Here I am lying in my foxhole with the rest of my troops along with me. I have worked my way up to become a sergeant to control this group. We have been waiting for the Germans to come while we have been in these uncomfortable holes for two days now. It has been a week since they last engaged us. We are still waiting for the Germans to come. We are going to surprise them.
One of my troopers told me that they are coming. I screamed to the rest of my troopers to get down. “ Where are they?” I asked.
He said “they are coming from the northwest”. I looked and I saw them heading this way. “ Keep an eye on them,” I shouted to my troops.
He sat there watching them carefully. Then he said “there in firing range,” so we started shooting. After a while I lost a few guys.
By the time they surrendered, I lost two more of my men. We went back to the base and told our lieutenant that we were able to take some prisoners, but we lost a few men in doing so.
Then my troops and I went to another spot where the Germans were heading. We went there and we went in our foxholes and waited. It was so long and uncomfortable for the rest of the day. We didn’t have chairs or anything but the ground to sit in a round hole. Then at night we had one person stand watch for about four hours then they would switch.
At about six o’clock a.m. one of the troopers told me “ here they come”. We got into position and waited for them to come. It looked like there was more than last time. When they were close enough I said, “Hold your fire. Get ready. Now!” We started firing. They had so many guys that we couldn’t hold them off. When I looked to check on my troops almost all of them were dead. The rest of us fell back and started running to better cover. As we were running I kept looking back to see if they were coming. When we got to better cover I only had four guys with me.
I called reinforcements and they said they would be there in a little bit. When the Germans started coming for us there were only about 20 left. We got into firing position and defended ourselves until the reinforcements came. In the end, I lost all but two of my troopers. They held their ground, but lost their lives doing it.