Sergeant Joseph Rogan took a long drag from a cigarette as he stared intently at the terrain that disappeared into the darkness and fog to his front. It was about 3:30 a.m. on December 25, 1944, and Rogan was spending his second Christmas overseas in a foxhole on the outskirts of Bastogne, Belgium. His partner, Corporal Restor Bryan, was resting in the corner of the hole, enjoying a rare moment when he could sleep in this intensely cold, snow-covered region.

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Rogan and Bryan were forward observers for the 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion. Their battalion command post was in the village of Hemroulle, about a mile northwest of Bastogne. A machine gun crew from Company A, 401st Glider Infantry Regiment, was within a stone’s throw of the two men, and a third member of the 463rd, Corporal William Everhardt, was in a slit trench not far behind their position.

The sound of distant shells and bombs crashing around Champs did not even stir the exhausted infantry and artillerymen, leaving Rogan alone to think about home and happier Christmases. The 594 men of his artillery battalion should have been sleeping off their hangovers from Christmas Eve celebrations in Mourmelon, France. They had arrived there only 13 days earlier with orders to join the 17th Airborne Division once it came in from England. Instead, the holiday found them battling German tanks and troops desperately attempting to pierce the American defenses around Bastogne.

Never willing to dodge a fight, the 463rd’s commander, Lt. Col. John Cooper, had volunteered his unit to Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, the 101st Airborne Division’s acting commander, as soon as he heard the division was being rushed to Belgium to help repel a major enemy breakthrough. Cooper’s zeal was a lucky break for the men of the 101st. The veterans of the 463rd had already distinguished themselves in combat in Sicily, Italy and southern France.

The 463rd’s odyssey to this Christmas morning in Belgium began in February 1942, when the War Department authorized the creation of the first test parachute artillery battery. That experimental unit would become Battery B, 456th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion. Colonel Harrison B. Harden Jr. was designated the new battalion commander. The battalion’s first combat jump was in Sicily on the evening of July 9, 1943, in support of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

The battalion’s primary mission was to fire at enemy troops and tanks utilizing a high arc, or indirect fire. During the intense Battle of Biazza Ridge, however, the battery had scored its first victory against enemy tanks using direct fire. Following the Sicilian campaign, the battalion was split up. Batteries C and D remained with the 82nd Airborne Division and transferred to England to prepare for the invasion of France. Headquarters Battery and Batteries A and B supported the 1st Special Service Force and participated in the Italian campaign battles for Monte Cassino, Anzio and Rome. In February 1944 the three batteries were redesignated the 463rd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, with Major Hugh A. Neal as battalion commander. Neal’s command was short-lived, however, for less than four months later an enemy shell seriously wounded him. He was replaced by Cooper, who remained the battalion commander for the duration of the war.

In early July, the 463rd received 200 replacements, which were used to create Batteries C and D. Now a complete battalion once again, the 463rd was attached to the 1st Airborne Task Force and jumped into southern France on August 15.

By the end of the month, the 463rd was transferred to the French Maritime Alps to assist in blocking any attempted German escape from France into Italy. At the beginning of December the battalion was transferred to Mourmelon, where it arrived on December 12. By then, a large number of the 463rd’s members had been overseas more than 19 months.

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