[Annotator’s Note: Segment begins in the middle of the interview. The video glitches throughout this segment. Also, a man asks questions from behind the camera.] Bruce Estes recalled a combat experience in World War 2. He was on a 50-man patrol and told one man to go ahead. He never saw him again. The worst casualty he saw was on his first day of action. A man got hit by a .50-caliber that came off a tank [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. It hit his helmet which made it spin. The helmet incidentally scalped his head. When the war in Europe ended, Estes was in Austria until he was ordered to go to France to be shipped back home in February 1946. He was discharged from Augusta [Annotator’s Note: Augusta, Georgia] as a Technical Sergeant. Estes’ worst experience of World War 2 was getting trapped by the Germans. Estes does not think World War 2 changed his life significantly. He was dating a girl before he went into military training and shortly thereafter received a Dear John letter [Annotator's Note: A Dear John letter is a letter from a female to a male serviceman serving overseas breaking off a romantic engagement]. He believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations [Annotator’s Note: Video goes to black at 0:10:57.000-0:11:00.000].

[Annotator’s Note: Video goes black at 0:11:11.000 – 0:11:18.000.] Bruce Estes [Annotator’s Note: born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1925] grew up during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. [Annotator’s Note: cell phone rings in the background at 0:11:23.000.] His father worked as a carpenter in Virginia. Estes’ family moved to Douglasville [Annotator’s Note: Douglasville, Georgia] to be close to his grandparents. His parents were in their late forties when Estes was a young boy, so his father did not have a lot of energy to give him a lot of time, but Estes was treated well by his parents. His family lived on a farm, and he worked with a stubborn mule. Estes was in high school when Pearl Harbor was attacked [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] but does not recall his reaction. When he turned 18, Estes called his local draft board and volunteered for service at the end of 1943. He chose to enlist in the Army because he was afraid of water. He was sent to Camp Fanning, Texas for four months of basic training. He recalled that it snowed there while he was on maneuvers. After his basic training, he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland where he boarded a troop transport for overseas deployment. His ship crossed the Atlantic without a convoy. He recalled that the voyage was rough, and many people got seasick from the rocking. He slept in bunks that were five-high. He woke one night during a bad storm and thought he was going fall out of his bunk. His ship arrived in Africa, and he then boarded a British passenger ship to take him to Naples, Italy. The food was horrible on the ship.

After basic training, Bruce Estes was shipped to Naples, Italy where he joined a 60mm mortar squad [Annotator's Note: M2 60mm mortar] in the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division. He recalled that the American troops treated the local Italians badly by running them off when they came to the camps asking for food. Estes joined the regiment immediately after the beating it took at the Rapido River [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Rapido River, 20 to 22 January 1944 during which the Americans sustained heavy losses and retreated from the Germans]. Estes was sent to the Anzio Beachhead [Annotator’s Note: Anzio, Italy]. The Germans had the advantage there because they were up on high ground with a gun the Americans called “Anzio Annie” [Annotator's Note: nickname for one of the Krupp K5 283mm heavy railway guns used by the Germans during the Battle of Anzio, Italy]. Shortly after his arrival, the drive to Rome began. Estes’s unit drove past Rome then looped back. Almost immediately, Estes was sent back to Naples where his unit began amphibious training for the invasion of Southern France [Annotator’s Note: Operation Dragoon, the landing operation of the Allied invasion ofSouthern France on 15 August 1944]. He remarked that he is glad that he was in a mortar squad because he had more protection than a rifleman. The landing in Southern France was somewhat opposed [Annotator’s Note: cell phone rings in background 0:32:39.000-0:33:29.000]. The boat coming in right behind the one Estes was in was hit and sunk. Estes thought the Germans were good soldiers. They smelled like pumpernickel bread. He supervised some of the prisoners when the Germans were captured. When Estes’ unit hit the beachhead of Southern France, they drove towards the Rhone River. Three days later, his unit received the Presidential Unit Citation for holding the Germans back. The French were a little classier than the Italians. Shortly after moving inland, Estes and his men were strafed by a friendly aircraft.

Bruce Estes’ battalion [Annotator’s Note: 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division] was driving hard against the Germans and pushing them up into the Vosges Mountains. They stopped in several French towns, and he saw all the American flags flying in the windows. Sometime before getting into the Vosges mountains, Estes was hit in the face by a piece of shrapnel. As they headed into the mountains, troops warned the battalion commander that they were losing their flank support, but he told the troops to keep pushing. After a 30-man patrol and then a 50-men patrol failed to return, Estes and his unit knew they were surrounded. Estes spent about a week cut off in the Vosges Mountains with the other men of what has come to be known as The Lost Battalion [Annotator’s Note: The Lost Battalion was surrounded by German forces in the Vosges Mountains on 24 October 1944]. Estes stayed in a foxhole waiting for help to come. By the time elements of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team [Annotator’s Note: the most decorated regiment in U.S. military history, the 442 was composed almost entirely of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry (nisei)] broke through to them, Estes could stick his finger in his belly button and scratch his spine. At one point, while his unit was surrounded, Army planes came in bombing and strafing, and dropped K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals; Annotator’s Note: phone rings in background at 0:49:09.000]. They were told to stay in their foxholes until they could be rescued. Estes and his unit left with the Japanese-Americans and headed to the back of the line. He was given a shower and treated after his rescue. When he was wounded in the face, he was bandaged up and sent to a field hospital, and then to an evacuation hospital. After about five days, he began to feel better. He began to help around the hospital. He returned to his group and headed back to the front lines, then headed to the Vosges Mountains. Marty Higgins [Annotator’s Note: Captain Martin J. Higgins] was his commander when they were trapped by the Germans. They did not have food, but they did have a water supply and some medical supplies. Since there was an artillery observer with the group, he was able to keep communication with headquarters. The Germans attacked Estes’ unit every morning before breakfast. His unit was able to capture some of the Germans machine guns. Estes did not expect to be rescued, but was glad to see Americans. Most casualties that his unit suffered were from patrols. Estes was sent to the front line after he recuperated from being trapped. Estes thinks the 442nd Regimental Combat Team are the greatest for what they sacrificed to save Estes and his unit.

After recuperation, Bruce Estes’ battalion [Annotator’s Note: 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division also known as The Lost Battalion] headed into Germany. His unit came across Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany] and saw the prisoners eating grass in a field. “They were skin and bones.” The unit had to be careful around them because the prisoners would swamp them. His unit did not stay very long in Dachau. Estes was in Austria when the War in Europe ended.