<Begin Segment 9>

ME: All right, sir. I wanted to ask you about the breaking of the Gothic Line. Can you, can you tell me about that?

BY: Oh, you mean we had to climb that moun -- mountain?

ME: Yeah.

BY: I don't know, I forgot what the name of the mountain was.

ME: I can't remember either, but --

BY: Huh?

ME: I can't remember either but, tell me what that was like.

BY: Oh, we started early evening. And then we didn't get up to the top of it 'til the next day. That's around 9 o'clock. And it was really steep.

ME: Yeah.

BY: Some people were even falling down 20, 30 feet --

ME: Wow.

BY: When trying to climb that line. And --

ME: So most of the climbing was done in the, in darkness, right?

BY: Yeah, in darkness, yeah. Hold hands and climb up. And when we reached the top -- the Germans never expected us to climb that mountain. And it was, in fact, they were sleeping. So we, we had a easy time taking the place.

ME: Right.

BY: Yeah.

ME: Did you have any training in, in climbing mountains?

BY: No, no.

ME: Wow. What were you thinking? Did, did you think you were going to make it?

BY: Well, we didn't expect it to be like that, but as we kept going, we kept going step by step, until we reached the top. We didn't know it was that steep then.

ME: What was it like when you looked down?

BY: I think the name of the mountain is in that book, I think.

ME: Yeah. It's in there. I can't pronounce it.

BY: Yeah.

ME: What was it like when you, when you looked down?

BY: Oh, it was just like looking down from the Empire State Building.

ME: What was the battle like when you got up to the top? How long did it take?

BY: It didn't take too long, because they didn't expect us up there. And, the 100, I think, came in through one end, and another company, I think was L Company, also attack and took, took the place pretty, pretty fast.

ME: Are there any other experiences from Europe, or any special times that you remember, or any combat experiences that really stick out in your mind even today from your time in Europe that you'd like to tell us about?

BY: Well, there was a mountain called Carara town, yeah. We were, we were up there. And I think Kashino had a, had a squad or platoon on top of the mountain. And they were, they would, they had a heck of a time, too. I remember one of the boys that got hit in the leg. And they had to take, take them out to the side of the mountain, and we had to carry him down. His name was Terumi Kato, I think.

ME: Oh.

BY: And, well, Shiro did so many of those things.

ME: Yeah.

BY: It was just like natural to him. He's a fantastic guy.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.