Doc Bob and WWII
This entry is taken from an email from David Scott, Bob’s dedicated and loyal son. As administrator of the blog, I am including it. Also, here is a link to Bob’s story about his experience in WWII. Click here!
I spent the past few years trying to get Doc to write a book about World War II. I was never really able to get him to get excited about doing it because he spent the past 65 years trying to forget the horror of the war he fought in so valiantly. Doc lied about his age to enlist in 1943 when he was just 17. During the Battle of the Bulge in the harsh winter of 1944 Doc’s company in Patton’s 6th Armored Division was pinned down by a German artillery barrage. The Germans were firing 88 mm anti-aircraft, more commonly known as flack, canon shells at the troops on the ground. This rain of hot explosive shrapnel was devastating to the troops as the shells explode above the ground and the soldiers could not escape the rain of metal in their fox holes. Doc always told me that you think you cannot dig in frozen ground, until you hear the whistle of the German 88s coming in. Then he said you can dig real fast using the folding GI issue shovels as a pick. He said the nut that holds the folding shovel in place would freeze solid and he would have to pee on the nut to loosen in up. [Read more →]