Military History: Christmas 1944 Through the Eyes of a PFC
You Served presents “A Look at Military History”, an ongoing feature on events in American military history.
Born in southern Mexico, Eduardo Peniche was eager to fight the Axis in WWII. He joined the United States Army, 502 Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. He served as a member of the Anti-Tank squad bazooka team during the battle at Bastogne, Christmas 1944. For Ed this Christmas was special; he had never seen snow or felt bitter cold temperatures before. The winter of 1944 was a particularly harsh one. However Private First Class Eduardo Peniche did not have time to enjoy the snow or complain about the cold. Like all members of his unit, he had a job to do.
On December 19, 1944, the 502 set up a road block 5 kms north of Bastogne, determined to prevent a German advance. Ed and his partner Francis Papaleo dug a trench for their Anti-tank bazooka and several others for the AT shells. Ed also dug a foxhole with his mate Darrell Garner. Christmas or not there was work to be done. They were there to fight.
On December 20, a German Recon Unit was the first to encounter the road block. The Americans defended it successfully, destroying one vehicle and damaging another as the Germans tried to turn around.
The weather got progressively colder and foxholes and trenches were filled with snow. Canteens of water froze. Soldiers literally afraid of freezing to death, rubbed each other’s feet to ward off frost-bite, always knowing there was a job to be done and orders to be followed.
By December 23, two days before Christmas, the 502 was surrounded by Germans and under heavy fire. American cargo planes dropped supplies to the troops; a Christmas present in itself.
Christmas morning a major German offensive began. The Germans were determined to pass the road block and head to Champs and Hermoulle. An exhausting battle ensued, despite the brutal conditions the 502 held firm. In his personal journal PFC Eduardo Peniche noted “this was a defining moment in my life…, to see well disciplined courageous fellow soldiers well motivated to follow orders under the most hellish of circumstances yet, without hesitation, at that very trying moment everyone seemed to know what had to be done and they DID IT!”
Ed Peniche experienced his first white Christmas December 1944, but he experienced so much more. He experienced the commitment of the American military man fighting for freedom. Ed Pineche became an American citizen in 1953.
Frederic "Gus" Webster
September 15th, 2008 at 10:29 pmI had the honor and pleasure of knowing Eduardo Peniche while he was a professor at Central Virginia Community College and I was a newspaper reporter at the Lynchburg (VA.) News. In a feature story I did on his efforts to promote international trade, I quoted a statement he made: that he has traded both goods and bullets with people from other nations, and he decided it was far better to trade goods than bullets. In the story, I was only able to include a brief mention of Eduardo’s experience in the Battle of the Bulge. The “You Served” account gives more detail of what Eduardo went through fighting for his country.
Eduardo Peniche is a truly wise and courageous man. America should heed is advice.