213747 Elmer Umbenhauer United States Army from:Cape May Courthouse, NJ Elmer Umbenhauer recalls the house-to-house fighting in Nenning, Germany, and the unrelenting cold that went through to the bone. "It was the luck of the draw whether you made it or didn't make it"
Elmer was 18 in 1943 when he joined the Army, and he found himself at Nenning the following year. GIs had pushed German troops from the town three times and were forced out three times. In a fourth attempt, his fresh unit finally held the town. "It was our first time in combat. There was nothing but mass confusion. Our company commander was killed in the first five minutes. There was house-to-house fighting, and you never knew what was behind the next door." The severity of that winter and biting wind is one of the memories he'll never forget. "We'd have snow up to our knees and had no way of getting warm. If I'm sitting with my kids and there's a terrible snowstorm, I'd say, 'Look out there; that's the way it was during the Battle of the Bulge.'"
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