With Third Army Across Europe

By Christopher Miskimon Corporal Frank Sisson spent eight freezing hours in a truck, riding through France toward Belgium. A day earlier, Frank and his fellow GIs of the 667th Field Artillery Battalion, 10th Armored Division lay comfortably billeted in a French town, warm and relatively safe. Now, they bundled as best they could against the frigid December wind. Potholes punished the truck’s suspensions and the soldiers’ kidneys alike. The bouncing ride mattered little to Frank compared to his destination: the Belgian town of Bastogne, currently encircled by the German army as the Battle of the Bulge raged all around it. As they got closer to the combat area, signs of recent action dotted the roadside. “Look at that!” a soldier called. He pointed to a wrecked German halftrack. It appeared as if a large-caliber shell had torn it apart. The corpse of a German soldier hung out of the halftrack’s torn windshield and lay draped across the vehicle’s hood. The body was stiff from the cold, with blood running down the side of the fender. None of the blood pooled on the ground, however; it froze before it could even reach the edge of the fender. The scene soon grew worse. Body parts hung in trees, blown there by explosions. German tanks and other vehicles sat off the side of the road, twisted and burnt. Snow covered the ground and the vehicles, but frozen hands and arms