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Posted on 03/20/2002 7:16:03 AM PST by Desert Lizard
Harold's Flag By Lion Bob MacLeay
Early in the morning of Feb. 12, 1945, Harold was the first man killed in our battalion as we fought to liberate the small town of Vianden, Luxembourg, which proved to be the last action in the Battle of the Bulge. I was wounded some hours later and was being evacuated when the jeep swerved to avoid something in the road that I had not seen. The swerving motion caused me to lean out on the right side of the jeep and I looked down to see a man's leg, severed at the hip, but fully clothed and booted. For over forty years I never mentioned this to a soul. It had happened so quickly that I wasn't sure I had actually seen it. At a reunion of the battalion in 1993, I finally learned that the leg belonged to Harold Smith of Winterset, Iowa. In 1997 Bob Moore of our Battalion wrote to me, "I was driving into Vianden in my ¾ ton weapons carrier and Smith jumped from it onto a mine which blew off his arm and leg. He died in my arms. My mind is a total blank of the rest of the day. I guess it was the shock of Smith's death." The 1255th Combat Engineer Battalion, fighting as infantry, captured Vianden but lost every seventh man in the one-day battle.
In 1983 Harold's mother in Iowa asked a young friend, June Hughes, to write to the US. State Department to see if she could learn the origins of the unique flag that arrived on Harold's casket when he was returned home in 1948. That letter found its way to Jean Milmeister in Luxembourg who replied to her in 1983, and who sent it on to me 12 years later. In 1995, when I served as president of our veterans group, I was able to locate Jean Hughes in Casper, Wyoming. She informed me by phone that Harold's parents had both since died and that the flag had been willed to the VFW in Winterset, Iowa I related the story to the battalion members who attended the 50th anniversary of the battle in Luxembourg on Feb. 12, 1995 when we dedicated a memorial on the hill overlooking the town honoring the 1255th Engineers who had died that day in 1945. Harold Smiths name appears on the plaque and we marveled again at the story of the flag and wondered if any battalion members would ever get to see it.
June of 1999 found Marge and I traveling from St. Paul, Minn. to Denver so on the spur of the moment we decided to go by way of Winterset, Iowa, to see Harold's flag. We hadn't gone very far into town when I noticed a fellow driver about my age stopped at an intersection and I turned my car next to his and asked if he could direct me to the VFW hall. He replied, "Follow me." I turned around and he led me to the VFW hall. I got out of the car and explained what I wanted, but the hall was locked. He said that he knew who had the key and said, "Follow me." We arrived at the VFW Commander's house. I thanked him and he drove away.
I was told by family members that the Commander wasn't home and the flag wasn't at the VFW hall, but at the Historical Society. Then the son of the Commander said as he walked to his car, "Follow me." Arriving at the Historical Society he introduced me to the curator, who produced the folded flag from a glass case and took it to an adjoining room where he unfolded it on a large table.
The flag is certainly unique. The dimensions are not quite correct, the reds and blues are not quite the right color, and the stars are gold instead of white, but it is beautiful. The stitching was done on a machine but not by a professional. The material is very fine wool. It is obvious that the flag was handmade by someone not fully knowledgeable about the American flag.
Jean Milmeister, the Vianden, Luxembourg citizen, historian and author of books on the Battle Of The Bulge, had surmised in his letter to Mrs. Smith in the 1980's that it must have been made by a Luxembourg citizen(s) as an expression of appreciation for their country's liberation, and was placed on the casket as an act of thanks, love, and sympathy for the parents of the dead soldier whose body was being returned to grieving parents three years after his death. I believe Jean Milmeister was absolutely correct in assuming this to be the case. In 1995 he told us that during the country's occupation from 1940 to 1995 the young men of Luxembourg were forced into the German army and sent to the Russian front, because the Germans knew that Luxembourgers would not fight the Americans. Parents of those men who had refused to fight at first had been shot in the Town Square of Vianden.
Later that afternoon in Winterset we also wanted to see Harold's grave. The curator made some phone calls and told us Mr. Berry, the VFW Commander, would be at the cemetery to direct us to the grave site, so we drove a short distance to the cemetery. The headstone is a large one heading three graves; Father, Mother and only son, Harold. The stone reads that he served with the 1255th Combat Engineer Battalion and was killed liberating the town of Vianden, Luxembourg, Feb. 12, 1945, at the age of 19 years and 5 months.
While at the Historical Society the curator had produced the Winterset High School 1943 Yearbook and for the first time I looked upon the face of Harold. I had not known Harold in the army as we served in different companies. He was an honor student, a gifted musician, a class leader, and obviously very well liked by his classmates.
Before leaving, we drove around Winterset; the simple beauty of the small town and its friendly people struck us. It is the Middle American town that you have seen in the movies. Indeed, it was the real setting for the movie, "The Bridges of Madison County." Winterset is the county seat for Madison County. The boyhood home of John Wayne still sits across the street from the Commander's home and is open to visitors. The friendliness of those inhabitants who wouldn't give directions, but said, "Follow me," was so beautiful to us New York "city folks." Just about all the people we had spoken with remembered Harold and his parents and had shared their grief in 1945 and again in 1948. We had the feeling at the end of the day that we had come to know Harold a little bit just by the meeting these good citizens of Winterset.
On this 57th anniversary of his death, I would hope that in the Hereafter the person or persons that made the flag have finally met Harold and his parents.
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