soldier in a British uniform drove his truck through town
several times before being apprehended and attached to
He had a carbine, a second lieutenant's
Company C.
insignia, and a captain's map case, but the news of
Operation GREIF had not yet caused suspicion toward such
characters. A GI who said he was from a nearby artillery
unit walked up and down the town with a girl on his arm
until he too was called in and attached to Company C.27
A somewhat larger group was attached during the
morning of the 18th. At 0800, Lieutenant Albert J.
Walters, a platoon leader in Company A, 291st Engineer
Combat Battalion, left his battalion CP at Basse-Bodeux to
assist in preparing for demolition of the bridge at
(683977), one mile southeast of Trois-Ponts. En route, he
was intercepted by Lieutenant Colonel James A. Kirkland,
executive officer of the 1111th Engineer Combat Group.
Colonel Kirkland attached Lieutenant Walters and his squad
to Company C, and they continued to defend the bridge on
the south flank of the defenders of Trois-ponts.28
The defense of the town initially consisted of one
platoon with two bazookas on high ground covering the
approach from Aisomont; Captain Jewett's group with the
lone antitank gun covering the road from Stavelot; a rear
guard covering the N23 approach from Werbomont; and the
remainder of the company deployed with bazookas, machine
guns, and M1s in the buildings of the town that fronted
the Salm and Ambleve rivers.29
Captain Jewett sent two of the 526th Armored Infantry
men, Corporal Bruce W. Frazier and Private First Class
Ralph J. Bieker, 250 yards up the road toward Stavelot
with a daisy chain of ten mines and instructions to jerk
them across the road when a tank approached and then run
back to where the 57-mm. antitank gun was placed.
Four 526th Armored Infantry men (McCollum, Hollenback,
Buchanan, and Alonzo B. Higgins) were manning the anti-
tank gun. Lieutenant Richard Green, platoon leader of 3d
18
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