Sergeant R. H. Grubel has left after spending a 10-day furlough with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Grubel, 3604 Fourth street. He returned to March field, California, where he had been stationed for the last six months in the aerial engineer corps. His brother, Dale C. Grubel, is stationed with the air corps at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, December 19, 1942
MEN and WOMEN in SERVICE.
Staff Sergeant Richard H. Grubel has returned to Westover field, Massachusetts, after spending a furlough with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Hugo Grubel, 3046 Fourth Avenue and a reunion visit with his brother, Staff Sergeant Dale C. Grubel, here on furlough from Camp Howze, Texas.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, December 24, 1943
Sioux Cityan Awarded Commission for His Heroic Action in France
Dale C. Grubel Captures 15 Germans in One Dugout
Dale C. Grubel, whose wife lives at 3604 Fourth avenue, has been give a field commission from the rank of technical sergeant to that of second lieutenant.
In a letter to his wife, Lt. Grubel described the action in France for which he was commissioned. Here is the story as he told it: “We had been in the attack nearly two days and nights and we finally got held up one afternoon about 3 o’clock. We held up there for the rest of the day. By the time night came we were pretty tired and muddy. It was raining as it had been for two days. When night came we pulled back into a small town to await further orders. When the company commander came back from battalion headquarters he said we had to move out, and told me that I would lead. We were so tired, wet and hungry that we just didn’t give a damn for anything so we moved out at one o’clock in the morning. I had two Frenchmen show where the Germans had dug in and then they went back and I was on my own from then on. I had my two scouts out in front of me and a whole battalion behind me. It was still raining. It was so black that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.
Captures 15 Germans
After the Frenchmen left us, we took off on our own. We only walked about 200 yards when we heard a lot of talking so I halted the column, and took my two scouts ahead with me to find out what was up there. When we got there we found 15 Germans in a dugout. They didn’t hear us sneak up on them and were really surprised when I walked inside the dugout with my tommy gun. I captured all of them without much trouble or noise. After we sent them back, we continued on our way behind the enemy lines.
We ran into quite a few Jerry but didn’t have much trouble taking them. If they didn’t want to come with us, we just let them have it on the spot. We got five miles behind the enemy lines before it was light and then we held up in a small town. By 10 o’clock in the morning all the Germans had taken off and we moved out again. We got to the next town and held it until about midnight and then we were on the move again. My platoon was still in the lead and we took another jaunt behind the enemy lines again. This time we were all alone, just our company. We moved out and took the regiment objective and the next day we went back to the division for a rest. That was all there was to it. They were two pretty spine tingling nights and I’ll never forget them as long as I live.”
In Service Nearly 3 Years.
Lt. Grubel has been in service for two and a half years, and has been overseas since October. He has been wounded in the hand and the leg, and has received the purple heart with one oak leaf cluster. He is now in a hospital in England. At the time he was wounded, he was serving with the Seventh Army in southern France. He has also been awarded the combat infantryman’s badge.
He has a four-month-old son, James Dale, whom he has never seen.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, March 25, 1945 (photo included)
