"The city of Brest in France housed the submarine pens from which U-boats (submarines) threaded their way into the Atlantic to attack Allied shipping. As a port it was needed by the Allies, who were hard-pressed for harbors through which to feed the growing armies in France.

Knowing this, the German High Command had ordered the Brest garrison to hold out for at least 90 days. Pillboxes and emplacements of steel reinforced concrete, plus the bitter defense of the paratroop garrison, testified that the Germans had determined to make the port another Stalingrad.

Hitler demanded three months. Brest fell in 39 days.

For generals and commanders, Brest was notable because it involved street fighting technique. The GI remembers it best because, while it was a deadly, bloody business, he could at least sleep in a bed for the first time since D Day plus 1, enjoy fine wines and liquors and investigate German billets, storehouses and canteens filled with Nazi loot.

But he had to come a long, hard way before enjoying these luxeries- through hedgerows as thick and roads sunk as deep as those in Normandy, past heavily defended concrete emplacements, and against a vicious weapon, the flak gun fired at point blank range.

Brest proper lies on the northern side of the harbor, cut in half by the Penfield River, flowing south into the harbor. Across the harbor to the southeast of the port, the Daoulas Peninsula juts out and to the southwest, to the Crozon Peninsula. Both the city proper and the two peninsulas were heavily defended.

Three divisions, with a large amount of supporting corps artillery, were assigned to reduce the garrison. The plan for the 2nd Division was to drive south through the easternmost part of the city to the harbor. On the right (western flank), the 8th Infantry Division was poised to whip south through the center of Brest. Farther to the west moved the 29th Infantry Division, heading south to clean out the western tip of the Brittany Peninsula. A task force, composed of the 38th Regimental Combat Team and other units, was scheduled to reduce the Daoulas Peninsula.

...Task Force B moved against Daoulas on August 22 and soon overran the first major objective, Hill 154, highest point on the peninsula. The tactic was to creep Indian-fashion through low-lying bushes which the enemy had failed to cut down around the hill, to encircle and surprise.

One prisoner of war (PW) taken from a concrete emplacement said: "I knew you were coming but I couldn't do anything. I could see no one to shoot. The first American soldier I saw was the one who captured me."

Too late the Germans attempted to reinforce the concrete pillboxes, barbed wire entanglements and trenches encircling the hill's peak. One infantry company held off reinforcements while another bagged the position. Entirely the doughboys' show without benefit of artillery or air support, the maneuver was highly successful. Hill 154 commanded the entire area and was a valuable observation post.

Although much hard fighting lay ahead, capture of Hill 154 was the beginning of the end for the Daoulas Peninsula. Seven days later the task force swept to the tip to clean out pockets of resistance around Plougastel, and reap a harvest of over 3000 prisoners. The 38th Inf. returned to the division, which now closed in on the main defenses of Brest.

The fall of the Daoulas Peninsula produced an immediate advantage. Tank Destroyer (TD) artillery and heavy machine guns now could be set up along the shore, pouring direct, harassing fire across the harbor into the city. Observers on Hill 154 and liaison planes made it increasingly difficult for the enemy to use artillery without revealing his position. While the battle for Daoulas raged, the division crashed Brest's outer defenses. A key objective was Hill 105, which was to the outer defenses what Hill 154 was to Daoulas. There the similarity ended, for 105 was taken only after slow, painful fighting. Hill 105 was larger, more heavily manned, more bitterly defended both in the approaches and on the slopes. Buttressed by concrete dugouts and positions, the Krauts defended it foot by foot.

Attacking the hill's approaches, one company inched its way toward a group of six bunkers. A platoon crossed the Guipavas - Brest road, and one squad reached the first bunker when a loud explosion, followed by three successive blasts, rocked the terrain. Huge boulders, sharp chunks of concrete and debris burst in all directions. One man said later he "just kept climbing" even though he was buried to the waist. Others were not so lucky.

The force of the explosion left craters 100 feet wide and 50 feet deep. One man-sized piece of concrete smashed a trucksize hole in a thick hedgerow 100 yards away.

The squad which reached the first bunker was completely wiped out. Only two members of the platoon's remaining squads were battle fit. Although few were killed, many were stunned and hurt. The company commander gathered 22 men together and pressed on for 400 more yards before being stopped.

Two days later another company met its day of trial with sacrifice and courage. Enemy paratroopers at Fourneuf held a ridge threaded with tunnels, pillboxes, foxholes and camouflaged gun emplacements. Because little protection was offered by this terrain, a smoke screen was thrown up to cover the advancing infantry. One platoon struck out blindly through the smoke, each man aware of the danger of the mission. They were found later, lying in a field along a sunken road, still in perfect platoon formation. All but three were dead, but bloodied bayonets, and 28 German bodies in one field grimly told the full story of the battle.

That night the enemy withdrew 500 yards.

The fortunes of war were kinder to Company E, 23rd Inf., as it attacked a similar stronghold on Hill 105. Boldness, luck and surprise were accompanying features. GIs blasted a flak gun with mortar fire and charged into a pitted road with fixed bayonets, kayoing machine guns on both flanks, and forcing the Nazis to surrender.

Artillery and air bombardment softened up Hill 195, but it was the hard-hacking hedge-to- hedge infantry slugging which finally took it. Hill 105 commanded the outer defenses of Brest and the city itself. Hills 90 and 100 still had to be taken, but after the highest- 105- had fallen, the others were doomed.

As soon as riflemen had secured both slopes of the hill, tank destroyers again went into action, stabbing into the hills on the same ridge and into the city's out-lying suburbs. Division and corps artillery also wheeled into position, constantly lobbing high explosives, interspersed with smoke shells, to mark targets for sweeping fighter bombers.

Brest Airfield was the scene of another bitter struggle. South of the field the infantry was pinned down by fire coming from concrete emplacements which had resisted three days of heavy shelling. To start the attack rolling on one company sector, flame-throwers were brought up to fire into embrasures of an enemy machine gun emplacement. Heavy losses in the company demonstrated that no man experienced in using the weapon was available. Company commander, Capt. Cameron A. Clough, strapped the equipment to his back, crossed the open field under heavy fire and destroyed the emplacement. His action enabled the company to breach the main line of resistance and outflank positions menacing companies on either side. Captain Clough was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

In Brest itself, pillars of smoke billowed constantly from fires set by artillery and aerial bombardment. Traces of gunpowder and burnt wood lingered in the air. Only skeletons of buildings remained- some blackened by fire, others hollowed by concussion blasts. Here and there blocks of apartments or stores stood untouched. Piles of debris spilled, slopped into deserted streets.

The silence was oddly accentuated by the random chatter of machine guns and the sharp crack of rifles. Shells whispering overhead to crash in the distance added to the ghostliness. When a French civilian ventured among the wreckage, his footsteps echoed blocks away. At night the silence mounted until an occasional shell descended and burst. Pale lights from flares quickly disappeared in the surrounding darkness.

This was the scene as the 2nd Div. entered Brest for the final battle. The original tactical plan had been altered so that the division sector now included all of the city east of the Penfield, while the 29th Div. advanced to capture the area west of the river. The 8th Div. had moved around to the south to assault the Crozon Peninsula. The stage was set for the final blow.

Fighting inside of the city of Brest, the swath cut by the GIs veered north into St. Marc, moving so swiftly that lighted cigars and hot dinners left by the Krauts were found in hastily abandoned German CPs. Final victory, however, lay beyond a maze of streets and buildings- fighting far removed from hedgerow warfare. Traditional methods of street fighting were useless. These streets were death traps swept by machine and flak guns set up at intersections. Positions were gained by the "ladder route," through back doors, gardens, up and down ladders, and over walls and hastily improvised catwalks. Another expedient was to chop a path through the middle of the block by blasting interior walls.

First Lt. Pichegru Woolfolk, 23rd Inf., told how a squad in his platoon had to bore through seven buildings before reaching an enemy stronghold. But the trick saved lives. Favorite approach to a building was from above, because lower floor entrances invited showers of hand grenades and rifle fire from the upper floors.

Direct fire from the 705th TDs, emplaced on the front lines knocked out many strong points. Men of the 2nd Engrs. punched holes through walls or pushed paths through rubble as much as 15 feet deep in some places.

Surrounding, flanking, working their way from block to block, sometimes knocking out a machine gun from an upper story window, or engaging in grenade and fire fights within buildings, the infantry inched forward. One of the sharpest fights occurred in the cemetery on the southern edge of town, where Germans had set up machine guns for crossfire, protected by ornate French tombstones. One platoon wormed its way into this macabre battlefield, but had to withdraw until holes could be blasted in the cemetery walls. Buildings on both sides were in American hands before the cemetery finally could be taken.

The division eventually reached the old wall of the inner city. Patrols probed the ancient moat, searching for an opening. The wall measured 60 feet across in some places- too wide for demolitions. Two plans were considered- a crossing of the Penfield west of the wall through the 29th Div. sector, or a penetration of the wall itself.

To Lt. Col. William F. Kernan's 2nd Battalion went the credit for finding a way through. Company I (Item Company), which had distinguished itself at Forneuf, discovered the ungarded weak spot. While the company trickled through this hole, other elements of the battalion found another entrance near the river, overwhelmed the guards and entered.

To prevent the battalion from being cut off, another battalion was ordered over the wall. Companies E and H scaled it before the early morning light could reveal the attacks. The wall was the Nazis' last hope. Once it was breached the fight for the city was over. At 1000 hours on Sept. 18, all artillery fire ceased in order to permit surrender of the garrison. By that time, the 29th Div. had swept past the submarine pens to the Penfield to end all resistance in the western sector.

Now it was nearly 1500 (3 o'clock p.m.). From holes, caves and underground dugouts Germans straggled into the "Place du President Wilson." Some wore well-tailored, fancy uniforms, in sharp contrast to the more practical battle dress of the Americans. Dirty, ragged clothes hung on others. Collected in little groups in the enormous square were the grey-haired labor troops, the conglomeration of naval personnel who had been fighting as infantrymen, the scrawny youths and the stiff, well-dressed officers.

Groups were led off as new ones appeared. At one time nearly 1000 troops packed the square, over which an American flag danced lazily in the breeze.

At 1500 the German commander formally surrendered the garrison in the presence of Gen. Robertson. Fortress Brest had fallen.

In six weeks of fighting for Brest, the 2nd Div. had captured 13,000 prisoners, including 3,000 taken by Task Force B on the Daoulas Peninsula."

"At the Brest airfield and at the nearby villages of Bourg-Neuf and Fourneuf the Ninth Infantry fought some of the most severe battles on French soil. On September 17, 1944, the Regiment entered Brest, first Allied Unit to penetrate the city's defenses, and on September 18, the German garrison, thousands strong, capitulated."

The Germans had some big cannons they used at Brest

August 21, 1944 (Monday): “Still raining. We are holding and moving our positions. Rough weather. (We are) 2 miles from Brest.”

August 22, 1944 (Tuesday): “(Our) patrol went out. Magnes (was) killed, Curran (was) wounded. (Then) I took a patrol out and made it back okay.”

August 23, 1944 (Wednesday): “We went on line and still holding. (Enemy) artillery and mortar fire pretty heavy.”

August 24, 1944 (Thursday): “K rations are sure getting old. (We have had) no hot coffee for days. (Finally) the sun came out.”

August 25, 1944 (Friday): “(We) attacked pill boxes all day. (We had) 20 casualties. 3 of our tanks were knocked out. I took over the platoon.”

August 26, 1944 (Saturday): “I turned in to the Aid Station. I can’t go anymore. (I have had) no sleep for 3 days. I crawled one half of a mile.”

August 27, 1944 (Sunday): “I am still at the Aid Station. I am sleeping and eating. I saw a picture show. My knees are bothering me.”

August 28, 1944 (Monday): “(I am) still at the aid station. Pendergrass was killed. (There are only) 5 men left in the 3rd platoon. (I) saw another (picture) show.”

August 29, 1944 (Tuesday): “My knees are not any better. I saw the dentist. (I am) getting plenty of sleep.”

August 30, 1944 (Wednesday): “I had my tooth x-rayed and my knees (also).”

August 31, 1944 (Thursday): “The third platoon got wiped out. I am still in the hospital.”

Sept 1, 1944 (Friday) “Oxner and Rogers (were) hit. (The) third Platoon joins the second (platoon).”

Sept 2, 1944 (Saturday) “I am still in the hospital. C Company is holding (the) line at Brest.”

Sept 3, 1944 (Sunday) “(I am) still in the hospital. (I am) eating and sleeping. (I have had) no mail. I am leaving (the hospital) tomorrow.”

Sept 4, 1944 (Monday) “I am at the replacement pool. (The) chow is awful. (I am) staying all night.”

Sept 5, 1944 (Tuesday) “I went to (my 2nd) division and the chow is good. I got all of my equipment.”

Sept 6, 1944 (Wednesday) “(I) went back to (my 9th ) regiment and I stayed with the (field) kitchen. My legs are still bothering me a little.”

Sept 7, 1944 (Thursday) “C Company is getting relieved. I joined the company and all the replacements left.”

Sept 8, 1944 (Friday) “The Red Cross truck gave us coffee and doughnuts. I got seven letters (from home). I am (the) platoon guide.”

Sept 9, 1944 (Saturday) “(I) went to a picture show. (We all) took showers. The 23rd and 38th (regiments of the 2nd div) captured 800 prisoners. We are resting. Got paid.”

Sept 10, 1944 (Sunday) “Went to church. I made out a money order for $56.00. I am taking it easy. I am drilling recruits in hedgerow fighting.”

Sept 11, 1944 (Monday) “Moved from rest area to the front. Relieved the 8th Division. Everything is quiet. (Our) artillery has given the Jerries hell.”

Sept 12, 1944 (Tuesday) “(Enemy) ammo dumps are blowing up. It sure is pretty. I got 4 letters (from home).”

Sept 13, 1944 (Wednesday) “We moved to laundry (detail). I slept between sheets on a mattress. I found a lot of jam (jelly). I sent a rain coat home.”

Sept 14, 1944 (Thursday) “It sure is nice here. We have coffee at night. Just like in garrison. Everything is quiet. No casualties.”

Sept 15, 1944 (Friday) No entry

Sept 16, 1944 (Saturday) “148 prisoners came in after breakfast. I got $164.00 and several watches (from them). We move tomorrow. Brest is supposed to fall at 12 p.m. (noon). All the prisoners were from a labor battalion. (Our 1st) battalion raised hell (with us) because we looted them. I got 2 letters from home. Everything is pretty quiet.”

Sept 17, 1944 (Sunday) “We moved to a training area 3 miles from Brest. I sent home (as souvenirs) a parachute knife and 2 (German pocket) watches. We have close order drill tomorrow.”

Sept 18, 1944 (Monday) “Brest fell. Thousands of prisoners were captured. The hospital had 3,000 cases (of enemy wounded). We had 2 quarts of liquor for platoon headquarters. I saw (my wife) Vicky last at Ganado (Texas) (an anniversary date of one year previous)."

Sept 19, 1944 (Tuesday) “Close order drill and training.”

Sept 20, 1944 (Wednesday) “Close order drill and training. We saw a picture show.”

Sept 21, 1944 (Thursday) “More training. We ought to get English (relief troops) after awhile.”

Sept 22, 1944 (Friday) “More training. We get passes for a change.”

Sept 23, 1944 (Saturday) “Drew clothes and over shoes. We are getting ready to move again. I am going to try and find Vernon May (in the division artillery) tomorrow.”

Sept 24, 1944 (Sunday) “I found Vernon May (my hometown friend) and we talked all day. Had a lot of fun. Came home in a command car. I had 2 letters (from home).”

Sept 25, 1944 (Monday) “Drew more clothes and moved to Landerniew. We think we are going to the German front. (We) left Camp McCoy (Wisconsin in the states) a year ago today.”

Sept 26, 1944 (Tuesday) “Stayed all night and drew more clothes. Can’t write any mail. (We) leave tomorrow night.”

Sept. 27, 1944 (Wednesday) “We turned in our duffel bags. We are getting on a train tonight. It is still raining. We drew C and K rations.”

Sept 28, 1944 (Thursday) “We loaded on a train and rode all night and day. It sure is cramped. We had hot coffee.”

Sept 29, 1944 (Friday) “We passed through the outskirts of Paris. (While sleeping on the train) everybody stepped in my face last night. It is a pretty moon.”

Sept 30, 1944 (Saturday) “We rode all morning. Got to Longuyon almost on the Belgian border. We hiked three miles with double blanket rolls mostly uphill. We bivouacked in the field. (We have) no water. We leave tomorrow for a 108 mile trip.”

October 1, 1944 (Sunday) “It is raining all day. We rode in trucks and got lost in Luxembourg from the convoy. We stopped in Belgium 2,000 yards from the German border.”

October 2, 1944 (Monday) “We bivouacked in the forest. It is still raining. (1st Battalion HQ says) We can take anything we want to from the Germans (prisoners).” (because they do the same to American prisoners).

October 3, 1944 (Tuesday) “I wrote one letter to Vicky. Everyone is out of cigarettes. It is still raining. I got a bad cold. (We) killed a cow (to eat).”