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My mom lived for almost 94 1/2 years during which her first husband, Bob, who enlisted but rose to the rank of 2nd LT was killed in action February 7, 1945 or shortly after "The Battle of the Bulge". Three months later Germany capitulated. Bob's parents wanted closure and wrote to the Army asking for information that had not been supplied previously. Captain Roy G. Mosher of the 357th Infantry wrote:
"Your son lost his life during the fighting which followed the penetration of the Siegfried Line defenses of Western Germany. He was a platoon leader and led his men in an attack of commanding high ground overlooking the town of Habscheid, Germany. He was directing his men in preparation of a defensive position to guard against an expected counter-attack when the enemy placed a heavy mortar barrage on the hill. One of the shells exploded near him, and the scrapnel from the burst killed him instantly.
Shortly thereafter, his body was taken to United States Military Cemetery "1, Fey, Belgium. Interment took place following a service held by a chaplain."
Understand that my mother had only been married a few short months prior to her husband's deployment though they had been sweethearts for years and this loss permanently scarred and altered her life. She never would talk about her loss nor the war. Yes, she remarried, but to her dying day the one love of her life was killed back in 1945. Bob's family and I are extremely close and his brother Harold, a decorated Army officer in the same war, had always treated me as if I were his nephew though I was not a product of his brother's marriage. I hold a tremendous respect for the Greatest Generation, as a military veteran and for the sacrifice my family and other families made.
Harold is 97 now and in poor health but I call every other week to tell his son to pass my love on to his dad and siblings.
Why do I share this? Because I have the utmost respect for what your wife's granddad sacrificed for the sake of his family, his God and his Country. To me there will be no greater generation then those brave men that stormed the beaches and overcame what was arguably the most evil dictatorship on the European Continent and perhaps in all of the history of mankind for the atrocities it wrought on a religious and cultural people. God Bless.
"Your son lost his life during the fighting which followed the penetration of the Siegfried Line defenses of Western Germany. He was a platoon leader and led his men in an attack of commanding high ground overlooking the town of Habscheid, Germany. He was directing his men in preparation of a defensive position to guard against an expected counter-attack when the enemy placed a heavy mortar barrage on the hill. One of the shells exploded near him, and the scrapnel from the burst killed him instantly.
Shortly thereafter, his body was taken to United States Military Cemetery "1, Fey, Belgium. Interment took place following a service held by a chaplain."
Understand that my mother had only been married a few short months prior to her husband's deployment though they had been sweethearts for years and this loss permanently scarred and altered her life. She never would talk about her loss nor the war. Yes, she remarried, but to her dying day the one love of her life was killed back in 1945. Bob's family and I are extremely close and his brother Harold, a decorated Army officer in the same war, had always treated me as if I were his nephew though I was not a product of his brother's marriage. I hold a tremendous respect for the Greatest Generation, as a military veteran and for the sacrifice my family and other families made.
Harold is 97 now and in poor health but I call every other week to tell his son to pass my love on to his dad and siblings.
Why do I share this? Because I have the utmost respect for what your wife's granddad sacrificed for the sake of his family, his God and his Country. To me there will be no greater generation then those brave men that stormed the beaches and overcame what was arguably the most evil dictatorship on the European Continent and perhaps in all of the history of mankind for the atrocities it wrought on a religious and cultural people. God Bless.
