Christmas 1944

Christmas 1944
A Veteran’s Tale

It would be Christmas Eve out there
Somewhere beyond the icy hills.
Hills that reminded him of home,
The Ohio River valley.
His parents were both in Detroit
Working in the war factories,
But home was always the valley,
In the overheated old house in the town
That would be reeking of coal smoke.
His old dog sleeping on his bed,
The Christmas tree would seem so big
And shining with lights and tinsel,
His sisters, aunt and grandparents
Would be gathered around it.
It would snow there from time to time,
But not with fog and freezing cold.
Colder than he had ever been
Colder than he would be again.

Last Christmas had been in England
In a chilly, dark, wet barracks
A sad, lonely ‘Christmas dinner‘.
Tomorrow looked to be worse
Just more sorry, bland C rations,
If they could thaw enough to eat.
The new man was curled around
His booted feet and shivering
Once in a while despite sleeping.
Man, he thought, a kid green as grass
But he was a volunteer now
And they were under strength.

They were to be in the rear now
Coastal Belgium had been battered
The people were happy to see
The Rangers and had showed it
That they had even shared their drink,
Sugar beet liquor they made themselves
From the sugar beet vats nearby
In an abandoned factory .
It had tasted like it sounded,
Sweet and hot with the alcohol.
That unknotted weary muscles
Warming the gut and heart a bit,
To relax for the first time there
Since Normandy, the breakout.
Then a new order in the night
Had ended that party and leave.
No trucks just the long cold march,
Hung over men staggering on
Into the east, the broken hills
Where Belgium and Germany met.
The Germans had pushed a deep bulge,
In the Ardennes on December 16.

And here they were crouched in snow
Along the south flank of the Bulge,
Waiting relief up from the south.
Scuttlebutt said it was Patton.
He detested old Blood and Guts,
Telling Rangers to wear neckties
In forward areas. Tonight,
As he shivered yet again
He would kiss the SOB
If it got them out of these woods
Just long enough to thaw his toes.
They never saw Patton’s breakthrough.
His battalion was relieved
The first part of January
But for only 3 days off the line
Before moving on toward the East
And crossing the German border.