Post by bazooka on Dec 21, 2019 7:04:50 GMT
“It was necessary for us to stay close together in single file with our hands on each other’s shoulders because of the total darkness. About the sixth man in front of me stepped on a German “S” mine, called a Bouncing Betty.
I heard the initial trigger pop and froze in place. The soldier that stepped on the mine did what he had been taught to do. He kept his foot on the mine so that it could not jump above the ground and raised his other leg as it exploded.
We moved forward once again and as I passed, the man was lying on the ground with a medic working on him using a flashlight. I noticed his foot was shattered and bloody. He probably had his ticket home, if he ever managed to get out of the Huertgen Forest...
After what seemed like hours on the night march in the forest, the column came to some questionable destination and we were told to try to get some sleep before the light of morning - in the snow! Without my overcoat I was freezing and finally decided to carve out the bank of a small stream nearby and climb into it.
By morning my hand (even with gloves) was unable to fit into the trigger guard in order to fire my rifle. On the run, I fixed my bayonet onto the muzzle of the rifle with some difficulty and charged a line of foxholes.
At one point I saw a German soldier shot down in front of me as he ran from his hole, so I dropped to the ground in a prone position with my elbows and rifle across his chest. Making sure he was dead with a quick prod of my bayonet, I used his remaining body heat to warm up my hands, allowing me once again to fire my rifle. We captured the position and marched the prisoners down the line.”
- Robert D. Georgen, US Army, 28th Infantry. The Battle of Huertgen Forest.
Resource: The Story of World War II, by Donald L. Miller