<Begin Segment 35>

TI: And so I've, I've interviewed infantry guys, and so I kind of understand what was happening on the ground, but I'm curious, as you went through Bruyeres, Biffontaine, and later on for the rescue of the "Lost Battalion," what was happening with the artillery unit? I, it's not really clear to me how that was coordinated with the ground forces.

VW: Well, we had forward observers which went with the, sometimes they were ahead of the artillery, head of the infantry, and they would spot the target, and then they'd call that in and then we'd start working on that and start throwing in artillery in these certain pockets of danger areas like machine guns and so on and so forth. Or maybe tank, a tank or two, and we'd fire on them, too. And so in that way, we kept the enemy softened up a little bit. And sometimes what'd you call "creeping fire," some of the observers were so, had so much confidence in our artillery that they would start the firing behind the enemy line, and then it'd start creeping toward the front lines, and then the artillery would keep coming toward... and the minute they get to the front lines of the enemy, they were very close to our guys, too. And, they called that creeping artillery, and then it'd just play havoc with the, with the line, the enemy line. So in that respect, it was pretty good.

TI: Because the creeping line, then, the enemy really couldn't retreat because the guns were coming...

VW: That's right, yeah. And it was hard for 'em... so they were really softened up in that respect.

TI: Now, was that a common tactic, or was that something they'd...

VW: No, it wasn't common, but they'd use it every once in a while, yeah. They had that much confidence in us. They never used it as, to my knowledge, they never used it with any other artillery group. But I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

TI: Now, how frequently did, were the guns moved? I mean, when you went from Bruyeres to Biffontaine...

VW: Oh, sometimes like two or three times a day. Depends on how fast you were moving, you know. And Bruyeres and that area, we didn't move real fast. When we got into Germany, we had to move fast. We had to move very fast, because the front was moving fast in Germany. But Bruyeres, it was, that was a vicious fight. And the townspeople were all pretty much hidden in, in the building down below and the basements and things. And they knew the Texans were, the 36th Division was a Texas division, and the 442nd was attached to that division. And we were very instrumental, our 442nd was very instrumental in freeing that town. And we pumped a lot of artillery in there, just a lot. And then... but the SS was with the group that was in that town, and they were a mean bunch of guys, they really were. They were Hitler's elite, and they had the lightning streaks under their arm, two of 'em, and they were parallel. And if, later on when we'd capture any of 'em, we'd make, make sure we looked underneath each of their arms to make sure that they didn't have lightning streaks under 'em, 'cause we treated 'em differently if we caught them.

TI: And, so these were tattoos underneath the arm. If you did find one, how would you treat them differently?

VW: They would go, they wouldn't go where the regular captured German army was, we'd put them in a separate situation. And what happened after that, I'm not sure, but we never trusted those guys at all, ever. Ever. But like, to show you how mean they were, the mayor of Bruyeres was standing, and he noticed a German was talking to a young girl, and this German wanted this young girl to go with him into a private area, and he, she didn't want to do that. And so the mayor walked up beside her and then this German pulled his gun and just shot her, killed her right in front of the mayor, and the mayor never forgot it. And that's the kind of SS people they were. Just unbelievable. So it never bothered me much in doing what I could to stop them from doing the things that they did. But when the Bruyeres, that was a horrible fight in Bruyeres. And finally the SS had to leave, they had to get out of there, finally. And then all the firing stopped, kind of, and so they, the residents who had been hiding and so on, they kind of -- now, this in the, the Pierre... let's see... Moulin, I think Pierre Moulin, he's a historian, French historian. He said that when the population came out and started observing the people who were taking over, he saw 'em coming down the street, and they were so amazed. They expected big tall Texans, and here's little five-foot-five, five-foot-six guys coming with hand grenades and bazookas and BARs. [Laughs] And he says they just didn't understand it, but then they heard that they were the iron men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. And that, and they've never forgotten it. They still, in 1996, I know, guy by the name of... oh, I can't remember his name at the moment. But he took a picture, and the flag is flying, the American flag is flying right in the city, right up, way up high, and it's the American flag. And they have a, he took a picture of the street called the 442nd Street. 442nd Regimental, RCT Street, and that's the 442nd Regimental Combat Team Street. That's what they think about the 442nd.

TI: So they were incredibly appreciative of...

VW: Oh, they really... they think, some of the guys went back there, he says they just treated 'em like they were sons and daughters of the, of the French people. So that's quite a compliment.

TI: But it was, you said, a very difficult and brutal battle to liberate Bruyeres.

VW: Oh, yeah, yeah. And they couldn't imagine such small people driving those big SS troops out of Bruyeres. But the 442 gained a lot of respect not only from the people, but even from the German army.

<End Segment 35> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.