 Proudly we hail from New York City where the American stage begins here is another program with a cast of outstanding players. Public service time has been made available by this station for your Army and your Air Force to bring you this story as proudly we hail the United States Army. The story is entitled A Hole in the Ground. Proudly we hail the rugged individuals of the United States infantry an outfit that has established themselves even with the advent of new and superior weapons as the backbone of the entire US Army. Our first act curtain will rise in just a moment but first here's an important message that concerns all the young men and young women of America. If you know radios, telephones, motors or if you're experienced in any other technical skills you are needed in the United States Army. Your expert knowledge and know-how is just as essential to the Army as is the man with the gun. You'll be an important member of the team. For the high school graduate thinking about a future career this is a must. You can begin immediately training for a highly skilled position and a vigorous active life. Visit your nearest United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting station. They'll help you to decide where you're needed most. You'll be proud of your part in assuring the future security of our country. If you're interested in more information see your Army recruiter today and now your Army and your Air Force present the proudly we hail production A Hole in the Ground. The rifle company dug in at the forward slope of the hill. It was the key position for the battalion. The battalion was protecting the flank for an entire division. If the company gave way the battalion would be overrun and the division would be cut off. The rifle company commander a combat wise veteran anxiously checked the disposition of his men. He personally verified the position of each foxhole. He had a platoon of heavy machine guns from the weapons company and he made sure that each gun was dug in where it could deliver the most effective fire. Under cover of darkness he walked his entire company front. He made sure of every man every single piece of equipment and then and only then that he retired to his command post where his first sergeant was waiting with a welcome cup of steaming hot coffee. Why don't you turn in sir? I don't know what's the matter with me Cummings. I think I've got the jitters. I don't know why sir position solid. Yeah I guess so. Any more sugar? Yeah right here sir. Yeah first platoon can make mincemeat out of anybody who tries its room in front. Second platoon gives us a solid left flank. We got the river on our right. Yeah I know I know. Still I... Those four machine gunners from age company. I seem where you put them. They each got at least 300 yards of grazing fire. I wish I could tell you what's the matter with me Sergeant. I just have a mean hunch that... Captain you know if anybody was to sit down and draw a map of the well and the ideal disposition of a rifle company in defense this would be it. You know Captain all my life I only use the word beautiful to describe Dames but I'll use it here to describe our position. What are they up to? Why is it so quiet out there? Ah Captain I never worry when it's quiet. I guess you're right. Who fired? And after me lecturing these guys about being trigger happy. Outside quick. Give the password. That's Corporal Stevens. Corporal. Captain Sears. Captain. And what is it? Sir I saw some men moving through the first platoon front. Sergeant you Stephen stand guard here. I'll get Lieutenant Wilson on the phone. Why isn't he trying to get me? Frankenstein 1 calling Frankenstein 7. What's going on out there? Well come in come in. Sergeant. Hey come in. I can't raise first platoon. Yeah Captain Sears. That's fire and it's it's to the rear we've been infiltrated. They got a war battalion. Furnace White. Furnace White. This is Frankenstein. Sergeant I can't get battalion either. You'll bet your life you can't get battalion the wires are out. Jackson. Captain. We'll have to surrender. That's right Captain the position is hopeless. Jackson how did you get here? And you're gonna surrender to me. Jackson. Ah ah ah Sears. After all it's only a war game and you know the rules. You're licked friend. I got my men in back of your first and second platoon so they're out of action. I got a mortise section in the rear. Your third platoon ready to make hamburgers out of them so our guys win this round kid. I wouldn't be surprised if this lets us win the whole war. Sergeant this is Captain Jackson. Where is prisoner? Oh is that coffee Sergeant? Spoils of war you know. Join me Sears. One lump for two Captain Jackson. Three sergeants. General Dawson's outside. Oh the boss. Hey Sears maybe I'll visit you in our PW compound tonight. How would you like to go jump in the lake? Oh no that's no way to talk to a conqueror. Gordon has got these men to the stock chain. Yes sir. Captain Jackson reporting. Captain I want you to know the whole Blue Army's on the run. I also want you to know it's due to your maneuver. Now tell me man how in the world did you ever get your company over to this side of the mountain? Well sir it's unbelievable. Here I was ready to order a general withdrawal and without warning I find out we've smashed through their flank. Oh well sir. All right here. General. How's you Colonel? Down by the riverbank. The Blue Army commander and his staff. They've been captured. Oh harry himself eh. What a difference from the war game last year. Well what can he do? Under the rules they don't have a ghost of a chance. Gentlemen the enemy invasion of Bavaria is stopped dead in its tracks. Thanks to you Captain Jackson. Thank you sir. Jackson I want you to write a detailed report. I want to know how you happen to think of this enveloping maneuver. How you were able to use the terrain. I want it all on paper by tomorrow. Ah yes sir. You lucky stiff. Why aren't you in the stockade yet? Well you just heard the war's over. Jackson how did you do this to me? I could have sworn we were solid as the rock of Gibraltar. It says you've got a typewriter in your quarters. Why? Well the general wants me to write a report. I'm not much of pulling things up so give an old buddy a hand. Help me write it. Where do you get your nerve? An economy. My side loses the war and I am supposed to write a report that builds you up as a big hero. Yeah except I'm not the hero. The real hero is a guy with the name of Otto Hoffman. Never heard of him. Look I wouldn't know where or how to begin a thing like this. You used to write stories for magazines. Well I could tell you a story that'll knock you right. Now who's this Otto Hoffman? Well he's the guy who beat you tonight. Huh? Yeah. Come on you want to know why you're lost don't you? Ah that's my buddy. Come on let's get to your typewriter. Huh? What a report the general's gonna get. Hoffman at one or two. Two. Two. Now let's see where should I start? Listen carefully. You start at the beginning. When you come to the end. Stop. Oh okay. Let's see it was back in 1943. Yeah. I was a platoon sergeant in the 42nd Division. We were in Oklahoma. One day we got a couple of new replacements. You don't need the word new. Hmm? Ever hear of an old replacement? Oh well that's where you come in kid. Make this report sing. You know what I mean? What does Oklahoma USA in 1943 have to do with a war game in Germany in 1953? Now don't whip me boy. I'm an old war horse. I run only when I feel like it. Well so anyway one of them is a skinny kid called Otto Hoffman. Now what can I tell you about Otto? Well to begin with Otto don't talk. He's got two left feet. He picks up a rifle like it's a rattlesnake and he's scared of his own shadow. You yell at him and you feel like a hound because his eyes look like he's gonna bust into tears any minute. Well anyway I don't know what to do about Otto see. I know I can't make a soldier out of him and I tell it to the old man and he agrees with me. But we're stuck. What can we do? What has all this got to do with you? Well anyhow one night I'm in Tulsa on a weekend pack. Well you got to the point of the story. Yeah yeah wait a minute. I'm in a restaurant. An ass sitting at the next table is my boy Otto with the most beautiful looking dame I ever saw. Thinks I, Otto has been holding out on his buddy. Look you think General Dawson's gonna be interested? General Dawson is gonna be fascinated. No. Well anyhow I wave at Otto see. He whispers something to the dame and the first thing I know she gets up from the table. He tries to stop her but she walks away from him and comes over to my table and sits down. Now where's that nice of you? Your stole his girl. His girl? It was his mother. Mother? Yeah. I'll never forget it. And that's why you lost the waltz and I just because his mother came over to talk to me. Oh she was a great woman. My son speaks of you very much in his letter search in Jacksonville. Oh I can imagine what it says. He's quite fond of you. Tell me please. Does he do what is required of him? Well sure. I can tell by the way you said that he is not a good soldier then. Well he tries. You must understand Sergeant. We the Hoffmans are an old family. He is the first of us to be a soldier. Back in the old country and in Germany we were writers, artists, teachers but no soldiers. Otto he insisted he must join the army and I couldn't. Otto wanted to join the army? Oh yes. Since we have come to this country it has been so wonderful for us here. You have been born here you would not know. It is not like this everywhere. You see we were wealthy. We had an estate in Bavaria. My husband was a professor but he would not teach the way they told him. One night the SS came. We never saw him again. I'm sorry. We were able Otto and I to come to America and when the war came Otto felt he must join the army to pay his death to this country which has been so good to us. Yeah well don't worry about Otto. He'll work out. He is a sensitive boy not strong and he feels that he does not speak English too well. The thought of killing you. It is against his nature and yet he feels he must fight for his new country. Yeah well everybody likes Otto. That is they would if he'd loosen up and give him a chance you know. I do not know if this is proper sergeant but would you try to help him. Make him feel that he is a success as a soldier. Sure. It means so much to him to be a good soldier. Otto. Hey Otto you okay. How do you like that. He's off like a light. Smitty get a medic. Hoffman. Hoffman. What's the matter with this man sergeant. Doesn't he know the inspecting officer always pushes a gun back. What did he try to do catch a rifle with this chin. This is the first time. All right sir. I'm personally going to take him in hand. I'll make a soldier. No sergeant Jackson. Now I'm afraid not. We're soldiers not miracle workers. But sir I I can still try. I suppose you can. Now Otto this is a rifle. We call it the Garand also the M1. Not to load. It is held in the left hand. Thus the clip is fed in with the right. Care being taken to hold the thumb clear so that the bolt does not take off a piece of it as it shoots forward. We got that. All right load. Oh what oh I told you. Now Otto while it is true that modern man has enlisted the aid of science and providing them with weapons of war there are times when the old ways are best which brings us to the bayonet. The bayonet is attached so. Now what we have to learn is how to maneuver when an enemy soldier comes at you looking like this. I don't. I don't. Somebody get a medic with some smelling thoughts. You've been very patient with me and and I try. I can understand perfectly everything you say but when I try to do it I I don't know I I get so nervous. Well you just keep plugging away at all. We'll get somewhere I hope. Yes sir. All leaves furloughs passes cancelled. We've been alerted for real this time. Yes you can bet on this one new equipment new weapons whole gang of tests for qualification. Oh this is the old ball game all right. They'll be meeting a platoon leaders and sergeants in the orderly room in 20 minutes. Yes sir poor Otto would you say Jack. Oh yeah it's funny so I often wondered how I'd feel when I'd be told I was going overseas. Yeah I you know often wanted just what I'd say so I guess all I could think of was poor Otto. You are listening to the proudly we hail production a hole in the ground will return in just a moment for the second act. Young man if you want to be the sort of man that others look up to you'll get there fast if you can qualify to join the army. You'll see a change from the very moment you put on the uniform of a United States soldier. You not only stand straighter and taller you'll walk with a sure tread of a man who knows where he's going. Your training in the army will give you the confidence of a man with an important job to do. You have to pass the mental and physical examinations in order to get in this oldest military service in our country. But once you're in you're on the way up visit your local United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting station. There's a recruiter there who'll be very glad to tell you all about what's in it for you when you join the United States Army. You are listening to proudly we hail and now we present the second act of a hole in the ground. Well if you've ever gone overseas you know what a hassle it is. The whole outfit gets run through physicals and weapons tests. Every 15 minutes there's one kind of inspection or another. One day you're crawling along the infiltration course and then you're on the rifle range and then you're making speed marches with full field pack and every hour on the hour there's a new rumor a new change. Well what can I tell you. Anyway finally we get squared away. Auto too. We got on trains and left for the port. Well Otto lost his duffel bag. Don't ask me how. We got loaded up on the boat in 15 minutes out to sea. Otto got seasick. But to be fair about it he had plenty of company. And then one fine day we're in France. Follows a fantastic round of activity at a place called Delta Bay staging area. More new equipment more new weapons. But this time something really new has been added. Live ammunition. We're going to get into this thing no fooling now. You know one rainy day. Well there's a law that says anytime the army moves up it has to rain. Well anyway one rainy day comes an order and we pile into jeeps and trucks and we head north. We pass through towns and villages filled with people going about their business MPs are waving us on. And then we come to a forest. The order is dismount. We walk up a bit and. Here's the war. Yes sir. We need reconnaissance patrol first of them supplied it yesterday. How many men. I should do it. I'll tell you what you have to find out. Well I walked back from the command post I knew I was going to lead the patrol so I had to pick four men. Let's see Webster Cheskin Mattson and Yates no not Yates he went last time. Now who hasn't gone out yet. He auto how can I take auto out on a patrol. Can you imagine auto on a patrol. OK Webster you Cheskin Mattson Yates will take off as soon as it's dark sergeant and what is it I don't sergeant Yates went with you the other day so so I did not look I pick out the patrols here but it is not fair. Oh say that reminds me I don't I got to send a man back to the company as a K.P. But you should send back a man who can use a rest and Yates has a cold auto get going will you not quit bothering me but I must bother you sergeant I'm the same as anyone else here I must go on patrol of it is my turn I'd go back to the kitchen and that's an order sergeant what will happen to me if I disobey the order look sergeant you've been good to me but you're wrong you cannot protect me forever I want to be a good soldier you must give me a chance well a wind-up was he went on the patrol the idea was for us to get a prisoner I didn't see how we were going to get past their lines their foxholes were everywhere we'd be sure to get spotted so what were we gonna do well who comes up with the bright idea of all people out of sergeant if the German were to sneak up close to our lines and talk to us in English as though he weren't American would you be fooled well he'd have to speak real good or his accent it gets spotted what are you trying to do sergeant I speak German I mean the way a German speaks it I have a Bavarian accent I have a plan would not you come out if you heard a wounded buddy call for help okay poor Donald come here come here come here now so thanks to Otto we got a separate I guess that was the night Otto really became a member of the outfit well the work kept going and we kept moving the enemy was on the run but he was putting up a whale of a battle and in his own quiet way Otto was quite a soldier it got to be that whenever you needed somebody to do something it was always get Otto and Otto loved it you know there were times when Otto surprised me here they come all right call back to the mortars get us some fire on coordinates 18 19 and 20 break and reach hey break and reach give hey what's the matter with those meatheads sergeant can't raise all the lines are probably cut somebody's got a run back that's me sergeant what hey wait a minute Otto get the dirt look we've got to knock out that machine gunner will be put down here all night sergeant if I can crawl over to that little rise I can get him with a rifle grenade if you try to crawl over to that little rise you won't get five feet let's find out hey Otto are you come back here Otto we barreled across France we've cut through our sass Lorraine and then we began the real invasion of Germany we were on the southern flank of the army and our outfits soon reached the province of the very to me and to everyone else in the company it was just Germany but Otto I wonder why they paved this road what's that Otto this road I remember it used to be so narrow but you've been here before Otto this road it goes up the hill past my father's summer cottage I was born here why we used to come here every summer oh we would swim in the river no I had a boat I used to play pirate all that I can't believe there's nothing between here and the only everybody pull over to the side Hanley take two men and reconnoiter up front we used to have a pirate cave I discovered it I wonder if it's still there something a front they dug it at the base of the hill how many I don't know a lot of them oh this is great they're blowing in 88s and we're right out here in the open what are we gonna do the barrage has got us off in the rear I will have to dig in and take it sergeant sergeant follow me where are you going I wonder if it's still there if what's still there I cave my pirate cave what are you talking about we cannot stay here let me leave the way there was some overhanging bluffs on the river bank we raced through the heavy barrage to a clump of trees that for the time cut us off from the side of the enemy the ground was rocky and strewn with great massive boulders Otto stopped and looked at one of the tremendous rocks it was a little ditch around it he jumped down into the ditch and let out a yell we had no place to go so we followed it was a tunnel all right through solid rock twisted and turned and it was dark and damp but big enough for us to crawl through we must have crawled for hours finally we saw a daylight it was a sort of entrance with a big tree growing through the opening the tree that hid the opening from view sergeant up ahead we're on the other side of the river we're in the back of them it was true we're in back of them I looked out through the opening there was a command post and straight on down the hill we looked at the backs of enemy soldiers dug into their foxholes well we stayed there and waited until dark and then we went to work lucky stick hmm at a hometown boy on your side they knew about that time yeah yeah he did and you know I never forgot it either so now eight years later I find myself on maneuvers in the same territory I'm looking for Captain Jackson they said Captain Jackson so good to see you oh you all son of a gun you're a sight for sore eyes oh by the way this is my friend captain seas good evening major I thought I'd look you up on my leave I found out your outfit was on maneuvers well maneuvers ended way one I'll well you should know this territory like a book I remember we fought here the lucky stiff he used that tunnel again no you remember I was just gonna ask him what happened to you but I see yeah yeah they pulled out all right out of the line that day and gave him a battlefield commission well look at him today he outranks me and when I first met him he didn't know a rifle from a hole in the ground well don't knock that hole in the ground fellas we're the making of both of you America's finest men re-enlist in the United States Army take advantage now the US Army's career guidance program that gives you planned advancement men with prior Army service may now enlist directly for the infantry field artillery armor Corps of Engineers or the anti-aircraft artillery you can go up fast in one of these cracked action teams you'll get well planned schooling to speed you on your way and promotions will depend on your skill and all around efficiency moreover if you've been out less than two years you may be eligible to re-enlist in an attractive grade check with your United States Army and United States Air Force recruiter for full career details he'll advise you on the many personal and financial benefits of service when you re-enlist in any branch of our modern Army remember if you're a veteran of the United States Army you can choose your branch of service when you re-enlist this has been another program on proudly we hail presented transcribed in cooperation with the station proudly we hail is produced by the recruiting publicity center for the United States Army and United States Air Force recruiting service this is Kenneth Banghart speaking and inviting you to tune in the same station next week for another interesting story on proudly we hail