Charlie Pytlak (d. 1945) was a sergeant in the United States Army.^[1] He served in the European Theater of World War II. On May 6, 1945, the day after Germany unconditionally surrendered, Pytlak was on patrol in a town called Lichtenau with PFC Dom Lombardo.^[2] After accepting the surrender of a group of German soldiers, and turning them into the Army, Pytlak and Lombardo returned to their patrol.^[3] As they passed a derelict vehicle, a bomb planted inside went off. Lombardo was killed instantly, but Pytlak was lived long enough to see how horribly the bomb had destroyed his body.^[4]

Pytlak and Lombardo were the first American victims of the German Freedom Front.

1. ↑ The Man With the Iron Heart, pg. 13, HC.
2. ↑ Ibid.
3. ↑ Ibid., pgs. 14-15.
4. ↑ Ibid., pgs. 16-17.

v · d · e The Man With the Iron Heart POV Characters Wes Adams*†• Vladimir Bokov • Bernie Cobb • Jerry Duncan • Frankfurt Guard*• Rolf Halbritter* • Reinhard Heydrich† • Ivan Koniev*† • Konrad* • Diana McGraw • Cedric Mitchell* • Ernst Neulen*† • Joachim Peiper • Charlie Pytlak*† • Tom Schmidt • Smitty (Iron Heart)* • Jürgen Voss*† • Lou Weissberg Secondary Characters Konrad Adenauer • Toby Benton • Shmuel Birnbaum • Lucius Clay • Howard Frank • Johannes Klein • Joseph W. Martin • Ed McGraw • Sam Rayburn • Moisei Shteinberg • Robert Taft • Harry Truman • Karl Wirtz Geography Germany *=Denotes POV for one scene only. †=Denotes POV who was killed.