HARPSWELL

Philip Sumner recalls all the mud and dirt he ended up ingesting in his canned food.

“You would be in a foxhole and open up a can of beans or vegetables and then the shooting would start and dirt and debris would start flying through the air with lots of mud ending up in my canned food,” Sumner said.

Food was never hot and water was often taken from puddles.

Sumner served under Gen. George S. Patton in World War II in Europe and arrived on the shores of France in the fall of 1944 on the SS Argentina. He took a small amphibious landing craft to just above Omaha Beach.

Patton’s Third Army was pushing across France to keep the Germans on the run, and he was an assistant machine gunner in the 26th Yankee Division, which was called to relieve Patton’s tanks and armored vehicles in trenches near Lorraine.

Sumner recalls four big battles: the battle of Northern France, the battle of Ardennes — also known as The Battle of the Bulge — the battle of the Rhineland and the battle of Central Europe.

It was nine months of being in constant motion, wearing the same Army issue boots, showering only twice and pulling guard duty at night for two hours every four.

“The Germans were excellent, tough, even fanatic fighters. Hitler had educated them to fight with every ounce they had, to never surrender and to have no fear of death.

“On one occasion during the Battle of the Bulge we inflicted such heavy casualties on the enemy that Capt. Croft ordered our medics to cross the front lines to administer to their wounds, yet they raised their fists in defiance and would not accept the help,” said Sumner.

One of his favorite weapons was not a weapon at all, but a tool — a sharp entrenching tool the company cook gave him.

“I only had a small pick for an entrenching tool and I desperately needed a shovel, so this shovel saved my life on countless occasions since I must have dug hundreds of foxholes and slit lots of trenches in moments when time was of the essence,” he said.

He recalled a woman’s bicycle he had found in a small village that allowed him to get a break from walking or riding in the suspensionless military vehicles.

“A military policeman was standing at the top of this hill and advised me to keep my distance from military vehicles on the road to a minimum of 100 yards, which I did. As I descended the hill I stopped at a farm and leaned my bike up against the barn to go in and look for chicken eggs, since I hadn’t had a fried egg in months. Suddenly there was this tremendous explosion and timbers, shrapnel, hay and dust was flying all around inside the barn. I came outside and my bicycle was gone. It had in fact suffered a direct hit from a 120- mm mortar shell and been blown to bits, with the front half a smoldering mass of molten metal 50 yards away and the rear end across the street,” he said.

After the war, he was allowed to stay in France and attend the University of Grenoble. He learned French, was a guest in people’s homes and ate well.

After returning to the United States, he eventually became a physician and a pioneer in the Lamaze method of childbirth.