As December marches on, our minds tend to linger on the holidays and reflect on memories of months and years past.
In keeping with the spirit of the season, perhaps you have heard about the Christmas Truce of World War I. “The Great War,” as it was known at the time, began in the summer of 1914. In just the opening months, hundreds of thousands of troops lay dead, and there was no end to the carnage in sight. Still, during that Christmas, a series of impromptu cease-fires took place along the Western Front. Soldiers from the British and German armies laid down their arms, sang carols across the trenches, and even came together in No Man’s Land to celebrate Christmas for just one day.
Moving forward to World War II (WWII), Bing Crosby’s recording of “White Christmas” hit the radio waves not long after the United States entered the fight. With the war raging on the following year, he released the song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” These timeless tunes became the soundtrack of hope and nostalgia across America and for our troops on the frontlines of battle overseas. One of the frontlines was the area around the Ardennes Forest, the site of the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front.
American soldiers during the Ardennes battle in the north of France, where the Germans launched their final counterattack, December 1944. [Getty Images]
For the WWII story we are about to share, we dug into our archives and found what some might call a Christmas miracle. Here is the personal recollection of Richard Friedman, who joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—CIA’s wartime predecessor—while serving in the U.S. Army.
* * * * *
In December 1944, around Christmastime, U.S. Armed Forces were engaged in combat against the Wehrmacht in the Ardennes. Because the Seventh Army was spread very thin along the French-Italian frontier, its commander General Alexander Patch was concerned that the Germans in northwest Italy might launch an attack into France.
Accordingly, the OSS-led Mission BELGRANO, headquartered in Nice, France, was tasked with providing German order of battle intelligence and advance warning of any enemy troop movements toward the border.
Captain Jeff Jones commanded Mission BELGRANO and had several agents sent in to infiltrate northern Italy. Unfortunately, the German military intelligence service uncovered the objective of one of the OSS’ agents, Leo, and took his family hostage.
With his family in peril, the Germans were able to coerce Leo to return to France to assassinate Captain Jones. While enroute, Leo decided to land his boat near Menton, France—an area he knew well. What he did not know was that the First Airborne Task Force units, which patrolled the combat zone, had been relocated and replaced by the famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Paratroopers from Allied First Airborne Task Force parachuting into France in August 1944. [Photo from the official website of Aviano Air Base, www.aviano.af.mil]
The 442nd was composed almost entirely of second-generation American soldiers of Japanese ancestry (Nisei). The infantry unit had a custom during night hours that anyone more than five feet tall and Caucasian moving in the forward area was shot first and questioned later.
442nd Regimental Combat Team holding a section of the frontlines near Saint-Die area of northeastern France, November 13, 1944. [U.S. Army]
Leo—who spoke no English—came ashore, crossed the beach, and advanced toward a U.S. Army patrol who shouted for him to halt. When he responded in Italian, the American soldiers shot him. Seriously wounded, the Army sent Leo to a military hospital under guard, and the OSS detachment was notified.
Leo confessed to his ill-fated assignment and apologized to Captain Jones.
Shortly thereafter, the OSS learned from some German soldiers captured near the frontier that they had no intention of attacking back into France. One of the Germans noted, “For us, the war is over. We do not wish to fight anymore against the paratroop devils. We prefer to wait here on the Italian Riviera until there is a peace treaty.”
A German military intelligence officer who had defected even admitted that he was disillusioned because it was clear the Japanese, like the Italians, had switched sides and were now fighting alongside the Americans. He mistakenly thought that the 442nd was an Imperial Japanese unit!
Color guard and color bearers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team after their unit sustained heavy casualties in the Vosges Mountains near Bruyeres, France, November 12, 1944. [U.S. National Archives]
It wasn’t long before U.S. troops halted the German offensive in the Ardennes and the Germans ultimately surrendered the larger war, clinching victory for the Allies.
“I’ll be home for Christmas... You can plan on me…”