March 9, 2020:
His records are average, not outstanding. Combat Infantry Badge, Purple Heart, Honorable Discharge.
The Purple Heart is unexplained. April 9, 1945, near the Elbe, three weeks before the 344th met the Russians at Balow on May 2nd. Because he was wounded on the 9th, it's very unlikely he took part in the liberation of Hannover-Ahlem on the 10th or Salzwedel on the 14th. Photos show him recovering in France, then back to Germany for occupation duty in Eberbach in August. Shipped home from Marseille aboard the SS Henry Ward Beecher on November 18. Returned with an Agfa camera and a .32 caliber pistol, both captured.
E Company ambushed a 116th Panzer column at Menil-Favoy on 12/26/44. Seems to have been a massacre.
The Railsplitters famously held the northern flank of the bulge, in foxholes 150 yards apart dug into frozen fields. They were not overrun because the panzers were out of fuel. Those still moving headed west, but the soldiers could hear them through nearby woods.