H.B. "Jim" Fitzgerald
143rd Infantry
I was overseas, serving as a
member of the Intelligence and Recon Platoon, 143rd Regiment, 36th "Texas"
Division. In August 1944, we had landed in southern France, advancing up through central
France until in December 1944 we had reached southern Alsace-Lorraine.
In December 1944, the Battle of
the Bulge had broken out to the north of us. Sometime around December 20-22, our division
was ordered north to become involved in the Battle of Bulge operations. On Christmas Eve
1944, I found myself in one of France’s larger cities, Strasbourg, located on the
west bank of the Rhine River.
Strasbourg was, of course,
French. However, the language spoken was predominantly German. Christmas Eve afternoon,
some French people invited a bunch of us GIs to participate in the Christmas Eve
festivities at the cathedral, which we did.
There I was on Christmas Eve, the
first time in my life that I had been away from home on Christmas, thousands of miles away
from home, family and loved ones. The services began. While I could not understand all the
words, soon choir and people began singing the very, very familiar Christmas carols -
Silent Night, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, even White Christmas and Jingle Bells! and many
others—all in German. It was quite an experience. My thoughts constantly returned to
my home and family back in Richmond—I knew they were preparing for Christmas, without
me.
After the services were over, a
family invited several of us to their home for cookies, refreshments and more singing. In
deference to us GIs, they even tried to sing Jingle Bells in English! About 11 p.m., one
of my buddies and I had to leave as we were due to run a jeep patrol from midnight to 2
a.m. along the west bank of the Rhine south of the city.
It was extremely cold with the
temperature near zero and very still. Numerous times we could hear some of the same
familiar Christmas carols coming from the east bank of the Rhine - sung by the German
soldiers. Occasionally, we could even pick out a fire the Germans had built to keep warm.
I didn’t hear a single shot or artillery shell fired from about 2 p.m. that Christmas
Eve to the time I crawled into my sleeping bag about 2:30 am. Christmas morning.
While this experience certainly
cannot be classified as one of my fondest it has to be my most memorable! This was the
first time in my life I had been away from home at Christmas. Each time I hear the lovely
Carol, Silent Night, I remember that night many years ago when I first heard it sung in
German - in Strasbourg cathedral - under wartime conditions.
[ 1981 Editor's Comments]
Strasbourg is a most unique
city. It has been French, German, French, German over the centuries. The natives speak
both languages. Also their own "Alsatian", which is a mix of both.
Your editor spent some time in
this great old city on the Rhine. Its history is mind-boggling. When France was over-run
by the Nazis in 1940, they changed the name of the city back to their Germanic spelling
"Strassburg", changed the names of streets, building and all cultured places.
Shown here at left is their most famous cathedral as published on a street map.
We were billeted in an old
brownstone three story apartment that the Nazi civil officials had taken over from the
Jews that lived there. The French FFI took over the early ‘clean- out’ prior to
the advance of US troops. It’s obvious that the Nazi officials who resided there, had
to leave in a hurry. We found food on the table, clothes in closets, valuable personal
effects still in place. This indicated an escape. or slaughter or capture. We could not
find out, as the natives would not talk. At that time, I’m sure they had a good
reason not to. |
