Roy A. Davis and Anthony Acevedo participated in the Battle of the Bulge during WW II. Here they stand next to a German piece of artillery in front of the Palm Springs Air Museum. / Omar Ornelas The Desert Sun
Battle of the Bulge
On the morning of Dec. 16, 1944, in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, German forces launched a major counteroffensive. The overwhelming advance pushed back the Americans, creating a “bulge” in the Allied front lines.
A snowstorm prevented the Allies from launching an air attack, making the situation much worse for the men on the ground.
On Dec. 23, 1944, the U.S. began its first counterattack.
The Allies restored their original line in Ardennes on Jan. 16, 1945.
The conflict, resulting in 19,000 U.S. deaths and 47,500 wounded, was the bloodiest of all battles U.S. forces fought in World War II.
Those deaths include the Malmedy massacre — the execution of nearly 100 U.S. prisoners of war at the hands of their German captors on Dec. 17, 1944.
Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Roy A. Davis
Age: 86
Hometown: Yucaipa
Residence: Palm Springs
Military branch: U.S. Army, Artillery, Infantry, 125th Regiment, Third and Seventh Army
Years served: June 17, 1944- September 1946
Rank: First sergeant
Family: Wife Alta; 45 to 50 foster children
Anthony C. Acevedo
Age: 85
Hometown: San Bernardino
Residence: Yucaipa
Military branch: U.S. Army; medic, 275th Infantry Regiment, Company B, 70th Infantry Division; ex-POW
Years served: Aug. 9, 1943- Dec. 10, 1945
Rank: Corporal
Charles Jarrell
Bermuda Dunes resident Charles Jarrell, a U.S. Army paratrooper during World War II, looks through one of the scrapbooks his mother kept while he was serving in the war as a member of the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” Division. / Denise Goolsby The Desert Sun
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Roy A. Davis of Palm Springs lived in a foxhole for three weeks, bullets zipping over his head.
Anthony Acevedo of Yucaipa was taken prisoner, marching barefoot through the snow, a German frequently jabbing him with a bayonet.
Charles Jarrell of Bermuda Dunes shot German soldiers on Christmas morning to defend Bastogne.
Today marks the 65th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, the deadliest battle for the Americans in World War II.
The three local men were on the front lines in the winter of 1944 when German leader Adolf Hitler, in a last-ditch effort, ordered a major surprise attack in Belgium, where U.S. forces were worn thin.
The overwhelming advance pushed back the Americans, creating a “bulge” in the Allied front lines.
Here are the stories of the three local heroes.
Roy Davis: Weeks in a forest foxhole
U.S. Army infantryman Roy Davis of Palm Springs, now 86, was in the thick of it during the fighting, living in a foxhole for three weeks in the Ardennes Forest.
“It was an absolute miracle” he survived, Davis said. “There was no thought that I wouldn't be killed.”
Davis and his fellow infantrymen spent day and night underground, coming up from their ditches only long enough to unload their M-1 rifles into enemy lines.
“The Germans were right on the hill,” Davis said. “We would see them as we were firing at them.”
Bullets “were going right over my head,” he said.
Davis was fortunate to spend only three weeks on the line “until Gen. George Patton and his entourage saved us and ousted the Germans,” he said.
“Patton came in with a rumbling roar,” as tank after tank appeared in the forest.
Anthony Acevedo: Prisoner of war
U.S. Army medic Anthony C. Acevedo and his fellow soldiers were surrounded for almost six days atop a hill and ran out of ammunition, so they flew the white flag to surrender.
Now 85, he was a prisoner of war from Jan. 6 to April 23, 1945, at one point working in a slave labor camp.
Here are some excerpts from his diary:
“Shrapnel hit me and a Kraut poked me with his bayonet because I was too slow to walk. They made me take off my boots and walk on the snow barefooted. I don't know how far, nor how long I walked that day, but whatever it was, it seemed endless.
“We were then put into box cars used for cattle. We were not able to sit or squat for several days and nights. Suddenly the train came to a stop, we got out of the box cars and walked to a place full of German soldiers.
“We were ordered to march to the gates of a concentration camp called Bad Orb-Stalag 9B. The camp consisted of prisoners from different nationalities — Africans, Spaniards, French and Arabs to name a few. Hereafter I was designated as prisoner number 27016.”
Charles Jarrell: He shot back and won
Paratrooper Charles Jarrell of Bermuda Dunes, now 84, was a member of the 101st Airborne Division. He jumped into Omaha Beach during the D-Day Invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, and made other important landings during the war.
He never knew where he'd end up next.
This time, it was Bastogne, Belgium.
The road was filled with soldiers coming out of the town, and they offered less than comforting words.
“‘You're going to get killed,'” Jarrell recalled them saying.
He drove into Bastogne, but barely made it into town.
“The Germans circled the whole town and captured the tail end of the convoy,” including doctors and medical supplies.
Jarrell found an occupied house to live in and, by Christmas Eve, his division was just about out of ammunition.
“We saved five rounds per gun,” he said. “That's all we had. Usually, that wouldn't last five minutes.”
Jarrell said he slept with his boots on that night and on Christmas morning, he saw two German tanks approaching the house.
One of Jarrell's men shot two rounds from a 105-mm gun, stopping both tanks.
Some Germans exited the tanks, and were met with the wrong end of Jarrell's rifle.
“Story is somebody shot 'em,” Jarrell said with a sly grin.
Ten days before Patton arrived in Bastogne, two German officers came into town under a truce flag, Jarrell said.
A couple of captains went out to meet the Germans, who had a message for Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101st.
“This message said, ‘You're surrounded. If you don't surrender, you'll be annihilated,'” Jarrell said.
The general sent back a message that said “Nuts!”
The Germans didn't understand, but one of the captains translated, Jarrell said.
It meant “Go to hell.”
