I am including here an excerpt from my father's recollections of his wartime service, which he wrote in the late 1970s. I would be interested in any leads that anyone has on other recollections of 117/C's desperate fight at St. Barthelemy on August 6-8. My father was Robert J. Kenney (1921-2005).

"About midday [on August 8], a little after noon, all hell broke loose. It seemed that the enemy had us in their sights and were raining heavy mortar fire down on us with regularity. All of the trees and tops of the hedgerows were stripped by the devastating enemy fire. The sergeant and lieutenant dived into a foxhole to wait out the storm. I looked around and my hole was taken; I ripped off my knapsack (an action which later could have cost my life) laid my gun against the hedgerow and squeezed in with two other GIs who were digging like burrows for China. The shelling kept up throughout the whole field. On several occasions, we slipped out, fired a few rounds and then dived back into the hole. This hole was deep -- thank God. The only damage I suffered was a shell fragment wound in my hand. On many occasions, we started out only to be beaten back by the mortar barrage.

The enemy obviously had us accurately in their sights and were softening us up for the kill. At about 2:30, just as quickly as it started, the shelling seemed to stop, I started out of my hole and was reaching for my gun when I looked up at the lieutenant in front of me. He had his hands in the air. I looked beyond him and saw three Germans with machine pistols aimed in our direction. I don't know what I would have done if I could have reached my gun or had my rifle with me when the Germans appeared."