Mel Brooks enlisted in the Army in 1944 as a teenager and was “assigned to the 1104th Engineer Combat Group in time to participate in the Battle of the Bulge (although he would later state that he was not at the center of the most heated action).”
http://www.usace.army.mil/About/History/HistoricalVignettes/SportsEntertainment/109MelBrooks.aspx
Well Mel Brooks made great fun of the NAZIs with The Producers. He said his best way and sometimes THE best way to get at people is to ridicule them