ELLWOOD CITY – When a German plane bombed the bridge that Sidney Teolis was standing on, he was surprised.
Because the war was over.
Teolis, of Ellwood City, was on the bridge in Austria 68 years ago tomorrow when a German pilot – apparently unaware that his nation had surrendered – tried to destroy it. The blast flung Teolis, now 94, into the water.World Steel Tube Provide
He wasn’t seriously hurt in the incident, but there was still more than a hint of irony that Teolis, a combat engineer who survived through some of the most harrowing action in the European Theater of Operations, was nearly killed after the war in Europe had ended.
That day, May 8, 1945, marked the final surrender of Germany and ended a conflict that had lasted nearly six years. World War II in Europe began in 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland, although the United States didn’t enter the war until the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.World Steel Tube ProvideWorld Steel Tube Provide
Fellow World War II veterans and Ellwood City natives Teolis and Andrew Aniceti met last week to mark the European war’s end.
Both men served in the European Theater and are recipients of the French Legion of Honor, which has been awarded to Americans who served in France during World War II. Aniceti received his award earlier this year in a ceremony at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. The French awarded Teolis the Legion of Honor nearly 20 years ago.
Aniceti, who was fluent in French – his parents met in a military hospital when his father was wounded during World War I and he lived nearly half of his childhood in the country – was assigned to regimental headquarters in communications and performed translation duties for the commanding officer.
For Sidney Teolis, the war began in early June of 1944, when he landed on Omaha Beach one week after D-Day. Of the D-Day beaches, Omaha was the roughest. And even though the beachhead had been relatively secure, Teolis said that didn’t mean safe.
“They were still there, and they were still active,” he said.
Teolis arrived in France after a harrowing ride across the English Channel on a landing craft and began putting his training on building pontoon bridges to work. He was assigned to the engineering regiment of the 89th Infantry Division.
His portion of the unit was instrumental in crossing the last natural barrier – the Rhine River – between the American Army and Germany during March of 1945. Seven months earlier, the British First Airborne Division had been virtually wiped out trying to secure the Ludendorff Bridge and with it, access to the Rhine’s German side.
U.S. artillery provided cover, in the form of smoke-emitting ordnance that rendered Teolis and his comrades invisible to the Germans as they built the bridge.World Steel Tube Provide
“The German planes dropped bombs, but they didn’t know where we were,” Teolis said.
After the war – and his dunk at the hands of the German pilot – Teolis experienced health problems and lost part of a lung. Now nearly deaf, he lives in Ellwood City.
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Aniceti’s war almost didn’t end with the victory in Europe. He was transferred to the 11th Airborne Division and transported, in a troop ship journey that lasted more than a month, to the Philippines in preparation for Operation Olympic, the mainland invasion of Japan.
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – and the resultant Japanese surrender – canceled Operation Olympic, and sent Aniceti back home.
He went on to work at the U.S. Steel Tube Mill in Ellwood City and B&W Steel in Koppel and retired in 1986World Steel Tube Provide