DON H. WICHMAN
Age: 89
Born: Aug. 24, 1920
Hometown: Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Army; 9th Army; 102nd Infantry Division; 407th Infantry Regiment; D Company (Headquarters Company)
Years served: 1942 - 1946
Rank: Private first class
Family: Wife Marjorie; two children, Donald Wichman of Novato and Janet Rivera of Houston; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren.
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Radioman Don Wichman found himself in the thick of the action when Germans breached the Allied front lines in late 1944, triggering the monthlong Battle of the Bulge.
Wichman and the men of the 102nd Infantry Division — attached to the 9th Army — were dug in at Aachen, Germany when the enemy launched a massive, surprise attack.
“At 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 16, 1944, were were awakened by the tremendous sound of panzers (tanks) — I saw one come around the corner and that gun was so long,” Wichman said. “We fell back and were pushed aside as the German Nebelwerfers (rockets) hammered our lines.
“They came right through and pushed us aside and the 1st Army aside,” he said. “As the whole German Army advanced, we took positions to the side of them. We were holding the north flank.”
“I was scared to hell,” he said.
Wichman was responsible for communications and was trained in Morse code, semaphore (flag signaling system) and was proficient in radio operations and coding and encoding messages.
During training, “We asked our captain, ‘How can we protect ourselves while operating the code keys?' He said, ‘Operate the code key with your right hand and fire your pistol with your left — or vice versa,'” said Wichman, laughing.
The advice came in handy.
“When the Germans broke through the lines, everybody got a rifle and went on the front lines, even the radio operators,” he said.
Wichman said the weather was damp and a thick fog covered western Belgium.
“The air force was grounded, so it was army against army,” Wichman said.
“Because of the fog, we could string wire along the ground to the 405th Regiment without being detected,” he said. “I was working parallel to a long drainage ditch. There was an old broken- down fence between the ditch and me.”
The Germans heard two of his fellow soldiers talking.
“They started firing mortars at us,” Wichman said. “A frightened deer ran from the bushes towards the ditch at the same time I started running. I ran past the deer and made it to cover first.”
When he got back to safety, he shared the story.
“I told them that when the Germans started firing at us, I ran so fast I beat a deer to the ditch,” he said. “I didn't tell them the deer was caught in the fence.”
The 9th Army held the north side of the corridor and soon, the sun finally shone through as the fog lifted and the air corps went into action.
“We finally stopped the Germans at the Muese River,” Wichman said. “They started back towards the Rhine River, badly chopped up by our American Army tanks and artillery and principally by our mighty air force.”
Before the Bulge
Before the Battle of the Bulge, Wichman lost a good friend — and came close to losing his own life.
One night, while the men were assembled at the Roer River, Wichman was coming back to the radio room with a tin plate full of food when he heard someone call out, “Hey, Don.”
“I turned toward the bonfire and standing there was Sgt. John Chapel, a close buddy I had in Detroit,” Wichman said.
The two friends sat by the fire, drinking coffee and chatting.
“We talked for awhile and I said, ‘John, did you get back to Detroit on furlough?' He said, ‘Yeah, I had a ni-'”
Before his buddy could finish the sentence, he fell to the ground.
“A bullet went clear through his helmet and out the other side,” Wichman said, as tears flooded his eyes. “The shot came from a church steeple. A sniper got him.”
“We stayed around all day and all night and fired rifles at the church,” he said.
In the evening, the Germans began firing mortars at the tower, thinking the sniper was a GI, Wichman said.
“We had a guard watching the church,” he said. “As a result of the German mortars, the sniper came down the stairs. He walked past our GI's and he kept saying, ‘Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom,' with a German accent. He was shell-shocked.”
“Two of the guys grabbed ahold of him and they took him away. We never saw him again.”
Early on, “I made a pact with myself to only shoot to wound or disable,” he said.
Wichman said he didn't want to kill a person unless someone was deliberately firing at him.
“But after John Chapel was killed by the sniper, I changed my mind,” he said. “John was such a good friend and I missed him very much.”
Wichman, who was born and raised in Ontario, Canada, was granted U.S . citizenship on June 28, 1943, while he was serving in the Army.
