http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2004/12/27/news/news04.txtEurope was in the grip of war. The Battle of the Bulge was raging in the Ardennes region of Luxembourg and Belgium. Nazi troops hammered away at American soldiers in the Belgian town of Bastone.
Edward J. Pfeifer and his comrades were headed in that direction. The Black Panthers of the U.S. Army's 66th Infantry Division were looking forward to the action.
The Panthers were aboard the Leopoldville, a Belgian ocean liner converted into a troop transport ship. It was Christmas Eve, 1944. The ship left Southampton, England. The night was uneventful and the ship had almost finished crossing the English Channel.
The Leopoldville was about six miles from the French port of Cherbourg when the Black Panthers' world was turned upside down. The ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat.
By the time Christmas Eve became Christmas Day, Pfeifer was among the Leopoldville's survivors. Of the 2,200 troops aboard, 801 were claimed by the torpedo's explosion or the plunge into the channel's icy waters.
The sinking of the Leopoldville immediately became classified as a secret by the Allied Command. It was not much of a secret, though. Pfeifer was among soldiers who wrote home about it and, amazingly, his letter arrived uncensored.
Several books were written about the incident. It was through books such as Jacquin Sanders' 1963 book, "A Night Before Christmas," that families of many of those who perished learned the truth about the incident.
Pfeifer, 83, a retired Morenci schoolteacher who lives in Verde Lee, had a hand in providing much information to Sanders for the first two chapters of his book. Pfeifer is also quoted in a subsequent book on the incident, "The Leopoldville Trilogy," and its sequel.
The ship was most recently returned to prominence by author Clive Cussler's claim that an expedition he headed has found the Leopoldville.
Pfeifer said he was surprised to learn it has not been that long since the sinking of the Leopoldville was declassified.
"Nobody ever told us it was secret," he said. "When I wrote home about it, I didn't know it was a secret. I was teaching school for several years when I found out it was still a secret."
According to an account in The Leopold Trilogy, the incident was not declassified until 1999.
Allied Supreme Com-mander Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and British authorities were quick to put a lid on the sinking.
"Eisenhower probably did not want the Germans to know how successful they were," Pfeifer said. Another troop ship had been sunk only the day before.
"It was a scandal and then they just forgot about it," Pfeifer said of Leopoldville's demise.
The ship was hit by the German submarine U-486. Pfeifer said the sub was tracked by British warships and sunk in the North Sea two weeks after it claimed the Leopoldville.
Troops aboard the ill-fated transport have given sometimes greatly differing accounts of what happened that night. Prior to the torpedo striking, the troops' overall mood was "relaxed, pretty happy. We were finally going to get some action," Pfeifer recalled.
Some survivors describe panic and mass confusion after the torpedo hit. Pfeifer, who served in Company E of the 66th, was on one of the upper decks, and said he saw relative calm among troops. They knew there had been an explosion but did not know it was a torpedo strike. It was only when the ship began listing that it was clear the ship was in trouble.
The British destroyer HMS Brilliant pulled alongside the Leopoldville to allow troops to jump onto its deck.
Pfeifer was among those who jumped and made it onto the Brilliant. To this day, a back injury reminds him of his leap to safety. "My back hasn't been the same since. It had a nice steel deck. Boy, I'll tell you that thing just stopped (whoever landed on it)."
He said big, burly British sailors were on deck trying to catch troops as they jumped onto the Brilliant. Survivors were immediately sent below decks to make room on deck for others to jump from the sinking Leopoldville.
Pfeifer said it was not until much later that night when he began wondering what happened to the soldier who was going to jump with him. "His name was Freddy Hanson, from Iron River, Michigan. When I said we should jump he said he would if I went first. I jumped and I never saw him again. He probably fell between ships. He was kind of a timid kid. Maybe he just didn't jump hard enough," Pfeifer said.
According to the many accounts from that night, there was plenty of blame to go around. Troops were not adequately drilled in how to launch lifeboats and access to them was extremely difficult. Blame was also laid on the ship's crew members for looking out for themselves first.
Emergency radio transmissions were made to American headquarters at Cherbourg. There was initially no response. It was, after all, Christmas Eve. Pfeifer has his own opinion of what transpired.
"The biggest goof of the whole thing was our guys were busy with Christmas. No one was listening to the radio. That's why we lost so many."
Pfeifer paused, shrugged his shoulders and said softly, "That's just the way things were. What the heck."
Once distress signals were heard, several ships moved toward the Leopoldville. Pfeifer said the Brilliant had to leave its station alongside the sinking ship. It and the Leopoldville had been bumping against each other while the Brilliant took on troops. Eventually the destroyer began taking on water and pulled away.
Pfeifer and other troops aboard the Brilliant were taken to a warehouse after they landed at Cherbourg. "They gave us some pretty good food, some good chow. None of us had anything else, though."
All equipment, including rifles, were lost on the Leopoldville. The Panthers were initially issued rifles "that were rejects from North Africa," Pfeifer said. They eventually were issued better weapons.
Christmas came to him as an afterthought. Pfeifer, a devout Catholic, said, "It wasn't until the next morning when they took us to Mass that I thought about Christmas. The church was decorated real nice."
It was also at church that he learned the Leopoldville had sunk and a large number of troops were lost.
Bronze Star
The Black Panthers regrouped and while they never made it to the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, they played a key role in keeping over 50,000 German troops trapped in France near St. Nazaire and Lorient.
Many of the Germans were in a pitiful condition. Some were starving.
Pfeifer was among Panthers sent out on patrol and that was when he saw action. In fact, he was awarded the Bronze Star medal "For meritorious achievement in ground operations against the enemy - European Theater of Operations, on or about 25 January 1945."
The modest Puffier would not say much about the action that resulted in his receiving the Bronze Star. He only spoke in general of going out on patrols.
He did recount one patrol in which he was part of a team that disabled a bridge. He and a comrade took turns helping a radioman pack a "300 radio" that weighed about 40 pounds. Upon returning the radio would not work properly. A technician looked at it and found it had two bullet holes in it.
"We took turns carrying it on our backs. The guy told us whichever one of us was carrying it when it was hit was pretty lucky," Pfeifer said with a soft laugh.
Germany surrendered in April, 1945. Pfeifer left the army after serving three years and returned to college and graduated from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.
The Minot, N.D., native taught school in Minnesota for five years. He spent the next 30 years of his teaching career at Morenci High School where he taught algebra and science. He retired 21 years ago, but remained active working with the U.S. Forest Service as a fire lookout.
He worked for the USFS during the summer for 30 years. He is intimately familiar with the Rose Peak fire lookout station north of Morenci.
Pfeifer still stays in touch with schools and often teaches children about World War II. He said he feels strongly that children today should know about that important aspect of American history.
Pfeifer lamented the loss last year of Dick McDermott, a former comrade who lived in Colorado. McDermott was also on the Leopoldville and was in Company E with Pfeifer .
"Now I don't have anyone to talk to about it," he said.