In Memory of Raymond D. Zomerfelt, Trained At Camp Maxey, 158th Combat Engineers, Battle of theBulge

Raymond D. Zomerfelt, 90, of Duluth, died April 13, 2013.

Veterans Memorial Hall is a joint program of the St. Louis County Historical Society and the United States Military service veterans of northeastern Minnesota, with a mission to gather, preserve, interpret, and promote the rich and diverse human experiences of veterans, their families, and communities through museum, archival, and educational programs.

Mr. Zomerfelt entered the Army April 27, 1943, at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. Home at entry: Duluth, Minnesota.

He served as a Technician Fifth Grade and low speed radio operator and mine field clearer with the 158th Combat Engineers in Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes, and Central Europe. Attended basic training at Camp Maxey, Texas, and assigned to the 158th Engineers C Battalion. Twenty and twenty-five mile marches were nothing new.

On February 28-9, 1943, the battalion was engaged in an assault crossing the Red River. March 16th left for Camp Shanks, N.Y., where masks were issued and tested in gas chambers. At 0550 hours boarded the USS Thurstonand began a 212 mile zag across the ocean which took 13 days to reach Cardiff, Wales. Took a train to an area near Strood, England, on May 17th.

Trained in firing tommy guns, bazooka, and grenades. On June 24, 1943, at South Hampton, England, boarded the SS Robert L. Vann setting sail for France. Landed on Utah Beach at 1950 hours on June 26th. Cleared a four mile area of mines, grenades and booby traps, most were in the hedges, for the Third Army going through St. Lo to Paris.

At one point in France, Companies A, B, and C with the Headquarters in a local castle. Near the castle was a garage with a room upstairs with his radio. That night a German plane flew over and strafed the motor pool and his sergeant in the legs. Received a message on the transmitter indicating that the Germans had broken through the American lines. Ran the message to the castle and gave it to a captain who said that he had to write urgent on the message.

In radio school was instructed that he could not write on the message. The first lieutenant told him that he was correct. The next day the companies were to move out. The captain put him out in the field all by himself and told him to catch a ride when his outfit came. Luckily his sergeant came by and said, "What are you doing here?" Informed his sergeant what the captain had said and his sergeant replied, "He must be crazy!"

December 17, 1944 — The 158th Engineer Combat Battalion, under Lieutenant Colonel Sam Tabet, was assigned to protect VIII Corps headquarters at Bastogne until the 101st Airborne Division arrived. Engineers constructed and manned a line of roadblocks, hasty minefields, and dug-in positions. They stretched chains of antitank mines across the roads and covered these obstacles with rifles, machine guns, and bazookas. Elements of an armored division were forced back leaving the 158th Engineer Combat Battalion and a company of the 35th Engineer Combat Battalion as the only force in front of Bastogne. By afternoon, 19 December, the engineers had held the line long enough for the 101st to move up and relieve them.

They were sent back to reorganize. He and two buddies were sent to a farm house to relay messages to our battalion. Heard Germans getting close to their location so they buried the radio. Cut off from his outfit, he hooked up with a supply outfit for over two months. When he reconnected with his company, was told that the Germans asked the couple in the farm house, "Where are the three Americans that were on the radio?"

He was awarded the following: Good Conduct Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and three overseas service bars.

Mr. Zomerfelt was honorably discharged on October 31, 1945, at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin.

Source: Hometown Heroes:  The Saint Louis County World War II Project, page 368.