| Letter to my wife |
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| "I am in a hospital in Belgium because of my old wounds." |
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| [He was wounded twice at Le Soulaire, France, June 15, 1944, sent to England to recoup and then reassigned to his unit.] |
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| I am O.K. so don't worry; be happy as the Doctor told me I probably won't see any more combat….There are so many things I would like to tell you about I don't know where to start. It is hard to describe so many cases of individual heroism, self-sacrifice, and human suffering in general. I never saw such devotion to duty and unwillingness to budge a foot under the most trying of military operations. It was cold and snowing, we were being attacked from three directions, one of which was our rear. |
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| The attackers were the crack divisions of the German Army: SS Panzer Division. They hit us with tanks and armored infantry, air and artillery bombardment, and with orders to break through at all cost. That was several weeks ago and when I left we were still there and things were sort of quiet. Knocked out tanks and dead Germans littered the battlefield. |
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| At a little town on the German-Belgium border named Krinkelt was where we had our biggest day. The German spearhead hit us there. They came with Tiger tanks and infantry riding on them. Our anti-guns destroyed some, our tanks and tank destroyers got some more, but they still kept coming. Our infantry shot theirs from off their tanks and the tanks came on into the town. Then our bazooka men took up the fight. They knocked them off in even dozens and our riflemen picked off the crew as they came out of the tanks. |
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| During the confusion our orders were sometimes late in arriving, but we all knew that it was S.O.P.(Standing Operating Procedure) in the 2nd Division to take or hold ground, never to give it up with out explicit orders from higher headquarters, so we just stayed put and fought it out regardless of the odds against us. I heard a soldier remark: |
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| "Let 'em send the whole damn German army and we'll end the war right here!" |
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| Photo of my father (center) listening to an address by General George S. Patton "somewhere in Britain" immediately before leaving for the Normandy Invasion. |
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His daughter:
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| My father landed on Omaha Beach, was promoted to Captain and was commander of M Company, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On June 15th near Le Soulaire, France, he received the Silver Star for valor and the following day was wounded twice, sent to England to recoup and returned to his unit on October 9, 1944, participated in the Battle of the Bulge until his evacuation to a hospital (because of his previous wounds) in January 1945. |
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| Source: Transmitted by his daughter, Eileen Hankel Burton, June 2000 |
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| Capt Halland W. HANKEL |
"M" Company
3rd Battalion
384th Infantry Regiment
2nd Infantry Division
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Campaigns
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Normandy, France
Battle of the Bulge,
Belgium
 
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