Place Chronology
Suippes / Sissonne
Champagne, France — SHAEF Airborne Reserve, December 1944
Camp Suippes and Camp Sissonne were former French Army barracks in the Champagne region where the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions rested and refitted after Operation Market Garden. Stone buildings, mess halls, running water, intact windows: by airborne standards, luxury. Generous passes to Paris reflected their status as SHAEF’s strategic reserve, earmarked for the Rhine crossing.
On the evening of 17 December 1944, a phone call interrupted dinner at Sissonne. Within hours, military police were scouring bars and brothels as far as Paris, troopers were pouring out of theatres and champagne parties, and 200 replacements who had arrived at 03:00 were loaded straight onto trucks without orientation. By morning, the camps were empty. Two airborne divisions, under-equipped and under-clothed, were racing 150 miles through fog and rain toward a battle they knew almost nothing about.
The deployment from Suippes and Sissonne to Werbomont and Bastogne, accomplished in under 40 hours from the initial alert, is one of the fastest large-scale emergency movements of the European war.
Sissonne (marker), Champagne, France. Camp Suippes lies c. 50 km to the southeast. Both camps served as billets for the 82nd Airborne Division. Rheims is 30 km south; the Ardennes front approximately 150 miles northeast.
Refitting after Market Garden
82nd Airborne DivisionMaj. Gen. James M. Gavin
101st Airborne DivisionMaj. Gen. Maxwell Taylor (in Washington)
Nov–Dec 1944
SHAEF strategic reserve
Both divisions recuperating from 56 days in the line in Holland. Light training schedule: discipline inspections, route marches, sports. Generous passes to Paris. Preparing for Operation Eclipse (Rhine crossing). Corps commander Ridgway in England supervising the 17th Airborne Division. Taylor in Washington advocating for increased divisional strength.
Camp Suippes505th PIR, elements
Camp Sissonne504th PIR, Div. HQ
Early Dec
Camp life
Old French barracks with stone construction, mess halls, running water, intact windows. Regimental films shown in the camp chapel at Suippes. Growing fatigue and anxiety among veterans about further combat jumps and possible Pacific deployment. The 456th Parachute Field Artillery enjoying a champagne party: Sgt McKenzie has procured 50 cases.
The Alert: 17 December, Evening
Maj. Gen. Gavin82nd Airborne, Div. Commander
Col. “Doc” EatonXVIII Airborne Corps, Chief of Staff
17 Dec
19:00
The phone call at dinner
Gavin is hosting dinner at Sissonne. Guests: Col. Rupert Graves (517th PIR) and Lt. Col. Melvin Zais (517th XO). Lt. Broadaway answers the phone: it is Colonel “Doc” Eaton, XVIII Airborne Corps chief of staff. His voice “almost so panicky”: Germans have counterattacked in the Ardennes, critical situation, airborne divisions to prepare to move within 24 hours. Ridgway unreachable in England. Taylor in Washington. Gavin is acting corps commander.
Gavin returns to the table, maintains composure. “Let’s get on with dinner.” After dessert, he makes the announcement. Zais: “It was a vivid example of a leader who could keep his cool, hide his emotions, organize his thoughts, and, at the appropriate time, turn on the heat.”
Division StaffWar Room, Sissonne
17 Dec
20:00–21:30
Movement orders
20:00 — Staff assembled in War Room. 21:00 — Movement order: 82nd to concentrate vicinity of Bastogne, depart 09:00 on 18 December. 21:30 — Eaton calls back: move “without delay in direction of Bastogne.” XVIII Airborne Corps placed under First Army. Gavin decides: 82nd moves first (higher combat readiness); 101st follows at 14:00. He notifies McAuliffe and Brig. Gen. Andy March at Suippes.
The Recall
505th PIRCamp Suippes theatre
17 Dec
evening
Ballet interrupted
Troopers at Camp Suippes are watching the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Calls go out for staff officers to report to regimental CP. Sgt William Blank: “They started calling for the highest ranking officers, and the calls kept coming on down the ranks.” At Camp Sissonne, the screen in the 325th GIR theatre goes dark, lights come on: return to barracks immediately.
82nd Airborne MP PlatoonCol. Wienecke, Div. Chief of Staff
17 Dec
night
Scouring Paris
Colonel Wienecke calls the MP platoon commander. MP reply: “Colonel, I’m up to my ears in wild troopers, and the jails are filled.” Wienecke: “Sheriff, cut everyone loose. Mark them for duty, and get the hell over here.” Military police scour bars and brothels as far as Paris. Troopers in custody given reprieve and ordered to division.
504th PIR, 2nd BnLt. Col. Wellems
17 Dec
c. 22:30
Officer briefing
Wellems briefs company commanders: “Germans made breakthrough near Bastogne. 106th Division overrun. We move out tomorrow at 0900 hours in ten-ton semi-trailers.” Ammunition and K-rations issued through the night. One .50-cal per truck cab for air defence. 250 replacements have just disembarked at Sissonne station; an officer greets them: “You are moving out in the morning.”
Equipment Crisis
505th PIRMaj. Harris, S-3
508th PIRMaj. Medusky, S-3
17–18 Dec
overnight
Weapons in ordnance, clothing in the laundry
Maj. Harris (505th S-3): “Equipment situation was bad. Many weapons in ordnance, shortages in food and ammunition, clothing in the laundry, winter clothing not issued.” 505th departs with only 3 × 81mm mortars and 7–8 × 60mm mortars for the entire regiment. Maj. Medusky (508th): “impossible to recover many of the mortars, BARs, and light machine guns still in ordnance.” 307th Engineers short on explosives and mines. Only mimeographed strip maps available.
Replacements200 men, arrived 03:00
18 Dec
03:00
Replacements thrown straight in
200 replacements arrive at Suippes at 03:00. No time for orientation, classification, or proper distribution. Rifle companies receive ~30% new men requiring rapid assignment, equipment checks, roster updates, and briefings, all before departure. Sgt Spencer Wurst’s only outer garment is a field jacket.
Lt Rusty Hays, better prepared than most, counts his layers: cotton underwear, long underwear, wool trousers and shirt, field jacket, combat trousers, wool overcoat, combat boots, wool gloves, knit cap, cocoon sleeping bag, two wool blankets. “I was lucky. There were some men who did not have many of these items.”
Loading & Departure
82nd Airborne DivisionAll regiments
18 Dec
08:00–09:00
Loading: the “well-organised scramble”
Lorries diverted from across northwestern Europe arrive through the night. 10-ton tractor-trailer rigs: uncovered flatbeds with panel sides. ~50 men per truck, most standing. Senior NCOs “arrested” rear-echelon personnel to procure ~500 trucks and “virtually kidnapped” 300 drivers. By the time the 101st loads, only cattle trucks remain.
504th PIRHead of column
18 Dec
10:17
Departure
504th PIR at head of column departs Sissonne at 10:17. Route: Sissonne → Charleville-Mézières → Recogne → Sprimont → Houffalize → Werbomont. Distance: approximately 150 miles. Light rain, fog, blackout conditions. Pfc. Ed Bayley (A Co): “Cold and misting all day long as we trekked along a one hundred fifty mile drive.”
The Convoy
Maj. Gen. GavinAdvance party, by jeep
17–18 Dec
23:00–09:00
Gavin drives to Spa overnight
23:00 — Gavin departs Sissonne in an open jeep with Lt. Col. Al Ireland and Capt. Hugo Olson. Steady light rain, thick fog, bridges out. 100+ miles through the night. Arrives Spa c. 09:00 on 18 December; reports to Gen. Hodges. Decision: 82nd diverted to Werbomont (not Bastogne); 101st continues to Bastogne.
Maj. Gen. RidgwayXVIII Airborne Corps, from England
18 Dec
02:00–10:30
Ridgway flies from England
02:00 — Ridgway awakened at Wiltshire. Takes off at dawn in 55 C-47s with entire UK-based corps staff. Fog so thick the pilot navigates to Rheims “on the nose” without ground contact. Lands 10:30. Continues by car to Bastogne through fog and rain; driver nearly crashes six times; Ridgway takes the wheel himself.
82nd AirborneConvoy, open trucks
18 Dec
all day
150 miles in open trucks
Blackout conditions, slick roads, convoy seldom exceeds 15 mph. Hundreds of refugees and retreating soldiers clogging roads. Sgt Wurst: “We leaned out and hollered at retreating men: Hey, you guys are going in the wrong direction. They’d look back and say: Oh no, you guys are going in the wrong direction.” Pfc. Tom Holliday: “Hell, everything was streaming to the rear, but we just kept going up.”
Arrival at Werbomont
82nd Airborne DivisionLead serials
18 Dec
c. 20:00
First trucks reach Werbomont
Gavin returns to Werbomont from Bastogne at c. 20:00. Minutes later, the first lorries arrive. Troopers dismount and deploy into the dark. Pfc. Ed Bayley asks a sergeant where the Germans are; told “several miles away.” Then hears a .50-cal firing. Division continues arriving through the night.
82nd Airborne DivisionComplete
19 Dec
dawn
Division closed; perimeter secure
By daylight, the Werbomont crossroads are completely enclosed within the division’s perimeter. 150 miles in under 40 hours from initial alert. Some combat elements in position in under 20 hours. The camps at Suippes and Sissonne are empty. The champagne party is over.
150
Miles to Werbomont
<40
Hours, alert to positions
~500
Trucks procured overnight
2
Divisions deployed