Friday, November 30, 1945
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE end The Legal Chronicle
„ WAR, STORY
by SEYMOUR POLEVETZ
E 4
t
t
My story starts with the com-
mand, "Prepare to mov e up."
The order came through just
about dark last Chanukah. We
a ll groaned as all infantrymen
do and Prepared to move. Mo=t
of us were already tired from
the ten or more miles we had
already walked that (hiv plus
the two times we had to "dig
in." As we walked along, a
rumor started that this was it.
That started an argument. "Dry
run, don't be a sucker again.
dry run." That is what most of
us said. We had been told that
we were going int o comlmt so
many times that no one believed
it any more.
Four and a half hours and
more than ten miles later the
argument was still going m
when the order was givcn to
deploy as skirmishers and pre-
pare to attack. Most of us laugh-
ed and still believed it was "dry
run." We started up the hill in
our best Tennessee maneuvers
formation. Suddenly I heard the
whistle of overhead artillery fire,
COULD THIS ACTUALLY BE
IT? More whistles! Then sud
denly Jimmy, the kid, screamed
and fell down. I ran over to
Jimmy and saw blood ali over
his face. I stood there numb. I
just could not understand that
this was really "it." Something
exploded just behind me and
brought me back to my sense3.
"Keep moving up." That is what
they had always said in train-
ing. Keep moving up! Up to
what? There was noise all
around me now. The screams of
shells, the whine of bullets, THE
SCREAMS OF MEN. Keep mov-
ing up! Keep moving up! I
could hear a voice repeating over
and over and over, "Keep mov-
ing up."
Suddenly, as if I had just
awakened from a deep sleep, I
found myself standing behind
a tree shooting at something.
BUT WHAT? I could not see
anything to shoot at! Then as
I moved my rifle away from my
shoulder, I noticed that it was
empty. I must have fired a full
clip without even knowing it.
I loaded and moved on. Now
things were getting clearer. I
saw Bill up in front of me. We
moved up together. From our
SEYMOUR POLEVETZ
left came a burst of sound. It
was repeated from all directions
at once. I realized that it must
b. some sort of German auto-
matic weapon — funny, it made
me think of a man burping.
Mingling with this somewhat
terrifying noise came the short
whistle and blast of the Ger-
man artillery. I began to lose
control of myself again. I
thought I was going crazy. I
felt Bill slap me on the back
and heard him say, "Let's get
that machine-gun." It was then
that I realized that a machine-
gun was shooting at us also. We
crawled up behind the gun and
dropped a couple of - grenades
near it. As wtr were leaving the
position, we saw about a dozen
Germans coming over a nearby
ridge. I said, "Let's get out of
here before they see us."
"No," said Bill, "let's get
them." We argued. There were men lying around but there was
too many of them.
not a living person to be seen.
"I'm going," I said. "Come I felt panicky for the first time.
on." And I took off without I was afraid all by myself. Did
looking back. Before I had gone we take our objective or did
a hundred yards I heard some the Germans drive us back?
shooting behind me. I turned Whose lines was I behind? Well,
just in time to see Bill, still in there was nothing to do but go
the place where I had argued back the way I had come and
with him, shooting at the Ger. hope for the best.
I was lucky. I met some men
mans. Two of them opened up
with the guns that sounded like from Co. F. They told me that
a burn (burpguns) and Bill the hill was taken and that the
stopped shooting. That was the "dig in" order had been given.
last time I ever saw Bill.
I then thought of food for the
I now took my bearings and first time. I had not eaten _n
realized that I was well away about twenty-four hours. They
from my own troops and very gave me a can of "C" ration and
near the Germans. I began to then one of them went over to
make my way back to my lines a cow that was in a nearby barn
as quickly as possible. As I was and milked it into a canteen cup.
going along I heard an explo-
I rested for a couple of hours
sion behind me and I felt some- and then, after they had given
thing hit me. For some strange me directions, I went back to my
reason as I fell I noticed that company. They had dug in and
dawn was just breaking and I were waiting for an expected
thought of it phrase I had heard counterattack. I found a hole
once, "So ends my night." Fun- that was almost good enough so
ny?
I just improved it a little and
I remember shivering and
thinking that I would like to
have another blanket as I came
to. It took a few seconds to re- Chanukah Greetings
alize that I was lying on the
ground somewhere in Belgium.
I was frozen so stiff that I
couldn't close my fingers. I was
just one big hunk of pain. I
moved around a little to get
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warm. Suddenly I stopped and
listened. There wasn't a sound.
3RD FL. UNIVERSITY BLDG.
Where was all the noise? Where
CH. 5656
was everybody? I saw some dead
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was ready with the rest of my
company. An enemy artillery bar-
rage started about mid-afternoon
and lasted until it was almost
dark. I saw several of the men
in my company, crazed by the
constant shelling, leave the safe-
ty of their holes and run right
into an exploding shell. Any-
thing seemed better than just
hiding in our holes like rats
waiting for one of them to get
us. I often wonder what I
would have done if the shelling
had kept up much longer. But
just before dark, the shelling
lifted and the attack was on.
To my surprise, I felt relief,
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