War Stories Database
My Story
By Joseph G. Kiel
Service Date: Nov - 1944
I was born on a farm about 5 miles north of Seymour, IN. on 12-4-24. I went to Lutheran parochial school in Jonesville, about 3 miles further north, attended High School in Seymour, and finished one year at Indiana University. Almost immediately I was drafted and sent to Camp Shelby, Mississippi in the 69th infantry division. After approx. one year, I was shipped to England as a replacement. About 3 months later, I was shipped to France six days after D-Day to join the 116th regiment of the 29th division. Which has suffered badly on D-Day. I could go into detail about the shock of realizing the extreme danger facing me, suffice it to say, that a grenade landed by my right foot the first day we kicked off into battle. Exploding almost immediately - as a result the right side of my face was going numb - I was being cut by fragments and blood was all over me. I spent the night at regimental hdqts. and was returned by jeep with two other fellows the next morning. Told that our outfit was in the next field, we found ourselves lost for 3 days resulting in my being listed as missing in action. A short time later someone called for a night attack. Advancing across a field we were met by a hail of grenades. One landed real close and as I turned, another landed and a piece of shrapnel entered my left shoulder and my left hip. We retreated under tracer bullets. I spent two weeks in a field hospital where it was decided to leave the shrapnel rather than dig it out. This was a hedgerow fighting which favored the Germans in a defensive position. When I say hedgerow, I mean an earthwork fence from 4 to 6 feet tall with bushes, trees and brambles growing out of them. It wasn''t easy to return to the front, but back I went and found each time that most of the fellows I knew were gone. Some time later, we arrived in a field with a gap that a wagon could pass through two of us dug our slit trench close to the gap. The next morning grenades were coming over the hedgerow from the corner, and obviously the Germans were creeping up on the other side. My companion stood up to throw a grenade, a shot rang out right on the other side and he fell backward. The next thing - the German jumped through the gap and aimed his machine pistol at me. I threw myself on my stomach in the slit trench and expected to be raked by bullets, but nothing happened. Pulling the pin by my teeth, I heaved the grenade around to the gap and as soon as it exploded - I grabbed my rifle and ran to the other fellows. Returning a little while later. I found the German''s gun lying in the gap. I cannot explain it but his gun must have misfired and perhaps my grenade wounded him. But, that was a CLOSE CALL. After St.Lo. and Vire fell we were trucked up the Brittany peninsula to capture brest, the second largest seaport in France and guarded by the naval guns of the Graf Spee. The first day we jumped off I was hit by either a stray bullet or sniper fire. Shattering my left femur bone high up. Incidently, I had by this time advanced to Sergeant and then to Staff Sergeant. I was flown to Birmingham, England where I spent 3 months in traction with a pin through my knee. Around the first of Dec. I was shipped to the states and sent to O''Reilly General Hospital in Springfield, Missouri. Expecting to go home soon, I was jolted by the news that I faced an operation. It seems that the bone marrow had not hardened enough and had to be braced. Shaving a slice of bone from my right shin bone from ankle to knee. It was screwed to the bone ends of left femur by 5 screws. This served me for 40 years until I cracked it and underwent another operation to fasten a length of tungsten steel held in place by 7 screws - going into my hip bone. After the war I married a High School classmate and finished school at IU. We had two boys and after changing jobs about every 7 years we operated 2 laundry and dry cleaning stores. We retired to Arkansas in 1978 and suffered through a 100 year flood that got in our house. In 1984 we spent part of the year in Florida making it our permanent home in 1993. On Friday the 13th 2004 - we were hit by hurricane "Charlie" and spent 7 months in the Marriott hotel in Tampa until we could endure it no longer - we built a duplex in Indianapolis. Soon after, we purchased a place in the "Field of Valor" in Crown Hill Cemetery. Josepsh G. Kiel
