Quote:
Originally Posted by the beast
My grandfather- I'm his great-grandson- served in the US Army in WWII and he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was a Technician 5th Grade. He was definitely the old man at the time as he was 31 when he saw combat since the average American GI was around 18-23 years old. He said that they were in a town in Belgium and they had only 2 days worth of food and ammunition or else they would have to surrender to the Germans. Then the weather cleared up and the Air Corps took out the Germans.
He made his way into Germany, and he even brought back a Nazi flag that was littered with bullet holes.
His name was Gilbert DeVries. He was born in 1913 and died in 1989.
My grandpa remembered him having a box full of medals. But sadly these were all destroyed by my grandpa's mentally ill brother. All we have of him are two photos of his wartime experience. One of them is the photo taken after he graduated training and the other is a picture of him and his brother fishing in a pond in Belgium. He actually met his brother on the front-lines!
I wish I could've met him.
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That's tough. You have the stories hopefully that have been passed down. It's been said that if you remember the deceased, they are truly not gone. That was a time when there were men of substance and men were men.
To your grandfather's memory and his sacrifices.
@ Aktung can find anything.
