Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:34 | Anxious to fight the Germans, Paratrooper Mario Patruno tells how he survived heavy gunfire, a rough landing in France, and an incident with a French traitor.
Keywords : 101st Airborne Division England English Channel Operation Overlord RADAR anti-aircraft steeple paratrooper M1 Garand Omaha beach mortar ammunition hedgerow German soldiers Mario Patruno Pouppeville France Sainte-Mere-Eglise
Drenched in the enemy's blood and chemically burned, Paratrooper Mario Patruno tells his chilling tale of surviving German attacks.
Anxious to fight the Germans, Paratrooper Mario Patruno tells how he survived heavy gunfire, a rough landing in France, and an incident with a French traitor.
Paratrooper Mario Patruno, recalls the hard work and humor of basic training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia, including how a friend lost all of his teeth.
Lost Paratrooper Mario Patruno recalls outshooting a German soldier, and how learning to ride horses helped him find his company during a fierce firefight.
Paratrooper Mario Patruno made good use of his time in England before the big invasion. After attempting to recover some Italian real estate, he hitched around the country, making friends wherever he went.
There were 40,000 paratroopers deployed in Operation Market Garden, an assault into the Netherlands and Germany. Paratrooper Mario Patruno approached his target bridge, only to see the Germans blow it up. Before taking Eindhoven, he captured a frightened young enemy soldier and, immediately, several more showed up.
In the Dutch town of Eindhoven, Paratrooper Mario Patruno made a foolhardy charge on an enemy barricade. As he disarmed the German officer there, he had a surprise related to his own weapon. When the battle was over, joyous civilians thronged the streets and brought out food and drink. Then it was on toward Germany, riding on British tanks.
After nearly being sliced up by a shattered plate glass window, Paratrooper Mario Patruno scrambled behind a pile of rubble to return fire to a German across the street. He sensed that there was someone next to him firing, and when he saw who the local hero was, he could barely believe it.
There was a sniper who was getting mighty close. In the Dutch town of Nijmegen, Paratrooper Mario Patruno waited for the shooter to reload, then ran to a wrecked vehicle to fire back. Unfortunately, there was another German with a bead on him. He didn't hear the bullet that got him. It was like a punch in the face.
