Wounded in Action:
Dad was wounded in action of September 26th, 1944. He was struck in the underside of his left
forearm with a piece of shrapnel. It's unclear if the shrapnel came from artillery or a mortar.
I know at one point dad speculated that it had been from a rifle grenade.
The injury occurred while he was walking with his company up a barren hillside (as described
in the prior letter's army notes) while their right flank was exposed to German troops who were
firing various weapons at them.
He was immediately taken from the battlefield by medics. He was concerned at the time that he
would have to walk all the way back on the many-mile path he had taken to get to this point, but
was pleasantly surprised that the army support elements, including medical, were only a few miles
from the actual front line he had been fighting on.
While it was not clear to dad at the time, his combat role was now over, so this narrative does
not continue to detail the fighting that took place afterward. For those who may be interested, his
company and division went on over the next week to a massive battle on Mount Battaglia a few miles
north of where he was injured, during which there was fierce fighting and many casualties on both sides.
Shortly after that, the armies disentangled and wintered over in the mountains until the spring of 1945,
at which time the Allied offensive pushed into the valleys beyond and the war in Europe was soon ended.
- Jim Jr.