Raymond Mason remembers that his commanding officer had to make sure people knew that he was the boss. He understood how to fight. They did maneuvers in the desert during training. When they went to Europe, they landed in England and did more training. They learned different formations. On D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], there were a lot of heavy bombers. They were not told when D-Day was going to be. They were part of the build-up force. The Germans kept sending planes over and dropping bombs. There was a single German that kept flying over them. Mason opened up his .50 calibers [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] on the German. There was a lot of activity happening at night such as bombs going off. A German supply train moved into the woods they were in.

Raymond Mason remembers they marched all night long. [Annotator's Note: Mason is referring to the Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. It was not too cold. The Germans came down to attack all night. They lost people. Mason ran the battalion. Peterson ran the artillery. One of the commanders put all the guys on the front and they got shot up badly. They came across some Germans and Mason got on his .50 calibers [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] and shot them up. Bastogne [Annotator’s Note: Bastogne, Belgium] was the hardest fight they had. They had an opportunity to get up there early. Mason was in charge of the task force to go to Bastogne. He had to report to Colonel Roberts. He did not get hurt on the way. The Germans were firing at them. Everyone was retreating. The next day they made it to Bastogne. Mason’s long-wave radio was tuned in and he could talk to the 101st [Annotator’s Note: 101st Airborne Division] people. The 101st told them they needed help. They were hurt.

Raymond Mason remembers after they got to Bastogne [Annotator’s Note: Bastogne, Belgium] the weather turned cold and bad. They were hunkered down in a house. People were shot up everywhere in the trees. People in Bastogne were taken prisoner. They had tanks get knocked out. Before Bastogne, there were six tanks knocked out. The lieutenant did not last long after Bastogne. The new lieutenant was killed almost immediately. Bastogne was the toughest fight they were in. They were being led by Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. After the breakout, they made it across France. They had the best artillery in the war. Mason was in the 4th Armored Division. They fired where they were told to fire. They would fire higher and shoot the Germans in the rear. They had to stop in some places to refuel.

Raymond Mason remembers the guys in his battalion were good guys. They were well-trained. They kept seeing Germans. His guys did not quit. Mason got a Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] out of it. Mason did not fire much if he did not have to. [Annotator’s Note: Mason uses a small tank figure to describe where they had equipment set up.] Mason knew the artillery better than anyone else. They got shelled by the Germans at different times. They had a P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] come over them one time. They had two battery commanders wounded by enemy fire. On one mission there was a Panzer tank [Annotator's Note: panzer is the German term for armored and typically refers to tanks] firing at them. Mason used an eight-inch gun to fire back at the tank.

Raymond Mason did his first flying in an L-4 [Annotator’s Note: Piper L-4 Grasshopper]. Mason saw barrage balloons when he flew into England. There was a pilot and an observer. Mason was usually an observer. On one mission, an 88 mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] blew up near them. They communicated with the radios. He shot a lot at night. They broke up Germans who were escaping across the Rhine River. The best data was when they hit something. Mason had one officer who was good at reading the maps. He would report back to Mason and he would update the charts to make them more accurate. They had to cross the canals and bridges the Germans had blown up or abandoned. They had river pads on their tank tracks. He crossed into Germany by crossing a pontoon on the Rhine River. Mason was the first to step foot in Germany from his battalion. The Germans were better organized and cleaner than the French. Germans were back fixing up their houses before the war was over and the French were still waiting for something to happen.

Raymond Mason remembers there was looting [Annotator’s Note: Mason is referring to entering Germany]. He put the rule out to stop his men from looting. Mason stayed near his .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. Looting was happening in a big way, but not in his unit. They used v-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail]. It came through okay. They had better food than the English did. They had to have their breakfast in a blackout one morning. They had a long line for coffee. Wherever they stopped, they ate. They had better rations than the infantry people. They had cheese and crackers. They could heat the food on the engines. Mason does not remember any morale problems. They all wanted to go home. Mason wanted a fresh salad. He wanted to get time home before he was going to Japan. Mason went to Leavenworth [Annotator’s Note: Leavenworth, Kansas] to take exams. That is how he became a general.

Raymond Mason remembers Bruce Clark [Annotator’s Note: US Army Brigadier General Bruce Cooper Clark] who became their commander while they were in Germany. They had a 48-gun salute at the time because there were 48 states then. [Annotator’s Note: Alaska and Hawaii did not become states until 1959.] Clark was a smart guy. Abrams [Annotator’s Note: US Army General Creighton Williams Abrams Jr.] was more of an attack-head-on kind of guy. Mason knew both of them well. Clark was a good tank commander. Clark was a fighter too, just a different kind. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] knew how to fight. Patton said no officer goes to the rear during an attack. They would send people to artillery headquarters. They had three West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York] cadets sent to them. Iuppa [Annotator’s Note: Captain Nicholas V. Iuppa, MD] was a good general doctor, and was a captain.

Raymond Mason is looking at a map. [Annotator’s Note: Mason points out positions on the map to the interviewer.] They would shoot at the Germans and after a while, the Germans would find them and shell back. Mason got a bottle of scotch. [Annotator’s Note: The interviewer shows more maps to Mason.] The guy who wrote the after-action reports was not a good soldier, but he was a good friend. Early in the war, commanders signed for things. Mason does not remember signing for anything. Mason lost his pistol when a tank blew up.

Raymond Mason does not remember much about the maintenance. They had some problems. They had to get replacements. [Annotator’s Note: Mason is referring to parts on the tanks]. The early American tanks had a hard time against the panzers [Annotator's Note: panzer is the German term for armored and typically refers to tanks] and the 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. The 88s were better than the American weapons. The German Army was supported by horses. The artillery was horse-drawn. They had good artillery weapons. The Germans did not have much of anything by the end of the war. They had some armor-type shells. The P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] and the artillery tore up the Germans.