Marion:-
Since we have been kicking around the Battle of the Bulge I have been bothered by a lot of lousy recollections but here are two that might interest you and I can say had a happy ending.
A close friend of mine from Basic to the Bulge got blown out of a Jeep by a Mortar Shell and most of the damage was to his face and I kid you not this guy was a good looking man. Went back to the Field Hospital to see him and the Charge Nurse pointed out his bunk after I had walked by him twice as he was bandaged like a mummy.
Saw him after the war and he pulled my chain because he knew I had walked by him but you could only see his eye,nose and mouth holes in the bandages. It took the Doctors back Stateside 21 months to reconstruct his face and the only evidence was a thin white line that ran from ear to ear. Until I heard him speak and he insulted me as was his usual joking?? way of speaking to my(even though I was his Top) I could/would have walked by him on the street. Told him those GD Irish had hard heads!!! I ought to know!!
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The other story involves a Wehrmacht Kraut I was interrogating in a building and following SOP we separated them into different rooms because some Wehrmacht Units had SS embedded in them for Political Reasons and to make them toe the mark but this way they were more apt to speak the truth to us.
After we got in the room the Kraut, IN PERFECT ENGLISH WITH A SLIGHT NEW JERSEY ACCENT,asks if he could borrow my Boot Knife which I carried like all the other Intel Guys here did. He said that he needed it to show me something but I cautioned him that any BS and you are TOT(dead).
Ever so carefully he inverted his coat and proceeded to cut open a seam and extract a small packet wrapped in some kind of water proof waxed paper. Inside this packet was a Social Security card(beat to hell but still legible) and a drivers license from NJ. He then proceeded to tell me that he had gone back to Germany to go to school and was living with and Aunt and an Uncle when he got drafted and if he didn't report for duty those relatives would be taken away to the Camps.
I knew this was out of my league so I got a Captain involved and we kept this Kraut away from the others - boy were they ever curious. Two days later we get the word he is to be transported to England for further questioning but the powers that be were sure he was legit and sure enough a week later we were told he was on a ship back to the States.
Remember how the comedian Red Buttons had the line "Strange Things are Happening" well it applied here. Oh by the way he did give us some good data on Krauts units in the area.
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Marion see how you can open Pandora's Box??
Sgtleo 