Did you decorate anyone’s graves in particular? People you knew?
Mud saved his life.
Probably a mortar shell or something went off near him when it was muddy, and the wet mud absorbed most of the blast and the shrapnel. (Or maybe it didn’t go off because the ground was too soft and the impact not hard enough to set it off.)
I had 4 uncles who flew in B-17s over Germany, and all made it back, wounded. They’ve all been gone since early-90s. Then we stayed after D-day Ceremonies to decorate other Vets’ graves, who Dad knew from York area, with Peonies from Dad’s home gardens. One of them was in D-Day, European campaign and Battle of The Bulge w/ Dad (Patton’s 3rd Corps Combat Engineers), and was killed in same Bastogne battle when Dad was shot by nazi sniper.
We also decorated all uncles’/aunts’/cousins’ graves in same cemeteries. Peony shrubs are completely de-flowered now. Long, somber day.