Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories · Evergreen Podcasts | The Honor Project

Battle of the Bulge: From the Archive

·1 hr 8 min·2 clips

A German loudspeaker welcomed 'Company F, 395th Infantry' by name, then followed the surrender offer with an artillery barrage.

1. Warriors In Their Own Words presents archival first-person accounts of the Battle of the Bulge, opening with a narrated setup of 600,000 Germans in 29 divisions striking in December 1944. 2. Douglas Dillard, a paratrooper with the 551st, supplies the longest account, joined by his commanding officer Richard Durkee and by Bob Piller of Company F, 395th Infantry, 99th Division. 3. The central thread is how ordinary soldiers endured cold, short supplies and constant fire, with Dillard saying the 551st fought for 'three and a half days' in constant firefight and was 'never in the reserve' from January 3 to the night of January 7. 4. Dillard recalls a 3 a.m. alert in Lyon, a night-long truck ride into Belgium with 30 men per truck, and a Christmas Eve attack canceled because the 30th Infantry Division mistook his battalion of about 600 for a regiment of 3,000. 5. He describes the lack of winter gear, including cotton jumpsuits, a tanker suit bartered from a tanker, and overcoats ordered left behind so the 551st could move fast, which he links to later frostbite cases. 6. Dillard credits First Sergeant Roy McGraw with ordering him to the aid station when both feet were numb to the knees after falling into a stream, which led to four weeks in a hospital in England. 7. Durkee recounts fixing bayonets on January 4 when weapons would not fire, then leading a January 7 patrol toward Rockville and later describing a platoon attack in which his scouts and most of his men were killed, leaving about 16 to 20 wounded around an aid station he set up. 8. Piller describes arriving at the front in November 1944 to relieve the 102nd Cavalry, where a German loudspeaker played American music, greeted 'Company F, 395th Infantry,' and offered surrender before a roughly 15-minute barrage. 9. He also recalls rejoining his unit for the withdrawal to Elsenborn Ridge, a downed German pilot whose clothes were taken as souvenirs, and Lieutenant Stewart being relieved of command after objecting to a patrol, followed by a Christmas of K-rations and shelling. 10. Suited to listeners of World War II oral histories and infantry-level combat accounts.

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