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November 6, 2008

Local man lived through the Battle of the Bulge

By Vanessa Fultz, Democrat Reporter The Suwannee Democrat Thu Nov 06, 2008, 05:20 PM EST

vanessa.fultz@gaflnews.com

December 1944 held horrors for Cecil Bonds of Live Oak

After high school, Cecil Bonds tried three times to enter the military, but, for a variety of reasons, wasn't accepted. Then, at age 21, he was drafted to serve in World War II. Bonds, of Live Oak, was a soldier in the U.S. Army's 9th Infantry. He served as the head of communications for his company. Some of his most harrowing experiences came during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. He shared his story recently with reporter Vanessa Fultz.

• • •

Bonds was wounded twice during the Battle of the Bulge. One time two Germans opened fire on his company, which was hiding out in an abandoned house.

"There was a road right in front of the house and we could tell when the Germans was walking along there because they had hobnailed shoes on," he said.

As the Germans approached them one night, the lieutenant warned the soldiers not to turn on any lights or make any noise. But the warning came too late.

"They must have heard us in there. They went to shootin' through the doors and windows and everything else," Bonds said.

Bonds was wounded in the right hip.

"Everybody started out the back of the house, hard as they could go," he said.

His fellow soldiers drug him out the back door. The medic was trying to help Bonds when two Germans approached.

"They took the butt of their rifle and swung it around and knocked the medic slap out," he said. "They grabbed him up and killed him. I heard him shoot."

Bonds said the backyard was littered with bottles and cans.

"Everywhere you stepped, you'd step in a pile of them, so you couldn't hide because you'd make a fuss," he said.

Bonds struggled to his feet and took shelter near a shed. He grabbed his Walther P38 pistol, a German weapon he had gotten during a battle. About that time a German soldier went looking for him.

"He stopped at the corner at the house right in front of me and when he did I went to shootin' him and I shot him till he fell," Bonds said.

Bonds said he grew up on a farm and was a good shot.

"I could knock a squirrel's eye out at the top of a tree," he said.

Bonds then took off down the road. He soon began to feel weak and lay down. That was when he realized he had blood in his shoes. He eventually came upon American soldiers of another company, who gave him medical attention.

Bonds still had the pistol in hand and the first thing they wanted to do was disarm him. After taking the gun, one soldier tried to unload it and all the bullets were gone.

"I reckon I shot (the German) about as many times as I could pull the trigger," Bonds said.

On another occasion Bonds was wounded by a sniper in broad daylight. He was outside talking to fellow soldiers when the gunman, located in a nearby two-story building, shot him in the wrist. The wrist has given him problems ever since.

"See that hand how it shakes all the time," he said. "It shakes like that all the time. Sometimes I can't hardly eat with it. I just have to quit sometimes and just sit there."

After being wounded a second time Bonds was sent back home.

"That was the worst hell I'd ever been into," he said of his combat experiences.

Bonds said when he was sent home there were only six soldiers left of about 100 in his company. The others had either been killed or sent home after being wounded.

Bonds, 87, received numerous awards for his courageous acts, including a Bronze Star Medal and a Purple Heart.

When asked about what it meant to him to receive such honors he teared up, paused, took out his handkerchief and wiped his face.

"It was hard to say," he responded. "All you can say about it, it was just hell but I'd do it all over if I had to."

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