Battling the enemy

The day the Germans attacked us with shells ... That's what they do first, they shell you to death, then they, after they rush up. There we are in the trench, scared as all heck and my buddy was hit. I had to help him, call the medics, push him back, plug him with mud, stop the bleeding. That was one of the worst days I had for a long while, now. But the day, first day, I seen the Germans ... When we went over the Channel, we had to raid all the house, check all the houses and that, and I look in the garage, there's a dead German. First one I ever seen. I didn't know what a dead German looked like, you know, or, or a German, period. That was the first one I ever seen. Kind of scares ya. Now, they had no clothes on. The Italians took all his clothes. I was trying to think to myself, what kind of people are these, you know, they strip a man off his clothes? Well, anyway ... Then we searched all the houses and made sure there was no more Germans around that. Couldn't touch anything, ‘cause there were booby traps all over the place, so we couldn't. And we kept going and they attacked and, and we were told to fall back, which we did. Then we got our shells going. It kind of drove the Germans back. So many things happening, you know. You don't even know where to go sometimes, you know. You find a hole, you dig and you stay there. That's why I'm shell-shocked now, really, because my nerves are still bad from, you know ... I had one land right alongside me. I thought I was hit, but I wasn't. It was just shock. When some medics came up and said, "You're okay." "I'm okay." And that was it. You know, kept fighting, killing Germans. That's what we were there for.