Margraten Cemetary

Another grave we visit is that of Pvt. Richard Werner of Wisconsin who was killed the same day that my Father was wounded. Pvt. Werner was a friend of Bill Shorter and the two were resting after crawling in the ditches on October 5, 1944. Werner asked Shorter if he had a cigarette as he was all out. Bill had one left and they proceed to smoke the last cigarette between them. At the time there was a popular tune called "Last Cigarette" and the two begin to sing the song," Last cigarette, last cigarette, we must be smoking our last cigarette" when a German 88mm round comes in and explodes nearby. Mr. Shorter goes one way and Werner the other. When Bill Shorter gets up other troopers are attending Werner who got hit by fragments from the shell. There is nothing they can do and Pvt. Werner is dead, one of seven men in the company who would be killed in the Battle of Opheusden. Below is the reflecting pool with a marble memorial behind the statue. Inside the memorial is a small chapel .