His combat experiences were harrowing. He was in the first wave of troops to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day and his units lone survivor of a machine-gun ambush. In Belgium he was stabbed in hand-to-hand combat with a German soldier, whom he bludgeoned to death with a rock. Fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, he and the rest of his company were captured and forced to march through a pine forest at Malmedy, the scene of an infamous massacre in which the Germans opened fire on almost 90 prisoners. Mr. Durning was among the few to escape.
By the wars end he had been awarded a Silver Star for valor and three Purple Hearts, having suffered gunshot and shrapnel wounds as well. He spent months in hospitals and was treated for psychological trauma.
[...]
In [an] interview, he recalled the hand-to-hand combat. I was crossing a field somewhere in Belgium, he said. A German soldier ran toward me carrying a bayonet. He couldnt have been more than 14 or 15. I didnt see a soldier. I saw a boy. Even though he was coming at me, I couldnt shoot.
They grappled, he recounted later he was stabbed seven or eight times until finally he grasped a rock and made it a weapon. After killing the youth, he said, he held him in his arms and wept.
Mr. Durning said the memories never left him, even when performing, even when he became, however briefly, someone else.
Originally Posted by N7YA
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