Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

3.4. ARMY TRAINING Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIonly one canteen of water a day. Many men passed out on these marches dueto lack of water.My section’s job was to work behind the enemy lines to wee what theywere doing and report it back by radio. Often our forces would pull back outof range of our radio and we couldn’t report anything at all.Other than the forced marches, I enjoyed maneuvers immensely.Our section was often captured by the “enemy” and I generally escapedalmost immediately. I was then on my own among the enemy and lots offun. We carried C-rations and this was my food when I was on my own.3.4.3.1 Being StealthOne time we were left behind when our forces withdrew, to try and determinewhere the enemy would bring up assault boats and try to cross the TennesseeRiver. One of our men was careless and we were captured. That night wewere being marched to the “prisoner of war camp” and I escaped by simplywalking over to the side of the road and hiding in a ditch. I still had myequipment and food since these were not taken from “prisoners”.I crawled through an open field between two woods full of the enemy, andsince it was night they didn’t see me. I slept in some bushes that night andthe next day decided I would go to the river and swim across to the otherside. I believed our forces, “red”, were just on the other side of the river. Istarted sneaking through the woods and across fields using what ever coverI could find, but saw seen by the enemy twice.Once was by a spotter plane. He kept circling over me, trying to getsome of his men to come capture me. I kept moving and they couldn’t catchme. The plane finally gave up. The other time I took a chance and crossedan open field to a woods. At the edge of the woods I hid behind a deadlog. In a few minutes I saw a full scale skirmish line sweeping the woods,trying to capture me. One man passed within a few feet of me but didn’tsee me. Once the line had passed I went on through the woods behind themand got away. I arrived at the Tennessee River and saw that the opposite29