Identification was made easier because Vernon German was wearing a bracelet engraved with his name and serial number. He had lain undisturbed under a thick blanket of snow and ice for months on the battlefield. Long months passed without any word, and then, during the spring thaw, a gruesome discovery was made: Vernon German’s body. Initial telegram sent to Roxie German, January 1945. The army sent a Western Union telegram to Vernon’s wife, Roxie, on January 15, 1945, informing her that he was reported missing in action since December 23. Several days later, on December 23, 29-year-old Vernon German became another. Vernon German was further south of the main German offensive, but the fighting was intense since the enemy was defending its own soil. Two months later, he was on the line when the Battle of the Bulge began. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry and shipped out to France in October 1944. After basic training in Fort Eustis, Virginia, he attended Officer Candidate School in Fort Benning, Georgia. So on October 9, 1943, German went to the recruiting station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and enlisted. Three years later, his number hadn’t been called. Vernon German received a Purple Heart for his actions at the Battle of the Bulge. In September 1940, the Selective Training and Service Act was instituted and a month later Vernon German signed up for the draft. After marrying, he moved to Chester, Pennsylvania, where he became the manager of the local Montgomery Ward. One soldier on that line was a young man from Salisbury, Maryland, named Vernon Lee German. While some of the Allied line held experienced fighting units, other parts were thinly held by fresh units. The Germans surprised the Allies when their initial assault unleashed over 400,000 troops against an Allied line of only half that strength. The battle began on December 16, 1944, and lasted about a month. After almost constant Allied gains following the D-Day and the Normandy invasion, it was the German High Command’s hope that focusing their last reserves to seizing the Belgian port of Antwerp and splitting the British and American forces would force the Allies to sue for peace. The Battle of the Bulge was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II.
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