By December 1944, Frank Kusnir Jr. had seen a lot of war.  The western Pennsylvania native had enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard in 1936 and, after the U.S. entered World War II, had fought in battles that raged across France and into Nazi Germany.

He and his fellow soldiers in the 28th Infantry Division were worn out.

On the morning of Dec. 15, Kusnir's unit was stationed at a castle in Clervaux, Luxembourg, in what was supposed to be a quiet sector where they could recover from the horrors of combat. In truth, Clervaux was a target, one of the spots where the Germans were preparing to launch the monumental offensive that came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge.

For Kusnir, now 90 and living in Susquehanna Twp., it began with an artillery barrage. "All of the sudden, a couple of shells came in. Then more and more came," he said. "We said, 'There's got to be something up.'" Something was up.

Swarms of German SS troopers, supported by massive Tiger tanks, poured out of the forest and charged the castle while big guns pounded it to rubble. Kusnir, a sergeant, and his companions fired back, cutting down the advancing Germans. We could have gotten out, but our orders were to hold at all costs," Kusnir said. "We held out for three days until we ran out of ammunition."

'You are now prisoners':

With no other options, Kusnir said, he volunteered to hoist a white flag and take a German prisoner along and go out to meet the Germans. "I got out there, and there were about 100 SS troopers lined up in front of me," Kusnir said. "I was petrified." Eighty-three other Americans emerged from the castle's wreckage, he said, and they were lined up against a wall as the German commander debated what to do with them.

Salvation came when a German sergeant, one of their former captives, told the commander the Americans had treated him well. The German officer turned to the Americans, Kusnir said, and in perfect English told them, "You are so lucky. My first intention was to shoot all of you in retaliation for my dead comrades. You are now prisoners of the Third Reich."

Kusnir said he slipped away after the captives were herded into a large field. The freedom lasted only a few hours, he said, until he was recaptured by German soldiers masquerading as American military police.

"The Germans marched us for seven days, then put us in box cars," Kusnir said. "They put 100 guys in each car. You couldn't move. Then we got bombed by our own planes. We lost nine guys in my car."

Food was scarce, he said, and he and others got dysentery from eating rotten cabbage scrounged from a field. "We arrived at the prison camp on Christmas Eve," Kusnir said.

Life as a POW:

The prisoner of war camp at Bad Orb, Germany, was packed with soldiers of many nationalities, including Americans, Britons, Indians, Russians, Yugoslavs. American soldiers who were Jewish were separated and shipped away, Kusnir said, and most didn't survive the war. He said he saved one Jewish pal by scrounging dog tags that allowed him to pass as a Catholic of Italian descent.

"There was little food. They gave us what they called soup, but it was more like water. The only time we got meat, it was dog or horse," Kusnir said. "I lost 65 pounds. "One hundred and thirty-four guys died in the camp," he said. "Most of them just lost the will to live." The camp commandant insisted Germany was winning, but some of the guards who were sick of the war told the prisoners how things really were going, Kusnir said.

"One sergeant would show me pictures of his family," he said. "He'd lost two sons in the war. He told me all he wanted to do was go home." Hope rose as spring came. "We began to hear the sound of our own artillery," Kusnir said. "Then, on Easter morning, the 2nd Division liberated the camp."

Life after war:

Kusnir was on his way home when Germany surrendered in May 1945 and was back in western Pennsylvania when the war ended with Japan's surrender that August. After a brief stint as a civilian, Kusnir re-enlisted in the Army in 1946, made it a career and retired as a master sergeant in 1971.

He met his first wife, Elizabeth, a civilian worker at the New Cumberland Army Depot, when he was stationed there in 1950, and they made the midstate their home. Elizabeth died in 1982. Kusnir, who has three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, remarried at 85.

For years, he was the commander of the Pennsylvania Capital City Chapter of American Ex-Prisoners of War, which among other things helps former POWs secure medical and other government benefits due them. He thinks a lot about the war and his buddies who never made it home.

"I guess the Lord has taken care of me," Kusnir said.
MATT MILLER, Patriot-News - Harrisburg,PA,USA