FORWARD

            The day of Hell was an unsuccessful attack on the town of Sessenheim in Alsace, France, on

January 19, 1945.  This prose is dedicated to all the men of Company L, 411th Infantry, 103d Division who participated in this action, with special recognition to the members of the First Rifle Platoon and Weapons

Platoon who were isolated in Sessenheim and spent six months of hardship in German prisoner of war camps;

to Sergeant Joe Bowden, who was killed in this action; to Santos Garcia, who lost a leg carrying my message

back to the company commander; and especially to my lifelong friend Jack Scannell, who gave me 50 additional years of life.

            I doubt if these words have any historical value.  As they used to say, we were out of touch with

the “big picture.”

            What follows is mostly a series of vignettes attempting to show the humor, the filth, the physical

problems and in some cases, the emotional problems we encountered.