"I'll be with you in Apple blossom time".

The field of maize rippled gently under the warm Sun. As the detectorist made his was over the area with careful sweeps of his detector there was no hint of what lay beneath his feet, nor of the events of 63 years past. Though this was about to change in a big way...

November 2nd 1944 dawned cold and misty, it wasn't quite freezing, but it was cold enough for the soldiers standing in their dugouts, curled up together for warmth in wrecked houses. On this day the soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division were awaiting the order to go forward. An attack had been planned, the only offensive action in the whole V Corps area, and the 112th Infantry Regiment were to spearhead the assault.

After an hour long artillery barrage of enemy positions 2nd Batt. 112th Infantry was to jump off at H hour, (09.00). The objective being the town of Vossenack.

1st Batt. 112th would leave it's line of departure at H hour plus 3, noon. They would move by column of Companies through defensive positions held by their own A Company at Richelskaul. They would then proceed towards the Kall trial, south of Vossenack. Their objective was to be the hamleet of Kommerscheidt.

3rd Batt. would follow 1st Batt. on order and capture the last objective, the town of Schmidt.

The 2nd Batt. assault on Vossenack would be launched by two companies; Company G on the left and F Company on the right.

At H hour the men of G Company rose stiffly from their foxholes and formed up behind the supporting medium tanks of 707th Tank Battalion. As the US artillery ceased the Germans replied, a number of Americans becoming casualties even before the attack had begun. The men of Company G sought protection in the wake of the Sherman's as they began to move forward, through the open fields and cleared mine fields. Through the mist and smoke the men could just see the church steeple of Vossenack Church before them.

German troops in Vossenack itself now began to augment the din of battle with small arms fire and mortars.

One of the M4's hit a mine, having strayed from the cleared lane. The tank was disabled, the attack went on.

The losses mounted and can be gauged by the example of the HQ group of G Company. Of the 27 men who made up the group 12 were either killed or wounded in the mine field, only 2 NCO's remained out of the MG Platoon leaders. These men, both Corporals, slightly wounded themselves re-organised the Platoon and continued forward. The Rifle Platoons faired little better; 1st & 3rd Platoons having lost their leaders within 400 yards of the line of departure.

The enemy hold on Vossenack began to relax, the GI's of G Company went on. (The original plan had allowed for them to be on the objective in 3 hours). In actuality the men entered Vossenack after just over 1 hour. The objective was theirs!

Company G now made their way along the main street of Vossenack and out of the far end of town onto the exposed ridge beyond it. The area was open fields on either side of the road, the ridge dropped away Northeastwards. This exposed finger of real estate pointed towards the high ground of Brandenberg and Bergstein. Thus the scene had been set for the tragedy that was to befall the men of Company G in the next few days.

Henry Enrique Marquez was 21 years old. One of 6 children he was brought up in the Armourdale area of Kansas City. His devilish good looks he'd inherited from his Mexican Father. As a youngster he'd made money shining shoes, he also kept pigeons. He loved basketball and he also played piano. His favourite song being "I'll be with you in Apple Blossom Time".

His carefree lifestyle was put on hold when, on March 4th 1944 Henry was inducted into the Army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Henceforth he became PFC Marquez, Army Service Number 37736316.

Now having made it as far as the ridge beyond Vossenack he started digging again. The foxhole he was to share in the forthcoming days being shared with another survivor of that initial assault PFC Julian Harold Rogers.

Rogers was a native of Monroe, Indiana. He was also age 21, but unlike Marquez he had married his sweetheart Elsie in 1941 and they had a little girl called Connie. Julian had been inducted into the Army 18th February 1943 in Indianapolis, now PFC Rogers, Army Service Number 35093703 also of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment.

What conversations passed between the two men as they hunkered down in their damp foxhole that night have passed beyond our ears.

That first night on the ridge passed fairly quietly, with only sporadic fire on the men in their foxholes. Perhaps Marquez and Rogers took it in turns to cat nap in their hole, while awake straining their ears for sounds of an unseen enemy just beyond the rim of the hole. Perhaps they whispered words of encouragement to each other and their fellow GI's.

November 3rd dawned and the true extent of Company G's exposed position on the forward slope of the ridge was plain to see, not least to the German observers on the distant Brandenberg/Bergstein ridge. To attempt to move from ones foxhole during daylight now invited death or injury as German artillery shells probed the ridge for victims.

The ridge gradually became pock marked with livid stains were shells had torn up the fields and here and there had found their human targets. The enemy observers clearly had the ridge zeroed in. American armour stayed within Vossenack itself, for them to venture out into the open would result in their loss.

The night was upon them again and the men on the ridge welcomed it with relief, for they could now be re-supplied and movement was possible in the darkness. Did Rogers and Marquez receive a hot meal or drink during those quiet hours, or did they make do with the gritty, bitter lemon powder added to their canteen water?

The 4th November brought further shelling, but now the Germans were probing G Company with patrols as elements of the 156th Pz. Grenadier Regiment moved forward against them. Now, as well as large calibre artillery and mortar fire from distant hills the air was cut by the sharp sound of burp guns and the crack of rifle fire.

On this day in 1944 PFC's Julian Rogers and Henry Marquez were killed, victims of a burst of MG fire as it swept the ridge. Although comrades about them were aware of their becoming casualties no one dared risk their own life in assessing the extent of their injuries.

(The situation at Vossenack deteriorated further, on 5th November further enemy patrol activity and intensified shelling pounded the ridge and now the town itself. As darkness fell on the 5th, the men of 2nd Batt. could take no more. They had seen their comrades blown to pieces and done to death in horrific attitudes. They began to leave their foxholes and sought some shelter within Vossenack.

On the 6th the 2nd Batt. 112th Infantry finally broke completely. The position collapsed as the men fell back into the town completely, leaving their dead behind on the exposed ridge. Among them were Marquez and Rogers).

Henry Marquez was officially presumed dead in late 1945, his family having still held onto a vain hope that he might return. His parents had opened a savings account in his name, his room was left as he'd left it when he went off to war. Finally though, the Marquez family had to accept that their boy was not coming home. How could his comrades have seen him fall and yet their was no resting place for him, only a name on the tablets of the missing?

The metal detector let out a shrill whine, there was something metallic beneath the soil at the diggers feet. He gently sifted the soil between his fingers. A human tooth! Then the familiar shape of an American identity disc, on the remains of it's chain. The finds were passed onto CIHLI at Hawaii after a complete excavation of the area.  The excavation recovered the remains of both men, one still wearing his M1 helmet, water purification tablets, 30 calibre ammunition, a fork, coins, sleeping bag and a grenade. Both men died with their boots on. Finally, after a gap of over six decades Henry Marquez and Julian Rogers were found, and came home to rest at last.

PFC Julian Rogers was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, as is the entitlement of any fallen US serviceman whose family wish it to be so. He was interred with full military honours.

PFC Henry Marquez returned to Kansas City and to his family. Both soldiers were interred in May 2009. The process of formal identification having taken nearly two years. Despite the existence of identity discs the men's identity had to be corroborated using dental, mitochondrial DNA as well as the circumstantial evidence found with their remains.

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