Something else about the fight in which MSGT Oreszko won the MOH:
I remember ... service of my father, grandfather in world wars
October 4, 2009
By WARREN SCOTT, Staff writer
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WELLSBURG - Finding old photos of his grandfather and father as soldiers during World Wars I and II have helped Michael Traubert of Wellsburg to piece together details of that aspect of the two men’s lives.
He explained that his father, William F. Traubert, who was among troops in a hard-fought invasion of Nazi Germany, and his grandfather, Vincent Maloney, who served in France during World War I, didn’t speak much about their wartime experiences.
Traubert said he learned through books that his father, as an anti-tank gunner in the Army’s 94th Infantry Division, participated in the Battle of Tettington.
Article Photos
A photo of William F. Traubert as a soldier in the Army’s 94th Infantry Division, taken with his parents, William A. and Maggie Magee Traubert,
is among items that have helped Michael Traubert of Wellsburg to piece together his late father’s World War II experiences.
The battle took place in 1945 near the end of World War II and was part of the Allied invasion of Nazi Germany that culminated in the more famous Battle of the Bulge.
Tettington was one of a handful towns along Germay’s western border where Allied troops were able to defeat a battalion of German tanks with mortar, artillery, bazooka and concentrated machine gun fire.
Traubert said the battle was the inspiration for the last scene of the Steven Spielberg film, “Saving Private Ryan.”
Traubert said the division also was involved in liberating France from Nazi control following 111 days of combat. In that time thousands of German troops were killed, injured, captured or missing.
Traubert said his father seemed reluctant to talk about any killing he saw or was involved in.
“He never really talked about the blood and guts of it,” he said.
But his father did relate that a soldier in his squad saved him and others by throwing himself onto a live grenade.
William Traubert wasn’t unscathed in the fighting, as he returned home with shrapnel in his back.
Most of the men in his father’s squad had been killed at the war’s end, Traubert said.
“He was very lucky to come home,” he said.
Traubert said his father spoke mostly about the bitter winter he and the others endured while advancing to Germany from France.
He told his family how he and other soldiers would take heavy blankets from abandoned houses to warm themselves in the below-freezing temperatures.
Traubert said his father almost lost his feet to frostbite but he may have been better prepared than some, having worked on the family’s dairy farm much of his life.
Traubert added his father also delivered milk in the early morning while attending Wellsburg High School and was known to many as “the smiling milkman” for his cheerful disposition.
William Traubert received the Bronze Star and other military honors for his efforts but was very casual about them.
“He would let me play with his medals as though they were toys because he loved his kids,” Michael recalled.
He said his father overall was “a man of peace” but he felt it was important to serve one’s country. Traubert recalled walking with his father to register for the draft around 1975, near the close of the Vietnam War, even though the elder Traubert had reservations about that war.
Like Traubert’s father, Vincent Maloney didn’t say much about any death or killing he saw while serving in France during World War I, though he did mention the poison gas used by the German troops.
Traubert said the biggest impression he got of his grandfather’s experience was the loneliness he felt due to being away from his family.
His grandfather returned from the war with several letters he’d received from his mother, who would write “With oceans of love,” before signing her name. Traubert found them and the letters Maloney had written in response.
“They could bring you to tears,” Traubert said.
Maloney, who had begun working at the S. George Paper Co. in Wellsburg at age 15, returned to the plant, working primarily as a typesetter until his retirement at the age of 75.
Traubert recalled his grandfather was very active in the American Legion and encouraged all of his grandchildren to show respect for the U.S. flag.
(Scott can be contacted at wscott@heraldstaronline.com.)
A couple of years ago, I talked to a guy who was with the 94th ID during the Bulge.
He said his hands and feet always got a bluish tinge when it was cold out ever afterwards. He said it was his “keepsake”.
I thanked him, and wished him a warm winter.