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Case CATalyst - Student Version By Stenograph
Veteran: John A. Kostrisak
Interview date: 3/17/2011
Transcriber: Danielle Dzioba
Transcription date: March 26, 2013
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Q. Today is March 17, 2011. I'm interviewing John
A. Kostrisak at Avon, Connecticut. He was born on
December 22, 1924. The interviewer is Sharon Capesa.
Also present is the videographer, Walter Cress, and
Mr. Kostrisak's daughter, Joan. This interview is being
conducted on behalf of the Canton Historical Museum and
Central Connecticut State University, as part of the
Veterans History Project. Mr. Kostrisak was a sergeant
in the U.S. Army and served with 30th infantry regiment
in Italy, southern France, Germany and Central Europe.
And I'd guess we'd like to start with, were you drafted
into the army?
KOSTRISAK: Yes. Yes, I was drafted.
CAPEZZA: And where were you living at the time of your
draft?
KOSTRISAK: I was living in Burlington.
CAPEZZA: In Burlington?
KOSTRISAK: Yes. And going over to EC Goodwin Tech over
in Brenton.
CAPEZZA: And did you pick the branch of the service
that you would go into?
KOSTRISAK: No. I didn't pick it. Well, actually when
I -- there's a little story. When I and this
Cash Poniatowski, we lived down the road from here. We
had our physicals at Hartford. At the end of the day
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the commanding officer in there came out, and he say --
he named off, he said, "You six men, I want you in the
other room." So we all went in there, and he says, "For
this day, two of you, you have to meet the quota for the
Navy. And two of you are going to go into the Navy
whether we like it or not." So he said, "Do I have any
volunteers?" And one guy about a half minute or so, he
volunteered, and then he said, "Well, any others?"
Nobody said anything and so he said, "Whoever I say is
going to go in." And he didn't point at Cash Powatowski
or me, so somebody else went in. So that's -- was a
little story. Just going into the service, I could have
wound up in the Navy.
CAPEZZA: Did you prefer being in the Army anyway?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. You know, I was going to E.C. Goodwin
Tech as an auto technician, auto mechanic technician.
And I spent two years there already. I finally got a
deferment for six months. I had almost a year to go,
but the superintendent at the school, Mr. Winder said,
"If you get a six-month deferment and finish my
schooling complete" online to go. You know, but I
didn't get the deferment. Well, the way it worked out,
I just went right in. I was, like, under the impression
that I could maybe get into the, like, the get into the
aircrew ground. And so I had actually wrote to the air
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base on Long Island, I guess it was and said, you know,
sent on my resume credentials, but they didn't -- I
didn't have the experience, so I just wound up in the --
everything moves so fast anyway.
CAPEZZA: Well, what was that like for you? Those first
few days of being inducted into the army?
KOSTRISAK: It was -- I didn't mind, but, you know,
everything was laid down in the law. I remember we had
a few meetings after supper, and they just laid down,
like, if you don't pay, you're going right into the
brig. So, you know, at 18 years old -- I just turned
18. You know, I was just a kid.
CAPEZZA: And where did you go for your first step in
there?
KOSTRISAK: Well, I went, you know, Fort Evans. That's
the center. That's the -- then from there, we went by
train down to Binding, Camp Binding Florida. That's
where I took the basic training.
CAPEZZA: And what was basic training like -- what kinds
of things were you doing there?
KOSTRISAK: You know, getting you into shape or
whatever, I guess. You know -- well, that was very
important to me. I picked up a lot of little tips.
That's why I'm here. If I wouldn't have paid attention
and stuff like that --
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CAPEZZA: What kinds of tips?
KOSTRISAK: Well, just -- just whatever to -- how to
when you're supposed to go -- instead of running around,
you know, and stuff. Just little odds. To -- to, you
know, just so, you know, so you're -- shelter was like
and whatever, things like that.
CAPEZZA: Keeping your self safe?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. Just little -- little -- I couldn't
tell you, you know, things like that -- just a little
bit.
CAPEZZA: Do you remember any of your instructors during
boot camp?
KOSTRISAK: The only one -- that's -- well, see when I
went in, they had just organized -- I have literature on
this. The 66th Black Panther Infantry Division was just
organized and want to get into that later. Christmas
eve 1944, at my old outfit where I was taken out of the
66th as a replacement to go to the 3rd. Well, Christmas
eve in 1944, that 66th division, my old outfit was
going -- crossing the English Channel with the -- one of
the ships was a Leopold. It was a convoy of others.
And come to find out, they said this brand new German
submarine torpedo, that Leopold, 804 fellows got killed
and about 14 -- 1500 got wounded. My old outfit
that's -- but the only one that I can really stood out
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was Lieutenant Cochran. My old outfit stood out.
CAPEZZA: What was it about Lieutenant Cochran that was
outstanding?
KOSTRISAK: (Laughter.)
CAPEZZA: Was it good or bad?
KOSTRISAK: It was good for us. Well, after basic
training -- we took our basic training and from April to
around August -- the first of August, just give or take
a few days or whatever. And we wound up in Camp
Robinson, Arkansas. And so more or less coasting along
there because we had the basic training and stuff and
whatever was going to happen. To me, that was the
impression I had, you know. So we had the morning
regular, you know. You got to get up and stuff and then
right after that it was the routine. Police up the
area, you know, everybody shipshape for the day so. So
this one day this Lieutenant Cochran, he looked and
there was a lot of trash and stuff around the place
place. And the guy said, "Okay, you guys. You men, I
want you to get -- crawl and pick up all this stuff. I
want you to get crawling around and pick up all this
stuff." And what the heck happens is a few minutes
later, who the heck walks around is the major. This
major, our battalion commander, comes around the corner.
And he sees what's going on. We're crawling around.
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(Laughter.) We didn't know, you know. Like in the
service when they say crawl, you crawl, you know, or
else. You get it, you know. So we're crawling around
out there and major comes around. He looks at
Lieutenant Cochran. He says, "What's going on here?"
He says, "Don't let me ever catch you doing that to my
men." He says, "Anymore." (Laughter.) He flew right in
front of us, you know, and then he walked away. That
was -- so we just got up. Oh, boy you got it.
CAPEZZA: So where did you go after you left Arkansas?
KOSTRISAK: Well, that's when I was in the second batch
of the -- that they took out of our or kept taking out
of -- I don't how many more batches, but I was in the
second batch. But they call us -- "Move up" they say.
You getting on the train, I guess it was. And we went to
Fort Meade, Maryland. And it was staging there to go
down to the Virginia. I don't know if it's Norfolk out
of Virginia. Well, we got on the -- on the -- on the
ship. They were -- they said there was five thousand of
us. It was an English ship.
CAPEZZA: Do you remember the name of the ship?
KOSTRISAK: No, I don't remember. There again, you
know, they say you just move the line so. So, yeah. It
was about eight days or so, we landed in Casablanca,
North Africa. And from there we went on those little
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trains. They call them forty and eight, like forty men
or eight cattle, something like that. So we went across
the desert to all the way to Iran on the train. And
then from there we took -- they put us on a boat to
Naples. Naples, Italy.
CAPEZZA: And what was that like being in North Africa
only for that short time?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. It was real hot. We went across the
desert, so it was -- it was a mess. One thing I tell
you that I -- we had a couple days in Casablanca because
of training. And I had a pass to go to Casablanca. So
I walked on in there on the street, and you can see
these men were riding these little donkeys, like, and
these women carrying this on top of their head, you
know. Kind of -- it was different for me, 18 years old,
you know?
CAPEZZA: Sure.
KOSTRISAK: The thing that caught me, you know, there
was -- they had all the -- all the -- the food like
the -- the meat and stuff like that. And it was loaded
with flies. When I saw that, I just turned around.
That was enough. That turned me off about going on
doing anymore. Going on, you know.
CAPEZZA: So the ship across to Naples, how long did
that take to sail across?
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KOSTRISAK: I don't know. That was just short, very
short across the Mediterranean. And they -- then they
put us on in the convoy in trucks to go up to what
turned out to be my company, Company 30th Infantry
Regiment. And while I was on the truck, I was up on the
front part, and on the back part crossing we had all gas
masks. For some reason, they made us carry the gas mask
which we never had them anyway. When I got up to the
outfit, we never used, but we had gas masks. And I just
looked a lot, you know, you're sitting there -- half way
around the room almost, going up the. I see this name
on this gas mask, and it was Burby. So I -- oh, my
gosh, Eddie Burby. We were all together in St.
Patrick's in Townsville, you know. We all -- so I -- I
go over and look, and he looked at me. And oh, my gosh.
So we hugged, you know. It was really -- it was fate,
you know. Here boys, you know, just kids, you know. And
then about 5, 10 minutes later on the -- all of a sudden
we hear plains. A couple plains were coming over, and
they stopped the trucks immediately. We hopped out and
hid behind -- tried to get some cover. Saw some small
trees on the side, so he and I -- so that's where I
hopped behind there, and they scraped us. They come up
real long, you know, you could hear the -- as the
bullets were hitting the ground, it's like rain coming
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down, you know, and stuff. So that was like our
christening, you know. That was our first taste of the
war. He and I were both hugging each other underneath
the tree, and it was -- so we got up to -- that's after
that, after we got off the truck, I never -- he wound up
in Company D after that. He survived the war. He was
heavy weapons company. But I never saw -- made any more
contact with him until after the war. Um, but we got up
to the where my company was going to be. And it was a
huge two-story house. I remember it was raining lightly
out, and it was in that part of the -- part of the
county there, they got a lot of rain instead of snow.
And it was just mixed, a muddy mess, you know. From the
ankles all the way up to the knees and stuff. And we
got there, and the first sergeant comes out. And he
gets the lowdown. And he says, "You're now in Company
30th Infantry Regiment." And he turned around went back
in the house. That was it for us. There was no supper
or nothing. I don't know if they threw a can of beans
or something to us, but I was so god darn exhausted by
then. With all my stuff and it was rainy and muddy and
they more or less figured you might as well, you know,
start right now. You're going to be on the -- on the
boon dogs anyway, you know, whatever, you know, so get
used to it. I crawled up somewhere around and fell
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asleep, I guess.
CAPEZZA: What time time of year was that? Was it spring
KOSTRISAK: No. This was -- this had to be around in
December.
CAPEZZA: December?
KOSTRISAK: Because I went over in October. I'd say
around probably the first of December somewhere in
there.
CAPEZZA: And you were a private at that time?
KOSTRISAK: Yes, and then I became an PFC a little bit
later on. A sergeant.
CAPEZZA: Okay. So what was your job assignment within
the company of --
KOSTRISAK: Well, see that -- I was -- my thing is I was
trained with the m1 rifle as a rifle man. But when I
got up there -- when the platoon leader, I think he came
over to me, and he flipped me over a O3 rifle. That's
the old World War One rifles. And at that time, um, I
think later on they had, but at that time they only had
what they called the launcher. That thing that you
insert on the rifle, so you can shoot rifle grenades,
grenade type grenades.
CAPEZZA: Uh-huh.
KOSTRISAK: So he flipped me the rifle. He says,
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"You're now the rifle, rocket, rifle man," you know, and
I said, "Yeah". So he said, "okay."
CAPEZZA: Did you have any training in it?
KOSTRISAK: No, but he says, "We're going to take you
out on the range." I don't know if it was that day or
the next day. He said, "We're going on the range." So
okay. We go on the range and, you know, me what the
heck. I was a kid and didn't know any better, you know.
So they gave me the rockets to shoot, you know. They're
probably snickering up their sleeve, and so I stood up
and I shot one of those. I think I went back further
than the rocket did. And I paid, though. My dog gone
whole shoulder was black and blue. I never did that
again. That was once and for all. I shot loads of
them, but after that there was either a kneeling or
prune. I learned that lesson.
CAPEZZA: Painful way to have to learn?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. We carried -- I had to carry around a
dozen of those around my belt, and those go off with
contact. So actually I was a walking, you know, you
never know. If I went down too fast and hit something
solid, I wouldn't have been here. I would have -- I
just -- I think that's what would have happened,you
know.
CAPEZZA: Duck if you have to duck?
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KOSTRISAK: I had that. I thank God I never had to do
that that fast, you know.
CAPEZZA: So where did you go next?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. Well, there we were taking -- we were
taking -- the outfit, they had evidently they pulled
back from the casino front that third division, my
outfit. And so I think they were earmarking us to maybe
go back to the casino front again because we're taking
these big rubber boats, the inflated rubber boats like,
we were taking those for a couple days. The training on
those boats -- I don't know what river that was -- a
little river. And then all of a sudden they changed the
orders or whatever. We all -- they packed us all,
shipped us all just outside of Naples, and we were in
pub tents down there. I had my own little pub tent.
And then we start taking amphibious training to the --
on the LSTs, on the landing ship tanks. And that went
on for maybe a couple of weeks. That turned out 'til
January. 'Til just about January 19th when the actual
landing was on Anzio (INAUDIBLE.)
CAPEZZA: So you were involved in the landing at Anzio?
KOSTRISAK: Yes. Yes.
CAPEZZA: What was that like?
KOSTRISAK: That was a little thing too. You know, on
the LSTs they have suspended -- they have these large
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boats out there that hold about 50 or 60. I'd say about
a platoon of about 60 guys on one boat, but our boat
evidently they got us far to the landing the LSTs and
got us off the boat. And then the dog gone engine motor
wouldn't start on our boat. So we got stranded there.
And the rest of our company, outfit, came back came into
shore. So we got in at daybreak. Remember it was after
they got the engine going, they got us in. And I
remember getting off that little boat there, and by then
there wasn't much -- much of any firing right then. We
get in about a few hundred yards or so, maybe. And hear
this plane over to the side. And I see this little
black thing up there, you know. It turned out to be a
bomb. And in the meantime, this LST had pulled into as
far as as it could to shore. That's how they do. They
come into the beach, and then they have the whole front
of the ship comes down and it's a ramp for the tanks for
the trucks on the road. So here this truck was coming
about half way down. I remember down the ramp. It was
a bomb. It hit the whole -- it directly hit the whole
front of that ship. And I looked just the corner of my
eye, and that truck was just like a match box. The poor
guy who was diving it, he was gone. Luckily, the
shrapnel didn't reach us, but it through me off the
ground and stuff the percussion and stuff. So right
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there, oh, this is it. This is war, you know. That was
it. So then we went up -- oh, we caught up with our
company. I remember -- I remember catching company.
And I was on the right-hand side of the road. It was
little houses that people had. Nice little houses look
like and stuff. And I remember the men out, come out
there running out yelling the Germans, "The enemy," you
know. So this fellow in my squad there, Zimmer Hazel,
he buddied up with me. So we both quietly crawled
across the road, and we went over to the other side, but
those Italian guys were waiving, "Come on over. Come on
over." You know, so they're so dog gone happy to see us
and stuff, you know -- Americans, you know, "come on
in." Open up the door, "Come on in the house," and they
got food for us. The whole place was just spread and
the women were over there just so happy to see us. And
I said, "Oh, my God." Here, you know, the Italians were
enemies with us. Germans, you know, and they're so happy
to see the Americans. Oh, boy that was a real big
morale builder right there. We're gonna roll up our
sleeves now. And we -- you know. So we're in a war,
you know. So we says, "No." Kind of brush it off, and I
remember one of them says -- he said, "Vino. Come on
downstairs. Down in the cellar. They got barrels of
wine." So we went down and looked, you know. Oh, my
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God. Yeah. They did have barrels of wine down there,
but no we didn't. But, you know, I always wonder what
would happen to those poor people there because after
that all hell broke loose-- all hell broke loose.
(Inaudible) Machine guns and Germans and the
eighty-eights and all that stuff come flying at you.
You hear them fly over your head. When you hear them,
you know those damn things were going over you, but
there was -- you got used to them. When there was kind
of like a suction sound, you better start taking cover
and crawl and just hope to God it doesn't hit you
directly because that babies coming right at you, you
know. So that's how you learn quick. So that was --
after that I never -- I lost contact to my friend,
Zimmer Hazel. I always wonder what happened to him. If
he ever made it or he just got nailed just that day.
And it was complete chaos the rest after that. We --
that night we -- he had us. Our lieutenant had us
shipped around at least four or five times. Every time
we got to get rest, no, we got the order to move out, I
guess, because we didn't realize what they're doing.
What you see is these poor Italians had their hay stacks
and they're all burning, you know, from the shells
hitting them and stuff like that. You name it. It was
really going on. It was real war. So, but then it --
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then it settled down. After that it kind of settled
down. When, you know, there was little sporadic fire
and stuff like that. No shells coming down and stuff
like that.
CAPEZZA: Where were you when you got the citation for
bravery?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. Well, that's it. Like I say, it --
we kind of coasted, I'd say. You get harassed and stuff
like that, but I remember putting up barbed wire and
stuff like that for us and things like that. Helping
out and volunteering with things for defense and stuff.
But that wound up to about almost a month because about
18th of -- 17th or 18th of February, you know. But --
CAPEZZA: You were just fighting in that area and trying
to break out of there? Was that what was happening?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. I think it was the 19th of February
that we -- they started out in the morning. You
moonlight. They put up a smoke screens with bombs, you
know, smoke bombs. And we came down to this -- come to
find out, right where the Germans were entrenched like,
you know, with machine guns with their mortars and
stuff. And they had -- I remember they had us strung
with the barbed wire, and the guys, there again, they
didn't pay attention just walking around there. The
ones that just stood up and try to get through the
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barbed wire, just standing up and stuff like that, they
just went -- they just tore them right into two because
the machines were set right there evidently. So I
crawled underneath -- underneath the barbed wire to get
out, to get through and made it, you know. We were
pinned down there.
CAPEZZA: This might be a good time for me to read the
citation for the award of the Distinguished Service
Cross.
John A. Kostrisak, Sergeant then Private First
Class. Infantry Company E, 30th Infantry Regiment for
Extraordinary Heroism and Action. At 0800 hours, on
18th February, 1944, near Pantheon, Italy, during a task
force thrust against the exposed flanks of an enemy
assailant which had penetrated deep into the parameter
of the Anzio beach head, Sergeant Kostrisak braved the
intense fire of an enemy stronghold, in order to destroy
an enemy machine gun. When his company was halted on
bare level ground by intense fire from an enemy held
position, Sergeant Kostrisak took his rifle and grenade
launcher and brushed one hundred and twenty-five yards
toward the defalcated enemy. Dropping to one knee, he
fired three grenades into the machine gun mask.
Silencing the gun and wounding the two-man crew, this
single-handed assault stunned the enemy rifle elements,
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who promptly surrendered. The advance was resumed, but
the company was again stopped under similar conditions
by a far larger enemy force consisting of a heavy
machine gun and numerous rifle men. While the remainder
of his squad hugged the ground in an unsuccessful effort
to escape the lethal hostile fire, sergeant Kostrisak,
unmindful of the bullets which barely missed him, arose
to a kneeling position and fired rifle grenades into the
defalcated strong point. After he had killed four
Germans and knocked out the heavy machine guns, two
dozen enemy infantry men surrendered. At about noon
when his company advanced towards a fringe of woods, it
was subjected to heavy artillery concentration, a direct
fire from the 77 mm gun, and machine guns of a Mark IV
tank. Although his company commander was killed and
others fell dead and wounded around him, Sergeant
Kostrisak brushed forward three hundred yards in a
one-man assault on the tank. Scoring two direct hits on
the armored vehicle, he forced it to limp into the woods
where the crew abandoned it. Displaying an audacity and
scorn of danger seldom surpassed, Sergeant Kostrisak had
made three single-handed assaults on strong enemy
forces. He had defeated each of these forces, killing
four, wounding at least two, and causing the capture of
at thirty of the enemy. He had prevented his company
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which suffered ninety-three casualties that day from
being completely decimated and had three-times enabled
it to resume it's advance on it's objective, entered
military service from Townsville, Connecticut.
That's quite a story.
KOSTRISAK: It was quite a day.
CAPEZZA: Is there anything else you want to say about
that particular incident?
KOSTRISAK: No.
CAPEZZA: That pretty much covers it?
CAPEZZA: Now, you were wounded during the war?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. I was wounded right after that.
CAPEZZA: Why don't you tell us about that?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. We were on another attack and pinned
down, like I said and stuff. And I can remember my --
the squad leader next to me, he got up to one knee and
he got hit by a sniper. And then we -- after it seemed
like ages because we were really pinned down. If you
just moved a little bit, they knock you off like that.
His name was Gramsci -- corporal, you know. So finally
the things slow down a little bit and I -- there was a,
like, the shoulder you could say, shoulder -- a bed
along the road that we moved over into that. And then
they start throwing some real heavy stuff at us. I
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don't know if it was mortars or whatever. And that's
when I got hit. We wound up there in that one shell,
they got me. They got the guy -- a couple guys in front
of me, they just -- it just tore them right apart. They
were just completely. And so I --
CAPEZZA: And how were you wounded? How badly were you
wounded?
KOSTRISAK: That was it. I got hit on my side -- on my
shoulder and stuff. I was saving my canteen of water,
you know, you carry a canteen of water on your belt.
And I saved it until -- just about then I really needed
some water, so I reached down there. The canteen was
completely -- it was just the shrapnel just completely
tore -- there was nothing left of the canteen. In other
words, if that canteen wasn't there, I would have a lot
more -- sustained a lot more wounds, you see. So I
really got hit on my shoulder. My arm was never the
same -- my shoulder. So then they got to the
evacuation. They got me to the evacuation. The guys
coming, the guys in the back, they come in there and
they're following through, I guess. And they got me to
the evacuation hospital. And then from there I went to
the -- into Naples at the general hospital. I remember
I was on the second floor there just at that time. That
was in March '44. Mount Vesuvius had erupted.
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CAPEZZA: Oh, wow.
KOSTRISAK: I had a nice view of the -- and I could see
at night how the lava -- the lava was erupting. The
veins of lava coming you down, you know. Bombay years
ago was completely covered. This happened after. It
was erupting then, so during the day it was
completely -- with the smoke and stuff you could see,
you know. Like really dense, but at night it was really
clear, Mount Vesuvius. And then about two weeks after I
was in there recuperating from the wounds and stuff, we
got bombed. The hospital got bombed, because we lost --
they said the furnace, the boiling and furnace got
bombed. We heard it. We got bombed and we didn't know
exactly where. That's what actually happened, you know.
They actually bombed the hospital. I know -- whatever
so --
CAPEZZA: So did you have to be evacuated from the
hospital too?
KOSTRISAK: No, it wasn't enough to be evacuated, but it
was -- we lost -- we only had cold water. Luckily, it
wasn't that bad -- that freezing down there. So we
could bare with it. So -- so, then I got out of there
and joined the outfit again. And that was -- that had
to be in April. The end of April. And they set us up.
They had pulled back, my outfit. And we set up, and
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that was going to be the breakthrough. What turned out
to be the breakthrough at Anzio. Where they had it --
the way I understood it, is what they were saying and
how it was going to function was our battalion. You
have the E, F and G: Easy, Fox, and George rifle
companies and H was a heavy weapons. They said that
George was going to go first. Go as far as you can and
then after -- then after it was ours. It was
unbelievable. We got through it after, but going
through the -- all your buddies, you know.
CAPEZZA: So how many of your company got through it?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah. We finally got through, George
Company, and they completely annihilated us. And we got
to this opening there, and come to find out that's where
they -- they were set up, the Germans. I call them
enemies not Germans because -- and come to find out,
they had big trenches in the back part of the field as
you come in there and some foxholes and stuff. We got
to that opening, and it was either us or them, so we got
the orders. So we all made a line and this was it.
We're going right at them full force. And what we
didn't -- we didn't kill all of them. They surrendered
after. We just overran them and we -- so that was the
end of that. That part of it right then. So there was
like a little hill, a knoll on the side. And I saw a
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foxhole. I hopped into that. It was -- it was -- that
was the only time we ever cried. It was -- it was so --
so I was crying. And I -- the lieutenant came over
crawling to me. And he said, "Go on back." He said,
"Go on back." You know, so I said, "No." So then I saw
the trenches on the knoll. They get more covered
because I could just sense that somethings going to
happen. Because that's not the end of it, you know. We
got the initial -- the borders supposedly holding the
line, but they had their big stuff in the back, you
know. So I hopped out of the foxhole after that. I
jumped in the trenches. So I figured, it's coming from
that end there, right up against the trench. There
again, just pure instinct and whatever you think about,
you know. What you're trained about to do, you know,
circumstances. And I hopped up against the thing there,
the trenches. I remember burying myself as much as I
could. The stuff was coming in. It was coming in. And
I turned around. And the guys that were on the other
end of the trench there, they were gone, so it just -- I
luckily survived that. And then it cooled off, and I
hopped out of there, got the heck out of that area, you
know. And then we reorganized and stuff. And that
day -- that day we -- they said there was only about 20,
25 of us, that company. That whole -- the rest of us
was just about the -- that the Normandy landing up in
there. They seemed to bypass and everything. But I was
-- I and one of the other fellows in the outfit were
designated right in the Jeep -- Jeep driving three of
us. In an open Jeep other fellows in the -- we could
have been hit like sitting ducks, but we patrolled --
patrolled Rome. I could remember going down right into
St. Peters Square, but actually the Vatican was blocked
off then. But I could remember that was a big thing for
me to see that. Gosh, you know.
CAPEZZA: You get to see the coliseum and all the sites
of Rome?
KOSTRISAK: Yeah, you know. So we were there for a few
days at least. Not more than a week. And then we pulled
back, say just about the exact spot where I had my pup
tent before, where I had before amphibious training
began, but this time we're taking training for LC -- on
LCI, Landing Craft Infantry, they call it. They held --
I don't know, about three hundred guys. Three, four
hundred guys or so. And that was until August that we
went into Southern France. And going into there it
was -- you didn't -- the LCIs, they're a ship that went
as far as they could up against the beach and then they
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had the catwalk on the side and then the stairs that you
walked out into what was any water. And you didn't know
because naturally the beaches aren't all manicured, so
you could be on a little over your ankles to over your
head. That's a chance your taking. So I know some of
the guys drowned, but luckily I got out of there all
right. And I can remember it was a complete -- the
noise was unbelievable. I thought the Earth was going
to split into. It was between the bombs, there bombs.
They had -- the Navy had these rocket boats, I suppose
they're called, that were shooting for maybe about
thirty to fifty rockets at that time. I don't know.
They were coming in -- there was several of those.
Between those coming in and the bombs and whatever, you
know, all the other stuff going on and the trees that
were all burning there and everything. It was complete
chaos, you know, coming in, but we didn't have -- on our
part where we came, we didn't have much of any
resistance at all right on the beach. But after we got
off and organized and they had paved roads, like, here,
you know. We got on the roads and say about a half --
an hour up our road, we come around this bend on a big
straight away and come to find out, over to the left,
there was a little hill there. And that's where they
were trenched there. The Germans were just waiting for
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us to come around. As we got enough guys in the area, I
suppose, then they let us have it. All of us sort of --
all hell broke loose, and I can remember just -- I
looked. I saw there -- it was really too far, there
dugouts there, but I did the best I could. And I shot
several grenades. I saw when they exploded. They were
about three quarters of the ways up, but it was enough
to kind of harass them. Let them know. And then I
heard some tanks -- couple of tanks came around the
corner, and they blasted the heck out of that thing --
that hill there. And what was left was about eight or
ten Germans. Enemy come down with handkerchief and
comrade and that was the end of that. That thing, but
in the meantime, as they were firing there were
evidently mortars, and every time a mortar would hit,
you could hear medics or whatever screaming and stuff
like that. They were actually hitting us, but luckily
they didn't get me. So from there, we just went. There
wasn't much resistance after that. So we're going as
fast as we could between marching and they give us a
break and throw us on the trucks. And we go a little
bit and then drop off, give the others a break. They
had a system, I guess. They were going through. So
that was -- I figured that night that I didn't sleep --
we didn't sleep. The next day we were going as fast as
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going to the third night that we didn't -- we haven't
slept or anything. Just going as much as we could. And
sized town, very small city, I'd say. And we're on the
outskirts of it. We got orders that -- two guys -- we
set a line outside of the -- so we could try to get some
sleep because we're completely exhausted. Two guys
sleep and one guy watch. I can remember doing my part,
but then I -- it was my turn to sleep. And I was
sleeping. The thing that saved me that day was it was
dark as an ace of spades out. All of a sudden I hear
somebody tripped over me. It was an enemy soldier,
German soldier. So I jumped and stuff and even more, I
was more scared. And so everything just blew up -- the
hole because he tripped on me, but others, they could
have done the same thing. Holey cow. You -- it was the
real war then for a little while. And so the next thing
is a daybreak, and we -- so I can remember standing on
the side of the road there and there was at least
another couple hundred Germans that we captured then.
At least an Italian that came right down through, you
CAPEZZA: So they were trying to get out?
KOSTRISAK: No. We actually captured. They just gave up
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like, I say, we were right in combat with them, but it
was pitch dark then, you know. You couldn't even see
what you were doing -- what was going on. Everybody was
confused, and it was a complete mess, but I can remember
distinctly that the enemy, you know, enemy soldier
tripped over me, you know. That's what saved me that
day. And so after that, we organizing, and we went into
yeah. So we cleaned out of there, and then we went up
to -- we wound up --
CAPEZZA: Okay. So you left Brignole?
KOSTRISAK: And we wound up in a hilly section. And up
on top of this hill and we're looking down over the
other side, the company. And there was at least a half
a dozen enemy, German soldiers, down there. Just
they're wandering around down there. So I didn't shoot
because I had the grenades, but the guys a side of me,
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they just pumped the lead out of them and got rid of
those guys. And so then the captain got me over, and
he's showing me a map. He says to take my squad to the
other hill, the next hill over, like. Patrol over there
and then report back, you know. In other words, if I
didn't come back, you'd know what happened. I probably
had been killed or captured or killed, whatever. So
okay. I got my squad and we went on down the hill, and
you know, bunch of rocks. And, you know, spread out in
the hill there. And there's a real steep hill there and
of half way, and I hit those rocks and my left foot just
to find out, I had a severe sprain in my ankle. So I
wound up in the hospital with a cast on. They shipped
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