Join us as Robert Balch shares what it was like to be the tip of the spear for the 14th Armored division during WW2.
Beginning with a brutal baptism by fire in Gertwiller in November 1944, his platoon advanced as the spearhead column, crossing the German border at Wissembourg and conducting high-stakes scouting missions directly against the Dragon's Teeth of the Siegfried Line.
The unit faced severe physical and psychological strain, enduring freezing foxholes during a tense "battle of nerves" near Bitche, before being forced into a chaotic, full-scale tactical withdrawal when hit by a massive German counter-offensive during Operation Nordwind, the last German counter offensive of the war.
Robert reflects on their service during the post-war occupation of Germany, members of the platoon fiercely defended the purpose and conduct of the American GI, emphasizing that their resolve was permanently forged by the trauma of combat and the firsthand horrors of liberating concentration camps like Dachau and Buchenwald.
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