Page 75 - Anthology

MILITARY SERVICE DURING WWII

ROTC was a requirement at that time; the next step was to go to Ft. Benning, Georgia, to attend the
Infantry school. The Air Corps was still where I wanted to serve and when the Army Specialized Training
Program became available, I joined. Finally, I was admitted to the Army Air Corps. Of all places it was
Miami Beach!

I found a great number of cadets there, all waiting for the same chance to go to flight school. Cadets
could exercise, do calisthenics in swimming trunks, and march in the streets. It was heavenly spending
part of the winter at the Beach!

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In early January 1944, some of us were transferred to Lockbourne Air Base , near
Columbus, Ohio, the next step to flight school. We learned a lot about navigation and tried our skills in
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instrument flying on Link Trainers . Some bomber planes had to have their instruments recalibrated. We
were given the opportunity to join the technicians at work in flights. It was a great experience.

I was in the Army Air Corps at Lockbourne Air Base, Columbus, Ohio, awaiting assignment to pilot
training when orders came in April 1944, that all such personnel were to transfer to the ground forces.
Thus, I and thousands of others were assigned to the 106 Infantry Division , that was forming up, at
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Camp Atterbury , Indiana.
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The 106th shipped to England in late fall and served to fine tune the make-up of the units within the
Division. As a squad leader, I had the duty of assigning furloughs to my men. In early December we
finally began to ship oversees, landing in LeHavre and trucked to our final destination along the Schnee
Eifel, of the Ardennes in Belgium. We replaced the 28th Division that had been resting for several weeks.

The 106th Division was the last to organize and it went into action in the St Vith, Ardennes sector of
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northern Belgium in early December 1944. I was with Company C, 422 Infantry Regiment . My unit and
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the 423 Infantry Regiment were stretched out very thin. We were encircled by the huge German attack
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on December 16, 1944, which was the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge.
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Because we were all new soldiers, we had been given the mission of guarding a very heavily forested
area. It was meant to be a very casual introduction to military experience. The forest was full of conifer
trees that were loaded with snow. There was ten to twelve inches of snow on the ground. As the artillery
shells burst, the trees would crack, and branches were falling all around.

The Germans used a loud speaker system to demand our surrender. We were told to surrender, or they
would begin shelling our positions. We considered their actions to be humanitarian in nature. When we
were captured, we actually felt a tremendous sense of relief at having another day to be alive.

The only thing that you might say was the bright side was that there were so many of us. Large numbers
of fellow soldiers were captured together.

Initially, we were treated very kindly, very nice. That soon changed as we were led to a military school
building where we were guarded by a group of teenagers, just youngsters – with bayonets.

We were interviewed by Stalag leaders. We filled out the proper papers with the understanding that our
families back home would be notified. However, my parents were never told until I was rescued and was
back in New York. My parents were told by the U.S. Army that I was missing in action.

The Battle of the Bulge began before dawn on December 16, 1944, with massive fire power mostly
directed to our rear to disable our heavy artillery, etc. The Germans knew the weather would be very
cloudy, overcast, and snowy. The V-1 flying bomb known as the buzz bomb passed overhead and I
could see and hear when their motors would cut off. Soon we were attacked, but we were dug in.