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.
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