For "Lucky Ones",...

[SEATJERKER]

...perserving individual history, and accounts,...

...Frank Minor is a friend of the family,...

...For "lucky Ones" horrors of war remain vivid

Colonie-- Battle of the Bulge veterans recall horrendous sight of dead bodies after historic fight

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
First published: Wednesday, December 17, 2003

Working as an undertaker in Troy, Frank Miner had handled his share of dead bodies by the time he was drafted into the Army at age 26.
None of that work fully prepared him, though, for his duties in a Graves Registration Company during the Battle of the Bulge, which began on Dec. 16, 1944, and was the largest and one of the bloodiest battles of World War II



"There were so many men. We buried them as they were," recalled Miner, 86, of Eagle Mills, Rensselaer County, on the 59th anniversary of the historic fight. He was joined by about 100 veterans, spouses and family members at a luncheon of the Hudson Valley chapter of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge.

The battlefield burial ritual was the same for each soldier, whether American, Allied or German.

Miner and his assistants removed dog tags, made fingerprints, created an imprint of the teeth and wrote brief notes on where the body was found and probable cause of death.

They carefully covered each corpse with a plain white mattress cover and lowered it into a hastily dug grave.

"There were too many to take the time to say a prayer," Miner said.

His own company processed and buried 5,244 bodies between Christmas 1944 and when Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945.

The job of tending to the dead was an overwhelming one.

At the conclusion of the six-week Battle of the Bulge, in which 1 million troops fought, 19,000 Americans were killed and 52,000 were wounded or captured. There were 100,000 Germans killed, wounded or captured.

"We buried Germans in the same, methodical fashion that we buried our own," Miner said. "We kept careful records. We knew the families would want to come over from Germany afterward to claim their loved ones."

The famous battle -- named for the temporary shape of the thinly fortified American front lines after the surprise German offensive -- took place in the snow-covered, heavily forested mountain region of Ardennes between eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg.

Adolf Hitler's Panzer brigades struck an 80-mile front, using the heavy forest to cover a massive buildup of troops. It was a desperate move by Germany after months of losing the war. Hitler's goal was to reach the sea, trap four Allied armies, create dissension among them and force a negotiated peace on the Western front.

Heavily outnumbered, Allied soldiers fought hard in Ardennes and held the line, soon aided by powerful reinforcements that thwarted Hitler's offensive.

"I slept through the whole start of it," recalled Harry Martin, of the 106th Infantry Division, who traveled from New Jersey to reunite with his 106th foxhole buddies, John Wood, of Argyle, and Grayson Bishop, of Falls Church, Va.

"The German artillery barrage was thunderous. It was raining shrapnel. Every shell felt like it landed 10 feet away," recalled Wood, who was awakened in his bunk in a log bunker during the predawn onslaught.

Nearby, Martin, a heavy sleeper, snoozed through the one-hour German bombardment. He awoke to find the bunker empty.

Martin scrambled out into the woods, where wan light was breaking, and took his place in a foxhole beside Wood and Bishop. The trio had been thrown together by chance at basic training in Indiana and they were green, with no combat experience.

"I was afraid of the jolt and hadn't even qualified on the rifle," Martin conceded.

In the frozen, silent morning air following the bombardment, German soldiers swarmed down from a nearby hillside. "They screamed with shrieks that cut right through you," Martin said. "It sounded like they were high or drunk."

After a few minutes, Martin had no choice but to get comfortable with his rifle. He began mowing down advancing Germans.

"We had to get out of the foxholes to shoot over the dead bodies," Wood said. "The Germans just kept coming. What saved us was that the Germans couldn't get to us with their tanks because of deep mud. And then our reinforcements swarmed in like bees and saved the day."

By the time they drove back the Germans and Wood could survey the killing field, it was a horrendous sight.

"You could walk across the whole field without touching the ground," he said. "It was just covered with dead bodies."

That was about the time that Miner and his Graves Registration Company diligently began going about their grim work.

"There are a lot of bad memories that I tried to leave there," said Ray Keech, 79, of Hudson Falls, who served with the 204th Engineers Combat Battalion. Keech and his two brothers, Don and Art, all managed to survive service in World War II without critical injuries.

"We left some blood over there, but we were among the lucky ones," Keech said.

Keech still carries a piece of shrapnel under the skin of his right cheek.

When it drops below freezing, usually around the time of the anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, the shrapnel starts hurting.

The ache in his cheek won't let him forget the horrors he witnessed.


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[DMZ-LT]

Thanks Curtis. My Dad was at the Bulge. He never talked about the war but one day I pestered him about this battle and he told me about running commo wire through the frozen deads hands that were sticking up through the snow across a field. He started crying and I never asked him about the war again. Salute to these men.

[Keith_Hixson]

One guy was a tank commander with Patton.
One was an Artillery battery leader a Staff Sergeant.
One was a cook who was made to learn Artillery.

Great Men All!

They all talk about the tremendous carnage! The carnage to buildings, land and humanity must of been terrible. They don't say much about that, more about buddies and friendships with the guys. They use to go annual reunions of the their battalions etc.

I SALUTE all who gave their lives in that Great Battle.
I SALUTE all who survived.

Keith

[Dragon Lady]

God Bless each of them with many more years of peace.

thank you Curtis for sharing their history with us. It is so important that these historical statements are shared with each generation to come!