Article Photos

Editor's note: This is part of a weekly series published each Monday between Memorial Day and Veterans Day honoring local veterans.

LEAVITTSBURG - Raymond Matwich Sr. said he did not willingly join the military. And for someone who didn't want to be there, Matwich said this week he ''saw an awful lot of action.''

That action began not long after basic training after he was shipped to Africa.

Matwich, 88, of South Leavitt Road was drafted into the U.S. Army on July 4, 1942, at the age of 21. His training included four months specializing in combat before serving in the 6th Corps Combat Engineers and as a military policeman

In Africa, Matwich said he and his unit were shot at daily by troops from the Axis forces taking aim from caves and on the ground.

On one occasion, while riding in a Jeep, a corporal hit an artillery shell in the roadway, lost control of the Jeep and hit a tree. Matwich was thrown from the vehicle.

''I landed eight feet up in that tree. When I came down, I broke my leg and I was unconscious for a few minutes. I spent six weeks in a military hospital. My corporal was alright because he had the steering wheel to hold onto when we hit," Matwich said.

But the excitement was not about to end.

After recovering from his injury, Matwich was sent to a French Foreign Legion military camp for three months of retraining. Matwich said it was his job to raise the barracks flag at 6 a.m. every day and lower it at dusk what turned out to be a perfect opportunity for Arab soldiers to shoot at him whenever he raised and lowered the flag.

"Dust would fly up all around me as I zigzagged across the field to get to the flagpole. It's a good thing they had rotten aim," he said.

Matwich spent three months at the military camp getting retrained and then was shipped to Italy to reunite with his unit just in time for the Sept. 3, 1943, Allied Forces invasion of mainland Italy. He said the ship his unit arrived on was nearly sunk by a bomb from the German Air Force.

"The water was very clear and not very deep, so we could see the bomb had landed about 20 feet away from the ship," Matwich said.

During the Italy invasion, the German Army had taken control of a fortress in the Alps and soldiers would shoot at the Allied Forces below. Fighting took place there for about six weeks before the Polish Army took control of the fortress, Matwich said.

After that victory, his unit went back to Naples, Italy, to prepare for the invasion of southern France. While they were there, the Mount Vesuvius volcano erupted in March 1944, sending lava flowing down the mountain.

Matwich said he was guarding the war room where the planning for Operation Dragoon was taking place. He said only generals and corporals were allowed inside the war room, but General Truscott asked him to stand guard inside, and he saw all the plans laid out on the table.

''The generals must have had a lot of trust in me," Matwich said. "The general said we may not make it to the shore because we needed to surprise the Germans in order to gain access."

The invasion took place in August 1944 between Toulon and Cannes. The soldiers made it to the shore and quickly defeated German forces there, according to an online history of World War II.

While in Naples, Matwich and five other soldiers were playing poker in the mountainous region of Anzio when they learned the Germans were planning to send in artillery shells. He said the explosions could be heard outside so the soldiers packed up to leave, but one of them said he wanted to stay behind and fight.

''Five minutes after we left, a shell landed on the table where we had been playing and he was killed,'' Matwich said.

He said his unit had a "heck of a battle" crossing the Rhine River, encountering mortar fire and artillery fire. The soldiers made it to Heidelberg and finally to Innsbruck, Austria.

He said he had several close calls with bombs and artillery shells, but he was never injured during combat other than the Jeep accident early in his military stint.

The war ended in September 1945 and Matwich was discharged as a corporal in late October of that year.

"I was in combat situations the entire time I was in the Army. For someone who didn't want to be there, I saw an awful lot of action," he said.

mkosinski@tribtoday.com