

Ivan W. Evans Jr, his voice resonating with the echoes of war in October 2023, recounted his 186 days of continuous battle at the end of World War II in France and Germany. His U.S. Army infantry fighting experiences, etched in the annals of history, were as intense as the widely known Battle of the Bulge.
Just out of high school, he joined the famous 100th Infantry Division after 16 weeks of training as a replacement soldier in early November 1944 in the rugged forested terrain of the French Vosges Mountains. The mountains and savage winter weather acted as a nearly impenetrable fortress for German troops determined to defend the final barrier between the Allies and the Rhine River.
Evans explained how his 100th Division, known as the Century Division withstood Hitler’s last major offensive of the war, Operation Nordwind. This operation, launched by the German Army in a desperate attempt to regain the initiative on the Western Front, was every bit as tenacious and massive an onslaught as the failed Battle of the Bulge.
He spoke with awe of how difficult it was to push the Germans out of the concrete Maginot Line fortifications, a series of defensive structures built by France to protect against a German invasion. However, these fortifications were oriented to defend France from Germany to the North, making the fighting a fierce and yet strange experience, as he described to me in the interviews.
The Germans’ Operation Nordwind took place in severe winter weather about 60 days after Evans went into the frontlines as a .30-cal light machine gunner. A four-man crew supported his weapon. Three soldiers helped him to move the weapon, its tripod and its heavy boxes of ammo.
He said he was lucky to have those first two months to orient himself to fighting Germans as part of the Century Division’s effort to drive the Germans out of France.
By then, he knew to dig a deep, defendable foxhole for himself, his ammo helper and his weapon as a gun emplacement.
He also requisitioned an M1 carbine instead of the .45-caliber sidearm machine gunners were issued. He did this once he realized how fierce the fighting was, in that often below-freezing snowy winter.
Both those things saved his life when the Germans halted their tactical retreat and launched their offensive Operation Nordwind at his position.
His training allowed him to capture a German making a nighttime infiltration bayonet charge. The enemy was attempting to surprise the Americans by quietly sneaking up close and appearing out of the fog, making a bayonet charge.
What followed in the interview was a testament to Evans’ strategic thinking. He demonstrated how he outmaneuvered an on-charging German soldier in the dark, a situation that demanded split-second decisions and quick reflexes.
While seated, he showed me how his reaction was to turn his body sideways, reaching back to grab his M1 carbine propped to the back side of the foxhole. He did that because he would have never had time to use his machine gun.
In turning and reaching back, he did not present a fixed target for the German’s bayonet aimed at his chest. The German missed him; the bayonet slid across the front of his uniform and downward because his foxhole was strategically deep.
In missing such an obvious target, the German lost his balance, stumbling forward. Evans was able to grab the German’s rifle that had just luckily gone past him and pull him further downward into the foxhole, where his hand-to-hand combat training took over.
He quickly subdued his enemy and captured him without injury by using the soldier’s rifle as leverage in striking him hard across the face with the butt of the rifle.
Meanwhile, his ammo crew member did the same to another German charging in. Evans said his foxhole mate required more hand-to-hand combat strikes to subdue his German.
Both men were awarded Bronze Stars for their gallantry in capturing Germans that night, as their actions exemplified what was taking place all across the battlefront during Operation Nordwind. The Germans made their last major offensive on the Western Front, but the well-trained and battle-tested Century Division absorbed the blow and repelled their advance.
Soon, the Germans’ offensive fell apart. The 100th Division returned to normal operations, continuing to push the Germans back into Germany and toward the end of the war. Evans mentioned the difference in being a replacement in the Century Division many times during our interviews, only joining them for those last 186 days of almost continuous fighting in sometimes heavily forested, snowy and windswept conditions.
He did this all the while swelling with pride that his leadership in his gun crew and his .30-caliber Browning machine gun made a significant contribution to protecting his fellow soldiers.
Evans, a man of humble courage, acknowledged the role of luck in his survival during the daily battles. His perspective sheds light on the unpredictable nature of war, where a split-second decision or a fortunate circumstance can mean the difference between life and death.
Evans said he was lucky during all that daily battle. Later, when he was shot in the arm near the Maginot Line while retaking Bitche. He said he was lucky it was only his arm that earned him a Purple Heart Medal.
And then real luck kicked in when his wound was sewn up by the only neurosurgeon available in the MASH unit behind the lines because of his fortunate placement in line at triage.
He regained the full use of his arm because that surgeon knew precisely how to treat the nerves carefully during surgery.
After recovery, he rejoined his unit and continued to contribute to the war effort, as his place in his unit was solidly welcomed. No longer just a replacement nobody knew, he was well respected as a key part of the men’s success in battle after battle.
With only 16 weeks of training, Evans made sure that the sentiment of acceptance and its significance to him were emphasized in the interviews.
Evans said one of the most fulfilling aspects of his role as a machine gunner was protecting and directly affecting his fellow soldiers’ ability to carry the fight to the enemy. He did this right on into Germany, only coming out of the frontline in the last two weeks of the war near Stuttgart.
He said he was proud when he could be creative in moving his weapon to a better position to give him a better view of the battlefield for any defensive purposes, while simultaneously supporting his unit’s forward progress. Those battlefield initiatives became more routine as he gained experience, as he was deeply invested in his weapon making a difference.
Sharing these interviews as a brief reflection of the bravery of an Oklahoman is fitting now to honor his generation on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. By only sharing the details of the battles, readers are encouraged to remember the everyday bravery shown by fellow Americans in that war.
Evans was born April 26, 1925, near Bessie, Oklahoma and died on November 25, 2023, in Yukon, only two months after these interviews. He was buried in the Ft. Sill National Cemetery, Elgin, Oklahoma. • Story and photos by Darl DeVault, contributing editor