From the History books. Few and far between today.
On June 6, 1994 (50th Anniversary) I sent him a big flower arrangement in commemoration of his buddies that still lie there.
I don't know, but my uncle was one of them too.
My uncle was in the 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One, which was among those in the first wave, and he survived (in fact he lived for 50 more years). They fought their way up the hills there, through the town, and all the way to Paris, where they were among the first soldiers to march through Paris, when it was liberated.
Then they fought their way through Belgium, and marched into Liege when it was liberated. There was also a famous battle at a bridge though I'm not sure which one. Then they liberated a concentration camp in Germany (I'm trying to find out which one though I think it could have been Dachau from what I'm reading, but still not sure). But they were so appalled when they opened up that camp, that after capturing the guards, they marched back into the village nearby and forced the villagers at gunpoint to go into the camp to see what was going on near where they were living.
He said later that up to that point he had been feeling conflicted about shooting at the Germans, as he was himself a 2nd generation German-American (his grandparents had emigrated at least 80 years before) and was worried that he had been shooting at cousins. But after that camp experience, he no longer cared about that, and no longer felt German in any way. He felt American.
My uncle would almost never talk about it, though my sister was able to get only a small amount out of him. And some I've learned just by reading about the history of the Big Red One. He died just a few years ago.
On D-Day, June 6,1944, the Big Red One stormed ashore at Omaha Beach. Soon after H-Hour, the Division's 16th Regiment was fighting for its life on a strip of beach near Coleville-sur-Mer that had been marked the "Easy Red" on battle maps. Within two hours, the decimated unit huddled behind the seawall. The beach was so congested with the dead and dying, there was no room to land reinforcements. Col. George Taylor, commander of the 16th Infantry Regt., told his men, "Two kinds of people are staying on this beach! The dead and those who are going to die! Now, let's get the hell out of here!" Slowly, the move inland got underway.
A German blockhouse above the beach became a command post named "Danger Forward."
The Division moved through the Normandy Hedgerows. The Division liberated Liege, Belgium, and pushed to the German border, crossing through the fortified Siegfried line. The 1st Inf. Div. attacked the first major German city, Aachen, and after days of bitter fighting, the German commander surrendered the city on Oct. 21, 1944.
The Division continued its push into Germany, crossing the Rhine River. On Dec. 16, 24 enemy divisions, 10 of which were armored, launched a massive counterattack in the Ardennes sector, resulting in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. On Jan. 15, 1945, the First Infantry attacked and penetrated the Siegfried line for the second time and occupied the Remagen bridgehead. On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the Division marched 150 miles to the east of Siegen. On April 8, the Division crossed the Weser river into Czechoslovakia. The war was over May 8, 1945.
At the end of World War II, the Division had suffered 21,023 casualties and 43,743 men had served in its ranks. Its soldiers had won a total of 20,752 medals and awards, including 16 Congressional Medals of Honor. Over 100,000 prisoners had been taken.
Following the war, the First Division remained in Germany as occupation troops, until 1955, when the Division moved to Fort Riley, Kan.
Look around you. They are everywhere, just waiting for leadership. They are just ordinary men who muster the courage to do an extraordinary job.
Ah, the eloquence.
My dad (who died three years ago) was in the Pacific Theater on a mine sweeper clearing the approaches to the beaches for "island-hopping".