| Original caption: “Lined up in front of a wrecked German tank and displaying a captured swastika, is a group of Yank infantrymen who were left behind to “mop-up” in Chambois, France, last stronghold of the Nazis in the Falaise Gap area.” American soldiers, likely of the 2nd Battalion, 359th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division, pose with a Nazi German aerial identification field recognition swastika flag on the Chambois – Le Bourg-Saint-Léonard Road (Route D16 in Gouffern en Auge today). This group of 13 “Tough ‘Ombres” including a medic, have captured weapons. They display Karabiner 98k Mauser rifles and a Browning High Power pistol. 1 of the men is often identified as African American; veterans of the 90th Infantry Division claim that he is actually Mexican American. While African Americans were segregated, Mexican Americans were not. The 90th Infantry Division was originally recruited from Texas and Oklahoma and contained a large number of men of Mexican American heritage. After they were photographed, the men tossed the flag onto the back of the Panther tank. Behind them, the Panzerkampfwagen V “Panther” Sonderkraftfahrzeug 171 under command of Leutnant Holland, of 1st Battalion, Panzer Regiment 24, on assignment to 2nd Battalion, Panzer Regiment 16, 116th Panzer Division, of Leutnant Holland’s patrol can be viewed. This Panther, with 2 others of 1st Battalion, Panzer Regiment 24, were knocked out while surveilling the road. There were other gaps at the Germans’ disposal — 1 between Champosoult and Vimoutiers, and another between Chambois and Le Bourg-Saint-Léonard. The United States Army 90th Infantry Division was poised to advance from Le Bourg Saint Leonard on August 17, but due to a misunderstanding in the directives issued by the American headquarters and the weakening of the pincer effort to reinforce Patton’s thrust toward the Seine, it was not until August 19 that the 90th Division’s 359th Infantry Regiment got its orders to move on Chambois. During that 2-day delay, elements of the German 7th and 15th Armies and Kampfgruppe (battle group) Eberbach poured through Chambois. Chambois was to be the linkup between the 90th Infantry Division, Canadian infantry, and the Polish Corps to trap the Germans in the Falaise Pocket. On August 19, the 90th Infantry Division captured 5,000 Nazi German prisoners, and killed indeterminate numbers more. Hundreds of Axis vehicles were destroyed by 90th Infantry Division artillery and attached Corps battalions. On August 20, the 2nd Battalion, 359th Infantry Regiment, completed the liberation of Chambois against heavy but sporadic resistance. The advantage of the heights in artillery in destroying tanks gave Chambois the nickname “the balcony of death.” Over 4 days ending August 21, 1944, the 90th Infantry Division took over 13,000 prisoners, killed over 8,000 Nazi Germans, killed 1,800 horses, captured 1,000 more, knocked out 220 tanks, 160 self-propelled artillery pieces, 700 towed artillery pieces, a 130 anti-aircraft artillery pieces, a 130 halftracks, 5,000 soft-skinned vehicles, and 2,000 wagons. So many ammunition dumps were destroyed, the Division couldn’t inventory them. The 90th Infantry Division lost 600 men, 5 tanks, 2 anti-tank guns and 6 vehicles. Without their weapons, artillery, and vehicles, some 40 to 50 percent of 2 Nazi German Armies escaped to fight again. But the road to Paris was open. Dwight Pennington of the Kansas City Star wrote on December 5, 1945: “Falaise Gap Infantry Saga a Memory to Kansas City Member of Tough Unit.” This is the story of the company which plugged the last hole in the Falaise gap, bottling up an entire German army for annihilation — “the best damned company in the whole United States Army,” in the words of Technical Sergeant Wilton H. Bargar [(February 21, 1916 – November 12, 1989)]. Bargar ought to know. Of the 190-odd men who went into Normandy with it on D-Day, only 23 remained on Victory in Europe-Day. Bargar was 1 of the 23. But this is not a story about Bargar, who insists that his work as a Technical Sergeant handling communications was not especially dangerous — “there was always a line of riflemen out in front of me.” The head wound which sent him to the hospital came later, on November 7, when the 90th Infantry Division was guarding the 1st bridgehead over the Moselle River. “Blooded” at Normandy Beach. Nor is this the most heroic story in the saga of Company E, 359th Infantry Regiment. That story would begin with D-Day when the unit, its boat sunk by a mine offshore, struggled to the Normandy beach without equipment. It would tell how the men outfitted themselves with captured German weapons and equipment from slain paratroopers and crashed gliders. It would recount the attrition of the hedgerows, when Company E lost more men than in all the following 6 months of warfare across France and Germany. From that fighting scarcely 1 of the company’s Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) men emerged without at least a wound. This story is timed just a little later, when the Germans were taking the punishment, dying by the hundreds and surrendering by the thousands, in the Falaise trap. It was a small-scale action, the closing of the last escape route at Chambois, on August 20, 1944, that sealed the doom of Field Marshal General Guenther von Kluge’s [7th] Army. Sergeant Bargar has the story of it because he collected the information from other members of his unit in the days immediately following. 3 other Kansas Citiens were on the battlefield that day — Roscoe W. Cox [(December 13, 1906 – November 12, 1973)], 3621 Pennsylvania Avenue, who was 1st Sergeant; Private 1st Class Frank W. Terherst [(January 4, 1913 – May 20, 1976)], 2603 North 8th Street, and the Reverend Raymond P. Kerns [(October 16, 1911 – September 7, 1946)], pastor of the Cathedral Parish of the Catholic Church here, Kansas City, Kansas, before he went to the Army. It was 1300 Hours on the afternoon of August 19, a clear, sunny day, that the 90th Infantry Division moved forward to plug the last Nazi German escape corridor at Chambois. The infantrymen wore the T-O patch of the 90th, which meant Texas-Oklahoma in World War I and was translated as “Tough ‘Ombres” in World War II, when men from all parts of the nation were poured into the famous Division from the southwest. The 359th Infantry Regiment’s 2nd Battalion was sent into Chambois under the leadership of Colonel Robert L. Bacon [(March 31, 1896 – May 4, 1967)], of Harlingen, Texas, who as leader of “Task Force” Bacon was to later command the [379th Infantry Regiment, ] 95th Infantry Division in the final capture of Metz. House-to-House in Chambois. At 1700 Hours, the Battalion advanced with orders to take Chambois at all costs. Company E was on the left, moving through the main part of the town; Company G on the right and the 3rd Company, F, in reserve. Each had about a 180 effectives except Company F, which had left a platoon skirmishing with the Nazis at Fougy. A platoon of M10 tank destroyers, moving along with the infantry, delivered the 1st blow, firing into buildings known to contain enemy troops. Then infantrymen of Company E, in a house-to-house check, rounded up 40 prisoners. At the outskirts of the town was a German motor pool, badly battered and littered with Nazis killed by American artillery. The prisoners were surprised and dismayed that their captors were Americans; they had been told the Yanks were still in Normandy. As the battle moved through their village, the French population cowered in a large house and adjoining courtyard. Some ran out occasionally to see the dead Nazis in the street. German trucks loaded with small arms and tank rounds were burning. Houses nearby caught fire, and presently the tank rounds began exploding. Reaching the northeast part of town, the Americans met advance elements of a Polish brigade, which had been cut off for several days and had been supplied by air by the British with whom the Poles were serving. A BAR team, ordered to clean out a house and barn, fired a few rounds. Germans began to pour out, hands behind their heads. When they stopped coming, the 2-man team had a 150 prisoners. Meanwhile, the platoon guide, Sergeant Willam A. Berry [(November 21, 1916 – February 26, 1999)] of Mountain View, Arkansas, and a private had routed 25 Nazis from a culvert. Rescued German Wounded. At 1930 Hours, the company dug for the night. 20 wounded Germans were found in a house, their positions marked by sheets hung out the windows. Then it was discovered that Nazi wounded lay in a field on the left, and Sergeant Bargar organized a group of prisoners to bring them in, using cabinet doors as stretchers. That action was to pay dividends later, when German doctors in return volunteered their services to treat American wounded. Remnants of the disorganized German army were all about. When morning came — Sunday morning, August 20 — 3 Nazis marched out of a barn to surrender. They had slept in a stall next to 1 occupied by American soldiers. Daylight also brought into view a convoy moving across the horizon, and machine gunners, mortars and riflemen opened up. In 2 hours, the machine guns fired 5,000 rounds and the riflemen used nearly all their ammunition. At about 0700 Hours, a small German tank slipped up from the west, behind hedges. It was not more than 60 feet from the machine guns when Sergeant Ross N. Boatright [(December 18, 1923 – November 2, 2005)] of Biloxi, Mississippi, saw it and stood up in his foxhole to fire with his M1 rifle at German soldiers riding the tank. The tank wheeled and retired without firing a shot. Prisoners and Tank Attacks. Between 0900 and 1000 Hours, Nazis began moving forward in groups of 7 or 8, firing a few shots, then raising a white flag and walking to the American lines. By noon Company E had 250 prisoners, who were simply ordered to the rear or turned over to the Poles on the east. About 1200 Hours, 3 German tanks moved forward in a counterattack. Bazooka teams were called up and knocked out the biggest tank, a Panther. The others withdrew. Next the Germans began moving up automatic 20 millimeter (.78 caliber) guns, with about a 100 infantrymen. These were knocked out by mortar fire. Then, as tank activity and vehicle movement continued up ahead, the Company Commander, Captain Edward R. Lienhart [(May 11, 1914 – April 2, 1970)] of Winner, South Dakota, called for artillery fire to break it up. Meanwhile, Sergeant John D. Hawk [(May 30, 1924 − November 4, 2013)] of Bremerton, Washington, had spotted Nazi activity in a barn and, running back and forth from his vantage point to a tank destroyer, directed fire on the barn. The 4th round brought a white flag and the surrender of some 500 Germans, including a major and 5 other officers. For that feat Sergeant Hawk received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the top award among 8 won by men of the Company in Chambois. Tank Destroyer In Action. Then came another threat toward the center of the American line, by a huge, self-propelled 205-millimeter gun [likely a 105 millimeter (4.13 inch) Leichte Feldhaubitze 18/2 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II (“Self-Propelled Light Field Howitzer 18 on an Armored Fighting Vehicle Type II Chassis”). The gun was rounding the last bend of a road in front of the Americans when a tank destroyer opened fire. The 1st shot caught the gun squarely literally burning the crew. A little later the same tank destroyer hit a half-track troop carrier full of Germans. By the end of the day it had accounted for 27 vehicles and blocked the road to Trun for at least 600 yards. For 3 or 4 miles along that road German vehicles, under fire of American artillery, were stalled almost bumper to bumper. At 1000 Hours, there was a flurry of alarm when a runner arrived at the command post and shouted, within hearing of a compound full of prisoners: “No ammunition. No machine gun ammunition!” The company staff glanced in alarm at the unwieldy jam of prisoners, and sighed with relief it was apparent the Germans had not understood. A little later came a closer call for Captain Lienhart and Sergeant Bargar. As German fire increased, the company telephone and radio equipment had been moved into a garden surrounded by an 8-foot stone wall. The battle was hot just ahead and to the left when 3 fanatical Schutzstaffel (SS) troopers in black uniforms got through and climbed the wall, to fire point-blank into the command post. They missed by inches [(millimeters)] the 3 men there. A patrol rounded them up, killing 1 and capturing the others. Nazi Resistance Collapsed. At about 1400 Hours, German resistance finally went to pieces and wholesale surrenders began. Several 100 Germans approached, led by medical officers and carrying white flags. With them were 40 American soldiers of the 80th Division who had been captured several days earlier and had followed the Germans in whew disorganized retreat. 1 of these prisoners, who spoke German, had persuaded the other Nazis to surrender. As the wounded streamed past the command post, the 2 American medical men there often were too hard pressed. At such times the German doctors volunteered to help and, mindful of the care provided their wounded the night before under Sergeant Bargar’s leadership, they treated Americans as well as they treated Germans. Company E had suffered light losses in comparison with the Germans, having only 15 casualties including 1 man killed, out of about 180 who went into the battle. It counted 1,200 prisoners and 300 Nazis wounded. The 90th Infantry Division as a whole took more than 13,000 prisoners and killed or wounded 8,000 Germans in 4 days. An official observer called the Chambois action “the greatest ambush of the war,” for the trap closed at Chambois smashed the entire German 7th Army, the largest and best-equipped unit in Western Europe, with losses placed at 122,000 men. On Company Roster, 1,500. The 90th went on to bitter fighting after that, and Company E went along with it. The division was rated 3rd along all those serving in Europe in number of casualties suffered. Company E had some 1,500 names on its roster to maintain an average strength of about 190 men. Its Captain, Lienhart, later promoted to Major, won a Distinguished Service Cross for the day’s work at Chambois, and 4 Silver Stars and 2 Bronze Stars were distributed in the Company, in addition to Sergeant Hawk’s Medal of Honor. Sergeant Bargar, back at a desk at American Dairies, Incorporated [in Kansas City], Where he worked before the war, speaks feelingly of the “integrity” of those men and others in his company, and asks that any praise be saved for them. The other Kansas Citians who were at Chambois also are back except for Father Kerns, who is expected to return to this country soon [He died of a heart attack in Germany while in service in 1946 – Editor]. Sergeant Bargar and his wife [Nola A. Wendt Bargar (July 25, 1917 – February 26, 2002)] live at 5640 Olive Street [Kansas City, Kansas]. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0432.jpg |
| Image Size | 765.60 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2908 x 2439 |
| Photographer | Tomko |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 20, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Chambois |
| State or Province | Normandy |
| Country | France |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-112-SGA-44(12123) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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