Friday, March 29, 2024
Michael Stone Online

WWII Line Runner Takes Land Mine Blast But Finds Many Blessings After

The date is Nov. 20, 1944, and Charles Earnest is helping run telephone line from a barn that’ll serve as a regimental headquarters for the 26th Infantry Division.

The Allies are advancing deep into Europe, and the 26th is set up in Northeastern France, relatively close to the German border, to protect the right flank of part of Lt. Gen. George Patton’s Third Army.

Earnest, a 20-year-old Signal Corps private, and the others in his company have the job of unspooling line from the back of large Army trucks and climbing trees or existing poles to hang it.

Read the full story in Senior Times magazine.

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