Landed at Normandy o D day. He had a machine gun squad. After they got off the beach..he said when they were about out of ammo..they were instructed to fall back but burn the machine guns if pressed. He made a few trips back to the beach to get new guns. Said the Amorers had big pot sets up on the beach..They disassembled new guns and pickups from the fighting ..threw 'em in the pots and boiled the Stuff out of 'em..reassembled from what ever parts..checked headspace on the rifles and put 'em in racks to be reissued. He said he liked the water cooled machine guns the best but carrying the water was a pain....and they got punctured too easily. And the bbls on the air cooled were much easier to change. He fought for a long time over there..being assigned to the British commando teams from 1940 to 43(he could be a really scary dude) then in North Africa..with some of the allied commandos and then till the last of the Battle of the Bulge when he finally got shot up. He did know his stuff though. Took him to see Saving Private Ryan..think it shook him up a bit. Told me it was as close to real as any movie he had ever seen. He also said that he was in a bunch of guys that did some testing on the M-1 carbine. Said it was one of the most useless rifles he had ever shot. Course they had to pry the 03 Springfield that he was trained with out of his hands
He had joined up in 1938 and had to lie to get in as they weren't taking anyone over the age of 30 then. Another interesteing thing he said was that the colonel who was the battalion?? medical officer was a Veterinarian. Not a joke.