, wondering what might of been" (438). Monty would have been a soldier for today's sound byte era.
 |
| General Patton, General Bradley and Field Marshall Montgomery Source: Google images |
The departure to Holland, was part of Monty's scheme for crossing the Rhine, but it would allow more time for some relaxation among the training for the division’s next adventure. Hovel notes that he “had been at Neuss as you probably learned from the papers. Just across the river from Dusseldorf where Daddy’s relation from his mother’s side are from.” This would be a reference to his grandmother, Amelia Duscheck, daughter of Josef Duscheck and Rosalie Belenka (aka Belingkas). One of those two families would have had ties to Dusseldorf. He also noted in a letter of March 19, that the newspapers "give a very accurate details in general and now that our division is off the secret list the news comes out in the states about as good as can be expected. In fact, the situation as generally given in the news is more than I'm allowed to write home to you at any time." Closer to home, he comments on the situation of Leonard Miller, a farmer whose home was also in the Town of Bristol, saying in his March 11 letter that “I was not surprised to hear of Leonard Miller being a prisoner, in fact that’s the best that could be expected in those circumstances.” Being a prisoner of war is better than being dead, although neither would be welcomed. On the other hand he asks if they have heard from Edward, his cousin. He notes that he is very near where Edward is, and inquired about him, but, “afraid he’s not with the division he came over with.”
 |
| Amelia Duscheck Hovel Source: family archives |
He had received two boxes of cookies in the first part of March, after having requested some cookies in February. He commented that “the cookies are always a good treat and whenever can spare the time, I sure do appreciate having something nice like that from home.” The cookies give him a connection to home, and he admits with Easter approaching he is homesick for home and Luxembourg. Regarding foot, it was a comment on the German farms that is rather striking. After commenting that there is some very nice farmland around here, in his letter from Germany on March 19 (likely Neuss), he says he learned “farmers in the area have more money than they know what to do with. It seems they have profited most in the past few years. At least the greatest percentage of them have a home, generally undamaged, which is more than many city people can claim.” The law of supply and demand benefited more than the industrialist Krupp. Yet, part of his enjoyment of cookies was due to food shortages in the area. A letter from “John” (I am not sure if John is a relative or friend) drew this comment in his March 25 letter: “got a letter from John yesterday and it makes me mad the way he gripes about shortage of food, help, etc. If anyone deserves the meat, vegetables, etc. it’s the fellow over here. No one will starve in the states.” The bounty of the home front may have been less than in earlier years, but it was nowhere near the trepidation and conditions faced by men on the European continent, or on the islands of the Pacific.
 |
| Some fun in Holland for the 83rd Source: 3/24/1945 "Spearhead" 83rd Division newspaper |
While in Holland, letters of 23 and 25 March note that he is working on his jeep, with assistance of some mechanics from the ordinance section. Valve grinding is underway, but he has been fortunate to cobble parts together from destroyed vehicles, and a civilian car. He notes that “together with a paint job I will have almost a completely rebuilt jeep.” He indicates he is fortunate with the condition it was in “in not having had a bad wreck with it falling apart.”
As the 89th was waiting its turn to cross the Rhine River to march on Berlin, British Field Marshall Montgomery had informed Supreme Headquarter Allied Expeditionary Forced or SHAEF (aka General Eisenhower) that with the US Ninth and British Second armies he planned to cross the Rhine and move to the Elbe River. Eisenhower, however, had other plans and, according to Rick Atkinson in his book The Guns at Last Light Eisenhower informed the vainglorious British Field Marshall that once the Ninth Army is joined with US General Omar Bradley’s 112th Army Group near “Kassel-Paderborn area, Ninth United States Army will revert to Bradley’s command.” Bradley was to then move to the Leipzig-Dresdean area “to join hands with the Russians.” Little did Roy Hovel, and other members of Ninth Army know that this decision, made on March 28 at the highest level of command, would change the course of history. Ever since the beginning of Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, Berlin was considered the ultimate objective. Atkinson further noted that Eisenhower had affirmed this in September. But, on that last Wednesday of March 1945 Eisenhower was beginning to change his mind. He would emphasize to Montgomery that “In none of this do I mention Berlin.” (Atkinson p. 578). Montgomery would persist and continue to demand additional troops to advance on Berlin to which Eisenhower would respond that Montgomery’s duty was to protect Bradley’s northern flank.
 |
| Crossing the Roer River and moving to the Rhine River Source: Atkinson, Liberation trilogy |
In the meantime, the training for river crossings for the 83rd in Holland would provide some down-time for Technical Sergeant Roy Hovel to repair his jeep. That vehicle would be needed as the United States 83rd Infantry Division under General Robert Macon would head east with a destination in sight, but one that would become different than they had thought when they entered the main continent of Europe in June 1944, and even when they departed Holland. The 83rd Infantry Division would find itself embroiled in a political squabble that will become a little known part of US history. If the 83rd movement from the Roer River to the Rhine River had turned heads, made the division known on the home front, and made CIC agent Roy Hovel very busy, that would turn out to be little compared to what was to come. For that role, dear reader, you will now have to wait for a future post—or posts as we follow the 83rd Infantry Division into the Belly of the Beast.
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