January 14, 1945. On that single day in the history of World War II there were 810 American casualties. One of those was my father’s cousin, Captain Gene Sucharda, who was killed while commanding a tank company at the Battle of the Bulge. I remember seeing his picture hanging on the wall of Gene in uniform when we visited my dad’s Aunt Claire and Uncle Edmund in Akron, Oh. It was above a small table with his memorabilia laid out on it, like a small shrine. He was their only child and I, even at my young age, wondered how the parents could have gotten through something like that. His remains never made it back to the USA. My youngest brother Gene was named by my parents in his honor. So many heroes are responsible for the lives we have today. What follows is an account written by David Kasavan, a fellow soldier, for the 11th Armored Division Legacy Group:
“The Captain was leading the way as he always did, when the shell came from his right flank. It must have been right in line with him, for suddenly he fell, and slumped down into the turret. The tank started burning, and Ramee gave me the order to back up quick behind a house. I saw Cpl. Armin Stodolenak, the Captain’s gunner get out of the tank after he looked around and saw he could help the CO or the loader, Pfc. Stan Chadwick. The bog and the driver Pfc Clarence Busch and T/4 Key both got out of the tank but not before it was hit the second time. And then suddenly our tank was hit, right in the back deck which was sticking out past our shelter. No one was hit bad, and dodging all of the mortars and artillery, we finally made it back to a house where we were later picked up.”
The Captain and Chadwick must have been killed instantly. Stodolenak had some nasty shrapnel in his hip, and he hopped into Sgt. Jones’ tank for safety and first aid. “That made six men in the tank,” Jones said, “and before long there was a knocking on the tank. We opened up and there was Pfc. Sid Meyer, loader in Cohen’s tank, so we took him too and sat him on the transmission. Then the artillery started falling in town. Lt. Brendan Burns, who was to lead us through the rest of our battles, was outside scouting around with Captain Dick McCoy, from the battalion staff. They both hopped into the tank, too, so we had a total of nine men there. Probably set some sort of record.”Link to the entire article:http://www.11tharmoreddivision.com/history/c41tk_revised.htm
