nd two o'clock I heard the Germans cutting our wire
out in front and I called to Roberts. When he came I told him to
pass the word to the lieutenant. He had just started off when the
snippin' and clippin' of the wires sounded near, so I let go with a
hand grenade. There was a yell from a lot of surprised Dutchmen and
then they started firing. I hollered to Needham to come back.
"A German grenade got Needham in the arm and through the hip. He
was too badly wounded to do any fighting, so I told him to lie in
the trench and hand me up the grenades.
"'Keep your nerve' I told him. 'All the Dutchmen in the woods are
at us, but keep cool and we'll lick 'em.' Roberts crawled into the
dugout. Some of the shots got me, one clipped my head, another my
lip, another my hand, some in my side and one smashed my left foot
so bad that I have a silver plate holding it up now.
"The Germans came from all sides. Roberts kept handing me the
grenades and I kept throwing them and the Dutchmen kept squealing,
but jes' the same they kept comin' on. When the grenades were all
gone I started in with my rifle. That was all right until I shoved
in an American cartridge clip--it was a French gun--and it jammed.
"There was nothing to do but use my rifle as a club and jump into
them. I banged them on the dome and the side and everywhere I could
land until the butt of my rifle busted. One of the Germans
hollered, 'Rush him! Rush him!' I decided to do some rushing
myself. I grabbed my French bolo knife and slashed in a million
directions. Each slash meant something, believe me. I wasn't doing
exercises, let me tell you.
"I picked out an officer, a lieutenant I guess he was. I got him
and I got some more of them. They knocked me around considerable
and whanged me on the head, but I always managed to get back on my
feet. There was one guy that bothered me. He climbed on my back and
I had some job shaking him off and pitching him over my head. Then
I stuck him in the ribs with the bolo. I stuck one guy in the
stomach and he yelled in good New York talk: 'That black --------
got me.'
"I was still banging them when my crowd came up and saved me and
beat the Germans off. That fight lasted about an hour. That's about
all. There wasn't so much to it."
No, there was not mu
|