Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:45 | The end of the war was looming when Bob Polich nearly had a 500 pound German bomb take him out. Luck was with him and he was soon bearing down on Berlin. Then the word came down the chain to stop. Do not move any closer to Berlin.
Keywords : Bob Polich artilleryman Germany Lieser River Elbe River dud Berlin Russians softball occupation duty Mannheim George Patton Railsplitters
If you graduated high school in 1942, it was no mystery what would happen next if you were a young man. You were drafted. Bob Polich was one of those and he entered the Army and trained as an artilleryman.
When the ship left New York harbor, there was a minor collision with another ship and it had to return to port. So, artilleryman Bob Polich had to wait another week before crossing the Atlantic to join the European campaign. After another short wait in England, he finally headed across the Channel in an LCT.
The first taste of combat for Bob Polich came at the town of Geilenkirchen in Germany. His artillery battery fired its first rounds and then became the target of counter battery from German 88's.
Artilleryman Bob Polich was barely into Germany when his outfit got new orders, get down to Belgium. He didn't know it at the time, but he was headed to the Battle of the Bulge. He couldn't believe how many German tanks there were there but they were lacking something important.
Bob Polich fondly remembers the time his artillery unit stopped for a while in the Belgian town of Balen. They had fire missions every day but they got to know the locals, including the mayor and the Waffle Lady.
The infantry and artillery worked together, with a spotter plane overhead. Artilleryman Bob Polich recalls how a method was devised to clear out German pillboxes. As his unit moved into Germany, they stayed in a series of civilian homes, being careful not to cause any damage.
Just like many other servicemen, Bob Polich was assuming he would be moving from the European theater to the Pacific theater, but the atomic bomb took care of that. Thanks to the GI Bill, he was able to get thoroughly educated and have a long academic career.
War is not all gory details. Artilleryman Bob Polich remembers some other things, like the Stage Door Canteen in New York City, a much anticipated shower in Belgium and a tense encounter on guard duty.
