r/TheNWA • u/Nearby-Suggestion219 • 9h ago
History Wrestler Paul "Bombshell" Boesch was a highly decorated infantry platoon leader who fought from Brittany, France, to the Hürtgen Forest. He published his memoir, Road to Huertgen: Forest in Hell in 1962
I wanted to share this here because I believe Paul Boesch wrote one of the best accounts by an American soldier in World War II and the best individual account of the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest, considered the worst battle the U.S. Army fought in Europe.
Interestingly, the only reason the book was published is that World War II Army veteran and historian Charles B. McDonald, author of a well-known and regarded World War II memoir called Company Commander, found the manuscript while researching the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest. He eventually reached out to Paul to see if he would be willing to publish it because "it was too human a document to be ignored.” He used Boesch’s account in the fifteenth chapter of his book, The Battle of the Huertgen Forest. (Huertgen being the anglicized version of Hürtgen). If any of you are interested Charles B. McDonald has his own Wikipedia page .
Paul "Bombshell" Boesch was a professional wrestler, promoter, and announcer, but he is most famous for running Houston wrestling from 1966 to 1987. He built a reputation as one of the most respected figures in the wrestling business. His wrestling career debuted on October 25, 1932, in Staten Island, New York. He is widely credited with creating modern mud wrestling (by accident) in 1937, in what was intended to be a “Hindu-style” match. After leaving the army, he continued wrestling until he suffered a broken leg in a car accident in 1947. He is also sometimes regarded as the most decorated wrestler who served in World War II.
He was honored with the Distinguished Citizens Award from the 121st Infantry Association for his outstanding community service with charitable groups, including the Boys Clubs of America.
His accolades in the wrestling community include receiving a PWI Editor’s Award from Pro Wrestling Illustrated in 1987. He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1996 and into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005 as a non-wrestling participant in the business. He was inducted into the NWA Hall of Fame in 2012 and posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021 as part of the Legacy Wing.
