A belated 'Merci' for two who fought

63 years after World War II's end, France will bestow its highest award to veterans who served with bravery

In the European fields, cities, and beaches where much of World War II was fought, the two teenagers were surrounded by death at every moment. While many of their friends were killed by Germans, James Gabaree and Merrill Feldman survived and returned to Massachusetts to begin life all over again.

Tomorrow night, 63 years after the war ended in Europe, the men will be honored by France for their bravery on the battlefields and receive that country's highest award, the National Order of the Legion of Honor medal. Besides Gabaree and Feldman, three other Massachusetts men will receive the honor: William Tucker of Harwich Port, William Ulwick of Abington, and John Wessmiller of Chatham. The ceremony is at the Langham Hotel, in downtown Boston, at 6:30 p.m.

"The Legion of Honor recognizes eminent service to the French Republic, and I cannot think of a more eminent service than the one they gave to us. France will never forget," said Francois Gauthier, France's consul general in Boston. "Since the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of D-day, on June 6, 2004, the French government and its embassy and consulates in the United States have been particularly proactive in seeking and reaching out to American veterans who could qualify for a special recognition for their service in the liberation of France."

Gabaree, of Newburyport, and Feldman, of Swampscott, are pleased to receive the medal, but both said they will be thinking about friends and fellow soldiers they left behind in Europe.

"All the guys who are still back in Europe under crosses and stars of David probably deserve it a heck of a lot more than I do, but outside of that I feel very, very honored," said Feldman, 83, a Dorchester native who served as an Army medic and went on to become the chairman of radiation medicine at Boston University's School of Medicine.

Gabaree, who underwent brain surgery last week, said he would still attend the ceremony and planned to accept the award in honor of the Army Rangers he fought alongside. "I don't think it's an honor to me; it's an honor to the Rangers," said Gabaree, 83, a former Boston Fire Department lieutenant.

After growing up in foster homes in Quincy, Gabaree became an Army Ranger in 1943 when he was 18. By the spring of 1944, his Ranger battalion was sent to Scotland to train for the Allied invasion of Normandy, France. On June 6, 1944, he boarded a small boat 12 miles from Omaha Beach at Normandy. His mission, along with the other 559 soldiers, was to capture Pointe du Hoc - a strategic cliff over the ocean - and destroy the large guns the Germans had placed there.

"It was like entering the Valley of Death," said Gabaree, who remembers Germans shooting Allied soldiers even before they could leave their boats. "I dropped into water up to my waist and by this time blood was everywhere. The water was like wine."

Armed with a Bangalore torpedo, Gabaree stepped onto the beach and fired dynamite from the long metal tube, blowing up barbed wire and mines, allowing 22 other Rangers to run past the beach toward a cliff. When he reached the top of the cliff, he had a panoramic view of the battle.

"You'd actually see bodies flying in the air," said Gabaree. "I looked down at that beach there and lost my religion. I wondered where God was. I said to myself, 'If there's a God why would he let this happen?' "

Gabaree and his fellow Rangers went on to capture Pointe du Hoc but found that the Germans had moved their big guns away from the point. The next day, after going more than 24 hours without food or water, Gabaree and six other Rangers headed back to the beach. On his way down, Gabaree was shot by a German sniper.

"I started crawling," said Gabaree, who eventually reached an open field. Sensing danger, he said he turned around, reached for his rifle, and shot and killed a German soldier who was standing in a foxhole.

He crawled to the foxhole and sat alongside the dead soldier. "I was hallucinating. I saw Mickey Mouse and Goofy in full color," said Gabaree, who thought he was dying and decided to kill himself if the Germans approached. Eventually, he heard soldiers speaking English. They brought him back to the beach, where he was evacuated by ship to England and underwent surgery on his hip and stomach.

Feldman also joined the Army in 1943. By that time he was a premed student at the University of New Hampshire, having graduated from Boston Latin School at 15. Soon he would face death every day, and as a medic, would be responsible for the medical care of his 70-man platoon. Armed with just a pistol and wearing a Red Cross armband, Feldman would run into the middle of battles to treat soldiers.

"There were all kinds of battle wounds: gunshot wounds in various parts of the body, mortar shell wounds, immersion foot disease for guys who stood in the foxhole all night in water up to their knees; frostbite up in the snow in the Battle of the Bulge," said Feldman, 83.

Feldman calmed the injured and also helped administer last rites to soldiers. "You try to comfort them as much as you could to make them comfortable, and say, 'You're going to make it, don't worry; we're going to get you back.' "

Feldman wasn't supposed to fight, but in 1945, he led an attack on a German farmhouse and captured more than a dozen soldiers. He was also wounded twice - the first time in 1944, during a key battle near Metz, France, and the second time in Augustdorf, Germany. In Augustdorf, Feldman raced to save his best friend who had been shot. Before he reached his friend, Feldman was shot in the hand.

"He was dead by the time I arrived," said Feldman, who bandaged himself up and refused to accept evacuation. He would later receive a Silver Star for his actions.

Feldman and Gabaree, who both oppose the current war in Iraq, said survival is foremost on a soldier's mind. "You live to survive, so that means you learn how to use Mother Earth to protect you, by crawling, and creeping, and running, and ducking, and learning how to recognize sounds that may be dangerous," said Feldman.

Both men have returned to Europe since the war, and Gabaree said a return visit to Omaha Beach brought him comfort. "We had a picnic and everybody was having a good time, and I went into the woods and I had a little cry for myself," said Gabaree. "That kind of did the trick. It was kind of like closure."