By BILL WELCH
Morning News city editor
Private
Nick Lipchik wrapped himself in white sheets, his M-1 rifle in a white pillow case.
He got another paratrooper to volunteer to go with him and suited him up in white, too.
Their objective was 150 yards away, across
an open field. Somewhere on the other side of the objective were German soldiers, part of the solid ring of steel the German army had thrown around the Belgian town of Bastogne.
The key crossroads town, about
the size of North East, had been surrounded for several days in December 1944 as several German infantry and armored divisions tried to crack it open and allow supplies to move smoothly to armored units pushing west
into Allied territory toward the port city of Antwerp.
Lipchik's mind was not on that big picture. His objective was small, almost insignificant.
It was a row of beehives.
The retired Erie carpenter recently
described his stay in Bastogne as part of the 101st Airborne Division.
Eight other Erie men were at Bastogne. They included Lipchik, Dan Zapolski, Carl Radack, Edward Kuhav, Michael Sorek, Joseph Lesniewski, John
Czuprynski and Victor Viscio.
Lipchik was a member of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment's Headquarters Company. He had been a sergeant before this December struggle. Now he was a private due to a little AWOL
problem to be explained further on.
The regiment's medical officer was Captain Raimey, one of the officers that Lipchik deeply respected.
""Captain Raimey was asking me if I knew where he could get some
honey.
"""See across that field there?' I asked him. The field was covered with snow, but you could see rectangle shapes under it. There was a row of them.
"""Those are beehives,' I told him.''
The captain then explained to Lipchik that if he had honey he could apply it to the wounds of some of the badly hurt men. It would help heal the damaged
tissue.
""I had seen these guys with their arms blown off and their bellies ripped open. If that's what they needed, I'd go get it.''
So Lipchik, veteran of D-Day and the September campaign in Holland,
suited up in white. He and his volunteer started crawling across the snow-covered field.
They were part way across the field when the Germans saw them. Small arms fire opened up. The pair kept crawling.
Bullets kicked into the snow around them.
""If you want to know what scared is, you lie down in the snow and have the snow kick into your face from the bullets hitting that close to you.''
He felt one go into the snow under his chest.
But they kept going, and did make it to the hives. ""I told the other guy that the bees would be moving slow because of the cold so not to worry about
them. And I told him to stay on our side of the hives.''
The two GIs stayed low, reaching up to the hives and scooping out the honey, then crawled back, still under German fire.
Captain Raimey had his honey.
""The captain took the honey and put it on this fella's arm that had been ripped apart from the middle of the forearm. His hand and wrist were gone. Then the captain sewed the arm to the man's
belly. A few days later he took the arm away from the belly and the skin had grafted to the arm and he sewed the belly up.''
For his actions, Private Lipchik could become Sergeant Lipchik again.
He had lost
the stripes a few weeks before while on a short leave in London.
He and a friend met up with some pilots whose job was to ferry aircraft from the U.S. to England. They managed to talk the pilots into letting
them dress in pilots' overclothes and flying back to the U.S. on a transport for ferry pilots. They'd stay there a few days and then fly back across the Atlantic on the next run.
""Well we were in New York
walking along and some lieutenant comes up and says we're out of uniform.
"""Whaddaya mean we're out of uniform,' I said. ""We're in uniform. Look.''
What he was showing the
lieutenant was fine for soldiers on leave in London, but it was not the regulation uniform for the States. The paratroopers stuck out like a sore thumb.
Lipchik and his buddy were hustled back onto an airplane
and sent back to the 502nd Regiment in England.
Lipchik got a chewing out, a week of tight restrictions and a shadow on his sleeve where his sergeant's stripes had been.
""I wasn't trouble, see, but I was kind of ... mischievous.''
That's when he wasn't in combat.
""Look, you never know when you're gonna get killed, so every chance I got, I'd go have fun,'' he
said, smiling.
Lipchik said he had no intention of being a dead hero.
""I didn't join the Army to be a dead hero.
""I just went over to help this country. And I was married with a kid
back home.''
But he had his share of close calls - times when combat was hand-to-hand in the fog around Bastogne and in the broad daylight.
Supplies were airdropped to the surrounded 101st and 10th Armored Division
on Christmas Day. Soldiers from both sides went out to recover the supplies and sometimes it meant close fighting.
Pointing to a photo of himself with a .45 caliber automatic pistol in a holster on his leg, he
said, ""That thing saved my life a bunch of times.''
Before that Christmas airdrop, the Germans dropped leaflets on the American positions advising them to surrender so they would have a chance to live and
see their loved ones after the war.
""We weren't sure what to think. We were hoping to get relief from Patton's Third Army, but we didn't know for sure. We were running low on ammo and food and we were
surrounded. We figured save your ammunition and keep one round for yourself. We didn't want to be taken prisoner.
""We figured we had a 50-50 chance of getting out. But we were gonna do the best
we could with what we had.
""The Germans were pushing with all they had, everyday.''
He was hit by shrapnel when an artillery round burst in the trees above him. He was peppered with shrapnel and out of
action for a week.
His right pinkie finger is still marked where it was hit.
""They were going to amputate it, but I wouldn't let them. I insisted that Capt. Raimey look at it first. He did, and said
it didn't have to come off.''
The arrival of a column of paratroopers to an area where his heavy weapons company was dug in made for one of the scariest moments for Lipchik.
""We were lying low about 20
feet off the road in some trees. Then we see this bunch of GIs come walking right down the middle of the road. I jumped up and I'm yelling and waving for them to get off the road. At first they didn't
go, but I motioned again.
""They jumped off the road and five seconds later 88mm shells (German artillery) go zip zip down the road.''
Lipchik and the others went over to these troops to find out why they
had done such a foolish thing.
They found out the GIs had had just 30 days in the Army.
""I went over to the officers and asked them what the hell this was all about.''
Lipchik and the men he had been
serving with for so many months had had much more training than that, not to mention the lessons that can only be learned by direct combat experience. The greenness of these troops was frightening.
""I
had learned to pay attention and to learn and listen in order to survive. That's why I'm still here today.
""The ones who didn't pay attention didn't come back.''
The seige of Bastogne was lifted by
the 4th Armored Division's 37th Tank Battalion on Dec. 26 after fighting its way through the German 5th Parachute Division lines south of Bastogne.
""I heard the rumble of tanks and didn't know whose they
were. Then they came through. They were ours.''
Fighting would continue but the desperate plight of the defenders of Bastogne was over. In a few weeks, the 101st would be withdrawn to again serve as
strategic reserve for the Allied armies, along with the other Allied airborne units. More combat would come, but the 101st would always be best known for the defense of Bastogne.
