Platoon Sergeant
Lou Novotny

It was around December 28, 1944, in the vicinity of the town of Humain, Belgium. The morning was bitterly cold and foggy and the snow was about two feet deep with the fir trees covered with snow.

Our platoon was the point as we reconnoitered through the dense forest towards our objective, the high ground overlooking a snow and fog covered valley. The enemy lines being about 400 yards to our front.

We dug our fox holes securing our position until the orders came to attack the enemy.

The fog was heavy, visibility was only about 20 yards. Darkness began to set when the platoon leader met me. He was about to place concertina barbed wire in front of our defense positions.

The platoon leader was to make contact with the platoon on our left flank. I was to contact the platoon on the right flank.

We separated, with the fog getting dense and darkness falling rapidly. I thought I had walked more than far enough to contact the platoon on the right flank, so we could start setting up the barbed wire in front of our defensive position.

Getting near, I started to walk more slowly. I did not want to startle anyone as I came upon them out of the fog, thinking I was the enemy and be shot at.

Wondering when I would make contact, I slowed down considerably, walking in the wrong direction. Approaching enemy lines, I heard German voices. Visibility in the thick fog was about six feet. From the sounds I heard, I calculated that I was twenty yards from an enemy machine gun position.

If I had made a sharp step or sound, I would have been riddled with German gun fire.

Not knowing exactly where the enemy was, I listened again for their voices. When I heard the Germans speaking again, I slowly and quietly turned around and walked back safely to my platoon's position.

It seemed like ages before I made it back.

Excerpt from Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, edited by Robert Van Houten. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Co., 1991. (ISBN: 156311013X)

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