On Wednesday evening, WWII Army veteran Sgt. George Mills recounted the Battle of the Bulge and his experiences as a POW. (W.C. Mann for The Tribune)
CULLMAN – On Wednesday evening, the Cullman Chapter of Sons of the American Revolution presented the organization’s Wounded Warrior award to George Mills, a former sergeant in the U.S. Army, World War II veteran and survivor of the Battle of the Bulge who spent five months as a prisoner of war (POW) in Germany.
Before receiving his award, Mills talked to the assembled group about his service in the U.S. Army’s 28th Infantry, which came ashore at Omaha Beach in the days following the establishment of the Allied D-Day beachhead and fought its way through the hedgerows of western France on the way to Paris, under the command of Gen. George Patton.
Mills recalled, “When we got to Paris, we marched 24 abreast down the Champs Elysees boulevard, to let everybody know we liberated the main city in Europe.”
Mills and his fellow infantrymen passed before the reviewing stand on which stood a group of officers including Gen. Patton, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gen. Omar Bradley and French Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
In December 1944, Mills’ fortunes changed as his company found itself facing off against two German divisions near the Germany/Luxembourg border in what would go down in history as the Battle of the Bulge.
With no other Allied troops within 2 miles, Mills’ company was flanked and encircled by the German 5th Panzer Division and the 373rd Vanguard Division. The ensuing operation was a simple 1-2-3: one American company held off two German divisions for three days.
On the evening of the second day, Mills received shrapnel wounds from a German anti-tank rocket fired at the house in which his unit was taking shelter. On the third day, an inventory check showed that the company had a total of six rounds of ammunition left. At that point, they surrendered.
Mills and his fellow soldiers spent the next five months marching across Germany from one POW camp to another, as their captors tried to stay ahead of advancing Allied forces. He related that, during their march, the prisoners were never issued rations by the Germans, and how he and his comrades scrounged to keep themselves fed. At points, they stole food right out from under the noses of their captors, leaving the Germans–who were undersupplied and pretty hungry themselves–not very happy.
Along with humorous anecdotes about creative foraging techniques, Mills noted the regular losses of prisoners to the effects of exposure and starvation during the five months of their mobile captivity.
Eventually, the chase ended. Seeing the approach of American vehicles to their rest stop, Mills and his comrades overpowered their guards. The POWs were officially liberated by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division.
One on one
After the presentation of his Wounded Warrior certificate and challenge coin, Mills sat down for a talk with The Tribune.
“I look at history,” he said, “and I see how big this WWII thing was–it was big! And when I realized how big it was, and I had a major part in it–see, I was right up there on the front line, right up to the Battle of the Bulge. And so it makes you kind of proud that you were involved in such a thing like that. You just didn’t realize what was going on when you were in there fighting. All you was interested in was, like Patton said, ‘Kill them sum-b***hes and let’s go!’”
What would you tell a high school student thinking about military service?
“Well, I would say he’s making a wise choice in doing that, because opportunities are so great, and the education he’s going to get is unlimited. And, of course, if he ever does go into combat, we’ve got to defend this country, so he’ll be ready to do what he’s supposed to do.”
At the end of the war, cities like New York held massive parades and celebrations for returning veterans. Soldiers like Mills, though, returned to smaller towns and to rural farming communities with no fanfare. After his return to Decatur, he noted, it was almost 30 years before anyone asked him about the war or even if he had served. He made the acquaintance of two other returning veterans, and the three became an inseparable team based on their shared experiences that no one else could understand.
What would you like to see small town America do for the veterans coming home these days?
“I think the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), American Legion, and the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) all ought to get together, and they ought to have a place where those veterans could come, and people could come and talk to them and thank them for what they’ve done. Nobody does that. Those veterans come home; they’ve spent their life over there, taking all those chances. And they come home, and nobody pays any attention to them. There should be a place like that. Those clubs should be responsible for that.
“And then every year they ought to have a parade, a veterans’ parade. I remember four, five, six years ago, maybe they had a Veterans Day parade one time. I can only remember one Veterans Day parade in Decatur. We’ve got a lot of veterans; that doesn’t show much honor for them. They ought to have that parade, and these last ones coming home ought to be parade marching. And kindly honor them for what they’ve done.”
The Tribune had the opportunity to interview Mills last year and finished by asking him what he wanted people to remember about his military service.
Sgt. George Flavius Mills, 28th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, WWII combat veteran and POW, who marched with Bradley and Patton, and received his printed instructions for the Normandy invasion personally from the hand of Eisenhower, told us simply:
“That I’m George Mills, and I served my country the best that I possibly could.”
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