Download - 70th Infantry Division Association

emember the Germans opened up with artillery 88s and they caught the 70th and the 103rd on the same
hill.
We all jumped in holes. I remember I jumped in a hole and it felt like the whole 103rd (which was
equivalent to 15,000 men) jumped in with me. Everybody jumped on top of me because there weren't
enough holes to go around. Of course, we eventually withdrew from the rear and went back to the
regiment in the rear area for a while.
However, on January 14, we had wounded a German and he was at the bottom of the hill. He was cold
and his foot had been shot off; he kept yelling, "Help me, help me!" It was hard on the morale of the
troops listening to that soldier dying. Finally an officer came over and said, "Bru, you take a couple
prisoners (we had some German prisoners) and go down there and bring that guy up on top of the hill to
see if we can shut him up." So I took two prisoners and went down the hill, approximately 150-200 feet.
My outfit was on top of that hill and all eyes were on me, but still, I was getting awfully close to the enemy
and I was all by myself with two German prisoners. As I approached the wounded soldier, I noticed he
was a kid not any older than I was and I was only 19 years old. I started to talk to him. I asked him if he
spoke English. He said, "Nein." He was cold and he was shivering, but his foot wasn't bleeding even
though it was in sad shape. I had my back to the enemy lines and was facing the fellows in the front,
trying to get the Germans to pick the guy up. We didn't have a stretcher, but we had some blankets and
were trying to carry him in a blanket roll. Unknown to me, there were some German soldiers hiding in the
bushes at my back side. One was an officer and the rest of them were non-commissioned officers. They
wanted to surrender and came out with their hands up. I will never forget that as long as I live. There I am
with a 45 pistol, two prisoners and a wounded man with my back to them.. They could have cut me to
ribbons. Eight soldiers came out of those bushes, armed with rifles. My outfit wanted to open fire and I
kept them calm, saying, "Don't shoot, don't shoot!", because that's the first thing they said to me when
they came out. I could see that they had a rifle with a white flag and wanted to surrender. I finally got my
outfit settled down where they would not shoot and the Germans were coming cut. As they approached
me, I told them to throw their weapons on the ground. They did, right in front of me. The officer came up
and he had a German lugger, a real beauty; I took it from him and then proceeded to organize the party to
carry this wounded guy and get the hell out of there. I wanted to get back up with my own fellows. I
figured that there were going to be more Germans, because they always worked that way. They always
shot when they saw one American because they knew there would be more. I learned that lesson a long
time ago, so I figured there had to be more Germans around. I tried to organize the.party but the officer
was giving me a hard time, because he didn't want to pick up the wounded soldier. Now it was cold and I
was tired and hungry and in enemy territory completely surrounded by Germans and I was scared to
death. I just wanted to get this guy up on the hill and here is this stupid officer trying to give me a bad time
because he says he is an officer and, according to the rules and regulations of war, an officer is not
supposed to work. Finally I said for pity's sake and I got his attention; he picked up the wounded soldier
and we made it to the top of the hill.
When we got to the top, our medic took a look at the German who was wounded. At that time he used
sulfur to patch the wound and wrapped bandage around it and took him over on the other side of the hill
where there were more prisoners. This was a case where I was credited verbally but never received an
award. They said, "Brubaker, you are a brave soldier to go out and fight a war and catch eight prisoners
with your back turned." At the time I didn't think it was one bit funny; but after it was over, I did manage to
see the humor in it, although I would never want to go through that again -- no way!
On January 16, 1945, we left the assembly area one mile north of Mattstall, France, at 1700, and moved
towards new positions. On January 17, 1945, we arrived at a new position at Folkling, France at 3:00 by
truck. We relieved and took positions of Company G, 411th Infantry Regiment. I never did understand
what all the maneuvering of people was about.
On January 18, our company commander saw fit to promote 18 enlisted men from privates to privates first
class. Now really that doesn't mean much. A private got promoted to PFC and he got one stripe and a
pay increase of about $10 a month. But I'll tell you something, it was a real morale booster for the outfit.