John
F. Mickey was American, he was 35 in 1944 and lived in Michigan.
He did enlisted in september 1943, he thought he could do
some "job" in this war. When he enlisted he was
not expected for that kind of life : the long separation from
loved one, the horror of war, and even hunger and thirst.
All along the fightings he took notes, and many years later
he decided to write about sixty pages. John F. Mickey passed
away in 1989. With his son's permission, his memories are
told there. It is the experience of a "common" man
who believed in some human valours, and who fight for them
from the beaches of Normandy to the Hurtgen forest, in Germany,
where he had been wounded.
(John
F. Mickey's memories - 1944/1945) |
In
enemy country (continued)
The next day we come to a gravel pit and a large two storey
factory, and hills of sand and gravel. Inside the factory
we saw the conveyor and the large mixers that made the cement
for the new Siegfried line. We are in the buildings on the
second level, observing where the artillery fire is coming
from. In those hills of gravel were the Germans firing at
us. A young lieutenant, standing on top of the tank was hit
in the eye, he fell off. I saw from where that shot was fired,
I emptied my clip of eight rounds at one figure. Holding up
a white flag we saw two men and we held our fire wanting to
take them for interrogation. The two asked to go back to bring
out a wounded. Our medics said this man look like a sieve,
I guess he got all my eight rounds, but he was alive. His
rifle was the only one with a telescopic lens, knowing the
lieutenant lost an eye I wanted revenge. Now to get through
the hills of sand and gravel we moved out one man at a time.
The german artillery was coming in. When I moved out I was
half way through, when a shell burst near by, I saw two of
our men who got a direct hit. Their bodies were mingled and
the rifles bent in half. We called it the Battle of the gravel
mountains.
Aachen
siege
Mid September we are near the city of Aachen in Germany, a
large beautiful city of 20000. The city was surrounded by
a tall stone wall. We were in a wooded area when we saw people
crawling over the wall; our trucks were moving them out by
groups of sixty standing up. Very old and young with children.
We were there three days waiting, while truck after truck
moved out filled. Aachen was a beautiful historical city with
cathedrals dating back to eleventh century, with buildings
of gothic architectural design, as also was Saint-Lô
and Liege in Belgium. One has to wonder why these beautiful
old historical buildings had to be shelled and bombed. The
answer is because the Germans felt secure there. Maybe they
thought we would not destroy them. The fourth day about noon
we saw dog fights and enemy planes fall, no American planes
were lost. The bombers dropped bombs on Aachen. That day about
eleven, two of our men walked to Aachen with a white sheet
to ask for a surrender. The Germans refused and an hour later
the bombing started. We moved out to enter Aachen about 9
p. m., it was a creepy feeling walking through the shattered
glass of the shops. No sign of life, only a stray cat moved
by, and it was a black one. We were fortunate in finding ready
made fox holes outside of the city. Ed and I had a log roof
over ours.
The
captain’s death
The next day at noon the captain and a jeep driver went into
Aachen, to observe and search for snipers. The captain had
a set of silver wear from a silver shop, a souvenir he wanted.
Returning to the jeep he stepped on a mine and was killed.
The jeep driver brought his body back. When lieutenant Maumus
told me about this I said I would not miss him, but I was
sorry he died that way. I respected him and it was reciproque,
yet he asked my opinion on many things. I said the captain
and I were too close, our conversations were too personal,
but our opinions differed. One event came to my mind. One
day in a towns main street our tank was hit by an anti tank
gun, and machine gun fired on us.
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