My Dad was a Master Sergeant in the Battle of the Bulge / Colmar Pocket area although he was the senior JAG NCO and not in front line combat. It was only when I was middle aged that he described to me his first big shock of how close and real that combat was as he was standing in the chow line in the rain and he and his buddy pulled up a canvas back flap on a deuce-n-half to see if they could use it to be out of the rain for a few minutes. He said that the back of that parked truck was full of the bodies of GIs “stacked up like cord wood.” They quickly re-secured the canvas.
I still remember the shocked awe in his voice in those four words.