Arthur Mahler, his family and the Lippi family came to Belgium to visit a simple, white cross at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial. The cross of his best WW2 buddy Joseph T. ”Joe” Lippi.
Arthur ”Art” Mahler, an Austrian who said his father exposed a Nazi plot to overthrow that government, had been in the United States for only two years when he received his draft notice. He and Lippi, whose ancestors hailed from Italy, formed a lasting bond that was especially close since both felt at odds with the culture at the Alabama fort, "where they were still fighting the Civil War," Mahler said.
On November 1, 1944, Lippi and Mahler were among 12000 casualty replacements for the
334th Infantry Regiment, 84th Infantry Division ”Railsplitters” aboard the converted luxury-liner Isle de France.
From ship to rail to ship again, and finally to landing craft under the cover of night, they made it to Le Havre, France, climbed aboard a train and took a roundabout way to Belgium to avoid detection by enemy aircraft, Mahler recalled.
Mahler, who was fluent in German, remembered finding a German newspaper bragging about an offensive in the Ardennes. At the time, "We thought it was just German propaganda".
It was not the case. The offensive would be called the ”Battle of the Bulge” and would be Hitler's last push to change the outcome of the war.
"Where are the Germans?" Mahler asked the officers in charge when he and Lippi arrived at the town of Marche, Belgium. Eighteen kilometres away, he was told. "Where's the front?" he asked. "You're it," came the reply.
MEMORIAL ADRESS BY ARTHUR P. MAHLER at the Provincial Palace, May 2010
