European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 1, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Above signs of the times from the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. Right veterans from left James Miller Paul Keeler Arnold Hoster and George Fulwider peer into a battered German Bunker. A amps photos by Ken George we had a cause that we believed Iby Don Tate staff writer they Rode in on a comfortable bus and stayed in a quaint and cozy hotel at the Edge of the Forest of bad dreams. The dinner was Fine the laughter convivial. The returning veterans Back to track their terrible Battle had three different kinds of meats lots of wine and a Lovely Caramel so Light it floated Down your Throat dessert. It was All very pleasant and civilized. But it had nothing to do with their memories of the Hurtgen Forest. Because that was t the Way it was or the Way Thev were in those last bitter Days of 1944 and Early 1945. There Are no desserts served in hell. The 709th tank in was a self described Quot Bastard Quot outfit that Rode to the Rescue on Sherman tanks with 75mm guns that were hard put to Knock the paint off a growling German Tiger Royal. But they kept shooting. From Normandy and the breakthrough at avalanches they went smoking across France and Germany into Czechoslovakia. In the process they reinforced no less than 12 different divisions seven coys and four different . Armies. And did it any Way they getting ambushed in thick French hedgerow country they pulled up Railroad ties lashed them to their tanks As battering rams and went ramming Forward. But the most trouble the roving gunslingers Ever ran into was in the months they spent in that great dark and deadly old Forest of which Ernest Hemingway said Quot anybody who fought in the Hurtgen Forest and said he knew where he was was t in the Murteen that s Hurtgen As in Hurt. Bad. It was the closest thing to German Jungle Blacker than the Black Forest when the Battle started eerie Drifting Shell burning White when the snows started. They were in there All right clanking and tramping through the blood and the Snow and the steel twisted Trees. The worst Winter in 100 years the natives told them. There was pfc. George Fulwider a Little Guy from Tacoma wash., running and dodging the dead and wounded Back to Aid stations in his battered jeep. He remembers the weather before he remembers death. Quot it was so cold. Terrible. Awful awful. You d put your hand on a tank and it would just stick. You could t get dry could t get warm. There had been a tank hit and lost out there for a couple of weeks with the bodies still in it. Because of my size i was designated to crawl Down into the Hatch and tie ropes around the dead to pull them out. There were four of them burned so you did t know who they were anymore. Dead two weeks. You can t Ever forget that. It s still fresh in my mind. In my thanksgiving 1944. Pierce Kirk of san Mateo calif., was a lieutenant waiting for the relatively warm Turkey dinner being chugged out to the troops in trucks. But the germans kept icing things Over with tree bursts. 88s whistling in like Little freight trains rattling though the Trees smack whack crack Boorom in the treetops. Snow leaves chunks of Wood and ice and glowing steel kept showering Down on the festivities. We did t get ours till night Quot says Kirk standing now in the slight chill of an autumn Day. Back then he stood under the cracked smoking Trees in about 2 feet of Snow. Quot every tree had been hit by shrapnel. A truck pulled up and we got out mess kits. You could t sit Down. You had to stand by your tank. You did t know what minute they d Start firing again. We ate As fast As we could and kept changing positions because of the shelling. I almost ended up eating mine in my helmet. What a place. We could t move the germans out. They were dug in so Damn deep like they had grown roots in Perry Cox Mobile ala., was a Captain commanding b co. Quot the weather was Zero and below Zero. You know it s cold when you eat with your dirty gloves on. No heat in the tank. When the tank was running it pulled cold air through the hatches to Cool the engines. Like sitting in a snowstorm. Your Turret would freeze to the Hull of the tank. We had a German flame thrower and we awarded whoever let it get stuck the Honor of getting in there by himself. We d Back up a Hundred Yards while he warmed the tank up using the Flamethrower like a of his company s 18 tanks 15 of them got smashed. Quot it was a meat grinder in there Quot mutters Cox who says he dreamed and churned in the meat grinder for 25 years before he could put a lid on it. They re standing by a shot up German Bunker now and the memories Roll Tike Thunder from Valhalla. They talk about the sergeant who was the last Man alive in his tank with the track blown off. That was the sergeant who plunged out on foot to warn american infantry they were walking into a trap then crawled Back into his tank and stood off the charging germans with nothing left to fight with but his pistol. Until they finally killed Napier Quot one of them says very softly Quot Vernon Napier Quot Napier was put in for the medal of Honor but All he got for his hard lonely death was the distinguished service Cross. And that sudden glinting of remembered courage in his old comrades eyes that special tone of voice like a Distant Bugle when they speak his name 45 years later. You Quot Cox says Quot the germans had everything so zeroed in. If you knew where battalion Headquarters was you could Park your jeep and you had about eight seconds to get to cover before they dropped three rounds on your head. They were very methodical the very methodical people had the Hurtgen plotted like a cemetery they had a pressing contract to fill up. John Waluk of Toms River n.j., came within a blink of helping them meet the quota. He remembers going out to recover some american tanks abandoned in the Snow when suddenly he saw an armed figure approaching him. Quot shoot in John it s a German Quot shouted a buddy. Quot no Don t shoot it s an american Quot yelled Back Quot no no it s a German a Kraut shoot shoot Quot Waluk could t bring himself to pull the trigger. Quot i did t believe he was a German till he fired at me and then my buddy fired and dropped him in the Snow. The next Day i turned myself in to the medics for an Eye exam. And i be been wearing glasses Ever the first germans Waluk truly saw Quot were two of them sitting by a machine gun. We pulled up in our tank in a Field. They just sat there like they were waiting for us to serve them lunch or something. They d been dead for a in the dark Liscomb ovulating swirl of the Hurtgen Quot you could t see nothing Quot recalls James Miller of Millington Tenn. Quot and then they would open up on us. We could t get the tanks through the Woods. I remember All the bodies lined up. Theirs stretched out on one Side o the Road ours on the other. Far Down As you could see. Unbelievable. They just shelled the he double a out of us. I Don t know How we made Quot so How did you Quot Quot Well Quot the old Tennessee Farmer who still farms says we worked at it pretty Quot we had a cause Quot adds Perry Cox Quot that we believed in. It keeps you going a Little Joe Lysik of East Hartford conn., a tank gunner needed All the cause he could get in the Hurtgen. He had one brother killed just outside the Forest and another twice wounded in it. Lysik got hit himself in the arms legs and head from a tree burst. Quot it was All mixed up in there. You never knew where you were. We had fog we had rain we had Snow. We went Forward but did t know where to shoot. I saw germans running but did t dare shoot because i did t know where the americans i he germans seemed to know where he was. The steel by put in him still makes Airport Metal detectors sine bad tunes. A i Itgen Forest Quot he shakes his head Quot the brass there Quot new 1 he they were doing sending us in
