After 65 years

After 65 years, US Military Searches German Battlefields for Fallen Soldiers

Above: Looking for the remains of U.S. soldiers lost in the battle for the Huertgen Forest

By Angelika Franz

Experts with the United States military expend enormous resources to search for the bodies of missing soldiers. A team is currently at work in the northern Eifel Mountains region of western Germany, where tens of thousands of Americans died during World War II.

This is the heading of an article printed in Der Spiegel and the complete article can be read at the following site:

http://www.spiegel.de:80/international/germany/0,1518,577244,00.html

The background to this story as well as additional information about the two missing American soldiers is included in the exchange of e-mail following correspondence. The purpose of this information is perhaps to aid in the location of the bodies of these two GIs missing since 1944.

Hi, Ron, Ernie, Don, Paul, and Everett!

    How did all this inquiry get started? I translated a German article about two dead bodies being recovered from a former foxhole in Schmidt, which appeared in "Der Spiegel." Elfriede Wilden, formerly of Paustenbach, just 2 Kn. from Lammersdorf, sent the article to me. On December 27, 1944, A Company Hdq. Platoon moved into the Wilden home in Paustenbach. The family, after hiding out in the woods for about four weeks, was sent back into Belgium with other families from other villages in the North Eifel. I have been corresponding with members of the Wilden family since 1962.

    My translation of the "Spiegel" story appeared in the January 2009 issue of the 78th Division's "The Flash." Everett Drinnon read the translation and telephoned me about an experience he had in February 1945. (It may have been as early as February 5, the date Ron gives for the attack at the "Altes Forsthaus" in the Huertgen Forest.) He wrote that "this has haunted me for all these years, knowing that we had buried two unidentified soldiers who, no doubt, had families longing to know where their loved ones lay." Everett stated in an e-mail dated Feb. 10 that he volunteered for the mission "to deactivate mines on corpses in the Huertgen Forest." He was the only one from A Company, 303rd Engineers. The other men on the mission were from the 309th Regiment (company unknown), as was the captain leading the mission. He states that the "two corpses were fused together in a foxhole, having been there for a long time. We were unable to remove the bodies due to lack of leverage, and the commanding officer...directed that we bury them where they lay." Later he states, that "we had no choice but to follow orders."

    Two weeks ago, as recommended by the female author of the story in "Der Spiegel," I wrote to the MIA/POW Command in Hawaii. I expected to hear from the MIA/POW Command but have heard nothing so far.

Thank you, Ron, for your follow-up. I sent a copy of your e-mail to Everett, Perhaps your e-mail will jog his memory a bit more. Is there anything else we should do at this end?

Merle

Mar 24, 2009 04:27:01 PM, westwall@home.nl wrote:

Hi Merle, Hi Ernie, Hi Don, Hi Paul

    Here's the email address of Merle Hill from the 78th ID Ern, just get it touch with him about the story of the two GI's they are searching for at the Hürtgen Forest. Merle, the story of Mr Drinnon; - when he writes that the two dead soldiers in their foxhole were from the 28th ID, and their location was not far from a pillbox, it only can be somewhere at your old battle area at Raffelsbrand. - I know that A (and C) Co 303 Eng were there. ----- besides that, there are no pillboxes in the 28th / 109 and 112 Regiment battle area. - so the dead 28th ID soldiers must be from 110th Regt. - at Raffelsbrand.

    The hunters lodge that looked like a pillbox is either the "Jägerhaus" (the 303rd Engineers used it as their command post), (taken in September 44 by the 60th/9th ID) or it is more likely the "Altes Forsthaus" at Raffelsbrand itself; .... but the "Altes Forsthaus" was not taken before February 4 by the 309th/78th ID, I don't know when Mr. Drinnon found the dead soldiers.


    Don, you were there in October (9th ID), Paul in November (28th ID) and Merle in December (78th ID); - and although you guys don't know each other, you all fought at the very same battle area at Raffelsbrand. You can read all about it from the German side in the Luftwaffe report and the Günther Schmidt story on Ernie's site. - almost day by day., each pillbox is mentioned. -- it's only a matter of reading and checking the attached map.It's not that I have a negative attitude, but I think it will be very difficult, if not sheer impossible to find back those two dead 28th ID soldiers. --- Paul, maybe you can add some info about your time with the 28th ID at Raffelsbrand ?

    You guys should get in touch with each other, all you old GI's are Raffelsbrand Vets.I'll attach another map; - the first attack of I Co / 60th / 9th ID at Raffelsbrand. - you were there Don !!! Hey, I'm studying this particular area for 15 years. - No one tells me anything about Raffelsbrand. Don't use these maps for your site Ern, they have cost me a small fortune; - and besides that, these map would bring even more "pillbox-tourists" to the Hürtgen Forest, who mostly leave an awful lot of trash in the forest. -- and as a Hürtgen Forest guide, I would throw in my own windows by publishing these maps.


Greetings from Holland;         Ron

    Hi Vets

    If it was in February 45 when Everett was sent on his mission, and he says that there were pillboxes in the same area, you can bet that it must be the "sites Forsthaus" at Raffelsbrand itself. - no doubt about that. The slte Forsthaus is gone now and it took me quite a while to find its remains back to pinpoint the exact location. ...... I have a picture of the sites Forsthaus somewhere over here, I'll try to find it tomorrow, maybe Everett can recognize it.

    I know a guy who lived at the Forsthaus as a child during the war; - it was in 1943 when some bombs fell in the area, so his dad asked permission to the authorities to let his children sleep in the pillbox which was directly attached to the Forsthaus. - he was allowed to do so. - another pillbox was only 20 yards away, and another one 50 yards away. The best would be if Everett could come over because we will never be able to find back the location where he found the two dead soldiers in their foxhole.

    It will be 10 years ago when I was with some British friends, searching the area around the altes Forsthaus with metal detectors. We found all kinds of stuff but suddenly we found a German boot, the foot still inside. We reburied it out of respect and stopped searching, I just couldn't do it anymore. Everett, can you draw a map of the area as you remember it ? Here's another map, I can't get any closer than this. - This is the altes Forsthaus. - the 309th took it on February 4th. -- read all about it in the Günter Schmidt report on Ernie's site. This is where you fought at the Hürtgen Forest 65 years ago. Merle, you also can compare it with the 309th report, sent in (Flash) by Sue Olmstead. - let me know if you can't find it, I have it somewhere over here. ....... (komisch um Dich in Englisch zu schreiben, ich hoffe Du kannst mein Knubbelenglisch lesen).

                                                                            Servus;           Ron