The Story of WWII Veteran, George Norman Sosebee

By Julie Senger

At only 15 years old, George Norman Sosebee was playing football in Cantons Brown Park when he first heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. At the time, he was too young to even know what Pearl Harbor was or that we even had a problem with the Japanese. That didnt stop him from wanting to enlist to fight for his country. Since his parents wouldnt sign for him to enlist early, Norman enlisted as soon as he turned 18. He entered into the Army by default, because it was the only branch that hadnt filled their enlistment quota for that day. After a short, 12 weeks of training at Camp Wheeler in Macon, GA, Norman was sent as a replacement infantryman to Holland. He had never been out of the country before. Upon arrival, he was handed a bazooka and told that he was the new bazooka man, because having shot the weapon for a mere 1-2 rounds in training, he was incredulously the most qualified for the job.

After carrying the bazooka for 2 weeks, Norman said he and a few of his fellow soldiers in his company were given their first orders. Their commander pointed at them and said, You, you, you and you go with Marcus, and do what Marcus does; youre now going on patrol. This was the only instruction they were given. Having been in war for only a week or two longer than Norman, Marcus was considered an old-timer. While following Marcus along the river, not even knowing what they were looking for, it began to get dusky-dark when Norman suddenly heard this terrible noise, and he didnt know what it was. As I looked around, there were suddenly all of these terrific explosions. That was my first experience of hearing incoming artillery. Fortunately, there was a lot of soft mud and dirt, so the shells burned down into the mud before they exploded, so no one was injured, but we looked around and Marcus was on the ground, yelling, Get down! Get down! Norman explained. After seeing that he would be given little direction by men who werent much more qualified than himself, Norman, nervous and scared, realized hed have to learn quickly from personal experiences in order to survive.

There would be 3 other close-calls that Norman would survive. He once lay unconscious on a battlefield for 2 hours following the explosion of a 90 mm mortar, which hit so close behind him that it knocked him out. The second close-call occurred just after the Battle of the Bulge ended, when Norman and some of his fellow soldiers were making their way through the Die Hard Forest in Germany in an effort to take the German town that lay on the other side, and friendly fire exploded near him and was only a foot away from taking off his leg.

The third close-call is the one that would forever change George Norman Sosebee; it would dictate nearly every decision he made for the rest of his life. It would instill in Norman an important sense of purpose that, at 90 years old, he still pursues to this day. We were trapped (by the Germans) in the Norman Elm Canal, which had been drained. Our squads job was to capture a bridge, but when we got there, (the Germans) had already blown it. The front end of the bridge was dropped down into the canal. So we went down into the bridge to see if we could get on the other side somehow. The Germans were on the opposite side, and they had us trapped there for over an hour when our radio went out. So my fellow soldier, Carlton Simon, had to risk his life going back and forth to get us some help. Every time anyone tried to run up and down the bridge, they (the Germans) had us in crossfire [sic]. Carlton went twice up and down that bridge to get help. On his second trip is when he got shotI couldnt see it, but I heard him holler out [sic]. I still hear that sound today. After that, the only thing that saved the four of us who got out alive was that it got pitch dark; the fog started to move in, and it started raining. To escape, we had to run up the bridge one at a time, with 6-8 Germans firing at us from their foxholes at less than 100 feet away and then belly crawl about 400 meters to safety. But nobody shouldve gotten outnobody, Normans words trailed off, as his eyes began to water.

It took 2 days for news to reach Normans troop in Nephten, Germany that the war was officially over. It would be more than a year after that when he finally came back to the U.S. and went home to his parents house. His dog, Jack, was on the front porch when he pulled into the driveway and immediately began barking with recognition and excitement. His mother was awake, even though it was
2 am, waiting to hug and kiss him, and as many mothers would do, she asked him if he needed anything to eat. But his father, who had picked Norman up from the airport, had picked up an entirely different young man than the one hed seen off to war only a year and a half earlier. You see, I had been rebellious against parental control, Norman said, I bucked my dad on everything at home. After he picked me up, I thanked my dad many times for being so persistent and disciplined with me. When you have someone who gets killed saving your life, its hard to take. It makes you want to do something with your life to help others. It made me
grow up.

Norman had 93 days of actual combat in WWII. He said, The fear, the anxiety, the emotion is always with you. Some people ask, how can you remember all of that stuff? and I sayhow can you forget it? And really, I dont want to forget it. Norman returned to Germany in 1982. It was important to him that he revisit the place where he should never have lived. The collapsed bridge had been rebuilt. It was very emotional, Norman said, I sat on that bridge and cried for 2 hours. Every emotion I had at that time, every experience that transpired that day, I relived it.