27 January 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

27 January, 1945       1125

My dearest darling –

Well, well, well – two nice letters from you, both written 6 January – one in the a.m. and one at 2200. It was so swell hearing from you, sweetheart, and reading that you loved me just as hard as ever and as much as I do you. You had received my letter of 29 December on that day – and that sounds like pretty good time. But you imply that there were a good many missing and I can imagine, dear, how difficult it must have been for all of you during the past month. Perhaps now you are getting more regular service. I hope so.

It seems as if the radio, newspapers and movie news really “laid it on thick” during the breakthrough. There was a lot of nasty stuff going on. We saw some of it – and it’s too bad they made things so vivid for you at home. I suppose it was to snap some people out of their lethargy. I’m sorry it frightened you, dear, although I don’t think you’re a coward for reacting that way. I still feel that all of you at home are having it as difficult as we are – at least mentally. You get used to shells and tanks after awhile – and it’s not so bad when you know about it; all you at home can do is imagine – and I know your minds run away with you. Anyway – as long as we know we have someone at home who thinks of us and loves us – it’s not too bad at all – and darling I know I love you and that makes all the difference in the world as to how I put up with this war.

You wrote that my letter of 29 December “confused” you – because the usual “Germany” was missing. I don’t know what you thought but I hope you felt I was out of the breakthrough. By now, of course, you know. Censorship rules were confused at 1st and we were allowed to write Belgium and then we weren’t allowed. I believe one of my letters had the word “Belgium” and no others. As usual – this outfit saw things through and if nothing more, I guess we’ve been in every major event since landing. In that respect, by the way, we’ve just been awarded two campaign stars to wear on our E.T.O. ribbon – one for the Battle of Normandy and one for the Battle of Northern France. We have one or two more due us but no War department orders have been issued as yet.

But I was interested in your reaction to my letter of the 29th because you made it sound so detached. I’m surprised, but pleased – because I was beginning to feel, dear, that I could no longer hide my moods, that I could no longer escape my environment. I don’t remember what I – personally – was doing on the 29th – but I do know that things were hectic, unsettled and confused; and we didn’t know from one day to another – what was going to happen. It turned out all right and that’s what matters most.

So just keep on hoping and praying, sweetheart; keep remembering how much I love you, how much you mean to me, how much we have to look forward to. Remember always that you are the only girl in the world for me and that my life, present and future, is centered around you only. Because all that – is true and will always be so – sweetheart.

And now, dear, I must leave. First I’m having lunch – and then I may look for a shower point; I heard this morning there are some around and I could do with one – cold weather or no. I hope to hear from you again today, darling. Until later, so long. Love to the folks – and

All my everlasting love –

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about VII Corps Rests and
The Russians "Liberate" Auschwitz

For the final two weeks in January 1945, the VII Corps was off the front lines and had a chance to regroup. The following text can be found in many locations. Here is a link to one: From Mission Accomplished, page 50:

Now completely out of contact with the enemy, and even out of hearing of the guns, VII Corps assembled in the vicinity of Ochain, Belgium to rest its personnel and to service its vehicles and equipment after the grueling winter battle. This was the first real rest the Corps Headquarters and some of its troops had had since D-Day, and every effort was made to house the personnel comfortably. For twelve days the troops enjoyed the comparative luxury of their Belgian billets.

On This Day, 27 January 1945, BBC reported:

The Red Army has liberated the Nazis' biggest concentration camp at Auschwitz in south-western Poland.

According to reports, hundreds of thousands of Polish people, as well as Jews from a number of other European countries, have been held prisoner there in appalling conditions and many have been killed in the gas chambers.

Few details have emerged of the capture of Auschwitz, which has gained a reputation as the most notorious of the Nazi death camps.

Some reports say the German guards were given orders several days ago to destroy the crematoria and gas chambers. Tens of thousands of prisoners - those who were able to walk - have been moved out of the prison and forced to march to other camps in Germany.

Details of what went on at the camp have been released previously by the Polish Government in exile in London and from prisoners who have escaped.

In July 1944 details were revealed of more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews who were sent to Poland many of whom ended up in Auschwitz. They were loaded onto trains and taken to the camp where many were put to death in the gas chambers. Before they went they were told they were being exchanged in Poland for prisoners of war and made to write cheerful letters to relatives at home telling them what was happening.

According to the Polish Ministry of Information, the gas chambers are capable of killing 6,000 people a day.

Another report from Poland told of mass arrests in the village of Garbatka near Radom in the early hours of one morning in August 1942. Workmen were accused of plotting to blow up a local factory. Twenty were executed on the spot, the rest were sent to Auschwitz.

Since its establishment in 1940, only a handful of prisoners have escaped to tell of the full horror of the camp.

In October last year, a group of Polish prisoners mounted an attack on their German guards. The Germans reportedly machine-gunned the barracks killing 200 Polish prisoners. The Poles succeeded in killing six of their executioners.

When the Red Army arrived at the camp they found only a few thousand prisoners remaining. They had been too sick to leave.

The capture of Auschwitz comes as the Red Army has made important advances on three fronts: in East Prussia to the north, in western Poland as well as Silesia in eastern Germany. Fighting is continuing around the historic Polish western city of Poznan. The Polish capital, Warsaw, was liberated a week ago after five-and-a-half years of German occupation.

IN CONTEXT:

Although few details of the liberation of Auschwitz were given in the British press at the time, it had gained a reputation as the worst of the German concentration camps.

On 8 May 1945 a State commission compiled by the Soviets with advice from Polish, French and Czechoslovak experts revealed the full horror of conditions at the camp. Nearly 3,000 survivors of various nationalities were questioned and on the basis of their evidence the report estimated 4,000,000 people had perished there between 1941 and early 1945. The dead included citizens from the Soviet Union, Poland, France, Belgium, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Italy and Greece.

The commission, which had previously investigated conditions at Majdanek, Treblinka and other camps, described Auschwitz as the worst in its experience. It found evidence of experiments carried out on humans "of a revolting character".

According to the evidence, the commission said the Germans had moved out up to 60,000 inmates - those still fit enough to walk - when they retreated. The few thousand who were left behind were freed by the Russians.

They also found seven tons of women's hair, human teeth, from which gold fillings had been extracted and tens of thousands of children's outfits.

The final death toll was later revised downwards, by the Auschwitz Museum, to between 1 and 1.5 million, including almost 1 million Jews.

26 January 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

26 January, 1945        1115

Dearest sweetheart –

Sick call is just about over and here I am again dear to tell you I love you, miss you, want you just as much as ever. It sure would be nice to be able to tell you that instead of having to write it. Nothing is so unemotional at times, darling, – unemotional in not being able to perceive the recipient’s reaction. Sometimes that’s good I imagine, but I’m willing to take a chance anytime.

Our one big gripe at the present time is the complete absence of mail – with no explanation forthcoming. There doesn’t seem to be a damned reason for it. First they told us it was the Christmas packages, then the Robombs hitting the mail train (that was some time ago and some fellows didn’t get packages or mail around Christmastime; no way of telling whether I lost any or not.) Then it was the breakthrough, etc. etc. Here it is almost the end of the month, dear, and not a single letter from you in January and lots missing in December. So we have no way of knowing whether ours are getting through or not. I hope you’re not having to sweat it out the way we have.

1315

Hello, darling – I got side-tracked and it was time for lunch before I knew it. I’ve just returned to the Dispensary and there are several men being taken care of, but I think I can keep going with this for awhile. Incidentally our dentist is working along steadily and doing an excellent job. We’ve heard thru channels that our other dentist has been definitely re-classified for limited service. He’s in Paris awaiting a new assignment. I don’t know whether or not he’ll go back to the States or stay in the E-T-O – and I don’t care for that matter. The Medical detachment is a heluva lot better off without him and he won’t be missed. I’ve wanted some dental attention for some time now but I’ve held off. Now I think I’ll get started. Teeth – by the way – take an awful beating over here for some reason or other – and mine are no exception.

Boy oh boy oh boy!! One of our boys just came in from mail call and there’s mail! I see I’ve got 3 letters – one from Law – 5th January and 2 from you – both post-marked 8 January. Where all the rest are – I have no idea, darling, but am I ever looking forward to opening those letters right now.

I’m going to stop now and start reading; I’m so anxious to hear from you, dear – you have no idea. Love to the folks for now, darling, and

All my deepest and sincerest Love,

Greg

P.S. A long time ago – Cyn penned a short note in one of your letters and I never got around to thanking her for it. Will you do that for me, dear?

Love

G.

* TIDBIT *

about Audie Murphy and
The Battle of Holtzwihr

Audie Leon Murphy (20 June 1924 – 28 May 1971) was a highly decorated and famous soldier. Through LIFE magazine's 16 July 1945 issue's "Most Decorated Soldier" cover photo, he became one the most famous soldiers of World War II.

During twenty-seven months in action in the European Theatre, Audie Murphy was wounded three times,was credited with killing over 240 enemy soldiers, quickly rose from an enlisted Private to receive a battlefield commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, all before he was 21 years old. For his actions he received the Medal of Honor, the U.S. military's highest award for valor, along with 32 additional U.S. and foreign awards (medals, ribbons, citations, badges...) including five awards from France and one from Belgium.

In later years, Audie suffered from what was then known as "Battle Fatigue" and is now known as "Post Traumatic Stress (PTS)". He suffered from insomnia and depression. Always an advocate for the needs of veterans, Audie broke the taboo about discussing war-related psychological problems. In a effort to draw attention to the problems of returning Korean and Vietnam War veterans, Murphy spoke-out candidly about his personal struggle with PTS. He publicly called for the United States government to give more consideration and study to the emotional impact war has on veterans and to extend health care benefits to address PTS and other mental health damage of returning war vets.

Murphy's successful movie career included To Hell and Back (1955), based on his book of the same title (1949). He starred in over 44 films, and in 1950 was voted the Most Popular Western Actor in America by the Motion Picture Exhibitors. He later had some success as a country music composer. Audie Murphy died in a plane crash in 1971 at the age of 46 and was interred, with full military honors, in Arlington National Cemetery.

The following was taken from H. Scott Dalton's blog entry for Monday, 31 January 2011 entitled "The Battle of Holtzwihr, 26 January 1945" and describes what Murphy did to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Murphy's Company B, 15th Infantry Regiment, assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, was part of the Colmar Offensive, an operation intended to push the last German troops out of France in late January 1945. On the 24th and 25th of January it had been cut to pieces in an attack through heavy woods on the fortified village of Holtzwihr. All the company's officers except Murphy (by this time a first lieutenant) were killed, and 102 of its 120 men killed or wounded.

By the morning of the 26th, Company B faced Holtzwihr from the edge of the forest. Murphy and his 18 remaining men, reinforced by two M10 tank destroyers, sat astride a road that ran into the forest behind them - a road the Germans needed to control if they were to mount a counterattack into the woods with their armor. Murphy's mission was to hold his position until he could be relieved by fresh troops, but by two o'clock no relief had come. The Germans decided it was time to start their counterattack.

The men of Company B watched as six tanks and 250 or so infantrymen began forming in front of the village for an attack. Murphy immediately called for artillery support, but artillery could only even the odds so much - the company was going to have a hard fight on its hands very quickly.

As soon as the enemy tanks came within range, the two tank destroyers opened fire with their 90mm main guns - to no effect. The shells bounced off the Panzers' thick armor. See, a WWII tank destroyer looked much like a tank, but mounted a heavier gun and much thinner armor. The German tanks paid little attention to either, and shortly one tank destroyer was burning and the other, after doing some damage to the infantry with its machine guns, slid into a ditch and became useless. Company B faced the counterattack alone.

Murphy knew his handful of men could never hold the road on their own, so he ordered them to fall back into the woods while he stayed behind directing artillery fire over a field phone. The shells fell thick among the advancing Germans, but still they came on. Shortly his carbine was out of ammunition.

He was preparing to fall back and rejoin his men in the woods when he noticed the .50 caliber machine gun on the burning tank destroyer was still undamaged. Realizing the machine gun was his best chance to slow the Germans down and keep his men alive, he jumped onto the vehicle and started firing.

Very few weapons on the battlefield convey moral authority to an infantryman like a .50 caliber M2. It can fire its half-inch-diameter bullet more than a mile with devastating force; nothing that walks on a battlefield, and not many that roll, will take a .50 cal bullet and keep going. A single shot will go through two men and into a third. Infantrymen stop moving and put their heads down when they hear the thud-thud-thud of a .50 and see their friends going down around them. And tanks don't like to roll into forest without infantry covering them - without them, enemy infantry can easily use the cover of the trees to get close.

A .50 caliber M-2, also known as the "Ma Deuce"

So even though he couldn't kill the tanks with the .50 cal, Murphy could stop their infantry cover - and that stopped the tanks. The smoke billowing around him from the burning tank destroyer obscured him from view, and the artillery bursting around them masked the sounds of his firing so the German infantry could not tell where it was coming from. For more than an hour he stayed there, gunning down any Germans that tried to move toward him. Finally the clouds cleared enough to allow American aircraft to start strafing the German positions, and they began to fall back. Murphy, by this time bleeding from a leg wound, returned to his company and organized a counterattack that drove the Germans from the field and regained the company its earlier position. American forces took Holtzwihr the following day.

As mentioned, Audie Murphy received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Holtzwihr. And historians and soldiers alike read the story of his bravery, scratch their heads and wonder, "How does a human being do that?"

It's just the sort of over-the-top ridiculous hero story we scoff at when we see it in movies and books. The kind of story we say could never happen. Except Audie Murphy really did it.

25 January 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

25 January, 1945        1100

My dearest sweetheart –

I didn’t write you yesterday. I couldn’t – and the day before yesterday seems like ages ago. By pure coincidence, darling, I’m writing this now in the same house and at the same table as I did exactly one month ago. But the general condition of things is so much different, fortunately. Our job of the last several weeks has been accomplished and we’re having a sort of relaxation period at the moment. This is the spot where the people were so nice to us around the Holiday time; there are several intact houses in town, we have electricity too. All we lack is running water, and Hell – that’s no inconvenience these days.

There’s no getting away from it, sweetheart, the last month was a tough one, and the more you soldier the more you learn that you can take it. I hope we’ve had the worst. I don’t know how my letters sounded, dear, but honestly I had to write under the most trying conditions – so excuse them.

On top of everything else – I don’t think there’s anyone of us here who received more than eight or ten letters in the past 3-4 weeks and that didn’t help one bit. Packages continued to come through. I got two from Lawrence last week – a couple of days apart, and one from Eleanor last night. I don’t remember whether I told you or not – but the contents of one of your boxes came in handy a week or so ago. Rations had slipped a bit and one noon I had toasted bread with anchovies – and it was delicious; another day – the sardines became the pièce de resistance. I had held onto them for just such an occasion.

Today, of course, we’re getting organized. This p.m. I’m going to a medium sized city near here – about ten miles away – to look for a place to have my films developed. I have a few more rolls and I’m willing to take another chance.

Every day now we read in the Stars and Stripes about furloughs, leaves, rotation etc. The passes to Paris are still very limited but we occasionally get a very small quota. We’ve had about 4 officers go already and they are now allowed 72 hours, exclusive of traveling time. In addition they are soon going to issue 7 day leaves or furloughs to the Riviera – near Cannes and Nice or if a fellow prefers – he can take his 7 days in the U.K. – England or Scotland i.e. 7 days – plus traveling time. Personally – the only thing I’m interested in is a 30 day trip to the States – but at present that’s a very remote thing, darling. If I ever got the chance – I’d want to get married. How do you feel about it? Incidentally, one of our officers, Stan Sargent – our S2 – just got himself engaged by mail, so we’re not the only ones. And his fiancée comes from New Haven – and he from Portsmouth, N.H. His big problem, by the way, is letting a couple of other girls know about it – a couple with whom he’s been corresponding very regularly.

With all the talk of rotation etc – I’ve been dreaming of it about every other night – and last night, darling, was the prize. I actually was home and what is more wonderful – I saw you, just as vividly and life-like as ever. It’s the first time in a very long while that you so appeared to me – and it was a rare treat. And best of all, dear, we loved each other; you were not a stranger to me, nor I to you. It was everything I’ve wanted it to be when I get back, and since I’m somewhat a believer in omens and the supernatural – I’m all hepped up – sweetheart.

It’s 1145 now, dear, and I’ve got to get ready for chow. I’m kind of hungry because we didn’t get much to eat yesterday – so I’ll take off now. I do hope mail starts coming in because I haven’t heard from you in the longest while.

So long for now, dear, love for now – and

All my everlasting love

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about The End of the Battle of the Bulge

Greg mentioned they were having "a sort of relaxation period." It seems the brass above him was as well, according to Hodges diary. The snapshot that follows was taken from Normandy to Victory: The War Diary of General Courtney H. Hodges & the First U.S. Army, maintained by his aides Major William C. Sylvan and Captain Francis G. Smith Jr.; edited by John T. Greenwood, copyright 2008 by the Association of the United States Army, page 273.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The break was hard earned. On 25 January 1945, Hitler ordered all Ardennes Offensive fighting units to cease combat operations and fall back behind the now shortened Siegfried Line towards Berlin. The Allies had been busy and successful in their counter attacks. The Battle of the Bulge was officially over. The German lines had been pushed back to their initial jumping off point. Hitler's last gamble in the West had ended in failure. The Third Reich was now in its death throes, and it was only a matter of months before it totally collapsed from the Allied onslaught.

The battle had begun on 16 December 1944, one of the coldest, snowiest days “in memory” in the Ardennes Forest, which encompassed about 80 miles of the German/Belgian border. Casualties from exposure to extreme cold were to grow as large as the losses from fighting.

The final tally came to 89,500 American casualties: 19,000 killed in action, 47,500 wounded and 23,000 missing in action or prisoners of war. The Americans lost 600 tanks and between 400 and 600 aircraft. There were 1,408 British casualties: 208 killed in action, and 1200 wounded, missing in action prisoners of war.

For the Nazis, the numbers were staggering. Somewhere between 60 and 100 thousand killed in action. Nobody is quite sure of the wounded numbers and about another 70,000 were taken prisoner. They lost 600 of their 1,800 irreplaceable tanks and 950 of 1,900 equally irreplaceable artillery guns. The Luftwaffe was destroyed with 1,000 aircraft gone. Although the Allies’ own offensive timetable was set back by months, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, as German survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line.

Most of the American casualties occurred within the first three days of battle, when two of the 106th division’s three regiments were forced to surrender. In its entirety, the “Battle of the Bulge” was the most bloody battle American Forces experienced in WWII, the 19,000 American dead unsurpassed by any other engagement. For the U.S. Army, the Battle of the Ardennes was a battle incorporating more American troops and engaging more enemy troops than any American conflict prior to WWII.

By the end of the battle the forces had included over a million men: about 560,000 Germans, 640,000 Americans (more than fought at Gettysburg) and 55,800 British as well as soldiers from countries with smaller contingents such as Belgium, Canada and France.

24 January 1945

No letter today. Just this:

The following photographs were taken by Greg and labeled only "BELGIUM - JAN 1945." With dates unspecified, they are shown here. They may have been taken when Greg went to visit the Field Hospital or when he was moving to his new quarters on this day in 1945.

CLICK TO ENLARGE PICTURES

A Couple of Convoys Meet at a Crossroad.
Note Red Cross Pointing to Our Aid Station.
Belgium - January 1945


Going away is a Limey convoy.
Coming in is our own.
Belgium - January 1945


Field Strewn with Wrecked and Abandoned American Tanks
Belgium - January 1945


Knocked out Sherman Tank
Belgium - January 1945


Wrecked British Equipment
Belgium - January 1945


Knocked out German Tank
Belgium - January 1945


Knocked out German Panther Tank
Belgium - January 1945 - The Ardennes


Route of the Question Mark


CLICK TO ENLARGE

(B) Verleumont to (A) Failon, Belgium (30 miles)
10-24 January 1945

January 24...Failon. Return engagement, a much needed rest period, which meant that we worked harder than ever. Here Pct ROSA established a fraternizing record, we spread out in all the houses in the village, and T/5 [Frank A.] SARACINO and T/5 [Rocco] DERASMO lived in an elegant bedroom and slept on the softest, whitest, loveliest bed in the world. Cognac in the local cafe at eighteen dollars a bottle, so 1st Sgt [Stanley F.] KOWALSKI gave them competition by setting up a bar of our own in the mess hall. Major [William J.] SHEA left us and Major[Raymond W.] HOAG joined us.

23 January 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

23 January, 1945       1300

My dearest sweetheart –

There’s still been no mail from you although I did get one from Mrs. Kerr in Salem – yesterday. One of these days it ought to start coming through in droves. Yesterday was a quiet day in the a.m., a fairly busy one in the p.m. (I went back to our rear area) and a very noisy one in the evening; but the reference to noisiness, darling, for a change had nothing at all to do with guns. One of our officers has a Birthday today, my Birthday is next week, another fellow’s is later this week, in a few days I will have been a captain for two years – and all in all, dear – we were looking for excuses to run through what was left of our liquor rations. And we did! It totaled 9 bottles of Champagne, two bottles of cognac and 2 bottles of Benedictine. Before we were through – we were mixing all 3 types of drinks into one glass – and you know, dear – it wasn’t bad at all. We didn’t become exactly paralyzed, but one fellow narrowly escaped shock. I was all right but fell asleep with my radio on – and there went my battery. Fortunately I’m using G-I batteries and I’ve got 2 or 3 spares. And one way or another – I managed to save 1 bottle of cognac for my Birthday in fact.

This morning I got a new dentist but at present anyway, he is only a D.S. We’ll probably lose him if our other one comes back. His name is Vesely, a Captain and he seems like a pretty good Joe. The interesting thing is that he comes from Nebraska, went to the same school as Pete and knows him well. I’ve contacted Pete but today is a bit of a mixed up day and we won’t be able to get together. In the next day or so I think we’ll be together – I mean the battalion – and then we’ll all have a little rest, probably.

I was just re-reading your letter of 23 December, darling, and I love to read that you need affection and attention because that, sweetheart, is what I’m going to specialize in once I get back and it will all be directed towards you. If you don’t call for a truce, dear, it will be because you can’t catch your breath - because I’ll be giving you so much loving that oh – what’s the use talking about it; just wait and see!!

Right now, darling, I’m going over to the Field Hospital where the new dentist comes from. It happens to be near here and he’d like to pick up a few things he left behind. I’d like to look it over anyway. Tomorrow I may not be able to write because of an obvious reason but I should be able to get started again the next day.

Until then, dear, you have my constant thought, attention, affection – and everything that concerns you and me. My love to the folks – and

All my everlasting love

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about A January Day

The following information was excerpted from a page which had been posted by the Belgium-based "Center of Research and Information about the Battle of the Ardennes (C.R.I.B.A.)," called "My Untold Story, January 1945," by Private Jospeh A. Campagna.

It was a cold miserable January day in Belgium. The fog was thick and the snow flakes large. We were in single file heading for some woods in the Ardennes when we started hearing our artillery coming over. I didn’t take us long to distinguish our artillery from theirs.

We were to attack the enemy which consisted of panzer grenadiers and armor at 0815 hours. Our objective was to drive the Germans out of the woods. Between the fog and the snow it was difficult to see some of our troops, which in turn gave the feeling of being alone.

We set up our water-cooled machine guns in text book fashion, that it to place them so we would have interlocking bands of grazing fire. Even though our guns fired only 500 rounds per minute, we were soon low on ammunition. My squad leader, Sergeant Fisher, asked me to find our ammunition supply dump and bring back as much as I could carry. When I walked out of the woods into the open field, all Hell broke loose. The Germans opened up on us with small arms, machine guns, 88 mm paks, and those ever frightening Nebelwerfer, six tube rockets, better known to us as “Screaming Meemies”. When I finally got back to my squad, almost everyone was hit from tree burst, including my squad leader Fisher. He was hurt pretty bad and my friend Pete Covick was trying to give him a shot of morphine but was afraid he could hurt him. I heard Fisher yelling at Covick to stick the damned needle in his arm. He was in a lot of pain by this time. Pete was trying to give Fisher the morphine because our medic was down with part of his head blown away.

I can still see Jim Kelley sitting in the snow looking at his jump boots and cursing the Germans for knocking the heel off his boot. He said, “Don’t they know boots are rationed and hard to get?”

We finally got word to withdraw but unfortunately as a machine gunner, we have to stay back and cover the withdrawal. When I felt that I gave our troops ample time, I dismantled my gun and threw parts in all directions so that the Germans couldn’t use it against us. As soon as I started across the field to join my company, the Germans started in with the artillery again. I could hear the six tube rockets coming in so I hit the snow. That’s when my helmet pushed back off my forehead and shrapnel hit me cross the top of my head and went out the back of my helmet. A medic was trying to reach me but we were fired at and he finally had to give it up. I didn’t blame him at the time since there was nothing he could do.

I lay in that freezing cold for about two hours with nothing but a field jackets as our overcoats were taken away for some reason. Army logic I’m sure. My jump boots were little protection for my feet. I can remember calling for my mother as I thought I was going to the “happy hunting ground”. I felt my eyes close as I was beginning to feel comfortable and sleepy.

Soon, I felt myself being cradled in very strong arms and knew that I was on my way to that happy place. I soon realized that it was a human voice I was hearing reassuring me that I would be alright. I didn’t realize that it was a German medic until he started to bandage my head. He threw an overcoat over me and my teeth finally stopped chattering.

I was lying next to another airborne trooper when our artillery started pounding the Germans. The trooper said, “Let’s get the Hell out of here. I don’t want to be killed by our own shells.” He helped me up and we headed back to our lines.

I had no idea where our lines were, so I followed him and he led us right to our battalion aid station. By the time we made it back, my feet were frozen so bad that I couldn’t stand anymore. I looked up from my prone position and saw Frank Greco from my home town of Omaha. He asked me to contact his mother and tell her that he was alright. He did make it home later.

The medics tagged me and a few days later I was in a hospital in France and then on to England. A colonel was checking my feet and I heard him telling his assistant that he wasn’t sure about saving some of the feet he had seen. When I heard that, I said, “Please, Colonel, don’t cut my feet off, I’m short enough.” He smiled down at me and reassured me that he would do his best for me. Thank God, I’m still 5’9” tall.

... I have regretted the fact that I didn’t ask the German medic for his name and address. He was such a great human being, and so gentle and caring with me. Hopefully, he was reunited with his mother and family.

22 January 1945

V-MAIL

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

22 January, 1945        1045

Dearest sweetheart –

Starting another week today and the more that pass by, the better I like it. Somewhere about this time of the year, darling, a guys starts looking around for a Valentine. Circumstances prevent my sending you the normal Red heart and arrow – but there’s nothing to stop me from asking you if you are and will be my Valentine, dear. Are you!!

The days are slipping by, darling, and I’ll be glad to see January behind us. That will leave the month of February and then we’ll probably be able to get going again. It’s the shortness of the days and the lengthy evenings that we hate so much.

And on top of everything, the incongruities continue. Last night – with all the cold and discomfort etc – our liquor ration arrived – and this month it was champagne. So what do you think, dear? Yes – we drank several bottles of Champagne. It just doesn’t make sense – but neither does the whole war, darling. Anyway, this makes sense: I love you and want to marry you the first chance I get. What’s wrong with that? Nothing, dear, nothing. It sounds fine to me. All for now, sweetheart

All my deepest love

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about More from General Hodges

The snapshots that follow were taken from Normandy to Victory: The War Diary of General Courtney H. Hodges & the First U.S. Army, maintained by his aides, Major William C. Sylvan and Captain Francis G. Smith Jr.; edited by John T. Greenwood, copyright 2008 by the Association of the United States Army, pp. 269-270.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

21 January 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

21 January, 1945       1000

Dearest darling Wilma –

Another Sunday morning away from you – and we sure have missed a good many of them. But we’ll give more value to those we have together and thereby make up the lost. It’s not a very good Sunday anyway, dear, so we’re not missing too much. The weather here just persists in being rotten and it has snowed some part of every one of the last five or six days. About the only striking news is that from the Russian front although by no means does that mean that the boys over here have stopped dying. We follow the Russian reports about as closely as you do I guess – and it makes no difference who gets to Berlin first as long as someone gets there and ends this goddamned war sometime.

None the least of our present annoyances, darling, is the complete collapse of the mail system. I do hope it’s working better in your direction. We just aren’t getting any at all. We never did get all of November’s mail, we got perhaps a third to one-half of December’s mail and of course – no January mail – which puts everything way behind. The only thing we’re getting at all is old journals and newspapers. Yesterday I received two editions of the Boston Herald – 13 and 14 September – which, of course, made excellent reading. Bitch, bitch, bitch – that’s about all I seem to be doing in my letters of late, dear, but I know you’ll excuse me. It could be worse, I know, and besides I’m healthy and well – and that’s no small consideration these days. But damn it – I sure would like to hear from you, dear!

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Boston Herald Front Page, 4 September 1944

I have your letters of the few days before Christmas and I can imagine how all of you felt. By now you must have received some of my mail of late December and I hope you’re all less worried.

By the way, dear, you mention the clock striking in a few of your letters. Do you mean our clock? If so, it has a louder sound than I can remember it having for it seems to me you can hear it in the living room, library, your room or your mother’s room! Does it keep good time?

Yes, as you write darling, things do get dim after 14 months. I have the same trouble in visualizing certain things. I try so hard, too, especially at night while trying to fall asleep. Yet it will all seem very natural, dear. For instance – when I saw Frank Morse some time ago, it was 13 months since I had seen him last and yet when I did see him – it didn’t seem so long at all. It will be the same with us, sweetheart, and yet so infinitely different. Gosh – I get so excited at just the thought, it makes me woozy. To see you and have you for myself, to be completely free again seems like an almost unattainable goal right now – but we’ll make it – just the same.

And why haven’t you got your license yet!! I have plenty of reasons for not having a photograph of myself – but you had all of last fall to get your driving license and no results as yet. I warn you dear – you’d better be able to drive or you’ll have to wrestle me to get into the driver’s seat of our new car. Too bad I sold that old Ford I had – or I could have let you experiment with that.

Well, darling – conditions are getting punk for me to continue with this so I’ll start closing. The only thing we look forward to these days is mail from home – and I hope we hit the jackpot today. For now, darling, so long, love to the folks, and

All my sincerest love

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about George Juskalian's March

From a total of 257,000 western Allied prisoners of war held in German military prison camps, over 80,000 POWs were forced to march westward across Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany in extreme winter conditions, over about four months between January and April 1945. As the Soviet Army was advancing, German authorities decided to evacuate POW camps, to delay liberation of the prisoners. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of German civilian refugees, most of them women and children, as well as civilians of other nationalities, were also making their way westward on foot, in hazardous weather conditions. January and February 1945 were among the coldest winter months of the 20th century in Europe, with blizzards and temperatures as low as –25 °C (–13 °F), and even until the middle of March, temperatures were well below 0 °C (32 °F). Most of the POWs were ill-prepared for the evacuation, having suffered years of poor rations and wearing clothing ill-suited to the appalling winter conditions.

Here are excerpts from the story of one who made it, as told to Bonnie Hobbs of the Connection Newspaper's CenterView Southern Edition, published on 9 and 16 June 2004. It was titled "Recollections of a War Veteran." Retired Army Col. George Juskalian, 90, of Centreville's Virginia Run community, served in three wars and, in his 30-year career, made enough memories to last a lifetime. This story starts with his fighting in Africa...

Colonel George Juskalian

"We got to the border of Algeria and Tunisia about Jan. 15, 1943 and began fighting the Germans and Italians there." Some 10 days later, the battle continued in the Makthar Valley in central Tunisia and, on Jan. 28, Juskalian was captured by the enemy. George was in regimental headquarters, but knew the Americans had gotten into a heavy fight, the day before. "One of our intelligence officers had gone out to check on the situation, and word came back that he'd been wounded and was out there somewhere," he said. "So another officer and I went out in a Jeep and found him, but he was dead. Then we came under fire, so we couldn't drag him out of there."

Juskalian told the driver to return to the command post, and he set out on foot to see how the other U.S. troops were doing. "I thought they were all right because we hadn't heard anything from them," he said. "But they'd been overrun by the Germans." Earlier, Juskalian had lost his glasses so, when he came upon the Germans, he couldn't distinguish who they were from 50 feet away. Emerging from the bushes, they pointed rifles at Juskalian and took him prisoner. "I was irritated with myself for being so foolhardy," he said. "I shouldn't have been there."

He and other American prisoners were interrogated in Kairouan, trucked to Tunis and flown to Naples, Italy. Said Juskalian: "They flew about 100 feet above the Mediterranean because they were afraid that, if they flew higher, the American fighter planes — not knowing POWs were inside — would see us and shoot us down." The soldiers were later placed in a British POW camp in central Germany, in Rotenburg am Fulda, where they remained until June 1943. The British POWs had been there a long time and told the U.S. soldiers how to handle the German guards. They also asked them to help with a tunnel they were building.

Although Juskalian had claustrophobia, he volunteered. "It didn't bother me until I went home," he said. "I'd go into a cold sweat, [thinking about it]." The camp was a former girls school, and the tunnel went under a road. "It was ingenious," said Juskalian. "Instead of going under the floor, it started at a panel in a wooden wall, went down about three feet, horizontal about 10 feet and then down about eight feet. It went out under the street, beyond the barbed wire. The intention was to go 100 feet more to come out on the bank of the Fulda River. Then the guard couldn't see it because it wouldn't be eye level."

The Girls School Today

The POWs dug with scoops fashioned out of British biscuit cans with handles created from their wooden bed slats. They even made a pipe out of these cans, carrying fresh air to the tunnel's end from a hand-cranked fan at its beginning. But before they finished it, the Americans were moved to a camp in Poland. "Two of our members feigned illness so they could stay there and help with the tunnel," said Juskalian. "But the Germans knew about the tunnel. We found out later that a British POW had told them."

He was a POW for 27 months total, and 19-1/2 of those months were spent in this new camp, called Oflag 64 ("Officers Camp"), in Szubin, Poland. "We got there June 6, 1943 and stayed until Jan. 21, 1945," said Juskalian. But instead of trying to tunnel to freedom — as they'd done to no avail in their old camp — this time, the POWs busied themselves with other activities, organizing an orchestra, band, theater group, library, newspaper, athletics, language school, etc.

"For awhile, I was the editor of the monthly paper," said Juskalian. "A guard with a printing shop in the town printed it for us. We put in stories from home, cartoons, pictures of pin-up girls and girlfriends and articles about camp sports and activities." He said the Germans didn't bother them until the end, when 50 people escaped from a British POW camp and they killed the 30 that they captured. Then, said Juskalian, "A German captain from Austria warned us not to provoke the Germans or they'd exterminate us."

Russia later began assaulting the whole Eastern front and, on 21 January 1945, the Germans began marching their POWs to Germany. "We marched 40 days, 400 miles, in the dead of winter, and it was bitter cold," said Juskalian. "We slept in barns, ate wheat and barley and traded old coffee for bread." Of the roughly 1,500 men that left Oflag 64, only about 400 reached their destination.

They were eventually placed in a camp in Hammelburg with other American officers captured in the Battle of the Bulge. Gen. Patton's son-in-law was among them, so a task force was sent to liberate the POWs there. "They arrived, the end of March, and the German guards fled," said Juskalian. "But there weren't enough trucks to take us all out of there, German infantry soldiers were all around, and my buddy Pete and I were recaptured," he continued. "We were tired and depressed, but thankful to be alive."

They were soon marched south to Nuremburg, where Americans began bombing. "We were cheering, and our guards were getting irritated," said Juskalian. "But the bombs came down on us, too, and I was sure we were gonna get it. About 30 of us were killed. I was thinking of my mother and how ironic it would be to be killed at the end of the war — and by your own aircraft." He and Pete survived, but they were surrounded by Germans, with no place to run. They were then marched toward a prison camp near Munich, but were given the opportunity to return to Nuremburg as wounded soldiers to be treated in the hospital. They took it because that was closer to the American lines than where they'd been heading.

When the Germans tried to see if they were really wounded, the British erected a sign on the gate saying "Plague," and that kept them out. "Three or four days later, the 45th U.S. Infantry Division overran Nuremburg and we were liberated," said Juskalian. "We were overjoyed." They were flown to France, from where thousands of POWs would be sent home. But he and Pete had been prisoners a long time and decided to see Paris before departing. They tried getting money at the Army Finance Office to buy new uniforms, but had no dogtags with their I.D.s.

"But a sergeant there, who managed that office, heard my last name and asked, 'Do you have a relative in Watertown, Mass.?'" said Juskalian. "I said, 'Yes, my brother Dick,' and he said, 'He lives across the street from me.' Then he told the others, 'Give him anything he wants.'"

Juskalian and his wife in 2004

Juskalian went on to serve his country in both Korea and Vietnam. He died on 4 July 2010 in Centreville, Virginia at the age of 96, and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.