Allied Troops are photographed landing off the Normandy Coast on D-Day.

David Cohen landed in France, as part of the 4th Armored Division, in mid-July of 1944. Their job was, in part, to relieve the 4th Infantry Division which had been fighting in France since the beginning of the Allied Invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. David explains the reason for the delay: “we had to wait until there was enough [room because an]…armored division has to have a lot of land to move, you know, because of the tanks and vehicles, and on D-36…we went into combat right away.”

A Signal Corp Radio being operated by Private Beverly in August, 1941.

David Cohen was a radio operator for the 4th Armored Division of General Patton’s Third Army. As there were not yet radios to operate on his first night in France, David was put on guard duty. During the night the fog of war engulfed him. David remembers, “I’ll never forget how scared I was. The front…you hear all the cannons going, and machine gun fire. You know, you’re…it’s the baptism of fire, you might say. You’re scared. And I told him [his commanding officer], [if] my own grandmother was walking by, I woulda shot her. I would…you’re so scared, you know. But you get used to the sound after a while.”

This map, entitled “Erasing the Bulge” illustrates the metamorphosis of the front line in late December of 1944 and January of 1945.

David remembers, “the weather was so bad” in the winter of 1944/45. He recalls, “it was very cloudy and snowy, awful cold.” The Ardennes Offensive, or the Battle of the Bulge, began and ended in that winter, and was one of the final major European battles of World War II. It took place in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg and was the largest land battle in which the United States military participated during the War. The battle began on December 16, 1944. Having, within days, advanced 65 miles into the Allied (British and American) line, the German army was seemingly on its way to successfully splitting the Allied forces in two. The German advances, however, were short lived. Soon, Allied forces originating from the north and south had surrounded the large “bulge” which the surging German forces had created. The Battle of the Bulge ended on January 25, 1945.

General George S. Patton’s Third Army, situated to the south of the Ardennes region, was instrumental in this Allied success. Of vital importance to the Third Amy was the 4th Armored Division. It was nicknamed the “Breakthrough Division” and was known as the spearhead of the Third Army. Late in the night on December 18th, 1944, David and the rest of the 4th Armored Division were given the orders to march northwest into Belgium to attack the Germans at Bastogne. It took them only 19 hours to make the 151 mile march. As Brigadier General Albin F. Irzyk, U.S. Army (ret.) remembers, “Just before dark on the day after Christmas 1944, elements of Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.’s 4th Armored Division, attacking from the south, succeeded in making contact with the beleaguered Americans at Bastogne. The encircled 101st Airborne Division had occupied that critically vital Belgian town for several days, categorically refusing German demands for surrender.”¹ As a result of its “extraordinary tactical accomplishment” during and after the Ardennes Offensive, the 4th was the first Armored Division to be awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation.

¹Brig. Gen. Albin F. Irzyk, U.S. Army (ret.), Firsthand Account 4th Armored Division Spearhead at Bastogne, http://www.historynet.com/firsthand-account-4th-armored-division-spearhead-at-bastogne-november-99-world-war-ii-feature.htm retrieved June 5, 2009.

Patton’s Third Army charges through the streets of Wernberg, Germany on April 22, 1945.

From D-Day to V-E Day (Victory in Europe day) the Third Army played a seminal role in the Allied offensive. General George S. Patton, Jr. summed up the accomplishment of his army in the last general orders that he sent to his troops on May 9, 1945. He wrote to the “Soldiers of the Third Army, past and present,”

During the 281 days of incessant and victorious combat, your penetrations have advanced farther in less time than any other army in history. You have fought your way across 24 major rivers and innumerable lesser streams. You have liberated or conquered more than 82,000 square miles of territory, including 1,500 cities and towns, and some 12,000 inhabited places. Prior to the termination of active hostilities, you had captured in battle 956,000 enemy soldiers and killed or wounded at least 500,000 others. France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia bear witness to your exploits… During the course of this war I have received promotions and decorations far above and beyond my individual merit. You won them; I as your representative wear them. The one honor which is mine and mine alone is that of having commanded such an incomparable group of Americans, the record of whose fortitude, audacity, and valor will endure as long as history lasts.²

²General George S. Patton, Jr, “SOLDIERS OF THE THIRD ARMY, PAST AND PRESENT,” General Orders Number 98, May 9, 1945.http://www.pattonhq.com/textfiles/thirdhst.html retrieved May 4, 2009.