It's the 70th anniversary of the Battle of The Bulge
December 16 through January 25 are not days that are marked on calendars or dates that many people remember, especially the younger generation. Plus, it is a busy time with people shopping, baking and decorating frantically preparing for Christmas.
However, for a few people -- and it is becoming very few since they are in their eighties or nineties -- their thoughts go back to seventy years ago with vivid mental pictures and, most likely, painful physical reminders.
Many Greene County soldiers were there on that cold, rainy and foggy dawn of Dec. 16, 1944 when the first shots were fired that started the most ferocious, bloodiest, and deadliest battle of World War II commonly called the Battle of the Bulge because of the appearance of the bulge in the battle lines on the map, but it was technically named by the Allies the Ardennes Counterattack.
The Germans launched their last-ditch surprise attack trying to cut off forces in Northern Europe as well as seizing control of the Ardennes River, a key supply route and defense line.
The weather conditions were brutal and extreme as the rain turned to sleet and then snow with temperatures plummeting. To make conditions worse, American soldiers were not equipped for such conditions. Their boots were not waterproof and neither were their cotton socks, gloves and uniforms. They were constantly wet, and the fallout was trench foot caused from the stopping of blood circulation.
Bill Wells from Lyons and now a Linton resident had recently graduated high school and was already in Europe with the 75th Infantry Division. He describes what he and his comrades faced as they fought the German Army during the Battle of the Bulge.
"The fighting was fierce, and it was cold," said Wells. "On top of the snow, there were blinding snowstorms creating white outs. The snow came down so thick that we had to hold on to the man in front of us hoping that he knew where he was going."
Sometime during that time Wells suffered from trench foot from which he still suffers today.
It was in a later battle at the Colman pocket where his division joined the Seventh Army that Wells was wounded. For his various actions, Wells was named Knight of the Legion by the president of the French Republic. Among other medals that Wells received were the Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, A French Rhim et Danube.
Another story of that battle, was one my cousin recently told me (I hadn't heard that story during all of those post-war years) and one that was printed in a magazine entitled The Battle of the Bulge - True Stories from the Men and Women Who Served.
The story relates the brave action of my cousin, Gilbert Gardner, another Greene County soldier -- who, alone, captured 47 Germans soldiers during that same battle while he was with the 253rd Armored Field Artillery Bn.
After capturing 46 who were hiding in a garage, Gardner knew the officer must be next door in the farm house.
"After knocking on the side door, an elderly, white haired woman came to the door," noted Gardner. "I walked into a dark room and told her that I needed a light so that I could see. She understood and lit a candle."
Gardner checked the rooms downstairs, and they were empty. He then went upstairs. Two bedroom doors were open, but one was closed.
"I asked her (the woman) to open the door, and she said 'Nein,'" he went on to say.
"Again, I asked her to open the door, and she said, 'Nein.' I then raised my voice and demanded that she open the door."
When entering the room, Gardner found the German officer asleep. When he woke him up and told him to get out of bed, the officer started toward the chair that held his uniform and gun.
"The odds were 50-50 that he was going for the pants or the gun, but I preferred the better odds, so I diverted his direction and ran him downstairs barefooted in his long johns," noted Gardner.
The officer joined the other prisoners who were being guarded by Gardner's crew waiting in a jeep.
These true experiences of local soldiers are just a sample of the stressful Christmas of 1944 and New Year of 1945 as Allied troops fought in the worst battle of WWII.
Bill Wells says for many years he couldn't enjoy Christmas for thinking someone was going to shoot at him.
American casualties during that battle were 19,000 dead, 47,500 injured and 23,000 captured or missing.
In no way do I mean to detract from the hardships suffered in other wars, during battles in Korea, jungles of Vietnam, parched deserts in Kuwait and Iraq and the extreme terrain in Afghanistan.
I especially remember interviewing rural Linton resident Scott McBride and him relating a horrible experience in Vietnam during the ambush of Charlie Co. on March 2, 1968. Of the 92 in his company, 43 made it out of the ambush alive. McBride was serving with the 25th Infantry Division.
I'm sure Greene County veterans have many more stories.
So this Christmas, let us remember that our military men and women are enduring hardships in several foreign countries so we can enjoy our nice warm homes, free to celebrate Christmas and worship as we please.
Jo is a staff writer for the Greene County Daily World. She can be reached by email at tojo631@sbcglobal.net.
- -- Posted by sld6353 on Wed, Jan 14, 2015, at 11:31 AM
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