Stories from Foot Soldiers
Many Stories of World War II
ISBN-10: 0025635895
ISBN-13: 978-0060935468

Excerpt –

December 22, 1944 – The Ardennes Forest – Pvt. Josh Lewis

We had beaten the Germans to Bastogne and had been surrounded and pounded for the effort.  We had been pounded by big guns, assaulted by all sorts of stuff and we were tired.  On that day, the Germans sent a message under a flag of truce.  They wanted us to surrender.  We had beat them there, had held back everything and now they wanted us to surrender.  The General told them “Aw, nuts.”  I think he should have told them to go to hell.

So, we were stuck outside of Bastogne.  Surrender was not an option, but we were low on everything.  We needed supplies bad.  We had no supply routes into Bastogne and the weather wasn’t giving us a chance to get planes in.  That is when I saw the Comet for the first time.  We all knew he was with us on the front, but we didn’t know where.  And couldn’t he be anywhere anyway?  He sure was the fastest thing I’d ever saw.

He was the fastest thing anybody ever saw and they thought they could use that to our advantage.  It seems some general had the grand idea to have him tow a small cart into Bastogne with supplies.  With his super speed he could get 5 carts to us in an hour and that was without the Nazi being able to do much to stop him.  Good idea!  He runs super fast, so how is some poor cart going to survive all the bumps, let alone the wheels workin’ that fast?

The cart plan didn’t work.  So, the plan got trimmed down and he just ran in with messages, handfuls of supplies, mail and did a little damage on the way.  One guy I talked to said he saw the green streak run up and chuck 2 grenades into a German position and run into Bastogne before it blew up.  I figured with speed like that, we could be out of Bastogne yesterday, so why not turn him lose?  I got to see why first hand.

I was on the line that day when I saw what would happen if we turn The Comet loose.  He came running up to our position and stopped.  He looked like any one of us; real young, in army green, with a helmet.  But his fatigues had pads in spots and his boots was different.  He also had an odd pack, which we assumed was for the stuff he was carrying on his trips back and forth.

Seems like he was in-between trips and he thought maybe he could get us a little relief.  He stopped, talked to my captain and hatched a little plan.  He took a handgun and a satchel bomb.  He was going to run the bomb behind the German lines, lay it down under a gun, shoot a couple of them for good measure and then blow it.  Simple.  But there was a surprise waiting for us from them.

When he took off for the lines, all we say was a green blur.  Then we saw a grey blur, flying right for him.  That was our surprise.  It was a German hero called Blitzen (like the Christmas song, I guess that is Lightning in German).  They collided hard.  Both rolled in a heap in the snow.  We wanted to open fire on him (Blitzen) but if we had, we would have hit the Comet.  I guess the Germans thought the same thing, because they never fired a shot either.  The two of them rolled on the ground.  We couldn’t see what was happening, but we guessed they were hitting each other. Blitzen wasn’t as fast as the Comet, but he could fly.  We’d see this grey blur rise up into the air 15’ to 20’ feet and then descend again, like a dragonfly swooping down over another bug.  One time he did that, The Comet went flying back and hit a tree.  We panicked.  We didn’t know what he could take or what that Nazi could give.  We thought we heard a cheer go up on the German side of the line.

When the Comet was against the tree, Blitzen flew up 40’ feet or so and then dove straight for the Comet; he was still against the tree.  We thought it was over.  But, at the last second the Comet moved like a matador and guided Blitzen right into the tree he was standing against.  We didn’t hear anything where we were, but we saw Blitzen wrap around the tree all wrong.  He just crumpled there.  We cheered and hollered.  We didn’t hear anything from the other side.  Then the captain realized the Comet was still out there, breathing heavy and stooped.  He yelled fire and we opened up with everything we had on the German line.  Don’t know if we did any good, but the Comet realized where he was and ran behind our lines.  He was hit twice, but nothing was severe.

From what we heard later, the Comet got an accommodation for finding and eliminating Blitzen, but got castrated behind the scenes.  They didn’t want him waste his life needless in dumb stunts.  We loved it.  It was great what he did.  What if the Germans and released Blitzen on us when the fighting got bad?  But then it wasn’t normal for us grunts to see eye to eye with the brass.

That was also the last time we heard of the Comet killing anybody.  I had had enough too.