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Chapter 6
The Ardennes
Well, we hit the Siegfried Line. It was nothing like the Maginot Line, which was a series of forts. The Siegfried Line was lines of pill boxes two hundred miles long and fifty miles wide. We had to take one pill box at a time. We were losing a lot of men to the enemy. This is what I think they did. They put all green divisions up front and the Germans plowed through them. The Big Red One was in a rest camp and they rushed us back up there. It was like a draw play in football. We held and trapped them in the Rose Pocket. It was named after General Rose who was killed in combat. We captured several thousand prisoners.
Well, I never was much good after I got hit in that foxhole. My nerves were bad and I got to where I knew that if I went into one more battle I would get killed. I went to the hospital and they took all kinds of tests. They gave me a shot and put me to sleep. Then they played recordings of battles, machine gun fire, artillery and bayonet attacks. After that I received word that my father had passed away, that my mother had been killed in an automobile accident, and that my brother Bill was missing in action. It was almost more than I could stand. Well, they put me in an engineer battalion. We were laying steel planking for Air Corps runways. Some of my friends found a barrel of German beer and we were standing around drinking beer when a truck pulled into the company area. The driver said, "Sergeant Wilson, get your gear together, you are going home."
Well, I was numb. I could not believe this was happening to me. I was going home on points. Then I got to thinking of all the good friends that would not be going home. On the way to Paris I wrote these lines:
The First Division
Onward, First Division,
Onward to meet the foe.
May we never falter
As into battle we go.
Though our hearts are heavy
With thoughts of home and God
Let us all press forward
To where the huns have trod.
We have all pressed forward
And we have met the foe.
With many missing in our ranks,
They did their duty, we know.
So, cheer up, all you mothers
As you shed a tear or so.
Your sons all died as heroes,
So onward we could go.
We know we have a duty
And a duty it shall be
To honor God and Country
As we go on to Liberty.
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