|
Sgt Fred Dawson
1st Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment
Dear Ma,
The last few days have been hard. We have been fighting a
great deal with very little sleep. I have only a few moments
to write this before we move out. I think yesterday was the
hardest night of my life so far. I have seen nothing like it
and you probably wouldn’t believe it unless I could describe
it to you myself. I will do my best with a little amount of
time.
We had have been moving up through some foot
hill up towards a big mountain an Infantry outfit has been
trying to take for some days now, the CO thinks we can do
but we look like we are going a different way and boy are
those cliffs steep.
Well I won’t now get time to finish this
until this battle is over, but that camera Pa gave me is
coming in real handy, I hope the film survives and I can
bring home my pictures, my buddies say they feel like film
stars when I take their picture, but of course this aint no
film Ma
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone is so tired, it was one hell of a battle, I caught
some metal in my leg but am doing fine. We lost half our
section on that mountain and the Regiment took a lot of
casualties, but we got to the top the hard way and kicker
them off. I was alone with only half of our section on the
mountain we took lots of fire from mortars and other heavy
stuff. The only thing I could think to do was set up a small
firing line. I had to leave them for a while to see if there
was a better place to fire from. We were under such heavy
shooting that we weren’t doing any good! I had to go quite a
distance before I could find a good spot.
I went back to get the boys and have them all
move so we could shoot better. We finally got the German
firing to stop so we could reorganize. The shooting was
close and loud, but I didn’t lose anybody after that. Got a
few scrapes here and there, but nothing that won’t heal. I’m
not so sure that it was the right thing to do at the time,
but I knew I had to get that firing to stop. I didn’t want
to lose anyone. We can’t afford to. We’re pressing farther
on down the other side today, but are resting up for now. I
have had some time to take a few pictures of my buddies; I
hope they all come through this too.
I will write again when I can, give my love
to Pa.
Fred
|
