It's Memorial Day in the US today, a time to remember those serving in the armed forces who gave their all.
In 2014, Bluestem posted Staff Sgt John D. Osborne, December 17, 1944:
It's Memorial Day, time to remember those who died for this country. I remember my maternal uncle, Madelia native John D. Osborne, who died from a blow to the head from from a German soldier in the Malmedy Massacre during the Battle of the Bulge.
According to military records and a 2012 book, Fatal Crossroads, John's body was tagged #1 when American forces recovered the bodies in the snow weeks later. After the war ended, the U.S. Army tried a number of the Germans involved for war crimes. Concerns about the fairness of the trial led to a Senate investigation; the report is available here.
After 70 years, the stories of Malmedy and the postwar trials are fading, blurred by fictionized Hollywood versions. Fatal Crossroads author Danny Parker interviewed American survivors, Belgium witnesses and German soldiers, and talked about his finding on Veterans Day 2012, joined by survivor Ted Paluch
Here's an interview with Paluch, who died in 2015:
Here's a 2015 interview with one of the survivors, who died in 2019:
The death of his brother, a private in the 10th Coast Artillery,, was less dramatic, and my mother once told me there were those in Madelia who thought he didn't deserve military honors at his funeral nor my grandmother her first Gold Star to hang in her window.
Find-A-Grave includes Uncle Howard's obituary from the Madelia Times Messenger:
Howard Thomas Osborne
| Birth |
Madelia, Watonwan County, Minnesota, USA
|
|---|---|
| Death | 23 Oct 1942 (aged 22)
Newport County, Rhode Island, USA
|
| Burial | Madelia, Watonwan County, Minnesota, USA |
| Memorial ID | 173351651 · |
Private Howard Osborne
Drowned While On Duty
When Row-boat Capsizes
Army Corporal Escorts Body
To Madelia--Full Military Funeral Thursday
Escorted by Corporal Leonard Wheel, the body of Howard Osborne, son of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Osborne, of Madelia, was brought home from Fort Church, Rhode Island,, last Monday.
Howard, who was a member of the 10th Coast Artillery, was accidentally drowned while on duty.
He and a corporal had been engaged at target practice on a small lake near the Fort. They were in a small boat and while the corporal shot at another boat, supposedly manned by an imaginary enemy, Howard was recording his hits and misses. They had completed their tests and Howard was rowing the boat back to shore when it suddenly capsized and the two men were thrown into the water. Howard wearing a heavy steel helmet and a heavy cartridge belt, went down, but the corporal caught him and held his head above water for about ten minutes until help arrived. All efforts to revive the Madelia boy were futile.
Howard Osborne was born in Madelia on January 7, 1920 and grew to manhood here. Practically all his life prior to his enlistment in the army, was spent in this vicinity. After his enlistment he was sent to Fort Eustis, Virginia, and for the past year has been stationed at Fort Church, where Corporal Wheel says he was held in very high regard by officers and men.
Funeral services were held at Mater Dolorosa Catholic church at 9:30 o'clock Thursday, forenoon, and the body was laid to rest in Calvary cemetery. Full military honors were accorded the deceased soldier by Madelia Post No. 19, American Legion.
Private Osborne is survived by his parents, six brothers and three sisters. One brother, John stationed at Camp Blanding, Florida, reached Madelia in time for the funeral. Another soldier brother, Clem, who is stationed in California, was on maneuvers and could not be located.
Printed in the Madelia Times Messenger Friday, October 30, 1942
We'll continue with political commentary tomorrow.
Photo: The bodies of American POWs who were murdered at Malmedy by German soldiers were later found frozen in the snow.
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