103rd Cactus Division

 

 

Henry Klages  410 Company A
 
 
Henry Klages     Des Plaines, IL
 103rd Infantry Division  CO. A, 410 Regiment
 
     On January 20, 1945, Hank Klages was moving with his unit through the forest
near Sessenheim, Alsace.  The 103rd had just returned to the Alsace from the 3rd Army
area.  Klages was a member of Company A, 410th Regiment of the famous Cactus Division –
the insignia that depicts the 103rd Infantry that last trained at Camp Howze, Texas, before
being shipped out to Marseilles.  As they moved through the forest they unexpectedly
confronted a group of German soldiers who were as equally surprised to see them.  One
of the Germans reached for the burp gun hanging around his neck and fired at Henry.  It hit
Klages’ helmet, grazing his scalp, and he dropped into the grasses by a tree. Within seconds,
the G.I. standing next to Hank raised his gun and killed the shooter.  When the medics 
removed Henry’s helmet, they found the silver bullet nestled safely inside.
 
     Henry brought the helmet, the bullet and his Purple Heart home.  He married Lina, and
moved to the quiet suburb of Des Plaines, Illinois, where they raised their three children. 
The couple now has eight grandchildren.  He rarely talked with his kids about the helmet
that he had buried in his closet or even brought it to the Division’s military reunions that
the couple attends in various places across the country every year.
 
In an act of generosity so typical of this Greatest Generation, he invited the daughter of a
fellow G.I., whom he and his wife had met at the latest reunion, to their home to give her
one of the two copies of an out-of-print book he owns about the 103rd.  It is entitled
Report After Action and was written and published in 1945 in Innsbruck, Austria.  When
she probed him about his experiences during the war, he reluctantly mentioned the helmet. 
She quickly grabbed her camera from her purse when he removed the helmet from the
closet to show it to her.
 
Patricia Lofthouse
Daughter of Sgt. James Cunnally, Jr., Deceased
411th, Co. G.