Fritz Vincken in the Battle of the Bulge
December 1944 did not portend a Merry Christmas for the American troops who had been placed in the Ardennes for rest following the Battle of the Huertgen Forest. The German Ardennes offensive, known as the Battle of the Bulge, was raging that December, the weather was bitterly cold and snowy, and the Americans were engaged in heavy combat with the attacking Germans. In the midst of it all a 12 year old German boy and his mother were sheltered in a cabin near the Belgian border with Germany, sent there by the boy’s father, a cook in the German Army.
Three American soldiers arrived at their door on Christmas Eve, one of them wounded. Mrs. Vincken, the boy’s mother, let them in and sent the boy, Fritz Vincken, to get a bucket of snow with which to rub the soldier’s numb hands and feet (then an accepted treatment for frostbite). None of the Americans could speak German, but one could converse in French, as could Mrs. Vincken. Soon she was preparing a meal of potatoes and chicken for the Americans. As they were just about to sit down for what was likely the first hot meal the Americans had in days another knock on the door and a quick glance through the window revealed four German soldiers outside.
The Germans politely requested shelter for the night, having lost their unit and their bearings in the darkness. Mrs. Vincken considered their request, and then told them that she had other guests. When the Germans asked if they were Americans Mrs. Vincken replied, “There will be no shooting here.” When the German soldiers hesitated she took charge, demanding that they leave their weapons on the nearby woodpile and come in the cabin. After a moment, the Germans complied, undoubtedly the aroma of roast chicken helping them to come to their decision.
After returning to the cabin Mrs. Vincken requested that the Americans give up their weapons and they too, handed them over. One of the German soldiers spoke English and he examined the American’s wound, pronouncing it to be clean, and that the man needed rest and nourishment to recover lost blood. As they sat down to dinner another German soldier produced a bottle of wine from his knapsack, undoubtedly looted earlier in the day. Two of the German soldiers were but 16 years old, another only 17. As the dinner went on the tension evaporated as Mrs. Vincken insisted on the toasts and traditions of a German Christmas Eve, not unlike an American one.
In the morning, Christmas Day 1944, Mrs. Vincken fed her guests a breakfast of oatmeal, using her last egg to prepare an egg whip for the wounded American, with some wine she had saved from the night before. The Germans provided the Americans with directions back to the American lines. Mrs. Vincken bestowed a blessing on all of them and the German soldiers, after promising that they would get word of her well-being to her husband, shook hands with their American counterparts. Mrs. Vincken provided the Americans with a tablecloth from which they fashioned a stretcher, and the soldiers went off in opposite directions.