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MN:  Okay, this is the second tape of the session on March 9th. And, you know, we were just talking about how you would hear about any casualties or fatalities. In the case of the battle for the Lost Battalion, at that time, when you heard about the results of this battle, what were your thoughts or feelings?

KM: Not being physically in the presence of the infantry boys, as well as those rescued, there was no significant incident then, you know, because we were there where we did, we did a job that we're supposed to do. Those who will rescued, we didn't even get to see them. And those who were wounded or whatnot the in the K Company, I Company, we didn't get to talk to the survivors at that moment. We're still up there giving support to the ongoing battle because after that was Biffontaine and Biffontaine, the Battle of Biffontaine, we had to give continuous fire support. So it was moving from one job to another job.

MN: And then eventually when you did hear about the losses, what were your thoughts?

KM: I don't recall... I don't recall when we heard... see, I heard about the, what should I say, the number of casualties suffered by the infantry in rescuing the 200-something Texans. I don't recall any significance other than the fact that we were so decimated that we were being sent out to rest and recuperate and to regroup in southern France, because we didn't have physical contact with the infantry boys. The artillery, somehow we were by ourselves. And how the infantry moved down from Bruyeres area back to Nice, I don't remember. I think they all went by train, I think, whereas we had our own transportation where we went on our own, so to speak. But after the Lost Battalion incident, I don't remember too much discussion on the net effect of the battle. We were more concerned with physical discomfort because winter was just coming in.

MN: And how did you folks manage dealing with winter conditions?

KM: We didn't, physically we didn't suffer, except it's cold. And we were always on the road going down from northern France down to Marseille again. And compared to the northern side, southern France was relatively warm. Nice was, there was no snow or anything like that, except for the temporary time that we were up in the mountains in Sospel, you know, it was cold. It was so cold that my incident, my sore back, I incurred was my sore back. What happened was that we were firing or making fire to keep us warm in the evenings. So one day, my job was to chop wood. So I had this axe and chopping wood and I heard a click in my back. Very painful. It went away, but next morning, it was really painful. So I went to sick call and the medic sent me down to Cannes, the general hospital was located in Cannes. So I went down to Cannes and I spent ten days in the hospital in Cannes. And after ten days, I came back. And thereon thereafter, my back was never the same. But enough, not that bad to disable me, but years later, when I made a claim with the VA on this back, I saw my record, in my record that I did spend ten days in Cannes general hospital. And today, I do get a very small disability service for this wood chopping incident. But fortunately, my records, my medical records were all kept intact.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.