"THE WOODS WERE INFESTED WITH GERMAN SOLDIERS, and the men knew it. On the day before, their sister unit, the 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, had entered the Alsatian forest known as the Bois de Riedwihr and—having gone too far too fast, outrunning their artillery supports—been blown to pieces. The remnants of the 30th took refuge beyond the Ill River, in the direction of Holtzwihr, and awaited reinforcements. That was why, on January 24, 1945, the men of Company B, 115th Infantry Regiment, took up the approach march.
As Company B entered the woods, they encountered extremely heavy resistance in the form of sniper nests, artillery bursts fused for treetop detonation, mines, booby traps, mortars, and machine guns sited for cross fire. The company had to fight their way tree to tree, and by the end of the day they had little ammunition left. When the company commander was seriously wounded by a mortar round, a fresh-faced second lieutenant, who looked more like one of Norman Rockwell's newspaper boys than someone you'd trust your life to, was ordered to take command and resume the advance at first light.
The life of a second lieutenant in command of an infantry company during World War II was usually very short. The chances of surviving to become a first lieutenant were slim; of surviving the war, slimmer still; and of emerging physically unhurt, almost nil. In one 50-day period as this particular division fought its way through the hills of Italy, line units reported a 152 percent loss in second lieutenants. The greatest likelihood of casualty occurred during a combat infantryman's first 10 days in battle, but that of course did not mean that if he kept whole bones for 10 days he would not be or wounded on the 11th, or even that his experience would somehow shield him from what lay ahead in the days afterward…"
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