Local veteran part of Normandy invasion and Battle of the Bulge

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Bulge. For 90-year-old veteran Mahlon Sebring, this anniversary is a reminder of his life in the 319th Glider Field Artillery and the 82nd Airborne Division.Sebring was part of the D-Day Normandy Invasion the previous June, which turned World War II in favor of the Allied forces. On December 16, 1944, Hitler initiated a counteroffensive attack and the Battle of the Bulge began. By the time the battle officially ended on January 25, Sebring and his fellow soldiers were battered, cold, and exhausted.Sebring remembers the battle beginning so fast, he was still in his summer uniform covered by his winter overcoat as he jumped into the back of a transport truck. Rain and snow soaked the wool coat during the trip. It was so heavy he would have fallen without the men so close on every side of him.Sebring’s time in Europe during WWII and during the occupation in Berlin, Germany post-war, is still very clear for the Tecumseh resident. Unlike a textbook, the memories don’t come in chronological order, but have a power not found in any book.Sebring left high school before graduation to join the Army. His mother, upset about having two sons serving in the war, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt asking Sebring be excused because he was the only one who could milk the family cow. The response said her request would be taken under advisement.As part of the 319th Glider Field Artillery Sebring flew into battle in a glider made of aluminum pipe, canvas and a plywood floor. He landed in Normandy with the 30-foot tow cable frayed by enemy gunfire.“Riding in those gliders was crazy,” Sebring said.The gliders carried either a Howitzer or a Jeep and flew in pairs. When there was no glider or Jeep on landing in Normandy, Sebring commandeered, at gunpoint, a Red Cross Jeep for his Howitzer.“We were pretty cocky,” he said.Deaths of his fellow soldiers in battle still resonate with Sebring. One of the most haunting happened during a set-up for battle. After receiving instructions to move a vehicle under a set of trees, the vehicle drove over a German shoebox mine. The explosion threw one soldier high in the air, and then he landed on a second mine.Sebring was instructed to recover the body. First he found the soldier’s leg, “still warm,” and then an arm with the ribs attached.“These are the kinds of things you think about all the time,” he said.Life in Berlin as an American occupation soldier after the war had its own horrors. The city was divided in quadrants, and it was dangerous for soldiers to go to a different area, especially in the section patrolled by Russian soldiers.Sebring remembers everyone was afraid of the Russian soldiers because of their brutality. American soldiers witnessed horrifying attacks on German women and girls by the Russians, often in front yards of German houses, but were forbidden to do anything to stop the Russians.Sebring’s job was to help rid Berlin of all Nazi paraphernalia. Despite losing the war, the Germans did not hate American soldiers.“The people in Germany were decent to us,” said Sebring. “We weren’t supposed to talk to them, but I talked to them every chance I got.”He questioned their loyalty to Hitler and why they would follow a man capable of atrocities. The Germans told Sebring they followed Hitler, because after World War I they were poor and hungry. Hitler brought back jobs and food to the German people, and earned their trust.Sebring witnessed Hitler’s atrocities first-hand when he was part of a group to free survivors at one of the smaller concentration camps. According to Sebring, the survivors were thinner than he thought possible for a living human being.“I never believed that could happen, but I saw it,” he said.The survivors begged American soldiers for food, but only IV nourishment was safe for them. Sebring remembers the frustration of not being able to provide food to people who were desperately hungry.“I could offer them a cigarette, but no food,” Sebring said.Even Sebring’s return home in 1946 was dangerous. The ship carrying soldiers back to the United States was caught in a hurricane with waves 100 feet high. Five men were swept overboard, and the ship began to break in half requiring a port stay for repair.The Statue of Liberty was a welcome sight for Sebring as he finally returned to the United States, as was the ship that pulled up alongside the returning servicemen. “There was a full band on the ship, and Doris Day sang to us,” said Sebring.He returned home to Macon and to his parents and girlfriend, Clara.“I told her I wasn’t going to do anything for a month,” Sebring said. The two were married five weeks later.Returning from the war, Sebring got his diploma at night school, built a career starting at Tecumseh Products, and raised a family. He is proud to be an American and a veteran, but believes war should always be a last resort for this country. Sebring tries to return to Fort Bragg for its yearly All-American Week celebration. This year he was offered a trip to Normandy, but turned it down because he has no desire to return to any of the places he fought in WWII. “There are too many rotten memories,” said Sebring.