<Begin Segment 36>

TI: Okay, so now you're, you're sort of hidden, your guys are sort of secretive, and then, so then what happens?

FS: We were, we were, we can -- I remember, we were, if anybody knew, anybody went by, he knew who we were. But we were not allowed out of the camp, we were hidden. And then as I recall, there was obvious preparation, and we trained and stuff, got new equipment. The, the sequence of events kind of, kind of is gone, but I remember that, you know, there's always preparation with, to move. We got fresh ammo and the equipment was checked, the guns and everything was taken care of. I recall that in, these were all movements. When we finally moved up, I can remember that we were instructed to not make noise, and we, and the night movement, I think, our whole battalion moved into this little village, and they say, "Stay inside there." So we were there, and then early, I think probably the next day or before, in the dark, the lead companies in our battalion hiked out of the village, down to the valley, and went up the hill there. And I Company and L Company were the lead companies, and the K Company was in, was in reserve. And just reading the history of that battle, the Germans were completely surprised that, that anybody would climb the, climb that face of that mountain, which looked like it was right straight up. And these guys climbed that son of a gun, and they were instructed not to make noise... just talking to those guys.

TI: Well, when the fighting started, where were you?

FS: We were down at the base of the hill, you see, in reserve. And that was not the best place to be, because once the battle was joined, the gunfire started and the artillery started. The German, there was, there was a mortar, German mortar unit up to the far right in a, in an old, in a marble quarry, and they just, they shelled us, they just shelled the hell out of us. And we, we took quite a bit of punishment down there. We were down there in the valley floor, waiting to move up. And until the guys in front moved ahead, we were stuck down there. And as I pointed out, we had, we had several new kids, new replacements, and when that artillery barrage started, they got up and ran, and several of them got taken down. I still remember that. You can holler at 'em all you want, and say, "Get down," but panic sets in. I just, I just still remember that, those guys got up and ran.

TI: But for me, what's interesting is, so it's kind of reversed. Because usually the advance companies are under more risk, or they take more hits. But they, because they were on top of the hill, they actually had the high ground and had the advantage. Whereas you in reserve, in K Company at the base, were kind of in a more precarious situation.

FS: Well, we were, yeah, well, we weren't on the line, and we're just down there waiting, waiting to move up. And the, and the, when the barrage came in, there we were. I think they, finally somebody neutralized those mortars. But yeah, we, we took a beating.

TI: Now, do you know if there was any conscious decision -- I know in the rescue of the "Lost Battalion," K Company took horrendous losses. So when they do a new sort of battle like for the Gothic Line, do they intentionally put you in reserve because of that? Do they kind of mix it around?

FS: Oh, no, no. It's just, I don't understand the military part of it, but it's just a random thing. The battalion commander says, "Well, okay, I and L Company, you lead this attack, and K Company's in reserve." But then at some point you move up and move through one of the companies, and you're the lead company. But it's a way of resting or getting some kind of succor to the, to one of the companies. You, I don't know about the military thing, but it's just, just, I guess, good sense to do it that way.

TI: Okay, so you're under heavy artillery barrage, then what happens?

FS: And then, well, gradually -- the good part of it is I guess the attack at the top of the hill on the German positions went really well, and God, they were, cut through that and chased the Germans off, I guess, in good order. And so we were able to move up pretty quickly. But initially we were, we were down there at the bottom. So very quickly, we moved up, but don't ask me about the, about the time, because it just... I couldn't tell you.

TI: But once you're on top, then...

FS: Once we started up the hill, then we were able to move reasonably, reasonably well, because at that point they'd broken that, the line, the defensive position. And reading histories of the account, the Germans were completely surprised. They didn't know what the hell had happened. They had had, held these impregnable, so-called impregnable positions for, for months. The line was static all winter, so I guess they were pretty complacent. And of course, it was a complete surprise that the 442nd was back in Italy. I guess that was part of it, it was some kind of psychological thing that Mark Clark thought of, I suppose.

TI: So the line was broken, and then you were on top, sort of, is it more of a mop up operation, or was it still pretty heavy fighting?

FS: Well, that, now, I don't, I don't recall what happened after that. I know that once the line was broken, we, we pushed, I can remember for a couple of days there would be these little pitch battles. The Germans' rear guard would, would try to hold us off so they could set up another line. We moved pretty rapidly, but reading the, reading the history of the battle, the, our, the 442nd's attack on that far west end of the line was intended as a diversion, and the intent was, intent was that the American troops in the center of the line would push, that the Germans would try to protect the flank, and then the, in the center of the line, I guess the 34th, 92nd, and 10th mountain, and they were going to push hard and then just cut the whole bunch off and trap the troops. But that was, I guess that was the strategy, but we didn't know what the hell, we didn't know that.

TI: You knocked, you knocked them out --

FS: Yeah, so, so what happened, obviously, is that, that our attack was so successful that, that apparently Mark Clark decided, well, we'll just let you go, and we went. And wound our, our end flanked that thing, then the rest of the, the rest of the line to the east of us folded up, too, because they were outflanked. And we could have cut them off on the roads, apparently. So, but it was just a series of pitched battles. We, things moved very rapidly at that point. I just, God, it was kind of a blur.

<End Segment 36> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.