Tough spot
It was much worse.
Saul Emigh's son, Robert, said his father landed on Omaha Beach on day three of the invasion of Normandy.
Omaha Beach was one of five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the landings on June 6, 1944.
Robert Emigh said, “My father said '“Saving Private Ryan” was nothing like what I saw.' He thought the movies didn't show how tough it was.”
About his father's World War II service, Robert Emigh said, “He would talk about it. I'm sure there were some things he didn't want to go back to.”
One thing the elder Emigh did talk about was how he took his brother's place in the Army.
Saul Emigh was one of 13 siblings living on a farm in Kenwood, near Clymer in Indiana County.
“He was born a twin, Saul and Paul,” said Robert Emigh. “Paul was drafted.”
“My dad swapped out with him. He thought his brother wasn't as well suited for the situation.”
Robert Emigh said the local draft board allowed the switch.
Saul's daughter, Marjorie Yost, recalled how back then, during the war, one son was allowed to stay home to take care of family because her grandfather — Saul's dad — was killed in a farming accident before the war. Her uncle, Paul, remained in the States and helped run the family farm.Switching with his brother eventually led to Saul Emigh becoming a Sherman tank driver with the 33rd Armor Regiment first formed in 1941. He had several experiences that wouldn't have made the silver screen as the 33rd Armor made its way east across occupied Europe.Robert Emigh said his father told him, “One night he was on guard duty and he heard and saw something crawling through the buckwheat.“Being a deer hunter, he decided he would wait until he had a clear shot at it,” his son said.What popped out of the wheat wasn't a German infiltrator but a little blond-headed girl who had gotten separated from her family.The Americans eventually reunited her with her family in a nearby village.Unfortunately, he wasn't in his tank later that year in December 1944, when the Nazis launched a counterattack through the Ardennes region of Wallonia in eastern BelgiumCaught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge.Robert Emigh said his father's unit was en route to the battlefield when it came under German artillery fire.“He was headed to the Battle of the Bulge when he lost his leg to an artillery shell,” said his son.His other son, Fred Emigh of Slippery Rock, remembered his father talking about the incident.Fred Emigh said, “They were going to the Battle of the Bulge to get involved in that and that's when his tank became disabled.“He had to get out of the tank, but the guy with him got hit directly,” said Fred Emigh.“He and his friend were in a field when a shell hit his buddy directly and wounded him,” said Bob Emigh. “He was trying to reach a stone trough when he was hit.”
Saul Emigh, badly wounded, crawled into a barn. He said his commanding officer found him by following his blood trail.The officer told him he was lucky to be alive. The stone trough he was hoping to find shelter in took a direct hit and was obliterated.As it was, Saul Emigh lost his right leg below the knee and carried shrapnel in his body for the rest of his life until his death at 87.The story that remains with Marjorie Yost was her dad remembering the crystal clear night when he and his fellow soldiers realized they were being advanced upon by German troops. She said her dad would talk of how a soldier in the group quietly started praying.“He said he'd never seen anything like it before or since,” Yost said. “Suddenly, the densest, thickest fog he'd ever seen in his life rolled in. He'd say 'We were sitting ducks just waiting to get plowed under before that fog.'”Robert Emigh said another of Saul's brothers, Frank, lost an eye in the Battle of the Bulge.Saul Emigh was hospitalized in Europe in grave condition. It was quite some time before he was well enough to be sent stateside to convalesce at a hospital in Atlantic City.It was there that he married Marjorie Isobel Reighard on Feb. 15, 1945.“My dad was afraid that she wouldn't want him anymore without a leg,” Robert Emigh said. “There's a wedding photo of him on crutches.”He eventually got a prosthetic leg. His wounds didn't prevent him from working as a caretaker at what was then Alameda Camp until he took a similar job at Butler County Community College in 1965.
He eventually became supervisor of facilities at the community college.“He was always a hard worker,” Robert Emigh said. “He worked hard into his 70s.”Along the way, Saul managed to have some fun with unsuspecting people.“He'd bang his leg with a piece of wood,” he said. “There was a hole in the wooden leg and he'd poke a screwdriver through it through his pant leg.”“One time I got a call from my mother to go help my dad. He was on the roof and his leg fell off,” he said.The Emighs had two sons, Frederick and Robert, and two daughters, Marjorie and Joyce, and eventually six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.Robert Emigh doesn't remember his father and his brother Frank, who returned to the family farm in Indiana County ever discussing their World War II experiences.
“I know he went back to Germany many years later in the 1980s on,” he said.Saul Emigh passed away March 27, 2004.Robert Emigh said he regrets not talking more about the war with his father. There are memories and stories that are now lost forever, he said.Fred Emigh said, “He was like a lot of veterans, he didn't talk about it a whole lot or dwell on it.”
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