Densho Digital Archive - George T. "Joe" Sakato Interview (denshovh-sgeorge-01-0034)

<Begin Segment 34>

TI: So we're talking, actually, this is, this is after Biffontaine, isn't it? Isn't this towards the rescue of the...

GS: This is Hill 617.

TI: 617, part of the rescue of the "Lost Battalion."

GS: Part of it.

TI: So let me see if I can set this up, and you correct me if I'm wrong, but, so we had this Texan unit, the 141st, two hundred plus men, they were surrounded, they had gone too far, they were surrounded, and they asked, or they ordered the 442 to go after them. And you had the 100th and the 3rd Battalion sort of making the main thrust, but the 2nd Battalion was asked to take Hill 617, which kind of overlooked the area where the "Lost Battalion" was.

GS: [Indicating a drawing]: The "Lost Battalion" is behind this hill on another, on these other mountains, range going this way. We're, G Company, we're looking and try to cross this open field, railroad track, this was the supply route from Strasburg to Paris, the train supply route. And this hill can look past here, troop movement's going towards "Lost Battalion" where artillery shells was, they would radio from here. The troop movements over here, to fire against the 100th Battalion and 3rd Battalion.

TI: So from a strategic standpoint, this was a critical hill to take.

GS: This is a critical hill to take.

TI: Because without that, the other two battalions would be vulnerable.

GS: Right.

TI: And so this was a critical thing that your, your battalion was asked to take.

GS: We couldn't take it from, this way. That's the way we crossed, mortar shells from here would fire down on us, machine guns from here would fire down on us, machine guns down here would fire across here. No way could we cross that hill, open space. So we got on trucks and went around several hills over here, and there were hills here. 7th Army was over here, we went behind 7th Army, now we were crossed over into enemy territory back here, but we was on the back end of this ridge. So at night, we started to march towards this hill.

TI: But you still left part of the unit --

GS: G Company's on this side.

TI: G Company there as kind of a decoy.

GS: Decoy, right.

TI: To fool the Germans into thinking that you're still down there.

GS: They were flanking here trying to come across, and they also tried to come across this other side.

TI: So E and F Company were...

GS: E and F went around.

TI: Went around, okay. So let's pick it up there.

GS: So we, we went behind the enemy lines and we had to march single file at night, ten o'clock at night, twelve o'clock at night, you can't see your hand right here. You had to look up here. There was a tree trunk coming out here, you bypass, oh, there's a tree trunk coming over here. Bypass that one, but we had to hold on the backpack of, each soldier's backpack strap, we'd hold onto, and we'd follow him. So we're single file, was marching, weaving back and forth through these hills areas back here. Then at dawn, we all spread apart, one unit went down below here, our unit, Sarge Takemoto was in there, and the others went above here to take the hill up here. So at dawn we started, Germans didn't know we were back here. If we had bumped into each other, we couldn't make a sound. You hit the guy in front, he stops, bang, bang, bang, domino action, we just, but don't make a sound. You just had to hold it and march, keep on. Then at dawn we spread apart. So our unit, we came, so Takemoto's 4th, 3rd Platoon was in here, 1st Platoon went on the other side, and then we came across and we, I took three machine guns out of here.