We climbed the north slope, bearing to the right of the bunkers. Cole quotes Generalmajor (Brig. Gen.) August Wellm, commander of the Thirty-sixth Volksgrenadier Division, as attributing its collapse to our artillery. Wellm mentioned "the coolness displayed by the American infantry, who advanced calmly through the thickest fire 'with their weapons at the ready and cigarettes dangling from their lips.'" My weapon was certainly ready like the riflemen he described, but I did not smoke.
A tank trap in the form of a deep trench now appeared across our front and slowed our advance. The sides had collapsed from the incessant rain, and the bottom was deep in mud. I got stuck in the glutinous mess and was rescued by a luckier comrade.
I then climbed the final slope to the crest. The advancing companies were mixed together, and I saw no one I recognized. I inspected one of the bunkers that had just surrendered. Its steel door was open, and the interior was dimly lighted by sunlight peaking through the door and the two firing embrasures. An enemy soldier had left a bread crust on a table. I was hungry, not having eaten since the day before, but the bread was hopelessly inedible.
We had also seized another bunker near a small forest, from which rifle fire could be heard--both ours and the enemy's (the flatter sound of the German Model 98k carbine was easy to recognize). A favorite status symbol of GIs was a captured German pistol. An officer's Walther P-38 was the pistol of choice, though any kind would do. With this hidden objective in mind, I moved down the wood line toward the sound of gunfire. Then a lieutenant shouted that the Germans in the woods who were firing at us were ready to surrender. Here was my chance.
I dashed into the woods followed by a few other souvenir hunters. About fifty yards in, I paused at a large tree and looked ahead. The enemy soldiers, now in view, were strangely diffident about giving up. From behind my tree I saw four Germans, heavily armed, in a small clearing forty feet away, unaware of my presence. Braced against the tree, I brought my rifle up to my shoulder and fired four fast rounds. They scattered instantly. I may have hit one, maybe two, though probably not fatally. A second later, I was alone again.
My four enemy targets had been in front of me. I now saw another man to my right, crouching and moving at right angles, also about forty feet away. He seemed unaware of my assault on his nearby friends just seconds before, but such is the fog of war, even on such a tiny scale. I fired two shots at him, and soundlessly he pitched forward. My second round had passed through him from right to left, almost certainly fatally. I now looked ahead. Here was something I could not identify, looking like someone in a strange pose. I soon realized it was a man kneeling, pointing his rifle at me! I stared for a second or two. Suddenly, amid a deafening explosion, the tree that my left cheek was pressing against was torn, and a hail of splinters flew into my face. A bullet had hit the tree two inches from my left eye. I kicked my feet out behind me and fell. A grenade explosion followed and debris cascaded against my bowed helmet. Then came a long burst from an MG42 machine gun. I saw a tree to my right shredded by the fire. I was left alone; the enemy must have thought I had been killed.
I was now uncomfortably alert. The men who had followed me were not in sight. I peered around my protecting tree. Then I heard movement and voices coming from behind me. To my alarm two Germans strolled nonchalantly from my left rear, fifty feet away. They walked to my left, chatting away, their gas-mask canisters clanking steadily against their belts as they strolled. Obviously, I was well within the enemy position. Then, to my further alarm, I saw an enemy soldier in front of me carefully inserting twigs in his helmet netting. I could have shot him easily but at the cost of my own life, which I placed at a higher value than his. Soon, five crouching Germans, just behind the camouflager's position, advanced past my front. The enemy was attacking. Firing increased.
Much to my relief, the attack stalled, and I saw no further activity. However, worried about my left flank, I raised my rifle and pointed it around my tree in that direction. I also had another concern. I had fired four rounds into the group I had first met and two more at the man I had shot to my front. I should eject the two remaining rounds and insert a new clip, but this would involve loud clicks, which I could only muffle a bit. The distant firing was subdued by the forest, and it was deathly quiet in my lonely domain. I placed a clip upright on a leaf. I would fire my two remaining rounds and ram the clip home as fast as I could. I had done this quite often in training but never when my life depended on it.
Time passed. Suddenly, a single enemy soldier approached along a path traced earlier by two others. On coming abreast, where the path angled left, he turned and stared down at me. At his slightest move, I decided, I would fire. I could not miss; he was less than forty feet away. We stared at each other for some seconds. I cannot imagine what he was thinking. He may have thought I was a comrade, or perhaps I was dead or not human at all, for I was motionless and covered in mud. I will never know. He turned and disappeared.
It was a very close call. He may have noticed me after all; maybe he would call his friends to deal with me. After four hours of lying motionless, I eased out of my heavy pack and crawled over the intimidating open stretch of ground behind me to the sheltering trees, stood up, and returned to the American lines.
Within minutes of my escape our tanks had gotten behind the Germans and forced them to surrender. We headed into the woods while I regretted my pusillanimous retreat. If I had waited just a bit longer, I would have been in at the finish. I did get a pistol though, from a German noncom. It was not a P-38, but it would do.
The area was littered with German casualties. Policy declared that prisoners must cast off their helmets. I seized the helmet strap of a wounded German and tried to wrest it off. He groaned in pain. Then I saw a bullet hole in his helmet and what looked like blood and brains seeping out. He was seriously wounded and probably near death. I left him alone. A slightly wounded German was leaning against a tree. I pointed my rifle at him while, with genuine curiosity, I examined his attire and equipment. "Nicht schiessen" ("Don't shoot"), he pleaded and dissolved in tears. Another man had been shot in the genitals and was in great distress. I moved on. There were other scenes of equal misery to witness.
I later rejoined my unit. Escorted by tanks, we crossed an adjacent field toward more woods, at whose edge was another bunker. The tanks offered protection, and their treads compacted the sodden earth, making walking easier. The bunker was empty, but a tank fired at close range, blowing chunks of concrete from its face, exposing the reinforcing rods within. We bore right, to the north side of the forest and found two more bunkers, also unoccupied--fortunately, since the tanks had now left. The bunkers faced a barren field stretching to the brink of a cliff, whose ominous feature was an observation cupola. En route, I found myself walking with my platoon leader, ahead of our main body. If that cupola is manned, I said, we were in trouble even if we threw ourselves down. He had thought of that, too, but we had no choice.
I had another problem. Earlier, I had tried to open my rifle's bolt to replace the two remaining rounds with a full clip. It would not budge, even after grounding the butt and bringing my heel down hard on the handle. It had turned much colder, and all the mud and water coating my rifle had frozen. I was afraid it might explode if I fired.
At the cupola, we were atop yet another bunker set into the cliff and commanding the wide plain below. This bunker was also empty. I stuck my rifle muzzle into the observation port, turned my head and fired. The slug careened off the sides of the bunker. The bolt was safely freed.
We milled around the area. It was sunset, the skies had cleared, and there was a bitter wind. From the cliff's edge we could see far across the plain into Germany. We withdrew to the forest edge and the two bunkers. In a belt before the bunkers stood a knee-high barbed-wire thicket, twenty feet deep and traversed by crooked paths. A tank barrier ten feet deep lay before the wire--rails set six feet below ground, probably in concrete, and extending four feet above ground. Before these obstacles lay a fifteen-foot open tract ending in a low ledge atop which began the plain that stretched to the cliff. We were to dig in against the ledge and await a counterattack.
Four of us began digging a shallow pit into the ledge as darkness fell. I shivered constantly, still wet from fording the stream that morning, the earlier rains, and my long session pinned down in the forest. The other GIs were equally miserable. Digging was hard in the frozen ground, but at last we all stretched face down in our new abode, wondering about a counterattack.
Then came a creeping barrage of German 88mm artillery rounds. In wordless anxiety, we felt the shells coming closer. A shell fell almost on us, but there was no explosion; it was a dud. The barrage continued over us, then ceased. There was no counterattack. And with those last shells, my first day in combat ended.
My experiences that day, November 25, 1944, were quite humble, but they made a profound impression on me. Curiously, for decades afterward I rarely thought about them, although they loomed prominently in the back of my mind. Now, in my indolent retirement, the day has assumed a special place. It was so filled with events I could not have imagined that later combat experiences, quite stressful themselves, have receded from memory, though hardly forgotten. The experiences of others on their first day of combat may well have been worse, but on my first day I stared death in the face more than once and behaved, I believe, with reasonable calmness and resolve. I am content with those thoughts.
Additional Sources: wing.chez.tiscali.fr
www.80thdivision.com
www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/6882
www.army.mil
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on July 06:
1747 John Paul Jones naval hero ("I have not yet begun to fight")
1796 Nicholas I Russia, Tsar (1825-55)
1818 Adolf Anderssen Prussia, world chess champion (1851-66)
1814 Justus McKinstry, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1897
1821 Edward Winston Pettus, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1907
1884 Harold Vanderbilt NY, America Cup (1930,34,37)/inv contract bridge
1903 Axel Theorell Sweden, biochemist, studied enzymes (Nobel 1955)
1915 LaVerne Andrews singer The Andrews Sisters
1918 Sebastian Cabot London, actor (Mr French-Family Affair)
1922 William Schallert LA Calif, actor (Martin-Patty Duke Show)
1923 Nancy Davis Reagan NY, 1st Lady (1981-89)
1925 Bill Haley Mich, (& the Comets-Rock Around the Clock)
1925 Merv Griffin San Mateo Calif, TV host (Merv Griffin Show)
1927 Janet Leigh Merced Cal, actress, She's in the shower (Psycho, Harper)
1927 Pat Paulsen comedian, presidential candidate (Smothers Bros Show)
1932 Della Reese Detroit, singer/actress (Della Reese Show, Touched by an Angel)
1937 Gene Chandler [Eugene Dixon], Chicago, rocker (Duke of Earl)
1937 Ned Beatty Lexington Ky, actor (Deliverance, Repossed, Network)
1945 Burt Ward LA Calif, actor (Robin-Batman)
1946 Fred Dryer Hawthone Calif, NFLer (NY Giants, LA Rams)/actor (Hunter)
1946 Jamie Wyeth Penn, artist (An American Vision-Boston)
1946 Sylvester Stallone NYC, actor/director (Rocky, Rambo, Cobra)
1946 George Walker Bush President United States of America
Deaths which occurred on July 06:
1189 Henry II King of England (1154-89), dies at 56
1415 Jan Hus burned for heresy by the Church at Constance, Germany
1535 Sir Thomas More executed in England for treason
1762 Peter III Feodorovich, tsar of Russia (1761-62), murdered at 34
1835 John Marshall, the third chief justice of the Supreme Court, dies (79) Two days later, while tolling in his honor in Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell cracked
1863 Strong Vincent, US Union brig-general, dies
1864 Samuel Allen Rice, US Union brig-gen, dies of injuries at 36
1962 William Faulkner author, inventor of Yoknapatawpha Co, dies at 64
1971 Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong jazz musician (Hello Dolly), dies at 70
1971 Thomas C Heart, US admiral/commander (Asiatic fleet), dies
1972 Brandon De Wilde actor (Jamie), dies at 30 in a car crash
1973 Otto Klemperer, German/US conductor, dies at 88
1975 Otto Skorzeny, German/Austrian SS (Mussolini/Ardennen), dies
1993 Ruth Lady Fermoy, maternal grandmother of Princess Diane, dies at 84
1994 Cameron Mitchell, actor (High Chapparral), dies of lung cancer at 75
1998 Roy Rogers (b.1911), singing cowboy, dies (Happy Trails to you)
2003 Buddy Ebsen (95), Actor/Dancer "The Beverly Hillbillies" & "Barnaby Jones," dies.
GWOT
Iraq
06-Jul-2003 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Jeffrey M. Wershow Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire
US Sergeant David B. Parson Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - ambush
06-Jul-2004 4 | US: 4 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Justin T. Hunt Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Corporal Jeffrey D. Lawrence Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Lance Corporal Scott Eugene Dougherty Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Private 1st Class Rodricka Antwan Youmans Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
Afghanistan
A Good Day
http://icasualties.org/oif/ Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White
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Go here and I'll stop nagging.
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On this day...
1483 England's King Richard III crowned
1535 Sir Thomas More executed in England for treason
1609 Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemia freedom of religion
1685 James II defeats James, the Duke of Monmouth, at the Battle of Sedgemoor. (last major battle fought on English soil)
1699 Capt William Kidd arrested in Boston
1775 Congress issues "Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms," listing grievances but denying intent to be independent
1776 Dec of Ind announced on front page of the "PA Evening Gazette"
1777 British Gen Burgoyne captures Fort Ticonderoga from Americans
1785 Congress resolves US currency named "dollar" & adopts decimal coinage
1798 US law makes aliens "liable to be apprehended, restrained,... & removed as alien enemies"
1854 1st Republican state convention, Ripon, Wisc
1863 Northern Territory passes from New South Wales to South Australia
1864 Battle of Chattahoochee River,
1869 Black candidate for lt governor of Va, Dr J H Harris, defeated
1882 14 Russian Jews of Bilu, arrive in Jaffa Palestine
1885 1st inoculation (for rabies) of a human being, by Louis Pasteur
1886 Horlick's of Wisconsin offers 1st malted milk to public
1892 Striking steelworkers in Homestead, Pa fire on scabs, killing 7
1894 Cleveland sends 2,000 troops to Chicago to suppress Pullman strike
1908 Robert Peary's expedition sails from NYC for the north pole
1917 Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence capture Aqaba from the Turks.
1919 British R-34 lands in NY, 1st airship to cross Atlantic (108 hr)
1920 Democrats end convention in S F select James Cox of Ohio and running mate Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
1923 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics formed
1924 1st photo sent experimentally across Atlantic by radio, US-England
1928 1st all-talking motion picture shown, in NY (Lights of NY)
1928 Worlds largest hailstone 1lbs (17') falls in Potter Nebraska
1936 114ø F, Moorhead, Minnesota (state record)
1936 121ø F, Steele, North Dakota (state record)
1939 German Nazi's close last Jewish enterprises
1943 2nd day of battle at Kursk: 25,000 German killed
1944 US General Patton lands in France
1944 170 die in a fire at Ringling Bros Circus in Hartford Conn
1945 Nicaragua becomes 1st nation to formally accept UN Charter
1945 Pres Truman signs executive order establishing Medal of Freedom
1945 B-29 Superfortress bombers attacked Honshu, Japan, using new fire-bombing techniques
1945 Wash Senator Rick Ferrell catches a record 1,722 games
1957 Althea Gibson became 1st black tennis player to win Wimbledon
1957 Harry S Truman Library established in Independence, Missouri
1958 Alaska becomes the 49th state
1959 Saar becomes part of German Federal Republic
1960 Dr Barbara Moore completes a 3,207 mile walk from LA to NYC
1964 Beatles' film "Hard Day's Night" premiers in London
1964 Malawi (then Nyasaland) gains independence from Britain (Natl Day)
1965 Rock group "Jefferson Airplane" forms
1967 Biafran War erupts as Nigerian forces invade
1971 White House Plumbers unit formed to plug news leaks
1974 Garrison "The Jerk" Keillor makes his 1st live broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion" from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
1976 United States Naval Academy admittes women (81 inducted)
1976 Soyuz 21 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 5 space station
1983 Supreme Court rules retirement plans can't pay women less
1987 1st of 3 massacres by Sikh extremists takes place in India
1988 Carlos Salinas de Gortari elected president of Mexico
1989 US marshals & FCC sieze pirate radio station WHOT in Brooklyn
1994 A firestorm killed 14 firefighters near Glenwood Springs, Co., while fighting a forest fire.
1995 Bosnian Serbs under Radislav Krstic attack UN safe area at Srebrenica 7,500 Muslim men and boys killed.
1996 The Libertarians nominated financial counseling author Harry Browne for president.
1997 Martian rover Sojourner rolls down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander and begins mankind’s first mobile exploration of Mars. The first rock targeted for examination was named "Barnacle Bill."
2001 Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleads guilty to 15 criminal counts and agrees to give a full accounting of his spying activities for Moscow.
2003 Dennis Schmitt and 5 companions stepped on a 120-foot-long pile of dirt at 83°42’ latitude, Earth’s farthest north piece of known land. In 2004 Danish authorities discount the find in favor of a larger island called Kaffklubben.
2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (who served in Viet-Nam) selects John "pretty boy" Edwards to be his running mate
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Malawi : Independence Day (1964)/Republic Day (1966)
National Canned Luncheon Meat Week (Day 4)
Nude Recreation Week (Day 3)
National Fried Chicken Day
Freedom Week (Day 3)
Old Milwaukee Day in Wisconsin.
Louisville Kentucky : Storytelling Festival
National Anti-Boredom Month
Religious Observances
Luth : Commemoration of Jan Hus, martyr
Old Catholic : Commemoration of St Thomas More, humanist/martyr
RC : Memorial of St Maria Goretti, virgin/martyr (opt)
Religious History
1415 Martyrdom of Jan Hus, Czech reformer, who was condemned for heresy and burned atthe stake because of his outspoken appeals for church reform and for political and religiousrights for the common people.
1535 English Catholic theologian Thomas More was beheaded for refusing to recognizeHenry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England, which had just broken with the RomanCatholic Church.
1757 Birth of William McKendree, colonial American church leader. In 1808 he was ordained the first American-born bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
1846 Birth of John H. Sammis, American Presbyterian clergyman and author of the hymn,'Trust and Obey.'
1941 English Bible expositor Arthur W. Pink observed in a letter: 'It is those who walk the closest with God who are most conscious of their sins.'
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Root Canals, Emus Honored In Wis.
MADISON, Wis. -- Root canals and amateur radio operators were honored with special days in Wisconsin this year. Emus got a whole week.
Gov. Jim Doyle has issued about 1,000 proclamations since taking office in 2003, according to a review by The Post-Crescent of Appleton. Some honor people or raise awareness about serious issues, while others simply note the offbeat.
Family storytelling had its own day last October, a month that also promoted pornography awareness. March promoted caffeine awareness and recognized certified government financial managers.
But Doyle isn't the only Wisconsin governor to issue scores of proclamations - his predecessors issued thousands of their own over the decades.
"It's a way to acknowledge and honor the contributions that individuals and organizations have made to the state of Wisconsin, and in some cases it's a way to highlight or get information out to people," said Doyle spokeswoman Melanie Fonder.
The Wisconsin Emu Association received proclamations for the past five or six years, president Joylene Reavis said.
This year's declared the week of May 7 as Emu Week and reads, "Whereas the emu's hide is soft and supple enough to be popularly used in the fashion industry..."
Thought for the day :
"This way of life is worth defending."
The rubber plant I bought for my wife Dorothy added a touch of life to our home. But one morning its leaves were dropping as if in a state of dejection. I wondered what happened. 
