| Original caption: “American soldiers of the 289th Infantry Regiment march along the snow-covered road on their way to cut off the Saint Vith – Houffalize road in Belgium.” United States Army 2nd Battalion, 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division, 3rd Army, during the attack on Aldringen, Belgium. The crisis created by the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes forced the 75th Infantry Division to be committed piecemeal rather than as a whole unit. The 289th and 290th Regimental Combat Teams were attached to the 3rd Armored Division on December 24, 1944. The regiment continued to attack toward Grandmenil. The 2nd SS Panzer was halted in a counterattack, and the 289th took the town on December 26. The 12th SS-Schutzstaffel Panzer Division Hitlerjugend attacked the 289th Combat Team on December 27, 1944, and penetrated to Sadzot, splitting the 289th until strong counterattacks stopped the Nazi Germans. Colonel Douglas B. Smith (May 30, 1902 – April 6, 1995) directed the 289th Regimental Combat Team to attack Veiux-Forneaux on January 3, 1945. Strong automatic weapons fire drove the attack back to prepared positions. On January 8, the 75th Division, less the 290th Regimental Combat Team, which was then connected to the 84th Division, relieved the 82nd Airborne Division along the Salm River. After preparations, the Division attacked strongly prepared Nazi German positions across the river on January 15. The 289th and 291st Regiments knocked out 1 tank and captured 110 prisoners. By January 18, the Division reserve of the 290th Infantry was committed as the 75th approached the Grand Bois Forest, part of the Ardennes. The Grand Bois was secured by January 21. All 3 regiments of the 75th Infantry Division – the 289th, 290th, and 291st – started a new attack on January 22. The Division targeted Braunlauf, Maldingen, and Aldringen. 1st Battalion, 289th Infantry, attacked Braunlauf. 3rd Battalion, 289th Infantry, assisted in the capture and mopping up of Maldingen. The 2nd Battalion set up a perimeter defense around the 2 towns on January 24, 1945. With the Nazi German retreat to the Siegfried Line, the Battle of the Bulge was over. The 75th Infantry Division captured 1,142 Nazi German Prisoners of War during the month of January. The Division suffered 404 killed, 1,707 wounded, and 334 missing. 2,623 suffered from non-battle casualties, mostly frostbite. Photographer United States Army Technician 5th Grade Richard A. “Dick” Massenge (August 2, 1921 – October 17, 1997) of Fresno, California, was a student at the Art Center School of Photography when he registered for the draft on February 15, 1942. He secretly married Matty Edwards Massenge (March 14, 1922 – December 31, 2008), his high school sweetheart, on May 30, 1942. He enlisted on June 26, 1942; they announced their marriage in July. Massenge was assigned to the 165th Signal Photographic Company and landed at Normandy. He photographed the liberation of Paris, the Ardennes Offensive, the capture of the Remagen Bridge, and the Potsdam Conference. He served with American, British, and Free French units. He was treated for an impacted tooth in May 1944. He was seconded to the 75th Infantry Division by late 1944. Massenge was featured in the Fresno Bee on January 21, 1945, when he ran into Private Leo P. Santich (July 14, 1924 – June 5, 1974), a fellow Fresnan attached to the 75th Infantry Division as a radioman. He found his family’s coat of arms on a monument in Belgium in February 1945. He returned to the United States on October 21, 1945, on the troopship SS Sea Snipe. After World War II, Massenge entered the mercantile business, eventually taking over his father’s school supply business for 50 years. This photo is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0333.jpg |
| Image Size | 803.44 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2936 x 2529 |
| Photographer | Richard A. Massenge |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 24, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Houffalize |
| State or Province | Wallonia |
| Country | Belgium |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | 111-SC-199406 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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