Harold D. Collipriest: an interview by Winston P. Erickson, June 10, 2000: Saving the legacy tape no. 61

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Harold D. Collipriest un 10 20 our assault ship, could not make it through to the beach where we w re g ing t disembark. So we had to unload into landing craft and the landing craft naked th ir way literally between all these ships. And then we were dropped off at the beach, and we spent most of that first day waiting for trucks to take us up to where the fighting was going on and to a replacement depot. And so we finally made it up to the more mountainous area surrounding Manila on the outskirts of the city. The city had been totally destroyed, really! I mean every bridge was gone, and they had put the Seabees to work putting temporary bridges back across. Every building you could see there- ! don't ever remember ever seeing a building in Manila that wasn't hit by some kind of damage from even small arms fire. It had been a terrific battle. House to house! And then we went on up into the mountains to this replacement depot. I remember the first night I was put on guard duty. I was told, "For Heaven's sake don't ask what you were told in basic training, that is to say, 'Halt, who goes there?' If you hear a noise, shoot." That night we were shelled by Japanese artillery. But it was a big- behind the lines artillery firing going on. It didn't bother us, but we could hear the shells going back and forth over our position, sounding like freight trains going by. Then an interesting thing took place in my life. It was certainly nothing like the movie, because of the combat situation and all, but it was almost like a Saving Private Ryan experience for me. As I mentioned earlier, my records must have been lost because I sat in this replacement depot, and sat there, and sat there, and sat there. 13