Myron “Mike” Eberle marveled at the fact he survived World War II.
So did anyone who heard him tell his tale.
He saw his first combat on Christmas Eve 1944 in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.
Mr. Eberle, an infantryman, crawled up to a German position, looked over a pile of dirt and found himself staring into the barrel of a machine gun. Two German soldiers didn’t notice him, according to interviews he conducted with the Illinois Veterans History Project and the Pritzker Military Museum and Library.
With just dirt and a couple of feet separating their positions, Mr, Eberle pulled the pin on a grenade and aimed to hold it for four of the four and a half seconds before it exploded. But he mistimed the throw, and the Nazi soldiers had a split second to run for their lives, Mr. Eberle recalled.
Mr. Eberle stood to shoot but a bullet from a German sniper hit the butt of his rifle and slammed the weapon into his jaw.
Years later, using a microwave reminded him of the incident. Staring at the digital readout, he’d count along with the last four ticks of the timer.
“I’m still trying to get it right,” he joked, 75 years after the incident occurred.
Mr. Eberle, who received a Bronze Star for his service, died on Jan. 6 from kidney failure, his family said. He was five days shy of reaching 100.
On another occasion during the war, a bullet tore through four layers of clothing, leaving only a red mark on his arm and the feeling of being swindled out of a “$1,000,000 wound” — one that’s serious enough to require medical care away from front-line fighting but doesn’t cause major injury.
His most vivid memory was of taking cover from mortar and machine gun fire under a cow. It was Jan. 18, 1945, and he was outside a small Belgian town. He wrote of the experience: “The thought popped into my mind, with no preliminary warning, that ‘I am going to die now. ... Well, alright, God, if it is time.” The notion was accompanied by the “most peaceful, serene and joyous feeling that everything was going to be wonderful and death was going to be a marvelous experience.”
Then a mortar round landed on the cow. Mr. Eberle survived.
His company lost so many soldiers to injury, death and capture in their first days of combat that he was promoted and put in charge by virtue of staying alive.
“He was able to collect himself and go forward. He carried on,” said his son James.
In May 1945, he arrived in Paris the day after Germany surrendered — a day that became known as V-E Day, short for Victory in Europe.
“He had a great time. I didn’t get too many details other than the French girls liked to rub your crew cut with their hands, and that the whole town had a hangover,” James said.
On a two-week leave, Mr. Eberle returned home to visit his folks in Glen Ellyn and met his future wife, Marion Magee.
Mr. Eberle was scheduled to join the fight in Japan but was spared the trip when Japan surrendered.
“He was a straight-up ‘Greatest Generation’ guy,” said his son James.
After he left the Army in 1946, Mr. Eberle became a devout Catholic.
“He was raised Methodist, but he wanted to marry her and she was Catholic. And so he became Catholic, and he took to it,” James said.
Mr. Eberle started a business that sold hydraulic seals and raised a family in Wilmette. He could see his church, St. Francis Xavier, from his front door.
Mr. Eberle, a graduate of the University of Illinois, sold his business at age 70. He attended daily Mass and regularly took the L train into the city where he tutored fourth graders in math at the St. Thomas of Canterbury School in Uptown.
“He was nearly 100 and was involved in just about everything,” said the Rev. Wayne Watts. “He was a member of the St. Vincent DePaul Society who helped take care of the poor. He brought communion to the sick and homebound. ... He was a pillar of our community.”
Mr. Eberle was also a voracious reader, especially when it came to books about the Civil War, and loved playing tennis.
“Towards the end, he was ready to go. He took care of my mother before Alzheimer’s claimed her life. And he’d say to me after her death, ‘Your mother needs to pray harder because I’m ready to roll,’” his son Joseph said. “That’s a good love story. It’s nice to think of them together again and young.”
In addition to James and Joseph, Mr. Eberle is also survived by his son John, his daughters, Martha O’Dell and Maryanne Dalton, and 12 grandchildren.
Services have been held.
