US Army

GIs waiting for orders - Jan. 1945

YANK The Army Weekly was staffed and edited by enlisted men only, except for officers in the payroll and non-editorial administrative functions. This excerpt demonstrates their freedom to voice the concerns of the GIs. January 1945. We were now inside Germany, and the Battle of the Bulge was history. But everybody wondered if the damn thing would ever end. This group from the 99th was resting in a German church, talking it over. "There's hardly anybody left. You look around now and they're all new faces..." The high brass summed it up: "It's true the Germans' Ardennes offensive cost us heavy casualties and heavy loss in equipment. But it also shortened the war's end by at least six months because it chewed away most of the Germans' strategic reserves. If we break through now, they won't have enough troops left to stop us." The doughs up front knew better. "I don't care if the guy behind the gun is a syphilitic SOB who's a hundred years old -- he's still got enough fingers to press triggers and shoot bullets..." The doughs keep looking around and seeing new faces. There was hardly anybody left.