30/09/2025
A forgotten page in the 134th's book of courage and compassion is the daring rescue of 81 French children under bombardment in Han (northeast of Nancy). All those children were among the evacuees from Nancy who were housed in the Chateau of Han during the summer of 1944. Their sanctuary was threatened by bombardment from the opposing German and American forces. Han was liberated by Company F of the 134 on September 29, 1944. Hostilities continued in the area as part of the long struggle for the Gremacy Forest.
After dark the 35th's volunteer "baby patrol"-a French captain, an American officer and ten G.I.s-slipped across the line, sloshed across 1,000 yards of rainswept marsh, crept into the house. The information, they found, was correct. There were 81 of them, the oldest six, the youngest two years old; they were frightened, without shoes and only half clothed. Each man picked up two toddlers, shepherded a group of the older moppets, headed back across the marsh.
But there was trouble. The nervous Germans heard noises, opened up on the marsh with artillery and mortar fire. The baby patrol did not dawdle: it passed its youngsters across a creek, finally crossed the line and bundled them into trucks headed for Nancy and proper shelter. The expedition had had rare good luck. No one, soldier or child, was so much as scratched.
The patrol members were:
Captain Paul Orban, Corps des Interpretes, Free French Forces, French Civil Affairs Liaison Officer.
Captain George L. Schneider, Civil Affairs Officer.
S/Sgt Robert H. Gunderson, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
Pvt Marion C. Heifner, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
T/Sgt Archie C. Hughes, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
Pvt John R. McKinney Jr., Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
Sgt William F. Moore, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
Pvt David B. Pomeroy, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
Pvt Anthony S. Sokolowski, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
Pvt Warren S. Sonnichsen, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
Pvt George A. Stevens, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment.
Pvt Stanley L. Summers, Company A, 134th Infantry Regiment
They all received the Bronze Star Medal Citation for their role in this rescue mission.
By the war's end, 4 men of the rescue team had been killed in action and 3 were captured and being held as prisoners of war.
Pvt. Marion C. Heifner, Company A, KIA, October 9, 1944
Pvt. John R. McKinney Jr., Company A, KIA, October 18, 1944
Pvt. David B. Pomeroy, Company A, POW, October 9, 1944
Cpl. Homer D. Ricker, Company H, machine gunner who supported the Company A squad during the rescue mission, KIA, December 31, 1944
Pvt. Anthony S. Sokolowski, Company A, KIA, January 10, 1945
Pvt. Warren S. Sonnichsen, Company A, POW, October 9, 1944
Pvt. George A. Stevens, Company A, POW, October 9, 1944
