Page 8

It seems strange the way things work out, such as our platoon
happening to stumble onto Col. Canham's isolated C.P. We should
not have been anywhere near that area but our platoon leader Lt.
Gregory fouled up on an order to flank a German machine gun position.
As a result Gregory was kicked out of the Batallion and Col. Canham
got out of a bad spot. I realise that a history of this type cannot
deal too much on personalities but in my opinion the man of the day
was Col. Canham. I remember when we came across his C.P. After one
of the group made sure that we were U.S. troops, Col. Canham came
out of some bushes along a hedge row. A middle aged man of slight
build and medium height with his wounded arm wraped in a mess of
G.I. bandages, this fellow looked as bewildered as anyone I've ever
seen. He probably didn't believe us when we told him that most of
his Regiment was still down on the beach, because there was only
about twenty two of us and he asked us to run patrolls in various
directions to try to contact his men. We sent out two man patrolls
who never got more than several hundred yards before being stopped
by enemy. He finally decided that we better set up a perimeter defense
and wait to be contacted. Skirmishes with the enemy occured periodically
during the afternoon. We shot a german off his bicycle near the C.P.
he fell wounded face down at the side of the road. A pool of blood
formed under his head and he was breathing in it, the resulting sound
was absolutely unnerving. One of the boys shot him thru the head and
the noise stopped. At that moment I don't believe anyone hated war as
bad as Col. Canham. During the Following time that we were with him
we gained a lot of respect for this man.

Good luck with your book, I will eagerly await its publication,
If I can be of any assistance, Just let me know.

Sincerely,
Carl F. Weast