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From 317th Infantry Regiment Combat Veteran, Virgil Myers comes the following:

"Terry,

     I just have to tell you about the day I spent with Jean Muller in the woods just south of Kehmen and Welscheid.

Gary my son and I stayed over in Luxembourg an extra day so I could make the trip with Jean on to the area I was during the Battle of The Bulge, on Bloody Ridge and to the spot Co. G. was with the 702nd when we were supposed to secure the Road Junction just north of that area.

We again went to where Jean had found Judy Bezjak's Uncle, then further down a lane to where the 317th Regiment had crossed a creek and started the climb up the mountain.  Now I understand why it was so difficult to climb that hill in the dark and in snow about a foot deep.  I couldn't believe the hill was so steep. After looking over that area Jean took us to the top of the hill where he said lets see if we can find any WWII items in the leaves.

He (Jean) let Gary, Roger Connor and me work his metal detector.  I thought how are we going to find anything in all these leaves 6 inches deep and then if they are covered with dirt.   It wasn't but a few minutes Jean said, bring the "Entrenching Tool", a GI shovel and dig down here.  We started scraping the leaves away and hit a piece of metal, which turned out to be an M-1 rifle.  The stock was rotted off but the barrel was still intact.  I picked it up and someone took my picture with it.  Jean gave the metal detector to Gary and to see what he could find.  After a few minutes Gary, excitedly said "I hear something, dig here!"  We again scraped the leaves and under about 3 inches of dirt we found the remains of a German Mauser Rifle.  The stock was gone but the rusty frame and all were there.

We moved a few steps and Roger was trying his luck with the metal detector.  In just a few minutes he excitedly said, "Here is something!"  We dug down and there was a US hand grenade; really in pretty good shape, but the top was loose and Jean wouldn't let us handle it for he said that was for the forensic people to handle and destroy.  We were really into the hunt and found dozens of spent 30 and 50 Cal. shell casings all over the place.

The finding of all those shells reminded me of the two days we spent in that area on Dec. 23rd and 24th 1944.  Jean said he had a place he wanted to show us so we got into his Van and a short distance away he stopped and said we were going history hunting.   We walked into the woods a short distance to where we could see a flat area that circled the hill.  Jean explained that this was the remains of a Roman Road that had been built when the Romans used the area on their way to Rome in the ancient times.

Jean explained that when the Romans were traveling the road and would encounter other Tribes, the soldiers would hide their money in leather bags or clay pots during the fight, then come back and get them after the fight, if they could.  He explained that during WWII, an artillery or mortal shell had hit one of the clay pots and exploded it and spread the contents of Roman coins all over a 200 meter area or more.  We started looking with the metal detector and in a few steps started carefully uncovering the leaves from the ground and found a coin dated 103 BC.  That was one of the most exciting things to happen to us, that we could think of.  A coin from before Christ was almost unbelievable.

We left there and Jean took us to the highest point around Kehmen and Welscheid, to show us where he wants to build a monument for the 80th Infantry Division in honor of all the men that had given their lives during WWII.  You can see every Village we fought in or around during the 6 weeks of that conflict.  It is a beautiful sight; open, without any obstructions to block your view in any direction.  Just a perfect site for such a monument location.

Jean then took us to the North side of a valley beyond that area and Bourscheid, where we could look back and see the Northwest side of Bloody Ridge.  He asked me if I could point out to him where G Co. went down the hill with three 702nd Tanks (This was the nighttime attack at Welscheid where four 702nd tanks were destroyed, and many G Company Infantrymen were killed and wounded in an ambush).   I tried to the best of my knowledge to show him where we were that evening of Dec. 24th.  He said, "Do you see those three lines coming down the mountain over there?"  What he described was plain to see.  I said, "Yes I do, that is about where we come down the hill."  He said that is where the tanks slid down the hill, taking the trees out as they slid.  I showed him where I thought G Company had gone down after the tanks.  When we were fired on, we climbed back up the hill on our hands and knees in the snow to get away from the Germans that were waiting for us.   The Germans had knocked out all three tanks in one minute as we approached three or four buildings along the road at the bottom of the hill.

Capt. Damkowitz, realizing we were in an ambush, yelled for us to get back up the hill.  We all tried, but many didn't make it that night.  Some were hit.  Some were killed and several were captured.  Afterwards, those of us that got back up the hill, dug into the snow and piled it up around us to get out of the cold wind and stayed there the night just so the Germans couldn't follow us up the hill.  The next morning at day break, we started moving around standing up in the place we had made in the snow and a sniper shot five of our men.  Capt. Damkowitz told me to have my squad fire down into the edge of the woods about 400 yards from where we were.  I did, and each shell luckily fell right in the corner of the woods.  The sniper didn't fire any more.  We didn't know if we had hit him, scared him away, or what, but he didn't fire at us any longer.

I showed the place at the edge of the woods to Jean, where I thought we had fired the mortar.  He looked at me in a funny way and said, "When we get back to the van, I have something for you."  When we returned to the van, Jean opened the back door and said, "Virgil I have something I want you to have."  He handed me the nose cone of a 60mm mortar that still had a piece of shrapnel hanging to it.  I stood there dumfounded.  Jean explained that last year when I had told him the story (of the Welscheid attack) in an e-mail, he was in the area and surveyed that area of the woods with his metal detector and found an old foxhole there and the fragment of a mortar in the bottom of the foxhole.  He said he was able to find fragments of metal from three explosions close to the fox hole and no other fragments of any kind in the entire area.  I now have the metal fragment at home with me, and must say it makes a story of WWII almost like a dream.

I must say, Jean made my trip to Luxembourg this year, a very special trip.  I now have a story I can relate to my friends with 99% surety that I have a fragment from a mortar shell I shot 65 years ago back in my possession again.  That turned out to be one of the most exciting days I have ever spent in Luxembourg since WWII.

Virgil Myers

Company G, 317 Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division"

This photo and those following, of the dedication of the memorial to Pvt. Tony Ruzich, PFC Kearns and Cpl. Dodd come courtesy of Ike Refice, 80th Infantry Division Veteran