Posted on 11/11/2009 8:47:14 PM PST by B-Chan
86-year-old World War II veteran Joseph Robertson fought for the Allies at the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler’s last major offensive. Amidst fierce combat and harsh winter weather, both the Germans and the Allies suffered heavy casualties. But Mr. Robertson has never been able to forget one young soldier he killed there. In July 2005, he shared this memory with son-in-law John Fish, Jr. at a StoryCorps MobileBooth in Columbus, Ohio.
Heartfelt thanks to all those forced to take life in defense of the United States.
Very touching.
So how old was the kid he shot?
Interesting...
Along the same lines, in this morning’s “70 Years Ago” thread, we were discussing the “FeldPost Projekt”. It’s the German version of our “Letters Home” projects in America.
Ernst and Irene Guiking donated 1,800 letters, written during WW2 to the project. A few of the them are already posted on the Museum’s website.
These are unique because Ernst was a professional enlisted soldier in the Wehrmacht, beginning the war 8th Regiment, 38th Infantry Division. He would participate in all major Campaigns, starting in Poland, the the Invasion of France, and the Soviet Union, fighting until the very end of the War.
He would demobilize in the field, and return home, never having been a POW. An amazing feat, considering the death rate of enlisted soldiers that were in the Army on Sept, 1 1939 was over 90% by War’s end. (for Officer’s, it was almost 60%)
http://www.museumsstiftung.de/feldpost/brief.html?action=detail&what=letter&id=1283
Haunting. What more can you call the memory for this man? G*d bless ‘em all.
Americans are mainly very decent people. This was a tragedy, but he had no choice. He had to do it. He shouldn’t have looked too closely at him. I guess if you start thinking about people you have shot in war as people instead of just targets, it can get to you.
I feel so sorry for this decent American hero.
A friend of mine's Step Dad shot a young boy who had opened the hatch on his tank, and was fixing to pull the pin on a grenade and drop it in. Her Step Dad was haunted by it-overtaken by it. One night, he walked out into the backyard, and blew his brains out.
That is really sad and regretable.
War is really a horrible thing and people who have never been in it probably can’t properly conceptualize the feeling of what goes on there.
Horrible, but at times necessary because the alternative is even worse.
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