June 1944

Our infantry training company had been out on maneuvers for two weeks. We were playing Yanks vs. Krauts or something like that. Our nine-man squads were put through a series of battle-like trials and I was the enemy in a mortar position. They were challenged to approach my location cautiously and de-activate it. No live ammunition, of course, and no danger to me. I was lying behind a bush, dropping large firecrackers into a shallow hole so that when they exploded it looked and sounded like a mortar gun. I had made the firecrackers myself. They were cardboard tubes, about 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter, with a 5-second fuse. The fuse had a slit in its exposed end and I would insert a match head into the slit, scratch it on the matchbox, be sure the fuse was lit, and then drop it down the hole. Then BOOM and smoke rose. It resembled an enemy mortar position. All was working well. After the squad's approach, I'd call them together and talk about how they should have made the attack.

Then came the firecracker that took me out of action. The black powder must have leaked out of the tube causing the cracker to explode when I lit the match. I was lying on the ground belly down, when it went off right in my hands, about twelve inches in front of my face! What a terrible, unexpected surprise! I could hardly see, dismissed the trainees and found my way back to field headquarters where I was whisked into the hospital for treatment. All this happened just two weeks before we were to be married. I wrote Katherine that the wedding was still "on" but I might look like a mummy when we stood to take our vows. She was so sympathetic, and sorry it had to happen.

So keep that in mind when you look at our wedding photograph. My hands were blistered rather severely, eyelashes practically gone, face burned but not blistered...it looked like a bad sunburn. The accident was unfortunate but it did not keep us from going ahead with our wedding plans.