THE REAL DOGFACE is Al wiser of Ames, Iowa, this photograph was taken about March 25, 1945, just before the 89th division crossed the Rhine under fire. 125 men were killed or wounded that day in less than one-half hour.
By: Phil Leveque
I was that which others did not want to be.
I was that which others could never be.
I went where others would never go.
I kept going when others turned back.
I did that which others failed to do.
I asked nothing from those who gave nothing.
I reluctantly accepted the fear of eternal hell…if I failed.initialized
I have seen the anguished face of raw terror.
I have felt the biting freezing cold of absolute fear.
I have also enjoyed the honey sweet taste of a moment of love.
I have cried in unrelenting pain.
I have cried in deep lonely anguish.
I have cried empty tears of dying hope.
I have survived without hope…but most of all,
I know nor why, but…
I'm alive. Others are not.
I have died a thousand times and lived one more.
I have lived lives best forgotten strangers say, but…
I am at last proud to say:
"I WAS A DOGFACE"
Modified from copy by
George L. Spypeck.
The Dogface
General Patton
Being in Patton's Third Army was a mixed blessing. Everybody knew about the swashbuckling, profane theatrical General. The men at the front of his attacking battle sword spoke of him as Old Blood and Guts—Our blood and his guts. He seemed to expect more from his troops and officers than any other General. Many of his Divisions had the highest casualty rates. Our introduction to the Third Army was enough to scare even the most Gung Ho Infantryman.
Purists will look at the Dogface Infantryman at the charge and say his Division Patch should be on the left shoulder-right-but M-1 Garand rifles are for right-handers. This picture was reversed to indicate pride in my 89'h Division and its shoulder patch. Facing right is to advance. Facing left is retreating. We tried to avoid that.
Why the musket of the Combat Infantry Badge points to the left, I don't know. It also should point right for an advance. As a Combat Infantryman, I take pride in the C.I.B. It is a proud bunch of men who can wear it!
Dogface
Purists will look at the Dogface Infantryman at the charge and say his Division Patch should be on the left shoulder-right-but M-1 Garand rifles are for right-handers. This picture was reversed to indicate pride in my 89th Division and its shoulder patch. Facing right is to advance. Facing left is retreating. We tried to avoid that.
Combat Infantry Badge
Why the musket of the Combat Infantry Badge points to the left, I don't know. It also should point right for an advance. As a Combat Infantryman, I take pride in the C.I.B. It is a proud bunch of men who can wear it!
About the Author
The author was a college graduate in chemistry and volunteered for the Army. He was trained in chemical Warfare but was sent to the Infantry to become a scout _ the most dangerous job. He walked from Luxembourg to Czechoslovakia—mostly under fire.
After the war, he was sent to Eisenhower's Headquarters to be a statistician in Public Health. He is a retired Physician and Medical School Professor. He lives south of Portland, Oregon.
Al Wiser of Ames, Iowa, A REAL DOGFACE
Filosophy of a phoxhole can be found between some of the chapters.
Introduction
This book is dedicated to all who served in World War II and all other wars of the 20th Century. It is especially dedicated to those who had the dirtiest, least glamorous, most dangerous, and important job of all - The Combat Infantryman. The Combat Infantryman can be identified by the Combat Infantry Badge shown on the cover and placed at the top of the left chest above all other battle ribbons. About 150,000 soldiers who earned this badge were killed and about 500,000 were wounded. Those soldiers were given $10.00 per month for risking their lives every day. Some arrogant purist will say that the Combat Infantryman should not be capitalized. I disagree! It should be capitalized just like Brigadier General for example. Why? The Combat Infantryman did the fighting, killing, and dying. We took the ground, took the towns, and captured the prisoners. He was most usually a private or a private first class and was an average of 19 years old. About 150,000 of us were killed.
Did Anyone Do More To Win World War II? Not On Your Life?
The American Servicemen And The G.I. Bill
When the WWII veterans come home, they will want to go to College. Education is not a device for coping with mass unemployment. Colleges and universities will find themselves converted into hobo jungles and veterans will find themselves "educational hoboes". Robt. Hutchins, Chancellor (head honcho) of the University of Chicago.
(One day in combat would have cooled this arrogant pomposity.) American Infantry Veteran
More than 1,600,000 veterans went to college and most graduated about 1949. It was the largest class in the history of American colleges.
These 1,600,000 or so veterans sparked the American financial boom of prosperity which has extended to this day.
So much for Chancellor Hutchins and his "educational hoboes."
In the rear window of my station wagon, I have a 10x15 inch copy of my C.I.B. I'm damned proud of my C.I.B. Most of my time in Europe there were very few Dogfaces in front of me but a whole bunch behind me. I earned mine with an excess of sweat and adrenaline but thankfully no blood and no tears. However, I was mad enough, frustrated enough, and fearful enough to have shed some.
I've had the C.I.B. on my car for about two years now and I can only recall one incident in which it was recognized and acknowledged. I was edging into the main highway from a side road when a van passed me. I thought he was giving me the middle finger for whatever reason but when I looked again it was a "thumbs up." He was a younger guy possible a Gulf War or Panama Vet. This got me to thinking. Doesn't anybody recognize the C.I.B.? My feelings are "No", or hardly anybody except an Infantry veteran. Only about 14% of the Army in WWII was in the Infantry and eligible for the medal. General McNair who was killed during the Cobra bombardment at St. Lo had a lot to do with the C.I.B. It was supposed to be for privates, NCO's , and junior officers and NOBODY behind Regiment. Higher officers lusted for this noble medal. General Stilwell in Burma scorned medals but he got this one as well as colonels and majors on his staff. Maybe theirs came in the Cracker Jacks!
It is interesting to compare who got what and how many decorations in the U.S. Infantry and U.S. Air Force. In the meantime, it is interesting also to compare the USAF with the German Army and Air Force.
There was considerable animosity or envy about who DID get the Combat Infantry Badge and the $10.00 per month that came with it. With only 14% of the Army in the Infantry, there were a lot of guys in Supply, Ordinance, Artillery, etc. who didn't get it that had to keep us supplied so we could attack. General "Courthouse" Lee moved into Paris with his Army Supply Forces which finally totaled over 100,000 men. He tried to keep the combat soldiers out of an "off limits" Paris until Gen. Eisenhower straightened him out. The front line troops didn't have "proper" uniforms.
The C.I.B. as with other medals for bravery were usually well deserved. Everybody has heard of Audie Murphy who got 29 medals including the Congressional and a Battlefield Commission. He killed or captures about 240 Germans. Most of us Doggies were awestruck by this. He also got about 3 Purple Hearts. He was using many other persons luck.
Another equally decorated officer Doggie was Matt Urban, 9th Division. He also had 29 medals and 7 Purple Hearts. These don't really make up for the poor SOB's who didn't survive an hour in battle.
It isn't known how many medals were handed out for D-Day. There were 10,000 casualties with about 2,000 dead; one-fourth at Omaha Beach, one-fourth for the 82nd and 101st Airborne, and the rest the British. In the next 6 weeks, there were about 60,000 American casualties getting through Normandy. Obviously the Infantry Divisions had very heavy casualties. One would think that this and future battles would merit a lot of fruit salad. This was not so.
The success of the Normandy invasion in many persons eyes is the role of the U.S. Air Force who made 14,000 sorties on D-Day. In the previous two months, the Air Force lost 2,000 planes and 12,000 men killed or captured wrecking roads and railroads. Without the effort of the USAF and RAF bombing and strafing German tanks, Artillery and Infantry positions the Normandy invasion would probably have been impossible. At best, it was very dicey despite close-in naval bombardment.
The history of the American Air Force is very interesting: American fliers were in the RAF Eagle Squadron before Pearl Harbor. Of 34 pilots, only 4 were alive when the US joined the war.
The RAF and the USAF really caught Hell the first part of the war. The Germans with their Messerschmidts and Folke-Wolfs planned and built years before had excellent airplanes and were loaded for bear. The first RAF actions were bloody disasters. It got better in a few months by the Battle of Britain in Fall 1940 but during that time of 1,500 RAF pilots 415 were lost. A pilots life expectancy was 87 flying hours or 2 weeks. This sounds too much like the Infantry.
By February 1945, the Allies could put 9,000 planes in the Air. These bombers and fighter raids essentially destroyed the Luftwaffe and every Dogface is thankful for our relatively safe run crossing the Rhine going into Germany.
Less than 1% of the USAF pilots were Aces with 5 enemies shot down. Four percent of destroyed German planes were by this 1%. The top US 20 Aces were shot down from 21 to 40 planes. After this they were sent home to train new pilots. The highest RAF pilots had from 28 to 40 planes destroyed, many did not live much longer. Many were also sent back as trainers.
The American RAF aces compare strangely with German aces. Some Germans flew as many as 2,000 combat missions and shot down 300 or more enemy mostly Russian. One shot down 15 in one day. About 100 Luftwafte pilots downed 14,000 enemy planes. The Polish and Russian planes were no contest comparing them to the USAF and RAF planes.
The USAF had about 2,500,000 personnel but relatively few of them were in actual combat. They lost 65,000 planes. Their total casualties were about 120,000 with 40,000 killed and 15,000 dies in training. We of the Infantry respect the "fly boys" for what they did for us and their losses.
The front line Dogfaces Infantrymen in Europe still paid the highest price in dead and wounded. Although only 14% (Ca 1,200,000) of the Army of 8,000,000 were front line Dogfaces, they suffered 70% of the casualties which totaled about 200,000 killed, 600,000 wounded and 100,000 missing or POW. I feel we earned our C.I.B.'s.
The American Infantry suffered severe casualty rates wherever they were fighting. Normandy beachhead was bad enough with about 10,000 casualties in one day with six American divisions involved.
After Normandy in June and the St. Lo battle about August 1, the Americans suffered about 60,000 casualties. Then it was a race across France with relatively few casualties to Belgium in the West and Metz, France in the East.
Brest was one of several "Fortress cities" far west of the Normandy beachhead. It held many desperate Germans. It cost 10,000 American casualties. Gen. Bradley decided to not attack anymore Fortress Cities.
Anachen was the first big German city conquered. It cost 8,000 soldier and 200 tank casualties.
Metz had never been taken by attack. Gen. Patton decided he was going to take it. He did but practically destroyed the 5th and 90th Divisions. Patton's Third Army had suffered about 47,000 battle casualties from August 1, to making Metz by November 10. He had to pull 5,000 rear echelon troops into the front line to maintain Infantry strength.
At about the same time Patton was attacking Metz, Gen. Simpson attacked the Huertgen Forest. This caused 57,000 casualties and practically wiped out the 9th and 28th Divisions. Other divisions also suffered severely.
There was no letup by the Germans. On December 16, 1944, the Germans attacked through the Ardenes held weakly by the devastated 4th and 28th Divisions and the brand new 105th and 9th Armored. The Germans stream rollered over them and other divisions were thrown in. There were 78,000 combat casualties and 56,000 non-combat losses, mostly trench foot.
January 1945 was just as bad. It cost 37,000 casualties to chase the Germans back to their start line.
In March, the battle for the Rhine and Central Germany started. Casualties continued but nothing like what it had been . It was a good thing too, because most veteran divisions were totally worn out.
The Dogface Infantrymen did not get deserved decorations despite their losses. In Europe 83% of decorations went to the Air Force, a total of 126,526 and 90% were Air Medals or DFC's. This wasn't all peaches and cream. Very few B-17 bombers completed 25 missions in Europe. The Memphis Belle was the first but she was so badly shot up, she never flew combat again. The average life of a B-17 was 21 missions. The average aircrew survived only that long. One B-17 flew 125 missions. Very few flew more than 100.
The Infantry, with the most killed and wounded, got 9% of the decorations, 3.5% to the Artillery, 1.5% to the Medical Corps and 3.4% to all others. Incidentally, the Navy got 7,000 decorations for 2,000,000 men. They didn't have that many casualties either; maybe about 80,000.
It is interesting to compare the USF decorations with that of the Germans. German decorations for valor were based on the Iron Cross. The Iron Cross second class roughly equal to the a Bronze Star was awarded 2.5 million times. The First Class Cross roughly equal to a Silver Star was awarded 300,000 times. Many Infantrymen had these decorations.
The Knights Cross, roughly equal to a Distinguished Service Cross or Distinguished Service medal or Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded 6,973 times. This often was awarded to fighter pilots and submarine captains. Several higher levels were awarded; with oak leaved (853 awarded); with swords (150); with diamonds (27). The highest level with oak leaves, swords and diamonds was awarded once to Col. Rudel who made 2,500 combat sorties, destroyed 532 Russian tanks and two Russian battleships.
One must remember that Germany had about 10,000,000 under arms, 2,000,000 killed or missing and they were in war for 6 years.
If you want to know what a Combat Infantry Badge is worth, compare it to the Air Force's pattern. With twenty missions worth 4 Air Medals and a DFC a Dogface might possibly survive about 20 days on the front lines although many did not last 20 seconds. The 90th Division had 35,000 casualties or about 100 per day.
Twenty days on the front line is probably worth 4 Air Medals and a DFC and maybe a ticket home.
Yes, the Combat Infantry Badge is a noble medal of Valor. We were it at the top of our other ribbons.
Chapter 1. The Combat Infantry Badge
A Little Known but Honorable Medal of Valor
National Infantry Museum
CIB
U.S. Legacies May 2004
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