My grandfather was a medic during that battle. He refused to talk about it because of how horrific it had been. While getting his papers in order, we found out that he’d been awarded 2 bronze stars, and even had a letter of commendation from the president.
I often wish we could have found a way for him to meet one of the people he saved. He suffered from severe depression most of his life, and I think that might have helped. I tried searching several times, but his name was so common it was hard to get anywhere.
Back then you were just supposed to buck up and get on with things. My dad was in the European theater. Very rarely did he speak of it. When he did, he commented on stuff like how fast the ME 262 was, how amazing the autobahns were, and that they could find sausage and bacon hanging in the attics of farmhouses. Once he talked about an encounter with a German armored vehicle (he drove a half-track) where they just drove past each other because both sides knew that if they started shooting they were all dead. When they got to Austria, he had a horse he traded to a bunch of Russians for an Opel. For a long time after that, he had a thing for Opels. That must have been a highlight of his tour.