PFC. Harry Guidry

"We were trapped in this little town of Marcouray, Belgium, surrounded by ewere trapped in this little town of Marcouray, Belgium, surrounded by a German Panzer division.

We were stranded for six days and six nights.

We ran out of ammunition and we started running out of food and medical supplies, and we had quite a few casualties.

We made plans to escape out of there on Christmas Eve.

We got soot from the stoves in the houses and rubbed it on our faces so we wouldn’t reflect so much in the moonlight.

Then we destroyed all our guns, our tanks because we didn’t want to leave them in German hands.

You can’t imagine 400 people marching through the woods and not disturbing anyone, but we did.

What helped us out was that the Germans were all drinking and having a good time, celebrating Christmas.

So they didn’t notice us.

We marched all night, and when we reached the American line Christmas morning, there was nothing but joy.

We were whooping and hollering and having a good time.

We had been without eating for two days.

Whatever the other GIs had, they shared with us.

I think of it every year around this time. I always feel sad and down thinking about it. "