Battle of the Bulge vet gives Youngstown Rotary first-hand account

YOUNGSTOWN

As he lay in a ditch alone, bleeding from where a piece of shrapnel had torn through his leg, Howard Friend had no way of knowing if help was on the way.

Shortly after he was drafted into the Army to fight in World War II, the Youngstown native was sent to the front lines to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive on the Western Front.

“We lost 8,105 American soldiers; 46,000 were wounded; 21,000 were captured at the Battle of the Bulge,” Friend told members of the Rotary Club of Youngstown, where he spoke Wednesday at the group’s Veterans Day meeting at the downtown YMCA. “They took us immediately to the front lines. They needed replacements. We were outnumbered five to one.”

Read more of his story in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.