 Soldiers of the press. This week, battle boomerangs. Ah, there you are, Tony. He's Senior Packard. Tony, drop in at the P.A. and get me a package of cigarettes while I finish this story, will you? Sir, I meant the Senior Packard, but... Oh, yes, yes, yes. Here's the money. Senior Packard. Who is Sergeant York? An American soldier who captured about the whole German army in the last war, that's all. Well, the colonel said every... Look, Tony, are you going to get me those cigarettes or do we have to send you back to Naples? It was your idea to come along and run errands for us correspondents, you know? Yes, sir. But the colonel said that there is... The colonel says what? The colonel said Sergeant York just walked into headquarters from a no-man's land. Two of him. All right, Tony, you win. We'll both go get those cigarettes. If the colonel says Sergeant York is here, you may have stumbled onto a good yarn for me at that. A few minutes later, I had a reason to regard the small amount of cost to feed and house that orphaned young Italian as the best investment I ever made. For Tony's budding news sense had led me to as amazing a yarn as I have come across in many months of battlefront reporting. For the beginning of it, we go to a shell-swept hillside in no-man's land between the Allied Fifth Army advancing on Rome and the German front lines. A captain and sergeant of the United States Medical Corps, unarmed as usual, even in these hazardous surroundings, were administering blood plasma to a wounded corporal. This boy's lost a lot of blood, Sergeant, suffering from shock, too. Can't lose any time. I'll have the transfusion gear set up in a minute, sir. Well, let's see. You could throw the hose over that branch above you and set the plasma bottle in the crotch. Yes, sir. I'll give you the word when I'm ready for the stuff. Okay. What's going on here? Where? He's coming, too, Captain. That's all right, son. Just neck to shoulder. We'll have you okay in just a few minutes. Well, my... Just lie quietly. We're going to give you something that'll have you back with your outfit in no time. I gotta get back. What am I doing? No, no, no. Just keep your arm out straight and your fist clenched. This'll hurt just a little bit. Captain, I think I hear something. Huh? Easy, easy? There. Captain, somebody's coming. All right, Sergeant. Press the valve now. It's high, it's dark. A German would throw. I can see him creeping through the woods here. Well, Sergeant, there's not much we can do about it. Besides, we have work to do. Yes, sir. You better get out of here, sir. I'll be all right. Take it easy, boy. Easy. Sergeant, you may run for it if you want to, but they'll probably mow your down before you... Thank you, sir. I'm sticking. I'll go along, Captain, Sergeant. Yes, sir. What have you seen, sir? All right. Put your hands up, Sergeant. I'm using mine. Okay. American sign. Head up. I love you. Oh, well. Me, too, Captain? No, no. Not you, Corporal. I don't think even the Nazis would shoot a wounded man lying on his back. You, Herr Captain, stand up. Search him. Search them all. Take it easy, will you? Sir, you think to fight the hell-mongering elite division without guns, huh? The Americans need you. We are the medical corps here, Oberleutnant. You are German prisoners. Come along. Well, we'll have to finish this transfusion. It won't take long. This man's life is at stake. May I be quick about it? You may. Have I hurt that, Doc? It might be all right. Oh, you're going to be all right, sir. Thanks to somebody back home who donated this blood plasma. Glad you. And hurry along with your business. A few more CCs, and we'll be all done. Just like quietly and relaxed. No, we'll hold big Christmas. You shouldn't have done it, Doc. Well, that's our job, my boy, just as you were doing your job when you were hit. What's taking you so much time? Hurry up, don't hurry up. Just one second more. There. Now the dressing. Ah, he cannot be here any longer. Can't be here. Patluia, Pomiad. Patluia, Pomiad. More alcohol and cotton, Sergeant? Yes, sir. That's it. Now, girls. Here you are, sir. All right. At ease, sir? Here. All right. Now on the stretcher. Okay, sir. There we are. And that's how an American captain and sergeant in the medical corps, lost in their patrol in no man's land, happened to become prisoners of the Nazis, along with a wounded corporal they had come across in their wandering. The captain, knowing that other American patrols were operating in this area, and that an allied advance was indicated by the artillery barrage he could hear in the distance, had stalled as long as possible over the transfusion. Now, under the angry prodding of their German captors, they were making the reluctant trek to a Nazi concentration camp behind the German lines, bearing the wounded corporal on a stretcher. But they weren't through stalling. Air overlordment, please. My patient can't stand this pace. We'll have to let him rest a moment. Right again. Is this a Yankee trick? Gee, Lieutenant. The kid is real sick, and I... I didn't know it! Oh, you're pushing around, Heidi. If you didn't have that gun, I'd have passed the wire open. Silence, all of you. Put that man down. Thank you, Oberleutnant. This is the last time I've kept you. I warn you. All right. I'll administer morphine to Jesus. That is the name of your Americans. Or shall we say humane, Air Oberleutnant? None of your insolence. Uge. Uge. Ihe. Atwe. Ihe. Ihe. Yeah. All right. One more word, and I'll suit all the three of you. You going out? Hey, Oberleutnant! I'm the Americano! And I'm the Americano outside on the other side of the track! Rasty, find out what that is! This is our chance. Quick, help me get him back in that big tree. What the Germans are... Well, the Germans are busy with other things. Come on, hurry! They don't know where he is. We'll be killed by our own bullets. Oh, it'll be all over in a moment. My pleasure. Now, boy, get close enough. Give the counter sign. Counter sign? Gee. I forgot the counter sign, sir. Strawberry Shortcake. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Strawberry Shortcake. Strawberry Shortcake! Hey, yeah! Strawberry Shortcake! And so entered the second act of this drama of no man's land. The sergeant's counter sign had been recognized by the advancing Yanks and the three so recently facing the dismal prospect of imprisonment were reunited with their comrades. It looked like a happy ending when the American patrol took over the job of bearing the wounded corporal and gave the captain and sergeant directions back to the Allied lines. Shortly after they had parted company, a new menace and then another appeared in rapid succession. Say, Captain, I'm beginning to think our guys don't like us. What do you mean? That ain't Jerry artillery fire and it's getting closer all the time. Well, our fellows couldn't very well know we're here. But even if they did, they couldn't hold up the war just because we got lost. Uh, Captain, sir, don't you think we ought to try to walk around this barrage? Yeah, and get lost again? Well, sir, I'd rather be lost than dead. Well, just keep down as much as possible. We'll be all right. Okay. Say, make that a farmhouse up there ahead. Yeah, you're right. I will make for it and take cover till this thing blows over. Uh, Captain. Yeah? You know what I'd rather be doing right now? Well? Eating some of my mom's homemade strawberry shortcake. Yeah, that wouldn't be bad. Not bad at all. Say, Captain, I wonder who makes up those counter signs and why it always has to be something to remind you of what you haven't gotten one. Well, that's to make you quite hard, sergeant, so you'll get home quicker where you will have it. Home. Gee, sometimes I wonder if there is such a place like I remember it. Yeah, it does seem almost too good to be true, doesn't it? Yeah. I wonder what my girl's doing right now. Gosh. Say, you got a girl, Captain? Oh, you bet. Two of them. Both blondes. Cripes. A bigamist, huh? One twenty-two, the other two. Oh, I get it. I get it. Boy, that one had our number on it, sir. Close all right, too close. Well, we're almost to the farmhouse. We could run for it, sir. I've got an idea. Let's go. Hey, wait a minute. Someone's in there. Yeah, yeah, I hear someone moving. Talking. Drones. Gee, they're wounded. Whoever they are. Force moving, you'll all be killed. This place is surrounded. Hang on that gun, you. Hey, come on out. Close and command here. We meet again, unfortunately. Well, I'll be. The same Jerry's that took us prisoners. I'll take that pistol of you, please, Oberleutnant. Ah, never mind. Just keep your hands up. I'll have myself. There. Stand still back there. Don't let him move till I catch the orders. Yeah, Oberleutnant, instruct your men to advance one at a time and lay their weapons here. Rifles, Tommy guns, hand grenades, everything. Remember, our men have you covered from every side. Oh, foolishness now. All right, tell them. One after the other, advance. Fall down. Get out of the way. What a land. Go to Stingels. You, Krüger. Yes, Oberleutnant. Make them hand you their rifles, but first, Sergeant. Yes, sir. Take out the bolts and throw them in the corner. I'll keep you covered. Oh, uh, you, Schmidt. Here's a Tommy gun for you, Captain. It's more business now. Thanks. What should we do now? Some of our friends of this morning don't seem to like us. Yes, sir. You may select those of the wounded to bring them here. Yes, the cattle will be very glad when we walk in with this hall. Yes, sir. You bet. Of all these prisoners, you'll be a modern Sergeant York. What Sergeant York got that we haven't? Well, you should know, Sergeant, strawberry shortcake. But the Captain and Sergeant did get strawberry shortcake that night. When the Colonel heard the story, he ordered the mess sergeant to have it for chow. If he had to make it out of strawberry jam and GI biscuit. And that's the way it was done. I saw to it that Tony got an extra large piece for tipping me to the story. Not the story of a big battle, to be sure, or even a minor engagement. Just how two unarmed medical men in one brief day had managed to get lost in the outfit, save the life of a corporal, be taken prisoner by the Nazis, and in turn take their captors, 20 of them, prisoner. But its acts of courage, heroism, and resourcefulness like these are men in every unit of the Allied forces that win the engagements and speed the day of ultimate victory. Like Reynolds Packard, United Press war correspondents are on the job to bring you eyewitness stories from every battle front. We will bring you another thrilling story of these soldiers of the press soon. Be sure to listen. 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