All language subtitles for Maggies.War.2012 1081 WEBRip x264 RARBG

(upbeat music)

- Rural Wisconsin of
the 21st century, looks

very similar to pastoral
Wisconsin of the 1920s and 30s.

Growing and harvesting
corn, soy beans and wheat

remains a way to make an honest living.

As does dairy farming,
juts like it was during the

Great Depression which hit
east central Wisconsin hard,

as it did most of America
prior to World War Two.

During those years of misery,
this region of Wisconsin,

more than half of which
came from German ancestry,

produced its share of resilient people.

Many of whom would leave
the picturesque farms

and decorated shop fronts on
north and south Main street

in the city of Fond du Lac and head off

to foreign lands to fight
the Germans and Japanese.

One native son would become one of

World War Two's most decorated officers.

- I would never say that

I was born to be a leader.

I was just a poor kid trying
to keep my soul together

and trying to find a job and trying to get

to college and trying to
do what everybody else did.

- First generation Greek
American, James Megellas.

The self described poor kid
was one of seven children

of immigrant parents who
grew up in this small house

on Third Street in South
Park Avenue in Fond du Lac.

Megellas' ultimate path
however didn't lie in farming

or in his home town.

He didn't know it when
this photo was taken

at three years old but Jim
Megellas was destined to lead

men in battle in a World War
that was still many years away.

(bell tolling)

In 1937, James Megellas enrolled at nearby

Rippon college about 20
miles from his boyhood home.

He arrived there three
years after graduating

from high school and
following a short stretch

in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

At Rippon, Megellas played for

the football team and
majored in arts studies.

On Monday December 8th
1941, halfway through

his senior year, and
second year as a cadet

in the college's ROTC program,

Jim Megellas tuned in his radio.

- The Japanese have
attached Pearl Harbor--

- And listened as President
Franklin Roosevelt

talked about a date which
will live in infamy.

- December 7th--

- The Japanese had attacked

Pearl Harbor Hawaii a day earlier.

- Suddenly and deliberately attacked.

- And we knew that the
war clouds were gathering

and those of us in ROTC, we were seniors,

we were gonna graduate shortly.

And expecting to be going active duty.

And all of a sudden we
realized that we were at war.

- In May of 1942, 25 year old

James Megellas, diploma in hand,

World War Two raging,
wanted in the fight badly.

- I walked across the
stage at Rippon College

with my cap and gown on, in one hand I had

a Bachelor of Arts
degree, in the other one

I had a commission as Second Lieutenant.

- But fresh out of
college, Second Lieutenant

Megellas landed in the Signal Corps.

Soldiers responsible for
military communications,

a support role and hardly the
front line on the battlefield.

Megellas wanted out and his ticket was

a private pilot's license
acquired before the war.

The army was looking for glider pilots.

So this son of Wisconsin
shipped out of the Signal Corps

and trained in the heat and
dust of Texas in gliders.

At that very same time, American troops

were landing in North
Africa in November of 1942,

as part of Operation Torch.

- The only question was, what is the

quickest way that I can get into combat?

- Jim Megellas was now a glider man.

Until Uncle Sam discovered
they had too many of those.

So, in the late spring of 1943, Megellas,

still itching for a fight,
arrived at the parachute

training school at Fort
Benning Georgia to give

something called the
Airborne Paratroops a go.

If he couldn't fly into
the fight in Europe,

he would jump in.

- I knew that it was
risky, I knew it required

a special kind of guy
who's willing to do that.

But I was one of those kinds of guys.

- Megellas' training in
the States as a parachutist

continued as the 82nd Airborne jumped

into Sicily in July of '43
as part of Operation Husky.

The Airbone gave Jim
Megellas what he wanted most,

the quickest route to war.

- That was the truth.

I was in combat in short order.

(piano music)

- Jim Megellas left for
the war in Europe from

Newport News Virginia on
September 5th 1943 aboard

a 10,000 ton Liberty ship which had

been converted into a troop carrier.

On the same boat was his best friend.

Another 82nd Airbone
Second Lieutenant named

Richard LaRiviere from
Chicopee Massachusetts.

Maggie and Rivers became
buddies at Benning

and would serve side by side in

some of the war's most fierce battles.

Both men would prove to be
exceptional platoon leaders.

- We were both thrust
into the same situation.

We both went through
parachute school together,

got to know each other

and were assigned to the same company.

- They were like brothers.

Jim is more refined.

Very detailed in his speech

and very well mannered.

My father,

very direct.

- They liked one another.

They wanted the best out of everybody

and they gave their best too.

You didn't hesitate to do
what they told you to do.

Both were afraid they wouldn't get

to the war before, to
kill German soldiers.

That's what they said too

and they did everything
to make this come true.

And they didn't know what
we had left but we had

enough time left to give
them everything they wanted.

- On September 13th, while
on route to North Africa,

Jim Megellas learned the 82nd Airborne

had jumped into Salerno Italy.

Megellas, Rivers and the
other newest paratroopers of

the 82nd, docked in Oran,
French Morocco 12 days later.

More training would ensue in North Africa

until word came in late November
that Megellas and Rivers

were to join H Company 504th
Parachute Infantry Regiment,

3rd Battalion of the 82nd Airborne

as replacements for those killed

or wounded in Sicily in Italy.

25 year old Lieutenant Jim Megellas

and his good buddy Richard LaRiviere,

reported for duty in the
middle of a brutal fight

in the rugged Apennine Mountains of Italy,

near Monte Cassino in late 1943.

- I was where I wanted to be, on the

cutting edge of the battlefield.

- Fighting in those damn mountains

is a very difficult thing to do.

Twice as difficult to do your
fighting in a mountainous area

where you have to move
bricks and move stones

and move everything else in order to

get past, to get a unit past anyway.

- There was one thing more
prominent than other was,

not that I would get
killed, I was in combat,

I had already come to terms with that,

I want you to know that,
I came to terms with that

when I went to paratroopers,
that I could die.

But what I thought about
more than anything was

that I would get maimed and
become an amputee or something

and be shipped home and the sorrow and the

grief I would cause my family.

- The fighting in Italy was static.

The mountains favoring the defender.

In this case, the Germans.

The Apennines would be a proving ground

for Lieutenants Megellas and Rivers,

who both soon realized they
weren't going to stay alive

long if they fought this
war by the army manual.

- We didn't go by the book at all.

We went by what was right.

Now Rivers and I were older, we were

more mature, we'd seen combat.

- I'm surprised that the
two different people,

Megellas and Rivers,
they're different as hell,

were so damn good at what they did.

- They were very well respected.

The guys that'd do anything for you.

- He could tell after
so many days of combat,

whether someone's gonna last very long.

- The fighting is done
in squads and platoons.

By privates, many teenage kids.

Led by uncommisioned
officers and junior officers.

- His first combat action
was terrific at what he did.

Hell he held on to the territory,

the Germans were trying to take it

away from us and they didn't get in there.

(gunfire)

- Much of what Jim Megellas
learned in the mountains

of Italy, also came from
watching the Germans.

How they would fire and maneuver.

He soaked in every lesson of each fight.

Filing the information
away for future battles.

- I could just tell that he was,

hell he was an intelligent individual,

he was a college graduate which you

don't get too much in the
officers at that time.

- The Gustav Line ran across the peninsula

and was anchored at Cassino.

To break the stalemate,
we tried an end run.

Amphibious landings at Anzio and Nettuno.

- The fighting in the mountains of Italy

was Jim Megellas' baptism of fire.

But it would be the
brutal carnage at Anzio,

on the Italian coast just south of Rome,

beginning in late January of 1944, that

would change Second Lieutenant
Megellas dramatically.

It was here he was wounded twice

and left behind the young
man who was James Megellas

of Third Street in South Park Avenue

in quiet Fond du Lac Wisconsin.

In Anzio, Megellas
transformed into Maggie,

known simply as a fearless leader.

Weapon always in hand
and with a single focus.

- The turning point

in my career as a combat soldier

when Maggie became Maggie
was at the Battle of Anzio.

That was brutal.

I was wounded twice, we
were surrounded by the enemy

or, as I like to put it, we had

them surrounded from the inside.

We were about out of
ammunition, I had a limp arm,

we didn't have any food, we had no

contact of any kind with anybody.

And that fighting was so bitter and

people that we lost and
bodies that I dragged back.

That it changed my whole attitude.

It was no longer I was in
combat and I had to survive,

we were up against it, bitter enemy

and it was us against them.

My MOS, Military Occupational Specialty

and that of the men
who fought with me was,

simply stated, killing Germans.

Nothing more, nothing less.

And

I did that an awful lot.

- It was in Anzio that
First Platoon Leader

Maggie Megellas learned
one lesson he would take

with him through the rest
of World War Two in Europe,

leaders must always lead from the front.

- If I was the best guy to
be out front and to lead,

rather than stand back and command,

that's the way it had to be.

As I was the leader.

I wouldn't send an 18
year old kid to go out

and try and disarm mines
when I knew better.

I'd do it.

- His leadership instilled
kind of a confidence in you

that you were gonna get this done.

I liked the guy.

- Leadership develops
in the field of battle,

people will respond to a situation.

It isn't 'cos you were born that way or

anything else, I've never said that.

- In April of 1944,
after 62 days of fighting

on the brutal Anzio beachhead,
the 504th, now nicknamed

the Devils in Baggy Pants,
by the battered Germans,

were sent back to England to regroup.

For his leadership actions in Italy,

Jim Megellas was awarded a Bronze Star.

Buddy Richard LaRiviere, a Silver Star

and the entire regiment, a
Presidential Unit Citation.

England would be a place for more training

as Lieutenant Megellas
and the rest of the 504th

readied for Operation Market Garden,

the invasion of Holland.

As a paratrooper, it would be Maggie's

first official combat jump from a C47.

H Company's drop zone on September 17th

were large open fields near
the Dutch city of Grave.

Their ultimate objective
would be the capture

of the rail and highway
bridges in Nijmegen,

assisting the British in their
dash for the city of Arnhem

and a route across the
Rhine river into Germany.

Seven decades later, now retired

Lieutenant Colonel James Megellas,

is on a much more comfortable plane

headed back to Europe with a small group

of family, friends and 82nd Airborne

veterans he served with in the war.

This time, Maggie won't need a parachute

and no one will be shooting
at him as he arrives.

His mission will also be very different.

It is here, in Holland, back
in the Dutch countryside,

where Jim Megellas' thoughts
become more focused.

He visualizes the events
of September 1944,

snapshots of planes, parachutes and men

crossing a turbulent
river come into focus.

He is Maggie again.

Back in the middle of World War Two.

- We knew we were part of a larger cause,

greater than ourselves but
that wasn't what motivated us.

What motivated us was,

to get the enemy.

They were our enemy,
they were out to kill us

and that's what war's all about.

- He was without fear

so it gave you a shot in the arm.

- Revisiting the battlefields of Europe

provides a time for reflection.

Many long forgotten memories are revived

as the landscape rolls by.

Images of his C47 approaching

the drop zone in Holland become vivid.

The sights, the sounds, the
jolt of his parachute opening,

the Germans watching him from below.

- I could see all these
bullets coming at me.

Everyone looked like, because
of the deflection of angle,

like it was gonna hit me
right here in the forehead.

- As was always the case with Maggie,

the first order of business
was the welfare of his men.

- My concern, get on the ground,

get ready to defend myself,

make sure my men were
accounted for and we assembled

and we got into the assembly
area and I could count them

and I could talk to my squad leaders

and take notices and see what we lost.

We lost two men in my
platoon, over the drop zone.

Okay guys, hold up here
and then I'll save you.

If you got 'em, smoke 'em.

Light up.

- Today horses graze on the original

drop zone outside of Grave.

Much like their ancestors did in 1944.

The only new features on these fields

are parachute like
memorials, marking the spot

where the 82nd came on a
quiet day Sunday afternoon

in September of 1944, to liberate Holland.

While other 504th men went
on to different objectives,

Lieutenant Maggie Megellas and H Company

moved toward the bridges at Nijmegen.

Where, in three days,
they would be assigned

one of the most difficult
missions in all of World War Two.

The crossing of 400 yards of brown,

churning water, known as the Waal River.

After that, they would
have to capture the vitally

important rail and highway
bridges in Nijmegen.

Which were crucial to the success

of Operation Market Garden.

- Here I was,

young guy just out of college,

volunteered for the paratroopers,

fighting in a brutal war in
the scene of a bloody battle

and that's the effect it has on me.

Other than that, to be here, have

any emotional feeling
about it or anything.

Yeah it's a tragedy and

I relive it but it doesn't
have an effect on me that way.

- H and I Companies of the
3rd Battalion of the 504th,

got the word, that on
September 20th, they would

have to cross the Waal
from the southern side.

Leaving from near an old power station,

which remains part of the landscape today.

H and I would attack the
Germans on the north side

and then seize both the railroad

and highway bridges in Nijmegen.

So British tanks could get across

and make a dash for Arnhem.

It would be 250 men of the 504th,

against more than a thousand Germans

including elite SS troops
who were on the north side

of the river and on the two bridges,

all in perfect position to rain down fire

on the Americans crossing
the river in broad daylight.

- We knew we weren't surprising anybody.

That we knew.

And so, when guys got together in groups,

they felt well this is it guys.

You know?

I told my buddy Rivers, look I says,

"Rivers, if you make
it across and I don't,

"go to Wisconsin

"and see my mother and
tell her what happened."

He said, "Maggie I'll do the same

"if you do that for me as well.

"Go to Massachusetts, Chicopee Falls."

I said, "Okay it's a deal."

And, when they opened up

the cover of this sort of box truck

where they had brought the boats up in,

they got up and they peel
them off like a deck of cards.

There's your boat!

- The 504th would have to make the

crossing in small canvas
and wood bottom boats.

Hastily delivered by the British.

Most of which didn't have paddles.

33 were needed, only 26 arrived.

The mission was already
off to a bad start.

- We were behind this dyke

and we charged over the top carrying

these flimsy canvas boats and charged down

this embankment and set
our boats in the water.

- We lost our mind.

We can't get across in that heavy fire

in those little boats.

But we, you know, you do it anyway.

- I can tell you honestly and sincerely

that I didn't think
any of us would make it

across that river to the opposite dyke

where the Germans were
dug in with machine guns.

We might have got across the river,

but whether we could
navigate that open terrain

and rout the Germans
and capture the bridges,

I didn't think any of us would make it.

- At 15:00 hours on September 20th 1944,

504th Major Julian Cook blew his whistle

and the first wave of paratroopers
from H and I companies

grabbed their flimsy boats and headed

for the south bank of the Waal River.

- The Waal River, to me, stands out

because of its daring and courage.

The Germans couldn't
believe that we would do it.

Paratroopers did awful lot of things,

we went up mountains and
we made assault landings

and we attacked cities
and we did everything.

But as to do that which appeared
to be an impossible mission

made that something
that you'd never forget.

- People were taking their rifles

and rowing, trying to get across quicker

'cos that was withering fire.

They put up smoke but the
wind blew it right away.

So we were pretty easy targets
for the Germans at that time.

- Some of the guys didn't
have no paddles even

and that took a long time

under all that fire.

- I used my hands

besides I could duck down a
little further in the boat.

(laughing)

- The casualties we had
and the brutality of it,

in the period of say four hours,

was unequaled in any
battles that we fought.

- You just had to keep going and going.

- I don't know how the hell
anybody lived through that.

- And our Chaplain was praying
and our battalion commander

was citing the rosary, and we were praying

under heavy fire and looking to the lord

for guidance and for his assistance.

- I kept seeing all them faces.

I still do.

But all I've got is that
kid who got killed sitting

next to me in a boat, trying
to get across that river.

(melancholic music)

- I got out of the boat and got on land,

and we were in the precinct,

and my friend said to me,
"You peed your pants."

I said, "No I didn't."

I said, "There's a hole
right there in that canteen,

"that's how I got wet."

And it's just an incident
that I've got a canteen

with a bullet hole in it
at home in the garage,

just as a reminder at how close I came.

- Getting across the
Waal in slow canvas boats

with enemy fire directly on
top of them was bad enough.

What awaited platoon
leader Megellas, Rivers,

and the men of the 504th on
the other side of the river

wasn't a walk in the park either.

- If there ever was hell
on earth, that was it,

and we were in.

And once you got there, then it was no,

you guys are gonna pay for it.

- On the north bank of the
Waal were more Germans,

dug in along a road dyke
with an open field of fire

on the men of the 82nd as they
emptied out of their boats.

- And the Germans were
determined here to stop us.

- If he got down and ran for cover,

you got down and ran for cover.

And if he advanced, you went with him.

- What drove us up here
was rage, and vengeance.

And we were cussing and swearing.

And we had no place to take cover.

- When we got over to the river bank

and threw hand grenades across,

over to the Germans on the other side,

they picked 'em up and threw 'em back.

- More out of futility than anything else,

we were firing like at the
tops of some machine guns

firing in this direction.

- No place to hide, no place to hide from

the machine gun fire that was coming.

- The only thing is we had to get here.

And so we charged up into it and we had

a number of men that were killed,

that made it across the river but didn't

make it across this open area.

- After eliminating the
Germans on the dyke,

H and I Companies were
still taking heavy fire

from Fort Hof van Holland on
the north side of the Waal.

Megellas and his men had
to take out the Germans

firing from the fort before
there were any thoughts

of H Company heading for
their first objective,

the railroad bridge.

- The entrance was around
behind, which we didn't know.

There was a moat and a drawbridge,

and a moat around the water.

And the Germans who were in there

and they had these weapons and they were

firing from outside this fort.

- One of his sergeants
stripped down a little bit

and swam across the moat.

Then from there they
had a little fire fight

with whoever was trying
to defend the fort.

- Today, the residents of Hof
van Holland aren't Germans,

but Dutch professors at a
local university at Nijmegen.

Maggie's reception inside the fort today

is quite different than it
was on September 20th 1944.

- We knew where the enemy was.

We could see the objectives.

We knew who was firing at us.

So let's go get 'em guys.

We didn't need any further orders.

Our commanders were on the
other side of the river anyway.

- For the men of H and I Companies,

securing the railroad bridge
over the Waal became personal.

Payback for the German's
slaughter of 82nd men

crossing the river.

When the rail bridge was finally secured,

267 Germans were dead.

Not many prisoners were taken.

- There's nothing greater than rage

and the desire for revenge.

- Less than a mile away, other men from H

and I Companies of the
504th secured the north end

of the 1800 foot long
highway bridge over the Waal.

Many more Germans were killed.

American casualties were 40 men killed

and 100 wounded in just
over four hours of battle.

After all the carnage,
British tanks finally

crossed the bridge at Nijmegen,

but were inexplicably ordered to stop

and not move onto Arnhem.

Market Garden would ultimately fail.

The 504th would be awarded another

presidential unit
citation for it's courage

at the Waal River and
for taking the bridges.

Visiting Nijmegen today
doesn't lessen the pain

for platoon leader Maggie Megellas,

however, it does put the
fight in perspective.

- And it was a war of survival,

and we were up against an enemy that

already ravaged all of Europe.

And it enslaved a good part of the world.

And I look back and how
I imbued it in combat

and how I viewed killing my enemy,

it makes a little sense in that context.

Today, I wouldn't, I
wouldn't advocate in that.

(solemn music)

- If Jim Megellas is looking for any signs

that the crossing of the Waal River

was indeed worth the price,

then just down the road
from the Nijmegen bridges,

that can be found.

- Hello.

Welcome to our school again.
- I'm Colonel Megellas.

- A school named de
Oversteek, or translated,

the crossing, was built some years ago

in honor of the heroics of the
504th on September 20th 1944.

It's a place Maggie
has visited a few times

on his trips back to Holland,

speaking to the great
grandchildren of those

he helped to liberate.

- I come here because
this is de Oversteek,

and for what you do to keep the memory

of the Waal River crossing alive.

(applause)

When you come here and you see people

that are grateful like the Dutch are.

- Thank you very much.

- Then you realize that our
efforts in what we were doing

and the sacrifice we made were worthwhile

because here are future
generations that now live in peace,

can go to the school of their choice,

have freedom to move, have
freedom to go on to school.

They have all the freedoms that they

didn't have when we got here.

- Even though Market Garden
itself was a failure,

Lieutenant Jim Megellas and
the soldiers of the 504th

weren't done fighting in Holland.

- This is the area where we
took up defensive positions

after the mission failed at Arnhem.

82nd Airborne Division was
deployed along a line here,

because this is the boundary
between Holland and Germany.

And we could look out
here and this is where

the Germans were at.

- On September 30th, word came
of an impending German attack

in the area of the Wijlermeer,

a long narrow body of water on the border

of Holland and Germany.

The regiment needed prisoners who could

talk about the upcoming offensive,

and Maggie Megellas was
once again called on

to lead a dangerous patrol to find some.

- I took my whole platoon.

The medic, I took everybody.

We expected to get in a heavy fire fight

and be casualties and all the rest,

and so we started out.

At that time in 1944,
when I led this patrol,

I was 27 years old, I was an old man.

And most of the men in
my patrol were teenagers,

they're young guys, 20 or 21.

You're responsible for their wellbeing

and you've got a mission to accomplish.

You're gonna use the
best guy that you've got

to lead that patrol, and
it happened to be me.

If we're running into an enemy situation,

I knew what to expect.

If I'm running into a minefield,

I know how to disarm a mine.

I knew how to do all these things.

Whereas a lot of my
guys were great soldiers

but they didn't have that same skill.

So I always use the term
that I was a platoon leader

and I led from the front.

I wasn't a commander who
commands from the river.

I could see out ahead of
me, 20, maybe 40 feet ahead,

a couple of German helmets
popped up out of a hole.

I said, "Uh-huh, here's where they are."

So I took one of my hand grenades,

pulled the pin and I rolled it in on 'em.

And then I crawled over to the next hole

and repeated it.

I says,

(speaking in foreign language)

So I rolled in another one.

I go over to another
hole and I holler again,

"Come out," and he didn't do it,

and this time, instead of a hand grenade,

I went on the edge of that fox hole

with my Thompson submachine
gun and opened fire on 'em.

We kinda fanned out into three squads,

and then we charged over the top

and got in behind right
where the Germans dug in.

And we got in a fire fight.

- The result of H Company's prisoner grab

was 17 dead Germans and six prisoners,

and only one man wounded,
Sergeant Jack Fowler.

- The most dreaded words
that a combat platoon leader

can hear in a situation like
that is a call for medic,

'cause you know somebody's been hit.

- Megellas carried the wounded
Fowler back to company lines.

- So I picked him up, and I
threw him over my shoulder

like a fireman carry.

And then I gave the call, let's pull back,

and one of 'em had two more prisoners.

And I hollered to him, "Bring
those guys over here to me."

And I said to 'em in German,

(speaking foreign language)

get going, hurry, let's get going.

As we started out and
began to pull our way back,

the Germans began to then shoot up flares.

So we hit the dirt.

But we finally made it back.

And when I got to this
Wijlermeer and that footbridge,

I knew we were home safe.

I never thought about
it, it was a day's work.

Later on I was told that I
was being put in for a medal.

You're not off trying to earn
any distinction for yourself.

It's you or the enemy.

He kills you or you kill him.

- For his leadership of the
patrol along the Wijlermeer,

Lieutenant Jim Megellas was later awarded

the distinguished service cross,

next to the congressional medal of honor,

the highest award given to an
American soldier in combat.

On November 13th 1944,
after 57 days in combat,

H Company and the 504th were
taken off the line in Holland

and returned to France
for rest and retraining.

He didn't know it then,
but in just over a month

Maggie would find himself in the middle

of the Battle of the Bulge.

(uplifting music)

The Margraten Cemetery in Holland

is the final resting place for many

of the 82nd men Jim
Megellas and his fellow

504th veterans fought
alongside in Holland.

From the Waal River to the Wijlermeer.

The Waal crossing felt
like a suicide mission

to all those who stepped
into those canvas boats,

but for one friend of
Maggie's in particular,

the premonition of
impending death came true.

Decades later, Jim Megellas
visits the white cross

of Lieutenant Harold Busby.

- And while Rivers and I
were congregated and saying,

you know, if we make it,
go and see our mothers,

and Pappy Busby comes over.

They were on the dyke a
little further from us.

And he come up to me and he came up

and he looked at me and he says, "Maggie,"

he says, "I don't think
I'm gonna make it today."

And I looked at him and I
said, "Oh come on now Pappy,"

I said, "You know, every time
we went into a combat mission,

"whether it was the mountains of Italy,

"it was Anzio or wherever."

We had casualties, it was
a war, we expected it.

But I said, "Pappy, that doesn't
mean you're gonna get it.

"That's ridiculous.

"You'll be okay, you'll be okay."

I looked at him and I'm telling you this,

I looked at him, I'll never forget,

he was shaking, his face was discolored,

and nothing I could say to him

could dissuade him from the fact

that he wasn't gonna make it.

Anyway, he went back to I Company,

he was in another boat from me,

and we get in our boats
that we come across,

and he made it across the river.

But when he got to the other side,

machine gun cut him down.

I never saw him again, ever.

He was a buddy, and the
war continued and went on

and we went on to Berlin,
and I never saw him again

til I came here to this
cemetery, and I stood here,

60 some years later.

(explosions)

- The Battle of the Bulge was Hitler's

last gamble at victory in World War II.

On December 17th, Maggie,
H Company and the 504th

got the word they were headed from France

to the Ardennes Forest in Belgium.

Their first major test would come

in the small town of Cheneux,

against elite troops from
the 1st SS Panzer Division.

- This is one of our objectives.

And the Germans were
coming from that direction.

We coming round on the other side.

And we're coming over
this rolling territory

near the Somme River.

And then we start down
a knoll, a grassy knoll.

And the Germans were in there,

and they had all of their
units, their mechanized units,

and their whole thing had arrived here.

And when we started down this knoll,

they opened fire on us.

And with 20MM flak-wagons again.

And guys were dropping all around.

- The fighting in and around
Cheneux on December 20th

was bloody, but thanks
to courage and leadership

by a great many men in the 504th,

it would be the first time the Germans

were turned back in the Bulge.

There were lighter moments in
combat for Maggie and the men.

One came with his buddy Rivers,

after clearing Germans out
of a century old church

in the Belgian town of Grand-Halleux.

Megellas' days as an alter
boy in Wisconsin paid off.

- So I crawled around back in there

and I find four bottles of wine.

I grabbed them.

(laughing)

That's one of the fruits
of victory so to speak,

or the spoils of the war or whatever.

So I take these bottles
and Rivers, he's Catholic,

I'm Greek Orthodox, he's Catholic.

Oh, he was a little upset about

stealing wine from the church.

So I take a couple of bottles
of wine and we go over there.

Well who happens to be there that night

but Chaplain Cozack, Catholic priest?

And Rivers is part of his flock.

And I get back in there
and I break off this wine,

and I pour it around,
and Cozack tasted it,

and he looked at me,
and he looked at Rivers,

said, "Where'd ya get this?"

He says, "Maggie got it."

Said, "This is alter wine."

Well, I said, you know, so what.

They don't need it anymore.

He got all upset, he gave Rivers hell.

He says, "You know, when
that priest comes back

"he's not gonna be able
to give communion."

Maggie could care less whether
they have communion or not.

- Many decades later, a quick check behind

that very same alter by Megellas confirms

the sacramental wine
has a new hiding place.

- Well it changed some.

Back in that corner was the wine.

- Over the course of his
time as leader of H Company,

Jim Megellas had proven himself

one of the 82nd's best officers.

He commanded from the front,

with total disregard for his own life.

He was fearless, but also cared
deeply about the men he led.

In no other situation would all of

Lieutenant Maggie Megellas' experiences

and lessons learned in
battle come into play

than on January 28th 1945,
in Herresbach, Belgium.

The Germans held Herresbach,
a small village nestled

in the Ardennes Forest, and a place where

the view hasn't changed
much since January of 1945.

Militarily, Herresbach
stood between the Americans

and the Siegfried Line,
so it had to be taken.

After 12 hours of walking
through deep snow drifts

to reach the outskirts of the town,

Maggie, Rivers and their
platoons ran directly

into more than 300 Germans
heading in their direction,

supported by a Panther Mark V Tank.

- So you have to realize
that this area was

covered with heavy snow,
maybe two feet of snow.

- When we went into
Herresbach we went head on

into this German battalion,
just by complete surprise.

And everybody starts shooting them.

- And the minute we opened
fire, it was pandemonium.

I mean everybody was shooting.

Our guys were all firing.

- I had a Thompson by that time

and I was just pointing it and shooting.

They're falling right and left here,

I don't know how many I hit.

I put rounds in a direction.

And there's just Germans
falling all over the place.

And they were most confused
German bunch I ever saw.

- And after about 10
or 15 minutes of firing

it quieted down.

We killed a lot of 'em, a
lot of 'em ran in the woods

and escaped and so on.

Actually the ground
was littered with blood

and it was all Germans.

Wasn't an American hit.

None of us were hit at all.

It was the most amazing thing.

- We caught them completely by surprise

and the difference was we
reacted before they reacted.

- We proceeded to come up this
road, and we got near here,

a tank came and must have
come around this road

and set up and began to fire at us.

- A tank was out there, that
was the main weapon they had.

- I was in the lead element of my platoon,

and we were coming down the road,

and the minute they fired
at us we took cover.

- Megellas, seeing the fact that there was

a lot of trees along this road,

he went along the road
between tree to tree,

while it was firing at
him and his platoon.

- I ran off to the side of the road

and got in that wooded area.

So I had concealment heading for the tank.

And I proceeded over there
and got there close enough

so that I could take what
I call a gammon grenade

out of my pocket.

- Maggie made two gammon
grenades every time

he was gonna go out on an attack

and carried them in his pocket.

- The gammon grenade was
a composition C plastic,

a plastic explosive that you could mold.

And I had it molded into a ball

and I had a cover over
it with a firing device.

- It just so happened
that he was a lieutenant

who was ready for anything.

- I got in close enough to the tank

and they didn't see me.

And I threw it over on
the broad side of the tank

and it hit the side of it.

- It probably killed
everybody in the tank,

'cause it's a confession grenade.

- The gunner who was up there
went down into the tank.

There was a turret there.

And the machine gun, he
went down into the tank.

I then charged up the tank and came up

and got up there close enough.

- Although he didn't have to,

he ran up and got on top of the thing

and dropped a grenade in there.

- I don't know how many were in the tank

but it could have been a crew of five.

I didn't bother to look,
I wasn't concerned,

but I threw a hand grenade in there

and then things were all quiet.

So I get up and I motion, let's go.

- After that tank incident,
and then we got into town,

we were knocking 'em out of buildings.

And just lining them up.

Over a hundred some, you know.

And we wouldn't have done
that without any casualties

if he hadn't taken that tank out.

That's my feeling.

- We didn't lose anybody in
that whole damn operation.

- Over 100 Germans were
dead, 180 captured.

Incredibly, in all that firing,

there was not one American casualty.

For his leadership at Herresbach,

Lieutenant Jim Megellas
received another silver star.

Many who were there obviously
felt he deserved much more.

- Nobody else saw what I saw
that morning, what he did.

There were no officers up
there to see what Maggie did,

and none of 'em came up after it was done.

- Now if you jump on and
you can knock out a tank

by yourself with a hand
grenade, a gammon grenade,

then jump on top of it while
people are shooting round

and drop a grenade in the turret,

that's just a little
bit beyond the ordinary,

and that's what you call
extraordinary heroism,

above and beyond, that's what I feel.

- And what do you do?

You say, "Well Sarge, you take your squad

"and get over there."

Just baloney.

I took off right away.

There was a tank, I
knew how to disable it.

I had the wherewithal, I had
the grenades in my pocket.

I didn't hesitate, I went.

That was the heat of
battle, it had to be done.

And I was the platoon leader,
who else was gonna do it?

- I studied what you
needed for medal of honors

and I though well Jesus
this is far beyond what

you would expect some human being to do.

- When Simms and Gray put
him in for a medal of honor,

they wrote this whole
thing up and sent it up.

- We got a new company commander in,

and I made a recommendation to him that

Megellas should be put
in for a medal of honor.

- It got the battalion or
the regiment, and I think,

I hate to criticize any,
but I think they actually

took the easy way out and he sanitized it

and sent it up for a silver star,

and he left out completely the fact

that there was a tank involved.

- No mention was made of the
tank, in what they put out.

And that's what Megellas was awarded,

this silver star, for that action.

- If they had knocked it
down to DSC it wouldn't

have been as bad, but to kick
it down to a silver star.

Come on.

That silver star was kind of an officer's

good conduct medal.

You know what I mean?

- They told him at battalion headquarters

that there would be no medal of honor

because there were no casualties,

he had no casualties.

I said, "What has that got to do with it?

"For god's sake."

The fact that he had no
casualties is another reason

why he should be put in for it.

- The German army was being pushed back

across the line into Germany,

following their defeat in
the Battle of the Bulge.

It was here where
atrocities were discovered.

Camps where living
skeletons, decaying bodies,

and the stench of death
seemed to be everywhere.

On May 2nd 1945, Maggie
Megellas and H Company

entered the German city of Ludwigslust,

where they cut open the gates to a small

concentration camp named Wobbelin.

A place where Jews and political prisoners

were being starved and worked to death.

There's not much left of the camp today.

Some bricks remain where a pile of bodies

were found stuffed in a doorway.

Areas where prisoner barracks
once stood can still be seen.

Part of a rusty water pump exists.

Here and there, reminders of the horror.

The tall pines of the forest
look down on this ground.

The wind whispers through these trees,

producing a haunting sound.

- We bashed the locks on
the concentration camp

and we were the first ones in there,

there wasn't more than 15 or 20 of us.

- The citizens of Ludwigslust
were made to visit the camp

to see and smell the death
that occurred on their watch.

They also had to bury 200 of the victims

in the center of their beautiful city,

in front of their royal palace,

as a reminder of the crimes they ignored.

Those graves remain today,

as does a memorial to those
murdered by the Nazis.

- They marched through here and all that,

then they assembled over
here and Chaplain Wood,

he was the senior chaplain,
division chaplain.

He had a message for 'em.

They were responsible for it.

Sort of are the government
responsible for you

or you responsible for your government?

That sort of thing.

And by your own indifference
and acceptance of all this,

this is what you've sown.

- Six days after liberating Ludwigslust,

the war in Europe ended, as
Germany formally surrendered.

Lieutenant Maggie Megellas
and H Company of the 504th

moved on to Berlin.

There they saw an entire city devastated,

from the Reichstag Parliament building

to the smallest of neighborhoods.

- I asked one German who spoke English,

and I asked him why, when
you knew you were done,

did you keep fighting so furiously?

He said, "We're like a family."

He said, "For four years,
four and a half years, five,

"we had nobody but the rest of the squad.

"That was our family then."

And that's why they did that.

Made sense to me.

- On points alone, Lieutenant Jim Megellas

could have gone home, instead
of pulling occupation duty

in the German capital.

But Maggie the soldier first
needed some closure to his war.

- I was gonna go on to
Berlin because Hitler had

told the German people that
if Americans enter the war,

we won't worry about them
because they're soft.

They can't fight.

And I said, "I'm gonna go to Berlin

"and I'm gonna teach 'em,
Germans, something different."

And I went there and I really wasn't

happy about them at all.

After all they were goose stepping,

they were in all the youth organizations,

they were cheering and
hooting and hailing Hitler

all over the place when
they were riding high.

We left dead all over the battle field.

I had no feeling for 'em.

And that's a terrible thing
to say because I do now,

I do now, I respect the German people.

But then I didn't, I didn't.

- Thank you very much.

- I was there.

- Decades later, James
Megellas revists a beautiful

and completely rebuilt Berlin,

where the Brandenburg
Gate still stands tall,

and the Reichstag
building has been rebuilt.

Today, German citizens greet
Jim Megellas as a hero,

not a conquering enemy.

This is the world he now lives in.

He's no longer Maggie.

Maggie belonged to World War II.

- How you can teach
peaceful, loving young guys,

out of school, and trust them
in a situation like this,

and make a transition,
they had to become killers

to survive and prevail.

And then, once the war ends
two and a half years later,

to come back and be a useful citizen,

and take up your place in society again,

and pick up where you left off.

It just happens to you in combat.

You become this from peaceful
loving guy and all this,

all of a sudden you're a killer.

You're in for the duration of the war

and you're seeking revenge
for your buddies you lost.

(marching band plays)

- On January 12th 1946,
Lieutenant Maggie Megellas

and the rest of the famed
82nd Airborne Division,

were officially welcomed
home with a victory parade

down Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Maggie led H Company's march.

The following morning, Jim
Megellas boarded a train west

and headed home for
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin,

which is a long way from Anzio, the Waal,

the Wijlermeer, Herresbach and Berlin.

Maggie's war was over.

- And I just wanted to make sure,

when I talk to school kids,
that they fully understood

what was involved and how we,
like those kids in school,

just out of school, were thrust
in this kind of a situation.

I'm one of the original
devils in baggy pants.

- You should be honored.

And you should be respected by all of us.

- Decades later, some
of the men Maggie led

in many of World War
II's bloodiest battles

gather once again in
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin,

Jim Megellas' hometown, where
the local veteran center

bears his name.

They reunite for most
likely the last time.

These once young soldiers
are in their late 80s now,

and in Jim Megellas' case, his mid 90s.

They come to share
stories and share laughs,

not so much talk about the fight itself,

but to keep hold of the
bond they all still share.

Unspoken, but still very much alive.

Born out of adversity from the
war fought a long time ago.

They also come to honor and say thank you

to a highly decorated platoon leader

whom they still respect.

A man who always led from the front

and who cared deeply for all his men.

Many are still alive,
because of his exceptional

leadership in battle.

- Them kinda guys have something extra,

and it comes out.

They're leaders.

- He had a strong feeling about his men.

He had a strong feeling about himself,

which made him a good leader.

He's a good lot fortunate, intelligent,

and persistent and consistent.

He could count on his men and he did.

- He knew what the hell he was doing.

You could tell he knew his stuff.

He wasn't a normal young
lieutenant that I'd been

dealing with in my army
career up to that time.

And Rivers was real competent too.

- I've looked at my
own life over the years

and my personal opinion
is good leaders are born.

- What makes a brave man is
when he's got a group of people,

as far as I'm concerned, how big they are

doesn't make any difference.

He's there when they're
going through the worst part

of any type of fighting
and things like that.

That's what makes a brave man.

- The charge of the late
brigade for example,

into the valley the death rode the 600.

Cannon to the left of 'em,
cannon to the right of 'em,

but forever charging forward.

- He was Maggie then.

Today, many decades
removed from World War II,

he's James Megellas.

You don't become a heroic
leader of men in combat

without drawing on the
experiences of both.

(solemn music).