Nathan Edwards was a sergeant in the American army and during the Second World War he experienced a phenomenon that he could never explain and had kept to himself for more than forty years. Nathan had a military background than ran in the family, his father and grandfather had been military men and his great uncle was none other than George Armstrong Custer the famous civil war general who died at the little Big Horn River in 1876. He and two hundred and ten men of the seventh cavalry engaged the Sioux on what became forever known as Custer Hill which overlooked the river and were slaughtered to a man so Nathan’s pedigree as a soldier was second to none.
In December 1944 during the battle of the Bulge as it became know Nathan’s unit was fighting the German defensive around the town of Bastogne in the Ardennes when they became cut off from the main body of the attack and pinned down over to the left of the town in some hilly terrain where the enemy had dug in well and had gained the upper hand on his unit where it became clear to him that he and about thirty men were surrounded and he expected the worst. They were being pounded by enemy guns and their troops were advancing from all sides and Nathan thought that his unit would have to fight to the death and feared it was the end as he was unable to raise re-enforcements through their radio which had been seriously damaged in one attack. As they dug in against this final attack a sudden deep mist descended over the area making visibility impossible and it all became a very eerie scene and all that could be heard was the pounding of the enemy guns, the explosions all around and the sound of men’s screams as they were hit by mortar shells and bullets. Enemy tanks had moved away to their right to continue their fight elsewhere but over two hundred enemy troops were moving in for the kill. As Nathan thought things through and relayed orders to his men, as all the officers in the unit had been killed in the fierce fighting which left him as the most senior officer left alive to take command and the plan was to let the enemy advance as close as possible and then to mount a final charge which would probably result in them all being killed but that seemed to be the only choice left to them as surrender was not considered an option.
As they waited for the final assault the mist had got even denser and all that could be heard was the sound of the enemy advancing it seemed that all would be lost and over shortly but Nathan thought he could hear a bugle sounding the charge, like in the old western films he used to watch back home in the cinema, and the clatter of horses hooves and the clash of Sabre’s rattling and really thought he was losing his mind. At that moment cannon fire can from behind their position and ploughed overhead and into the enemy lines followed by the screams where the shells were finding their mark. Nathan thought that re-enforcements must have arrived to save the day and so he ordered him men to advance slowly, thinking a major force had arrived and was fighting with them.
In the dense mist they could see nothing and though they were making headway they seemed to be meeting very little resistance which surprised him and by now the cannon fire had ceased and an eerie silence seemed to cover the area but the mist was starting to lift gradually and their view of the situation changed dramatically. All over the place dead bodies of the enemy covered the ground and their heavy weapons all seemed to have been hit and destroyed and as all the men stared in disbelief the sound of heavy artillery came from off to their right and the relief regiment came into view.
Glad you turned up when you did otherwise we would have had it, the pounding you gave the enemy did the trick said Nathan reporting to the commanding officer. But we have only just learned of your situation was the reply we heard the mortar fire in the distance and hurried here as quick as we could only for it to go very silent and we assumed you would all be dead or wounded and we would have to engage the full force of the enemy dug in here but we can see that you have coped ok on your own. Nathan looked at the officer in disbelief but thought best not to pursue the situation and left to take care of his men who by now were elated at having been rescued and during his walkabout on the battlefield, amongst the bodies of fallen soldier s he noticed something glinting in the sunlight and walking over to it found it to be a Sabre, the kind used by mounted cavalry in the old days. Thinking it was odd to say the least his curiosity took a turn for the worse when he read the inscription on the hand plate it read The Seventh Cavalry, which chilled him to the bone and assumed that it must have been drought here long ago and lost by someone who had been in the area at that time. Days past and the regiments moved on to bigger and greater battles and Nathan and the remainder of his men saw out the war with very little incident and eventually they all went back to America to their loved ones, bearing the scars of battle forever.
To this day Nathan has never repeated his find to a living soul and is still totally baffled as to what happened that fateful day on that battle field because he and his men should surely have died there and then. Did he really hear a bugle playing, the rattle of Sabre’s and horses hooves or was he unconscious and dreaming it all. Did his long lost ancestor come to his rescue knowing his great grandson was in mortal danger?, or is there dome other simple explanation as to what occurred.
We all know this cannot have been the case don’t we but sometimes things are stranger than fiction.