Memorial

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T/4 John H. Schmitz joined the Army on 3 October 1942 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Per Dr. Jack T. Prior: "At 8:30 p.m. Christmas Eve, as I was about to step out the door for the hospital I heard the screeching sound of the first bomb. I ran outside to discover that the three-story apartment serving as my hospital was a flaming pile of debris about six feet high. The night was brighter than day from the magnesium flares the German bomber pilot had dropped. Our team headquarters about a block away also received a direct hit and was soon in flames.
I estimated that about twenty injured soldiers were killed in this bombing along with Renee Lemaire."
The incident was mentioned on page 156 of S.L.A. Marshall's book Bastogne: The First Eight Days: "That night the town was bombed twice. During the first raid, in the late evening, a bomb landed on the hospital of the 20th Armored Infantry Battalion near the intersection of the main roads from ArIon and Neufchâteau. It caved in the roof, burying 20 patients and killing a Belgian woman, Renée Lemaire, who was serving as a nurse."
A plaque on the wall of the building at the spot where this aid station was situated, remembers this tragic event.