“Greensboro’s Robert Rosthal picks up the story.

“I felt fortunate to be at Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania,” Rosthal said. “However, when the program collapsed, we were sent to Camp Claiborne, La., and assigned to the 84th Infantry Division.”

Rosthal’s “highly trained specialty” turned out to be a bazooka; Henry Kissinger became a rifleman.

The 84th Infantry Division was assigned to the Aachen salient, the first German town to be taken.

“I carried an M1 rifle, a bazooka, and wore an apron with two rounds of ammo,” Rosthal said.

One day, he dove into a foxhole, but there wasn’t room for the bazooka.

“Incoming artillery blew it to pieces, so I stuck to the M-1 after that,” he said.

Rosthal vividly remembers the frigid temperatures.

“Sometimes I placed my socks under my arms to warm them up,” he said.

One day he found a new bundle of woolen socks left behind by British troops and slipped into a nearby stable to change.

“The Germans were infiltrating our lines when I returned on the run, so it’s a wonder I didn’t get shot, either by the Germans or friendly fire,” he said.

After their time along the Siegfried Line, Rosthal’s unit was trucked to Marche, Belgium, a small town near Bastogne.

“Even though the cost was heavy, we held Marche during the Battle of the Bulge,” he said.

They lost two company commanders in a matter of days.

“I knew one of them pretty well since I had translated from the French for him,” Rosthal said.

It was a hollow victory when Rosthal’s regiment finally fought its way across the Roer River. Rosthal took fragments in his right leg from a mortar shell.

“The nitrate fumes and smoke were so heavy I thought my leg might be gone,” he said. “When it cleared, my leg was still there, but I saw a gaping hole.””