Norm Weinburger and I were on a machine gun outpost in the Hurtgen Forest in Germany. We quietly dug out a slit trench and set up our guns on the crest of a hill, about 200 yards from our command post. After about an hour, we got hungry. Norm asked me if I would go back and make him one of my famous sandwiches. A little flattery goes a long way with me. I had cheese from K rations, a can of bacon from my C rations and bread cooked over a little gasoline burner. “Viola! A Big Joe!”.
As I was crawling back to the Command Post, our position came under an artillery barrage. The first shell hit the tree next to our slit trench. Norm was hit immediately. Then I heard the dreaded familiar, “I’m hit, I’m hit!” I jump under a tank to wait it out. Tree bursts are the worst. They spray shrapnel down on you. After the shelling was over, we grabbed a G.I. blanket and crawled up to Norm to drag him back to the Command Post. I looked at his wound and noticed he was hit in the groin area. We got him to the medics quickly. On the way back, I stumbled onto another buddy, Jackalewski. He tells me he is dying because he was spitting up blood. I tried to convince him it was just a concussion from the artillery. We got him to the medics. I never saw him after that, I hope he survived.
As it turned out, Norm spent three months back in England recuperating. After his ‘vacation,’ we welcomed him back. In fact, we invited him to accompany us on a patrol probing enemy lines. I hated patrols with a passion. But that’s what the Cavalry was used for then. Well, we met a German patrol that was doing the same thing, and we had a fire fight. Norman came out of it with a souvenir, a bullet hole in his helmet, right above his forehead creasing his helmet liner. When I caught up with him, his mouth was agape, and his face was so ashen it was gray. I patted him on the back and yelled “Welcome back Norm!”
On the way back home, we laughed about our adventures. He was so grateful that the bullet wasn’t one inch lower, and he wasn’t circumcised...twice.
Germany
Editor’s note: Norm Weinburger is Pfc Norman P. Weinberger (32866885). He was wounded near Zweifall, in Germany, on November 20 1944.