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THREAD I remember today a friend, PFC Joe Hodge, I&R Plt 423rd INF, 106th ID, & Company Runner. #OTD 76 years ago he awoke to the sound of Panzers crashing through the trees. He was given a message to take to the company cp & on the way, he ran into the enemy and was captured 1/
He told me, "what could we do with rifles and pistols against tanks?" He and most of his division were taken to holding camps behind German lines by "old men and kids", with Officers and Enlisted in adjoining camps. Joe said his CO could really play the harmonica, 2/
and as they were milling around in the pens, Joe heard someone playing his favorite tune somewhere in the Officers pen. He ran toward the fence separating the two camps, in the process completely ignoring the "dead line" in front of the fence line. As he called out his 3/
Lt's name, a German guard struck him in the jaw with the butt of his rifle, knocking him to the ground unconscious. When he awoke, in a new, permanent camp and a broken jaw wired shut. He never made contact with his CO and once liberated 5 months later, 4/
Joe found out had happened after he left the Company CP. Shortly after he left, a platoon of tanks crashed into the CP, and the entire CP were scattered or captured. It turned out that it WAS NOT his Captain playing the harmonica that day. Joe was sent to a hospital 5/
after liberation to fix his broken and infected jaw. Years later, at a 106th Reunion, he was walking down a hallway when he ran into his CO, who filled him in on what had happened.
Joe said that," Lt Long and much of their I & R (Intel and Recon) fought their way back to 6/
Joe said that," Lt Long and much of their I & R (Intel and Recon) fought their way back to 6/
American lines, where they were held for questioning before being returned to Army control. Though they begged to be allowed back in the fight, they were sent to rest camps in the rear, and eventually back to the states where they bided their time, until the war was over. 7/
Joe's CO, Lt Ivan Long, center, talks to bedraggled members of his Intel & Recon Platoon, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division. Trapped by the sudden German assault on December 16, 1944, the platoon traveled over 18 miles back to American lines. https://images.app.goo.gl/Wssifh4mFxu9sFuQ6
