As my readers already know, this website is dedicated to the men and the women in the U.S. Navy. However, I found this Army story so interesting and remarkable, that I wanted to share it with you.
The story occurred during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest located east of the Belgian-German border. It was was fought for 88 days making it the second longest single battle the U.S. Army ever fought. (The Battle of Bataan was the longest at three months.) During the fighting, the U.S. First Army had at least 33,000 killed and wounded — including both combat and non-combat losses (with upper estimates at 55,000). German casualties were 28,000.
The length of the battle is noteworthy enough, but here’s the truly amazing part. On the morning of November 12, 1944 German soldiers heard calls for help and screams of pain from the Wilde Sau minefield. It was a wounded American soldier who was calling for help on the embankment of the eastern road, in the middle of no man’s land between the front lines. Lieutenant Friedrich Lengfeld gave the order not to shoot any American medics who might be approaching, so that they could rescue and treat the wounded soldier. The soldier’s calls for help continued for a number of hours, so Lieutenant Lengfeld ordered his own paramedics to form a rescue team. He led them toward the wounded American until he stepped on an anti-personnel mine which resulted in his death. The identity and fate of the wounded G.I. was never determined although the Germans looked for him later and could not locate him.
At the Hürtgen Cemetery of Honor, there is a memorial in Lengfeld’s honor, which the Veterans Association of the 22nd US Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division erected in 1994. This is one of two known memorials for German Wehrmacht soldiers that were erected by their former enemies.
If you’d like to learn more about this amazing story, please see this Miliatry.com article.