Dog Company by Patrick K. O'Donnell

Author:Patrick K. O'Donnell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2012-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

The next day, the Rangers attacked a nearby German position in what would be platoon leader George Kerchner’s last action. As he and his men assaulted a machine gun nest near the hill, an MG-42 opened up, and a single bullet dug deeply into his shoulder, ripping it apart. As a medic carried him off the field, Kerchner thought the wound might be critical enough to send him home. Indeed, Kerchner was right. “It was the last time we ever saw him,” recalled Ruggerio.

Hill 63 proved crucial for both the Germans and the Rangers. For an entire week, Dog Company tenaciously clung to the hill as the Germans launched countless counterattacks and relentlessly pelted the Rangers and their French allies with artillery. The most deadly came from the Lochrist Battery. The 88 mm artillery could easily reach Hill 63, but the 626-pound shells delivered by the big guns from the battery proved even more deadly. “My God, the damage those shells could do! I’ve seen whole hedgerows disappear before my eyes,” recalled Hagg. “Of course, the 88s were boom, boom, boom, but the shells on the Graf Spee were not as fast, but they were way bigger. You could actually see the shell as it was coming at you.”

The gun battery was not the only danger the Rangers encountered on the Hill. Throughout the week, the Rangers also sustained self-propelled artillery, sniper, and mortar fire. One day, Ruggiero and his friend Joe Flanagan were lying behind a hedgerow discussing an incident that had occurred earlier in the week when someone yelled, “Ruggie, get over this hedgerow and bring that [SCR-]536 radio.”

At only five-foot-three, Ruggiero looked up at the much taller, prickly hedgerow and said, “How the hell am I going to get over that?”

“Come on Rugg, I’ll put you over it,” offered Flanagan. “Keep your feet together, and when I count to three, straighten them out.” Ruggiero later recalled, “He gave me a hell of a shove. I just caught the hedgerow, the top of it, and got one leg over, and that mortar came right in. It sailed right by me, only inches from my body. It cut Flanagan right in half. I got a couple splinters in me. I was so concerned about him. Oh, Jesus, what a mess.”

Ruggiero radioed for help, and Lomell soon arrived in a Jeep bearing a Red Cross flag. “Are you alright, Rugg?” asked Lomell.

“I don’t know. I got some splinters in my ass, but it’s no big deal,” he answered.

Amazingly, Flanagan was still alive. With his glasses covered in blood, Flanagan started yelling, “Clean my glasses, I can’t see anything. I can’t see, I can’t see! Clean my glasses!”

“My God, we knew he wasn’t going to survive,” explained Ruggiero. “We got him on the Jeep as best we could, what was left of him. We covered him up, and Lomell drove him to the field hospital. He was dead before he got there. It was completely horrible to see a guy get hit like that.

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