Wellman man receives France?s highest honor

    A resident of rural Wellman has received the highest honor from the French Republic for his service in the country during World War II. Richard Huber, age 89, was awarded the French Legion of Honor Medal on Friday, 65 years after being discharged from the U.S. Army. Huber was congratulated for his efforts by the French ambassador in Washington, D.C., and by the French Consulate General in Chicago.

    Huber grew up on a farm just south of Wellman. He enlisted in the Army in July 1942 and started out as a truck mechanic. He was shipped to Great Britain a few weeks before Christmas in 1944. On Christmas Eve of that year, he boarded a ferry for France. His ferry carried 25 to 50 trucks and jeeps, and was one of about 20 to 25 ships that crossed the English Channel that day. The ships were on their way to fight in what would later be known as the Battle of the Bulge.

     On that voyage, a large troopship called the SS Leopoldville was torpedoed, resulting in nearly 800 deaths. Huber was unaware the ship had sunk until he arrived on shore in Cherbourg, France. Huber said the possibility that he could be attacked did not even cross his mind. He said that his youthful naiveté may have had something to do with it. 

    ?I don?t think anyone was worrying about being attacked,? he said.

    Huber said the trip was very unpleasant ? not because of fear of mines or torpedoes but because of the rough ocean waves.

    ?We were so sick,? he recalled. ?Our boat wasn?t so big, and it went up and down with the waves.?

    The Leopoldville disaster left his battalion without an infantry. The American forces enlisted the help of the Free French Infantry to serve as its foot soldiers on France?s west coast, specifically the cities of Lorient and Saint-Nazaire. The French soldiers Huber met had just come from the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge, and were sent westward so they could rest.

    Huber performed the role of a ?forward observer.? He was in charge of spotting German troops and relaying that information to an American artillery unit, which was normally about a mile behind him and the French infantry. Huber found a tree 90 feet tall on the top of a hill from which he could see a long way. He built himself a place to sit on the tree, and spent most of the day up there. He threw a rope over a big branch on the tree and then pulled on the rope to lift himself onto his perch. Huber said he went up and down that tree for four months.

    Huber was given a French interpreter, who he said was ?like a brother.? Huber ate meals with the French soldiers, but said he had to wait for his interpreter to tell him what their conversations were about. 

    ?The French troops were really nice to me,? he said. ?They treated me royally.?  

For more, see our Nov. 30 print edition.