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Houk, Ralph George (WWII), MAJ.
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Contact Info
Home Town Lawrence
Last Address Winter Haven, Florida
Date of Passing Jul 21, 2010
Location of Interment Rolling Hills Cemetery - Winter Haven, Florida
During WWII, Major Houk served with Company I, 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized), 9th Armored Division, US Army.
He enlisted 22 February 1942 and attended armored officers' candidate school at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
He went overseas with the 9th in July 1944, stationed at Tidworth, England before landing at Omaha/Utah Beach in September 1944. His unit went into the line 24 October 1944, along the Luxembourg-German frontier. It got its first taste of action during the Battle of the Bulge. He was wounded in the leg in Germany. On 7 March 1945, the 9th Armored discovered that the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen still standing and he was among those who crossed into Germany on 23 March. Then, began the drive ending in Czechoslovakia in early May 1945.
He joined the Yankees in 1947 and had a long career in professional baseball at varying levels. (See sources).
He was interred in Rolling Hills Cemetery, Winter Haven, Florida.
Other Comments:
Ralph Houk rose from private to major during his four years in military service. He was at the Battle of the Bulge and the Remagen crossing. He was awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star and Purple Heart.
Ralph G Houk was born in Lawrence, Kansas on August 9, 1919. The fourth of four children he played high school football at Lawrence High as a blocking quarterback and linebacker, and also ran the 220-yard dash and threw the discuss for the track team. He received several scholarship offers but signed with the New York Yankees in 1939.
Houk played for Neosho in the Arkansas-Missouri League his rookie year and batted .286 with 56 RBIs. The following season he was with Joplin of the Western Association and raised his average to .313. In 1941 he joined Augustaof the South Atlantic League before putting a promising career on hold to join the Army on February 22, 1942.
Houk attended armored officers' candidate school at Fort Knox, Kentucky in 1942. Following graduation as a second lieutenant he was assigned to Fort Riley,Kansas. "I first met Houk at Fort Riley," recalled Caesar Fiore, his commanding officer for three years. "When I noticed his papers said he liked baseball and was a catcher I put him on the team. He took charge of the 9th Armored Division Spearhead team. He won the divisional title and, while on maneuvers inLouisiana, won the state title."
Houk went overseas with Company I, 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized) of the 9th Armored Division in July 1944. He was stationed at Tidworth, England until September when the division left for mainlandEurope. The 9th Armored landed at Omaha Beach, Normandy and first went into the line in October 1944, in the relatively quiet sector along the Luxembourg-German frontier. It got its first taste of action during the Battle of the Bulge.
Houk was wounded in the calf at Willbillig, Germany during the battle, had the injury bandaged and returned immediately to combat.
"One day in the middle of the battle I sent Ralph out in a jeep to do some scouting of enemy troops," said Fiore. "After being out two nights we listed him as 'missing in action.'
"When he turned up he had a three-day growth of beard and hand grenades hanging all over him. He was back of the enemy lines the entire time. I know he must have enjoyed himself. He had a hole in one side of his helmet, and a hole in the other where the bullet left. When I told him about his helmet he said 'I could have swore I heard a ricochet.' We marked him 'absent without leave' but were glad to have him back alive."
The 9th Armored later advanced towards Germany. To reach German soil, Allied troops would need to cross theRhine River and it was fully expected that all the river crossings had been destroyed by the retreating enemy forces. But on March 7, 1945, the 9th Armored discovered that the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen - which led into the German heartland - was still standing. Demolitions were in place but had failed to detonate. By midnight the same day, the bridge had been cleared of mines and explosives, hasty repairs had been completed and traffic began to cross. Houk was among the first invaders since the Napoleonic era to set foot on German soil east of the Rhine. Helping to ensure the maintenance of the bridge and the continued flow of traffic was a young staff sergeant with the 276th Engineer Combat Battalion - Warren Spahn.
Later promoted to the rank of captain he led platoons into trouble spots. "I sent him on three missions in April of 1945 and one day he returned with nine prisoners of war," recalled Fiore. "His reports invariably had an undetermined number of enemy killed."
Houk received the Purple Heart, Silver Star, Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster, four campaign stars and clusters during his service in Europe. "He was an extremely popular platoon commander," Fiore explained. "His baseball training helped."
Following the German surrender in May 1945, Houk teamed up with Ken Trinkle for the 9th Armored Division baseball team that made it to the play-offs of the 1945 ETO World Series. Another teammate was minor leaguer Ed Musial, Stan's younger brother.
Houk left the Army with the rank of major and joined the Yankees as a back-up catcher in 1947, hitting .272 in 41 games. He spent the next seven seasons as Berra's back-up, before turning his attention to managing. After three seasons as skipper of the Denver (American Association) farm club and three years as a Yankees' coach, Houk replaced Casey Stengel at the Yankees' helm in 1961.
Time magazine described Houk as “a rigidly self-disciplined technician,” in October 1961, who “arrives at Yankee Stadium four hours before game time, consults with his coaches and studies line-up cards in a paneled office that is necessarily equipped with a handy silver spittoon. He takes careful notes during pregame batting and fielding practice. ‘That way,’ he says, ‘I might notice that one of their guys is hurt, or pick up one or two other little things.’”
He won World Championships his first two seasons and the American League pennant in 1963. "Being in the war probably helped my managing," Houk later commented. "It made me understand the problems young men have and the pressures they go through not only in a war but in baseball."
Houk served as Yankees' vice president and general manager until May 1966, before returning to the dugout to lead the Yankees. From 1974 to 1978, Houk managed the Tigers, and from 1981 to 1984 he managed the Red Sox. Houk was named as the Twins' vice president in November 1986.
Ralph Houk was inducted in the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Rhineland Campaign (1944-45)/Siege of Bastogne
From Month/Year
December / 1944
To Month/Year
January / 1945
Description The Siege of Bastogne was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge. The goal of the German offensive was the harbour at Antwerp. In order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. Because all seven main roads in the Ardennes mountain range converged on the small town of Bastogne, control of its crossroads was vital to the German attack. The siege lasted from December 20–27 when the besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Patton's Third Army.
Initial combat at Noville[edit]
On 19–20 December, the 1st Battalion of the 506th PIR was ordered to support Team Desobry (Maj. William R. Desobry), a battalion-sized tank-infantry task force of the 10th Armored Division assigned to defend Noville[7] located north-northeast of both Foy and of Bastogne just 4.36 mi (7.02 km) away. With just four M18 tank destroyers of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion to assist, the paratroopers attacked units of the 2. Panzerdivision, whose mission was to proceed by secondary roads via Monaville (just northwest of Bastogne) to seize a key highway and capture, among other objectives, fuel dumps — for the lack of which the overall German counter-offensive faltered and failed. Worried about the threat to its left flank in Bastogne, it organized a major combined arms attack to seize Noville. Team Desobry's high speed highway journey to reach the blocking position is one of the few documented cases wherein the legendary top speed of the M18 Hellcat (55 mph (89 km/h)) was actually used to get ahead of an enemy force as envisioned by its specifications.
The attack of 1st Battalion and the M18 Hellcat tank destroyers of the 705th TD Battalion together destroyed at least 30 German tanks and inflicted 500-1,000 casualties on the attacking forces in what amounted to a spoiling attack.[citation needed] A Military Channel expert historian[who?] credited the M18 tank destroyers with 24 kills, including several Tiger tanks, and believes that, in part, their ability to "shoot and scoot" at high speed and then reappear elsewhere on the battlefield and therefore appear to be another vehicle entirely played a large part in confusing and slowing the German attack, which subsequently stalled, leaving the Americans in possession of the town overnight. The 3rd Battalion was ordered forward from a reserve position north of Bastogne to ease the pressure on 1st Battalion by occupying a supporting position in Foy to the south.
The heavy losses inflicted by the tank-destroyers induced the German commander into believing the village was being held by a much stronger force[7] and he recoiled from further attacks on the village, committing a strategic error while seeking tactical advantage — significantly delaying the German advance and setting the stage for the Siege of Bastogne just to the south. This delay also gave the 101st Airborne Division enough time to organize defenses around Bastogne. After two days, the 2nd Panzer Division finally continued on its original mission to the Meuse River. As a consequence of its involvement at Bastogne, and its failure to dislodge the airborne forces, the column ultimately ran out of fuel at Celles, where it was destroyed by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division and the British 29th Armoured Brigade.
By the time the 1st Battalion pulled out of Noville on the 20th, the village of Foy half-way to Bastogne center had been captured from the 3rd Battalion by a separate attack, forcing the 1st Battalion to then fight its way through Foy. By the time 1st Battalion made it to the safety of American lines, it had lost 13 officers and 199 enlisted men, out of about 600 troops, and was assigned as the division reserve. Team Desobry lost a quarter of its troops and was reduced to just four medium tanks when it passed through the lines of 3rd Battalion.
Battle
19–23 December 1944
The 101st Airborne formed an all-round perimeter using the 502nd PIR on the northwest shoulder to block the 26th Volksgrenadier, the 506th PIR to block entry from Noville, the 501st PIR defending the eastern approach, and the 327th GIR scattered from Marvie in the southeast to Champs in the west along the southern perimeter, augmented by engineer and artillery units plugging gaps in the line. The division service area to the west of Bastogne had been raided the first night, causing the loss of almost its entire medical company, and numerous service troops were used as infantry to reinforce the thin lines. CCB of the 10th Armored Division, severely weakened by losses to its Team Desobry (Maj. William R. Desobry), Team Cherry (Lt. Col. Henry T. Cherry), and Team O'Hara (Lt. Col. James O'Hara) in delaying the Germans, formed a mobile "fire brigade" of 40 light and medium tanks (including survivors of CCR 9th Armored Division and eight replacement tanks found unassigned in Bastogne).
Three artillery battalions were commandeered and formed a temporary artillery group. Each had twelve 155 mm (6.1 in) howitzers, providing the division with heavy firepower in all directions restricted only by its limited ammunition supply. Col. Roberts, commanding CCB, also rounded up 600+ stragglers from the rout of VIII Corps and formed Team SNAFU as a further stopgap force.
As a result of the powerful American defense to the north and east, XLVII Panzer Corps commander Gen. von Lüttwitz decided to encircle Bastogne and strike from the south and southwest, beginning the night of 20/21 December. German panzer reconnaissance units had initial success, nearly overrunning the American artillery positions southwest of Bastogne before being stopped by a makeshift force. All seven highways leading to Bastogne were cut by German forces by noon of 21 December, and by nightfall the conglomeration of airborne and armored infantry forces were recognized by both sides as being surrounded.
The American soldiers were outnumbered approximately 5-1 and were lacking in cold-weather gear, ammunition, food, medical supplies, and senior leadership (as many senior officers, including the 101st's commander—Major General Maxwell Taylor—were elsewhere). Due to the worst winter weather in memory, the surrounded U.S. forces could not be resupplied by air nor was tactical air support available due to cloudy weather.
However, the two panzer divisions of the XLVII Panzer Corps—after using their mobility to isolate Bastogne, continued their mission towards the Meuse on 22 December, rather than attacking Bastogne with a single large force. They left just one regiment behind to assist the 26th Volksgrenadier Division in capturing the crossroads. The XLVII Panzer Corps probed different points of the southern and western defensive perimeter in echelon, where Bastogne was defended by just a single airborne regiment and support units doubling as infantry. This played into the American advantage of interior lines of communication; the defenders were able to shift artillery fire and move their limited ad hoc armored forces to meet each successive assault.
The 26th VG received one panzergrenadier regiment from the 15th Panzergrenadier Division on Christmas Eve for its main assault the next day. Because it lacked sufficient troops and those of the 26th VG Division were near exhaustion, the XLVII Panzer Corps concentrated its assault on several individual locations on the west side of perimeter in sequence rather than launching one simultaneous attack on all sides. The assault—led by 18 tanks carrying a battalion of infantry—pierced the lines of the 327th's 3rd Battalion (officially, the 1st Battalion, 401st Glider Infantry), and advanced as far as the battalion command post at Hemroulle.
However, the 327th held its original positions and repulsed infantry assaults that followed, capturing 92 Germans. The panzers that had achieved the penetration divided into two columns, one trying to reach Champs from the rear, and were destroyed in detail by two companies of the 1st Battalion 502nd PIR under Lt. Col. Patrick F. Cassidy and four tank destroyers of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion.
Allied control of Bastogne was a major obstacle to the German armored advance, and the morale of Allied forces elsewhere on the Western Front was boosted by news of the stubborn defense of the besieged town.
Ralph G Houk was born in Lawrence, Kansas on August 9, 1919. The fourth of four children he played high school football at Lawrence High as a blocking quarterback and linebacker, and also ran the 220-yard dash and threw the discuss for the track team. He received several scholarship offers but signed with the New York Yankees in 1939.