Russ Ebert
Age: 97
Born: May 7, 1914
Hometown: Zelienople, Pa.
Residence: Sun City Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Army; 3rd Army; 4th Armored Division; 25th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron; Troop D
Years served: March 19, 1942 - July 23, 1945
Rank: T-5 (Corporal)
Family: Wife Tina; three children, Anne Casparic of San Bernardino, Russell Ebert Jr. (deceased), and Alan Ebert (deceased); two grandchildren.
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U.S. Army veteran Russ Ebert was ambushed during a reconnaissance mission in Germany during World War II.
Before crossing the English Channel and heading off into battle, the men of the 3rd Army, 4th Armored Division were addressed by Gen. George S. Patton.
“He spoke to us in England before we started out,” Ebert said. “He says, ‘We're over here to win the war. We're going to go, go, go!' That was his theme — to keep moving.”
Ebert, a member of the 25th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, drove an M-8 armored car in scouting missions — traveling ahead of the infantry in search of the enemy.
“Being in reconnaissance, our motto was, ‘in first, out last.'”
On a mission near Nancy, France, in early September 1944, Ebert and a small recon team drove up the slope of a heavily wooded area where Germans were hiding — and shooting down at the U.S. troops.
“The Germans always took the high ground,” he said.
The men were sent to see if they could take out the enemy.
“They did not send enough of us up there,” Ebert said.
“We had gone up almost to the top of the wooded area. There was scrubby brush between the wooded area and us. We went as far up as we could go. We were exposed.”
A man, dressed in a U.S. military uniform, came walking down from the wooded area, carrying a GI-issued firearm.
“He dropped down into a trench and used a bazooka and blew up my vehicle.”
The driver's seat was down inside the tank. A radioman sat next to Ebert. Two men, completely exposed, sat at the top of the armored car.
Unbeknownst to Ebert, the men were dead before the armored car took a hit — mowed down by gunfire from somewhere in the woods.
“I figured I better get out of the vehicle. I got out and laid down by the front wheel for a little bit of protection.”
He landed on his stomach, with his head pointing down the sloping terrain.
The enemy quickly zeroed on the human target. Machine gun fire came fast and furious.
“He used tracer bullets. I could see them coming at me.”
Because he was positioned on a downhill angle, the bullets ran up the back of one of his legs.
He laid there alone.
“You think about survival. I knew I was badly wounded. I could feel the blood flowing.”
He rolled down the hill and crawled on his hands and knees about 50 yards from where he'd landed. He said he was fortunate he moved away from that spot. Shells exploded there moments later.
When the medics reached Ebert, the bullets started flying.
The medics scattered to safety. Ebert remained on the ground. But the enemy was off target — “They missed me ... they must have thought they killed me.”
He was taken to a series of field hospitals, and at one stop, he was fitted with a full body cast as a precaution, in case he'd broken any bones.
He was flown over to England for treatment at a brick-and-mortar hospital.
When the body cast was removed, it was discovered that bullets had grazed his back.
He was sent back to the states to a hospital at Camp Pickett, Va., to recover. While he was there, the wounded men were asked if they lived near a Veterans Affairs hospital.
“I said, ‘Yes, I live within 19 miles of a VA hospital in Butler, Pa.' That's where I recuperated.”
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II on Sundays. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
