If You Survive: From Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge to the End of World War II, One American Officer's Riveting True Story by George Wilson

Author:George Wilson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: World War II, 20th century, Modern, Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, Military, History
ISBN: 9780804100038
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 1987-05-12T05:00:00+00:00

Next morning broke clear and cold as I led the company out into attack the first time as its commander. As planned, the lead platoon went up through G Company to the line of departure and, by radio control, E and F companies jumped off together.

I followed my second platoon across the north-south road and into the thick woods. After I’d moved in about one hundred yards, something suddenly bothered me, and so I pulled out my map to check our position. It was lucky I did, because the map showed we were to the left of the fire trail instead of to the right and that we were actually in E Company’s territory. This meant we were forcing E to their left, into a ragged gully.

Now the entire company would have to swing back south and get on the right-hand side of the road where we belonged. I radioed the platoon leader to push his men to the right beyond the fire trail immediately and then to continue ahead parallel to the trail to our final objective. He acknowledged the order, and we stayed in place waiting for his move.

A few moments later I looked up to find the lead platoon tearing headlong back to us like frightened deer. When they were near enough, I jumped in front of them, waved my arms, and ordered them to stop right there. I was mad enough to use my rifle on them, and it must have shown, because the men all hit the ground and hid behind tree trunks and stared back the way they had come.

I walked right up close to the most senior man visible and was practically spitting in his face as I demanded to know what he thought he was doing—trying to start a stampede? I raised my voice and told him he’d better not ever again move to the rear without permission. I had not heard any enemy action up front, so I asked just what all the running was about. He said they had run into a big German tank and were pulling back so we could hit the tank with artillery.

That being the case, I asked Lieutenant Caldwell, our artillery observer to go back with one of the men to spot the tank and lay some artillery fire on it.

While they were gone I started to make the rounds and quickly discovered that the rear elements of the company were missing. Normally, the company executive officer would lead them up behind the rest of the company, but we had no exec. They should have been following on their own, but apparently they weren’t that eager. So I went back to the road we had crossed earlier and whipped the men out of the shell holes they were hiding in and sent them up to the main body of the company, which was still where I had left it.

I had been gone less than fifteen minutes, but it had been costly. The fine young redheaded second lieutenant who led the Second Platoon had been shot between the eyes.

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