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2011-12-19 Europe

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Posted by Beavis 2011-12-19 08:40|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 The picture of the young boy crying as he is captured is heart rending. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for a 15-year old to be fighting in a way for Germany like cannon fodder, knowing the hopelessness of the situation.

I know we had 15-year olds lying to enlist and I talked to an 8th Air Force survivor who showed me a picture of his bomber crew and said the tail gunner confessed to him that he was actually only 16 after flying 12 missions..he may have been only 14 when he enlisted.

AND my Ranger buddy was a Marine buck sergeant who had spent 30 months in Viet Nam, had four purple hearts and a Silver Star. He had his 20th birthday during a two day break between the mountain phase and the Florida phase, so he was about 15 when he enlisted.

Still the look on the face of that German child haunts me with the terror and the anguish. No one that young should have that look on their face.

Posted by Bill Clinton 2011-12-19 12:41|| 2011-12-19 12:41|| Front Page Top

#2 My dad was one of the people from the 9th Artillery Regiment that supported the 101st at Bastogne. That's when he had frostbite so badly he almost lost three toes. He said they used their 155s as anti-tank weapons - zero elevation, zero deflection, straight kinetic shot. The shells didn't travel far enough to arm.

Posted by Old Patriot 2011-12-19 15:33|| 2011-12-19 15:33|| Front Page Top

#3 That fifteen year old German kid may well have been terrified but he didn't know how lucky he was. For him, at that point, the war was over and he had survived it. If he'd been captured by the Russians it would have been a whole different story.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-12-19 16:25|| 2011-12-19 16:25|| Front Page Top

#4 My father fought the Japanese Empire the entire Pacific war. Three hard years. Shot once, bayoneted once, malaria fevered. All of that made him one lean killing machine. Was on a ship headed to rendevous with the assault force being assembled to take it to main land Japan when the Atomic Bombs were dropped.

As a kid I used to read the stuff on the backs of the battle maps he brought home which they marked to pinpoint enemy hot spots as well as write messages and lists of KIA and wounded during combat between the officers. Wish I knew where they were. But, they are gone forever.

Posted by Chetch Unomoth2003 2011-12-19 18:13|| 2011-12-19 18:13|| Front Page Top

#5 Wid 155-mms, evena near miss is enough to knock out an enemy tank.

Or three, off the steel herd is dense enough.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2011-12-19 18:44|| 2011-12-19 18:44|| Front Page Top

#6 The Jackson was an up-graded M10 Tank Destroyer. It had a 90mm gun instead of the 76mm.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2011-12-19 18:51|| 2011-12-19 18:51|| Front Page Top

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