Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

8.2. CAPTURE Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIbetween Malmedy, Belgium and Aachen, Germany. This area faced the ArdennesForest and was considered fairly secure since Allied planners thoughtthat German armor could not penetrate the Forest. They were wrong, andthe German high command took advantage of this error.Dad’s company had been assigned a new commander. Their area of theline had a raised rail road embankment running through it with the edge ofthe forest being just across a clearing. The older, more experienced officersand NCO’s argued for using the railroad embankment as cover, making thistheir main line of resistance. But, the new commander ordered that they digtheir foxholes in the clearing in front of the embankment. This was tacticallyunsound.8.2 CaptureOn December 16, 1944, the Germans initiated their attack with armor supportedby infantry. The armor broke out of the forest in front of Dad’scompany, and while the G.I.’s could keep the infantry at bay, they had nothingthat would even slow down the tanks. But, the tanks were unable todepress their main guns, and machine guns enough to hit the American’s intheir foxholes. So, the tanks simply stopped over a foxhole with their exhaustright over the hole and asphyxiated the soldiers, or locked up one tread overthe hole and spun around causing the hole to cave in, crushing the soldiers.Dad and his buddy had dug their hole right against the base of the railroadembankment and the tanks were unable to get at them. For awhile theythought that the Germans had forgotten about them, but then a tank cameup over the embankment behind them and was able to point it’s machinegun and main gun right down their hole. They surrendered. They were theonly two survivors.Dad’s unit had been near Malmedy, Belgium where the Germans massacredover 80 GI’s, and Dad was always thankful that he didn’t end upthere. When we lived in Cleveland, OH, I remember Dad taking us to meet105