FROM NEW JERSEY TO BITCHE. A GI's broken destiny. Francis J. Wayte
Francis J. Wayte was born on July 18, 1916 in the New York suburb of Kearny, New Jersey. After working at the Crucible Steel Company, a local steel mill, he had just been hired by the police when he was drafted on December 28, 1942. He then left to join the 397th Infantry Regiment in training, first at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, then at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Taking advantage of a week's leave, he married Helen Mannion, whom he had met four years earlier, on February 5, 1944 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He spent the next seven months at Fort Bragg training with his new platoon. They were introduced to the handling of various weapons and tested on their ability to react to different combat situations. Each man in the regiment also learned to distinguish and handle the various mines and booby-traps used by the allies and the enemy. Apart from this intensive military training, there were a few distractions, sports and outings, but Francis only had one brief leave to see Helen again. Nevertheless, they got into the habit of writing to each other regularly. Their correspondence, carefully preserved by Helen who was never to see Francis again, is a precious testimony to what these men were about to endure.
At the end of August, they learned that they would soon be leaving for overseas. Training with all forms of weapons to be used in combat was intensified, and nights and days were spent improving equipment and their physical condition. In September, all leave was cancelled, and it was no longer possible for them to leave the camp except for official reasons. They were able to send one last piece of mail before all their correspondence was subject to censorship, a new constraint that was to become all too familiar. On September 25 they boarded the train, having left all their belongings in a heap, and even though they hadn't been told, they spontaneously began whispering under their breath.
As a Staff Sergeant, Francis belonged to Company E (a rifle company) of the 2nd Battalion, 397th Infantry Regiment, part of the 100th Division, 7th U.S. Army. His ship, the USS Washington, the former Italian liner Conte Grande converted into a troop transport, left New York on October 6, 1944 with 6,500 men on board. They formed a convoy of ten ships, protected by an escort of six warships. The weather was mild, apart from a storm on October 13. They passed Gibraltar on October 17, and after skirting the coast of North Africa, arrived in Marseille on the 20th. Francis described the city as: "in ruins, but still beautiful and finally liberated...". Heavily laden, they had to walk the twenty kilometers or so to their camp near Calas, north-west of Marseille, at night. They were among the very first fighting units to occupy the Calas camp, which would later see the passage of almost two million soldiers . They spent ten days in tents, in the rain and in the mud. From there, Francis had the opportunity to visit Marseille and probably Aix, where he practiced the little French he had learned at school. In his letters to Helen, he expressed astonishment at the amount of perfume French hairdressers used: “Boy, do the barbers over here take pride in cutting hair. They put everything on your hair that they have. You smell like a flower shop when they get through with you”. On October 30, the 397th Infantry Regiment boarded trucks and began to move up the road along the left bank of the Rhône River towards the front held by the US Seventh Army. They stopped for the night in Valence, crossed the Lyon suburbs the next day and spent Halloween night in Dijon. On November 4, the 2nd Battalion moved into position some 15 km northeast of Baccarat. On November 6, the 2nd Battalion received the order to advance, thus facing the Germans for the first time. It was one of the fastest deployments between the time of landing and the front, as it became urgent to relieve the exhausted troops at the front. They took up positions to attack an important communications hub on the Meurthe River, in the direction of Raon-l'Étape. Subjected to intense mortar fire just after their battalion had captured their first objective, they thus received their baptism of fire on November 12. On November 16, the company moved from its position near Bertrichamps to take the heights north of Raon-l'Étape, a town which was captured after heavy fighting on November 18. On November 21 Francis wrote to Helen: "I’ve seen plenty of action and the only thing that helps me through action are you and your prayers. Darling, keep praying because they are being answered every day. The way we are going, the war won't last much longer and then I'll come home and we can furnish our own home like we’ve been dreaming of. Darling thanks for the continuous flow of letters. There's nothing like building up my morale when I receive a letter of yours in a foxhole”. The following day, the 2nd Battalion advanced as far as Vieux Moulin. November 23rd was a particularly long and exhausting day. Company E set off at 7 a.m. and after marching 15 km took La Saulcy, La Parière and then reached Pont de Salm. There they received orders to return to La Saulcy and rejoin the battalion. From there, they set off again via Belval, reaching Saint-Blaise-la-Roche at dawn on the 24th after marching all night . In all, they had covered almost 40 km. It was at Saint-Blaise-la-Roche, on November 26, that Francis and company had their Thanksgiving dinner, to celebrate the success of the Vosges campaign after a stay in hell. They felt that the end of the war was near, and Francis wrote to Helen: "Darling, I have just time enough to drop you a line telling you that I’m in good health and miss you terribly. It won’t be long before we are in Berlin but I’m tired of walking there. It’s a long walk but it will be worth it. Our outfit has been making a good showing. What a Thanksgiving dinner we had. A turkey sandwich and a cup of coffee while we were marching and the weather was miserable. But did it taste good. At night I dream of the future Thanksgiving that I will spend with you. Boy, will life be worth living. Well it looks like we are off again so au revoir my love until next letter. I love you my darling, Fran”. In a second letter of the same day, he explained that they were in a nice house and that he had been able to sleep in a bed, but it was too soft and he ended up sleeping on the floor. He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge by his commanding officer for his behavior during those first weeks of fighting.
Their next objective was the Maginot Line to the northeast, a fortified line along the border, built in the 1930s at great expense to, ironically, prevent a German invasion. Francis's company retraced its steps from Raon-l'Étape to Baccarat, then headed north via Blamont, Sarrebourg and Saverne. On November 28, Francis and his company were in Ernolsheim, a small Alsatian village where they attended mass and were treated to good home cooking, local wine and their first taste of schnapps. From there they walked the 9 km to Weinbourg. It was from a house in this village that Francis was able to write four letters to Helen on December 2: "I've been in rural Raon-l'Étape and Baccarat and a few others which I can't mention as yet. One thing, I’ve seen a lot of France since I’ve been over here.
Am I homesick, it is the worst I’ve ever felt. I miss you so much it is getting unbearable. I hope this war ends soon so I can show you in person how much I love you”. In the fourth letter of that day, he explains: “Dearest Wife, I am trying to write this under the darndest conditions, but as long as you can read it, I won’t complain. There isn’t much I can tell you except I am in good health and good spirit. I miss you more than I ever did. Your letters are coming along good and they do build up my morale. … These V mails don't leave much space to write but this all I have at present. I love you, Darling. Fran". These were his last letters to Helen. On December 3, at 3:30 a.m., the whole 2nd Battalion moved from Ingwiller to Rothbach to get back to the front line. They knew they were facing an enemy with their backs against the wall, at the gates of the Fatherland, and the tension was high. At 9 o'clock that morning, they attacked hill 369 (Buchwalderkopf), which dominates Rothbach to the north-west, but were pinned down by an intense artillery barrage . On December 4, the third platoon, on its way to take another hill to the right of the road, encountered mines and booby traps, which infantry hate the most. It took them two days of hard fighting to gain control of the positions the enemy had established around Rothbach.
On December 5, in pursuit of the retreating Germans, the platoons of the 2nd Battalion continued their advance through hills and forests, but without venturing onto the road, in the direction of Reipertswiller, which they reached at nightfall and liberated the village .
On the 6th, they were ordered to take Mouterhouse, the last major obstacle separating them from Bitche and the Maginot Line. They moved to take the small hamlet of Melch, then occupied hill 335 (the Boxberg) 500m south of Mouterhouse. On December 7, they advanced to the ridge above Mouterhouse, where they were immediately caught under intense and highly accurate enemy artillery fire. To approach the Mouterhouse church from the forest, they had to cross a hundred-meter-wide field exposed to sniper and machine-gun fire. Companies E and G of the 2nd Battalion launched the assault at 9:15am. Company G, braving the sniper fire, crossed the gap to reach the church and set up machine-gun batteries. Protected by their fire, Francis' company entered the cemetery to the left of the church. The men of E company suffered casualties as the enemy fire loosened fragments of gravestones and sent them ricocheting on to the men lying on the ground . By nightfall, however, E company had also reached the church shelter. Francis was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for his heroism in that day's fighting. On the morning of December 8, the 2nd Battalion finished occupying the rest of the village of Mouterhouse. Thus, after hard fighting, the 397th Regiment controlled the villages of Mouterhouse and Lemberg.
On December 9, the 2nd Battalion resumed its march towards Bitche, reaching the foot of hill 410. The following day, they continued their attack in the face of growing resistance. In the late afternoon, they set up a defensive perimeter on hill 317. By December 14, they had advanced through thick forest and steep hills to a position 4 km north of Mouterhouse. They were relieved by another company at 1:00 pm, and retreated to Mouterhouse to do their mail and rest in the houses. They were given clean clothes, and this was their first opportunity to shower since leaving Marseille . The company returned to its previous positions the following day, December 15. At this point, much to their surprise, they received permission to go on leave to Paris. But no sooner had they settled into their foxholes, than the orders changed. They were ordered to march on the road north towards Bitche, and to occupy the positions overlooking the German garrison at the Bitche camp. The 2nd Battalion thus resumed the offensive on the morning of December 16, and set off to attack two hotly contested hills, 355- (corresponding to Klein Lemberg) and 388- (the Pfaffenberg), which controlled the road entering Bitche from the east, in order to secure the division's front line. An enemy machine gun was located in the house north of the Hasselfurth pond. A platoon from Francis' E company tried to take up a defensive position on G company's left flank to protect itself from a counter-attack, but was pinned down by sudden and unexpected sniper and machine-gun fire from a position some 250 meters away. It was during this action that Francis was killed. In a letter to Helen at the end of hostilities, Sergeant Harry Gratz, an E Company secretary, described the circumstances of Francis' death more accurately as follows: "The attack went well for several hours, when suddenly from the top of one of the highest hills, the enemy counter-attacked, and our men had to quickly set up positions to stem the attack, Francis set his machine gun, and hold the enemy in check for a long while enabling his men to retreat to safety, but an enemy machine gunner killed him instantly” . The date was December 16, 1944, and all these indications point to the place where Francis Wayte fell on the flank of Gross Lemberg, not far from Hasselfurth pond. Helen continued to write to Francis throughout December, for Christmas and New Years. As mail from Europe took weeks to arrive, she didn't worry about not hearing from him. She wrote him long letters on December 16, December 18, December 19, December 22 and December 23. On Christmas Eve, she wrote for example: “Darling, when you and I have our first Christmas in our new home, we’re going to have a perfectly lovely tree with all blue lights on it. By that time, we ought to be able to buy as many lights and decorations as we want. I hope it won’t be too far off. This morning I was feeling very blue and lonely and I was thinking that if it were normal times, we’d be having our first Christmas together as husband and wife and how different it would be. But I guess I must just keep on hoping and praying for your speedy and safe return”. Francis had been dead for eight days. Helen wrote again on Christmas Day, December 25, December 26, December 30, December 31, New Year's Day, and again on January 3.
On January 4, 1945, just as Helen was writing another letter to Francis, explaining that the local paper had announced that he had been awarded the Combat Infantry Medal, she was interrupted by the arrival of a telegram from the Secretary of War, informing her that Francis had been listed as "Missing in Action" since December 16. Helen never finished her letter.
Finally, in a letter dated December 29, Major General W. A. Buress, Commanding Officer of the 397th Infantry Regiment, confirmed Francis' death and informed Helen that he had been buried in a temporary cemetery. Subsequently, his remains were transferred to the Lorraine American Cemetery in Saint Avold, where they lie in plot A, row 24, grave 8. For his courage, Francis J. Wayte was awarded, in addition to the Bronze Star, the Silver Star "for deliberately risking his life in the face of great danger to save his men", and the Purple Heart. His sacrifice was in vain, for on the very day of his death, the Battle of the Bulge began further north, forcing the American General Staff to halt the offensive in the Vosges and clear the front line to send reinforcements to Belgium. This enabled the Germans to launch their last offensive, Nordwind, from January 1 to 19, 1945, which saw them return to Mouterhouse and push on to Wingen. It wasn't until March 15 that the 100th Division launched a counter-offensive, finally conquering Bitche on March 16, 1945. This is how the veterans of the 100th Infantry Division came to be known by the somewhat provocative name of "Sons of Bitche". At the end of the war, the army returned to Helen all the letters she had written to Francis, including those he had never been able to open. Helen's niece, Lorraine Pretty, published them in 2021 in a book entitled: Francis, Helen and Joe .
Source: Pierre de Maret 26/2/2025