| Keep 'em Rolling |
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| Robert F. Cook served in the 3350th Signal Maintenance Company, 1st Army. He was an experienced and skilled mechanic and truck driver. |
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| Bob’s Signal Maintenance Company served admirably enabling our troops to effectively engage the enemy. Signal/Communications are vital to the “brass” and front line troops. He once told me that the men in his outfit could repair just about anything from a Zippo lighter to radar. |
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| On one occasion somewhere in the front Bob and another brave soul spent the better part of a day and night repairing a 2 ½ GMC. To keep their hands and feet warm while working under the vehicle, they piled snow completely around the truck’s perimeter. The entire vehicle was encased in snow. |
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| Occasionally it was necessary to light candles. It enabled them to thaw out the frozen gas line. Their light came from two (2) GI flashlights. Only afterwards did Bob fully realize that the small fire could have caused a huge explosion. At the time the task had to be completed despite the “harms way” situation. The vehicle was eventually repaired and another vehicle of the U S 1st Army continued to roll. |
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| Robert F. Cook, 3350th Signal Maintenance Company |
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| The photo is Bob while stationed in Liege, Belgium on December 8, 1944 just eight days prior to the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. At that time things were pretty peaceful. |
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| The Battle of the Bulge was not all bullets and bombs; it was about frozen equipment and frozen extremities (hands and feet). It was about the next bend on war-torn roads. |
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| Many of the roads were almost completely destroyed. Also, it was about the nearest fuel depot and the fear of running out of fuel in an enemy pocket. He mentioned how straw would be used for traction by both sides. Keeping our mechanized equipment and communications centers in operational condition was a feat performed with amazing resourcefulness. Bob’s experience, suggestions and calmness under stressful situations were reassuring to his comrades. |
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| Robert F. Cook had fought in the Battle of the Bulge and received the Purple Heart Medal. He also was awarded the Good Conduct Medal, WWII Victory Medal and The European Theatre Operations Medal with the Normandy, Ardennes, Northern France and Rhineland Battle Stars. His Purple Heart experience occurred while driving a military medium truck in Elsenborn, Belgium. |
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| A low-flying aircraft strafed his truck. To this day, Bob can’t tell us which type or kind of plane. It could have been the Luftwaffe, or perhaps the US 9th Air Force, or even perhaps an RAF plane but in any event Bob was wounded by shrapnel which pierced his left knee. |
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| Subsequently he was shipped to a Field Hospital to Liege, Belgium. His journey continued throughout 4 and 5 January 1945 while on a Belgium Hospital Train. He had received his first treatment and Liege but in Paris and Cherbourg, France he finally received the additional treatment necessary for him to recover. Later, on two separate occasions shrapnel from land mines explosions hit him. Bob doesn’t like to discuss many of the details but that’s part of the memories that he like some many others fined it hard to discuss. |
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| He recalls the action in Aachen, Germany near the Belgium border. Bob mentioned with pride the GI named “26-Mile Road” that was a frequent run for him. It was all up-hill with very little room for error. Specifically the road was near a small town called Wandre. I would estimate that it is 4-5 mile northeast of Liege. Later, he witnessed the destructive power of the V-1 rocket, Buzz Bombs. On two separate occasions they hit buildings in Liege, Belgium. |
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| Bob’s journey home began when he crossed the English Channel on the “Earl of Rothesay” to Southampton, England. He boarded the “Queen Mary” enroute to New York. |
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| Bibliography: "Lest We Forget" by Tom Adams (Ed. ) |
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