Eulalio Estrada
Company E, 141st Infantry

Not everyone in a rifle company is a rifleman. I learned a great deal about infantry tactics and how to use their weapons but when we were to go in at Salerno I was assigned the job of company runner between our company commander and the troops on the firing line.

Upon landing with Company E I helped our 1st Sgt. set up the C.P. The Company Commander advanced with the riflemen. A long stone wall alongside a roadway led off the beach. The sergeant told me he thought the C.O. and the troops were someplace along this wall and I was to find them and tell the C.O. where we had set up the C.P. Aways out I decided to go over the wall and look for the company. Upon crawling over the wall I came face to face with a German tank which had a man on a machine gun that was pointed directly at me. I lost no time in getting back over that wall and working my way around the tank to where the gunner on the tank could not see me.

There was a lot of firing and artillery and mortar shells all over. We received a message that 1st Battalion had a lot of wounded and the medics needed help. I was sent to the 1st Bn. area to help with the wounded. As I approached the 1st Bn. C.P. a sniper was firing from a group of trees. I ducked among the trees and this sniper kept firing. Finally a rifleman from 1st Bn. got a bead on him and killed him.

On D-Day plus 3 I got into Altavilla but I did not shoot any of the Germans. I did help clear out some of our wounded.

On November 29th, 1943 we were pinned down by artillery fire at Mt. Rotondo. I was in a foxhole when I was wounded in the legs. Medics gave me first aid then got me to the clearing station. Later, I was evacuated to a hospital and later rotated home, in August, 1944.