<Begin Segment 20>

TI: Well, why don't we -- let's talk about France and fighting, and then we'll talk about that. But, so from Italy you went up to France. And why don't you talk about what France was like and what you did there?

FM: In France, well, that's when we went to rescue the "Lost Battalion" there. And the fighting was really fierce. We were fighting, in the forest, you know. And they're throwing shells at us; every time the shell hit the tree, it burst like geysers. And a lot of people got hurt that way. And the machine guns enplacement by the Germans, were all set up. They were so well entrenched, we had a hell of a time getting through. A lotta' there we'd have to just crawl, crawl from position to position, stick your head out just a little bit and fire, and keep moving up slowly at a time, yeah. That was really rough fighting.

TI: In your squad, how many people were injured or killed in that battle?

FM: In that battle, just about everybody was injured or killed. Well, not the whole squad. No, I mean just our squad only. We didn't lose anybody at that time. But everybody got injured. There weren't any second platoon, first squad members standing when the battle was over. They all in the hospital.

TI: What kind of injuries did you have?

FM: I had, a tree burst, and I got hit in the ankle at that time. So when I got hit, I said, "Thank God. I'm still alive." And I crawled back.

TI: Because I understand that after that battle, General Dahlquist called for a, I think it's a retreat parade. He wanted to address the troops. And when he saw the men standing, the ones left, he thought that the company had gone on furlough, because there were just so few people. But that was all that was left standing. He was pretty devastated.

FM: I wasn't there, because I was in the hospital at the time...

TI: Right.

FM: ...but that's what I heard, yeah.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.