We heard a noise out in the water arid I knew someone was coming out. We could
[not] see them so I went down and waited for them to get a little closer. I challenged and they didn't reply. I didn't know whether to fire or not, so I challenged again. This time I got the reply, and it was Pollock and Puffer. That was three men out of the platoon that. I had contacted,
We started up the road and found it was only flooded for a short way. We found our bundles and the men got one machine gun and some ammunition. We came up to a road junction arid there I saw my first Frenchmen. There were two men there and we tried' to ask if they had seen any Americans. I pointed to the flag on my sleeve, and pointed up and down the road. One of the Frenchmen pulled out a package of Lucky Strike cigarettes and pointed down the road. Maybe think I wasn't one happy fellow to see that package of cigarettes.
We heard' some more men off in the swamp and challenged. They came out and it was Sgt. Williams and about four men from the first platoon. They said we had another wounded man in a farm house so Polasky took Wogan down there. The French lady took good care of then and kept them warm. We also met Lt. Grabbe and Capt Graham 'at 'the road junction. This made about 20 of us and for the first time we had a group together large enough for a combat team. We started working up the road where the Frenchmen said the Americans had gone. We ran into about 70 of them at a little town of Picauville. We inquired about the 3rd BN. and one officer said he had seen Capt. Greary
[Creary?]. We also contacted the machine gun plt of the 3rd. BN. and that made about 45 men. In all we had about 200 men. We started to march towards Etinville and couldn’t go all the way because it 'was still in enemy hands.
We kept by-passing the enemy and finally set up in a field. We heard some of our weapons fire and. thought it was some of our men in an attack, After sending out a patrol we found It was the Germans who had gotten some of :our equipment and were firing our weapons. I had some rations in my pocket and took them out and much to my disappointment they were soaking wet. .I had to throw them away and that left me with no food. Believe it or not, I pulled little fish out of my pockets and everything I had was ruined. I didn't even have any dry cigarettes. We stayed there that night and the Jerries shelled us with artillery. Was very harassing, I must say. We had quite a few casualties and no place to put them. The beach forces were supposed to contact us in 36 hours and this was now the second day. Col. Shanley was with us and he commanded the 2nd BN. He took command and told us he had contact with the Col. and most of the outfit was on the other side of the Mederet River close to Chef DuPont.
We moved down on hill 30 and set up a defense to hold until we could contact the rest of the outfit, On, D+4 the 3rd BN. consisting of 67 men and 3 officers moved down to hill 20 and set up a defense. We hit no opposition and set up a wall-block at the road junctions where we met the two Frenchmen. Wogan and Pommering
[Pommerening] were still in the farmhouse. The French people were very good to us and were taking excellent care of them.
That night we heard some noise over around the house and truckload of Jerries had come down to set up a road block at the Junction. They went into the house and found Lt. Johnson and a Medic. They took them outside and shot them. They also burned the house, but the French got Pommering and Wogan out o.k. They also killed one of our men and we got about 4 or 5 of them. They loaded in a truck and took off, leaving mines and all kinds of equipment behind,
The next day we changed our positions and left the road block the same. It was composed of 10 men and one officer, Sometime in the afternoon we saw some men coming up in the woods. I was looking at them through my field glasses and gave the order to fire because I could see/ they were Jerries. Some of the men were not sure and it took a little time to get fire on them. As soon as the Jerries started firing back, all the men knew. "We thought they were enemy parachute troops because of the camouflage smocks they wore. We later found out they were' Engineers that had been sent down to mine the road junction.
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