This YANK Magzine, Continental Edition of January 14, 1945, entiteled "PRESENT ARMS" features Pfc. ROBERT LEIGH and his collection of enemy weapons taken by the 83rd Infantry Division during the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest on the cover. Major story in this YANK is from the Massacre at Malmedy. American soldiers who escaped from the German slaughter tell how guns were turned on medics and unarmed Prisoners of War.
The Cover soldier!
Pfc Robert E. Leight, from Washington DC, was born on September 15, 1919. He had a Grammar school education and his occupation was listed as "Plumbers, gas fitters and steam fitters".
Robert Leigh (#33044651) enlisted in the service on May 22, 1941 in Richmond, Virginia.
In the European Theatre of Operation (ETO), he was a Rifleman, Private First Class in the 83rd Infantry Division, 329st Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion, B Company, where he was assigned on July 24, 1944, while the Company was in the vicinity of Sainteny, Normandy, France.
The picture for the Yank cover was taken in Gurzenich (Düren), Germany, probably just after the 1st and 2nd Battalion of the 329th Infantry Regiment had taken Gurzenich during the bloody battle of the Hurtgen Forest.
Robert E. Leigh died at age 76, on January 26, 1996.
