My great uncle recalls his service in the Battle of the Bulge.

[doubleg]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19122566&BRD=1282&PAG=461&dept_id=182121&rfi=6

Local man recalls Battle of the Bulge
By Stacy Lee, Daily News Staff Writer
12/17/2007
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Smith, who now lives in Jefferson Hills, grew up in West Mifflin with his three brothers and one sister. He was 17 when the war began and wanted to enlist in the military, but an illness to his father, John Smith, prevented him from joining.
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He was drafted into the Army in 1942 and left his girlfriend, and now wife, Irene Stinner, of Dravosburg, to train at Camp McCain, Miss., and Fort Jackson, S.C.

"After what the (Japanese) did and the crazy things Hitler did, we had a pretty good incentive to fight," Smith said.

After 18 months of training, he was sent to Normandy Beach in England in 1944 with his unit the 2nd Platoon, Company E, 346th Infantry. He joined the 28th Division in a Belgium replacement center.

"I joined the division after they took a lot of casualties at Schmidt, Germany," Smith said. "They took the town, but couldn't hold it."

He was assigned to the Second Squad, 3rd Platoon in the Ardennes Forest, which stretches through France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and was headed for one of the coldest winters in years.

One day before the battle, he hid with his friends in an abandoned basement. His second lieutenant scolded Smith, who was a staff sergeant, for not having a guard at the door. For fear of retaliation by the lieutenant, Smith was moved from Company E to Company A and demoted to a private. He said Company E later had numerous fatalities.

When he switched companies, the leader did not put his name on the company list and his parents were notified that he was missing in action for three months. Smith said his parents continued to get letters from him, though, and the matter finally was straightened out when his father called the company leader.

"I had the distinction of being wounded by my own medic," Smith said. "He was quite a character and was horsing around with my bayonet, which landed in my big toe."

He said he was in the hospital in Toule, France, for 30 days because the injury affected his balance and ability to walk.

While traveling with the medic, Smith said, he ran into a German, who easily could have killed him. He said he told the enemy "I've been wounded," in German, and was allowed to pass without harm.

Smith said he was forced to switch units again after returning from the hospital, and later his former company practically was wiped out in the fighting.

"That might have saved my neck," he said.

Smith said his 4-foot 11-inch height also kept him safe as he was always covered by the vegetation. He said his jacket once became caught in barbed wire, and bullets were flying just past his head.

"When you hear it snap, it's pretty close," Smith said. "You don't worry about the ones you hear swishing."

Smith said he almost was severely injured when the Germans were behind him, and a soldier with him set a trip wire incorrectly causing a flare to blow up in his face.

"I was bending over and closed my eyes and fell back into the swamp area," he said. "I will never forget that flare going off in my face. I slowly opened one eye and couldn't believe my eyesight was not damaged. The soldier who attached the flare had his arm hanging by threads and he was sent home."

All of these incidents happened before the Battle of the Bulge even began.

Smith said the Germans outnumbered and surrounded the Allies in Luxembourg. He said the soldiers were told to retreat and he ended up hanging on the side of a tank to keep his feet warm. That tank took him to safety after the 10-day battle.

The U.S. Department of Defense reports more than 76,000 U.S. soldiers were killed, injured or missing in action during the Battle of the Bulge.

"It wasn't until later that I found out how many soldiers lost their lives in that horrible battle," Smith said.

He earned the Combat Infantry Badge, the American Campaign Medal, The European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the Ardennes, Rhineland and Central European Campaign medals. Along with other 112th Infantry Regimental Combat Team soldiers in armed combat, he was awarded a Bronze Star in 1991. He said he doesn't know why he received it.

"For the Bronze Star, you're supposed to be doing something out of the ordinary," Smith said. "I thought it wasn't fair to people who did something special to get it. I thought I might have done my duty, but I didn't do anything above and beyond the call of duty."

Four months after Smith returned home, he married Irene on April 20, 1946. Irene, who worked as a waitress in the Irvin Works cafeteria, tried to get Smith a job in her company. He said he was all lined up with the job as an inspector, but was required to take a physical examination before he could begin working.

"(A doctor) examined me and he told me I had a bad heart," Smith said.

He was told he wasn't allowed to sit down and read temperatures on an optical pyrometer after all he'd been through in the war.

Smith attended an instrument school for watch-making at Bettis Atomic Plant, but declined to move out of the area for a job.

Smith then went to Clairton Works, where a doctor told him his heart condition was normal for soldiers returning from war. He then worked pushing wheel barrels. He retired in 1982 after 43 years.

Smith moved to Coal Valley Road No. 1 in 1952 and has lived there since. He claims to be Coal Valley's longest resident. He has three children, four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

West Jefferson Hills Historical Society President Joyce Schmidt and her husband, Treasurer Fred Schmidt, interviewed Smith for the society's November newsletter. He had never openly discussed the Battle of the Bulge with any family or friends before.

"When we look at Smitty, we can't believe he was this war hero and he did all this fighting," Joyce Schmidt said. "He's such a gentle man."

He said more in this article than he ever told any of us. I didn't even know he had a bronze star...

 

[The Unknown User]

Wow, that's pretty cool. Thank him for me.

This reminds me of my grandfather's war journal. I haven't finished reading yet. I've heard numerous times from relatives of WWII veterans that they don't say much. I wonder if the stress of being through a war is too much to recall.

:/

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chester32141]

Your Uncle is a Great American ... he has the thanks and appreciation of myself and my family for his contribution to our freedom ...

 

[average_shooter]

Not to detract from your story, I know how it feels to suddenly find out stuff like this;

Just recently my grandfather started telling of his time in the Army. He was also at the Battle of the Bulge and had never told anyone until recently. He was a spotter in an artillery unit, spent his whole tour between our artillery and theirs hoping his coordinates were right and he wouldn't end up dropping a shell in his own fox hole. He became a very religious man. To this day he wakes up thinking he's there and has bad dreams.

He said more in this article than he ever told any of us.

Apparently my recent travels abroad and my open interest in history, along with my grandfather's age and health, are what has prompted him to start opening up. Noone else in the family really traveled or understands what it's like to be away from home and everything familiar for more than a week. I guess he really only gets to talking about it when I'm around.

After the war he and my grandmother raised eleven kids. He worked the rest of his working life in a meat packing plant. The strongest man I've ever known, in more ways than one.

Bottom line, more of us need to be listening to these guys, at least to those willing to talk. And not just the military vets, either, the whole generation. My other grandmother worked through the war for Western Union, and she delivered more than her fair share of telegrams notifying of loved one's killed or missing in the war.

 

[AntiqueCollector]

Those who still have grandparents or the like who can talk about it are lucky and should try to record their stories. My grandfather (on my father's side, my other one died almost 2 decades before I was born and I know little about him) served in both world wars and died while I was still quite young. I have a real interest in history, and would love to be able to talk to him in depth (not just on the wars but just life over 100 years ago), but I only caught glimpses of him while little and he'd be a very old man today if he were still alive. Still, most people I know who've been through a war don't want to talk about it, and I don't blame them when they don't.

 

[bogie]

I've never been able to convince my father to go camping. Not even in a motor home or trailer.

 

[4v50 Gary]

I got my uncle to open up after a while. He was a Marine air crew chief in Hawaii during the war. He'd fix 'em, taxi 'em to test them-but they'd never accepted him for pilot training. The Navy also refused. After the war, he applied to be an air-cadet in the newly created Air Force. They accepted him and he became an interceptor pilot. Got three Migs over Korea too. He finished his time in the Reserves as a full bird colonel and retired out of Pan Am as a pilot of a 747. At his eightieth birthday, he had a board with many of his photos posted on it. He had about 60 hours in the P-82 (?) twin fuselage Mustang.

 

[JohnBT]

First, great story doubleg.

Next, 4v50 Gary, my father was accepted for flight school in WWII, but ruptured his eardrums before he finished. He'll be 86 next month and still hasn't quite gotten over not being a pilot. He ended up a Tech Sgt. working on radios/radar/whatever in the Jungle Air Force between New Guinea and the Philippines. After the war they asked him to stay on and work at the Pentagon, but he was 24 and wanted to head home to the mountains and be a state trooper.

He has 2 honorable discharges, due to a foul-up, for his 4 years and 29 days of service. They lost his papers on some remote island and he was discharged (on paper anyway.) He had to sign up again.

John

____________________

"13th Air Force began operations as an organization composed of many widely separated and independent units scattered throughout the Pacific. From 1943-1945, 13 AF staged out of tropical jungles on more than 40 remote islands, thus earning the nickname, "The Jungle Air Force."

Initially charged with taking a defensive stand against advancing enemy forces, 13AF later took the offensive and traveled northeast from the Solomons to the Admiralty Islands, New Guinea, Morotai and the Philippines. Jungle Air Force units have participated in five different operation areas and 13 campaigns, flying a variety of aircraft, including the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-25 Mitchell, B-26 Marauder, P-38 Lightning, P-39 Airacobra, P-40 Warhawk, P-61 Black Widow, C-46 Commando, C-47 Skytrain, and L-5 Sentinel.

It was 13th Air Force P-38Gs of the 339th Fighter Squadron of the 347th Fighter Group which, on 18 April 1943, flew the mission which resulted in the death of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto."

 

[Vitamin G]

Thats an awesome story. Even better cause its local to me.

I'd love to take the man shooting some time if he'd want to. I have a garand, if he'd be interested.

 

[Professor Gun]

The stories of these older vets are priceless, hold on to all that you were able to find out from your great uncle.

When I was a young boy I was fortunate to live in a household that included one of my great uncles who had been in the Phillipines when the Japanese attacked in December, 1941. He fought on Bataan, on Corregidor, and was taken prisoner when Corregidor surrendered. The abuse and suffering of our soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese was profound. My uncle never talked much about his experiences; he told me a little bit when I was a boy but clammed up if any of the rest of the family was around. He was at Cabanatuan prison camp (see The Great Raid) and moved to Japan just before the camp was liberated.

When I was about 30 years old I finally convinced him to send me letters detailing some of his experiences. I also got most of the letters and cards that were sent to him as well as the cards he sent back when he was a POW; it seemed no one else in our family was very interested in preserving those things after my uncle died. His name was Eldwin James Eagle and he was a hero to me.

My 13 year old son is working on a project for his history class. He asked me for ideas and I gave him several options (e.g., the experiences of some of our ancestors fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War, the experiences of our ancestors during the Great Depression, my uncle's WWII experiences), he chose to do the project about my uncle. I made copies of my uncle's letters for my son (and had to line out some sentences, my uncle was a pretty salty old guy) to include. My son was incredulous that anyone could experience what my uncle had and still be alive (only three men from his company survived the war). He showed the letters to the librarian at his school because my son was amazed at the heroism and grit of the American prisoners-the response from the librarian: "Do you have any proof that other prisoners were treated this way?"

 

[Chester32141]

the response from the librarian:
"Do you have any proof that other prisoners were treated this way?"

Somebody should wake that librarian up ... there should be a website set up for people to post the memories of their ancestors ... soldiers or everyday citizens living thru the depression, they were special people that built this country ...

 

[Professor Gun]

Yep, Chester, you are right.

I am often amazed at the ignorance of many of the "educators" in both public and private school systems. With the trend to "diversity" and the resulting shift away from teaching the history of our nation, it is no wonder that there are so many who do not appreciate what we have in this country and do not have a clue what so many sacrificed for our way of life. They are the same people who typically blame the USA for everything bad that happens.

There have been a couple of occasions that I have met with teachers to discuss the revisionist history they are teaching. Only one of them was receptive to learning from the original records rather than what passes for history textbooks now.

All of our vets, particularly those who have served in hostile environments, deserve our gratitude. The generations before us who built our nation and defended it were remarkable people.

 

[eric.cartman]

Great story!
My grandfather doesn't talk much about the WWII either.
He was a member of AK (Armia Krajowa), a Polish resistance (the largest EVER in the world btw... the wimpy la-resistancee was nothing comparing to AK).
Anyways, he fought both the Nazis and the Soviets, he was 19 when the war started, living in Poland. One time he told me a story...

We were outside our mountain house in upstate NY, during a very cold winter. I was wearing full winter "gear", and he just had his pants and a sweater. I asked him if he's not cold, to which he replied...

...the Russians were advancing to take the City of Warsaw, and my group was waiting in the woods on an uphill position. It was the coldest January I can remember. Me and my friend Zbyszek were the only two guys with machine guns. All my other friends had pistols and rifles. The Russians tried to take our uphill position for two weeks. The 25 of us fought them off. Yes, that was a very cold January...

He later added that only Him and Zbyszek made it out alive. They defended their position and never surrendered.

Scroll down the page and look for ANDRZEJ VORBRODT "MIS"; (nickname bear)
That's my grandpa

http://www.ak-wilno.witnet.gda.pl/?id=brygada_nietoperza

EDIT: Did I mention he kinna looks like G.W.Bush ? He also does "more" interesting things now: http://www.jhc.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/8/1021

 

[Richmond]

Papa

My dad was in the 101st Airborne, including Normandy, Holland and the Battle of the Bulge. After Normandy he got his hands on a Thompson which he guarded jealously. In the 1980s, as a college professor, he was able to visit Holland and Bastogne. At Bastogne, he was taken on a tour, by the mayor and a delegation, of the city, the battlefields and the actual area outside of town where he had been during much of the battle. They found a little church still standing that Dad had been in.

I was fortunate that as years went by Dad talked more and more about his experience. I had the opportunity to go to one of his company reunions and spend time with some of the men who were his best buddies. One man who was in his squad spent the better part of two days telling me stories about Dad. It was important hearing this personal history.

My mom passed away in the early 70s, and I moved back to my hometown in the mid-80s. My Dad and I hung around together, along with some of my shooting buddies. We used to sit by the fire and get him to tell of his experiences. One winter it was in the double digits below zero and very snowy. We decided to have what we called the "Bastogne Memorial Shoot". We drove to the range. Dad fired a couple of strings with a Garand and an AR15, then sat in the car and watched us shoot drills in deep, blowing snow. He had some suggestions (think - "no, not realistic - run in the snow to the clubhouse (75 yards uphill) and back, then dive prone and engage multiple targets - nope, still not realistic, no tanks shooting at you. . . .). Afterwards, we retired to my house and ate venison steaks grilled on the woodstove.

doubleg - that was a fine article, and thanks for sharing it. I think it is important that we hear and remember the stories of these men.

"When we look at Smitty, we can't believe he was this war hero and he did all this fighting," Joyce Schmidt said. "He's such a gentle man."

How true - my dad went on to be a college professor and academic, and I think that the quality I admired most about him, and the one I should try to emulate, was his gentleness. Students who would learn of his history would always remark, "but he is such a kind, gentle man."

 

[BigG]

CIB = Bronze Star

The gentleman said he got a Bronze Star in 1991, not knowing why he got it. In 1947, the War Department (DOD) put out a directive that all who earned a CIB during WWII would also receive a bronze star.

If you hunt around the DOD websites you can find how to apply. I put in for my Dad's back a year or so ago and they gave him a complete issue of medals, per his DD214. !

 

[ArfinGreebly]

76k . . . in one battle

The U.S. Department of Defense reports more than 76,000 U.S. soldiers were killed, injured or missing in action during the Battle of the Bulge.

In one battle.

Yeah, sure, it dragged out over days, but that's days, not years.

More than all of Viet Nam? In a matter of days?

Understand, I'm not a fan of gore and guts or death and destruction, but I have some grasp of the concept that war isn't supposed to be fun.

When the fate of civilization is on the line (and it was) you do whatever you have to do, and you steel yourself against the inevitable casualties.

Today, we no longer seem to have the stomach for actual confrontation and sacrifice. We look at 5k casualties over four years and wring our (media) hands at the inhumanity of it all. While taking pains to overlook mass graves holding more bodies than our entire casualty count.

Yes, I'm aware there's no glory on the front line, and I, personally, would want no part of it.

But come the day when necessity offers the front line as the only recourse for the preservation of liberty, I would hope to God I had the sand of my father's generation.

Here's to those who stood in the breach on our behalf.

Here's to those who stand there now.

And here's to those, whose names we don't yet know, who will stand there tomorrow.

There's nothing I could write, short of poetry, that expresses my gratitude.

 

[MakAttak]

The stories of these older vets are priceless, hold on to all that you were able to find out from your great uncle.

When I was a young boy I was fortunate to live in a household that included one of my great uncles who had been in the Phillipines when the Japanese attacked in December, 1941. He fought on Bataan, on Corregidor, and was taken prisoner when Corregidor surrendered. The abuse and suffering of our soldiers taken prisoner by the Japanese was profound. My uncle never talked much about his experiences; he told me a little bit when I was a boy but clammed up if any of the rest of the family was around. He was at Cabanatuan prison camp (see The Great Raid) and moved to Japan just before the camp was liberated.

When I was about 30 years old I finally convinced him to send me letters detailing some of his experiences. I also got most of the letters and cards that were sent to him as well as the cards he sent back when he was a POW; it seemed no one else in our family was very interested in preserving those things after my uncle died. His name was Eldwin James Eagle and he was a hero to me.

My 13 year old son is working on a project for his history class. He asked me for ideas and I gave him several options (e.g., the experiences of some of our ancestors fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War, the experiences of our ancestors during the Great Depression, my uncle's WWII experiences), he chose to do the project about my uncle. I made copies of my uncle's letters for my son (and had to line out some sentences, my uncle was a pretty salty old guy) to include. My son was incredulous that anyone could experience what my uncle had and still be alive (only three men from his company survived the war). He showed the letters to the librarian at his school because my son was amazed at the heroism and grit of the American prisoners-the response from the librarian: "Do you have any proof that other prisoners were treated this way?"

What the librarian said is just chilling. The people educating our children have no idea what happened in WWII?!!!

Incidentally, my girlfriend's (now deceased) grandfather had almost exactly the same experience as your uncle. He went through the Bataan death march, survived Cabanatuan and was transfered to Japan before finally being liberated.

The things those men survived are beyond comprehension. So too is the brutality of the Japanese. People really have no idea anymore of just how much evil men are capable.

Also Arfin, well said, I shall not attempt to add anything to that.

 

[CajunBass]

Many thanks from my wife and I to your great uncle for his service to our country.

 

[Cosmoline]

More than all of Viet Nam? In a matter of days?

Well that's including wounded, which were over 300,000 in Vietnam. Believe it or not by WWII scales the Bulge was not a major bloodletting. It wasn't unusual to have battles during WWII with over 50,000 KIA, not just wounded. The Red Army fought most of these. They'd bleed out a million men and keep coming. Though the Bulge was characterized by some pretty terrible planning on our part, our brass was still much more careful about using up its own men than the Soviets or Germans.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Give your uncle my undying thanks.

My dad was in the Phillipines during WWII and I still remember the horror stories that he told me as a kid about the atrocities the Japanese committed.

We will be forever indebted and greatful to the men and women who have died in defense of our freedom!

 

[Professor Gun]

The librarian who was skeptical that the Japanese actually treated the American POWs as outlined in the letters of my great uncle is a part of the generation of "educators" who are so completely ignorant of our history that it is embarassing. This group of people are the same who also look upon the USA as being at fault for pretty much everything that goes wrong. They are also the same people who go out every August 6 and 9 to protest the fact that we nuked the Japanese to end WWII (I always go out and confront them, the nukes saved the life of my great uncle and all of his comrades in captivity in Japan-the guards had made it clear to the prisoners that they would be killed if Japan was invaded so the guards could go defend the homeland).

General Tibbet (pilot of the Enola Gay who dropped the atomic bomb on Japan) was here in my town some years ago to sign his (at that time) new book about flying the Enola Gay. Of course there were some idiot protestors outside the book signing (I do think I was rude to them in some way ). I took my two sons (at the time they were 7 and 5 years old) to the bookstore, bought three copies of his book, waited in line for an hour to have him sign my books and thanked him personally for saving my great uncle. My sons also thanked him. The General's wife was with him; both had tears in their eyes that someone would show up just to thank the General for what he did.

 

[doubleg]

Uncle Glenn to this day will not eat sauerkraut. Thanks everyone for your stories also, I enjoyed reading them.

They didn't call them the Greatest Generation for nothing.

 

[macFarlaine]

We of the UK are always grateful for support and sacrifices made by the USA in all conflicts.The Polish people and there resistence is not often talked about but these men and women suffered more than any of us can imagine,they should never be forgotten.

 

[One of Many]

My father, now 84, served in WW2 as did all of his brothers. His brothers served in the Army, and my father served in the Navy. My father is the only one still alive today. His eldest brother died in a European hospital from a German knife wound.

My father served as a gunnery crew member on a cargo ship during the war. He has told me how the ship he served on was torpedoed in the Mediterranean, and they abandoned ship, but it did not sink; they re-boarded ship only to have it torpedoed again, and it sank the second time. He has told me how he saved one of his shipmates who either didn't know how to swim, or forgot how due to the stress of the moment; the shipmate almost pulled my father under by wrapping himself around my father's legs and holding on while he used only his arms to escape the suction of the sinking ship.

My mother did her part for the war as well; she worked in industry making equipment for fighting the war. Mother died just over a year ago, and is buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. When my father passes, he will join her there. Not all heroes carry a gun, or get shot at by the enemy.

 

[Rich K]

My uncle Ralph served in WWII. The only things he would talk about for years were to say what battles he was in, these include Normandy and The Bulge.
He was always my hero growing up, and as amny here have noted re their uncles and fathers, was a very gentle man, unless provoked. He did finally talk a bit prior to his passing, but not in any great detail. The things about him that I remember most were his determination and his calmness. He just never seemed to get upset about anything, even sitting in traffic. He genuinely seemed to enjoy the smallest, simplest things the most.
When I would ask him about the war, he asked me " Why do you want to hear all this stuff from me? Don't your books tell you all of it?" My answer was that" You were there. You know how it really was."

My thanks to all of the GReatest Generation, we'll not see their like again.

As far as the skeptical librarian, she needs to pay more attention in class.