224386 PFC. Charles Edgar Van United States Army H Coy. 310th Infantry Regiment from:Somerville, New Jersey My uncle Charles "Ed" Van Lieu was a machine gunner in company H, 310 infantry regiment. A few days before the regiment helped take the bridge at Remagen, he and his assistant gunner were sent in a jeep to set up their gun in a town which was believed to have been abandoned by the German Army. On reaching the town they parked and were looking around for the best place to put their MG when a German 88 started to fire on them. A round landed well down the street, then started to move towards them. Uncle Charles thought there was a spotter somewhere directing it onto them.
They both broke for the nearest door, my uncle in front. It was locked. As they pressed on it, a shell hit the eaves of the building over their heads. A piece of shrapnel went through his assistant (killing him), then through my uncle's pack, and into his butt. At the same time he was blown through the door.
He awoke in a cellar with ersatz coal, and some stairs going up to a door into the house. He crawled over to the door, and heard someone on the other side. He drew his .45 and knocked. The door opened, and there in front of his face were German army jackboots. Without looking up, he fired his pistol, hitting the man between the eyes, and driving the German back, where he ended up sitting on the stove, dead. Then he saw the man must have been a deserter or invalided, because he was in civilian clothing except for the boots.
He awoke again sometime later being carried out to a jeep by medics. He was taken to an aid station in a low building, part of a farm. After his wound was given treatment, he was put onto a Weasel, a jeep-sized tracked vehicle with racks for six stretchers. As they drove away, a German 88 shell hit the aid station and destroyed it.
Then the shells were directed down the road after the Weasel. My uncle was on his stomach facing the rear, watching as the shells got closer... then the road turned, the shells went straight, and his adventures for the next several weeks were over.
|