Скачать или смотреть The American Who Stood Up Under Machine-Gun Fire — And His Entire Battalion Rose With Him

December 17, 1944. Osweiler, Luxembourg. Lieutenant George Wilson had already been wounded twice. His glasses were fogging up in the minus 10°F cold. F Company was down to 80 men from 190. Then came the order: mount up on tanks and punch through German lines to rescue a surrounded American company.

What happened next shocked the German 212th Volksgrenadier Division.

Wilson's story is one of the most remarkable from the Battle of the Bulge — yet hardly anyone knows his name. The kid from Georgia who needed glasses (rejected by the Marines and Navy) became the ONLY original officer from F Company, 4th Infantry Division to survive the entire war. He earned 3 Purple Hearts, 2 Bronze Stars, and a Silver Star. His company suffered 350% casualties — meaning they were completely replaced three and a half times.

On December 20, 1944, shrapnel tore through Wilson's left side during a tree burst. Medics tried to evacuate him. He refused — the third time he'd refused evacuation. With one arm useless and blood soaking through his bandages, he walked the line showing his men their lieutenant was still standing.

For six days, F Company held Osweiler against overwhelming German forces. They were outnumbered, outgunned, freezing in the worst winter in 25 years, and slowly bleeding to death from attrition. By December 24, only 50 men remained.

But they held. And that changed everything.

General Patton himself wrote that the 4th Infantry Division's stand from December 16-26 — protecting Luxembourg City and vital road networks — was "the most outstanding accomplishment" of the division in the entire war. The stubborn defense at Osweiler and surrounding villages blocked the southern shoulder of the German breakthrough and helped doom Hitler's last gamble.

Wilson's memoir "If You Survive" is now required reading at West Point. Future Army officers study his account to understand what leadership really means when everything is falling apart.

This is the true story of how one wounded lieutenant and fifty freezing infantrymen turned certain defeat into a breakthrough that helped win the war.