Battle of Bulge Vets Recall Wartime Memories

CAPE MAY – It’s the little things that war veterans recall most vividly. Generals and colonels fight their wars concerned with divisions, brigades and objectives on maps, while the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who actually achieve the objectives set by those generals are concerned about themselves, their buddies and yes, achieving the mission. 
Those mundane, yet life-changing memories of several combat survivors of the “Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge Association” were exchanged at a special holiday luncheon held at the Mad Batter Restaurant in Cape May Dec. 18.
This year’s event marks the 71st anniversary of that battle fought over Christmas and New Years in 1944 and 1945 as Allies closed in on the German heartland during World War II.
Association historian and 87th Infantry Division mortar squad veteran Gus Epple described the battle that began Dec. 16, 1944 when 1,000 Panzer tanks with 250,000 German soldiers surged through the Ardennes forest that had been designated as an “R & R” location for exhausted American troops.
The area was lightly defended and Germans “blew into our weak defenses” before anyone realized that a major German offensive was underway.
Epple described those little things they recalled while talking about the bulge in the line that widened over the next four days because of the German assault. He spoke of frost-bitten feet that resulted from one of the coldest winters in that region’s history; hip-high snow and piercing winds made everyone miserable.
He recalled that when their frozen feet began to thaw, trench foot then set in to complicate their daily grind as the bulge continued to grow. Epple recalled how just one little piece of ice that got under the back of his collar seemed to freeze him all the way to his toes.
He remembered that when the supposed hot meals arrived, it was so cold that by the time the peas went from the server’s ladle to his metal mess kit, the peas pinged like BBs against the bottom of the kit; they had frozen solid before they hit the metal dish.
Epple reminded attendees, some veterans, many family members and guests, that Americans suffered 19,000 killed and a total of 81,000 casualties during the period of Dec. 16 to Jan. 25 when the bulge was finally closed after desperate and bloody fighting.
The Germans had committed 500,000 troops to their last-ditch effort to win the war, and lost 100,000 killed and countless more wounded in their failed attempt to snatch victory from the Allied invasion of the German homeland. 
Epple ended his presentation by reading the names of dozens of Bulge veterans from South Jersey who survived the war, but who have since died. He had recollections of each one, such as Milt who was a truck driver who went all over the battlefield during the battle, of George West who later helped free a concentration camp and took movies to prove it, and Harry who was captured during the battle and survived a German POW camp until the war ended.
Memories of the little things that soldiers like Epple remember most; memories that paint a picture of battles fought decades ago,  and the everyday courage of men that will live on forever as long as these memories are preserved, re-told  and celebrated by historians, family, and friends.
To contact Jim McCarty, email jmccarty@cmcherald.com.