WWII Veteran Odell Lewis Describing Combat Against the Japanese

my name is Odell Lewis where and when were you born I was born in Silver Springs Texas 1923 June 22nd 1923 so how old are you right now I'm now 95 years old do you feel like you're 95 I don't know what to have an answer that I don't know how 95 year old folks are feel physically what is it like to be 95 if I had a new knee I'd be just right what are the current problems you have with your need I need a new knee cap all I want for Christmas is a new knee cap what branch of the military were you in during World War two I was in the infantry have heavy weapons empty heavy weapons what specific units were you in during your time overseas and World War two I was was the 37th amputation oh how national gardening and what regiment were you with they pardon what regiment were you with I would with a hundred forty-eight damaging and what company I was in Headquarters Company I was a an attack button and what was your specific job in the anti-tank platoon I started out with an ammo bearer and later I became a driver for the deep that probably done what was the highest rank you achieved by the time you left the service World War two only reach private first class but for your entire military service entire military career I retired as a sergeant first class East what was the highest award for valor you received in combat the Silver Star I received the bronze oak leaf cluster representing a second award of the Silver Star where did you earn both of your silver stars in the Philippines on the island Amazon were you ever wounded during World War two no no so before we go any further into your combat experiences you mentioned that you were born in Sulphur Springs yeah did you grow up in Sulphur Springs yes I was there and I was 18 or 19 years old all right I say stuff for sprains it was the foreign community to the pyro as a farm a farm community out there but Sulphur Springs is it's county seat we always referred to that but talk to me about growing up and LaToya we were my family and I were we were farm labourers we worked for the farmers and we hold the fields cut the grass at the hay bale the hay pick the cotton dad what good what kind of things did you do for fun as a kid we had baseball or we had softball baseball and hunting hunting and fishing before the war broke out what were you planning on doing with your life I had no idea I wanted to be a pilot but I knew it didn't have the education was that so I thought about going into the army Green's talked to me about your memories of the Great Depression it was a really bad we had to live on old houses it know sometimes they didn't have all the windows and all the screens and when the rains comes the reproof to leave he's put buckets on there to get the water we worked for the farmers as farm laborer then was ten cents an hour and a cotton-picking time was when we could make the most money he'd worked real hard you could make more than what you could have delivered and we tried to make enough money to last us through the winter wintertime come was some there was some income from kitchen animal trapping animals and selling the fur from the possums and the Coons and there was food on the table sometimes for the rabbits and squirrels we had I don't know squirrel meat how many brothers and sisters did you have I had three brothers and two sisters did any of your brothers go overseas in the war no they are big families they get deferred so you were the only one from your family who went overseas yes I was the only one I was the youngest they were lame and had families when you and your buddies would get together when you were teenagers what kind of mischief would you guys get into mischief Oh sometimes on April food would pull pranks on different things and when I proposed they would always play hooky someone's always played hooky and it was a hooky day what kind of pranks were you guys pull what what kind of pranks would you all pull one time when we been prior to Halloween we piled up a bunch of dead wood there and we built a big fire on the main access from our little country our foreign community and we had over terrible traffic status and on another time we got AC John's he was the one that always did her pranks are we we had him ran out on the street like he'd been dead and wounded and this somebody would stop but he'd get up and run ha ha ha Halloween paper fooled or whatever what is it did you guys ever knock any out houses down we never did down we I never I've heard of heard of doing that but I was never any part of knocking overs out houses and we used to go do a thing entire a club or something on the front door and put a put a string to it and pull it like you're knocking and they come out and make it see anybody and it's one of our tricks do you go steady with any girls when you were growing up then what did you date when you were growing I never I think I dated why and I went to a few of those country dances I was with one any particular one none what kind of things did teenagers do back then for dates oh they got in our dad's car and I said been behaving myself and they drive their dates around in the country and stop and get some chewing gum or candy and sometimes adventure all the way in to take them all the way in to sell for frames and watch a movie how did you hear about the attack on Pearl Harbor oh I got a story there I heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor and I was out in Nevada hunting mountain wines now let me make myself clear on map I was in a CCC camp then and we had educational supervisor who had been a missionary in China and he took us young kids out on nature trails and the race had been losing some animals to mountain lions so some of the older boys they were allowed to bring on rifles in case it Soviet mountain lions but we didn't say about Lions of Italy came back and we heard it when soon as we got back we heard they made an announcement there that they had the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor that was in Pioche Nevada what was that like to hear that your country had been attacked it was really hard to understand we had we knew about the war in Europe and on but we didn't know who he was really close to war and and with Japan the in the CCC camp we had army officers and they were tickled to death because Japanese bumper August then they they was forced into reserve then now they would get to go back to her regular regular duty with her regular I mean they won't tickle death about their consular injuries but it was being able to get back with the regular servicing take me through how did you end up in the service I was drafted I would got deferred I was working on me and working on two different airfields with the construction covered in I got deferred a couple of times and I got deferred and I'm waiting for a friend from California to come to Texas and he and I was gonna enlist in the Navy we were hopeful him to go into the Navy but before he get back I was drafted I was drafted into the infantry and I was taking basic training at Camp wheeler Georgia only anti-tank gun take me through your basic training take me through a typical day typical legs you go down to the mess hall and stand in line each of meals then they load you up with a truck and they take you to the training area or you full on the field pack and you walk out there so it depends on the length of the training area talk to me about the physical regimen you experienced during basic training tell me about the difficulty there because is I can't think of too many difficulties oh yeah trying to get a m1 rifle back together I won my first difficulties was tried to get the m1 rifle back together their squad leaders I told us a drill sergeant told us and don't try to take these things apart don't you know get all that stuff so we're gonna tell you how to disassemble tomorrow so my friend John Lewis with me and he said he does all about rifles that we could take this damn thing back and and down then we could put it back together but my friend wasn't as smart as I thought he was we wound up and the lights went off in the barracks we went to the retreat and put them together then the squad leader came in that's quite a later time keeper supported the real sergeant came in and he said what do you do do you took the rifle apart and you're having trouble put it together well I'm going to show you how to put it together he showed us how to put it together he says bad when I second what you put it together put it together put it together we took it apart to put it together about three or four times and he said it clothing said okay rinses and so it next day in his class when he was telling how to disassemble a rifle he said any of you have any problems and this sibling and similar rifle just that's one of the lowest boys they know all about this similarly in assembly was there any relation between John Lewis and yourself no he was some Dallas's North to us there and he's no no relation at all well we were together all the way over and he gets assigned to him company when we got over there we both got assigned am company but the captain Haley there he looked at me and said you're too small do what we need to do and that was carry amination through the in the Solomons and he said I'm gonna trade you for somebody bigger over their head Indiana tank but to do my enjoyment I like the anti-tank I was trained in that basic so I would smooth over to thee and a tank returning I come on I'm aware over there every week the gun was so large we couldn't move it very in them jungles Aronson how tall were you back then a little what 5 foot I guess I don't know I was real lightweight lightweight after basic journey we went through to ace camp near Bastrop Texas here kept Swift I believe it was then that was supposed to be for advanced infantry training but it was actually a hole to get into the pipeline to go overseas America was about six or eight weeks where we were on our way to San Francisco to get on shipped overseas and take me through how did you guys get overseas we went on the old Tokyo Paris and tell me about your memories on the Harris member-owned the hair is the biggest memory I have is when we cross the equator there was initiation everybody that had never been across the equator they were referred to as Polliwogs and once you cross the equator you have the honor honorable name of skele back you're back you're back and we have a young son wants to read the Royal baby on RAF deck and you had to reach go down and kiss it neighbor he had a big neighbor layer and when you kiss his neighbor we put you in a but where they tried I'm shocking you like an animal shocker thing then you had to crawl through leo big canvas tunnel like hose all the way up through the through the promenade deck to the deck to the boat deck and on the boat back they had a inst barbershop thing there were you sit down and he give you a robe haircut and you know what a role haircut what it would be this the strip straight down the center of your hair all the way and then he loaded here he look go to give you a shave so he's powdered or your face was all red leather and then yeah the barber chair was hinged and it felt easy he pushed you backward and you fell through the boat deck pre fall down to the boat back and the boat back they had a big canvas container of water there you fell into the water and he sailor grabbed you and held you underwater for a few minutes and pulled you back up instead of you or shell back or Polliwogs and no matter what you said there are lots of wrong questions and push you down there your shuttle back before they were congratulations there yourself back was everyone forced to do this everybody was forced to there so you had to get a nice ogi haircut so that everybody I'm dik that girl he is he took a big swap down after the Navy they got worse they had to stand with me before before we got to the equator they had the sailors that had never crossed the equator they had them up in the and they crow's nest there with the hat me up bottles looking for the equator as assimilate binoculars they be used male models and they were standing up there for hours looking for the equator so how did you all pass your time on the troop ship overseas mostly gambling actually poker and they had them and then and then mess all there they had tables that you could push all the way up to the ceiling and we were similar in there sometime I'd have movies and that's where you had two people play poker or shoot craps them how long were you want the troopship it was number like 25 days of them like yeah we had a zigzag course we had a yet cruiser elitist destroyer going along with escort and that time the etic zigzag cruise girls it takes longer they didn't naturally what was the reason for the zigzag to avoid submarine tracking you they get to go in under direction and they could call my head and tell you what ahead the troop ships are actually the slaughter troops you can help distance of a submarine and then when he's underwater it especially on so from where did you all get on the troop ship and where did the troopship take you take you we lived in San Francisco they may just all go underground and we couldn't see the Golden Gate we had to go under and go below deck so they wouldn't some spy wouldn't see how many troops were doing in the troop ship left us took us to New Caledonia it's an island off the east coast of Australia's part of the this part of the preacher I was over there and we were there waiting for assignment to where we would be sent some would be sent to some would be sent to the loose through the it's a New Guinea and some would be sent to the saw once I got sent with the grip to the Solomons what were your thoughts you know when you found out that you would be fighting the Japanese in the Pacific instead of the Germans what were your thoughts about fighting the Japanese I I like the thought of us fighting in a tropical area more than I would yeah a place where it's cold I never liked the cold so and the Germans have little big old tanks with the general Japanese have very little very few tanks and our little scarce County things we were sitting in his replacement troops for the men who was lost on the new Georgia campaign I joined the 37th division Ohio National Guard the Buckeye division had you heard anything about the 37th before you joined them not one thing where did you actually meet members of the 37th for the first time it was gotta go now and it was the 13th day of September I believe it could have been October I think September and why I know it's a 13th because they told us that the 13th the japs general had lost a son and he was sure to bomb water canal on the 3rd on 13th since we had treacherous slit trenches on each side of the tent there so if there was a dairy we could dive in there that night that we got the Red Alert and we knew that the Japs are coming and soon as the anti-aircraft guns went off our jump down that hole I thought sure it had to be bombs falling all over the place and then I looked up and all the old guys out there they were sporting upstairs hey they got him in the light they got him in the lights so I felt pretty stupid so it was just one little plane and we called him washing machine Charlie and we had another name for him I won't mention here tell me tell me Pitts call Charlie he would show up with a lot hours usually in the late hours that's when we called it washing machine or washing machine Charlie was because of the the noise of the I thought because I don't know what what plane it was I think it was the light bomber with - - that it had a distinctive noise engine noise and then go and when you release a bomb look if you hear that would you know the bomb would have gotten down man so what did the combat veterans of the thirty seventh division tell you when you first joined them what did they tell you to expect about combat they told us stories about the new Georgia they had been and heavy combat and you Georgia and the IRA battalion the third battalion was cut off he was on a road block to keep reinforcements from getting into Munda made me sir and we they got surrounded by the Japanese and ferb got low on supplies and then we're out there for about two weeks and it got down to weather were four men to one ration he opened up a can of beans he plants the spoon around that's the way it was and we gotta someone someone I don't know if this is how much truth is when I tell you but what I've heard from the Hellmuth done Tokyo Rose called Tokyo Rose claimed that we were cannibal that we would actually were cut off and we're surrounded we were actually eating the cannibalizing on the Japanese and she said we are like a bunch of bloodthirsty barracudas so our battalion later we named themselves the Barracuda battalion and the sort of little thing you needed to do to become a barracuda which is what oh you got to be hung up in a wait a minute vine you got to be peed on by what we call mouths we call them P monkeys we call them P machism and a certain little things like that go and patrol men for people who don't know what was Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose was a American lady she got trapped in Japan when they had the war so that she was a actually I don't like ours she was in prison but she worked a deal to be a propagandist other than going to prison so she wouldn't tell us what why are you still fighting and why don't you give up and tell us what a glorious day the Japanese but she also put in some she'd play some records for us we like to listen to her she was entertaining nobody ever took her seriously though she was him sometime definitely the best entertainment God she would actually play records no American records for him along with her at with her propaganda when I would have signed to the 37th division I was put in the 148 in between I was in the third Battalion I was the anti-tank pattern which is with the headquarters company battalion headquarters so can you tell me about the role of the anti tank platoon in combat the role of anything paternal in combat in the Solomons it was our jungle there and there was no no no tanks are nothing like that to contend with but there are 37 37 millimeter anti-tank guns were put on the defensive line and we use what they call a canister round which is like a big shotgun shell we have a 125 normal sized ball bearings mounted and Rossum and they are fired out and at about 50 yards they break up and become just like shot and it's for close-in fighting it's sort of when they running over your position getting closer and we didn't you did not use them in the Solomons but the Marines use them very extensively in water now only combat I did was some Bougainville that is the northern island of the Solomons then the own Luzon in the Philippines what about laity lady was before Luzon that was in the autumn 44 and we get into Luzon on January 44 45 40 45 45 of age but did you see combat and laity no I didn't go too lazy that was a different unit so the 37th went straight from Bougainville in which we joined with we were under Admiral we were we were in Solomon's we went to a loganville and then we joined we were under navy control at that time and we went as part of the 14th Marine Corps which normally would be in the 14th or any Corps but there's marine outranked earth Marine general outrank third division general so whether the brain 14th cooler and but then I forgot what I was going to say next time you were talking about did you go straight from Bougainville to Luzon we went to the Admiralty Islands and we were there during Christmas we we joined MacArthur's sixth army only for the 6th army there are two our division then and we hadn't we went into a safe harbor there at in the Admiralty's and there was one thousand ships that cleans 1,000 ships in that Harbor he went in through with the anti-submarine net then it was just ring little islands and they were great little islands were wrong were safeguarded with mine so they safe harbor all the way in and we were there for Christmas two or three days for simile there and we were there for Christmas 1944 so what weapon did you carry in combat we were crew served weapons with mortars and anti-tank gun we usually had a carbine or pistol if he was a gunner you care to if you were the gutter you care - yeah pistol and sister gunner and if you would ammo bearer you'd usually have a carbine and sometimes we'd have both sometimes we'd have a carbine and the unpatrolled I did a lot of patrolling there and early care to carbine so take me through your first experience in combat my first experience in combat you mean folks encounter one yeah my first experience there was in Bougainville and suliman's I was a we did not move her and it take weapons around the left one was the defensive line and our platoon was used for recon patrols and outpost we had outpost and out in front of the lines out on the river and we had we had recon patrolling outside that perimeter and I was chosen with a scout because small and so was Kavinsky he was smaller than I was actually and we both either one one of us would be the least Gavin went for to control and usually were five or six men on a patrol recon Patrol and on one recon patrol we had it was later in the campaign there and four had any real close combat and we had the we had dis finished a we just finished their counter-attacks and drove the Japs back across the river of the numa numa Trail and that was the only way they could get into our position and they were they were all beat up we had the what to call the going up the aluminum a trail for about three miles we had it was on the counter attacked and we had what they called a Rolling Thunder Rolling Thunder is you go up and take position and they lay artillery fire directly in front of you our people are friendly friendly fortunately artillery out in front of you then when they're all right when that artillery it ceases you advance and anything moving there anything moving you stick a bayonet in it or shoot it keep going then you stop and then another student comes from the rear passes you it takes position up ahead of you so you get some rest in there then the police artillery in front of them and they keep doing that up just over and over and it's an hour terrorists coming awful close but they know what they're doing back there I was nearly on my own I was near the numa numa trail so I didn't see too many wounded or dead Japanese on the sides we've got him across the river in the next day they said I don't want to send a patrol out Seaford's anybody come back it's the river crossing any Japanese come back and Sergeant Thompson was Harry Thompson he had the he was just told leader and other way straight ahead yeah and I was a the scout and I was leading him up there it was just a short distance up to the river crossing error and but before we got up there there was a knob there he get across or go across around before you could see that river crossing and I hero them that so I could get around that I wanted to see that river crossing check it out and I didn't have a binoculars with me but I thought I could see something but I got up there held them back where they were safe and I got around there and the Japanese had snuck back in there during the night and they opened up and they put sheriff right up above my head into the bank went over there and I died for their little ditch there and the Lord is --slide he tried to get me but I was down there close so he couldn't get man I just stayed there I knew what they would do they would call back we had the motor section back there and mortar platoon and they put the mortar shells out there a short time and the as soon as they started firing for fixed several rounds on that area well I said it's time to get back with the troops and I may have saved the Olli I may have slaved all of the squads there are the patrol because if he hadn't shot that machine Joe and I would walk right up but a worry was that and that river crossing but I couldn't he was here very heavily hidden in that brush and I couldn't see him first time I saw a dead Japanese was when I was pinned down there there was the one that he killed the day before and he was laying out there on the trail but we just I've just taken and he was so about five yards from me against that and on the trail and I was off the trail in the ditch and out there in the hot Sun we have those who Lance there's scavenger ants and those old laughs was working on his body and I looked over there and my god this is a combat here now I don't know maybe they had planned to get him recovered his body maybe that said somebody up there to cover his body and put that machine gun down I do back him up I don't know but anyway they fired the mortars and Olympus and either the they killed him whether he moved out I would say if they say and next day we were we had the people going across the river up a few a few hundred yards up the river to see was anything there nothing and from that arm for the next few once we had no problem with the Japanese because they stayed owner side of the island at least they don't hurt us out of that they didn't have the strength to attack again the first time I saw a dead American was when we landed in Lingayen Gulf from Manila I'm not in Manila Luzon the we were my gun we had my gun on the levee down there covering in the area over there and they had Japanese that dug in under a school Ernie's a school they were holding out over there and the air rifle company had gone over there and engaged them and and they had killed some of the Japanese and North - we lost a soldier there they had wrapped him up we didn't have body bags and they wrapped him up in the poncho on the poncho and then they brought him back to our position to keep him there - in the morning and they would evacuate him properly the next day it was nighttime and I laid there and slip right beside it body that night were they gone but that's the first and you begin to reorder this war is real do you remember the names of any of the men in your outfit who were killed yes shorty Pierzynski with OD before there was two of us recon Patrol scouts he was a little fellow and he was on the patrol and he they run into a heavy patrol up on the river there and he what he was killed there and we had to leave him there because the heavy fire there and she Lee was with him she Lee was with him and we as she Lee and he said that the kopetsky had had half of his head blown off with the burst of prada and with the what with the burst of what with the burst of the semi full automatic Nambu gone I guess it was and so we had deleted they was we would have really they were out greatly numbered and I would only combat patrol the next day to retrieve his body and we got up there and we got his body and got it back that's a second dead one us that's only did first dead one made American I saw oh yeah and I don't never forget that one shorty shorty I wasn't very close to him when they first took him and then the one after but they said that he had been tied up against a tree and uses been and practice with the Japanese I had very little close combat very little close combat and but I had they I spray around once that was fired in our direction I guess we were sitting on the steps of the Filipino house they have their houses on stilts there and you've got five or six steps going up there or no I was on a lower step in her licky around will bear but a gun he was on up above me on another Stedman a stray bullet from somewhere just once whizzing over my head and just creased Ochs his but just a very minor damage to but he was tend to do there and and let her treated at the battalion aid station but he was walking walk he'd never spent any time in the hospital they just didn't match it up back to work we always like this this is like you driving a car you're going down there you're not thinking about somebody driving on the wrong side of road getting in and that sort of is here you do it out there you think when you get out there first you think everybody should he do and later on in actually you've been shot at a few times I'm quoting from one some others so told me to actually you've been shot at a few times you unless you think they're all shooting somebody else from here and when you've laid in if you've been up 24 hours or 36 hours you kind of get an adult movie just don't give a damn what happens you not afraid of it it's what a lot of people get their Medal of Honor if they get gladdening don't fear nothing just glad besides shorty was there anyone else from your outfit killed in the war anybody in my outfit we had a lot of losses in the rifle platoons the rifle companies read heavy losses especially in K company and that's like myself how do we I don't have thee with thee and a tank pattern we did we were guarding the approaches to these areas and we didn't do a lot of our street riding my business that was a dangerous area in Manila with them you never knew they Japanese couldn't imagine how fast we move and we out or witness we'd go past them maybe behind us and phone that was behind behind this neighborhood and they'd try to get through the house to get to their unit then the terrain on Bougainville what did Bougainville look like and what was the physical terrain physical trait was Bougainville was a marshy land flat and a lot of a a lot of swamps and heavy jungle and it's a most remote we landed that the most remote product in there there was a little housing had Merle housing he the commander of the area of settlements he had seen the big people that had been killed on new georgia by us tried to take their airfields on Bougainville they had about five [ __ ] bases on the eastern tulip eastern side of the island and they did most of this civilization source on that side and on the west he was all swamps their thing and he decided that he we would go to a Sophie hair we'll build our own airfields and the only way they could get to us was only that Manama trail which would not even accompany will attract vehicles only but traffic so we built us we built there and and the Seabees Seabees and the army engineer did a great job and draining the swamps that need to be drained and get our roads built with roads were built with the crushed curse not christian limestone but crushed fossils and they were white and they jump like this rot fly down and doctor they knew at the end of the trail at the end of the road that would be front lines but the Admiral hollingers a lot of credit he saved a lot of Japanese lives and he and I am American life because those people when they saw they could not defeat us a state owner side of the island they were allowed to go home after the war other than muster trying to kill everybody or capture everybody so just tell me about your physical engagements against the Japanese on Bougainville what do you remember about the combat that you experienced on Bougainville the only the only close comment I had was was in Manila we moved into Manila and it was street fighting we were jungle trains and juggle troops trying to do street fighting and sometimes we didn't do the right thing what do you mean we we I say the right thing we didn't we didn't look at their rear too much we we know nothing really thought thinking too much of a real it's a Japanese a be strapped behind their ear and then I have to depend on all sides and in one case they're the Japanese they got it behind us and they were throwing hand grenades at us they were Navy personnel they didn't have any weapons other than grenades and the yeah one of the men from the rifle squad came up to us and he and I decide we're gonna go out there and and we're gonna do what they call a recon by fire we're gonna shoot into those old buildings out there and see figure hearing the movement and then gonna know where they're at we can shoot in that direction and we got out there and started shooting around shooting around and the they thought it was with me he he fired it found one in there and they started firing at him in the air he's run out of ammunition and the clip fell out in the a Navy captain Japanese came out with a sword and he was about to run him through and I stopped him with my carbine then there was another one in there and he blew himself up as either tried to throw a grenade at us and went off in his hand or he committed suicide at most most the time it's a committing suicide he got a cape I said they keep a hanger made for himself and what did you see happen this is all mess of flesh bone I like that smoke I just went on back to my gun I left here did captain there I took his rank and don't take it round every round okay so in telling us my passion and get back I told my squad leader said look at here we got a three-star general he had three gold stars only little lapel there with the kind of a peak kind of a pink border and I squatted I said no that's not a three-star general that's a captain of Navy captain maybe captain the same as the colonel came back do me a favor sir scoot your butt back what do you call it bogan de Bougainville you know general McGrath my breath generally you ever say lecture before we left him he said no we're going to Bougainville and we're gonna they're waiting for us they're ready for us and we're ready for them well I believe him oh they had a volcano and right in the center of the we had a mountain chain between the two sides there and it's right in the middle of the of the mountain Ranger and rata closely the trailer ready to pass there where the trail comes through and we the only effect we fell from it was the earthquakes at time and the first earthquake us though would we leave Liberty and slit trenches makes a foxhole we never nobody ever lived in a foxhole and whatever dude it's an hose and we're out I was outside and I looked around and you see the whole movie but no no damage done there was no buildings there and where was this but what happened to him what what happened to that Japanese captain definite what what happened to the Japanese captain Aidid laid there and they removed among it no explain explain how you stopped him and what you stopped him yeah shot him yeah we're gonna go over that story later but anyways so that souvenirs from that Japanese camp that's the only thing I wrote back in if I'd had a I thought I knew he anise I knew he had a saber but I thought boy I'm gonna get what a little pretty Japanese sailors swords and but this here is war for cowboy sword the Navy didn't go for all of us some of that armies that's like they had been they wanted to go like not like our Navy our Lady look what kind of souvenirs did most of the soldiers try to get from the Japanese Oh sabers and flanks the battle flags you know they're very Carolyn what did you think about the Japanese as you were fighting them I mean what did you think of them the monster sorry masters and they asked Admiral Halsey one said what are you gonna do to shorten it war he said kill more Japs no I never I never felt bad about those are a few that I killed and it says the actor you seen some atrocities that they did in Manila and atrocity shorty paczynski I didn't want and and I thought a little mercy got you that's no but I don't mind not gonna knock at the teeth out and could offer a year or do it anything I get now what happened get up I kill him get him out of the way can you tell me the story about Anna yeah Anna and it would be a nurse batad and she was the second lieutenant in the Philippine Army whereas he was with the American Hospital or with the a Philippine unit I don't know but when the tan was lost was going to everybody was going to have to surrender or go to they're going to Corregidor they told her to go home they take off your uniform and go home burn the uniform and you can live Mountain normal life with a civilian he won't have to go to prison and so she went home she did not burn her uniform she hid it from the Japanese and shortly after we arrived in Manila she got it out washed it started it shine under suckered within the brass plated on and went out to see what she could do as a nurse and we were engaged heavily engaged in that Jones bridge we're trying to take Jones ready before the [ __ ] blew it up and they were having a lot of casualties the certain Whelan I was with sorting wheeling squad there and on the anti-tank gun and we were covering a yes Street on the right flank of them in case any vehicle travel to come up there and nothing happened there and sorry the we don't says Lewis you want to go with me with whooping help mom in evacuation if they winded up the earth and this they claim that Street Street is his mind they can't get vehicles up there that your News's litters carriers good mom we went up there and when we got there we saw this little hat pipe Japanese lady she was real small let's he had only white uniform was yet assume some brass second lieutenant breast she had organized a group of Filipino man he had taken off some doors and put bamboo pulled underneath of door and they were they were planning to evacuate the wounded and I didn't in that way so 13 we learn and I we joined up with them started wheeling I enjoyed them and we moved the back about three blocks so guess about three blocks to our battalion aid station and they were rightful far coming from the cross streets there and we had hurried back across those cross streets and we did that then we carried some amination back up when we went back up catch the nomination only the second load that kind of trip down and we about half way down there while there was fire coming from the street over there and I saw Ana that a little nurse she went down I thought she had stumbled but she had been shot we put our own need on the door there and with the soldier there and got her to the battalion aid station make them do nothing with her and she was too far gone but they suggested it there we take her to a Filipino first aid station all they did was identify you and then further the main sort of family and I that didn't try to affect with her but she didn't make it and at least getting her back there I helped bigger guy than me he would get one of her her friends he's one to tell him about over history and everything and we had to go and talk there and then actively do I he told me a lot about her I knew her name was Anna I couldn't get in remember her last name wasn't how old would you say she was when she was killed well C was the second lieutenant and when the war started 53 citizens probably in order to an is when you were talking to me about the story yeah you had mentioned something about a Japanese lady in white maybe you didn't mean to say Japanese who was the person in war DM maybe I should have said Filipino but who was the person in white a Filipino the nurse I was telling you about Anna yeah I see mr. white so he was the only one only female and why did I ever told now do you believe the Japanese targeted her no no it's just they just threw plunging fire for one place the other you know there's we're on this side they're all that side she told that director on the street did you have any experiences liberating and either any of the prisoners of war of the Japanese know what that did the first cavalry did a great job at they're going into Senator Moss and they deliberated about I think it's four thousand four thousand there in the level ther Boren they did at a markable job I mean it was it was great what they did they live already the when I lost bonus Oh southeast to us southeast of Manila only it was on a lake and they went across and Amtrak's I'm tracking traveled on land and water they went across land and one across that Lake and got and surprised those Japanese Japanese we learned that the went outside the fence and did our did exercises in sports early in the morning we got that information from the guerrilla unit there so the the airborne made a drop at midnight and they marched I think three about five miles and was waiting on the outside of this and hidden position outside the gate I said didn't work I'm totally come on started doing as a nice nectar rifles against the fence on them they were easy prey and went in and he took care of the at the same time the at the same time the airborne had made a jump east of Manila had a big good [ __ ] concentration over there and I made a jump in there blocking them off from the from these from the blow knocked them off from the the prism there and to be honest one punch to banish one yeah and he got him out on those em tracks I got pictures in there with in my folder there and it was this it was really a great time I think of some 1000 there these were civilians American civilians and allied civilians did you ever use grenades in combat yeah I'm not i but I don't think I think of it memory isn't good me that we had men on the old one time on the old oak Spanish trailers in high mountain pass and they were up in the air it was an old dirt road did you see you before he got the monitor passed there and we were over the whole tour I wasn't there I was back in the rear I took a cheap up every day with her the mail and whatever I need to be delivered up there and we had I got a picture up there with you my old friend John tomorrow I called the big stoop and we had two men and and a hole and one be weak at all times we had grenades a lot of got a grenades in there so it's absolutely wrong climb up TARDIS we had to get to us and to climb up and it was easier threw a grenade across a cross over there across the road would read mother outside the road right mother overhang there they woke tomorrow we'll jump tomorrow one morning when Eavis with awesome one way was it up on don't remember what time it was but it was his time to watch it was his time to watch and he woken out of a dream or something and he reached over there and started pulling handmaids and possum all down that wasn't so either we keep telling about john survived we were going out what they called trained fire he shoot into the building and see if there's any movement around there see for anybody shooting back at you kind of dangerous stuff to do but you got to do it or what the walk and he was doing that and he last round he fired from his m1 rifle his clip came out and made a big thing and that's when the officer came out with a sword and he was about to run him through while he was trying to reload but I stopped him with my carbine and the the officer with this saber fell fell to the ground and I made sure he was dead there then we heard a big explosion and looked over there and he some another officer had blown himself up or her head said I'll fergan aid trying to throw it at us I don't know how to probably was it probably was a suicide your nameday they like to keep one for themselves and in case of avoid capture and then I went back to my gun and join my quad and everybody lead down to take a little mount fine make you kill two people you don't think you could stay down and go to sleep but again another day working in dirty water and my squad leader he what we help me listen listen that I hear some moaning out there for money Jacky shot them somebody's gonna have to take care of it I said sorry Gino nobody gonna come up come out here and treat him and besides that I don't want anybody at Pro tching him when he's still clutching that rifle remember gun daylight comes I'm gonna approach him from a different direction and if he's still living see if we can get someone me magnet see here get some medical attention to it but he he's groaning out there you groan it out there you go to somebody don't do something so I did what he do to eight dog this suffering and pain you aren't finish him off that's what I did how close did you get to that Japanese soldier I was about four or five yards from him but I was close enough to see Porter his body and the bushes there yeah about a half a magazine on him and sorry to Preseli never told anybody else though in that squad about it and heard Liska the one that got shot in the butt me and him was talking later you know and I was kind of teasing him about to get me shot in the butt you know and that's a way he said well I don't go out and shoot dead Japanese nobody ever told him I went out to finished him off he thought I went out I'm doing what my squad leader told me to do that's what you doing no I mean you do what's for later till you do my brains done a little bit they did a lot of our trail I ain't thinking one of the Silver Stars are to me receives had to do with the had to do with the I guess it was a 40-millimeter crying from the port area up there just heartily shooting in our direction and hit my Jeep which we lose to pull the 37 millimeter gun and I had five boxes of ammunition stacked up there in the back of it and wooden boxes and and the shell was a chemical and it said to set the boxes on fire I had pretty good blazer but I realized it I realized the it took a lot of heat and duration for ready to explode them the seals through a mall for the got some watercolor care to get on can't order there and put him out with some smothering for some blankets got the fire put out and got the Jeep put into a cupboard position in case they fart anymore fire to come in and that was this action here was in addition to a previous comment I made about a Silver Star medal first I got my shoes I was watching my feet when they seal came in and I had a new pair of combat boots up there we had just been yesterday regular shoes and we hadn't received her combat boots and some of the people who were in leggings but we were never forced to wear leggings and in the Solomons you didn't want to wear them because in ventilation ventilation and I didn't want to lose those boots that was the first thing that was secured my boots and I got the amination I knew the ammunition could wait a little while for destructive how did you find out you were getting this over start big burn when did you find out you were gonna be awarded the Silver Stars on this one or if they come down the rank I get to squat it I don't know but another story I'd like to tell you there was no there was no Silver Star imagine do and I think the squad leader I think he got D an accommodation letter in this 201 file letter recognition or something but he should have got a silver star we were near the end of the war and we were up in neck and the Kalkan valley there and the Japanese were up in the hills they chose to fight in the Hills and we cruelly close in to them close enough to make sure they stayed in the Hills and we just wait after war and yes we had our gun 37 millimeter anti-tank gun on the road outside the battalion perimeter and do protect against any vehicle traffic that jumps much visual Edison and I was quite a leaders certain pathetic he and I took the first watch we always took the first ones and the last was nobody showed to wake us up on the last watch you know somebody wants sleep there another night so he and I went on first watch and I just got after just gone dark a little while and everybody else was sleeping what we do we have one on my gun looking through the site look at them range not through the sight but look at through the downrange so they feel the view and we have one sleeping in between the trails you open the trails up and you get one narrative if they need a ammunition loader where he get richer and richer note up what's one guard is enough so about ten eleven o'clock I don't know what Daniel is in sorry to pizzelle treats back and tapped me on the shoulder and he didn't have to say a word he just I won't use a hand signal he just pointed in that direction over there and I got up and looked and there was just two silhouettes coming toward us on the road I guess about ten or fifteen people have on one side half on the other and they were unmistakable Japanese and I knew what to do to put the canister round it's of close combat close combat then he waited him fully worth and fifty yards less than 50 or 30 yards maybe 50 yards there's big rain since 30 years and I was there when ticket booth wouldn't he go to shoot and he fired the first round and my stuff selling those canister rounds it doesn't reach the close of the breach and you know when you got it you got it loaded you pat him on the shoulder your rate of fire I didn't want to show a raging fire he fired about four or five and the canisters about 135 ball bearing type shots there I see many errors together with the rod and they go out about 20 yards and they bust up until like a shotguns spray and they just knock everything down in the close range and the victor he's just shooting the rifle squad over there they started shooting in as they marry their and and ten minutes it was all gone they were all dead there we learned later that there was a battalion of Japanese they were trying to hook up with another battalion of Japanese because they were so low on strength and they got on the wrong road they were on the wrong road but if we had not seen him they've gone they would march right into our battalion lions there and there would've been a hell of fire fight and be dead on both sides how many Japanese do you believe were killed uh it was it was the advance party as usually if I'd say I usually sent him a squatter opportunity the twelve someone twelve fifteen some like it but they were the scallop for the larger party they would further back they were waiting to see if they run into anything we always do that Lauren is it and then you know connected files in between units and they have advanced units like that good heads up Rica no others but did you see the Japanese that next morning the bodies are is I'm from a distance and what to do we allow the Filipinos in a way there's villages in that area they come in and they they bare the bodies and they get what they can if you got any watches it's all that there's we don't we don't touch them unless it's firms intelligence Regents incident out it's my lungs search them for something but no they just lay there to the civilians take care of and we didn't stay there we moved back that same day I think we didn't have stayed at home the war was over in a few days it's just a damn shame it had to happen to them and to at that time you know they would have been put in prison and going away home it's a few months can you describe the destruction in Manila yes Manila they claim was the most destructive capital city outside of Warsaw in Poland the general Yamashita had Japanese of the army he chose to leave another there's no way to defend it and his mission was to go into the hills and keep us occupied so we would not be a part of the initial invasion of Japan we had the whole sixties he was trying to hold a whole sixth army there in the Philippines and that idiotic Navy edram he wanted to - stay there and fight for the last man destroy what they can and they either died in combat or they committed suicide it forced us to kill them all and in two of the last holdouts one was it's a walled city they had it's a that the spain spain belt-fed and it's 14 feet thick walls high walls and one main gate going in and they had people living in that it's like a little part of town and they had something like a thousand hostages there and he was using him as shields would not surrender like the pleadings surrender and they wouldn't surrender but they chose to go into the dungeon there and when they went in the dungeon and the hostages were allowed to exact exits from an all-city and some were wounded my troops cared about I'm handed on him I got pictures of in there and they chose to commit suicide what they did they went into the dungeon and we put yelling and other flammables entire settlement far that's another instrument Susy in the Manila Bay they got what they called the I got pictures of all that to they have what they call the concrete battleship there's built by the Army engineered before the war I don't know what the Calvary of the guns were on there but small caliber as far as beach boys warship guns and then they got the lower area there's for storage and living quarters some of the holdouts a lot of the holdouts went to went aboard that old Redick and chose to then what I had I don't know if anybody had any rivals either left or not they chose to die there they went below again we put they put gasoline yes or something instead of bar and they all died Darren burned to death and lower parts of it did you see that happen nope I was uh I was in another part of Manila Bay at that time but I did see the day bombers people holding out on those old wreck mostly was the what tournament I saw in the place they could go you've got the little boats it would have beat Stewart they beat some Love Boat to block the harbor there and they go out there and I saw him score didn't of heard a bummers go in there and bomb those boats and what got me that day and I'll never know the answer to it I guess but they it was just a nobody shooting back at him so they died one was just go down there easy like it doctor bombs and gone away without any without any great effort to evade any counter fire and that but there was one I know this one bomber he went down there and he he was full fresh I don't know he come out of there like he was bat out of hell and he did die real faster and he must have blacked out though he dropped a bomb and long went on one side of the ship and he crashed in the other I always thought that either backed out I don't know what happened to he that was his first mission and he was gonna really do it like he did it not regular combat you know that's he could couldn't pull out everything crashed on other side - birthday my niece told me that I bet you live to be a hundred and I told her I said you mean I only got 10 more years to live wait what did she say to that oh she heard Joe dropped a little bit he would stand more gaps in a little bit stammering acid we use it world up north east texas stabber justice when you're confused we go it's never finished my Gaston now tell me sir what was the highest level of education that you received yeah eighth grade what happened after eighth grade I wasn't going to a country school and there was no way to uh to finish high school you had to go into the county seat which is 16 miles away I was interested in getting in with a CC camp at that time we had the three C's of early youth employment then I joined CCC can you talk to me about your experiences in the Triple C camps well it was a sort of a welfare organization is uh present Road well made think they take youth and it's sort of six months toward and they would work in the parks or something else public public works we had a camp just just like any other man and and our army officers and we we've made formations and drilled and like that but we weren't around to salute we holder remove their hat and put over we were camping rude or heart when we stood retreat evening but it was sort of halfway military and civilian so I'm just gonna jump right back into the war okay yeah can you talk to me about the living conditions you experienced in combat living conditions in combat usually we we would well nobody ever slept on the foxhole we had only called him slit trenches and he was moving about 80 will he just feel enough to lay down and get below the surface of the ground so he wouldn't be exposed to the artillery fire Perrineau you could fight from that position and you could sleep in that position and over there in the South Pacific you didn't move around at night he stayed in there till he got daylight if she moved around he might get shot so you went into your little hole there and you stayed into and sometimes we'd have a two or three men in one hole and he could change off with keeping awake I don't want to be on garden be sleeping talk to me about the importance of having someone staying awake on guard during the night oh yes it's a Japanese were very good and then for trading you know you had to have a somebody watching if you were in a hole like that you it's one the squad leader would show you where to dig you're old and he made it before me I had defensive around the pituitary there and then you would he would expect you to have someone wait at all times there in that position if he was just staying there temporary where you'd be alone and it's big enough to keep get you down below the ground for artillery or mortar right how do you keep yourself awake at night after a long day of fighting when you have to stay awake on guard how do you keep yourself awake it's not too easy sometimes lose control of it then they get those off and then one way we smoke a cigarette and put it between your fingers and when you finish things start burning or do you know it's you've done you started to doze off how did you smoke in the service oh yes I smoked in the army and one of the combat so sometimes the best thing that happened to the old a was a cup of coffee or cigarette how many cigarettes would you smoke in a day Oh roughly around my pack I guess sometime more did the cigarettes help to de-stress you oh yes that's something to do something to do and you get it wouldn't would work detailer you get a 10-minute break what you gonna do ten minutes you can't go to the bathroom - every hour yeah something to do so he smoked a cigarette they all work sorry - turned and turned he would say okay take ten smoke if you got him talk to me about your experiences with the tropical diseases out of the South Pacific oh we had what we call jungle crud everybody had jungle crud we had ringworm and we had jungle rot jungle Rodgers actually the pleasure your body running away in spots big spots size of an apple like that not that there's a flat it's not as thick as a level but if calamine lotion that's about the only thing in your thought and that's old paints that be smear on him and ever all around your waist where you sweat and there's no ventilation that's where the trunk general crud was if it would inhabit itself and we had the saying of we had dreams a lot of time hello old got it cut it buddy I think we would further everybody that's good he played it so tight what was it like to have the jungle crud like what was it it was like I say around the waist we had to wear a the best way to avoid jungle crud a ringworm or under that is loose clothing where your clothing is not against your body and sweaty and we did sweaty in there like around your waist and that's worried it will impress you what about your experiences with the diseases in the Pacific I've never had any problem with I never had malaria I never had malaria we had the Atta brand tablet and he's supposed to take that every morning and he squad leader was he was responsible for you taking it and when we had the privilege of a base camp we had the first sergeant first started with pop that in your mouth and he went through the chow line you open your mouth you throw it in and I took it regularly and I didn't have any malaria until I came back to the States right they said keep it take it for 30 days I think back in after took a 30 days I broke out with after quit taking that a broke out with malaria chills they were really dating we're about a weekend we landed in Lincoln girlfriend on Luzon and January the 5th I believe we worked on her weight the Manila took a month to get down there and I was over 100 miles and we the only bath we could have is that getting into River once awhile down the Solomons there was no women or civilians around we just get get out every afternoon had a shower he did take a cold shower buddy would know you know did wash yourself off and with creeks we had a Creek right there by our base camp and watch there in Manila we slip in the streets were about our mouths were full part of February and nobody there was no River to warrant no worry was to go and there's no rain and we just wearing the same clothes over my about a month there what's that like to wear the same clothes with no access to a shower for over a month you get kind of smelly used to it we were sharp we had we had we had water to wash you up and shaved and wash our hands wash your feet and do what we call a [ __ ] bath and we'll still pot that's about it we made it all right if we had extra clothes but they kept them back in there the tans a duffel bag was kept back in and supply and we did get occasionally a different set of clothes and in the Melilla but sometimes we would we would stay in a place for about a couple of days and you could the Filipino ladies who come out there do you long before you nightie beat it up bring it back to him but I had an experience or wants that we were enough little sort of a warehouse thing we actually could sleep inside over a roof had a little roof over it and then coming to relax out of sleep instead of sleeping in what street did you sleep in my hard floor and roof over your head and we were there a couple of days and we got this family they were cross the street to do her laundry in and the next morning when I went to pick up of laundry and I was talking to this pretty little girl learning she followed me out to the intersection there between less suddenly the family over there and we were standing at that intersection and talking and we her and I and Sergeant Rodman he said look you know get your butt back over here but he is a woman different word and but and we're gonna move out okay sorry so I got back over there and started getting the things ready and the little lady went back to her house and just as soon as I left there as soon as I left these artillery or mortar shells started hanging that in that same intersection with Japanese and and are used or have the thing that started Rodman may have saved my life if he hadn't hollered at me I was I would have stayed there and talk to that sweet little faith two or three rounds came in there and that's what that was it there was no large concentration what kind of food did you get on the front lines they tried to they were very good at trying to get us much hot meals that he could is it good but it was not always possible we had sea rations if we were going on a patrol we usually carry two K ration that is a package thing it you could put in your pocket then and it it consisted the K ration consisted of a meat unit something there in crackers and cheese and candy and we had a sitting there and you met in the breakfast unit they had a they had a fruit bar fruit bar and then these lots dinner the dinner no meal my head can't a cheese and we claimed it that proved stick the fruit dish ahead and the prune thing the head in the morning would make you go and the cheese would make you stop I mean but with the rations would they actually fill you up or would you always be wanting more food now I was very we had one thing that they will in the sea ration the mean email was corn be - and that was the worst thing of the whole thing and people like to throw that stuff away still all the time you know and one of our outpost we they were using our outpost usually see racism K racing all the time you don't get a hot meal out there and they had it Baker companies out posters out front of lines there and they had throw him a lot of those old seer items of corned beef hash in the sale to the other through the dump their Darby's done and when the Japanese made advance on us and took over the outposts they dug up everything as a head of market on it it was with a training of a trail of clothes you put the screen closed and if we put a closed the garbage dump we put garbage dump in but when they came and overtook her our outpost they dug up everything and they had rations there may have thrown away stuff so the opener order came down from then on any time you throw garbage into the dock but you open it up before he throw it away oh we don't want to feed the Japanese army by the time they would bring a hot food out to us on the street and we would get it canteen there's their mess gets out and form a line get food and we'd find a place to sit down to eat it and soon as we sat down the idiot or there would be a usually be a small child there and most time I was a young boy and there were so much bodies and dead animals laying around and the sub flies on the street at that time and the child would bet the flies away from me so you could eat your meal and then they would appreciate you leaving some for them and we always I never finished a hot meal on the streets there was always a kid there waiting for the leftovers and he would put it in a little bucket like thing and take it home to his family what was that like for you to see such poverty among the civilians you know these children what was that like for you to see it was able heartbreaking not it's kind of hard to describe it just stuff it's just how can this stuff happen you know but they were shut off during the war and they didn't have any we'd get a surprise in then just the people that had money and positions and everything they managed to have more I'm sure these the people we saw with a real peasant nor class the lower income people can you talk to me sir about the patrols that you went on in combat they patrolled all my patrolling was done in the Solomon Islands and we were it was jungle fighting all the way and we had the perimeters set around our battalion led land mines and barbed wire entanglements but outside we had patrols patrolling outside the perimeter and we had outpost up on the river and I was very small and I I was especially good that moving through them a little better moving through the jungle is I was a big fellow and so that's this I became a of our Pratunam was we were in a tank but there was no threat of any armor there and our guns were placed on the perimeter and opportun was used as an outpost and outside the perimeter patrols and I would they were two of us shorty paczynski and I and we was scouting for all the patrol 2:10 for my platoon and it was a slow going through the jungle most the time it was well it was just going out and ahead of the outside the perimeter and see if has any contact with the Japanese out there and usually dead reckoning we go out so many hundred yards one way then we'd go so many hundred yards the other way and I was pretty good and if I had you had to go through the thick jungle and if I want off in one direction to avoid a wait a minute vine well I could get back on the regular course and at one time on aluminum a trail we had the we had bit we had gone into a battalion had gone into it offensive on the counter attacked and we pushed the Japanese across the river up there and they were at full retreat and they were going back to their side of the island and I would sent only we were sitting on the patrol the next morning to see if any of them and come back at the river crossing and I was scouting for the platoon for the patrol and before I got to the river crossing I it was still not in sight and I held the I have all these patrol back until I could go forward around this Bend to see and see if there's anything and I could pick up a limb without exposing them and they were the other side of the river was a very thick jungle like and that side was a sandbar we sent bar with a cliff truck behind us and I stayed there for a while trying to pick up anything out there I couldn't see anything and I was not ready to bring the they patrol forward and all it wants to bang bang bang so machine gun bullets coming over my head into the bank over there so diamonds that it's them he lured his sight that he tried to get to me but I was down too closely well he the machine gunner if he had waited a little bit longer I would have brought this the videos patrol forward then he could have got that couldn't possibly got the hope about five or six men there and then deal and they patrol he could got the whole bunch see machine gunner would normally start shooting at the back of the little forward that he feels smart enough but he he saved us by the way they were firing it the first one they came by but I stayed there until the the patrol sent back for more too far and they brought mortar or on to that position and had to adjust so they I was close for the clothesline so they put the mortar rounds definitely over the target then they creep back door 3p fire and soon as one landed on my side I knew the next time they would be firing for a fact as soon as there was a volley of fire I was getting the hell out of there and so when they started firing went for three or five rounds there opened up on I moved back with the war they do patrol and beheaded everybody was young back except this the patrol leader and one man that one man they have this captain and so nobody was injured in that incident but could have been fatal tell me sir when you were in the ditch in the Japanese machine gunner did he continue to fire at you when you were in the ditch yeah how close to the bullets get oh I guess that like I see the head of yeah we would kind of luck over sandbar and they had a little clipped or side play tip that I guess in I guess it'd be a book about three or four feet up above me and how long would you say this whole ordeal was oh somewhere between 30 minutes an hour I guess some are now there was a dead Japanese right across the trail there it was a tree leading right along the river there and he had been shot the day before when we made the the counter-attacked and he was laying there and he and I was a first one of a saw and like that and the old we have the old scavenger ants old big old black plants they were all over in them consuming his body terrible things II it'll blow it up look at ya bloated up besides this one incident you told me about when you were on patrols were there are other times that you got engaged against the Japanese or was this the only time that the Japanese fired at you on patrol this was the only time another gonna do it about routine on the other patrols you would go on will you be just looking at the Japanese positions or you just never encountered Japanese on the other patrols we never encountered him they like to stay owner side there and we were the only contact we had with them was aluminum with trail or they they would occasionally go down the river there where we had to outpost there and it was but no I I came back yeah from the guard from the year outpost one time and we run into some Japanese it was we went on a patrol we were coming back to the base camp there ends but it was raining and they were all huddled up there and the yes sergeant started wheeling was it was the I know he wanted to go down that trail I see her jumping we went down there and they were all huddled up but it was raining and they were trying to keep dry but there's a great number of a number of them and there was little few of us about five or six people so we made a notation of where they were and reported that they sent out a combat patrol for the next day but they had all you know they had disappeared what was the reason you guys didn't fire at them because there was more of them yeah there was a big big bunch of them there looked like a opportunity of 30 or 40 of them and we had we had very little ammunition in any way we didn't ever and only only a recon Patrol you avoid contact you you're there to look to your doctor look if you see something too you report it you don't you don't engage it absolutely could you please talk to me about your experiences using the 37 millimeter the anti-tank gun uh-huh in Manila were there times that you guys used it in Manila the anti-tank gun do you see the little 37 millimeter it's it's a real accurate weapon it's small but it works real good in street fighting it's that we could fire a high explosive shell which is about the same thing as not the same explosive as a hand grenade Norton Jeanine it shoots into an area to use her armor piercing which penetrate about our quarter inch of our online I'm a light tank but we'll do enough to know about the big German things and we had either Cheryl with a canister what we call canister and it says the it's like a big shotgun shell you have the 125 marble-sized ball bearings encased in Rosslyn and it is fired for close combat and when they are when you're being over on the Marines used it very successful and wanna come out and the it's close in and you fires out about 25 yards and it breaks up and - just like a shotgun a big heavy-duty shotgun then it'll take care of anything and that range for 25 30 yards and we had the in Manila the high-explosive shell was good you could put a lot of time the Japanese fall from a fallen dwelling holiday for office buildings they thought they were worried you could distance they lay out children and any window you wanted to anyone do they were far improvement it is very accurate they're very accurate weapon and then the canister round was used we only use a canister around one time when near the end of the war we had the air gun which usually outside the perimeter and we were mainly guarding against any tankers vehicles that the Japanese might want to move that sergeant pathetic and I were on the first guard first to Gordo out nine o'clock in the evening and we had two men on the guns at night one was almost by the sight there and looking knocked through the sight but looking downrange so he'd get on the site and far the gun and we had one that was sleeping in between the trailer for two trails he'd opened up the trails and you sleep you could sleep have one sleeping there ready to be a loader for you and sorry pathetic was on the gun he was in the Gunners position there and I was sleeping in between the trails and he reached back and tapped me and and I got up and looked and he pointed downrange and it was about about a couple hundred yards down there with some troops moving toward us then we identified them as Japanese it was about ten or twelve oh heck I'm on one side of the road and - on the other side of the road they were coming toward us and I'm great I was with certain Pizarro he knew what to do we need to wait until they got real close and I said wouldn't they gonna shoot what are you gonna shoot and finally he yeah I had loaded the past around an hour already and as soon as they got within about 25 or 30 yards he he started to open them up and I started loading more and more about five or six chapters in there real fast and me doc didn't the in about a couple minutes everything was over they don't remember these they wasted that whole bunch out there and we didn't know what happened until after all right right through the I don't know he was but didn't tell her just told us that there was a battalion looking to contact one Japanese battalion want to contact another battalion to consolidate with the mother battalion and they got off on the wrong road and they didn't know where they were going and they had this advanced guard out in front to us for safety and when they got hit when we wiped them out well they knew not to they needed knew that they were on the wrong road they weren't trying to attack us they were trying to get with that other unit but they won't had gone into her defensive position they would have been a battle between the two battalion 3rd battalion a black battalion on our battalion in Manila we are we were the first unit to get into downtown Manila yeah the first Calvary had done their raid on the entire campus then at the moss but we were going we had entered when the road on the one of the main streets and avenues and we were going in down Rizal ever knew it was the rain drag North and South flow Street and there were Oh hundreds of Japanese on the street on the sidewalk waving at us and welcomed us and we were oh boy this is like like - or that better soon as we got down to what they call the the Chinatown area it's all hell broke loose there was men men frying fry firing from my overhead I guess it's sort of about can they overlook second floor and he was a rifle troops who've taken cover and I'm turning for her and we got her 37 millimeter I was loading sort of and the gunner there he'd lead them there in for two or three high-explosive rounds into that balcony there and and what later starting the pathetic the Lewis grab your grab your carbine to come with me well I grabbed my carbine I didn't say where we're going when we're gonna get back another you just grab your carbine go with him so we went up to that building and climbed up went up the stairs into that area where we just fired and we saw a family of Coletti all crowded up there Chinese people and and we asked it's in the Japanese there I said no when you started firing the old run out the back through the backside they're not out the back and so we made the search of the building went down the hall there were and almost in the best bathroom where we took the bathroom and there was a bathtub there and looked in there and it was a small pig in their life Pig you know they were hiding that from the Japanese I guess there you oughta have a little feast of some sort so we went back to their guns and at that time the the Japanese had stored a lot of the gasoline and bombs and everything in the Chinese sector they knew that we would not bomb the city and they'd taken out of their airfields they started in there and and when we had made an advance they started setting a fire to all the buildings with head the containers and everything started blowing up so we had to withdraw withdraw about eight or ten blocks you kept going back and going back and going back into it actually about 10 blocks back right then and all that error we were worth what the Chinatown was a was completely burnt out and I don't know that poor Chinese family got out of mind I don't know I mean what did it look like all the explosions Oh a terrifying I don't know if fires an explosion we got back in about eight eight or ten blocks then we stopped there it seemed to that'd be the end of it we had a little break in there they're pretty nothing happening in them we were there on the street and a nice lady come out we had a gun right there on the street a nice lady come out there with her daughter's she had two or three daughters there and they brought us to coffee now their coffee is not real coffee they they make some kind of substitute coffee out of rice and they roasted or something I don't know what it is but it was hot and wasn't and we had a good conversation with them it was I was and that literally admitted she the lady adopted our gun squad they hear my son's and from then on we always had a place to go to visit to see all your houses are your houses house it always your home she owned the building there she had a quarters upstairs and living quarters upstairs and downstairs she rented out to a restaurant and I bet he shot down there too he was a middle class and wealth and so we were she was our mom and we were her son so she's we had a place to go when we went on to Manila would always visit her and then we went on one trip to a resort therefore for the hot bath a bath resort there when with them and when we left we should give us a big party and you there was three of us left squad leader had gone home and then the one of the had licked of the memo of error he was head duty somewhere else look dude she gave a going-away party and gave all three of us go marine sort of goal range yep Filipino gold it's kind of a reddish color it's not the quality that we have a thanked but his little concentrating goal range with little kind of Scrolls on them and they were so people who fell in love with the Filipinos they just when I left there I got a big going-away party but I didn't get a going-away party when I got home I know outside of the family nobody else yeah my big wreck what do you remember about the civilian casualties that you saw in the Philippines very casualties the the word out is that there was four civilians killed forever gr that was killed they would in there and when we fighting in their area they shot everything on civilians were told to stay in door in doors and anybody on the street would be shot you know there was one incident where a family told me that hearth they knew that and they were trying to control the children to stay inside but one little girl she want to go on visits the other family and she went out in the streets lovely little eight-year-old there or was gunned down but japanese and it was it was not uncommon to see dead bodies laying on the street when you when you're attacking them when you attack in the position and you know you might see children lying down teeth and I didn't see it but some of the street fighter saw DJ's go into a building and be Japanese fighting from the building they go into the building and they would find dates of a and some time with the women with their heads roof shot heads cut off and get off laying in there but they didn't like to use domination domination was short supply there so they used their sabers and bayonets as much as possible and killing my civilians yeah I knew the under the family and what happened I had I drove the a drove a lady over to see her brother who was a free priest and we took along this friend that was she gonna be see who she was going to visit and the little girl don't worry when we got off the church he started crying and screaming and what we found out what's wrong with her she thought she had seen that little girl had got killed that he recognized some other good oral surgeries she's but that was a it's just one answers of thousands of engines are like that they'd soon can you talk to me about your experiences under Japanese artillery fire Japanese didn't have too much artillery fire it says they didn't use we were fridaymostly in the middle of the Navy the army had decided that to not try to defend them though of they chose to move out to the hills and fight from the hills and tried to told the air to the totally Admiral air that I have more or Caton Yama Sita was never a general and he told he had nowhere it to destroy whatever you can destroy whatever you can then move on said you but that's crazy Admiral he want to stay there and fight to the last man anyone destroy as much as you can kill as many people in and then die either commit suicide or die fighting and they all died one way or the other very few would always fritters you get with we were wondering that wounded or something and couldn't when you came home after the war yeah did you have difficulties readjusting to civilian life only adjust what I had was uh you're used to living with 20 or 30 men in the barracks or usually all together with a bunch of people you know and you never and getting back on the farm it was so quiet it got scary that did loud noises bother you loud are never bother me my brother he was always just cautiously and he it was Christmastime when I got back there and we used fireworks at Christmas other than New Year's we don't use firecrackers no yet we use on Christmas and he would tell in the children not to find the firecrackers around me and don't don't know start talking to look about the war don't ask him about the war or anything they my family thought that I would go to pieces or something but a lot of things I wanted to tell them but they didn't I start talking about something and they would change the subject you know they might want that lift and everything if you if you started to talk about the war yeah they would change the subject oh yeah was it just your family or was a lot of people like that family and I didn't have too much contact with a lot of other people and I mean what's it like when you've gone through a war and you've come home and all you want to do is just share some of your experiences and no one wants to listen it's confusing and what you're doing you look for some other soldiers like my friend that came back it's not the same time I did and he was in Europe and so we did would we change war stories over there he talked about what happened over there and I tell him what happened over here hold and the Pacific and and we had a good relation there and we had a lot of on the farm where we had a lot of people that soldiers and sailors are turning there to leave it's mostly yeah we would talk to them and it's your love a lot of stories did you have nightmares after the war no I never had nightmares I've had dreams but they'd never mounted to a real nightmares can you tell me about some of your dreams Oh dreams I have the one dream I had a dream I was at the on the outposts one of her outposts there and we heard I was found I was the only one left there it's everyone resolved all off and left me and I was having the one left there and being a little dog and I was hiding in a cave and I knew hoping the Japanese wouldn't find me and they were walking all around me and I'm hoping the little dog wouldn't bark so that's about the only one a hand was on the dog I was gonna if he started dog barking I wouldn't go to choke him I said they don't want to choke this dog but I got to sergeant Lewis can you talk to me about your memories of the Manila Hotel Manila Hotel is only in this in the port area vanilla and it was the former home of General MacArthur he had the penthouse up there and we were always it always came to in our top you know getting to Manila and we're gonna see that but that hotel by that one MacArthur Hilton and my gun squad were we were right on the up in the Bay Area there and not far from the port area and and the Jeep came by there was a Terrance's officer that that I used to work with with the intelligence section when I was doing the the scouting for the patrols and he said to us you want to go every they've taken the Manila Hotel and will be the first one to take a look at it or what I wouldn't got in his Jeep and they took they going up there and there were some soldiers out in the area there and they on the ground floor but no one had gone up there and we went up there and but everything was out of there the furniture they just the Japanese people soups have been union's ability and it was just trash and we went all the way up there and nothing there nothing and then when we came back out looked in the swimming pool and it was I think two or three dead Japs floating you know swimming pool over there and and that was it for what was it at one time it was a very nice hotel oh yeah it was it was a place to be I think he and another general I wouldn't Wainwright but another generally they shared the top floors with it what can you tell me about your memories of rows all Avenue north on avenue yeah rosamma Avenue is the main street coming in from the north side and it's in the lower part before you get to the Pasig River that was the Chinese area there and the Japanese were very cruel to the Japanese because they were at war with the Japanese and and the Japanese general Yamashita he was tried in the war crimes since one of his crimes was when he was in Singapore he had 500 Japanese murder murder Japanese merchants murdered though they they they had a hard time there in any places is Japanese them were in control what life advice do you want to give to future generations I future generations is the old Chinese word gung ho what means work together we should have all these people working together to make a better country and to get along a lot better if you were to give me some advice for my life what would you tell me I'm the same age you were when you were overseas my advice to you and most of the younger generation is find something that you'd like to do and do it until you can't do it anymore don't look forward to the retirement yes I retired when I was 83 and I had to do that because I was i sack was gone because were you afraid of getting killed when you were in combat well certainly it's always the they thought it's in your mind but you are busy with your job and you don't think too much about getting killed you think about doing your job well what do you want to say to all the men who were killed overseas in the war what would you want them to know that the there's so many of them appreciate what they have done that every time I walk around anywhere now as thank you for your service and they would the ones that really need to be think as the ones that are not here anymore what kind of person do you want to be remembered as what I want to be remembered that is the old guy that did the best he could you got to get a little more serious for me when your friends and your family think about you mr. Lewis what kind of person you know would you want them to think of you as a good ol lock it's short for uncle I'm called the uncle of my family in yes I have done my best to be honest my girl I don't rise unless I have to tell a woman that she looks good when they seize that won't look so good I don't stare I never stole anything and I've never did I believe in the Ten Commandments I think that's a good guy to live by except for telling a falsehood you got to tell if I would once a while to keep out of trouble and to make the girls my women happy I like to be remembered as a world war 2 veteran are you glad that you served no what are you proud to have served yes I am I am proud of people are really proud of the Association I've had with other people there - my career wait a minute Brian is one that's hanging down from a tree and it's it's got long stringy tabs there with hooks with horn thorns that when you're moving through the jungles are they're hanging to your clothing and you can't go forward you know your hand you'll fatigue clothing and you can't go forward and you have to say wait a minute I'm hung up would it ever hurt you no less worth it if you do if you're without clothing yeah I could yeah yeah see I've seen Marines beat up with those things right no dream track sir Oh T monkeys they've the old sloths that we renamed them P monkeys cuz they can really wit you down they get excited and when you're going through the jungle Z we get sprayed with him were you ever sprayed I got one little spurt one time would people kill the monkeys no would they for cute little fellas they were pretty pretty little place and sometimes he surely a squad leader the picture of your girlfriend you got home and he was not likely to say why she's cute a monkey did you write letters back home oh yeah who did you write - I don't both into the family and do a the girls and I had acquaintance with I had no to go back to her waiting for me what would you write them about well everything was since ordinarily a turn leader centered and he sent it to the base center then if he didn't if he didn't take out something and still we took it out he couldn't be it could be find so he led to everybody you couldn't send up anything about the military it's just defi filthy and they stuff 58 and what you did didn't what mr. a development I would never want neither I got in a little scratch with a hand with a gana grenade when they were throwing grenades in our position but it didn't amount to anything didn't medic he took care of it I rolled a pull of my pants and he took a tweezer and got that little sliver out then put the monkey blood aren't we monkey blood what would call it my kill calm and say take care of it then do you want to you go to the base station tomorrow and change the bandage and you get a Purple Heart but I didn't want a Purple Heart why didn't you want a Purple Heart if I get a Purple Heart my family think I'm leaning their dick neither centre place is always I took a picture one time I had my hands behind me throw like a parade rest and one of my sisters though my hands have been bubbling off or something so I don't believe in I don't believe with a paper heart Purple Heart for a minor in a dish like that something it disables you or put you in hospital or you should get a Purple Heart but not for the little scratches and stuff like it who threw the grenades at you in the Japanese Navy from the Navy to add to neighbor officers and the Mirena I guess he was the world Marine he was one about six foot tall and I had to be six foot I think get in the world of Marines shorty the other Scout was he the only man from your unit that was killed yeah he was the only one in aquatune it was was killed how old would you say he was when he was killed oh he was very young he tried to get in the army and they wouldn't take you because you're small and very young and he finally got into the National Guard and then they were mobilized so he he was with us and he it was an either good man I mean good Scout and he would sometimes say Lewis you're honest they have you on patrol you I'm gonna take it he liked to get out there yeah and I'm sure glad that that he wasn't with me when I got close to being killed him what do you mean when the bullets went over your head yeah well why why are you glad that he wasn't with you I don't I'm glad that he wouldn't on that patrol I'm getting mixed up here he wouldn't take in my place that's what I'm trying to say I'm glad he didn't wouldn't take in my place when he was do it and he'd got here I'm glad he wouldn't take it in my place when he got killed I'd feel bad about that oh I see did you ever let him go in your place no I never did he offered to but I felt like it sometime you know no they covered him up with a punch well that's why we we didn't have body bags and we code up on children no man what was his name Kavinsky some rinsky's I don't know it was probably said I don't know exactly the spelling of a super insky we call it shorty we're all college sorry he's nervous he they were on a recon mission along the river there and he run into a larger group footer yes and they got into a firefight and he was with one of our other soldiers there lately like I came to them name right now and he said that he conveyed told us or did said that he he came back and he said he came to the side and I said he'd lost with luck shorty I'm tardy up 30 today they burst of that remember guns automatic rifle only almost blown his head off the whole head that must have been real close in I don't know sir the story about Ana that was your first or your second Silver Star that was the first one yeah the jumper age was younger yeah did you see the Jones bridge destroyed no I did not it was the thing to smoky up there and everything and they had blown out the center span of the bridge we tried to save it before they blew it up but unsuccessfully they stopped the scene they mined the breach the they started to mind the street leading into it but didn't completely money but then he had a heavy fire coming from the old post office the new boat the main post office their building and and it was it was a mess we've got a lot of one did you what do you remember about the wounded one story about the wounded I remember we took a fellow out there and he came over with me but he got assigned to the company and I decided to more more tuned at that time meant to be entertained we hauled him out he had a sort of a minor least something in the knee I think and later and a few months later I was we were on the old Spanish Trail in by the blady pass and I went out I'm driving a Jeep and I delivered some mail up there and went to pick up the mail down below and brought it up there and I got up the orderly had him only hood of a jeep and they were giving him my visa there and working on him and he said Luis said you won't have to rescue me anymore I've got one of these million dollar wounds debated other ones yeah now you don't know what a million-dollar wound is that's one it's serious enough to get you back to the states but not serious enough to cause permanent injury and so we never saw him the more so evidently he got out of the combat area very much talk to me about the importance of dry socks dry socks the dry socks is it was you've got we got wet every day we were you got in a solemn honest you got their little shower coming up ever every day in February I think it's a rainy day by Rand every day there and in order to have anything dry you had to keep it in your mouth get to work to eat out of when you get our hot meal and so we weren't getting any hot meals that are we eating out of a long time we were eating out of c-rations and curations and we carried our socks in there so we'd have some dry socks also when we got a picture of my lovelies at home when you put pictures of the earth to keep them dry it's only the only way you could tip it in any pictures that you might keep for a small picture in your wallet die but if you got a postcard size picture like that one you would want to carry it in your mouth kids that's the only way you've got to keep it dry when the story about Anna the the wounded soldiers were all Americans yes only we're all from that rifle company uh far battalion that was trying to take the bridge are attending but they're American the wounded yeah how many would you say there were I xx thirty I guess and were you guys under fire as you were carrying them yeah we had cross fire we had book three three blocks back to the battalion aid stations who deliver them and then they got evacuated from there by the event cross little and there was a small amount of cross fire on the bridge there's food you know cross there how many trips back and forth what did you personally make we made two probably made twos to transfer and I was killed on the second one second did you meet her before this or you'd only heard about her after no I knew her before we started out we'd leave at 4:00 we loading everybody up what we had a conversation there and when you talk about oh it's just don't she's telling me she was a nurse from but the time he told me about the saving her uniform or burning no uniform or hiding it so the Japanese wouldn't know see would been working with the Americans or the Japanese or she was a part of the year Filipino army but she's a second lieutenant they had the same signal thing training that we had so you and your sergeant you saw you saw Anna and the other Filipinos trying to help these wounded Americans and then you went to go help them we went up there to help and then we saw him when we got on they say well they were busy getting get no doors off the buildings in the wall Fitzer they take a month offense they were heavy doors they were bamboo with the kind of the net things in between land like that then it was made the letters not to hit anyone and then did you guys have the Jeep or were you putting carrying this all on foot on foot yeah they had that we had the battalion had three litter jeeps at Kara 3 and they cared three people two above and one down below but the battalion aid station wouldn't let them well go up this street because the Filipinos had reported that it was mined but it Street was not mine they dug some holes and they had the explosive over on the sidewalk but they we move so fast I didn't have time to put them in there and do the streets were passable and and make sure I delivered after my friend the Filipino fellow and I delivered Anna to the Filipino first aid station down there well I got hold of that one of the drivers and then asking about their jeeps he said the colonel wouldn't let him till wouldn't let him drive I said it's not mine we've been driving down would be walking down this street so I said we need to take one of these jeans and go back up there and he said I can't go I said well that's 45 I have on my back it says he's gonna go I was a force weapon man his blood so he did one of Matt talked to me so he and I drove back up there and loaded up loaded up its three people and throw them back we are then getting to the minor wounded we have got all these seriously wounded out before them and as soon as the and soon as we got back they they thought that the street was cleared everything the other three had the two litter Jeeps went up there started moving the rest to back in and they the battalion commander the battalion surgeon for me hijacking that their Jeep people did court-martial me in the the captain that had those wounded soldiers want to give me the Medal of Honor wild up with the Silver Star it was that didn't the commanding officer thought the thought sergeant Whelan died he got these the Filipinos to do all this stuff but it was that little nurse it did everything you mentioned that you had Anna Anna's blood on you yeah how did you have her blood on you I picked her up and was carrying her to the aid station there and then not to the started taking that meant she was like one of these we saw this morning out here the small she was small and then the larger the the the Filipino that was going with us he was larger than he therefore this of the way but now I started out with her and she is I kept on the blood from her her body of a nice was she conscious at all pardon was she conscious no no she was not conscious at all and what do you remember about some of the wounded GIS who you guys picked up I don't I don't recall right in any of them they were mostly and I think they were mostly given the sedatives in what do I get morphine and stuff what they they were mostly given something to its I could see a leg bandage or Casillas face bandage but I didn't know it seriously so they were badgered them up with not there but they had no way to move in my Rebecca and how heavy was the fire that you guys were under as you were transporting these wounded it was your scattered fire it wasn't didn't matter much they just shooting across the Britain culture Street therefore much in our direction and they wouldn't take an aim at any person they saw something moving the dose of shot said I had very little clothes in combat and one of my one of my moments of combat was we were having we were at her 37 millimeter on the street guarding the street there and we had always we had trouble with the Japanese behind us because we move so fast I was to the city that they got stranded behind us and we had to look in a rear and to affront to him I I was a driver so my job was mostly to look keep his eye on the back one of the rest of people who hold the guns and I heard something around the the gun there and I looked I went over to take a look and I saw this tom japanese i guess he would must have been a royal marine he was standing there he tried to sneak by our gun position and then i encountered him and he had a what they call an Ambu gun it's automatic full automatic and semi-automatic right right assault rifles and he brought that too off of his shoulder and supported me and i had beat him with my carbine on earth faster than he was with the carbine and i shot him there and he run to the front and trying to continue his way through our position to get back to their lines and he stumbled and fell into the bushes and in front of and by the gun and then he just lay there and at that time they were so two more japanese in the in the buildings little outbuildings in the back they started throwing hand grenades not had any rifles or pistols evidently and they started throwing hand grenades at us but through our good luck of the range was they were falling short they couldn't reach all the way to us but a friend of mine came over from a rifle squad and we decided he and I would go out and we would we call it Rick recon and the fire we'd go shooting into those buildings and see if we can get any movement we were pretty sure they didn't have any rifles with had a hand grenade so we can hear moving around we could direct the fire Adam so we were doing that we were shooting a rifle I had I had a Harvey had the rifle and we were shooting it there and when he was shooting he tried his last round and his m1 rifle and when you for your last round the clip comes out and makes a big thing like that and they heard that or they saw it's Japanese so that and they the officer Lord learn later was the captain and lady who was a captain in the Navy by rank and he came out the Japanese that captain came out with a saber and he was about to run my friend in with it while he was trying to unload hardly trying to reload but I killed him with my carbine I did my carbine into him and he fell there he didn't get to cause any damage to my friend and then it's doctor just one or two later he heard a big bang inside and the other I assumed to be an officer he he blew himself up with a carbine with a baby part with her goodnight either was trying to throw it or commit suicide and they usually the lot of the Japanese would keep a card or keeping a grenade for them to kill himself rather than the being captured and so we had three three Japanese wanted to had been shot and want to get blown himself up with it today so I came back I got the he kept him said signal for just blouse and he dog tags so I thought the intelligence but might need it and I showed the my squad leader I said we just killed a three-star general he said that's the three-star dunno those three stars are for Navy captain well at least we stopped all the grenades row and continued our mission is guarding the the the road that we were supposed to and and we were finished with that action there and we just lay down and try to get some sleep in it it's hard for you to imagine on anybody that just kills two people laying down and go to sleep what you do do they down on the street you got a blanket only thing you got it when I get a sleep on the streets and break it turn it up in your blanket and go to sleep and then my squad leader Louis Louis I hear some moaning out there that Jeffrey killed is still alive alright is it somebody's gotta do something well I said nobody gonna approach that [ __ ] until it was morning if the morning if he's still alive I'll approach him for from a different position he's still clutching a ambu rifle and I'm not gonna go near him I'm not gonna let anybody go near him until they break this day after daybreak safety still alive a week safely gets them in some attention for him so medical attention them but nobody will come out here and treat him at night and theythey but they did that wouldn't let him die wouldn't mind good care well if somebody's gonna have to take care of it wanna say we have and went out didn't like finishing off a animal in pain you go out and finish off the enemy Japanese soldier loosing severe pain and let's see things that happened or I approached him from the rear and and not too close to where I would been observed by him and be able to receive sometimes the enemy will lay there and grown and grown and when you go to rescue him or treat them when they shoot you you have the weapon running - even though they're wounded they don't have that ability to choose you and the right I finished him off from safe position where I wouldn't be exposed to him shooting me I was about about say 10 or 15 yards there and it was dark it was dark and dark at night I know who he fell and I could hear the bones and I fired several rounds into it we start shooting sometimes we just finished up the clip I don't know how many was left in there and the magazine but then I went back and finished one that soldier I shot there he was the lead of the he Willis head of the other other two Japanese I think were both officers and the one was a captain I don't think the other was officer - he was actually sort of a bodyguard he was told I assumed he was a royal mine as a bodyguard for those two officers and he was the first one shot and when he was shot the other two officers the other officers they started throwing their hand grenades at our position and were falling charge how far away were you from that Navy captain I was little further than him he would I'd say five yards for him I was probably about ten but devils mister the soldier was a mammal gun was about about five ten paces wait for me but the one that blew himself up no he was in a [ __ ] like thing with open I destroyed thing with open windows open up like an open window there and I could see inside there but all I did big explosion and the captain looked in there and that's it so a body there had been blown forth there and blood blood and guts it's kill or be killed and more than he killed a less better chance you have not being here that was the cooter that will help bye

Channel: Legends of WWII (apart of Remember WWII)

Views: 36,292

Rating: 4.8811879 out of 5

Keywords: world war II, veterans, world war II veterans, world war 2, combat veterans, heros of world war, heros of war

Id: dOSdNhDqwBY

Length: 176min 10sec (10570 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2019