Post by floydragsdale on Dec 23, 2011 12:10:44 GMT -5
Christmas dinner 1944 for Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion 424th Regiment was served in an open, snow covered, farm field. It was a sunny day and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
The menu was turkey, mashed potatoes gravy, a vegetable and a desert piled on top of the main course.
The body of a dead German soldier was the only place where a G.I. could sit down to eat his dinner.
Out of respect for the dead, this Soldier ate his formal meal, standing up, from the back-end of a manure spreader without holding his nose. The temperature was well below freezing.
From the time a Soldier went through the chow line, found a place to sit down, clear the snow away, ice crystals were forming on his mashed potatoes. I didn’t hear a man complain about an ice cold Christmas dinner.
For too many soldiers this would be their last Holiday meal - - - ever.
After consuming their first meal in many days, an attack on the Belgian village of Manhay was the entertainment for the balance of the afternoon and evening.
It was a costly afternoon! Especially for G Company who suffered many casualties in dead and wounded men.
I remember one Soldier who begged a medic to let him die. An artillery shell had exploded near him. His words were, “Let me die, I don’t want to live like this.” The medic quieted him down with a shot of morphine. I don’t know the rest of that story.
Floyd
The menu was turkey, mashed potatoes gravy, a vegetable and a desert piled on top of the main course.
The body of a dead German soldier was the only place where a G.I. could sit down to eat his dinner.
Out of respect for the dead, this Soldier ate his formal meal, standing up, from the back-end of a manure spreader without holding his nose. The temperature was well below freezing.
From the time a Soldier went through the chow line, found a place to sit down, clear the snow away, ice crystals were forming on his mashed potatoes. I didn’t hear a man complain about an ice cold Christmas dinner.
For too many soldiers this would be their last Holiday meal - - - ever.
After consuming their first meal in many days, an attack on the Belgian village of Manhay was the entertainment for the balance of the afternoon and evening.
It was a costly afternoon! Especially for G Company who suffered many casualties in dead and wounded men.
I remember one Soldier who begged a medic to let him die. An artillery shell had exploded near him. His words were, “Let me die, I don’t want to live like this.” The medic quieted him down with a shot of morphine. I don’t know the rest of that story.
Floyd
