Memoirs
At any rate, because of the static nature of the engagement before the bombardment,
we felt strongly that mine removal would be a principal activity, and the engineers were
moving toward the
of the column. As they started forward, they became engaged
by sniper fire. A little later we found a dug-in German tank that had not been hit by the
bombardment. It had the road under observation and direct fire.
This stopped the forward movement and, because of the disorganization that had taken
place as a result of the bombardment, things were somewhat less than satisfactory. I
decided to make a personal reconnaissance to see if there was a quick way around the
German tank. I left the road on which we were moving and got maybe50 feet or so off
to the side.
Since I was watching more for snipers than where I was putting my feet, I must have
hit a trip wire and exploded a mine. Based on the results, the mine apparently was a
homemade affair consisting of a tin can full of rocks with a quarter pound of TNT. It
went off about two feet or so from my foot. It sprayed my left leg
small metal
fragments and rocks. I was told later, when they recovered my boot, which was
removed as I was being evacuated, that there were
holes in it.
The explosion, of course, knocked me down and for a moment I'm sure I lost
consciousness. Shortly thereafter I became conscious but was unable to move. My leg
had been broken near the ankle. As a result, I was evacuated to a field hospital just to
the rear of the division. They operated that night and several days later I was
evacuated back to England.
Q ..
About when was this?
A ..
I can find the date, but it was somewhere about the 25th of July.
Q ..
It was the 25th of July.
A ..
I got back to the battalion in October.
Q ..
Or late September, which was indicated in the journal.
A ..
I can't remember. It was in the late September-early October time frame.
Q ..
How aware were you of what was going on with your unit while you were in England?
Stripes and very limited correspondence. One
A
I kept track mostly through the
of the advantages of being a part of a division was that its location was not classified.
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