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Christmas Eve Shrapnel at Rolley: an unwanted present from German Army

"Captain Joseph Pangerl was the IPW (Interrogator Prisoner of War) officer for the IPW Team 1, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

During the Ardennes Fighting of december 1944, Captain Pangerl slept in a upstairs room of the stone building on the left side, near the entrance to the Rolley Castel's courtyard. The entire area was under sporadic German artillery fire, as it had been identified by the enemy as a place where much U.S. Army activity was taking place.

On the evening of 24 December, 1944, Captain Pangerl and other staff officers of the 502th PIR were called to a meeting in the Rolley Castel, where Colonel Steve Chappuis had established a 502nd Regimental command Post. In captain Pangrel's absence, while he attended this meeting, a german artillery shell exploded against the roof of the building where Pangerl usually slept. Steel shell fragments (schrapnel) sprayed down into his room.

 

Upon returning from this meeting Pangerl found 6 pieces of steel had penetrated his sleeping bag and they had struck places where his head and chest would have been, if he had been sleeping there.

Captain Pangerl recovered and retained those pieces of shrapnel in souvenirs. Two pieces of that shrapnel were given by Joe Pangerl to 101th historian Mark Bando." (Mark Bando, 2010)

In 2010, Mark Bando accept Bernard Maus de Rolley request and kindly sent him back one of those pieces of shrapnel with the full event story and the letter that Captain Pangerl wrote on the 30th december to his family.

 

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