Ed & Ray Hersman in WWII - Robert Marks.org

4.6. ATTACKING THE GERMANS Ed & Ray Hersman in WWIIF Company was located and what their trouble was. Williams, since he wasgreen, was to be left behind where it was relatively safe in a German-dug slittrench. We left the O.P. and started in the direction we thought F Companyhad advanced. We began to run into trouble, from German machine gun andsmall arms fire. By crawling, running and sneaking we kept going until wefound F - Company.F- Company was trapped, the Germans had cut them off from the rearand had the flanks and front covered. machine guns, small arms fire andmortars had them pinned in their holes.Eudy and I’s arrival drew instant fire from the machine guns and mortarsof the enemy. Without any hesitation at all we jumped in some holes on topof some men already dead. The one I jumped one said “Are you dead? Areyou dead? If you’re dead I don’t want you on top of me”.When the fire let up I looked over the hedgerow, and instantly a machinegun tried to pick me off. I picked up a radio to call for artillery or mortarfire but the antenna was shot off and the radio was useless. There was onlyone thing that Eudy and I could do, we had to go back and get help.We went back much the same way we had come but more Germans hadcame in and about half way back, Eudy was hit. I was leading and I wentback to him, but he had been hit several times by a machine gun and wasdead. I was extremely angry, but continued on until I arrived at the holewhere we had left Williams.4.6.2 Spurting Blood Makes Me MadThe Germans had been following me close with mortar fire all this time.Every time I went over a hedgerow, mortar fire would fall right behind me.I took the map from Williams, spread it on the ground in front of me, andstarted marking down the location of the German machine guns so that Icould call mortar fire down on them.Three mortar shells hit the ground in front of me and fragments hit me inthe arm, face and neck. Blood spurted like a water stream from my neck all52